A Single Unified LGBT Character Thread

I decided, since there seemed to be a lot threads opening up here on Writer's Block about how to write LGBT characters, and a lot of people have also been popping up the LGBT thread asking questions about it, I thought it'd best if I made a thread. Or, someone else in the LGBT thread thought so, and after that didn't eventuate I appropriated the idea.

Putting the fact I'm a filthy thief behind us, here's the gist of what the thread's about, and some ground rules:

• Be open and supportive. Don't be a Jerkass. That's not what this is about.
• This is thread is about asking question, generally and/or specifically, about the experiences of LGBT people, and how to write LGBT characters in certain situations (say, for example, I want to write a trans woman coming out to her father, I can ask for advice about this. Or I want to ask about a gay kid being bullied, I can ask about personal experiences of bullying).
• Both LGBT people and allies can make use of this thread.
• Don't pressure people into divulging information they don't want to, or talking about experiences they might not be comfortable with.
• Don't harass people if they don't understand something, or are using incorrect terminology or anything else. As long as a person is trying to be supportive, they don't deserve to be harassed. Be nice, and teach others!

Alright, now that housekeeping's out of the way, I actually have questions of my own. So let us begin.

How do I make my trans character more accessible? I understand I'm partly making him as an Author Avatar and partly as an Aesop, so of course he's gonna be talking about his own experiences as a trans man, but I wonder how I can make his character easier for cis (that is, not trans) audiences to relate to, even when he's talking about trans things.

I've tried my best to make him not too much of tragic trans character, and not have him conform to stereotypes (not that trans men have many stereotypes to begin with), and his main job isn't even to be a Trans Aesop; he is, more than anything else, The Watson, with a little bit of Only Sane Man thrown in, and that's the main reason for his existence within the narrative.

I just wonder, is there anything that would turn you off reading a about a trans character, assuming you weren't trans yourself?

edited 31st Mar '16 7:38:06 AM by trashconverters

Well, I find a lot of LGBT fiction kind of uninteresting as it is because not only is a lot of it romance-centric, I also have very, very little experience with such matters. I'm straight and cisgendered myself, and I had no encounters with people who had any sexuality or gender identity outside of mine until late high school, and even then, I barely knew anything about those people other than one was gay, and the other was a transman, and then we graduated and I never heard about those people again. You'd probably turn someone like me off automatically if the main conflict of the story is primarily about them reconciling their gender identity, or dealing with how society perceives them, or something like that.

But I don't think it's too hard to avert that if you make their story be about a person first, and trans issues second. The example I always use about portraying characters of minority demographics tastefully is to, whenever possible, look at how straight, cisgendered, white characters are so easily portrayed by writers with a wide variety of motivations and personalities, and start there.

edited 31st Mar '16 8:11:36 AM by CrystalGlacia

Well I don't think his motivations are entirely focused on his gender (he's a pretty long way through his transition at this point, so it's not even a part of his journey anymore), but the problem is, he is part of an Ensemble Cast who each kind of get their own moments where we delve into their individual, painful backstories, so it won't be brushed over either.

To put it into context, this is an Urban Fantasy novel about a group of recovering alcoholics who accidentally get thrust into a gang war between rival groups of alchemists, after one of the greatest alchemists in the world decides he should probably get on top of that drinking problem of his and join an AA meeting. The cast also includes a sex addict with an Inferiority Superiority Complex, a domestic violence surviving Overprotective Dad and an autistic Womanchild, so he's probably one of the more well-adjusted characters, and it's not like his sad backstory stands out much.

But again, I don't want his existence to seem like too much of an Author Tract.

I have several characters that play off of my experiences and personal feelings (directly and indirectly) with being a foreign adoption (adopted from China at five months old by a white Ohioan couple). The reason why I keep their stories from being Author Tracts is because they have more to their characters than the fact that they were adopted, or the fact that they don't feel like they have a culture, or couldn't understand what it's like to have a birth family if they tried. The mere fact that both of our characters happen to share a personal experience with their writers does not make them intrinsically Author Tracts. To make this character an Author Tract, you have to allow this character's sexuality and gender struggles overshadow who they are as a person. If you can handle the other characters tastefully, without letting their backstories overshadow who they are now, you can handle this one. Failing that, try writing them and get some beta readers to look it over.

Random question: I just realized that I named one of my characters, who happens to be gay, "Bjarn". (Which means bear) Completely unintentional, but the fact that he's a pretty buff-looking haugr might not help. Is this... bad?

Two things could happen- readers might either not notice it at all, or they might look it up or know that it means 'bear', and assume you were trying to be cutesy.

I'd err on changing it.

The name is part of his family's Animal Theme Naming. (His sister is called Varg/wolf for example) I only just realized that "bear" is also the name of a gay stereotype, and got a bit worried that some people might take offense. I think his characterization and the general tone of the story should show that I mean nothing negative by it, (sexual orientation is basically a non-issue in most of the setting) but... better safe than sorry?

I can only speak for myself, but provided he's portrayed as a good person I doubt anybody would be too bothered.

It could just be an inside joke, really. Much like a lesbian who works in the US air force, or who is a paleontologist. With both you've got the inside joke of 'Raptors' in there.

