News — representation
The Importance of Fanfiction
Lauren Bell fanfiction representation
Some creators love it, some hate it, and some just pretend it doesn’t exist. Yet regardless of how authors feel towards it, fanfictions are still posted online everyday. Stories about alternate universes, character studies, relationships, filling in gaps the original author left unanswered, or just creating new stories about characters and worlds that so many love. The stories range in length from a few hundred words to multiple novels. Some readers fall in love with these stories so much that they even pay to print and bind the fanfiction into a hard copy book. So why do we...
Disney’s long list of “firsts”
Lauren Bell disney representation
For those who are fans of Pixar or believe that Chris Evans is the superior Hollywood Chris, you know that the new film Lightyear features a kiss between the character Hawthorne and her wife. The scene was nearly cut from the film, which is disappointing but not surprising given the fact that Disney (which owns Pixar Animation Studios) often censors queer content in their films and tv shows. Ultimately the scene was included in the final cut, causing it to be banned in several countries and generating backlash from homophobes at home.
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The Great Debate
Amy Leibowitz bisexuality LGBTQ pansexuality representation
No, I’m not talking about a political debate. I’m talking about the “Bi vs. Pan Wars” that are making a comeback after a lovely period of mild remission.
These arguments never completely went away, but we did have some respite for a while. Maybe people got bored during the pandemic lockdowns and felt the need to shake things up a bit; who knows? Whatever the reason, this ridiculous fight has come back full-force, and it’s affecting the writing community.
I’m not going to entertain any “but what about...” or...
Hear Me Out
Amy Leibowitz bisexuality gender identity nonbinary own voices queer antagonism representation
Over the past week, I’ve shared multiple articles about the problems with J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans ranting. The most recent was this one, about a politician quoting Rowling’s vile kick at trans people in order to support his own hateful views.
It isn’t too surprising these posts were met with some degree of anti-trans sentiment, even in queer-friendly spaces. I have found, on the whole, that sharing things that are of interest or concern to the trans/nonbinary and/or bisexual communities are more likely to result in negativity...
Point of View: What lesfic has meant to me
Amy Leibowitz bisexual fiction bisexuality bisexuals books coming soon lesbian books lesbian fiction lesbian novels lesbians own voices queer women representation wlw books women women who love women writing
The first LGBTQIA+ book I read wasn’t gay literature or MM romance.
That might come as a surprise to people. Most of my books thus far have had relationships between men (and occasionally between men and nonbinary folks). My publishing career started with a book that included a romance between two men.
MM Romance and other gay fiction are pretty prominent in LGBTQIA+ publishing. One might assume the reason I wrote my first novel was an extensive history of reading and writing about men.
One would be wrong.
All of my firsts have been books about...