TRS Makes Stand Against Gay Hate

I received this note from TRS in my email and felt it should be seen by as many people as possible, so I am sharing it here.

As those of you who visit us at TRS know, we held a summer event that ran from July 20, 2009 through September 20, 2009. In conjunction with this event, we held a hero competition where our featured authors could enter their heroes and everyone who loves a sexy guy of any type could go and vote for their favorite. It was a popular competition and seemed to be in good fun. But between last night and this morning, apparently things took a turn for the ugly.

The staff at TRS was incredibly disappointed to learn that comments had apparently been made to one of the authors doing well in the competition because her hero was gay. We haven't spoken with this author, we really can't wait for that to make this statement, and we don't know what was said or by whom. All I know was that I discovered various messages across social networking sites (Twitter, etc) that TRS itself "did not think gay men could be heroes" and other negative comments to that effect. Apparently folks took issue to what was said by whatever third party to this author and posted that the comments came from TRS itself.

This is false.

I've been in contact with one of the posters of such comments to find out what happened and why. We've accepted their apology and understand why the comments made by whatever party made them would create such animosity even if it was misdirected.
What I would like to say this morning is this: TRS has always promoted GLBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) romance because we support ALL romance -- and we always will. If you'd like to read about some really spectacular GLBT romances, please check out the recent addition to our site -- The Rainbow Studio

http://theromancestudio.com/rainbow -- which showcases these romances by today's best authors.

TRS and its staff -- and those are the ones I can speak for -- has not and wouldn't make such comments that would offend anyone in any walk of life be it race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, music taste, planet origins, shoe size -- you name it. You're all welcome here.

For myself personally, I'm saddened about this because it all casts a very negative pall on the summer event and the competition for me. It reminds me that there is still a lack of acceptance out of there for what is considered different or out of the norm.

Well, it won't stop us from doing what we do best -- promoting the books we love and the authors who write them. My apologies for any upset or confusion for anyone who ran across any of these message and thought they were issued by TRS. They weren't. We'll continue to look into this matter.
Most sincerely,
Tina Pavlik
Owner of The Romance Studio

**Note From Roxy
I cannot believe there are still those out there who are gay-bashing ... I am disheartened and very sad today. I have written several novels with bisexual men and women, and have just recently been notified my lesbian erotica Heart of Change will be released by Samhain in 2010. I have also just completed my first gay erotica Survival which I hope will also see release in early 2010. I am glad to see TRS stand up to Gay Bashers.