Bury Your Gays and They'll Just Pop Right Back Up

Content Warning for Mention/Discussion of a Hate Crime and Violence Against LGBTQ+ People

Written By Sarah Garcia; Art By Drea Loredo

To play, download the file below that corresponds with your computer and then simply read through the story, either clicking with your mouse or pressing the space bar/enter button to progress! Occasionally make choices throughout with the mouse or arrow keys to lead to one of three endings.

Given its title, it should not be surprising that this game was initially founded with the explicit of intention of playing around with the “bury your gays” trope. I wanted to criticize this trope and how it implies that queer people are disposable and incapable of achieving happy endings. So, I made a story where queer people don’t stay dead and even the undead can find happiness. Within this game, straight notions of time and death are rejected in favor of a queer space where death is no longer relevant. The process for writing “Bury Your Gays and They’ll Just Pop Right Back Up” was a lot different than all the other games in this collection. It was originally an 8-page short story I wrote with the same title, so a lot of thoughts regarding adaptation had to be put into this game. The story had to be reworked to be more flexible and allow for player choices—in this sense, my story already about queerness had to be further queered. By creating the game in this way, I have tried to show how the written word and video games are not so different and that video games can offer much greater storytelling possibilities than regular literature can, especially as a queer medium. Through a black-and-white aesthetic with only occasional flashes of color, I intended to create a slight horror movie feel, with the color demonstrating how, even in the most “colorless” times, queer people can always find hope. The use of multiple endings within this story also further expands on the notions of queer possibilities and how there is no one path when navigating moments of queer pain and pleasure.