LGBT+ characters and opinions!

Inspector_Spinda 2019-09-01 01:33:24 UTC #1

Even if you haven't introduced the character to the comic yet, feel free to introduce some concept art etc, but more importantly tell us something about them and how you handle minority type characters in general.

Are you a BL/GL fan or do you prefer LBGT characters in non romance related genres? If so how to you introduce the fact they are LBGT? Do you believe them having a BF/GF is needed for them to be truly LGBT in the story?

spadesart 2019-09-01 02:11:07 UTC #2

ill start with sundown since its action with a m/m romance subplot

my two main characters Elisha and Harris are gay and bi respectively. theyre my favorite oc couple atm since their dynamic is really sweet and a lot of fun to write

lots of other side characters are also lgbt+ with sable as a nonbinary lesbian, ruth from a later chapter also being a lesbian, thalia being pan and raymond being gay.
the fair folk in the story are also a single sex/fully intersex race with an extremely loose idea of gender but im not sure if that counts? most of them use they/them pronouns

https://tapas.io/series/Sundown-novel
(please note that the tapas version is the rough draft version of the story, its currently being fully revised for print.)

my comic spire wont have romance for quite a while, but the cover character blaise is a gay trans man, and his co pilot victor is bisexual. it has a large rotating cast of characters, many who are in the community.

https://tapas.io/series/SPIRE

i dont really gravitate towards pure romance, i like when its mixed with other genres

in sundown harris just straight up says hes bisexual, elisha has a mini pride flag on his work desk.

in spire, blaise has top surgery scars (theres a future scene where theyre fully visible but ive drawn the ends when he wears tanks, victor's phone case is the bi flag and he has a scene with randall regarding their past relationship.

of course not? most of the spire cast is single but that doesnt make them less lgbt. Ive yet to be in a relationship myself but im still bisexual. sometimes its nice to have lgbt characters have plot focuses other than romance. (especially bi characters since a lot of them are written as cheaters or extra promiscuous or indecisive and its just.... infuriating as a bi person)

Inspector_Spinda 2019-09-01 02:18:41 UTC #3

What I mean is if they have no relationship it's hard to show they're LGBT unless they come out and say it. To me having them say it even it's not relevant is a bit random. I have an LGBT character, but when he appears in the story he's an old man who is single. I'm debating whether or not to give him a BF in flashbacks when he's young, but it's not a thing ive really put thought into before.

Coati 2019-09-01 02:28:29 UTC #4

Since I have a BL comic... yey the main characters are LGBT :v
https://tapas.io/series/Flower-Field

I see Lis (long haired one) as a Pansexual person instead of completely homosexual, I'm still figuring out how to make this clear, probably I'll slip it in one of his lines to make it clear. The same goes for Sage (short hair with flowers), but I see him more as an "never care that much for labels" type so I prefer to let the readers put the label they see fits more

Both, both is good hehehehe

I decided to put the comic under the BL instead the Fantasy category to get more readers and avoid some haters, but the two genres work pretty well for this story. Even with a more "adventure" begin. About the characters sexuality, I'm still working on it hehehe.

Nope. :v

Iris-Grimoire 2019-09-01 02:29:22 UTC #5

Kinda hard to post art for most of the cast, so I'll just keep it to text.

Most characters on Splitting Image are bi or pan for cultural reasons - no one really openly acts holier than thou anymore when people can shapeshift into whatever, though you can always expect some of the nobles and richer folk to use prejudice anyway. Out of the main cast, some are just gay, some have specific preferences, some are ace, at least one is demi; and most notably, Archmage Foxim, which is only mentioned in the first few chapters, is a transmale wizard that struggles a bit with the fact he can't just shapeshift to help with the dysphoria.

I kinda like LGBT characters in a bit of both! What matters to me is how the plot and the characters tie together really; I'd much rather go for a romance story that has a whole set of circumstances to make the characters grow as people and grow to like others than just meeting and getting together with little purpose.

I think the introduction is better when it comes naturally. Aside from tags, themed gear in a modern/future work and character profiles, you need to be careful to put that into a conversation without feeling out of nowhere, or put actions that show their preference, gender identity, or lack of either/both. In a shorter story you really need to bring that subject to the table if you want that part of the character to be immediately relevant, but on a longer story, there's time.

I don't think having an SO/having loved ones in flashbacks is always needed, even if it's done a lot of the time for said showcasing of their preferences straight away. It's important to make LGBT characters feel normal and that's not just couples or groups, that's the single life as well.
One example that comes to mind is on both NieR games. A character on the first one is gay but you wouldn't find out unless you paid attention to a line and went looking back into all the scenes that add up as evidence, and in the second game, 6O just openly talks about trying to date another android woman and the focus isn't who, but that she got turned down and is miserable. I don't have a source right now but iirc the writer Yoko Taro said that even if he doesn't understand LGBT themes a whole lot, he understands it's part of the character's lives as any other part of their personality or motives, and that just has to show up as such sometimes. Do your research, do it with respect, and sometimes just listen to what your story or your characters need to see how to best go about it.

