In a world, where LGBT just...isn't that big a thing...

Harashaw · 4 months

There's Firefly.

Though to be fair I think it only gets mentioned in about 3 episodes. On the other hand, one of those episodes was War Stories, which gave the internet the phrase "I'll be in my bunk".

ichthis · 4 months

Some of the Star Trek books have long running gay characters. But then the Star Trek fandom pretty much created slashfic, so that shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

forever_erratic · 4 months

If you're paying attention, you'll notice the trend that LGBT* as no big thing is common in scifi.

If you like scifi, which you BETTER, then I highly recommend subscribing to Asimov's, a monthly magazine of scifi shorts which very frequently have non-straight protagonists, where their sexuality just, well, is.

If you want some really, really interesting treatments of gender, I recommend checking out Ursula Le Guin's books, starting with the multiple-award winner The Left-Hand of Darkness.

One of the reasons I love scifi so much is because of its above-average social progressivity. This, mixed with odd worlds, really gets me going.

Although there is one section of scifi I dislike: fuckin' space westerns, a la firefly (sorry, most of reddit).

keinWegwerfAccount · 4 months

The Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling. Lots of bisexuality. Very adorable gay couple (eventually). Strong female characters as well. No T, just LGB. There's a red light district with lantern color codes for gay/straight men and women.

Unfortunately, there are some issues ... there are no people of color, even people who live in the warm South are pale as milk.

worstname · 4 months

I immediately thought of United States of Tara, the main character's son is gay but this fact is mostly just background.

evrae · 4 months

Caprica was pretty good for this.

fourthirds · 4 months

In Iain M Banks' Culture series, technology and genetic/body modification are basically godlike magic and most people change sex a few times in their lifetime. Pansexuality abounds. He's also got very good characterization, unlike a lot of scifi.

chyea1990 · 4 months

Watch Happy Endings..pretty funny show and there's a gay character who's just another part of the friend group (otherwise straight)

a_spy · 4 months

Im going to sound like a total nerd but that quote is way off, it was something like:

"Im the fat one and this is my husband the thin one"

"Dont you have names?"

"Were the fat-thin gay Anglican marine couple, do we really need names too?"

saragoldfarb · 4 months

The Wire?

alsoathrowaway · 4 months

Hmm. Well, off the top of my head, in the Wheel of Time series, that Aes Sedai (a group of female magic-users) occasionally have each other as what the author has them call "pillow friends", which certainly seem to be lesbian relationships... and it seems to be considered a fairly not-a-big-deal thing. But you don't get that among any other "normal" charaters in the story, and of course there aren't any gay or bi men that I recall - nor trans people of any kind (barring a spoilery example that I personally wouldn't at all count). Thinking about it, one of the major villains is portrayed as bisexual, but frankly she's fairly monstrous (i.e., she's one of the people that normal people tell their children stories about to keep them in line), so that's not exactly great, either.

Edit: Oh! Oh! Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Whatever series. Lots and lots of bisexuality there.

Aspel · 4 months

Actually, the line is "We're the thin fat gay Anglican Marines. Why would we need names?"

And yeah, Doctor Who does a great job of portraying a world were sexuality and gender are considered "quaint". If you recall, Cassandra was also born a boy. And human.

There's a lesbian old couple in New New York.

There's plenty of interracial couples, with Martha pining for the Doctor, and Rose and ~~Ricky~~Mickey (Although they got together, for... some reason). Toshiko and Owen, there's a couple in New New York that's a cat and a lady. They make all these things we usually don't see because of prejudices and social pressures and do away with them.

And of course, that's what we do. We meet new people out there among the stars and... we dance. At some point, whether they're male or female stops mattering, but still we dance with them, because that's what we do. We "dance".

avitesse · 4 months

I actually recently saw a movie where two of the main characters were gay, but it was just kinda nothing. It's called Miao Miao, and I THINK it's a Taiwanese film, but I'm not sure. Give it a try!

justskidding · 4 months

There's the webcomic Homestuck (a part of MS Paint Adventures) involves an alien race wherein the concept of homo and heterosexuality are foreign, and everyone is bi by default.

Secondsemblance · 4 months

"Love And Other Disasters", and "Bedrooms and Hallways" are kind of guilty pleasures of mine :p

Aspel · 4 months

Gonna make a second comment.

I'm an avid roleplayer of pen and paper games (primarily nWoD) and writer, and pretty much all of my characters are bisexual by default, and very few of them are completely heterotypical or cisnormative. I've actually realized that after playing crossdressers who want to be princes, dykey ladies dating ladies but not being lesbian, and an appearance altering Life mage with a penchant for femininity and kicking ass...

It would be weirder for me to play a cut and dry heterosexual male.

Even in the urban fantasy series I'm trying to write, the main character is ostensibly straight, but dresses kind of like a fag. And I mean in the sense that he's thin, effeminate with long curly black hair, obsesses over his appearance, and even wears girly jeans. But he's ostensibly only in love with women. But he's uncomfortable with intimacy while at once wanting it. I even plan for him to have a boyfriend at one point, because he'll also have girlfriends, because I love the idea of a character who's love life is incredibly complicated and tumultuous. In a way, it's actually not that he's 'straight' or bisexual so much as it is that he's lacking in a sexuality. He's just a blank slate, as far as attraction is concerned. I suppose in a way that's based off of me.

And I like that approach. In a way it just comes off as being bisexual, but that feels like a more active term for it than I'd go with. It's a thing I see a lot in science fiction, and a bit in urban fantasy, though. Characters who's sexuality is just... whoever they love, friendly bits be damned.

mybfisftm · 4 months

Forever war. Technically, being gay is not considered equal in it, as by the end being straight is illegal, although they can usually cure the straights.

andthenafeast · 4 months

There was an episode of Dead Like Me where Mason's reap was an adorable gay couple.

lazyjay · 4 months

Captain Jack Harkness. MmmMMM~!

This!

SimonSaysPlay · 3 months

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', from about Season 3 onward, when Willow acquires a girlfriend. (Not that anyone should need any excuse to watch 'Buffy' apart from its own brilliance!)

'The Forever War' by Joe Haldeman. Apart from being one of the best anti-war books ever written, it also shows an ever-changing social background while the central character is forced to fight his "forever war". There's everything from hetero- to homo- to a-sexual in the mix.

'Interview with a Vampire' by Anne Rice depicts a basically homosexual relationship between two vampires without it being about the homosexuality. In fact, the whole 'Vampire Chronicles' series is fairly pan-sexual (from memory).

'Rent' shows gays, bis, and straights, all together in the best musical ever made.

cazpacho · 3 months

In Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke, there are some gay characters; one of them remarks about how homosexuality is not considered a bad thing in the 2030s. It's also a quite good book in and of itself, in a sort of "fuck yeah, human progress!" way.

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