I've been told I have *too many* gay characters!

BEYOND THE CLOSET: WRG GAY CHARACTERS

Common perceptns about the gays & some reali wrers n e to enhance the characters wag to bt out of wrg closets. * writing gay characters *

Author Stt Swenson giv his sight on how to wre Gay men for our How To Wre LGBTQIA+ Characters article seri.

HOW TO WRE LGBTQIA+ CHARACTERS: GAY MEN

Author Stt Swenson giv his sight on how to wre Gay men for our How To Wre LGBTQIA+ Characters article seri. * writing gay characters *

Swenson is a dark poetry and prose published thor who also happens to be a gay man his 50’s.

ON WRG GAY CHARACTERS THRILLERS

* writing gay characters *

We will talk about the stereotyp gay dividuals experience and how to avoid the pfalls that society has traed to expect. Another stereotype that is found wh the gay muny is based on their preferred sexual posn:. He says he often says: “I’m gay, I’m right-hand and I’m 6 feet 3 ch tall.

Authors are often drawn to “g out stori, ” perhaps bee this is a very important (and often difficult) time many gay people’s liv. In other words, regnize that most studi suggt that 1 10 people intify as gay…don’t fet the other 9. Swenson stat that the rrect portrayal of gay characters is really a qutn of taste, but that he really liked “the approach that the movie and TV seri world of “Love Simon/Love Victor” has taken [for stance].

Recently, I sat down (virtually) wh my good iend and lleague Vnie Ksella, the edor of Fashnably Late: Gay, Bi, and Trans Men Who Came Out Later Life, to discs a subject of tert to any fictn wrer who se themselv as an ally to queer folks: trop to avoid wh LGBTQ+ characters. I had the honor of beg one of the first lleagu Vnie me out to (later life, as the tle of his say llectn attts), and like any good book nerd, one of the first thgs he did at that time was to read every book he uld fd that centered gay narrativ.

THGS TO CONSIR IF YOU’RE WRG GAY CHARACTERS IN FICTN | WRER’S RELIEF

I didn’t set out to wre thrillers wh gay characters. I see the world through a gay man’s eye, and there are tobgraphil elements all my work. * writing gay characters *

Here’s another trope wh queer characters that has a direct equivalent wh race: the trope of the Magic Gay Btie—which I have so christened bee ’s a lot like the trope of the Magic Negro. They’re not particularly plex, and they don’t seem to have much the way of goals or sir of their own—they’re jt there to sprkle a ltle rabow fairy dt on the protagonist’s life, perhaps offerg some sage advice about beg yourself or chosen fay (you know, Thgs That Gay People Know), along wh a ltle ic relief.

For stance: A gay male character who A) is a hairdrser, B) owns a small dog, C) is effemate, D) is flamboyant, E) speaks wh a lisp, F) lov to go clubbg, and G) is a die-hard fan of The Goln Girls. As an add bon, avoidg the “tokenism” of a sgle character om this historilly margalized group n also add a note of realism often missg om fictnal pictns of all those Magic Gay Bti. There’s a character like that the Netflix adaptatns of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Lus, one of the boys the protagonist, Lara Jean, had a csh on junr high, turns out to be gay—and so, rather than nnectg romantilly high school (the perd which the story is set), the two rennect as iends, and Lus offers sage advice to Lara Jean choosg among the two suors she wds up torn between.

HOW TO WRE GOOD GAY CHARACTERS

Wrers: Consir the tips when wrg gay and lbian characters your fictn. * writing gay characters *

To my md, this pictn manag to avoid Magic Gay Btie syndrome via a scene which Lara Jean and Lus are at a dance: Lara Jean bemoans the difficulty of choosg between the boys she lik so much, and Lus rponds by notg what a privilege is that she actually has this choice. In this scene, Lus go on to note how few boys at their school are openly gay—the fact that, for him, there really are no choic to be ma. That scene, to me, is where the story do right by this gay character, by acknowledgg his lack of privilege wh regard to the straight protagonist.