spadesart 2019-09-01 02:30:53 UTC #6

I mean, its not unrealistic to own pride merch. You could incorporate a pride flag or symbol into the environment or his clothing/accessories

Inspector_Spinda 2019-09-01 02:43:03 UTC #7

I'm not sure he's the type, but thanks!

dawgofdawgness 2019-09-01 02:51:26 UTC #8

Well the only turn off I can really think of when reading about LGBT characters is when it's unrealistic, especially if it's written by someone who isn't LGBT and clearly doesn't know what they're doing (although the majority of stories with LGBT characters I like are written by people who aren't LGBT in some way). Either that or there's some gay characters that are just there to be gay lol. The term "side lesbian couple" annoys me unless they actually have an interesting relationship other than "cute"

I'm not really an avid reader of BL but I sometimes read GL, although my favorite ones are rarely labeled/marketed as such. My favorite examples are from stories that casually have some queer characters, like Gunnerkrig or Warm Blood.

I plan on having some kind of implied side-romance thing with my main character and her roommate (who is also a girl), but it won't take up a big part of the story. I guess the way I plan on tackling it... hint at it and then make it happen...? Idk. I mean my main girl is pretty androgynous and wears boy-ish clothes so it wouldn't be a total surprise if she liked girls.
Really how I plan on handling it is treat it as any other romance arc with a straight couple if you will. My comic is not ABOUT gay people but it will HAVE gay characters.

Nah. But you sure as hell are going to get a lot of shit from the audience lol, who will be shipping the one gay character with every other male in the story, etc.

Inspector_Spinda 2019-09-01 03:09:17 UTC #9

lol! most of the cast is male so that'll be fun

indagold 2019-09-01 03:59:41 UTC #10

Main charactor of my comic Japhin is bi. I dont really make it the primary focus, just an example of his tumultuous relationships and his struggle with finding acceptance. Sufret is with him but I dunno what his orientation is, I think I'll leave it open for now.

His demon is kinda gender ambiguous. I wanted to explore it as just a mental figment that morphs and changes based on the environment around it. I guess its ability to morph is fictional but it does play up androgyny and has no defined pronoun. Fantasy logic is kinda hard to apply to lgbt but I guess the demon kinda falls into that.

The last character that has his attraction revealed in comic is roach whose attraction is more based on obsession than love. My view is kinda if we can have lgbt heroes, we can have lgbt villains... well tragic villains as he's possessed.

I have two characters I didn't reveal cause, well they're side characters and my comic is very short.

Smokestack who is trans/nonbinary and transitioned to sexless. I do hint a few times, smokey uses a fighting name over their deadname and is never referred to as female or male. I have some backstory about their journey but I have so many stories along with it it would take forever to write haha.

And Amtura who is gay but is just forever alone cause he's a depressed asocial zombie so yeah he'd be the last type to explore his identity.

How I explore it is kinda the same, I focus on the character's personality and then see how it plays into the story. If it doesn't appear, it doesn't appear. That's the struggles of writing short stories.

Are you a BL/GL fan or do you prefer LBGT characters in non romance related genres?

Never got into BL/GL, Its becoming the mainstream for lgbt orientated literature and as much as I am fine with it I kinda want some of that old campy stuff that john waters and other lgbt figures similar to him made. Or just more serious stuff thats less romance. Whatever works.

Do you believe them having a BF/GF is needed for them to be truly LGBT in the story?

They can mention it without needing one, I mean there's a lot of lgbt identities that isn't really about who you date. As for revealing it post canon, I think its fine if there's a valid reason (barely introduced side characters) but if its just kinda thrown in there for brownie points I think its a problem.

Tanako 2019-09-01 04:03:35 UTC #11

My characters Strings and Time

Eightfish 2019-09-01 04:17:06 UTC #12

Unrelated but I love your shapes! The silhouettes of all your characters are so distinctive. Especially round body and round face girl in the lesbian trio, and the two triangle men in the last drawing. I'm definitely checking your comic out

Inspector_Spinda 2019-09-01 04:29:05 UTC #13

Yeah! my gay character is also a villain, but he purely human. well he's not actually a villain persay, but he's a bad person

nostalgicroxas 2019-09-01 05:25:09 UTC #14

Sexuality isn't the primary focus of my story, but my characters all have different relationships. Some are bi, some are not looking, some are gay, some are hetero. It just depends on which character you're talking about - but none of it is important enough to tell the reader. It'd be a hit out of left field. Since the world is high fantasy on a planet that isn't Earth, being LBGT+ isn't a thing to stress about. The "in world" explanation is that it was a thing that was a worry thousands of years ago, but now the populous doesn't get their panties in a twist about if a boy is dating a boy.
But all of this also is because the story isn't a romance tale.

I don't believe that it's important for someone to have a significant other or they don't matter to the story. One of my central characters is the king of a nation that he created, and he has no kids, no wife, and no SO. He's not looking, and his sexuality is something that the readers are left up to decide for themselves.

