05:24 am - QotD
"I wonder if this is just a property of a given audience and their worldview, and what attributes they can either accept in passing without much attention. If your background assumption is that gays are very rare and exotic, then having a gay character in the story feels like having a pistol hanging on the wall--it should be an important part of the plot, somehow. If your background assumption is that gays are part of the world that just show up now and again, then having a gay character in the story feels like having a painting on the wall--it could conceivably be important, but there's no need for the story to turn on that painting.
"And somewhere in here is the notion of visibility of differences. For all its brokenness, modern USian society doesn't hide away its gay members, handicapped members, black members, etc., as it once did. And that means that you can have a minor character in a wheelchair without justifying it by making the story about her struggles with life in a wheelchair, or a gay couple as important characters in a story, without the story being *about* them being gay. It's just another detail to bring those characters to life, like having someone with red hair or something."
-- albatross (commenter at Making Light), 2010-07-21