The QLP Questionnaire: Gino Fontana
"'Xena: Warrior Princess' taught me early that gender labels have no real value—her body held both strength and grace, muscle and intellect, action and tenderness."
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I write as LePoint G, a pseudonym that lets me explore desire, silence, and betrayal in a literary, sensual way. My project, The Triangle’s Quadrature, is a serialized novel on Substack. It’s about three men—my fiancé, my first love, and myself—caught in a geometry of silence, provocation, and hesitation. It’s not just fiction: it’s my way of writing from the wound, of turning the most dangerous thought I’ve ever had into literature.
What is your age, where in the world do you primarily live, where did you grow up?
35. I live between Paris and the French Caribbean. I grew up in the French countryside near Paris, in a space where queerness was mostly silent, coded, or erased.
How do you define yourself on the LGBTQ+ spectrum?
Gay, but I often feel closer to “queer” as a way to hold complexity, fluidity, and a refusal to reduce desire to labels.
What is your relationship status?
PACS - Civil union since 2021, in love since 2009.
Do you have an “ideal” relationship status?
Married.
What is the biggest misconception about being single or in a relationship?
That a couple is not made of individual, and that a person could not exist without a partner.
When was your first intimate moment? Was it with someone you liked? Did you feel pressured into it?
Teenage years, awkward, too rushed. I liked him, but I also felt pressure—mostly from myself, from the need to prove I wasn’t alone.
How would you define love? Is it the thing you work at for a long period of time? Or is it the strong feeling you feel for someone right from the beginning for no reason?
As my parents taught me: Love is a question that has no answer, not at the beginning, neither the end, if an end exists.
When did you come out to family, friends and others for the first time?
At 16, in an anger, to hurt. And I hurt myself first. I experienced it as a “come in”; I came back inside myself as if I had spent my life waiting, elsewhere, behind myself. The Come Out came years after because I had to relearn everything from the beginning.
Did you have any LGBTQ+ role models as a child or teenager? What do you remember about images of same-gender or queer relationships or messages you gleaned?
La Cage aux Folles, the French movie by Edouard Molinaro (1978) — Absolutely iconic!
Are there any pivotal pop culture moments that you credit for teaching about love and/or relationships?
Xena: Warrior Princess taught me early that gender labels have no real value—her body held both strength and grace, muscle and intellect, action and tenderness.
Do you have a “found family” or “chosen family”?
I’ve never really had friends in the conventional sense—I’ve always been a loner, and the only person I’ve truly kept close is my partner, who is also my best friend. That said, I’m slowly building bonds with other queer artists, trying to help them step out of their shells. It feels less like a chosen family and more like a collective experiment in mutual support.
What is your relationship with your biological family (if any)?
I live 7,000 kilometers away from my parents and brother, with the Atlantic between us. We call once or twice a month, exchange messages here and there, and our relationship is good—family has always been an important value for us. My coming out was never an issue. Strangely, I’ve always felt like I was parenting them as much as they were parenting me—protecting, teaching, guiding. I still do, even if I rarely allow them the same with me. I’ve always had this urge to make it on my own, to owe nothing to anyone, especially them.
What do you (did you) like about dating as a LGBTQ person? What do/did you dislike?
What I liked most was the unknown, the unpredictable. I never had clear examples—no balcony scene of Romeo and Romeo, no monologue of Don Rodrigue to Don Rafael. Without models, everything had to be improvised. That made each experience intense, initiatory, almost mythic. What I disliked was precisely the same absence: the lack of mirrors, the silence where our stories should have been.
Has race, ethnicity or cultural differences been a factor in who you seek out?
No—it has never been a factor in who I was attracted to. What draws me is never surface or category, but the moment someone reveals themselves without mask or concession. I’ve always been pulled toward what shines behind the person: the depth of the gaze, the soul exposed, the mind uncovered. That is where desire lives for me, beyond body or culture.
Have you had any difficulties dating or finding/keeping a relationship?
I grew up in the countryside, in a small hamlet miles from the village. My encounters were always fortuitous, never planned. My millennial generation saw more boys beginning to reveal themselves—or at least trying—and even some straight guys curious enough to experiment. I’ve always believed that will doesn’t prevent destiny: I never went looking for dates, and yet they found me.
What’s the most surprising thing you have learned about relationships from your perspective?
That love is a gift you offer to yourself first. It doesn’t need to be consummated to be appreciated. You can love a person the way you love an idea, a season, or a color. Love is not possession—it’s an energy you cultivate within yourself, powerful enough to exist even without reciprocity.
