Jonathan Van Ness has been working on his first fiction book, Let Them Stare, for three years. The Queer Eye star originally got the idea for the young adult novel in the summer of 2022, and then spent years collaborating with author Julie Murphy (“she’s so incredible,” he says of the bestselling Dumplin’ and Side Effects May Vary writer) and stretching a new artistic muscle before releasing the book this May.
His timing is perfect, as there’s never been a better time for a YA book with a gender-nonconforming, nonbinary teenager as its hero.
Let Them Stare is about Sully, a graduating high school senior who can’t wait to leave their little town of Hearst, Pennsylvania, where they feel like they’re the only queer person for miles.
After they lose out on a job opportunity that would have taken them to New York and beyond, they find a rare vintage bag at their local thrift store, which just so happens to be the home of a fabulous, gender-bending ghost from the 1950s. Sully and the spirit, Rufus, then team up to discover how Rufus died, their hometown’s queer history, and Sully’s next steps in life.
Co-authors Julie Murphy and Jonathan Van NessBlake Buesnel
In the real world, LGBTQ+ rights are under attack, with laws specifically targeting trans and nonbinary youth popping up all over, but especially in red states and small communities like the fictional Hearst. Van Ness hopes Let Them Stare can serve as a “possibility model” for some young people living in those places.
“I come from a really small town in Illinois, and I always thought growing up that I had to get out of that town, that I had to find a place that was more accepting of me and that me staying home felt like not an option,” Van Ness says. “And I think the older I get and the more people and young people I’ve met, that’s not an option for everyone, and not everyone can get out of their hometown.”
“Why does that have to be the goal?” he asks, “Why can’t we make a world where people can find acceptance and success and fulfillment even in small towns, even if you’re queer?”
Borrowing a page from his novel, Van Ness attests that the keys to building community in one’s hometown are “finding your chosen family wherever you are” and connecting with local queer history, which isn’t always so easy to unearth. Sure, many know about the Stonewall Uprising and ballroom culture in New York City, Harvey Milk’s assassination in San Francisco, and gayborhoods like Provincetown and West Hollywood. But most don’t know the rich LGBTQ+ past in their backyards.
Let Them StareCourtesy HarperCollins
In the book, Sully learns that their hometown housed an underground gay speakeasy long before they were born. It changes their view of Hearst. They now know that the town has always been a place where people like them can live and thrive.
Like Sully, Van Ness says he always thought he was the first queer person from his hometown of Quincy, Illinois, but the more he’s done research, the more local gay history he’s found. He started uncovering that history when he invited Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown, cocreators of the Instagram @lgbt_history, on his podcast in 2020. They told him about a pen pal magazine that allowed the queer community in Illinois, including Quincy, to connect in the 1960s. A few years later, while writing his book Love That Story, Van Ness learned about the local gay bar Irene’s Cabaret, which opened in 1980 and was converted into a testing center during the AIDS crisis.
“There were so many generations of queer people that came before me that made my existence and my life even more possible that I didn’t even know about,” Van Ness says. “I think all of that story or all of those experiences led me to coming up with this story and wanting to write this story.”
In Let Them Stare, Sully and Rufus come together to help each other find happiness, although their gay terminology and ways of seeing the world come from different times and places. Van Ness says that different generations of queer people coming together is paramount in surviving present-day political attacks.
“We live in a world that is so polarized, and it’s so easy for us to get split apart from each other and just fall out with each other and not be in community with each other,” he says. “I think that capitalism and the patriarchy and homophobia, transphobia, racism, colonialism, it’s all made us fight with each other.”
“No one’s perfect, but I just think we have to try to find our commonalities, and find our common ground, and find our support with each other, because that will be the thing that gets us through,” he adds. “Supporting each other and finding community with each other is what is going to get us through anything. But if we don’t come together, we will fall apart. And that’s been shown in history so many times.”
This article is part of the Out May/June Pride issue, which hits newsstands May 27. Support queer media and subscribe— or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting May 15.
