Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

So I volunteered to be on a panel on "where's the rest of the acronym?" at NASFIC. The panel assignments aren't out yet, but I thought I ought to prep anyway, just in case.

I can only think of a few off the top of my head, so I thought I'd turn to my frenz on teh intarwebs for help. (I googled "bisexual protagonist sf" and found Mary Anne Mohanraj's list, but paging through, the vast majority is gay or lesbian. I disagree with her classification of Swordspoint's protagonists.)

So, what I'm looking for primarily are speculative fiction novels (or novellas, or short stories, I guess) that have main characters, either leads or part of an ensemble cast, who are from the BTQ* part of the acronym. Preferably *positive* depictions, please.

Bisexual
Alec Campion (Swordspoint) [canonically has female lovers, a wife, and a son]
Richard St Vier (Swordspoint) [canonically has a female ex-lover (Jessamyn)]
Aral Vorkosigan (Barrayar)
Desire (Sandman)
Henry (Blood Price/Tanya Huff)
Anise (Sing the Four Quarters/Tanya Huff)
Bannon and Vree (Fifth Quarter/Tanya Huff)
Sarah Rainmaker (Gen13)
Eric and Cory (Bedlam's Bard/Mercedes Lackey)
the Elfquest series
the Anita Blake series

Trans/Genderqueer
Dono Vorrutyer (A Civil Campaign; debatable whether this represents an actual trans narrative; I've read arguments against but not for.)
Iain Banks' Culture novels (also debatable; people can alter their bodies with a thought and show no attachment to either gender, particularly. Perhaps more post-gender than trans?)
Desire (Sandman)
Mission Child (Maureen McHugh)
Glasshouse (Charles Stross; debatable - see comments)
The Left Hand of Darkness (LeGuin; not strictly trans, but influential look at gender)
Tobin/Tamir (the Tamir Triad, Lynn Flewelling; also not *strictly* trans, but a critical look at gender essentialism)
Weetzie Bat (Francesca Lia Block)
Xenogenesis (Octavia Butler; third gendered aliens)
Imajica (Clive Barker; third gendered character)
Wanda (Sandman; controversial character)
Okha Soyan (Bloodhound/Tamora Pierce)

suggested but unsure where to classify
Blackjack (Lee Singer)

So, my friends who may be more well-read than I, what do *you* suggest? PS: Feel free to link!

To borrow an internet phrase, ORLY?

OK, as a matter of de gustibus, as the saying goes, non disputandum est. You don't like, you don't read, but don't disparage other folks' pleasure reading.

Yesterday, John Scalzi posted as his Big Idea du jour Malinda Lo's Ash, a retelling of Cinderella, where Cinderella's a lesbian. And no one in the story cares. Because queer folks need fairy tales, too, wherein there's no one yelling hate at them or forcing them into loveless marriages, and they all live happily ever after.

Some people take issue with this, saying that it's uninteresting to have a world without homophobia. Others say it's forcing heteronormativity onto a lesbian. The comment thread is pretty interesting.

So the first, as mentioned above, is a matter of taste. The second... I'm not sure. When you say a lesbian must XYZ or else it's heteronormative, that's stereotyping. Lesbians must be oppressed or you're heteronorming them.

Really? We can't posit that, say, 100 years in the future the desert patriarchal religions and their followers, as well as most major cultures, get their heads out of their asses and say "hey, love is love, and it doesn't matter which bits you have"? Of course, as we learned with the civil rights movement in the 60s, you can't legislate away hate, but you can encourage society along a more friendly path. So 200 years in the future, it's plausible that 95% or more of people just plain don't give a shit who other people sleep with.

Why is that a bad thing?

Why is it a bad thing to posit a fantasy world where nobody gives a crap about who's fucking whom? If we assume that most homophobia in the real world stems from the desert patriarchal religions (which led to the development of patriarchal societies), why would a fantasy world, which doesn't have that religion, necessarily have homophobia?

Someone over on Scalzi's blog said (paraphrase) that they were tired of all stories about GLBT characters being coming out stories or stories about dealing with oppression. They wanted to read about something that *isn't* what they deal with every goddamn day. What's so wrong about that?

And, as I said above, as a matter of taste, if a story about GLBT characters not dealing with oppression doesn't appeal to you, fine. Don't read it. But don't tell the rest of us that we're wrong to want that sort of thing.

Don't we want society to view being queer as normal? As a non-issue? Isn't that the goal of increasing visibility and awareness? So I'm seriously befuddled as to why positing a society that considers sexuality a complete non-issue is a bad thing.

I'm positing in my space future a world that doesn't give a shit whom you sleep with, at least in most of it. And now I've spent a good 45 minutes writing this when I should have been writing that, so back to it.