LGBTQ characters in romance fiction, aka “What are the odds??”
I’ve heard this question come up a lot when talking about gay romance. Because a lot of romance novels are standalones within a series and all the characters are connected somehow, the question always comes up:
“What are the odds that ALL these [brothers / rock star band members / coworkers / sports teammates] would ALL be gay?”
There are a lot of LGBTQ people out there. A lot. I guarantee, if you think you don’t know anyone who is, you are wrong and they just have not come out to you yet. I, personally, am on that spectrum myself.
Yes, sometimes it could be explained as, “Every character in this series is gay because it is a group of friends who purposely chose to be friends because of their common experience.”
But a lot of times it is not.
Here are some examples from my life:
Growing up, I was part of a group of four very tight-knit friends. We all met in high school and we’ve been friends for more than a decade.
Three years ago one of them came out as trans. One year ago one of them came out as bi. (Also, as an aside, her brother is gay).
So it just randomly happened that 75% of my best friend group turned out to be LGBTQ. We didn’t choose to become friends because of this. We became friends and it just so happened we’re on the spectrum.
I belong to a writing group. We all met because we’re writers. Four of us really hit it off because we have similar goals and aspirations, so we decided to make a little accountability sub-group. We’ve been meeting up for two years now.
I later found out, one of them is bi and one of them is asexual/aromantic.
Again, 75% of a spontaneous friend group turned out to be on the LGBTQ spectrum.
In my own family, I have one cousin who is gay and one who is bi. So that’s three of us, again, just happened to be LGBTQ. The math on this one is less impressive because I have SO many. We’re like the Boyle cousins. We even have our version of the yearly Council of the Cousins. (That’s a little Brooklyn 99 reference for you. You’re welcome.)
So when you read gay romance and you start to think, “Oh come on, what are the odds?” just remember:
The odds are actually very high.
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