Issues with Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan

The Bad of Rick's LGBTQ+ Representation

 (Warning- this actually partially ended up being just me complaining about my life for a couple hundred words, but I'll just say this is a functioning rant)

 As a member of the LGBT+ community (No longer a pansexual demiromantic demigirl because I don't know what sexual attraction feels like and I actually think I might be genderfluid and I'm either aromantic or demiromantic or omniromantic and I don't fucking know) I appreciated Rick's efforts, but the representation wasn't perfect.

 I already mentioned earlier that very few sexualities and genders were actually represented. Gay, trans, and genderfluid- that's great. Trans and genderfluid characters in particular are super rare in middle grade fantasy, especially transgender genderfluid love interests who are more than a flat piece of cardboard. But those and 'queer' aren't the only labels that exist. People who prefer not to use labels are perfectly valid, but plenty of people who do use labels also exist. They deserve to be represented too.

 Keep the gay, trans and genderfluid characters, but confirm that Reyna is asexual in the actual books. Make Piper bring up that she's pansexual (or something) in a conversation. Create really young children who support the lgbt+ community or, even better, are starting to question their identities (I refuse to believe that children can decide so quickly. H o w do people actually figure out what labels they prefer so quickly). Add some camper at Camp Jupiter who happens to be agender.

 Gay, genderfluid, queer and questioning are not the only identities that exist.

 Also, I'm pretty sure Rick made genderfluidity hereditary. Children of Loki are more likely to be genderfluid or nonbinary- but why? Your parent being genderfluid does not make you genderfluid. Maybe the children would be more comfortable coming out if they were, but Loki is a god the kids barely contact anyway, so that doesn't make sense.

 He never really portrayed characters questioning their identities, either.  I've spent almost a year questioning my gender identity, even longer questioning my sexuality, and it took me over eight months to be comfortable with pansexual, demiromantic and demigirl- but now I'm uncomfortable with those.

 Piper is a prime example. In Heroes of Olympus, there is zero implication that Piper might be bisexual, or attracted to girls at all. Then she breaks up with Jason, her ex boyfriend she still wasn't fully over dies, and three weeks later she's in a relationship with a girl?

 Excuse me?

 It takes me three weeks to search up labels on the ace spectrum and look through what all of them 'feel like' so that I can match it up against my own and spend hours doing research on those ace spec identities.

 It takes me three weeks to look up different gender neutral names that are Japanese (Because I'm Japanese and I want to keep a Japanese name) and learn all the different ways of reading and writing them because I don't really like my feminine name.

 It takes me three weeks to think over pronouns and whether they/them, she/her or she/they fits me better, because I feel fluid in my gender and how comfortable I am with different pronouns change over time.

 I do not sort out my sexuality three weeks after my boyfriend dies and get onto kissing girls (or people of any gender. I don't kiss people.). Being queer isn't that. It's not all kissing girls and watching the sunset with your girlfriend.

 It can be painful, it can be confusing, and it takes a long, long time to try to figure out who you really are. Internalised homophobia, transphobia, aphobia, biphobia and a fear of internalised misogyny have slowed down my journey of self discovery, and that's the case for tons of people around the world.

 I'm not saying that being lgbt+ is painful to be homophobic, here. It's not all bad- sometimes, it's joking with your friends over how much of a disaster gay you are, sometimes it's laughing at gay memes, sometimes it's celebrating when a popular celebrity comes out. Sometimes it is sunsets with your girlfriends (or so I hear. I'm single.).

 Everyone's experiences are different.

 But I can say one thing for sure. Being gay, or ace, or questioning, or queer in general, is nothing like what Rick portrays it to be for most people.

 Nico's, Alex's, and Piper's experiences do not reflect what I feel in a lot of ways, or it does but does it badly. My experiences, at least, do not match up with what Rick Riordan thinks being 'gay' is.

 Sorry this took a really long time to come out, I was busy trying to figure out who the hell I am. Also trying to write more fanfiction, I've decided to take a break from original writing  for a few months and focus on writing fanfiction so that I can practice writing and try to improve my writing a bit more.

 Because of that though, I will be trying to write a few more rants about Rick Riordan's books in the next few months. I feel like this ranting has helped me realise mistakes in representation in my own writing, so that's another motivation for me to be writing this.