A Single Unified LGBT Character Thread

Ah gotcha, TY for your explanation!

EDIT: Whoops, accidental pagetopper. Link to post I was responding to

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Nov 3rd 2023 at 7:08:45 AM

I scrapped the previous polycule idea, form the time being at least. I wonder what to do with this one i have so i am posting it here.

6 members, that love eachother deeply but face backlash from their peers and grown adults for it, some of them polyphobic, some transphobic (they call all their kids by their dead names), other LGBTphobes in general, others racists, or sexists.

I plan on them having to deal with wide discrimination and finding support with eachother. Question is, how much is too much?

Would a backhanded compliment or someone who ticks some but not all boxes be a good uneasy ally? Should i give them some others who support them early on or wait a bit until their happy ending? How cruel should their peers be before it's too much?

I'd say that you definitely should give them wholehearted friends and allies outside of the polycule. "You're either down for smooching with us or a villain" is a hell of a dichotomy to run a plot on. And pushing the position of everyone is a bigot too far runs the risk of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.

Edited by Adannor on Nov 8th 2023 at 11:36:11 PM

Alright then, what would generally hit harder, their parents and other close friends and family being their biggest if not only, support, or kind strangers or otherwise unlikely allies

Is this a natural way for a parent in a story to practice their child's new pronouns?

So, I'm thinking of a scene in a story of mine, where a child (who's AFAB but I'm considering making them come out as a demigirl in the same scene) comes out as a lesbian and that they now go by she/they pronouns to their mom. The mom isn't particularly knowledgeable about LGBTQ+ stuff but she is supportive of her child and asks questions to better understand them.

Shortly afterwards, the mom holds a conversation with herself where she introduces her child and practices using the them pronouns as she's not used to referring to her child with them, such as "Hello, this is my daughter. They like doing this thing and so on."

Yeah, practicing in front of a mirror is a pretty natural thing, I feel like. Nice character bit to show how much she cares about getting it right, even if she doesn't 100% 'get it' herself.

Edited by Chortleous on Nov 12th 2023 at 1:12:13 PM

I wrote scene, where teenage lesbian eat eye candy, but I am afraid if it isnt "too male". Can I got any opinion, please? (Sorry, if there are language errors here, it is fast translate)

Just focus on the face. Any descriptors for other anatomy (read: breasts) can be a little creepy, especially since the eye candy in question is a teen.

I'm half considering making a character from a story set in the late 1910's to early 1920's a demigirl.

While the "demigirl" term wasn't coined until like 2010, chances are the identity itself was probably around for a long time. Besides probably being closeted about her identity (she's AFAB fyi), how would the character describe and explore her demigirl identity, since I can imagine she doesn't have the resources/knowledge to figure out what exactly her gender identity is?

A convenient way to pull this off would be being near an accepting community that they could turn to for safety, she could possibly slowly find the definition and because fiction isn't realistic. You could make her coin the term

That's not remotely possible for her since after her father forcibly married her off to a rich asshole, she legit has no support system other than a young daughter she gives to later on and even then, she doesn't share her trauma with her kid since y'know she's her young kid.

I would also prefer to be realistic and historically accurate about how my character explores her gender identity.

While I know a few cases of "what we would now call non-binary" people in the Western world pre-1950s/1960s, like the Public Universal Friend and Jennie June, I feel the most realistic possibility is that she wouldn't quite know what she is. You could have a scene where she sits down to contemplate her identity by herself, her train of thought something like "I know I'm a woman, but I do not feel at peace with being one. I am absolutely not a man, so what else could it be?" There could also be moments where she gets referred to with gender-neutral terms and her internal reaction is "Hey, this feels good", those feelings being unrecognized gender euphoria.

As for how she explores them, she might assume these feelings derive from feminist angst at women's place in society, and get involved with/express support for the suffragette movement and other feminist concerns of the era. You might also give her a tomboyish appearance or interests, though you'd have to be careful about it because the audience might instead interpret her as a closeted trans man.

I see! The character is still fine with presenting as feminine and there's a scene where she's quite hesitant to cut her long hair by the time 1920's bobs were becoming mainstream.

However, while she'll agree with them, I'm not sure if she would actively participate in suffrage/feminism since she cares about adhering to social norms to avoid being discriminated against (she's a wealthy, high-classed woman) even if it hurts her mentally.

A good way of having extra reader sympathy would be for her to step out of their comfort zone for the benefit of others eventually

I don't think you seem particularly knowledgeable on the social norms of the 1910's-1920's.

She can't do that without risk getting discriminated. She's already a closeted lesbian and an undiagnosed autistic person who masks often. If her sexuality can get her killed in this time period, why should she be open about the nuances of her gender?

