I'm so glad to see that this thread gained traction overnight.

[@Kassarock] [@POOHEAD189]

Really helpful advice from both of you. Thanks so much for contributing! It reminds me of why I started the thread in the first place, actually. One of my closest friends is gay, and we were chatting about the value of minority representation in the media. A lot of film and TV shows seem to depict queer characters as either total stereotypes/caricatures or people who could pass as straight if they didn't tell you they were gay/lesbian/bi. There's much more of a spectrum in real life. However, my friend had a really good point that while caricatures can be offensive if done in poor taste, that doesn't mean that queer characters can't ever have stereotypical tendencies. It can also be offensive/hurtful to send a message that they [i]have[/i] to be ambiguous enough that their sexuality is unclear, so having a mix of both can be cathartic for people who may feel like it's been ingrained in them to avoid "being a stereotype" at all costs.

I can't speak much to that same point regarding POCs, but I agree for sure that it would be nice to see more variety on the site. I think a lot of people overthink it and know that I even did for a while before I started branching out from straight white male characters. More than anything else, I've noticed the changes to my minority characters are predominantly in their histories. How they were raised, the building and wounding messages they received in adolescence, what their families were like, etc. At the end of the day, they're all human and that's the most important thing to remember, but I've learned that there's something beautiful in at least acknowledging some of the cultural differences between my white, black, Latinx, Asian, Native, etc characters who were brought up by more traditional families. Which is where some advice from people with life experience could be helpful if anyone reading the thread has anything they want to share in that department! :)

[@Crystal Amalgam]

Honestly, I love hearing from trans people, so anything you want to add about mental health and psychology is totally fine with me. Thanks for sharing! I think trans people are probably the single most underrepresented group on the forum (at least, from what I've seen) so it's really helpful to hear advice on how to write them as characters. That's the one group I haven't tried to write, myself. It's mostly because gender dysphoria is a thing I have experience with and haven't reached a point of comfort enough to create a character that's been through it too, but for other people, it could be helpful to learn about trans people both for general understanding and for better knowing how to approach a character if they want to give it a shot.