Saying “I Don’t”: Queer Romance in the Post–Marriage Equality World

Abstract

This article investigates contemporary LGBTQ romance in which the central couple has a queered betrothal that results in nonmarriage. Drawing on examinations of romance plot tropes, including Regis’s eight essential elements and Roach’s claim that the ending to romance is key, as well as queer theory, I demonstrate how the nonproposal offers a queering of romance that differs from homonormative same-sex romance. In the case study of the feature film Bros, this is achieved by one character asking the other to date and reassess in a few months, an anti-proposal that follows the conventions of a traditional marriage proposal. In the novel Husband Material, the central couple runs away from their own wedding because it does not feel like the right expression of their love. Unlike traditional romance narrative patterns that reaffirm social conventions and normative values, these queered anti-betrothals allow for more individualistic expressions that still offer the reader or viewer an emotionally satisfying romance ending.

Keywords

• betrothal
• homonormativity
• lgbtq
• proposal
• queer
• rom-com