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Dec 11th 2023 at 7:49:48 AM

Actually the 20s had several organizations about sexuality and gender that remained active pretty much into the 30s. (Particularly in Germany, though several were active in the US too.)

There were absolutely extensive issues, but it was not entirely unsurvivable to be gay, and trans people were seen much more as a novelty to comment on instead of something to be discriminated against specifically.

This isn't to say it was easy or desirable to be out of the closet, generally it would be hard to find work. (Not that that's an issue because this character is leisure class) But environments existed at the time where gay people and to an extent trans people could be very open. Further, being explicitly wealthy, she might just move to Germany, and she'd already enjoy a measure of protection against discrimination in the US that most people would not have due to her wealth.

If you're rich, it's much easier to be considered merely an acceptable eccentric when you violate norms.

Edited by Florien on Dec 11th 2023 at 1:01:13 AM

~Cosmic Cat Any thoughts on my response I gave to you?

I can't think of much more to add, because admittedly the 1910s-1920s aren't my area of historical expertise. The way you describe her situation, it sounds like she'd have to settle for keeping her true gender feelings to herself, due to both societal expectations and "having bigger fish to fry" with being married off to a rich asshole.

Hm... maybe while she's reading a book, whether on her own or for her daughter, there's a character within it who reminds her a lot of herself gender-wise? I'm thinking about how Princess Ozma from the Land of Oz books (who first appeared in 1904) is often interpreted as transfeminine, or how the Mythology & Religion folder on LGBT Fanbase notes a common fondness for mermaids among trans people ^note I only like them casually, though reading that gave me an epiphany as to why I always hear so much about Mermay when it comes around . I'm not aware of any such characters who've been read as a demigirl specifically, though you could always make one up for a Show Within a Show.

Got advice that this question is more suited for this thread:

Question of mine: How would a child (12 year old gay boy) express a crush on two other children that are visiting him in a hospital? He's aware that one of these other two children is also gay, and the other handsome but also a bit of a weirdo [he's autistic, but the child doesn't know yet]. I am mostly tripping over the mechanics/the what-happens aspect. We are talking about a rescue romance, essentially.

Is it believable that a girl in 16th century Europe who was Raised as the Opposite Gender think that her attraction to girls is the result of her living as a boy and not actually because she's a lesbian?

For context, the girl is a princess who fled to another country after her parents were overthrown by a rebellion. As part of an effort to hide her from the usurper's forces, she was made to dress up as a boy to go under the radar as they were looking for a girl, not a boy. As the girl turns out be pretty gender non-confirming, she takes a liking to presenting as a boy and is rather dedicated to the act. Then, as she gets older, she develops an attraction to girls but as this is 16th century Europe, she likely has no knowledge about LGBTQ+ stuff, so she brushes it off, believing that she's only attracted to girls as part of her male facade and that if she wasn't living as a boy, she would be attracted to boys like any other girl.

Eventually, she does come to realize that she's not attracted to boys regardless of what gender she presents since she's a lesbian, but until she reaches that point, is it plausible for her to think she's only attracted to girls because of the whole living-as-a-boy thing?

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Feb 10th 2024 at 6:57:00 AM

That wouldn't be too much of a stretch, in my opinion. Even though lesbians were persecuted less than gay men during this time period, the overall attitude towards LGBTQ+ people was very hostile regardless. Perhaps your character's belief that her attraction to girls stems from living as a boy is a manifestation of some internalized homophobia?

Oh huh, that makes sense! TY for your answer.

One of my story ideas has at least two nonbinary characters; a child who uses they/them, and a middle aged person who uses he/him.

Because i've seen a lot of people being confused by the concept of off-the-binary people using "gendered" pronouns, he/him or she/her (including in this thread in the past), i thought i could have some dialogue about that. Something like the adult going "Oh, i'm also NB" when the child introduces themselves, and because the child is a young-ish child who doesn't know everything they ask how can he use he/him if he isn't male or something like that, and the adult explains that pronouns aren't really gendered and anybody can use any pronoun that feels right for them even if it's a "male" or "female" pronoun for somebody who isn't male or female. The child is still sure they/them are the right pronouns for them, but understands that other off-the-binary people can use he/him or she/her if they want to and using them doesn't automatically mean somebody is male or female.

Despite being somewhere off the binary myself, i'm not sure how to actually write the aforementioned dialogue well....

Edited by Nukeli on Feb 18th 2024 at 7:44:43 PM

For what it's worth, Ikenfell has a character who uses he/him, and it makes it clear with one line of dialogue ("Don't call me dude, I'm nonbinary") a good while after he's introduced. And he exists alongside other enby party members (one who uses they/them and another who uses neopronouns).

Edited by Bisected8 on Feb 18th 2024 at 7:27:29 PM

Yeah, but explaining to the child (and the reader) that pronouns aren't gender-locked is kind of the point.