Once, a friend of mine stated that he thought homophobia in stories featuring gay protagonists was overdone and had become trite. I had to disagree—even though it is featured frequently. But that idea did give me a lot to think about. In this blossoming of the LGBTQ civil rights movement, how pertinent is it, as a writer, to discuss the bigotry of what will, hopefully, soon be a bygone day?

However cliché it may seem to outsiders, these struggles are still pertinent to people in my daily life....