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Y'all know what to do. *sprays confetti and glitter everywhere*

The gay male protagonist. Bane of mainstream literature. But things are better now™. *sigh* LGBT literature is still very much- actually hold that thought. The existence of that term alone shows the problem: that LGBT literature is a separate thing from straight literature. We rarely have fantasy, mystery or sci-fi whose main character happens to be gay, we have gay fiction which happens to have a fantasy, mystery or sci-fi setting, rarely. Mostly it's just romance. Written by women. *sigh* It's mostly erotica, basically not even aimed at the same gender. There are gay authors: Adam Silvera, TJ Klune, Will Walton, Benjamin Alire Sáenz,... well-known LGBT authors. Special thanks to Richard Morgan who finally wrote a non-romance with a gay male character as the main protagonist. Also Robin Hobb. Gay characters are almost never the main protagonist in the mainstream literature. Gay literature is still a niche genre and generally not taken to be a part of mainstream literature. When gay characters do appear in the mainstream and they're not badly written, they're usually secondary characters or at most, the deuteragonist. These authors are then treated like the bastion of LGBT literature and everyone else would remember their example for the next ten years as completion of the required dosage of gayness they can handle on their reading list. They will then cite these books everytime some poor sod mentions we need more representation, "wasn't that one book from 5 years ago with that one gay character (who probably dies later on) enough?" And these authors too, even after all this time, are in the minority compared to those who simply ignore that gay people exist. These are the books most likely to have a lot of romantic subplots. Love triangles, ahoy! "But we need romance in our books!" "Why do we need to have a gay character?" "what does it add to the character?" Female gay characters are, of course, fine. I mean there's also less gay female characters because it's not as daring and "female lead" is still something that can be used to sort books but at least people aren't directly opposed to them. Gay male characters on the other hand are an insult and a threat to masculinity everywhere *long exhale* So we have Ranette and Drehy filling the quota of gay characters in the Cosmere and they're tertiary characters. So far, we have maybe-promises from the author regarding gay characters in the future. On a completely unrelated note, how many love triangles have we had in the Cosmere so far again? This post is my anger and this post is my logic: Also check out this comment by @The Awakened Salad which addresses the question of why a character would "need" to be gay:

I think there is not necessarily an issue, but an all to common instance of the only non-binary character being one that wouldnt have a human. concept of gender , and I think itd be neat if there were more non-binary characters who were human. I dont think this is coming to the cosmere anytime soon but an eldritch abomination can dream.

So, in honor of Lark going on her first date, I have started the thread about dating, love, and all things relationships. And Eowyn gifs. And memes. And jokes. And toddler photos. And memes. I mean, what do you expect, it is the 17th Shard! I like someone at my school, but I do not know what do say. Please help?

It has come to my attention that there's no She-Ra thread? I am here to immediately rectify that. She-Ra is one of the best shows I have seen in years. Its a reboot of the 80's cartoon, and it improves literally everything so drastically that watching the old cartoon even in clips is laughable. Where do I even start. It's in the trope of magic girl anime, I suppose? Its about a girl named Adora, who grew up on the wrong side of the war, who finds a magic sword that transforms her into a 7 foot tall warrior lady, and joins the Rebellion and fights for good! But its so much more than that. Its about figuring out who you are. Its about choice and destiny. Its about friendship, and adventure, and what to do when you make mistakes, and its so gosh darned wholesome. The visuals are gorgeous. The colour palette is so soothing to look at. The story is phenomenal. The characters are each unique and individual, not just with different goals, aims, and personalities, but different skin tones and body shapes too which is SO RARE for female characters. The male 'lead' Bow is kindhearted and smart and thoughtful, and he has two dads who are so dad-like and wholesome, and...........rust I could go on about this forever so I'll wrap it up - Its technically a kids show but that doesnt mean its bad. Its so good, in literally every way, animation, design, values, character, representation, story, its gorgeous and heartbreaking and healing and the best thing ever and we need to talk about it.

Hey guys. Due to some recent buzz on the "Relationships" thread, I figured I could make a thread where we can feel safe talking about LGBT+ problems without having to worry about derailing other topics. Also, it'd be super cool to get a feel of the sexual dispersion (?) here on the Shard. This is a learning space, where others' opinions can be respected and, ideally, you can learn something from them. Please only post on this topic if you feel comfortable doing so.

I don't want to offend anyone or anything but i have been reading the way of the king again and Jasnah struck me as very independent and strong will .. as evident by her atheism , probably because she knew almighty was dead through her spren and her visit to spren world...but her being gay will also explain why she hasnt married ! Roshar is a very sexist world as far as we know , with strong emphasis on masculine and faminine art , food etc.. I I don't think any of their culture will accept homosexuality ..They will probably claim them voidbringer and struck them in high strom for stromfather to judge which is essentially a death sentence unless you have a spren proecting you lol....However I strongly belive with her Radiant ability which allow her to travel between worlds in cosmera Jasnah is familiar with other cultures from distance world and therefore accepting her own sexual orientation although she might never openly admit in her own home world.