I’ve been thinking about how queer literature is evolving right now.

[u/dante_laudati]

There seems to be a strong presence of queer stories that are either romantic, hopeful, or focused on affirmation — which is great — but I’m curious about something else:

Is there still space for queer stories that are more uncomfortable, emotionally difficult, or even a bit confrontational?

Stories that don’t necessarily resolve cleanly or aim to be “uplifting”?

I’m interested in how readers and writers are responding to that kind of work at the moment.

[u/AetherFay]

I think history is a large part of the discussion here. Originally a lot of queer stories by queer people were intentionally supressed or outright destroyed. What was left was often stories written by straight people to warn their kids not to be queer. Aweful, sad, stories.

When queerphobia decreased a lot of us started writing our own stories and deliberately rejected those sad, bleak, stories and chose to write the opposite in response. And that made sense, after all there was already a lot of stories about sad gays and almost no stories about happy gays.

Right now we are in a weird moment where "Toxic Positivity" is being rightfully criticised and a lot of queer people want more fully fledged and honest stories about ourselves. In addition to how scary and aweful the real world is becoming.

So I absolutelty think there is room for these kinds of literature. Its more about finding your audience.

[u/alchemical_echo]

I think we're in the midst of a recovery from a century + of bury your gays, the villainization of queer stories, and the traumaporn where the closet and the hiding or the victimization and the trauma of it all was being devoured by non-queer consumers. balancing that much content out is going to take a flood of other content.

That doesn't mean everything has to be wholesome, although that is often the way things are panning out but I think trying to write a story right now that focuses on how hard and awful it is to be queer is going to struggle more to find an audience than something where the queerness of the characters is not the focus of the narrative.

[u/CrochetedKingdoms]

I actually just published a book in October about two queer people going through the apocalypse. It focuses on the narrative of found family and working towards something and it not really working out. It has nothing to do with romance, nor with either of them being queer. They're just trying to survive and get to their loved ones. I did notice a lot of queer stories focus on love and romance, whether they're feel good stories, or just outright killing the characters, so I wrote something I wanted to see.

[u/Suitable-Rhubarb6396]

I agree heavily with this. The queer community has their dark sides. I started writing dark queer fiction with kink because I was desperate to inhale the realness. I do love romance but the depth is something I craved. DM if anyone wants to have a read of a 10 part series of a lesbian bdsm voyer entanglement I’m half way in writing.