LGBTQ?

[Staplegun]

So, I saw a post about this on the xkcd forums, and I was curious if you all had/knew of any LGBT fiction. (That is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer/questioning.)

I'm always kind of shocked by those kinds of relationships when they occur in fiction solely because they are not the norm. I don't mind these relationships and often find them quite interesting.

One curious thing someone mentioned over on the other forums was that writers who are gay portray women in a powerful, non-sexual role as opposed to the either weak/sexual or powerful/sexual role that straight authors tend to fall back on. I think his example was Clive Barker? I'm not sure on that one. I don't usually research my authors' sexual orientations, so I have no idea whether or not this is true, but it is food for thought.

I'll start the list off with some of the only ones I really know

Luck in the Shadows, Stalking Darkness, Traitor's Moon, and Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling

I'm going to put The Bone Doll's Twin, Hidden Warrior, and The Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling in this category as well simply because the deal with some of the same topics.

I'd say the Asher/Jean-Claude relationship might fit somewhere in this category, but the books are mainly about Anita, so :/ Pam from the Sookie Stackhouse books could also fit in the I guess it would be sub-plot relationship status? :/

But yeah, those are the only ones my poor tired brain can think of tonight. Feel free to add your own and justify/debate them at your pleasure.

[Staplegun]

Here's a concise list because i hate having to scroll through everyone's post 8 million times to find one reference. Sorry that it took me a while to update!

Books
Lynn Flewelling
    Luck in the Shadows
    Stalking Darkness
    Traitor's Moon
    The Bone Doll's Twin
    Hidden Warrior
    The Oracle's Queen
Jane Rule
    Desert of the Heart
Ellen Kushner
    Swordspoint
S.M. Stirling and Shirley Meier
    Saber and Shadow
Mercedes Lackey
    Arrows of the Queen
    Magic's Pawn
    Magic's Promise
    Magic's Price
C.C Humphreys
    Vlad: The Last Confessions
Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
    Havemercy
Laurie R. King
    Kate Martinelli mysteries
Keri Arthur
    Riley Jensen novels
Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
    A Companion to Wolves
Jessie Hajicek
    The God Eaters
Julie Anne Peters
    Luna
Tanya Huff
    Quarters Series
Jaqueline Carey
    Santa Olivia
Laurie J. Marks
    Fire Logic
    Earth Logic
    Water Logic
J.A. Pitts
    Black Blade Blues
Theodore Sturgeon
    Venus Planet X *single sex androgenous human race
John Varley
    Steel Beach
    Eight Worlds
Anthony Burgess
    The Wanting Seed  *discrimination against heterosexuality as a method of population control
Joe Haldeman
    The Forever War *homosexuality as a method of population control
Joanna Russ
    The Female Man
    When it Changed *Both female only societies
Ursula K. Le Guin
    The Left Hand of Darkness
James Tiptree Jr.
    Houston, Houston, Do You Read? *female only society
Samuel R. Delaney
    Dahlgren


Characters (Non-Main)
Pam
    (Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris)
Jean-Claude, Asher, etc.
    (Anita Blake Series by Laurell Hamilton)
Lord John Grey
    (Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon) *He has his own series I think, but I'm not sure as I haven't read it. Someone please correct me with those if you can thanks!
Radu and the Sultan
    (Vlad-C.C. Humphreys)
Ukiah's adoptive mothers
    (Ukiah Oregon series by Wen Spencer)
Ukiah’s older brother
    (Ukiah Oregon series by Wen Spencer)
Kel’s maid and friend
    (in Page, Lady Knight, etc. by Tamora Pierce)
Marcus and Liam
    (Warprize Trilogy by Elizabeth Vaughn)
Daja
    (The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce)
Multiple Characters
    (Quarters books by Tanya Huff)
Multiple Characters
    (Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold)
Transvestite (hetero)
Billy Holliday
    (Walker Papers by C.E. Murphy)

Authors (whose specific books we can't think of but who often write with lgbtq characters)
Mellisa Scott
Mercedes Lackey
Hal Duncan

Authors (who are lgbtq)
Laurie J. Marks
Samuel R. Delany
Mark Delfranco
Tanya Huff
Melissa Scott
Elizabeth Lynn
Samuel R. Delaney

[Gerd D.]

