"It’s very hard for me to remember that I have a gender."
From: NewNowNext

 Although Anne Rice doesn’t necessarily think that the novels in her series, The Vampire Chronicles, are gay allegories, she actually feels her connection to the LGBT community is much deeper than that.

 The Interview with the Vampire author told The Daily Beast that she was writing about vampires before the AIDS crisis had even begun, but that she was honored when she heard people suggest it was a metaphor for gay struggles.

“I think I have a gay sensibility and I feel like I’m gay, because I’ve always transcended gender, and I’ve always seen love as transcending gender,” Rice said. “In my books, I’ve always created bonds of love that have transcended gender. But I’ve never associated AIDS with vampires, myself.”

The 75-year-old author, whose openly gay son is a novelist as well, said she’s always been a champion of gay rights and is highly sensitive to art created by gay people.

“I have a gay sensibility,” she told The Daily Beast. “I get teased a lot by my gay friends because we have a rapport on things we find exciting or interesting. It’s very hard for me to remember that I have a gender, and that they’re treating me in a negative way because of that gender.”

Rice’s twelfth book in her vampire series, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, is available now.