Sam Adama, the bad-ass Mafia* hitman and uncle of Willy Adama in Caprica(which really deserved to last longer than it did) was gay.
The show also did a really good job of showing just what it would be like to be gay in a society where there really was no homophobia.
I still love the scene where he’s talking to Willy as there walking along street and he’s telling Willy about how when he and Joseph(Willy’s father) were growing up how he and Joseph would go to this particular teenage hangout where Joseph would try and pickup “all the cute girls, while I’d try and pick up their brothers. He was more successful”, and how Willy doesn’t even bat an eyelash.
*. Yeah, technically he’s not a member of the Mafia, but it’s an organization that’s clearly modeled in part on La Cosa Nostra and on the Russian Mafiya(or “Thieves-in-law”).
Which makes his gayness realistic in my view, however fantastical the rest of the book is. The vast majority of gay people I’ve known are just like everybody else, except for whom they have sex with. There’s nothing “gay” about their behavior in most aspects of their life outside of sexuality.
They certainly were capable of pair bonding, but not all of them chose to do that. Clearly it was an option for them.
And outside of kemmer it’s wrong to say they’re “male” or “masculine” - in The Left Hand of Darkness male pronouns are used but that’s because it’s written in English. Outside of kemmer Gethenians are neither male nor female. From their viewpoint, being continually male or female is freakish and perverted. I don’t think “homosexual”, “heterosexual”, or “bisexual” really applies.
By the account in “Deathly Hallows,” Dumbledore had a strong emotional bond with Grindlewald, which was broken only by the disaster regarding Dumbledore’s sister; the fact that Dumbledore appears to have never again had such a bond with a peer is certainly consistent with the idea that Grindlewald was Dumbledore’s first love and that the disastrous end of that relationship led to Albus’ lack of romantic inclinations later in his life.
What exactly do you want him to do, that would be gay enough for you? Do you complain that there is nothing really straight about straight characters? And if a character’s sexual orientation isn’t stated, and can’t be ascertained by his actions, do you just assume he’s asexual?
To be honest, if a character’s sexual orientation isn’t stated, I’ll assume he’s probably straight.
Gays make up only about 3-4% of the US population, which is not meant as a knock. I’m a Muslim and we make up a smaller percentage and Iranian-Americans make up an even smaller percentage.
For that matter, if its never stated whether a character is right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous, I’ll assume he’s right-handed.
Sometimes I’m thrown when a character in a book suddenly turns out to be something “unusual”. To use your example, perhaps a Muslim. I will realize I have assumed he is “normal” and will often find there are clues that I’ve overlooked because of making that assumption. I suppose I fill in the gaps of the character quite quickly in my imagination, before all the details come out. So I can understand making the assumption, but I don’t think it’s a good one to make. Having thought about it I’ve made the conscious decision to try to avoid doing so.
Actually, no. She was bisexual. Before the events of the first book she was barely sexual at all and primarily interested in academic pursuits. When the protagonists ship was then captured and the crew isolated for a time, she experienced it as 20 years of sensory deprivation and it affected her outlook profoundly. The first person saw next was Cirocco, and she fell for her hard. But she wasn’t exclusively gay before or after.
I once read an essay by Le Guin in which she lamented her use of the masculine pronouns in the book; she considered it a major flaw, but at the same time wasn’t really comfortable with any alternatives.
Also, I’ve been trying to remember the title of this book for years now. I loved it, and my happiness in being reminded of the title is matched only by my irritation that Morgan still hasn’t written the sequel.
I enjoy a pile-on as much as anyone, but maybe the OP is interested in SF protagonists who are gay because s/he wants examples that really feature the impact it has on the book/movie.
If nobody knew Dumbledore was gay but for an extra-canonical statement from the author, it’s not a great example.
Melissa Scott has written a large number of science fiction novels with gay protagonists. She also wrote 2 fantasy mysteries featuring a pair of gay protagonists (*Point of Hopes *and Point of Dreams) with her partner, Lisa Barnett.
Another example, Maureen McHugh’s *China Mountain Zhang *is one of my favorites–set in a world where communist China takes over the US, it features a gay main character. It is never preachy, however, and his gayness is simply marker of his foreignness in the world he inhabits, not his defining character trait.
There are also a lot of new fantasy / speculative fiction writers who have gay or bisexual main characters. It’s increasingly no longer something to be remarked upon. Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, for example, both feature GLBT main characters in some of their works.
I’d like to second “The Lost Girl” because the protagonist is a LOT gayer than the other TV series gay people. She’s a fae, a succubus, and she is bisexual, and being a succubus is VERY sexually oriented, since she draws people’s life forces frm them during sex. She learns how to control it, winds up in a relationship with a male werewolf and a female doctor who specializes in treating the fae, and it’s the female doctor that she winds up in a long term relationship with, and it’s very front and center, though not in a porny way. I would say the gayest character on non premium TV because her sexuality is so central to her character.
Also, what was the deal with those sime/gen novels by what’s her name? Weren’t they gay or something? Or gay-ish? I don’t recall, I read one of them but it was a long time ago.
There is something straight about the straight characters, almost everyone in the series has an explicitly stated romantic interest in someone of the opposite sex. Dumbledore doesn’t have any romantic interest. There’s no reason to think he’s gay, other then what Rawling’s has said outside of the books. Gangster’s meaning is perfectly clear.
Anyhoo, I’ll add the TV show Orphan Black which has three gay central characters.