Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette – “Queer is what’s different from the local custom peak, not necessarily preferring a partner of the same sex.
“What can you do with a culture where something else is the “queer” trait? How does that compare and contrast with the experiences of homosexual people in contemporary culture?
“Frex, in the Northern culture of Torn World, nobody cares if you like to rub bits with a same-sex partner (although they do push procreation for survival reasons), but wanting to keep the *same* partner forever is weird. In Terramagne, the weird pairings are someone with superpowers and someone without or superhero/supervillain. Still happens a lot, but there is some very rude slang indicating social disapproval of it.”
So I’ll riff off of Elizabeth’s observations. In Fantasy and Sci Fi especially, we have the opportunity to flip things around and take a look at today’s social issues from a different prespective.
Do my questions today – as a writer, have you written anything that takes current society, especially in regards to LGBT issues, and flips it on its head? How about some plot bunnies in this area? And as a reader, have you read any books that did this well?