Want to write better Pokémon fanfics? This is the place to learn about everything from avoiding clichés and common pitfalls to the importance of doing research and presenting the messages that you want to convey in your writing. We'll give general w...
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THE RISE OF SAMENESS
Sexual orientation and gender are both contested topics in the Western world and even more contested in other areas of the globe. Both are a part of someone's identity, embedded into zir sense of pride and self-worth. Imagine a group or identity you strongly associate yourself with—whether that be feminism, religion, race, or ethnicity—and if you can imagine that, you can imagine how passionately someone views zir pansexuality or bisexuality or transgender identity or non-binary identity.
I am someone who identifies as cisgender and bisexual, and you are likely to be cisgender and heterosexual, but I think it is important to establish how similar I am to you. We grew up in the same world. We watched cartoons as kids, maybe played outside. We were taught about this same world. We learned how to speak. We learned how to walk. We learned how to read. We developed personalities of our own. We may have played sports. We may have played instruments. We may have liked to read. We may have liked to write.
However, as much as we are similar, we're not the same. You can bring home your boyfriend, and your family is proud to accept someone that means so much to you into their family. You can get married to that boyfriend in essentially every nation-state globally.
I can bring home my girlfriend, but it's not met with pride. It's disappointment and shame. If I lived in Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Sudan, northern Nigeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, or Southern Somalia, I can receive the death penalty for having homosexual relations. Beyond that, there are more than seventy countries that will give me some sort of punishment, including life in prison, for homosexual acts, and forty-five countries specify homosexuality against females and males while the rest just target male homosexuality.
Our love is the same. You can get just as crushed from a rejection as I can do. I can get just as nervous as you on a date with a woman as you can with a man. I can get just as sad during a breakup as you can get. I can get cheated on like you can. I can get abused like you can.
But our love is treated differently. Yours is more accepted; mine is not as accepted. That is what makes us similar and not the same. We have the potential to be the same, but we are not. That difference between similar and same is why the LGBTQ+ movement exists. It is not to create some exclusive group for the weirdos or outcasts; it is to tell people to recognize this difference. This sameness exists between you and pansexuals and transgenders and asexuals and all of the amazing people LGBTQ+ encompasses.
The first step to writing LGBTQ+ characters is to realize that we are the same by nature. We are not so distant from you to the point where you cannot even comprehend how we feel. We are both people with the capacity to love and express ourselves.
THE RISE OF REPRESENTATION
When you ask me, "Kat, how do I portray this homosexual relationship correctly?" or "But, I cannot possibly relate to the LGBTQ+ community, so I need guidance. Help me?"
