Beyond the Closet: Wrg Gay Characters

Contents:

• BEYOND THE CLOSET: WRG GAY CHARACTERS
• HOW TO WRE LGBTQIA+ CHARACTERS: GAY MEN
• ON WRG GAY CHARACTERS THRILLERS
• THGS TO CONSIR IF YOU’RE WRG GAY CHARACTERS IN FICTN | WRER’S RELIEF
• HOW TO WRE GOOD GAY CHARACTERS
• I'VE BEEN TOLD I HAVE *TOO MANY* GAY CHARACTERS!

BEYOND THE CLOSET: WRG GAY CHARACTERS

Author Stt Swenson giv his sight on how to wre Gay men for our How To Wre LGBTQIA+ Characters article seri. Swenson is a dark poetry and prose published thor who also happens to be a gay man his 50’s. 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.

HOW TO WRE LGBTQIA+ CHARACTERS: GAY MEN

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.

ON WRG GAY CHARACTERS THRILLERS

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.

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

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.

HOW TO WRE GOOD GAY CHARACTERS

Remember our gay male hairdrser wh the small dog, who’s flamboyant and effemate, lov to go clubbg, and ador The Goln Girls? Don’t get me wrong, I love that guy IRL, but…if this is a character your novel, you’ll probably want to remove at least one of those stereotypilly gay male tras, and foc stead on somethg about them that has nothg to do wh the fact that they’re gay.

That she falls love wh a woman is important—I’m not dismissg her sexualy—but she falls love wh Fna, a human storyteller, bee of Fna’s fire and passn—not jt bee she happens to be a one we meet real life is a rdboard cut-out or stereotype, so there’s no need for any of our LGBTQ+ characters to be, gay? But other stori, your characters may happen to be gay and ’s simply part of who they my fantasy novel, Callpe and Fna ially fight their attractn to each other, but not bee they’re both women. We asked her here today to talk about an important and seldom addrsed topic: how to wre sensive and realistic lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr is a subject we knew almost nothg about, but we wanted to know more, and thought our rears would too.

I'VE BEEN TOLD I HAVE *TOO MANY* GAY CHARACTERS!

In ancient history, the culture might be open to male homosexualy but not female, or open to all homosexualy as long as all parti went home to their oppose-sex partners at the end of the day. What words and signals would a gay man e to meet other men the 1900s vers the 1950s? We’re a transnal phase at the moment where homosexualy is beg monplace, but we’re not stoppg there.

Others, like me, e the term as a general tchall for LGBTQQIA+ (Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr Queer Qutng Intersex Asexual and more.

Obvly, beg clive don’t mean you slap a stereotypil gay, lbian, or trans si character jt to tick off that box and then move along. Y, your gay character CAN be to fashn, but that’s not all they n be to, they n be terted tomotive technology, or VR gamg, or ballet, or any other sort of thg a straight person might like as well. I’ll never say enough tim, beg gay is not all the character is, jt like beg straight isn’t all you are.