Queerness of the Vampire

[Happy pride month everyone!]

All vampires are queer.

Whatever the statement above means to you, it's applicable. The vampire is unbound to any rules of human society, an entity all their own. Vampire media is littered with queer undertones, whether they're in secret code waiting for the reader to decipher or displayed in full. Bram Stoker's "Dracula" depicts the vampire claiming, "This man belongs to me!" and intervening in an almost jealous rage. Anne Rice's "Interview With the Vampire" portrays a strained love between Louis and Lestat, the television show ramping those undertones up to their fullest potential. 

Vampires depict what we are afraid of, often meaning what we are afraid of addressing within ourselves. In a time where queerness was hidden in shadow, the vampire was there to ease the cries of those hidden, too. Those who feel isolated are often drawn to the concept and stories of the vampire. We tend to find comfort in media that we can relate to, and this can be easily found in the stories of the vampire. Man or woman, the vampire is described as beautiful and elegant. Man or woman, the vampire needs to drink. In the same vein, blood is blood -- no matter where or who it comes from. 

The interweaving of queerness and the vampire:

It is said that more vampire media in America is born from a republican presidency. The rise in conservative comfort resorts in leftist outcry for understanding. We fight for any ounce of our safety back, and it seems that we often revert to the comforts of the fantastical. When our queer rights are being looked at under a microscope, we exhaust ourselves in the fight to keep them while escapism makes its way back to our media. 

The vampire is all powerful, individually perfect, and immortal. They will live to see the change that we want in our everyday lives. As the political and societal pendulum swings back and forth, the vampire will be there to see the moments where we don't have to reside in shadow, in any corner of the world. We find comfort in the thought, in the escape of the vampire media. 

Long live the stories of the vampires and the queer community that built and/or uplifted them. Happy pride.