This year, I'm doing an honors thesis about coming out stories in young adult fiction. As one would expect, I've spent a few months collecting different books in preparation for that, and I have quite the assortment now. Looking through my box of books, it's come to my attention more than once that while these books are diverse, they aren't diverse enough. Coming out encompasses the LGBTQIA+ community, but I could only easily find lesbian and gay texts, as well as one bisexual text that I had already read. I had to ask around on Twitter and Tumblr for recommendations for other sexuality, especially for trans, non-binary, and asexual characters.
This is a smaller version of a larger problem: in the world of books, books about members of the LGBTQIA+ are much less common than books about cisgender, heterosexual people. Books about these minorities aren't advertised enough, which is so saddening considering how many people out there identify with outside of heterosexuality and being cisgender. There are so many people out there who identify in the LGBTQIA+, and these people are so desperate to find their identity somewhere else in media.
As I've learned from working on this project and a lot of talking with a lot of people who do identify this way, these stories are important. These stories teach people who are already struggling to accept themselves that they are not alone and that they are not wrong for feeling the way that they do. These stories are reassurance that their identity matters, and seeing so many branches of this community being underrepresented upsets me so greatly.
The point of fiction is to find a new part of yourself through a connection to the story: a character, a theme, or even a line that resonates with you. Any avid reader will be able to identify books and characters that mean a lot of them. The best characters, writing students are taught, are the ones that many people will be able to connect to because that will cause them to be invested in the character's plight.
Seeing that connection is such an important part of fiction writing and in the reading experience, shouldn't publishers be more concerned with advertising and selling books that will resonate with people outside of the stereotypical cisgender, heterosexual person? Why is it that when these companies stray from the stereotypical, they only focus on gays and lesbians? What about bisexuals, pansexuals, asexuals, trans men and women, intersex people, or non-binary people? These people are just as valid as any heterosexual person, and they deserve to see themselves in books and other media just as much as any heterosexual.
After all, love is love. People are people. They deserve to be able to be accepted for who they are and how they are meant to live. There's been a lot of diversity in young adult stories regarding the LGBTQIA+ in recent years, but it's safe to say that there is so much left to do.
Always remember that love is love, and your love is no less valid than anyone else's.
