Carter, of the Instagram account Reading Ireland, is reading only Irish LGBTQ+ books for the month of September to support the local queer community. But how did he get here?
It all started after he moved from the US to Ireland four years ago. Rediscovering his love of books, he wanted to familiarise himself with the literature of the country he had chosen as his new home.
Claiming no Irish heritage and understanding that he would have to learn the context behind each book, he set about reading and reviewing Irish works, something he has been doing for several months.
From the jump, this resulted in some negative feedback with derogatory language suggesting he was claiming to be Irish, although he has explicitly said he isn’t. Ironic that some people want immigrants to integrate and then criticise those who do.
However, his biggest pushback came when he shared a story about the horrendous practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy’.
As a response, and ignoring the calls to stop being political, he set about reading only LGBTQ+ Irish books for the rest of September. He also set up a GoFundMe to raise money for Belong To, which supports and advocates for Irish LGBTQ+ youth.
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I think this is the perfect reply to this kind of criticism as it promotes Irish queer creatives and helps support the community. It has also added a few books to my reading list.
Books on Carter’s reading list include: All Them Dogs by Djamel White, Filly by Rosamund Taylor, The Last Death Poet by Stephen Daly and Wolf-Blessed by John O’Donnell.
In addition to the book list, he continues to advocate for LGBTQ+ people and other minorities, pointing out what the 1916 proclamation said about minorities and discussing topics like the erasure of Roger Casement’s contributions to Irish independence due to his sexuality. These things can be backed up by facts and yet still get negative feedback.
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We need more allyship like this, and Carter is a good follow if you are looking for some Irish books to read and Irish queer creatives to support.
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