I haven’t been publishing M/M very long…well, 7 years but it doesn’t feel that long. But even within that time, I’ve seen increased opening up of the genre to wider definitions, wider characters, outside of a narrow “two gay men fall in love” definition.
One positive thing has been the rapid increase in bisexual characters in M/M – guys who don’t simply mutter the word bi once, as they dive into a “gay” relationship forever after, but who have a real and positive history with dating women. Guys who still notice women in a sexual way, even though they’re dating a man, and where that’s not seen as a betrayal or a threat. I see progress, so that the “I thought I was straight till I met you” trope often ends up with the guys identifying as bi, or maybe even pansexual, not just gay. Though there is still some reader resistance to the presence of any hint of romance that includes women in the M/M genre, even as a fleeting or plot-driving component, I think more readers are open to that.
In the real world, all too often, bisexual people have met with particular discrimination or disdain. Straight people have disdained them for their queerness, but sometimes within the LGBTQ community they’ve also been rejected for not being queer enough. In particular, bi people with an opposite–sex partner get pushed out of queer spaces, as if their identity is only defined by their current relationship. This year saw the first ever Bisexual Pride float at London’s Pride parade, after 46 years.
The M/M story I’m currently writing has a bisexual main character, and I found it interesting to notice changes, compared to when I wrote Ryan of the Rebuilding Year books, after a few years of paying better attention. Ryan was confused, thinks he’s straight, swerves hard to “gay” and only very slowly ends up identifying as “bi.” (And I think John is more demisexual, at heart.) Dean in my current story has always known he was bi, even during his happy marriage to a woman. Ryan was pushed toward straightness by basic homophobia. Dean has had more complex issues with bi-erasure. Plus, I’m still learning, getting feedback, and talking to people, and hopefully my next bi character will be even better.
I sometimes wonder at what point M/M is going to intersect with becoming LGBTQ romance. As our main characters identify as demisexual, asexual, transgender, genderfluid, bisexual, pansexual, and more, we open to a much wider range of human experiences. The stories branch out from “two hot guys who are attracted to each other and end up in bed and in gay love” to something more complex. And yet there‘s a huge ongoing core of standard M/M that is still very popular too.
I love the diversity we’re starting to see. I think we need more of it, in a variety of ways. I do think tagging and identifying books for readers who don’t choose to read across the spectrum is also valid. Sites like Queeromance Ink where you can see character identities and relationships in the book, are useful for readers and can help us seek out or avoid particular stories. I’m not suggesting every reader should be eager for every book, anymore than everyone should be pansexual, although there should be respect for all of the rainbow.
But I also hope that expanding the range of character identities in the genre can help break down walls and barriers. I see the increase in more complex and openly bisexual main characters in the books as a positive step. My kids’ generation identifies as LGBTQ in much higher numbers (as many as 25% in some surveys) and big part of that is an increase in people who identify as bi or pan. I hope we will continue to see that reflected in more stories.
-Kaje Harper
July 2018
Hallelujah! Thanks so much for this; I’ll be looking forward to your book. also The Rebuilding year series is one of my favorite rereads with one of the reasons being the excellent character crafting. I get so tired of bi people either being portrayed as sluts, whores of either sex, etc. or “Ya gotta put them in a threesome or else how will they know the character’s supposed to be bi!!”
Thank you. I really like that we are getting more guys who can move into a same-sex relationship without denouncing all their previous opposite-sex experience as lesser or fake. And yes, who can settle into one relationship without having to “prove” they’re bi forever after.
Queer stories told in a queer manner … huh, who woulda thought? (smirk) In all serious to your point. I struggled with it, too. As a lover and reader of Gordon Merrick’s work in the 70s I remember the angst I felt when Charlie strayed into a relationship with a woman and brought Peter into it. Eventually a child was in the mix. But as an aspiring queer youth in that era I wanted solidly gay men – I needed that voice in my head to know I was going to be okay and that I would find someone to have a lasting, thriving relationship. When I wrote Angels of Mercy this reared its head again because one of my main characters in this queer romance saga started to push at my boundaries and had a very intimate sexual relationship with a girl because he wanted to see if he would go there. It wasn’t something forced on either the boy or the girl in that scenario. It was mutually consented. And that 16 year old teen boy in me started to rebel. I didn’t want to write him this way. Then I thought: Wait a minute, you’re better than this. You know that all sorts make up the rainbow. Let him be what he needs to be and maybe, just maybe you’ll get something even richer for the exploration. As I leaned into it – setting aside that queer youth angst I realized I’d been carrying all along – I discovered that my character, Marco Sforza, became unconcerned with the actual label. He bandied about bi, straight, gay, queer and finally settling on pan (which a number of queer kids today – my queer granddaughter’s generation that has taught me so much) because he came to the resolve within himself that it wasn’t the gender or sexual identity that inflamed him, but the person inside is what ignited. He discovered, along with me as his creator, that his sexuality was much broader and far more enriching by NOT creating boundaries that would snuff the adventure of life from him. I’ve enjoyed writing him once I got over my 16 year old angst and just let him be who he was – fully formed and exploring his own path to living out loud and proud – labels be damned.
Thanks so much for that interesting insight. Marco is from your Angels of Mercy series, right? No doubt some past push-back against bi identity has been from a genuine if often unjustified feeling that it was used to dilute or retreat from gay identity, especially when there were so few open and out examples of successful gay relationships. I do think this generation, who have far more role models including married couples and gay parents, and where up to 25% of teens identify as LGBTQ, many of them bi/ pan, will see moving from a gay to a pan sexuality as an expansion, not a retreat.
[…] Kaje Harper has an article about Bi Characters and the Evolution of the Genre at Love Bytes […]