I have a character who is bi-sexual yet, and I won't even reveal it unless it's part of the plot or important back story to reveal. I wanted to make him bi-sexual because of all the misconceptions, myths and stereotypes about being bi-sexual. I want to mess with readers who think you have to be homo or heterosexual, that it's a bifurcated choice. I am still writing the book and still creating the character. Peace, Tex Shelters
By the way, it's a mystery novel and my character is a monogamous (to a fault) male doctor/detective. Sex is not a main part of the story. That's another stereotype I wanted to avoid: if there's a gay or bi character, it has to be a romance or story about sexual encounters.
Correct. I am not asian, but I have a character who is part asian. Why would it be any different with sexual preference/orientation? Peace, Tex
Great questions. This depends on when the novel occurs and if it's the narrator or a character using the term. Certainly, my bi character would stick to "homo/hetero" but his hetero crime solving partner? I don't know yet. He would certainly use the term "straight" though your point is spot on about that term. Peace, Tex
Hi all: I'm new to this forum but this thread caught my eye. I've just finished a six novel silly-science fiction series. The protagonist is straight but just about the rest of everyone else in the book is gay. This came about because I needed my main guy to stow away on a spaceship and the most logical reason I could think of for him to do that was if it was an all female crew. After they were in flight he gets the bad news. Anyway, I dealt with the sexual orientation thing by not dealing with it. The whole series is about sex, but there are no sexual encounters described. I wrote the characters as people first and left it at that. This is not to say that the novels are politically correct. Like the phrases from years ago "Fireman" or "Policeman" two hundred years in the future two of the main characters are the "Maintenance-Dyke" and the "Shower-Dyke" because that is their job title. I'll get in trouble for that I'm sure, if anyone ever reads the books. Personally, I'm tired of the whole black/white, gay/strait, thing. If it's not germane to motivations, does it really matter to the story?
I haven't read any of the other comments on this forum so I'm just gonna answer the question at hand directly. "Have you ever written about a protagonist who wasn't cis-gender and/or heterosexual?" No, I haven't, but I'm working on it. I haven't gotten to the point in the story in which character sexuality and gender matters. However I think that writing a character just because they are gay, or just because they are trans makes them a weak character so... that's the tea on that.
How do you think the rest of us feel? I would say that starting with a "Token Character" and then making them non-token is better than not starting. In my Doctor Who fanfic, there is a POV character who I only added at first as a Token Straight Guy. Would you like to read my story, try to figure out who I'm talking about, and see how well the story would've worked if I hadn't added him for the hypothetical reason of "I don't write characters just to fill Token quotas"?
The three main characters in my current story are gay, however, I'm straight myself. Do you think this will cause any problems? The story itself isn't about being gay, the characters it follows just so happen to be gay. There are some topics that deal with being gay, but none of them are the main focus. For example, my one character's father takes off when his son is diagnosed with a disease because he's selfish and doesn't think he can handle that in his life. The father also never liked how his son was gay, but the story centers in more on the illness tearing the family apart. As for stereotypes, I've been trying to avoid those. One character wears generally "female" things, but I've always thought of him doing that as more of a way to disregard gender roles than to fit a stereotype. The other gay characters I have aren't stereotyped at all. I just want to get some opinions since I've seen a lot of people online getting mad at straight people for writing gay characters. Which makes sense, if the writer isn't portraying something properly...so feel free to tell me if anything I've shared is problematic as well. It doesn't bother me, I'd rather people be honest than hold back and set me up to write an offensive story. Thanks!
It's difficult to judge whether something is 'problematic' based off a loose description, but the fact that your story is explicitly not about being gay means it checks out for me. If I were you I'd get someone to read the finished product (an early draft, I mean) through this lens. Sensitivity readers are a thing, though I don't have any experience with them personally - beta readers of marginalized groups who specifically look out for issues they're knowledgeable about. There's that or just independent research.
There a huge thread about this somewhere, i'll see if i can find it ETA here :https://www.writingforums.org/threads/writing-queer-characters.149533/ that aside relationship wise - a relationship is a relationship and gay or straight we are all people so that side of things shouldn't be a problem so long as you stay away from gay steroetypes- on the actual mechanics of gay sex you may need some help if you aren't sure how things work , ditto if you are writing about gay lifestyle or issues around coming out etc. I've written gay characters occasionally despite being straight, but I have a number of friends who are LGBT who can fact check for me.
