Thread by @austinchanted

good morning I'm having some feelings about queer characters & their limited narrative prospects today

I feel like we've discussed many times how often queer characters are relegated to "coming out"/"discovery"/"exposure"/"closet" stories and how that isn't even close to capturing all of the queer experience BUT

Something I hadn't personally considered before is how much the focus on coming out stories limits the kinds of queer characters we can write, too

A lot of times the coming out narrative implies queer characters who are at a vulnerable place in their lives, who are unable to be fully themselves, who are hiding, inauthentic, secretive, etc

(and for the record, I think those stories are still important, because there will always be queer folks who need to see themselves in that)

The tension of the closet and threats of exposure and fraught personal relationships takes over a whole lot of who that person can be and crowds out a lot of other possibilities

And because coming out is something that all queer people are assumed to do, it's often pretty generic - like, "behind every successful queer person is an emotional confession to their friends and family"

And because this specific moment is where so many queer stories are set, that sort of becomes who those characters...are? And who queer people are?

And again, as many folks have already said, the reality of coming out is that it's something you do (or don't do) all the time, in addition to all the other shit you do with your life

But it's so much rarer to see queer characters who are doing that other shit and who feel like whole interesting people without a coming out crisis consuming their story

I think that's why it's so exciting when established characters like Soldier and Tracer in Overwatch are ~revealed~ to be queer all along, because those characters already had interesting lives going on

Because they weren't introduced as queer, their appeal had to lean on... other character traits, so then when that character IS queer and also the grizzled supersoldier dad? WOW

I'm not saying that all queer characters should be incidentally queer, either, because I think "how does being queer change the lived experience of the grizzled supersoldier dad" is interesting to explore from the get go

How does being queer impact this character, how has it been a part of their life? Their full, interesting life in which they do stuff besides be hidden from their loved ones and have emotional confessions to them?

I have more thoughts on this but I have to go be a fully realized queer character at my day job, brb

ALL RIGHT, I'M BACK, LET'S GO

So I think the issue of queer stories being dominated by coming out narratives is particularly tough to navigate in romance!

Because romance always involves a certain degree of getting to know someone and learning them in deeper ways - especially in intense, fraught, personal ways.

And when the characters are queer, coming out and being closeted and the struggles therein are easy, immediate vulnerabilities to explore. But they aren't the only vulnerabilities to explore.

I think this focus on coming out is particularly fraught for trans characters - I wrote at length about my frustration with the ubiquity of coming out scenes in trans rom: austinchant.com/2017/02/09/on-…

I do think it applies more broadly, though. Because I love to see queer and especially trans people grapple with other issues in their relationships besides the conflict of their very existence, you feel me?

I want to see more queer characters whose queerness is fully integrated into the rest of their characterization, neither the central conflict nor completely incidental

I want more queer characters who feel complete, who navigate within their closets or live outside them, and whose arcs aren't defined by the process of becoming Out and Honest and Confident

This wasn't meant to be an Overwatch thread but I do love the way queerness is woven into the Overwatch lore because it's treated as a new angle on a character you already know - something that is already true and fits in like another puzzle piece.

You learn that Tracer goes home to her girlfriend for the holidays in addition to being a cocky time-traveling superhero and that Soldier still carries around the photo of a man he loved but couldn't stay with because, y'know, he's grizzled and stuff

This has been on my mind because I struggle to write characters like this! Because I sit down to write Queer Characters and the immediate shorthand that arises - even for me, an intellectual trans - is stories that center the closet and/or coming out.

I have to check myself really hard to avoid doing it even when I know I don't want to, when I'm EXTREMELY THIRSTY for queer characters who are, like, not in the throes of an identity crisis

And again, those stories will always be important. I've written them. But god I want more of the everything else.

now I once again have to stop tweeting and work but I think I'm done for real

thank you for your time