I've decided to make my two boy MCs in my Upper MG love each other

The Second Moon

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Well, I didn't really decide. They did, but you guys know how characters work. You just go with their flow. However since it is Upper MG the loving will limited to holding hands and maybe a first kiss.

The MG project that I put them in is a contemporary fantasy set in a different world. With that in mind I was wondering if it was okay not to have anyone against their ways? I don't want them to be hated because of which gender they love. They already have to much on their plate that they need to deal with. For example, kidnappers, monkey guards, etc.

But is not having anyone against their ways bad? I just don't want to add too much that they will have to deal with. I mean their world will still have people who are against their ways. They just don't run into them.

BTW, I know most books that have gay characters have the characters deal with haters, but I just don't want that for the reasons stated above. Is that okay?

Sorry if my words are all jumbled and if I'm repeating myself. I don't think my coffee's kicked in yet.
 

lilyWhite

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In almost all of my WiPs set in the "real" world with lesbian protagonists, homphobia never comes up. It's not to say that no one in the world would ever disapprove, but any such interactions would be completely irrelevant to the story.
 

Starlite

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It's absolutely okay! If anything, I'd say more than okay. There's nothing wrong with having homophobia in a story, when it's done for a reason/with intent. However, a lot of the time, it seems like people throw it in just because That's the Way Things Are, without even considering that they dont have to, and that can be pretty depressing as a queer reader. Particularly when the author is straight (I don't know if you are, so I hope you'll indulge the tangent if not)--if there's homophobia in their fantasy world, it can come across as though they didn't even consider the idea that maybe, just maybe, people don't have to hate us. And while straight people can right stories with homophobia and have it not come off that way, it's hard. Unless you really know what you're doing, best to leave it to queer writers.

So yes! Go for it! I love reading books where queer people are accepted and normalized, and every other queer person I know feels the same!
 

neandermagnon

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In my WIP set 40,000 years ago, the MC falls in love with another young man, and because homophobia wasn't a thing 40,000 years ago* there is no homophobia in the story at all. The relationship causes some degree of pleasant surprise because they previously hated each other. The MC is bisexual and no-one bats an eyelid about that. His lover is exclusively gay which a few people bat an eyelid about because they're surprised that he doesn't like any women in that way at all but batting an eyelid is all they do, because they've got better things to occupy their time, energy and thoughts with, and everyone's happy for them (and glad they're not fighting each other all the time any more).

*it likely arose after sexism/mysogyny, Sexism/mysogyny arose as a result of socioeconomic changes related to reliance on agriculture and the need to defend lands/crops etc. Agriculture first started around 10,000 years ago. (Can explain in more detail if anyone's interested but don't want to derail the thread as I am prone to typing at length about evolutionary biology.)

I think it's good for there to be stories that show non-homophobic societies. At the present time, a lot of people think that homophobia is natural and being LGBT+ is unnatural. Our society's beliefs are arse-about-face. Homophobia is an unnatural and toxic learned behaviour and being LGBT+ is natural (and there are some evolutionary advantages to being gay or bi (take bonobos for a classic example), plus variation is vital for evolution). There's a need for stories set in times and places with homophobia to show how toxic it is, but IMO it's also important to also have stories where homophobia just isn't a thing because we need to get away from the normalisation of homophobia.
 
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