LGBTQ Characters: If They’re In My Life They Should Be in the Fiction I Read

[Nancy]

I started reading romance—full-bore (eh heh), graphic romance—when I was eleven or so. At that time, I’d come off a science-fiction and fantasy YA kick and moved to historical adventures of all stripes, and from historical adventures to historical romance. My upbringing was such that there were precious few secrets of life at that age, so the graphic contents didn’t “bother” me all that much. I knew what sex was, how it was (generally) done, and had somehow come to the subconscious conclusion that all that was perfectly fine, in my limited experience with life....

Rest of blog post here:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/03/lgbt...

[Caddy]

Great blog post! I didn't "set out" to make sure I had lesbian or gay characters in each of my books, but once my series was complete I realized that every book had at least one. In fact, in the 4th book the second half is mostly a gay coming of age. The main characters in the fifth book are all gay. Then I realized that gay and lesbian people have always been part of my circle of friends, so it just happened because, to me, it is natural.

Once I realized that, I knew I will probably always include gay or lesbian characters in my work because all people DO have straight, lesbian, gay, bi people in their lives regardless of if they know it or not.

And they should know it! Someday people will stop worrying about who others prefer to have sex with or who others fall in love with, at least I sure hope so. What an odd thing to worry about.

[Alicja]

Since I'm bi, I always understood in an intellectual sense that most people are monosexual and they care about the gender of the person they are with (whether opposite or same sex). On an emotional level I am still awed that gender actually matters since it was never important to me. So, when it comes to reading, I love best stories where being LGBT is just the way someone is while the story revolves around another plot. And I just love seeing diversity in reading.

[Averin]

Don't know where to put this, but it might interest many readers here:
Raucous Discussion of Queer Romance Month.