Even if I have firm ideas of what they are, since the story isn't about someone shouting what sexuality they are off the top of a building, it likely won't drop into the story.

spadesart 2019-09-01 05:26:35 UTC #15

thank you! the two in the last pic are a trans girl and nonbinary person actually :’v

Rasp 2019-09-01 06:05:34 UTC #16

It feels like LGBT is less something I add and more the canvas I work on. Yet I also tend to stay away from serious issues involving it mostly. I work in escapist genres and re-litigating things that my audience already agrees with me on feels.... pointless. Metaphorically preaching to the choir is not fun for me, I'd rather take them to fantasy worlds where you can love who you want and conflict comes from elsewhere.

I like the idea that the story is about... whatever and the LGBT stuff is baked into the characters and only comes up when its actually important.

joannekwan 2019-09-01 08:18:37 UTC #17

I would say I'm a casual fan of BL/GL, I'm pretty picky though. I'll take LGBT+ characters in non-romances too, definitely! I welcome it!

Not being in a relationship or having experience in the past doesn't make a character any less, it just makes it a bit more difficult to show the audience their preferences. Like god, the hardest to convey are aro/aces, particularly when the surrounding story does not have any relationship-y stuff for them to comment on.
For example, I had a commenter saying they hoped my one character Faiza gets in a relationship, but canonically she's aromantic (and probably asexual). As a tertiary character, it's hard to work that in without making it forced. So I just have it as a fun fact available to my Patrons, but it won't ever be addressed in the actual comic.

But most of my other characters, I usually just mention the characters' past dating history that mostly clear things up.

KRWright 2019-09-01 12:08:46 UTC #18

I described my brand recently as "cute gay romance, fucked up plot" and basically, yeah, that's what I do. Like @Rasp says, I work from an LGBTQA canvas. I rarely write straight lead characters, although it's not something I'd rule out and one of my short stories on here features a straight romance. I also tend to fill my works with queer people, because that's what my life is like. Yeah, at work and in my family, everyone is mostly straight, but most of my friends form some part of the rainbow spectrum.

Does character's sexuality play a huge part? Well, yes and no. I tend to fall into the 'make it clear' camp because I know that representation can be important to the communities that the characters represent. I've had messages of support and thanks from people just saying "Oh god thank you for making it unambigious that X character was bi/trans/asexual". I've also noticed that unless I specifically say it, there are some readers who will always go back to the 'default'. I guess I'm just not one to leave it to a dogwhistle to let me readers know what's up. (But also - having a boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't matter in that sense. It's more that a character will display their identity through actions or in straight up dialogue - because that's how actual humans do it ^^;; )

Also, sexuality and gender identity is a huge part of someone's lived existence. Every day, there'll be conversations in my workplace where I have to decide whether or not to 'come out' or 'play the pronoun game'. My online presence, where I get my news stories from, where I stand politically, all those awkward teen moments of self-discovery, thoughts on marriage, children, building a family - hell even whether or not I want to own a home. I think that sexuality has influenced me in all those things. (I was already an adult when equal marriage was signed into law in my country, so most of my youth it was a choice of 'be straight and be able to get married' or 'be gay and give that up'). It changes everything about the way I frame the world, I think.

That being said, I'm not a fan of the 'coming out' genre especially. I don't tend to write it, though I appreciate the place for those stories. Similarly, I'm not one to go into depth with homophobia in my own works generally. Especially in my fantasy universes. (The Accidental Prince, and my next project, do feature an examination of homophobia, but not in the traditional senses). I'd like to see more works that examine in depth LGBTQA experiences, and how differing and subtlely it can affect people's lives though. I think there's space for that still.

And this got really long. But yeah, them's my thoughts on the matter.

Iris-Grimoire 2019-09-01 13:27:34 UTC #19

LGBT+ villains are also important! Trying to make a story where they're incorruptible, perfect and pure might be even more offensive than not having them at all sometimes - they're people, they can also be jerks, have their own prejudices, be greedy/envious. If the cast size allows it, making an effort to have them on both sides can improve how the character dynamics work,too.

imiogri 2019-09-01 13:28:14 UTC #20

As a gay person, I've always been a bit iffy about having to tell the audience about someones sexuality. I don't want it to be shoved in your face, but I want it to always exist like it should. As much as I like the occasional fluffy romance, I appreciate serious storylines where there's gay people way more. I want LGBT+ characters to be real people that aren't defined by their sexuality and make it be a focus of the story. I will pretty much like any character that's well written no matter who they are, I guess that's why it isn't a big deal to me.

When it comes to my comic my mc is biromantic asexual, but he's never actually going to be shown having a relationship with a man. I just feel like making flashbacks just for the sake of being like "hey he likes dudes too" is a bit pandering and unnecessary. I simply tell my audience he also likes dudes and it's fine. His asexuality is much more prominent because it causes him a lot of anxiety when people talk about relationships in general.
(I'm also writing a universe where bisexuality is the norm, so people don't have a reason to discuss it much)

Another really important note, it of course depends on the character you're writing and in what time period. A lot of people (including like what I just did) are very open about talking about their sexuality. My character just isn't one to talk about relationships because he doesn't want one to begin with.