Random Treatment-of-Queer-Individuals-in-Panem Headcanon
This subject was brought up by @demisexualkatnisseverdeen in another thread, and I found it important enough to put my thoughts into its own post.
For how the Capitol treats its own (as long as you don’t cross it)? Likely largely egalitarian by current liberal Western standards in regards to views on sexuality and gender, including allowances for trans. As for how aces and aros would be treated? On one hand, there is definitely a strong sex and romance culture that would include belittlement of those who don’t partake. On the other, the Capitol is very big, and it is noted that Katniss really only saw the socialite class; noted is how relatively modest a lot of the actual ruling class was. So the overall atmosphere is likely not too different from a fandom section of tumblr.
How the Capitol treats those from the districts? No overt policy discrimination on basis of orientation. Now at the individual level… As others have noted, while the Capitol won’t hate you on the basis of your orientation, you certainly don’t have rights either. Even when the orientations are compatible, it’s already evil due to coercion and ensuing lack of consent. When they aren’t, it’s an additional layer of suck. You’re straight and the person is of the same sex? Too bad. You’re gay and the person is of the opposite sex? Too bad. You’re ace? Too. Bad. Alternative is to see those you care about meet awful ends.
Within districts… I’d say it depends where you are. If you are in a Career district, you’re probably fine due to relative prosperity and proximity to the Capitol. Same goes for the tech-based districts due to better living conditions and nature of the industry. However, if you are in an especially-impoverished agrarian or heavy industry district… it’s best not to be open. Part of it is the assumption that, as someone who is not marrying and having kids, you are being selfish by not pulling your weight; both in terms of industry and to help reaping odds by having children of your own in the bowl. The other part of it would be the association of things that diverge from the norm as being Capitol-affiliated (related: the especially well-educated suffer the same; we even see in canon how dismissive and hostile Katniss initially was to idealism, and she was one of the most open-minded of her district); hell, it could be very likely that the Capitol deliberately stoked that animosity to both sow division and show its citizens, “Hey look how quaint and barbaric those district savages are.”
If there’s one power that aces and homosexuals would really fear, it’s District Thirteen. Take the previously-mentioned district antipathy towards anything resembling Capitol decadence or the idea that people aren’t pulling their weight, and then ratchet it up several notches by incorporating and codifying it into state rhetoric and philosophy. Now add the obsession with population sustainability to get a eugenic bent to the doctrine, and then harden that doctrine with punative militarism. Attitudes that make all but the worst historical facist and communist states pale in comparison. Even if a homosexual couple is sterile, their fate would likely be a very public death so as to dissuade anyone from getting any ideas. And if you are fertile, you better pair up and put out, orientation be damned. Overall, Queers are the ultimate “NonContributers”, Traitors to Humanity, and as worthy being out down as those afflicted by chronic illness, disability, and genetic disorder. Had Coin managed to take power, I suspect the sight would not be pretty, and she may have prepared to take advantage of the present antipathy across the districts so as to make enforcenent much easier (during the war itself, they would have been more restrained so as to not tip their hands; even then, we saw how brutal they are for the slightest thing).
The weird thing is, as a fandom focused on injustices, it sure is heteronormative. And when homosexual relationships are written, it’s more common than not that they are fetishizations (Seriously, what is with the prevalence of Peeta/Cato on ffnet? You’d think that the top slash pairing would be Peeta/Gale. … But I digress) that revel in themes that are pretty damn toxic. Of course, this heteronormality is no doubt not helped by the fact that all explicit relationships in the books are heterosexual. However, considering how much leeway the books give us to elaborate on characters and settings, and considering how much this fandom seizes that opportunity regarding the lives of various characters, shouldn’t greater representation or at least discussion of related themes be a given in fanworks and analyses?
Related, one of the major characters whom I do headcanon as asexual is one whom the fandom tends to characterize as sex-obsessed: Johanna Mason. Have you noticed that she never actually flirts with people (that was movie-only, and there are so many unfortunate implications regarding how lecherous they made Haymitch during that scene)? Every time she strips, it comes off more as frat-ish hazing or simple comfort with her own body rather than anything sexual.
