LGBT writing

I like LGBT characters for obvious reasons. I imagine the female protagonist in my sci-fi as at least experimentally bisexual, though I doubt it'll really matter to the plot. And my prehistoric short is about a gay Neanderthal boy with a crush on a slinky Cro-Magnon after being saved by him. XD

Another story is slowly forming in my head, and will probably be a short drama that takes place on a rich kid's boat off the coast of Florida. What can I say? Write what you know, and I know Florida, boats, young people, and wobbly sexuality hehe.

 

I don't write about LGBT issues, but the lead characters are gay males, most of the time. Primarily I write romance... I try to have a fair blend of characters in many ways. I aim for supporting characters to all have their own motivations and growth, as opposed to being static.

Random guy at the super market is static, though. I don't have time to mess around with creating a back-story and fully-fleshed-out personality for him.

My characters' sexuality and gender are not important to the plot, for the most part. I find that there are many well-done representations of LGBT people while they are coming to terms with themselves, but not as many when they have already faced themselves and came out as winners while being well-written.

I feel as though fiction, in general, would benefit from characters and stories in which differing sexualities are 'normalized', so to speak, because they are normal, if less frequently occurring.

Like you (I presume), I hope someday, if I can publish my writing, that my writing would help someone reading it to find inspiration and/or a role model who just happens to be gay, for instance. Fiction has an abundance of heterosexual teenage protagonists, but I'd be happy to add onto the list of non-heterosexual protagonists and non-cisgender protagonists who are just as cool and awesome as the heterosexual cisgender ones.

 

Many of my protagonists in the fiction I write are, most of the time, LGBT. The heroine of my urban fantasy novel, for example, is a lesbian elf with two gay fathers (one of whom's trans*), and many of the supporting characters are also LGBT, including her sardonic, witch friend who's a transwoman, numerous other gay, bisexual male characters, and etc.

While in any of my stories featuring LGBT characters (which is pretty much every story), the specific issues that may be faced because they're LGBT are only briefly touched upon because for the most part, I like to have it where my characters are too busy saving the world to worry about when they're coming out or if they should bring their boyfriend home for dinner.

I believe visibility in media is key to LGBT acceptance. And having more positive LGBT characters not only reinforces that LGBT people are just as much human as the cis/het majority, but for the readers out there looking for 'someone like them', it means everything to see a character who's in their shoes and managed to make it out okay.

 

I'm planning an epic fantasy series and whilst it's not about LGBT issues, it'd be pretty clear that I believe in acceptance and love for us all. For example, one character gets into a thoroughly ridiculous situation and says "Man, if my mothers could see me now...". There are a few LGBT characters, but there isn't that much focus on it as the story is, at its heart, an epic fantasy and the main focus is on the clash between good and evil. What I do is to have references to it, but without making it seem like "a thing". Treat it as completely normal.

 

There is self-publishing and there are also publishing houses which, er, 'specialize' in LGBT+ books, as options that are more probable than other options. One of these days, though, LGBT+ fiction will be easily accepted by the larger publishing houses =)

 

I think one of my biggest gripes with the LGBT specialty genre is that, typically, it's romance/smut or a drama that centers around LGBT issues. None of which is bad, we just need more books where the gay guy slays dragons, the hardboiled gruff-around-the-edges detective is a transman, the lesbian lady is a paralegal with a donut craving, etc. The issue books and smut have their place (for instance, the former inspires, the latter I like to keep around for certain nights, ahem), but just more books with happen-to-be-LGBT characters would be nice.

 

^^So this. This is how I write and this is how I wish more LGBT stories were written. Homotales don't always have to be sex-romance/hook up culture, HIV/AIDS, how they feel just being gayrolle, and coming out/coming to terms, yet they usually are. Honestly, there's really no difference in writing gay characters and straight characters if the gay character's story line isn't focused on his sexuality alone. If hetero shows aren't about the characters just being hetero then why should gay characters, you know? Even in hetero-romance stories, they have family drama, friend drama, job drama, fucking life drama :lol: all of which have nothing to do with who they like to shack up with. For some reason, though, when it comes to gay characters, there are a lot of stories where storylines are centered around their sexual orientation instead of just centering around them as people, doing life things, feeling things that have nothing to do with them being LGBT.