Have you experienced heartbreak?
Yes, though my greatest heartbreak has been with myself. I’ve broken up with who I was—my body, my personality, my intelligence—entering into dissonance with my own reflection. Losing myself, and then having to learn how to return, has been more painful than losing anyone else.
How would you term your sexual relationship with your primary partner? Has that changed over time?
Our sexual relationship has become more open, deeper, and freer. At the beginning, we both carried preconceptions and blockages, but together we’ve learned to overcome them—by building trust, by loving each other, and by learning to love ourselves in the process.
Do you have any moments of joy, happiness or pleasure that you can share about being in a same-gender or queer relationship?
For me, joy does not come from gender itself but from humanity. In French, “la personne” is feminine and “un individu” is masculine, and I find truth in that balance. What brings me happiness and pleasure is not the gender of my partner, but the simple fact of being human together—speaking, sharing, existing without masks.
Are there any things that standard heterosexual relationships have that you feel are out of reach or that you wish you had or could achieve?
What I notice most is the lack of interest. Heteronormative couples rarely show curiosity about queer culture—about how we think, live, and experiment with collective society. There is more support now, yes, but in general most heterosexual couples are unaware of the weight of heteronormativity, or of how little genuine attention is given to queer experience. And that experience has so much to teach, so much that could be constructive for everyone.
Have you ever been in a polyamorous relationship or would you like to be in a situation that doesn’t involve just two people?
I wouldn’t define my personal life that way, but I do write a novel that explores precisely this geometry of love & desire—three men caught between silence, provocation, and hesitation. Readers of The Triangle’s Quadrature will recognize that polyamory, in literature as in life, is never just about numbers, but about how absence and desire reshape every relationship.
Are you married? Have you ever wanted to be? Whatever the response, explain why and what your hopes, dreams and journey has been like.
Not yet, but I dream of it. I would love to marry on the island of St. Barthélemy: first at the Hôtel de la Collectivité for the civil ceremony, then in its beautiful church, to marry my partner before God. I imagine it as an intimate wedding with family and close friends, guests dressed as if they had stepped out of a Renoir painting, straw boaters and all. A celebration both timeless and deeply personal.
Have you had a difficult time navigating the “roles” you should play in a relationship?
We’re both Geminis—are there really roles? If they exist, we trade them when necessary. For us, fluidity matters more than fixed positions; adaptability is the only role worth keeping.
What is your philosophy about relationships?
The best advice I ever received wasn’t spoken to me directly, but found in Saint-Exupéry’s Carnets (1953): “To love is to give without expecting return, and every act is a prayer, if it is a gift of self.” It shaped the way I see relationships—not as contracts, but as offerings.
Any good/bad advice you received from a friend or queer elder?
From my partner: Stop blaming yourself for doing what you truly want to do. It was both advice and permission—the reminder that difference isn’t a crime.
Any advice you’d give to someone younger than you who thinks it’s impossible to find love?
Love always begins within. It isn’t about loving or being loved—it’s about feeling love itself. When you fill yourself with the love you already carry, you reveal your light. And in time, the love you don’t yet know will recognize you.
BONUS:
We all need more inspiration. Recommend something that influenced or helped shape you significantly that you’d recommend to someone else.
Books: Le rêve d’un homme ridicule – Fiodor Dostoïevski / La Conjuration des imbéciles – John Kennedy Toole / La Parure – Guy de Maupassant / Les Thanatonautes – Bernard Werber / La Traversée des temps – Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt / Créativité, un art de vivre – Rick Rubin
TV shows: Fellow Travelers (2023, Showtime / Paramount+) / Foundation (2021– , Apple TV+) / Une nounou d’enfer (The Nanny, 1993–1999, CBS) / Sense8 (2015–2018, Netflix, The Wachowskis)
Movies: La Cage aux Folles (1978, Édouard Molinaro) / Cloud Atlas (2012, The Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer) / The Last Man on Earth (1964, Sidney Salkow, adaptation de I Am Legend) / Roméo + Juliette (1996, Baz Luhrmann)
Songs: “Beyond Measure” – Paul Leonard-Morgan (2015) / “Your Song” – Elton John (1970) / “Believe Me Natalie” – The Killers (2004) / “Vienne la nuit” – Zazie (2007)
Feels like Gino has a really different (good) perspective on live, love, and being gay. Enjoyed the read and getting to know him peripherally through the QLP Questionnaire. Fondly, Michael
Wonderful interview!