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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).
007 decades of LGBTQ+ history
The Bond books, films and games are more than just cultural artefacts: they comprise a time capsule of seven volatile decades of social and political history - especially LGBTQ+ history. Although the lives of queer people over this period have generally improved, it’s a mistake to see this improvement as universal - or linear. Sometimes putting one foot forward has been swiftly followed by having to take two back. For seventy years, Bond has been there, reflecting and representing this ever-changing world in which we’re living.
Queer re-view: Skyfall
If Dorothy in the The Wizard of Oz is to be believed, there's no place like home. But what if that home is Skyfall? In his 50th anniversary queer odyssey, 00-Dorothy doesn’t just kick back against traditional notions of home and family; along the way he creates a unconventional family to replace the one he lost and blows up his childhood abode with dynamite. Talk about cathartic!
The name’s Leflour, Jill Leflour
Growing up in rural France, Jill created a James Bond persona to try to process his gender dysphoria. Now out as a trans gay man, living and working in London, Jill attended the premiere of No Time To Die and has been processing his feelings about the film ever since. We talked about why James Bond means so much to us as queer people, why we see things others overlook and how our partners accommodate our Bond obsessions.
Brosnan’s opening mission ends with the death of his best buddy. But unbeknowst to him, the object of his bromantic affections isn’t really deceased: he’s just watching from the shadows. Will Bond manage to stay Onatopp of things? Will he leave it up to a Russian computer programmer to save the day while he runs off to have a messy break up with his best mate? And will we ever get to the bottom of why 007 spends so much time hanging around in men’s bathrooms?