#fairytales

#fairytales

"The bedtime stories of mermaids, vampires, and fairies that many of us grew up loving were often created - or contain monsters and characters that were inspired by people who had similar lives and loves to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people living today," Coward writes in his book's intro. "To truly understand who queer people are today involves an adventure into the fantastical stories of our past."

In the mirror I'm wearing enormous golden pantaloons, but only I can see them. Children sit in a rock pool playing mermaids, and in the next room there's a talking pea in a display case, beside a towering stack of mattresses. It's the world of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), one of the 19th century's most beloved writers. I'm in Odense, on the island of Fyn (sometimes anglicised to Funen) in the south of Denmark,