# Gay characters in books. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951 "2005-12-16T18:43:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/21 "2005-12-17T01:39:44Z")
More SF It’s implied in David Weber’s Honorverse that female bisexuality is the norm on Grayson. (A world with a 3:1 ratio of women to men.) Lois McMaster Bujold also has the book Ethan of Athos, with the main character from a planet without women. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/22 "2005-12-17T01:47:02Z")
> [@Miss Mapp](#): > > James Baldwin’s _Giovanni’s Bedroom_. And _Another Country_. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/23 "2005-12-17T01:59:06Z")
One of Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger books includes a gay unicorn; it’s mentioned when Mudge asks him why he wasn’t fascinated by a virgin maiden like unicorns are supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/24 "2005-12-17T02:02:19Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > [The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060974974/qid=1134773918/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-7986852-0274253?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) (about gay cowboys, incidentally, and a really messed up book in general, but intriguing), Beautiful book, but its been three or four years since I’ve read it and its still gives me the heebie jeebies. So wrong. And yet intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/25 "2005-12-17T02:31:57Z")
Robin Hobb’s three trilogies include a major gay or bi character (it’s never fully established which). If the book I’m currently editing ever gets published, it also includes a major gay character. And I made gay marriage in my world legal. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/26 "2005-12-17T02:45:15Z")
In Diane Duane’s Tale of Five books, everybody is bisexual. In the Sten series by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch, two minor characters are gay lovers ( universal among their species ). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/27 "2005-12-17T05:08:41Z")
> [@FisherQueen](#): > > I think you can make a pretty strong argument that Sebastian, in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” is gay. Er, considering he falls in love with and marries Olivia at the end… His sidekick/shipwreck companion Antonio, on the other hand, is very clearly aflame. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/28 "2005-12-17T06:31:45Z")
Wikipedia’s [Fictional LGBT Characters category](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_LGBT_characters) is prob’ly worth a look. As well as the [gay comics characters](http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/index.php) site. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/29 "2005-12-17T06:36:33Z")
I read “The Odessa File” recently and was kind of surprised that one of the minor characters was gay. > [@Sampiro](#): > > Patricia Highsmith’s _Talented Mr. Ripley_ and its sequels (curious for their chronological oddities- Ripley is in his 20s in the late 1950s and not yet 40 in the early 1980s) featured a gay anti-hero. Perry Smith in Capote’s _In Cold Blood_ was gay; some theorize that he and Dick Hickock were prison lovers, but the affair ended when they were released and Dick went back to women. That’s right; I had thought when I read the OP that I had never read a book with a gay main character, but Tom Ripley sure is gay, or at any rate bisexual (he’s married in one of the later books). That was kind of a theme with Highsmith; there was more than a bit of a gay subtext in “Strangers on a Train.” I think Highsmith herself was a lesbian. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/30 "2005-12-17T08:16:40Z")
I suspect Elliot in “_The Razor’s Rdge_” is gay, as was Somerset Maughm himself. Of course that probably makes the book’s narrator gay as well, since he seems to be writing as himself. At any rate, the narrator is a writer and seems to travel in the appropriate social circles. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/31 "2005-12-17T08:25:22Z")
Some say that Antonio from The Merchant of Venice is gay, though I never saw it myself. Apparently it is the reason for his angsting at the beginning, because Bassanio has fallen in love with a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/32 "2005-12-17T08:33:42Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > Some say that Antonio from The Merchant of Venice is gay, though I never saw it myself. Apparently it is the reason for his angsting at the beginning, because Bassanio has fallen in love with a woman. It’s portrayed that way in the most recent film version (with Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes in the roles). They share a romantic kiss before Bassanio leaves. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/33 "2005-12-17T09:11:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It’s portrayed that way in the most recent film version (with Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes in the roles). They share a romantic kiss before Bassanio leaves. Really? I was thinking of seeing that movie when I heard it was being made but I never saw any ads and the IMDB doesn’t have an Australian film rating for it. Is there any reason for it to not be released in Australia? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/34 "2005-12-17T09:50:31Z")
Coast Guard Captain Marian Alston, a lesbian who is the master of several martial arts, in the Nantucket Trilogy by S. M. Stirling, and her girlfriend/sidekick Swindapa, the woman from 1250 BC. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/35 "2005-12-17T17:43:52Z")
Try reading Plato’s _Symposium_ for a very frank comic discussion of homosexual attraction. Key points: Alcibiades drunken decleration that he has the hots for Socrates, despite Socrates being the ugliest man in Athens, and Aristophanes’ comic legend on the origin of love, both hetero- and homosexual. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/36 "2005-12-18T03:01:50Z")
How about Xena and Gabrielle? ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/37 "2005-12-18T03:29:16Z")
> [@QuizCustodet](#): > > One more SF/Fantasy example: Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar novels featured an old magician named Kulgan and his “free servant” Meecham. This flew straight over my head at the time, but I’ve since heard the author confirm that these two guys were not living together just because Meecham made good coffee. > [@Miller](#): > > :smack: > > Never picked up on that one. I opened this thread to mention Feist’s work. There’s a more openly gay character later in another related series of his, but I can’t recall the character’s name at the moment. I remember posting about him in a thread a loooong time ago, and giving kudos to Feist (one of my favorite SF authors) for being progressive. Then someone responded in that thread saying something to the effect of, “Um…Feist has been quoted confirming that Kulgan and Meecham were more than friends.” It was one of the more resounding “Duh!” moments I’ve ever had on The Dope, considering I started reading Feist when I was 12, and am still reading him to this day (Just bought _Talon of the Silverhawk_ and _King of Foxes_ on paperback weekend before last). There’s also an openly gay character in Guy Gavriel Kay’s _Tigana_. Melanie Rawn (I haven’t read her, but my girlfriend has) has openly gay characters in her later books. And though downplayed in the movie, the lesbian relationship in the book _Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe_ is much more obvious. Which brings to mind _Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil_ as well. I’m sure I’ll think of some others. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/38 "2005-12-18T03:45:38Z")
“The Kid” in Stephen King’s _The Stand_ could qualify. In the uncut version, he Forces Trashcan Man to masturbate him to orgasm by sticking a gun in Trash’s rectum. I suppose that one could argue that that was more based on circumstance, but I disagree. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/39 "2005-12-18T04:49:20Z")
**glbtq** ’s encyclopedia has [this thorough article](http://www.glbtq.com/literature/myst_fic_gay.html) about gay males in mystery fiction. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951/40 "2005-12-18T15:15:14Z")
Black Jack Randall and Lord John Grey from Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series are both gay. Ruth and Idgie from “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe” were lesbians. Hollywood sanitized the relationship a bit in the movie, but the undertones were there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-characters-in-books/335951.md?page=3)