DISCUSSION: In the LGBTQ+ genre, is this inappropriate?

Yeah, that is why I asked earlier what others thought on that. I mean I didn’t like the idea of swapping it to the “genre” because they are already are a big author. So why don’t they just leave it for other stories that really belong there. Last time I saw it was thriving were it was. Did you do it so people could find stories to their liking or did you do it because you wanted more reads? A lot of people are doing the second one in my opinion. I hope that we will find better options for the future of it being a “genre” I personally won’t be searching there since it will be hard to tell what kind of story it is. I only read romance so how will I be able to surf through them and find what I like?

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I know the author of Story 1, and I wanted to quickly clear up this misconception! It’s written by a lesbian author with the target audience of wlw readers in mind. The distance aspect is due to the fact that this was initially a story for the LDR contest. The main relationship has always been wlw because the core relationship between the main characters is something that can really only be wlw! The ‘male LI’ isn’t a viable romantic option, he’s meant to essentially be straight bait (and on top of that, is a stalker that the MC has expressed wanting to kill). It’s still 100% written to be a wlw story!

Like a few people have mentioned previously, I don’t think that all the stories in this genre need to necessarily revolve around identity-driven stories (e.g. coming out) as the main plot point. But I do think that the stories in this genre should be stories including a core-cast of well written LGBTQ+ characters! And there definitely seems to be an issue with writers putting copy-paste LI gender swap stories here. I hope that with more attention brought to it, those authors will come to realize that the genre should be a space for stories that centrally feature LGBTQ+ characters, rather than having a copy paste LGBTQ+ option.

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That’s fine, thank u for clearing it up. Like I edited into my post a few hours ago…I based my opinion solely off of the story’s description which means that I may not necessarily be correct since I have not read any of the stories on the LGBTQ+ shelf yet and descriptions can be quite deceiving but I wish your friend luck with their story (:

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I agree, stories should only be called “an LGBTQ+ story” if the main plot is about it. I have an LGBTQ+ story myself where a princess is forced to marry a prince, but she is getting feelings for his sister which is forbidden in her own kingdom. So, the main plot is the forbidden female-with-female romance.

Of course it is important to have diversity in your stories when it comes to sexualities and genders, but it is NOT immediately an LGBTQ+ story if some characters are apart of the community.

I hope I understood correctly what the discussion is about, because I’m doubting myself lol.

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I am bi too!

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Well

The bigger problem is just that any story with well-developed characters is identity-driven, but some people don’t have to think about it as much. And the story you’re referencing was flagged as incorrect genre placement. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but that Episode clearly does have some expectation about what “identity-driven” means, and there’s not much that people consider as having and “LGBTQ plot” unless it involves coming out or is mostly a romance or in some way is about LGBTQ struggles. So I mean, I don’t think people are going to have an easy time finding LGBTQ content unless it fits into whatever Episode decides is appropriate for the subgenre and that seems a bit subjective

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Agree. That is why I haven’t moved my story to the LGBTQ+ genre because while discovering the MC’s sexuality is a significant part of the plot, it is not the MAIN plot.

Likewise, even though I have 4 others stories where sexuality is a choice via multiple love interests, or choice between m/f solo love interest. I would not move those stories to the LGBTQ+ section because there is a het option. Even my story that doesn’t exactly fit in any other genre has a M/F branch in addition to the M/M branch. I just personally feel that this section should focus on stories with exclusively LGBTQ+ characters, not LGBTQ+ option.

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Very well said! I remember many people anticipated this shelf being flooded by romance stories (particularly focused on the ‘LGB’ part of LGBTQ+).

The core issue definitely seems to lie in the fact that LGBTQ+ really works better as a tag, not a genre, but sadly — Episode seems very hesitant toward making large interface changes (like improving search or hashtags). I do hope that these concerns are somehow brought back to the team!

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Think about it this way, there are many homophobic people out there and imagine they read a story and they see some LGBTQ+ things in there, and now they decided they want to send hate messages to the author? Or they decided to keep reporting the story until it eventually gets taken down? I don’t think they are doing it to “take over” I think that this is a way of the authors shielding them selves because we all know how mean people can get. Imagine a story that your literally worked so hard on getting taken off. Creators are just trying to shield them selves from petty people who report stories just to report them.
I personally would not put it into the LGBTQ section I would just write it in my story description that my story does contain LGBTQ characters and if they are not comfortable with it, then they can choose not to read.

Ya’ll please don’t cancel me…

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Well, I guess I kinda stand corrected. At one hand I kinda get it, but on the other, it’s just so limiting.

And I second the preference of specific tags and filters a la @nals .

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When a story is reported, it’s reviewed by episode. No matter how manny ppl report it, doesn’t mean it’s taken off the app. A story certainly wouldn’t b taken off for being LGBTQ+. This is just a way for authors to target LGBTQ+ ppl w their stories that have been copied n pasted into a different story w a female Li who has the same name as the male one, then not even bother to change the pronouns. This sub genre should b for properly LGBTQ+ stories, besides, I don’t even think it should b a genre, bc there r more than 25 lgbtq+ stories on the app, it should b a hashtag/tag u can add or type into the search bar.

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I agree, imo, the LGBTQ+ genre should only compose of stories which revolve around (the mc) being queer, and not any other focal point like mafias, ceo’s etc.

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Oh, thank you for telling me because I thought that if your story gets reported a couple of times, it gets taken down.

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Yw!

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Idk if it’s just me who finds it kind of offensive when (even in a featured story!!!) if u choose a m/f li and I choose female and they still use he/him/his pronouns (Ik pronouns ≠ gender but yk) and then say iTs LgBt iNcLuSiVe and put it in the lgbt+ section where it is on the shelf and they only added a female li to get more reads bc not as many stories r in the lgbt section so they think it’s more chance of being on the shelf idk if I’m just being too picky tho💀

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I’m going to paste part of an r/Episode post here (beachulgi)

“Basically, many LGBT authors including myself have had their stories reported and been told their stories don’t fit the genre. My story, that is strictly about the complex relationship between two women and was primarily written by a lesbian for other fellow wlw readers was told that it didn’t match the genre. Recently, an LGBT author who wrote a story based around a biromantic demisexual character was also reported and told it didn’t match the genre. Same for another LGBT author whose story with a bisexual female MC and had a female LI branch had her story told it didn’t match the genre.”

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I think the entire thing is inappropriate bc in a way, no story fits the genre. Souley bc LGBT+ is not a genre, they still have a plot besides the mc being LGBT+, therefore, I think the genre is rather stupid.

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Exactly. This metric the Episode team is using is pretty flawed

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Anyone here read Playing Detective? It appears to be a “choose the gender of your LI” kind of story and I don’t want to start it if that’s the case. It’s under the LGBTQ sub-genre.

Since its “choose LI gender,” I don’t think it should be there

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