I dunno for sure, given I'm not gay myself, but bears seem to be more subculture within the gay community than a negative stereotype. But I could be wrong. I'd suggest, if you have any gay friends, you ask them for advice. Or we could wait for gay guys to arrive on the thread. I dunno.

I like this thread! I'm aromantic and asexual so if anyone has any questions about that. I really want to see an aro/ace character who's not evil, a robot, or an evil robot.

Okay, but what about an aro/ace evil robot, but they acted exactly like Mettaton?

I've never played Undertale, so I'm not qualified to provide an answer for this particular question

YES

Don't robots tend to be aro/ace already?

Is this the thread to ask on how to represent homophobia (external and internalised) accurately and respectfully?

edited 31st Mar '16 9:16:52 PM by hellomoto

Yes it is, mate. Hit us with it.

@ trashconverters: Regarding the bear thing, I've asked around and done some research, and that does indeed seem to be the case. There's a flag and everything. And it's apparently sometimes used as an affectionate nickname for good-looking "buff" guys in general.

Eh. Depends on the robot and its programming. Though I guess they'd be asexual by nature.

A lot of my characters are non-binary trans people. They also happen to be various flavors of black, but with a different historical context for the concept of "blackness". Recently, I've been thinking about how to include disabled people/people with disabilities.

I don't believe in "too much diversity", but I do believe a cast full of tokens will generally take some of the depth from a story. If characters are underdeveloped and the plot is...unsatisfying, a diverse cast won't necessarily save it.

I'm really excited for this new phase in my development as a writer.

I'm gay and my story is a cast of gays and I will rub every single gayness in every chapter and none of you will stop me.

edited 1st Apr '16 5:50:51 PM by Masterofchaos

@neko Interesting. I'm actually a firm believer in the whole "too much diversity" thing. But not so much in a "you shouldn't put diversity characters in there" kind of way, and more in a "everything I read/watch/consume where the cast diversity is it's selling point seems to belong to genres that don't interest me". A lot literature like that, especially LGBT literature, caters to certain moods and genres and stuff, so I'm kind of hard pressed to find, say, a Black Comedy (my favourite genre) with a diverse cast. And I'm not gonna go rifling through heaps of indie webcomics in order to find that diversity. I have to agree that when it's done well, you can make something that isn't a gross token-fest. Like Welcome to Night Vale is amazing, both because of it's cast and it's writing. .

@Cail Mettaton is a very silly robot, a tad arrogant, I wouldn't necessarily call him evil but he's a pretty bad boss and can be a tyrant if given to much power Like the ending where he rules everything and acts like a tyrant. He's a performer, created to perform and has the attitude.

Um just so I don't go in here just to explain Metaton to Cail. If I was to go about say writing a lesbian couple how would I go about it without making it seem like I found it strange (since the obvious reasons of me not knowing how to write romance, due to the whole aromantic thing).

edited 2nd Apr '16 10:09:29 AM by phantom1

Exactly. My characters are diverse as hell (except racially), but they are also fully realized people who aren't defined by their variant identities. I want to write stories about violent, erotic magic and fantastical space exploration, not how every moment of the feminine trans-man's life is consumed by his trans-ness (which probably wouldn't be the case in real life, anyway).

I certainly don't shy away from the ways their identities affect their lives, but that's not my focus. Basically, their diversity matters but it's not always a plot point.

I've noticed an annoying lack of diversity in fantasy and sci-fi, and I'm kinda trying to rectify that as much as I can without losing sight of the stories I want to tell.

edited 2nd Apr '16 11:37:29 AM by nekomoon14

EDIT: Kind of ninja'd by

I know where advice like this is coming from and I'm not really disagreeing with it, per se,

but it should always come with a reminder to be careful about not going to the other extreme and forgetting how closely intertwined these identities are with who the character is "as a person." I don't see any reason why an LGBT identity should be treated any differently from any other backstory (I don't want to read about someone who talks incessantly about their shitty childhood, either), but keeping it almost completely separate from the character "as a person" is a common mistake I've noticed, especially with non-LGBT writers. At worst, it becomes an informed trait. I find that less annoying than an Author Tract, but it's bad writing in the same way that failing to utilize any other kind of backstory is.

So how much is enough? How deep should you go? Depends on what kind of story you're writing. I think whether or not it's character or plot-focused will be the biggest determining factor. I think the best thing you can do is have the story critiqued by non-LGBT and non-LGBT readers because taking advice from exclusively one group will probably skew you towards one end of the scale.

edited 2nd Apr '16 11:59:08 AM by SnowyFoxes

Exactly.

Yeah, I can only provide advice on keeping an alternative sexuality or gender identity from being obnoxious in a general sense, especially if you're not writing LGBT fiction. I'm aware that by making my characters' fictional societies not give two shits about two people of the same sex who are in love, I'm sidestepping a large source of conflict that a lot of non-heterosexual individuals have to deal with. But at the same time, society's reactions to non-cisgender/heterosexual individuals don't need to be the entire, or even most of the story, but writers keep treating it like that needs to be the case for all characters of that nature. There are as many different ways to be outside the gender binary, outside heterosexuality, both, and neither as there are people.

edited 2nd Apr '16 12:34:36 PM by CrystalGlacia