Would you like to see more diversity in LGBT literature?

Well, I Sci-Fi short story I wrote recently had two gay protagonists but didn't make a fuss of it or anything. They're were normal people who happened to have the events of the story happen to them.

 

Oh Hell yes. I'd love to read sci-fi, fantasy, or adventure about LGBT characters. They don't have to be erotica.

I'd love to read about an out-and-proud Starship captain, for example. If sex scenes fit the plot, I welcome them. I'm thinking of one of my fave writers, Walter Jon Williams. His novels have good sex scenes that show us something about the characters, but his novels are not remotely erotica.

I would certainly read a high fantasy about a lesbian, if the story was good.

 

Yes!! Why not? I think that it'd be nice to have different relationships, scenarios, and places, of course .

 

Well, seeing as I'm currently writing a book with lesbian main characters, with only the mention of sex, and zombies, I'd say that I like the idea of expanding LGBT characters into genres other than erotica. My book is actually quite serious and sad (though I never intended it to be so-it just happened.) The lead's brother does provide some comedy though.

 

I think a great part of "normalization" of same-sex and other LGBT relationships will need to be incorporated into our cultural "content". I would be satisfied if I were to see our literature and our movies incorporate a much greater amount of such encounters, to the same extent as they do for heterosexual relationships.

I struggle to say "to the same extent" because we are a minority and I wonder if we should be represented more or less in the same proportion as in real life, but in the end I would nevertheless keep the idea that we should be represented to the same extent, if only because there is a lot of catching up to do and the battleground is not necessarily in reality, but in people's minds.

 

Of course. People of color are also immensely underrepresented, which truthfully is even worse considering they aren't even technically minorities when all together.

The reason why subtly can be fairly rare in LGBTQ fiction is because sexual minorities aren't often giving the luxury of seeing same-sex intimacy in popular media. Many writers of LGBTQ fiction often feel more drawn to include those aspects of romance for personal satisfaction because of that. The problem that this creates is when the main characters of a work are LGBTQ the work is automatically marked as LGBTQ, which causes its potential sales to plummet. If the work happens to include intimacy, even lightly so, it is market as LGBTQ Romance and the potential sales are essentially floored.

 

I'd love to read more LGBT books, especially centered on lesbians, but a lot of them are too mature for me. >.< If I became a writer, I would love to write LGBT books meant for younger readers. ^.^ There are not enough...

 

Hell yes.

Less tragic stories, more happy stories. More stories that aren't about coming out. More lesbians who don't end up sleeping with a guy. More trans characters. More bi characters. More pan characters. More asexual characters. More LGBTQ+ characters of color. More disabled LGBTQ+ characters... etc etc etc.

 

I'd like to see more diversity in romance stories in general. Even heterosexual ones are really redundant, stereotypical, and don't represent all straight people. Gay ones even more so. And I want to see real lesbians and not fake ones who always end up with a guy -.-'

Oh and the sex thing is soooo stereotypical for gay stories. Not all straight stories revolve around sex even. Come on. There are gay people who are rather non-sexual too

 

Cool. ^.^

 

I would LOVE to see more LBGT literature! A total yes from me.

 

I empathize completely. There are definitely higher standards when it comes to the success of works surrounding characters that fall outside of the white-heterosexual default, but I have faith that you can live up to those standards. The important thing will be knowing the team that you are considering publishing with and interviewing them as much as they will be interviewing you.

Question how they intend to go about marketing the work before signing over the rights. You work is a work of fantasy; nothing more, nothing less. Readers shouldn't have any idea of the race or sexuality of those characters until they read that information within. The moment you hear a publisher speaking with taglines such as LGBTQ fiction (if applicable), ethnic fiction, etc. Hang up the phone and call a new one. The issue with the white-heterosexual default is far less with readers actively pushing aside books with those characters, rather works centered around them being pigeon-holed in marketing and genre placement based on the race or orientations included.

 

Sarah and Jennifer Diemer's stories are really fantastic, and they have a whole set of short stories on their site for anyone to read for free. Sarah's mythology rewriting of Persephone and Hade's is brilliant and she's got it for free right now. and you can get her story A Witch's Sea on amazon for free too. They mainly focus on fantasy and sci fi, but they have some that are of different genres. 99.9% lesbian, some bisexual girls and one trans girl story in their Project Unicorn (free short story set) so far, they say they aren't done yet. They're amazing!