Yea, I debated adding mine and in the end, I didn’t. A big part of me wants people not looking for an LGBTQ story to come across mine and say, hey this looks interesting. And maybe read something they wouldn’t normally read. Maybe see something from a different viewpoint. Tough choice. I’m not committed. But for now, I’m leaving it out.
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I haven’t read either. But I think if you read it and feel like it was written as an original f/f story, then it should be fine. If it feels like a m/f relationship with the pronouns changed, then that would be disappointing.
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As someone who identifies with the LGBTQ+ community, I must admit that I do partly agree with you. I’m not exactly “disgusted” by it, but I would say that a story should only use the “LGBTQ+“ tag or sub-genre if it contains a wide variety of people with varying identities. If the only real LGBTQ+ content within a story is a same-sex LI branch, then it shouldn’t really be in the sub-genre. Just a tag saying “LGBT Option” would be the best choice for that.
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LGBTQ+ isnt a genre, let alone a subgenre of one specific genre. I would like it to be easier to find LGBTQ+ content but a lot of what’s in there so far isn’t stuff I want to read because my priority isn’t just that it’s a queer protagonist.
My main problem is having an “identity driven” ~subgenre~ puts all the focus on coming out stories and maybe some same gender romances. But there’s more to queer life than coming out? Or being in a relationship? People obviously don’t have to put their queer protag stories in the subgenre but it’s kind of a double edged sword bc I know we do want people to be able to find queer content more easily.
I think it just sends the message that being queer is something that you do rather than something that you are. the story I’m working on is an m / m romance story with a trans guy MC, with 3/4 of the primary cast total being trans. So the expectation is that it fits in the LGBTQ+ subgenre but the plot isn’t about being LGBTQ+, it’s about learning how to love someone without sabotaging the relationship by putting the person on a pedestal. I don’t blame people for putting their canon queer stories in the genre bc I know we want to be able to access lgbtq content more easily.
But at the same time there’s no other “identity driven” subgenres because it’s a silly concept. And you can write a story in any genre that still focuses on the way being queer influences the characters and their decisions. All stories should have characters who authors and readers understand as grounded in their identities.
And just to be clear, I think there’s always room for coming out stories, especially ones written by people who actually have experience in coming out or will have that experience if they’re not out yet, but are we reducing the plots of other stories to being about being whatever identity?
I think it’s fine if people want an LGBTQ+ genre. This is just my opinion personally. I still think the best thing would be a tag & filtered search option, since it would work for any other component too, including identities, tropes or actual subgenres like historical fiction or something.
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People are putting them on there for the reads, because it’s so small so far, it will get reads faster and that gets the author what they want. When the initial excitement is over, the reads will plummet compared to the actual LGBTQ+ stories.
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As a part of LGBTQ+ I partially agree with you!! They should really think before shifting the genres of their story. I stopped being active on Episode a month and a half ago. And after knowing that there is LGBTQ+ genre I was happy because as I am bi I would find more stories I would love to read but it turned out to be opposite!! I am not disgusted but feel disappointed by it!!
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The thing that just doesn’t sit right with me is the fact that a rewrite of the straight version of a story is at the top of the genre. Like, I know it’s a different story but at the same time it really isn’t, just a copy and paste of one with the gender swapped. I’ve never read the story before but it literally has the same name and everything.
Edit: And this is not hate to the author!
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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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