The Dragon Keeper "Controversial?" Hobb and sexuality. *Major Spoilers up to RWC!

[Lady Laura]

Thanks for that 'thul, that certainly must have been a big reason why Hest kept Sedric around for so long! And in Song of Ice and Fire, I didn't pick up on many homosexual hints, and the few I got seemed to give a bad impresion of gay ppl. G.R.R. Martin has said that 2 of the male characters in the books were in a relationship, but he never, as far as I recall, hinted to that in the book all that much. I was actually interested in those 2 characters, and was annoyed he didn't care to explore their relationship in the book. (Although I havn't yet read the last 2 published books in Song of Ice and Fire, but I can't help but assume that the same goes for them.)

And Nightchade, that was very enlightening Yes, i did get the impression that Jamaillia was a bit more relaxed and maybe open to different sexualities... but I keep thinking that people would be more accepting of homosexuality amoung the rich classes (there's a tendancy to just let wealthy people do as they wish, which Sedric seemed to highlight).

I definately agree with you, especially in this:

If the goal is to have believable characters despite a fantasy setting then really, failing to show this huge slice of human life, pretending it isn't there ,can never achieve this. It reinforces prejudice and further isolates gay/lesbian/TG people even more.

I've been feeling the exact same for years now. It irritates me so much that there are so few fantasy books (and other genres, but I'll focus on fantasy) that completely omit characters of varying sexuality. When I read books like those, no matter how good the books were, I just feel like there was a sense of unreality in the fact that all the characters were apparently hetrosexual. You're so right, it does reinforce prejudice and isolation! I only hope that gradually, fantasy authors will start portraying more than just hetrosexual characters and relationships. Hopefully Hobb's portrayal of gays in RWC has done something to change the "taboo" that may still exist around gay characters in fantasy.