Sexual minority characters

I've noticed, not in works here, but in published literature, that authors sometimes seem to write characters who are a sexual minority, and then either don't mention it again, make it into an (overly) negative defining trait, or turn the character into a stereotype.

Why bother writing that the character is gay/lesbian/etc. if it doesn't contribute anything significant? In that case, the character might as well be straight, and they could still be just as evil/invisible/stereotypical.

My theory (and I've read this somewhere, so I'm not claiming it's orginal) is that authors that pull those or similar stunts are only including it so that they can say either, "Hey, look at me, I included a gay character; aren't I so socially conscious and/or radical?" or "I have a moral message for you regarding [insert sexual minority of your choice here]: It's a sin/a choice/etc., etc."

What do you think?

I've personally tried to avoid this in my own writing, but I won't go into that here; doesn't belong in this thread. Or I can, but only if you want.

Feel free to talk about your own, though, if you have them!

edited 15th Apr '11 7:39:47 AM by punkreader

I usually don't write about things that I don't feel comfortable writing about, which includes sexual orientations.

I have exactly one homosexual character- he's a bartender, and he's just an average, everyday Straight Gay Bishōnen. I hate Camp Gay, and I hate reading about it and seeing it. So I don't use it.

I have a lot of minorityness in my book. But I am continually unsure how to approach it. I can easily go throughout the entire story and not even mention it, but at the same time I have to consider what would help develop the characters for the readers.

Let's see... I made Sigmund Clark gay some time ago, initially as an over-reaction; I worried about potentially squicky Mentor Shipping. He's a charismatic, attractive sixty-something man, basically decent but not exactly good-aligned, who ends up mentoring a naive eighteen-year-old girl. This could end badly. I've since become less worried about that, but his sexuality became an integral part of his character, shaping the complicated, strained relationship between him, his father and his brother.

Meanwhile, one of my off-Earth cultures has a case of Everyone Is Bi. Not gonna lie, it sort of started as Author Appeal (I'm a terrible Yuri Fanboy), but as an experiment, I made it a tendency for both genders, then followed the possible causes and implications logically from there, with a bit of research on Greece and Rome to boot. At this point, it serves primarily to further avert Fantasy Counterpart Culture, one of my core goals in world-building, since they're otherwise unrelated to those classical civilizations.

If it is a lot of minorityness, than it becomes a majority in your work.

I think that there's no reason to care about a character's sexuality, unless you want to use that character to explore how their world reacts to their sexuality, and with the character's personal experience for that sexuality. Everyone is bi is the kind of shit you see on Torchwood. At the same time, Token Gays are awful stereotypes, and no-one should be writing anything homophobic. I think the trick is to write a character. Consider their struggles, consider their goals, consider the themes that relate to them, consider the society they keep in their professional and personal lives, and then ask yourself whether any of those questions would have been more interesting questions that allowed a greater insight into the character, were this character of a bi/homo sexual disposition.

Well, being a Yuri Fanboy, I am inclined to throw in lesbianism for its own sake, but I liked the dynamic between my two female leads when I threw in some romantic undertones. One of them gets kidnapped, and it made more sense for a potential lover to risk everything to save her than someone who was just a friend...

Or I could just be grasping at straws to justify all the Les Yay I want in my story.

I'd disagree if they were just potential lovers, and I'd still disagree even if they were lovers, depending on the strength of the friendship. Great friendship is the purest bond, in a lot of ways. You don't spend time with this person because they're family. You don't spend time with them due to sexual attraction. You spend time with them because they're a kindred spirit, and kindred spirits make the world an easier place to live in. If two lovers break up, the more serious it is, the harder it is for things to be put together. The closer two friends are, the easier it is to reform those memories. With a friend, you don't have to worry that they might find another friend, who wants them to only be friends with each other. I could go on. I guess my gist is that friendship is a form of love as valid as romantic love.

Christ, I sound like Teaih.

I think I worded that wrong... The whole romantic relationship thing was supposed to show that they're closer than friends.

Betsy: I recently did a chart. I have a lot of minorityness. But the minority is spread. It's still a minority.

^ Ah, I understand now. Are there a lot of characters in your book?

