Discussion: Straight people writing about LGBT in their stories

Dysphoria is defintely something I feel like a lot of cishet people Will write incorrectly. As a cisgender (not straight though) person I would never know How it feels like to have dysphoria.

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I agree! In a lot of stories just simply mentioning it briefly or even showing a glimpse of their life is perfectly fine. If the main focus of the story isn’t on the LGBTQA+ aspect, you don’t have to show everything.

On retrospect, if you’re going deeper into that aspect then what I mentioned in my post before stands as is.

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Thanks. I’ll do that. My question came up mainly because my sister told me about a story (Adrenaline, I think it’s called?) where the author went a bit more deeper into same-sex characters relationship. I figured that I should do something like that - perhaps where a girl is interested in another girl and actively showcases her interests. Thanks for your input.

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I myself write a story When They go deeper into their sexualities and How it felt for them to come out, that doesn’t mean you have to make the sexualities a fairly big part of the story though. As someone Who is questioning between gay and bisexual I find myself enjoying writing a lot of LGBTQ+ characters atm.

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Yes, Its not really something a cisgender person can really understand all too well. Personally, I often wore my binder and then a shirt, and then a hoodie and later due to how bad my dysphoria got, I even wore a blanket on top of that and carried around a pillow I would press to my chest. A lot of the times I couldn’t eve stand to look in the mirror because it would make me suicidal (Sometimes I would even double bind - a BIG NO it can really fuck up your ribs)

Now I’m dating a cisgender boyfriend, he’s been with me for about 3 years, and was with me when I identified as trans. He never really understood what I went through even when I tried to explain it to him, but he was always supportive and Im thankful for him. We’re still together, love him with all my heart :heart:

If you guys are writing a transmale character, you can use some of what I said for reference or even just send me a pm asking about that kind of thing., I don’t mind just be respectful in your question.

Just note that everyone is different so it is not universal.

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That is literally so cute. I’m so happy you found someone like that!!
I actually watched a video on Nikita Dragons channel where she collabed with James Charles and talked about being transgender, and how hard it was to find a relationship because people doubted their own identity, etc etc.

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That’s how it was! With him, he didn’t really identify as gay or bi, or really anything so I was really hesitant to be with him. Back then I didn’t want to be with someone if they had saw me as a girl because that’s not how I felt. However, I took a chance and things are working out pretty well so I’m happy I decided to take a shot :grin:

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That’s amazing! I’m really happy you took that opportunity!! I hope you guys find happiness every day! :two_hearts:

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Yes. Representation of marginalized communities is important. BUT

I don’t think that means authors should write about them, if they don’t want to or can’t do so in a respectful manner. In this case, you’re better off not writing about the LGBT community.

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Thank you for answering! I’ll definitely be taking everyone’s opinions into account.

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It does not bother me in the least if it is well done.

Look, personally, I do not find stereotypes “offensive” because there is always some truth behind them, although I do appreciate it when they are used sparsely for the purpose of diversity.

Effeminate gay men? You know, those who wear a lot of pink, probably have a poodle toy dog, constantly drool over other men and have all those stereotypical attitudes you see in Episode gay best friends? Yeah, I see plenty of them in my everyday life.

“Greedy” bisexuals? I am not greedy, but I do voice my opinion when I come across someone I think is attractive. Like, “woah, that guy/girl is hot”… which does not mean I go around banging everything that moves. However, those bisexuals do exist, and yeah, there are plenty of them. Especially young people, as they are exploring.

Tomboy lesbians with short hair and toned muscles? I sit next to two of them all Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

And so the list goes on, and these “stereotypes” are valid as fuck, but that does not mean they are the the only ones of their kind. And I think that if heterosexual authors are going to write about LGBT+ characters and they understand this, then we have nothing to fret about. Bonus points, of course, if, for example, they only have one gay man, and this man is simply a masculine one with his own personality who happens to like men, defying these stereotypes many people first think about when the word “gay” is mentioned. That is the proof that the author sees, in this case, the character’s sexuality as a part of him, not as his character on the whole.

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Yeh sure ofc there are gay men Who act like this irl But I don’t Like it When They are only there to be the gay best friend and so the author can say that They have diversity.

I think that if you have enough knowledge about how to write LGBTQ+ characters right, there really shouldn’t be any problem, you don’t have to be what you write about. I mean, if a woman writes a male character, is that wrong? OF COURSE NOT, so the same.

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Alright, as part of the LGBTQ+ community, I’m ALL for diversity. I think it’s great that writers (straight/cis-gendered or not) are adding LGBTQ+ characters in their story. BUT, I do think that some writers are very inclined toward stereotypes and that just pisses me off. Someone’s sexuality isn’t all there is too them. Like the “gay best friend” stereotype irritates me on so many levels. You can have a male best friend who HAPPENS to be gay, but he’s so much more than that!

Personally, I’m not that sold on the idea of non LGBTQ+ writers writing about LGBTQ+ simply because they didn’t feel first hand about what it’s actually like. Just like I, personally, don’t write about cultures and religions I don’t understand.

Anyways, that’s just my opinion. But, honestly, I’m just happy we’re getting SOME type of representation.

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No.

No.

I don’t disagree with it.

No. I really don’t think writers should be limited to only writing about things they know. That’s really boring.

I mean straight people get being straight so if they flip the feelings it almost basically the same thing if you take out social issues :joy:

No.
That’s unnecessarily exclusion.
I mean I don’t know any giants irl but that never stopped me from writing about a giant having a hot dog contest with a troll :joy:

I only have feelings about it when they just do it with an ulterior motive. Like if they just want attention or to get on some kind of “diversity” list. Like if you want to add Adam to have a choice between Eve and Steve fine but don’t just do it for some dumb reason.

I think the ratio of actual LGBT vs straight people writing bad LGBT stuff is honestly equal. You should read some “lemon” werewolf fanfic on Wattpad :joy:

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Be careful, babe. You could get skinned for speaking the truth :fearful:

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1: If they use it in a bad way (or if there’s only like one LGBT couple and they break up throughout the story never to be seen again.)
2: Of course not! It’s nice to see heterosexual people writing about us!
3: Yeah! Making characters that are part of the LGBTQ+ community might seem difficult for them since they aren’t entirely in our shoes. It’s great that they’re trying!
4: I’m not undecided about the topic :slightly_smiling_face:
5: I’d love to see more stories that have LGBTQ+ MCs. It does not matter to me if written by a straight author :+1:t2:
6: I think it’d be good for them to write about us if they wanted to! It’d be a good experience for them, but all I’d want from them is to represent us in a positive way.
7: As long as they represent us correctly, I think it’s great!
8: That would depend on the authors themselves. I believe that most of them do, though!

:slight_smile:

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@Sydney_H Can you close this? Please and thank you! :blob_hearts:

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Closed by OP request. :smiley: