If you think it’s bad there, you should see how it is in “the colonies.” When it comes to cable programming,(The Wire, Six Feet Under) it’s not bad, because they at least have gay characters. I can’t help but think how powerful a gay character on Lost could have been. Two shows bucking the trend come to mind. Modern Family is not only a marvelous, incredibly funny show on its own; it also has a gay couple that is, surprise, just as neurotic and screwed up as everyone else on the show, but who also deeply care about each other and adopt a baby girl. Glee also had a wonderful, surprisingly nuanced storyline about Kurt and his father’s attempts to rediscover their relationship in light of Kurt’s coming out.

To your question, I haven’t begun work on a novel yet, but gender and sexual concerns are certainly one of the main conceptual issues I’m struggling with.

A further question…How much do historical or cultural concerns inform this, especially in speculative fiction set in time periods and cultures which are largely intolerent?

Also, cultural attitudes could be quite different in other eras/regions.

The old Syrian/Eastern Christianity mind/body split, emphasis on asceticism and sex/body hatred, is just one way the church could have gone in Europe, for instance. And many societies as far as we can tell didn’t care that much about (male) sexual behavior; I don’t think there’s any evidence, for instance, that the Iron Age Celts (who can’t really be lumped together, but whatever) cared about sexual acts among men as long as said men were getting married and procreating if they’d been born into lineages that needed alliances and heirs.

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that, forex, the writings of clerics reflect all of the attitude of a time or local place, when all it is does reflect the attitudes of those particular clerics, who had their own axes to grind.

That would be like thinking the current Catholic Church’s tolerance of pedophilia in some of its priests and intolerance toward women in priestly roles as a worse win reflects the larger culture’s tolerance/intolerance toward both.

I can only agree with the BBC’s findings, though in my own experience – at least among my own generation – things aren’t exactly clear-cut. At my university individual LGBTs aren’t treated much differently at all by the majority of other students. However LGBTs as a whole remain the butt of a large number of the jokes. You can see a similar thing in House M.D.: Thirteen isn’t necessarily looked down upon for her bisexuality, but on the other hand her sexuality is frequently a source of humour.

“” So for those of you writing novels now – and I know there are plenty of you out there – do you contemplate about how you represent your minority characters and the effects that might have? Because I think writers do have some kind of collective responsibility not necessarily to write radically, but certainly not to help enforce bad stereotypes “”

I have to take the issue of alternate sexuality into consideration simply because my writing involves various criminal brotherhoods; who are not exactly known for their progressive views. It’s a useful plot device, if nothing else,

On the other hand I try to avoid letting my views affect my writerly ‘voice’. I’m a big believer in the idea that if you present a character whom the reader likes or sympathises with then they’ll forgive them almost anything. I like to call it Takeshi Kovacs syndrome

Once the reader has finished the book, I like to think that perhaps they’ll be more open-minded into the bargain. That’s certainly how books affect me.

In my view the biggest obstacle to the acceptance of LBGTs is the perception that it’s a lifestyle choice, rather than something that’s simply part of your makeup. I’ve been lucky in the sense that my own experience has taught me otherwise. Not everyone has had that opportunity. I think one of the strongest things you can do is present LGBT characters as you would most other characters. Because IT IS ‘normal’.