Yes. A lot. And if you give each character one thing about them —race, religion, or in this care orientation— you get a lot of minority things that are still in the minority in the story, it's just that you have a lot minority stuff in general. Just not specific.

If that makes sense.

Yes, it makes sense. In the thing I've been working on, I have seven main characters but a lot of secondary/smaller minor characters, and it seems like there is no majority or cohension between them. I only asked the first time because I thought that most of the characters in your book considered themselves to belong to one of the minority sexual orientations. I read it wrong.

edited 15th Apr '11 12:29:06 PM by BetsyandtheFiveAvengers

I don't see what's wrong with mentioning it, even if it doesn't contribute anything "significant" (whatever that means) to the story. Some people are gay, some people aren't. You don't need some magic justification to have a character who isn't a straight white male. It's not the default state of being.

I have characters who are gay, but it's not particularly important to the plot. I don't see anything wrong with that. Not every character detail needs to be really really significant to the plot whatever it is, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be mentioned ever.

Though most of my characters' sexualities aren't directly mentioned unless they're in a situation where they're doing something that would lead to that. I think it's really awkward when it's mentioned out of the blue for no reason. Though I suppose it could show what parts of their identity is important to them if they want to mention they're homosexual very quickly (but then it becomes strange again if it's never mentioned again).

I agree with this. Saying that "if you have gay characters, they must do something to show that they are gay" is rather worrying if you don't apply the same standard to straight characters. In my works, no one, whatever their orientation, is likely to have any kind of relationship, due to my poor skills at writing romance and utter inability to write a sex scene.

As long as you don't turn the character into a stereotype, I don't see much problem with having a sexual minority character who never does anything about it.

Yeah, pretty much how it should be done. There's no reason to even talk about sexuality of any kind unless something relevant to it occurs. Usual rule of show, don't tell.

My Bei girl is not like that, though she might be considered a cowered in terms of the heart.

Artistic unity is God! /catchphrase

I think the trick is not so much just saying "Hi I'm (Insert Name Here), I'm gay/lesbian/bi/whatever." Doing it well would be just showing their orientation through subtle actions.

I think what the OP was meaning wasn't that "characters shouldn't be gay / other minority unless there's a good reason" but rather that it should only come up naturally and organically.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that was how I understood it.

Otherwise, one tends to have a feeling of tokenism & "Look! Look! I'm being inclusive!"

Gay characters shouldn't have to have it tattooed on their foreheads. They should have their natural attractions and relationships, which should be depicted in pretty much the same way as heterosexual attractions and relationships.

And that's what I meant, put much more eloquently.

Casual Kink is a surprisingly effective tool for setting up jokes. The real evil is Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?.

I tend to like to show non-standard characters, including sexual minorities, but not making a big thing about it. It's part of the rounding out of the character, part of who (s)he is but, unless it for whatever reason becomes germane to the plot, it's not overly dwelt on.

Consider: in mainstream fiction you get characters who are married or attend a particular church or have hobbies. None of those things may matter a damn when they're trying to escape the terrible danger that is key to the plot (ok, they may well be escaping danger with their spouse or have faith that their deity will look after them - that's part of who they are but it's not going to affect the plot any more than if they were escaping with a sibling or a friend or were an atheist) but they make the characters more memorable and more real.

If it's normal to portray a character as a married Christian or Jew, then it must therefore be normal to portray a character as homosexual or whatever - and not give them any different treatment than you'd treat any other character (unless it becomes relevant to forwarding the plot).

I see no need to get into details of their relationship or take any pro- or anti- stance on their lifestyle - any more than the story would need the intimate details of a more conventional marital relationship or a social commentary on it.

One could argue that if it's not relevant to the plot, there's no need to include it - but then one could also argue that the character having blue eyes and a warm smile aren't really relevant to the plot, either - but they get included.

Depending on what's going on, interpersonal relationships are likely to become apparent in a lot of stories - the man's cut off by the raging flood, if he has a wife and kids somewhere, he's likely to be worried about them and want to get home safely to them. If the guy's got a male partner waiting at home, he's just as likely to be concerned and wanting to get safely home.

I'm in favour of minority characters of all descriptions.

Because it's just nice when fiction includes you even though you weren't born a cis-gendered heterosexual white male. It's one of those things that gives a nice fuzzy warm feeling because someone cares :)