LGBT+ characters and opinions!

punkarsenic 2019-09-01 13:57:23 UTC #21

uhhh... so, as a dyke, not a massive fan of BL. theres a lot of by & for gay men content that im really into, but i find that a lot of BL is a bit too bishie and cutesy, or just wildly too horny, and all for people im obvs not into

i cant say i actually read that many stories that market themselves as GL either, BUT i am all for a good wlw or mlm romance - i cant say i prefer it to queers that dont centre romance, though, i think its all just part of a healthy diet innit

i feel like the answer to this one is kinda given to us by straight media, surprisingly. so you know how a lot of 80s action movies are very homosocial (its all guys being dudes together), so filmmakers will throw in a few 'no homos' and comments about sexy ladies so that they can then be as intense and emotional with their male friendships as they like, bc theyve heterosexualised their men. dont even need a single female character present to do it - course, it doesnt get rid of the latent homoeroticism, but it shows that if u have an LGBT character who doesnt have a romantic partner anywhere in the story, one or two comments are enough.

that said, my two main projects so far have been a queer romance and a comic where transness and queerness are pretty fundamental... but also only subtextual. and usually lean towards stories where either the queerness is fundamental, or not mentioned at all (everything i write is queer whether explicit in the text anyway)

i think if i was approaching, say, an ensemble adventure series or smth that had Some Gays in it, i'd be flagging with clothing, taste, and social scene. gays stick together, people.

course not. first of all, transness has nowt more to do with dating than cisness. and second of all... of course not!

arcojawa 2019-09-01 14:08:58 UTC #22

There are three LGBT characters currently within the comic I'm writing at the moment. It's my first major foray into writing them so I'm always a little worried about writing them in a way that works right. The first one is pretty obvious, she's not really trying to hide it or anything and her sexuality is treated as normal and non-incredible. The second is well hidden and not obvious I think. I think it will make sense to people in hindsight. The third... well... I think the audience will pick up on it long before the main character does. The first one I made LGBT because, well, that's just how I always perceived her. I honestly never put of a lot of thought beyond that. The second one is actually based on a real person and the inspiration kind of informs the character. The third........ admittedly was an after-thought. It fit the story well so I worked it in.

I think it's still kind of hard to write LGBT characters into media and not have it feel forced, but that's less because these people are or aren't common in real life and more because, well, LGBT representation in media is still kinda new. Sure, it's been around for forever but it's really started ramping up in, like, the last 50-100 years, which is less long then it sounds.
Inevitably we'll get to the point where it will start to wind down a bit. It'll become so normal that there will be a point where it's neither weird nor wonderful. Probably around the same time as society as a whole stops making such a big deal over it.

indagold 2019-09-01 14:25:47 UTC #23

Yup, the more variety in characters the better... and villains will always be the coolest characters lol

Rubyleaf 2019-09-01 17:05:25 UTC #24

Mean Boys, my current webcomic, has and will have a whole bunch of LGBT+ characters. The main character, Austin, is probably gray-aromantic and demisexual and ends up with a boyfriend by the end of the story; the deuteragonist, Bellamy, is bi; another pair of major characters are gay and pan, respectively, yet another is aroace, and eventually another character will also discover he's (they're?) nonbinary. (I can't say much about that last one because spoilers.)
It's a kinda slice of life/ensemble cast thing and mainly about a sports team; everyone's identities will come up at some point, though they're not the focal point of the story. Austin's main arc is about his anxiety; Bellamy's is about selfishness and learning to improve himself; other characters have storylines about depression or running away from your problems or the zillion other sucky things that come with growing up. The story just also happens to have romance in it.

Now for some opinions:

I like a good story, and genre doesn't matter to me. But in general I'm always stoked to find LGBT characters in any type of story, unless they're loaded with harmful tropes.

Depends. Sometimes through expressing attraction/their relationship with another character, sometimes through a casual line in dialogue, sometimes in internal monologue as they figure themselves out, whatever fits the character and the story and situation.

Nope, since that would only be "proof" of being LGBT for the LGB part of the acronym (and pan/poly people), but not for trans/nonbinary/aro/ace/(insert identities I'm forgetting here) anyway. However, if it's the kind of story where everyone ends up with a romantic partner except for the LGBT character, that's also iffy.

azzy-m 2019-09-01 18:02:12 UTC #25

My comic, The Stars Above Us, is a comic with multiple LGBT characters and I plan to explore themes of sexuality, homophobia and gender among others with it. None are introduced/have figured it out yet, and I don't plan to reveal who is LGBT and who isn't right now. (spoiler tho very few are actually cishet) I'll explain why later on.

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

Not.. not really? I don't go actively searching for BL/GL comics, for starters. I will admit though, my favorite LGBT comics/works end up being the ones that are in non-romance genres/works with an LGBT romance subplot, not necessarily the main plot (Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Castle Swimmer on Webtoons)

If so how to you introduce the fact they are LBGT?

I introduce them like any other character, I guess. Through the power of characterization! I reveal the fact that they are LGBT later on though, or at the very least hint at it. I do that because I don't want people's first impressions to be "oh they're gay, oh they're bi, oh they're trans" I want the readers to get to know them as people first.

Side note: originally, I didn't want to add "This comic contains LGBT themes" at the end of my comic's description, because I really did not want to make a big deal out of it nor use it as a form of promotion, but decided to when I saw LGBT-centered comics here get the "I didn't come here for gay romance!! I wanted straight romances!! unsub!!" and to be honest, I think it's worse to get those comments than get the "OMG GAY" comments. At least the latter means well. Also I'm more used to hearing that, lmao.

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

Nah.

Carossmo 2019-09-02 16:12:26 UTC #26

Though, in LnR, the theme isn't the main focus, but one of the main characters is bi, and that is R.
The comics however would tackle on her part relationships with her ex gf and many more experiences.