Winter Storm (Star Trek: TOS story by Eva Stuart)

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K/S Fanfiction
Title: Winter Storm
Author(s): Eva Stuart
Date(s): 1984
Length:
Genre: slash
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:

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Winter Storm is a Kirk/Spock story by Eva Stuart.

It was published in the print zine The Voice #3.

Series

In order of publication, possibly not in fictional chronological order:

Summary

"Waiting for a transport to take them to a conference, Kirk and Spock are arrested on a planet intorerant of same-sex pairing."

Reactions and Reviews

1986

In "Winterstorm", K&S are set up for an arrest on a fronteir planet called Kinross that has strict laws against homosexuality. They are sheltered by a gay couple, one of whom is a young up-front activist and the other is older and closeted. I am reminded of the account of the relationship of Craig Rodwell and Harvey Milk in THE MAYOR OF CASTRO STREET by Randy ShiIts. Craig Rodwell is now the owner of Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, the first gay bookstore in New York, but when he was a teenager he was briefly the lover of Harvey Milk. Harvey later became a beloved gay activist and the first out of the closet gay man elected to office in this country. Yet when he met Craig Rodwell, he was a conservative Wall Street stockbroker who was positively spooked by the very idea of activism. Craig Rodwell had gotten involved with the Mattachine Society, the granddaddy of all American gay organisations and was leafletting for them. This scared Harvey half to death and I imagine that their break-up was at least partly precipitated by their opposing views on activism.

The issue is complicated in "Winterstorm" by the fact that the activists here used poor judgement and even worse tactics. Here were young hotheads with no roots in the established gay community of Kinross, no sense of its traditions or how that community had survived up until then despite persecution. I mean, you got to hand it to men like Jon, the closeted older lover in WINTERSTORM. They've been through alot and one of the things that pulled such men through is a very strict ethos. They are always loyal to one another and would never betray one of their own to the authorities for any reason. In fact, there was a time when a gay man wouldn't call the police if he'd been robbed or victimized in some other way because the police were viewed as the enemy who would probably arrest you on some charge or other the moment they discovered you were "queer Tony, the young activist and his compatriots, went against that code of the closet. That code was nothing to fool around with. It's right for that kind of environment. It's the only way that a beleagured minority can survive. I respect closets. They're there for a reason. I also respect and follow the code of the closet when it's necessary. Sometimes people's lives are at stake. Tony couldn't see that what he had done was wrong and foolish. Activism doesn't have to be foolish, but sometimes gay activists have been self-righteously contemptuous of closeted men and their institutions. I have seen this and the issue is brought forward very well in this story.

"Winterstorm" focuses on another issue through the character of Stephanie, a drag queen. Drag queens are the most visible of all sexual deviants. They have long been on the front line, taking the flak for all the rest of us. They're brave individuals.

Much has been made about the Stonewall Riots that precipitated gay liberation and gay pride. Who began the Stonewall Riots? Drag queens who were tired of being harassed by police. Yet some gay men have persisted in looking down on drag queens. This is particularly true of the clones, who have adopted a pervasive macho look. Kirk, who in "The Still Centre" had resisted the uniformity of the clone lifestyle, adopts a clonish revulsion toward Stephanie. Stephanie isn't like him, but Tony, the activist, is right to point out that she does deserve Kirk's respect. As always, the drag queen was on the front line — risking her life to allow Kirk and Spock to escape from the hands of the police. Drag queens are there to show us that there are different ways of being a man and of being gay. Eva Stuart seems to be aware of this, but her Kirk hasn't grown to the point where he can accept very much diversity comfortably. This is not a criticism of the story. I think that Kirk grows through his experiences in "Winterstorm" and begins to understand the position of gay-identified men better than he did when he began. [1]

1992

Kirk and Spock almost get arrested on a planet with laws against homosexuality, being rescued by a kind of gay underground. Along the way they meet interesting characters, the victims of a backward pioneer-type morality that only brings pain and desperation, really feeling for the first time, just how it is to be "different" in a conservative society. Intense and well written. [2]

References

  1. ^ from K/S & K.S. (Kindred Spirits) #19 (1986)
  2. ^ from The LOC Connection #38
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