Salt Lake Community College student Ryan Ford began writing The Unprotected in 2008 while taking a marriage relationship class with Professor Dale Smith.
The novel, which was recently published, is an exploration of how society views same sex couples through the struggle that a man named Taylor goes through to see Bryan, the man he loves, who has been hospitalized.
“Taylor is that type of person. He doesn’t necessarily think logically, kind of does things in the spur of the moment,” said Ford. “It kind of leads him into trouble, but he knows what he wants in the end – all he wanted was to see Bryan.”
Ford says that the inspiration for the book was sparked while preparing for an oral presentation about gay marriage and inequality for Smith’s class. He wrote the idea down, and couldn’t go to sleep until four in the morning.
“I wrote it for the people that aren’t necessarily in the gay community that really want to get a little glimpse of the aspect we go through every day,” said Ford. “It’s not just about the gay marriage debate; it’s about all [the rights] that go into marriage that we have to fight for.”
Ford didn’t have a problem with investing seven thousand dollars to publish his book.
“I was willing to put out the money for it because it was near and dear to my heart, so it was worth it for me to give the money to do it.”
The book was released on eBook on Jan. 27 through Amazon Digital Services. It is also available in paperback on lulu.com. Ten percent of the book’s proceeds go to Equality Utah.