I couldn't name any LGBT fiction that I've read, from top off my head anyways.
Most that I came across was straight erotic/porn literature which I simply don't read in any constellation
(old Anita Blake books asides for a moment).

I could name several romance movies from that field, I love romance in any costellation, but with books Jane Rule's Desert of the Heart will be the first.
So I can't say if it's true that gay authors tend to avoid the usal cliché of equaling powerful women with sexually agressive, it certainly seems to be that way with a lot of straight authors.

[Ellyll]

I seem to remember that Melissa Scott had mostly gay protagonists, and mostly female.  At least, in what I'd read of her stuff, which was a few, but it was many years back.  Ellen Kushner wrote Swordspoint, which I've read, and a couple(?) of sequels, which I haven't, where the two main characters are male lovers.  S. M. Stirling and Shirley Meier collaborated, lo these many years ago, on a book where the main characters, a swordswoman and a female knife fighter, if I remember correctly, meet and fall in love * runs off to look it up * called Saber and Shadow.  In Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen, and now that I think of it in her whole Valdemar series, there are several gay relationships, both main characters and supporting characters. 

That's all I can come up with off the top of my head.  Might get more later.

[e_booklover]

Mercedes Lackey

Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise and Magic's Price - the Vanyal Trilogy

[drosdelnoch]

Vlad: The Last Confession - CC Humphries - Radu and the Sultan.
Havemercy - Jaida Jones, Danielle Bennett.
Hal Duncan's work

[Staplegun]

Vlad: The Last Confession - CC Humphries - Radu and the Sultan.
Havemercy - Jaida Jones, Danielle Bennett.
Hal Duncan's work

Confusion: is Radu and the Sultan another novel by CC Humphreys?

[drosdelnoch]

Nope just the characters involved.

[Staplegun]

ahh kk sorry 

[bengrenell]

Can we make a distinction here between gay and lesbian fiction and fiction written by someone who also happens to be gay or lesbian? I'm thinking of Wen Spencer who does not write lesbian fiction but has some lesbian characters who happen to be lesbians but that fact doesn't drive the plot per se. In her series about Ukiah Oregon, Ukiah's adoptive mothers are lesbians but I never thought of that as being nearly important as the fact that they were human asn he was...well something else.

[Kate]

If you like mysteries, the Kate Martinelli mysteries by Laurie R. King feature a lesbian protagonist. They're set in modern-day San Francisco. I actually have loved nearly every book that King has produced, but that series is the one with a gay protagonist. I don't actually know if King is gay or not...

Also, the Walker Papers series by C E Murphy features a transvestite (but hetero) character named Billy Holliday.

And the Riley Jensen novels by Keri Arthur feature a gay main character (the main heroine's brother).

It's funny; at this point, I guess I don't even necessarily notice it any more. Fortunately, having gay main characters is starting to be more common. Or at least, it the weirdo fiction that I read. 

[Zealith]

A Companion to Wolves by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, about a group of men who bond to wolves in order to protect their people from trolls. A good portion of the characters are bi/gay.

[Patti L.]

Well, don't forget that most of the brown, green, and blue dragon riders in Pern are from bi to gay, at least when their dragons are involved.

Always made me wonder about Lytol . . . . (total irrelevancy; do you suppose his name came from a transpostition of "Lysol"?)

[Kate]

Oh, I forgot about that part of the Pern series.

Lytol = Lysol -- funny! I think there's an established naming convention for Pern, though, with part of the mother's name and part of the father's name sort of smashed together... It's been a long time since I've re-read those books though.

Hmmm... adding new ones to TBR pile.

[Patti L.]

To be honest, Kate, I don't plan to bother with his past Dragon's Kin.  I may be a b****rd, but in the "Begging the Question" thread, someone put up the 'answer' of "Time travel" and I put the reponse question of "What does Todd McCaffrey use as the answer to every medical crisis he throws at Pern?"  And it's true, as far as I've seen.  boooorrrrinnng!