Watch This: ‘Promised Land’ a Gay Fairytale
(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Promised Land YouTube)
Promised Land is a sweet fairytale about a prince named Leo and a farm boy called Jack whose serendipitous meeting in a mysterious forest led to friendship and eventually blossomed into love.
Readers have nothing but glowing reviews, calling Leo and Jack’s love story “perfect,” “amazing,” “charming,” and wonderful to name a few. Actor Ian Mckellen himself said of Promised Land, “From every point-of-view, including artistically, it’s a beautiful book.”
In an interview, authors Chaz Harris and Adam Reynolds of Wellington, New Zealand said they wrote the book because they believe that “growing up gay with no representation in fairytales causes young LGBT people like us to believe ‘Happily Ever After’ can’t exist if we’re gay.” With Promised Land and future projects like it, the authors are hoping to change that.
Representation aside, the authors also wish for the book to be a “source of happiness, comfort, and hope during trying times.” Harris said, “With the increase in violence and intolerance the LGBTQ community has been experiencing in various countries around the world this past year, we felt it was important to share our story’s message of love and acceptance for all to see.”
For the first time since the book’s release, the authors made the whole story available on YouTube for free in time for World Book Day 2018 in the UK. Harris said to Gay Star News that with this, they hope they can raise some more awareness about Promised Land and the work they’re doing to make children’s literature more inclusive.
Watch Promised Land below. Geraldine Brophy narrated the story with Tane Upjohn-Beatson on the soundtrack. The video features the 32 original illustrations by Christine Luiten and Bo Moore.
Promised Land is available for purchase here.
Happy viewing!
expect religious fundamentalist to burn down those books lol! such bigoted haters!
What a stunning story! Adventure, Magic, Spirit, professed true love, and a heartfelt ending. Well done!
Too much. The blue collar boy falls in love with the bourgeois royalty. Both boys have mothers but no fathers are present. The only straight guy is a materialist and cruel user of women. The worship of Nature and magic replace monotheism and humanism. For good measure, there is mysterious paranormal energy. Then, in the end, the blue eyed blue collar butch rescues the brown-eyed bourgeois royalty weakling — all read by a reader with an English accent from a country where class and the dividing line between commoner and royalty still remains. The only unresolved issue: when Jack bowed to the prince, are we being told he was the bottom? De tros.