I noticed that too. Cross dressing is't a particularly "Gay" characteristic though so i do worry about stereotypes ... its generally a transgender thing which is a different thing all together (in very simplistic terms someone who is transgender identifies with and thus sometimes dresses as the opposite sex, where as a gay man does not want to be female just because he finds men attractive) ETA I know you know this Chicken, I put the explanation in for the OP
Having someone read the finished product is a good idea. I'll definitely remember that when I'm finished with the story, so thank you! I'm going to take a look at the thread, thank you lots! He wears makeup, pinks and purples, etc. ...basically things that society has told us are for girls. He doesn't want to be a girl, though. He doesn't experience any body dysphoria, he just likes to express himself through "prettier" clothing options.
Also If the disease in question is AIDS/HIV you could run into a stereotyping issue (ie that a lot of prejudiced people like to believe that AIDS is a Gay disease and you could take a lot of flak if you seem to be saying that)
Welcome to the site! It sounds like you've already looked at LGBT stereotypes (though looking even more is never a bad idea), so the big thing to remember is that people are not stereotypes, patterns are stereotypes. When I found out that the Doctor Who fanfic in my signature would potentially be problematic because the only LGBT character (not counting the guy whom I'd thought of as being asexual/aromantic like me) was a promiscuous serial killer, what I did was make two of the other guys into a couple (including the guy I'd previously thought was aro-ace). One that note, one of my favorite lines from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (not that it's a very short list) was actually private investigator Gay Perry complaining about drag queens "You know half of those guys are straight, right?"
Also its worth noting that we have a fair number of LGBTQ members here so you might find their input useful - @CEMO and @Wreybies are two that spring to mind but i'm sure there are also others
Would it help more to look at 15% * 49,180 total members, or would it help more to look at 15% * 197 members who've been active in the last 24 hours
Absolutely - although I was talking specifically about transgender rather than general cross dressing. I do still worry about a gay character who likes to where pink dresses and make up ... not that there's any reason why they shouldn't if they want but it does play to a dated 70s/80s cliche about how gays behave. Gay does not automatically have to equate to effeminate and seeming to say that it is could also attract flak
Well quite - I only named and tagged those I know of, but the input of any homosexual member would be useful in this regard. (As you know from other discussions my basic position on this is that people are people, I find it entirely morally corrupt to judge anyone based on what they do (or don't do) in private with a consenting adult. So i'm not implying any judgement of any member's orientation)
Well, he didn't say dresses, just pink. And there's makeup and makeup. If I Google "men in makeup" some of the results have a feminine vibe, and some have more of a "if women can make their faces match an artistic fantasy, why can't I?" For example, most of the pictures on this page aren't, IMO, feminine: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/male-makeup/ and the pink clothes below aren't at all feminine: https://www.pinterest.com/gagaters/mens-fashion-pink/ I'm not saying that dresses and feminine makeup are Bad. I'm just still not quite sure what we're talking about.
I'm straight, and when I was in high school (late 80s), I was a bit of a goth, so the idea of a young man wearing makeup regardless of his orientation just to rebel sits just fine with me. Of course, my makeup was all blacks and greys, the darker the better, kind of a male/androgynous version of Siouxsie Sioux. However, when the fast food restaurant that I worked at introduced logoed t-shirts as uniform for the crew, with blue for the guys and pink for the girls, I demanded one of each on the basis that I was secure in my sexuality and not scared of a shirt. Honestly, I was just rebellious as hell, if I'd grown up with two mommies San Francisco instead of in conservative, whitebread, Christian [REDACTED], I'd probably be a member of the Family Research Council today... But anyway, having a gay young man (you didn't say how old your characters were, I just realized) dressing slightly "girly" as a rebellion sounds very plausible to me, so long as it's clear that he's doing it to rebel, and not that his sexuality in and of itself causes him to. But, run it past several LGBT people if you can, to get their take on it.
The boring truth is that we come in as many flavors as anyone else. The whole "coming out" phenomenon in celebrity media of the last decade has been important in showing that we can sometimes fit stereotypes, or we can choose not to. The whole "wearing of feminine things" is a phase that some of us go through as we shed our concern for gender roles, and for many of us it's just a short phase and for some of us it's more than that. Example: That's me on the right there the day we finished the little 260 V8 small-block that went back into the 1964 1/2 Mustang I took it out of. Did I dress up for the day of photos? Sure. If folks want to see that as gay, that's ok with me. Regardless, I rebuilt that motor myself. Bored it out. Holley carb. Edelbrock intake. High profile camshaft. Custom exhaust. Changed out the old radiator for a high capacity one because that little motor ran hot. Here's the secret: We are vast. We are legion. But you don't see us because we look like everyone else. That fact bothers certain groups because they have a need for us to fit only within a particular set of parameters that they can demonize and shun, but it's a truth. So whether it's La Cage aux Folles, or Brokeback Mountain, or When Harry met Harry, your gay characters are part of a story. Write a good story and you'll be fine.
