What would you do if you were falsely accused of improperly touching a child and you see your career crumble? Matthew Clark Davison's 2021 novel "Doubting Thomas," about a gay schoolteacher, makes us think.
It's not giving too much away to tell you that two investigations clear Thomas of any wrongdoing, because readers learn this in the first chapter. Witnesses vouched for his innocence.
But his elite private school's parent-faculty association, even in liberal Portland, Oregon, votes to get rid of him.
On this week's Out in the Bay, Davison reads passages from "Doubting Thomas" and discusses guilt and innocence, shame, homophobia, racism, wealth and power, and the limits of liberalism. He also talks about being asked by past publishers and agents to "tone down" the sexuality of his queer characters.
To make the tension realistic, Davison said he had to consider what he'd do in the place of parents at Thomas' school. "If one of my nieces was at a school where there was an accusation that someone could be molesting a kid," Davison asks, "could I say for certain that I would let [her] go back in the classroom with that adult? I wanted to make that really, really hard for the reader to contend with."
It also comes up early in the book that the father of the boy allegedly molested made a pass at Thomas. He kissed Thomas at a school fundraiser at the parents' home, days after Thomas had pulled their fourth-grader's pants up when they'd fallen down and the boy stood there, frozen, while other children laughed at him.
Thomas and his lawyer believe the parents made the accusation to retaliate for this kiss in the closet, a kiss the mother almost walked in on and likely suspected. Why doesn't Thomas use this incident — and other evidence that dad's on the down-low — in his defense?
It's an intriguing tale, over the course of which Thomas grows "angrier and queerer," as Davison's editor suggested.
Davison teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University and is creator and teacher of The Lab: Writing Classes with MCD, which he founded in 2007.
Hear more from Matthew Clark Davison on this week's Out in the Bay Queer Radio + Podcast. The program airs at 5 p.m. Friday, November 18, on KALW, 91.7 FM SF Bay Area-wide and at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, November 19, on KSFP, 102.5 FM SF only. It is available now on Out in the Bay's website.
Eric Jansen is founding producer and host of Out in the Bay - Queer Radio from San Francisco. Learn more and listen here.
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