My first story with a lesbian character is about a young woman whose Mom is a drug addict and it focuses on how she deals with that. The only reason we know she's a lesbian is because she wakes up with her girlfriend, but as far as when the character came out, how her Mom feels about it, when she knew, none of that is ever mentioned. It is just an established lesbian relationship that even the Mom treats normal. When the Mom and daughter get into an argument about the daughter leaving with the girlfriend, no slurs are thrown, no contempt for the daughter's sexuality is there, the Mom is just pissed her daughter's leaving because she doesn't want to be alone and like any over bearing Mom she blames the girlfriend, says "you're leaving with her," with disgust, but not disgust because it's a "her," but because of the girl herself. Okay, what am I saying? I don't know anymore, this a mad ramble at this point, but maybe I've made my point and then some.

Yeah, anyway, I'm definitely all for the 'other stuff.' I write, I love to read it, and would love to see it more. This new show "The Fosters" actually looks like it might do a good job of that, so I'm staying tuned in to that.

 

I have a little bit of gay romance that I've written on my blog here on EC. I need to continue writing....

 

I love writing! I sometimes have gay/bisexual characters, but their sexual orientation isn't very important to the plot. Sometimes the character just feels...I don't know...gay to me (if that makes any sense).

 

I have gay characters in some more literary fiction books I am currently prepring. one of the books centers around a suicde of a gay teen, the other has a gay teen among a group of five characters that the book centers around.

If we are doing recommendations also of LGBT literature, Dysophoria by Karelia Stetz-Water is a good read. it is a suspenseful thriller about a lunatic who is amputating women to *make them* before he will have sex with them, and a protaganist who gets caught up trying to get to the bottom of it, and ends up falling in love with another women, and questioning her sexuality because of it. it is really well written.

 

I write on moral philosophy only, and when I write, it's generally on queer or feminist topics.

 

I write erotic fiction with LGB (no T yet) characters. So far, sexuality and orientation aren't "issues" in the story, not as problems specific to being LGBT. I deal with issues like jealousy, monogamy, polyamory and other relationship matters. I find sexuality fascinating and I like to explore it through fiction. I once received a review that complained I had portrayed the BDSM relationship between the men as a "normal" alternative lifestyle and it was apparently part of my "agenda".

If I ever write something else, I'll probably have the same sort of characters. I can see advantages to both including LGBT issues and just having the characters happen to be LGBT.

In case some of you don't know about it, I want to mention the Absolute Write forum. It's huge, run by lesbians, and has a sizable LGBT membership (or so it seems to me). It includes all genres, and most of the site is open to all ages. A small portion is adults-only.

 

Aboslute write is also a good place, if you are willing to sort through the occasional troll, to look up people's experinces submitting to agents and publishers. it is great for getting a broader sense for how the industry is working at this time.

 

Ever heard of Six Feet Under? I highly recommend watching it or at least looking it up.

 

I write mainly poetry and some fiction. I tend to have an equal mix of subjects, though many of my poems deal with what it was like growing up in a remote wilderness and with feelings of longing. But whatever it is that I write, I want it to resonate with people in general, and not just gay people.

Is there a section here that's made for posting stories/poetry and such?

I'd like to post some stuff, to see what people think.

 

You could always make a thread for it in this section or post it to your blog.

 

The series I am currently working on is a dark fantasy so there isn't a ton time for romance amidst the chaos. However, the second main antagonist in the story a gay male. Though he is not LGBT just to be LGBT. One of the themes of his character background is centered around the tragedies of arranged marriage, but all of that is around dealt with in the prologue so it is only briefly spoken about in the actual story.

There are other characters who, in my mind I see as LGBT, but the story just warrant that type of information. Though I have been questioning the orientation of the 4th most important protagonist character, but I am trying to convince myself otherwise; Essentially because although there will be plenty of death in the story, he will be the only one of the top 5 protagonists to die. I don't think that would look to good........

 

I would love to in the future, but right now I just don't have time after I finally get my license though, I shall try.