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Licence To Queer covers queer aspects of Bond books, video games and more. Search here for your favourite titles and characters or find content related to particular queer identities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, etc).

David Lowbridge-Ellis David Lowbridge-Ellis

A bevy of Bond Boys

When I invited Licence to Queer readers to imagine Bond 26 featuring the first Bond Boy, I did not expect such imaginative - and entirely feasible - ideas. I asked you to be bold and you more than delivered. Here are your suggestions. Expect Good Boys, Bad Boys turned Good and suggestive names that might make even Bond blush.

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David Lowbridge-Ellis David Lowbridge-Ellis

Things were about to turn nasty?

For many of us, Timothy Dalton’s third Bond film is the most tantalising ‘what if?’ of the franchise. Targeted for a 1992 release, we all know it wasn’t to be. But what isn’t so well known is a TV drama that Dalton made at this time which gives us a glimpse of how a darker, queerer Bond 17 might have turned out had he stayed in the frame.

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David Lowbridge-Ellis David Lowbridge-Ellis

15 Shades of Gray

Charles Gray’s Blofeld is a divisive figure to say the least. But whether you love him or loathe him, there’s one thing we can all agree on: he is shady. Here I unpick Ernst’s most waspish comments to reveal the uncomfortable truths about both him and the man he cannot live without - James Bond.

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David Lowbridge-Ellis David Lowbridge-Ellis

‘So poetic a pleasure’: Simon Raven and the seductive poetry of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Credited with writing ‘additional dialogue’ for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and responsible for some of the film’s most memorable and poetic lines, outrageously outspoken queer writer Simon Raven had much in common with Bond, including his snobbery, his far from conventional sexuality and a scandal from his school days.

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David Lowbridge-Ellis David Lowbridge-Ellis

“Homos make the worst killers”

Wint and Kidd are some of the most ‘problematic’ characters in the Bond series - but I’ve loved them since setting eyes on them in Diamonds Are Forever, when I was aged eight. In an effort to work out the root of my unhealthy obsession, I decided to re-read Fleming’s novel and ended up with more questions than answers. Are they even gay? Why is one of them nicknamed ‘Boofy’? And what does my attraction to such horrible characters reveal about me?

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