Lady Business

I always feel like the worst part of this is the moment where you feel torn between "okay, that's this one story…" and "this is part of the pattern!" It's the self-doubt creeping in when I should feel righteous and angry. And that is because we are so starved for consistent and diverse queer representation in mainstream SFF that this can even count as remotely positive representation. (Jodie above has listed off a handful of titles that do have queer characters, but percentage wise…)

I don't want to read a book published last year where an entire invented world boasts only one queer character and he gets killed off. I don't want to read a book where a queer character generates plot for the straight protagonist but kindly steps out of the way by shuffling off this mortal coil. I don't want to read a book that avoids the ramifications of featuring a queer character and their life by killing them off before it gets to anything discomfiting. (And discomfiting to who?)