YA LGBT Books discussion

I'm curious as to how people feel about non-LGBTQ people writing about LGBTQ experience. I know the LAMMYs used to require that only books by LGBTQ authors were eligible for consideration but they dropped that requirement about ten years ago.

Do you notice or care about this issue when it comes to queer YA? Do you think people who haven't lived life as queer can effectively write about it? Why do you think so many str8 people want to write queer characters?

With the caveat that I'm cis/het, with LGBTQ family and friends, but only an ally...

The Lambda Awards only limited authorship for a few years - the requirement was put into place fairly recently, then soon dropped again.

One issue with it was that it is unverifiable. (I could say I'm bi, but married to a man, to be a Lambda contender.)
It also required authors to potentially out themselves in real life, to participate.

That is separate from the value of reading #ownvoices books. I personally think it's important to encourage and read and support writers from within the community, especially genderqueer and POC writers. Those who are out should get support for their work, in speaking for their point of view. Visibility matters, as well as the stories.

I also think, though, that it's limiting to assume that only those explicitly within the community should, or convincingly can, write any particular kind of story. Many genre classics (from The Persian Boy to The Front Runner and on) were written by authors who were not writing about their own gender or sexuality (both of those gay stories by women).

And again, if we devalue other stories, not on content but on author gender/sexuality, we are pushing authors to come out or lose sales/credibility for something that has nothing to do with the validity of their actual story. We also encourage catfishing for profit (not excusing the catfishers at all, but in gay stories for example, publishers used to really push female writers to use male names or initials, for sales. That has pretty much ceased, but a strong rejection of not-own-voices stories could move that backward.)

As for why straight people write them, the motivation is all over the map, from a quest for social justice, and a desire to give voice to less-heard characters, to a love of the literary emotional depth and social conflicts inherent in LGBTQ narratives, to a desire to emulate favorite reading, to a dislike for the tropes common in het books, to a preference for main character relationships that are less predefined by gender and heteronormative expectations...

...to, in adult M/M stories particularly, 1) a preference for sexual content involving only the gender they like to watch and describe, 2) a dislike for the romantic tropes that make most M/F sex content unrealistic, or 3) a desire to cash in on the het readership that likes the books for reasons 1 and 2. (And some gay authors are writing exploitative erotica to cash in too - not all #ownvoices are pure of motive.)

So I don't think there's a black-and-white single answer here. And I am very strongly of the opinion that you judge both author and book by their actions, words, and content. Support minority writers - absolutely - to encourage their representation whenever possible (but not to the point of promoting poorly written books - that backfires.) And support good books, regardless of whom you think the author is in gender and sexuality.

Again - I'm an ally and I'd love to see our LGBTQ members also comment - when you buy books, do you seek out #ownvoices first? Do you check the author afterward?
But this topic sometimes gets heated - please keep comments polite.

I am bisexual and have no problem with non-LGBTQ writing stories about LGBTQ experiences. Perhaps they have a perspective that others could relate too.


I agree that it should be based on the author and not so much the idea if they are LGBTQ or not.

I find it highly important for #ownvoices to write LGBTQIA+ fiction. Especially when writing about tragic events within the community and characters. I might not find a problem with non-LGBTQIA authors writing LGBTQIA+ fiction if they weren't to write their tragedies or outings as 'cute, and not a big deal' (fanart), or if they didn't write them just to kill them off. I don't see how a non-LGBTQIA author could write their stories effectively, how they can know what it feels like.


I think if they are to write such stories it shouldn't be about tragedies, since they can't know first hand, and seeing as it's always to further the narrative or angst of a white character (WINGER).

I think we need to be careful to avoid painting ALL non-LGBTQI authors with the same brush. I review three books a week at various sites and can say for certainty that not ALL "non" authors treat their characters the same. I think we should be careful about making sweeping statements that intimate all authors are the same or treat their characters alike. ❤

Sorry darn autocorrect left off the A.

I think the issue is both trivial and significant.

On the trivial side, if we said only LGBT+ authors can write LGBT+ characters, we would have to extend that logic to say only astronauts can write characters who live/go into space.

On the significant side, I think it's important that we have authors who are able to relate their authentic experience unto others through their fiction.

So what we really need, is a balance; fiction writers who do the research and write fictitious accounts of fictitious people, and we also need writers writing authentic accounts of fictitious people; because representation in media is important, no matter who is writing it!

Agreed, Rez!!

Love and angst are not gender specific. They're a part of our human emotions. Every M/M or F/F story can become M/F with a pronoun change. It doesn't matter who writes the stories as long as they respect the process.

Theedger wrote: "Love and angst are not gender specific. They're a part of our human emotions. Every M/M or F/F story can become M/F with a pronoun change..."

Personally, I agree with the first part of this - not the second. But maybe because you didn't mean it the way it's phrased? You are right; Love and angst are not gender specific. They're a part of our human emotions. The emotions and the human beings behind those experiences are not defined by either their orientation or gender.

But the story? If you can change the pronouns in an LGBTQ story and not change the story, it's probably not really touching the depth of the characters' experiences. Any story about a minority character (other than pure fantasy) that is not informed in some way by the impact of their experience as a minority, is probably lacking.

Every group has unique aspects. Someone once said that LGBTQ people are the one minority whose parents not only don't usually share their minority status, but are often actively bigoted against it. (Likewise, one might say that those with cognitive deficits are the one group whose parents may actively conspire against their fertility, offering them up to be sterilized. There are all kinds of painful families...) Two hearts may be two hearts, but the LGBTQ backstory in which they come together has unique aspects, IMO. Transgender identity questions and body issues, for example, do not translate well to cis lives. So I'd hope you can't simply replace M/F to M/M or F/F. But... I also don't think it's impossible for a cis het author to write a story that does justice to them.

One thing I am a big proponent of is finding people to talk to about their lives - as an author, if I'm writing POC characters or LGBTQ characters or characters with physical limitations or PTSD or depression or any other important and emotionally-salient aspect I don't share, one way to make things more likely to be authentic is by asking the help of beta readers and commenters with personal experience. I think there is some hubris in assuming you can work out all the important details with on-page research.

But it's also vital to remember that there is no single "gay experience" or "trans experience" that is universal. For instance, some trans folk have intense body dysphoria, some don't. So writing a character who is trans will always sound more real to some readers than others, depending on how the portrayal fits their own experiences, and those of their friends. And that will be true whether the writer is trans or cis. (I write M/M and I get reviews from gay guys saying - on the exact same book - "wonderful depiction of gay men" and "disappointing portrayal of gay lives" - those gay guys would write different books and disagree over what is a true depiction, because there is no one singular truth, ever. It is possible to get something really wrong, for just about everyone, of course. If you don't care, and don't try, or write badly, you can fail to portray any reality. You can be 100% wrong. You can never be 100% right.)

So like many other things, there is no black-and-white answer to this question. No "right" answer, that we can bring everyone else to with pure facts and logic. The only question I want the thread to go forward with here is "how important is it to you?" If others decide they want to answer that.

I'm indifferent when it comes to who is writing the story. I often don't know anything about the author before I start reading. If the story moved me, I'll look for other stories. That's when I usually discover the public persona of the author. I tried to simplify my answer by saying just change the pronoun. I just finished "Every Day" by David Leviathan. "A" had no gender. I still fell in love with A.

That was a good book - an interesting look at gender and assumptions. (And of course in it Levethan - a gay man - was sometimes writing F/F...) I do love his way with words.