The Sacred Beasts (44 page)

Since this research is rock-solid as science (peer-reviewed
journals, full replication of results by other researchers, longitudinal
studies, physiological measures of emotion in addition to self-reporting by
couples, etc.), it bears repeating that the research’s results – that gay and
lesbian relationships are more loving, intimate, trusting, mature in conflict
resolution and egalitarian – supports the opinion of the LGBT community for at
least the last decade, in my opinion. Rather than inferior, their long-term
relationships or marriages are an ideal to which heterosexuals should aspire,
according to this research. However, it is only fair to observe that the
research describes groups, not individuals. Any individual relationship could
be an exception; there are heterosexual relationships that are intimate,
trusting and egalitarian and homosexual ones that are not. However, they are
then in the minority and not characteristic of the group as a whole.

Adding the prior research on women’s sexuality (that all women are
bisexual), we should also observe that the LGBT community is not even a
minority. In truth comprising all women and some ten percent of men, it is
actually a sixty-some percent majority. In sum, ALL negative LGBT stereotypes,
when put to the test, are false. Ruth describes herself as one who most wishes
to push aside the curtain or secret that impedes our view of the world. You now
know what Ruth found behind the curtain.

Twelve excerpts from
The Sacred Beasts
have appeared in ten
publications (in a slightly different version from the original text in some
cases):
New Madrid Journal; Pennsylvania English; The Eureka Literary
Review; Dispatches from Lesbian America, An Anthology (2016); S/tick: Feminists
on Guard, OUTreach issue; Cliterature.org; Loud Zoo; Sinister Wisdom; Crab Fat
Literary Magazine;
and
Wilde Magazine
. I started out publishing in
the university journals and then frankly picked magazines with the most
outrageous titles.

Bev
Jafek has published forty-five short stories and novel
excerpts in the literary quarterly and university press
publications. Some have been translated into
German, Ital
ian and Dutch and won many literary awards, including
publication in the annual “prize” anthology,
The
Best Ameri
can Short Stories
. She also won the Carlos Fuentes
Award and the Editor’s Prize for fiction from
Columbia: A Magazine of
Literature & Art
as well as first prize in the Arch
& Bruce Brown Foundation annual competition for
“re
demption of gay history” through creative writing. Her first story
collection,
The Man Who Took a Bite Out of
His
Wife
, was published by Overlook
Press (Penguin-Put
nam). It was cited as one of the best story
collections of
the year in
The Year’s Best
Fantasy
(7th edition, Teri Win
dling) as well as being selected as a
finalist for the Crawford Award
(best new
fantasy fiction writer of the year). Her story
“Holograms, Unlimited” was a finalist and cited for distinc
tion in
Pushcart Prize VIII. She lives in Beacon, NY with her partner of 32 years.