On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, Hayesman wrote:

Y'know, I've realized something that kind of disturbs me.
I mean, alot of fics out there have lesbians or lesbianized characters in 
them, i.e. "Confessions".
I saw the "BGC lemon" and though, "Dang, never seen one of those before". 
 So I skimmed through it to find that it was a Lina on Nene fic.  Yeah, 
right.  Priss on Nene, maybe.  But Lina?  No way.  (BTW, that "let's do a 
59" line was about the funniest thing I've ever read.  Way to go 
Vermilion)

And I started to think: where do people get off (no pun intended) on 
writing all this stuff about lesbians?  Do you know any lesbians?  Are 
you lesbains?  What right have you to write about lesbians?

I mean, I'm a writer of comics, and I like to write sex comedies/ 
romance, but I wouldn't feel right about writing about a homosexual or a 
homosexual relationship unless I did some research.  I'm sure we've all 
heard the line "everyone has at least a gay cousin"; well, I don't.  I'm 
the only person I know who doesn't directly know a homosexual individual. 
 That strangely makes me feel out of the loop.  
Me, personally?  I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body.  Seriously, I'm a 
sensitive guy who likes girls and girl stuff.  And I look like John 
Balushi.

Has anyone read "Gay comics"?  It's an anthology.  Good one too.

Nope, haven't

Back to the topic, I think this is a serious point that needs discussion.
Any authors with experience or knowledge who would like to share with me 
would be very much appreciated.  I feel that such information will be 
vital for writers of the future because of the emminent greater 
acceptance of gays in entertainment.  Try naming a sitcom without a token 
gay character.

Anyway, any experience or information, please contact me.  I'd rather 
discuss with my friends here than get caught browsing thought the "Gay 
and Lesbian Literature" sectionof Barnes and Nobles. (not that there is 
anything wrong with that)

HAYES

Okay, let me go at this from the perspective of another person who is
totally devoid of gay relations (at least as far as I know).  Now, I
wrote a certain character called Perfume, a bi-sexual and totally willing
to admit it.  Do I have one trance of first hand knowledge of gay or
bisexual people, not one bit.  Have I got ideas, yes.  Are they right, who
knows?  If someone feels I'm wrong about how such an individual would act
I'd be glad to hear about it and I could work on fixing that.  However,
from my admittedly limit experience with indirect contact and knowledge
I've come to the conclusion that gays and bi-sexuals are as variable as
heterosexuals.  The ways they approach relationship and their beliefs
about what a relationship is are strongly personal to the person and
aren't easily generalized.  So, I explore how such a person thinks, what
they believe and maybe give myself some insight (which actually I did).
With some luck I'm close to being right.
So what right do I have to right about such a person, none other than the
fact that I had an idea.  Is that sufficient?  Well, as long as no one
takes my interpretation of a bisexual as a textbook example then it should
be.  We all take liberties of knowledge when we write.  Science-fiction
is based on this.  Actions stories are usually based on this.  I don't
claim to be right and I probably never will.  As long as you keep this in
mind when you read fiction, _fiction_ being the operative word, with this
in mind everything should be fine.

Wade Tritschler