Have you ever thought about your characters being gay, lesbian, bi, ect.?

Yeah, sometimes things just happen. It can often be fun when they do, even if you don't know how it happened.

I have a character who's probably gay named Larry. I'm still fleshing him out, but the only possible love interest for him is a guy. Romance isn't a large focus of the story though, so I'm trying to go the subtle route. A big point of the story is about how diverse life is and how many different people are out there and that it's okay to be yourself. Larry is on a quest with his love interest Carl. It's like a humorous commentary on life. Or at least that's what I'm going for.

It sounds very interesting!

With most of my characters it just kind of happened. I fleshed out their personality and then realized they would probably be really attracted to and cute with another character who happened to be either the same or different gender. It was really a pairing of the characters, didn't put much thought into their genders when matching them all.

Yeah, I get that.

I make my characters LGBT+ only because I can slightly relate to them, and I want a sense of realism in my stories. I'm trans* and queer and I really enjoy expressing my feelings with characters whom I can relate to.

I'm thinking of having one of my MC's friend being Asexual and I'm probably going to have her be that.

I tend to base may major characters off of some part of my personality and then expand on them or add a variable that makes them completely different but still similar to me. Since I am straight, doing this with my characters never really made me think about writing someone of a different sexuality than I am except for minor characters.

I know what you mean. Everyone keeps saying, "Oh, we need more representation. We don't get enough." So, everyone seems to have some, or a lot, in their stories. I'm sure they do get enough representation, but none of the books are published yet. One day, a flood of LGBT+ books will come out (of the closet ba-da-ts), and I'm afraid my poor straight characters will be lost among it all.

My protagonist is bi-curious, but it's not something that has to be addressed within the bindings of her story.
As the writer, I feel like I have to say I'm straight.

Everyone is assumed gay/bi unless I explicitly say otherwise, so a reverse of real life.

Jeez, now that I think about it, both of my main protagonists (Alix and Cat) are lesbians, one of the main villains (Wit, Male) is bi and the other one (Fraya, Female) is straight, and the other protagonist (Winter, Male) who's in the second book is pan. Initially all 4 of the main characters, (Alix, Cat, Wit, and Fraya) were girls which would have made everything 10x gayer.

Mizu and Cael are lesbians for each other. There's actually a scene I'm planning where this happens.
Mizu: (gives Cael some alcohol) I… well… I don't just like you because of your eyes now.
Cael: Hehe… (drinks alcohol)
Mizu: You're so adventurous and upbeat. I think that I may be in… well, you know.
(Cael passes out from drinking too much alcohol)
The next morning…
Mizu: Morning, Cael. Did you enjoy sleeping with me?

Lucas is Asexual.
Bennentt is Pansexual.
Garrett is Bisexual.

I love different sexualities in characters because there are so few books that have them in it.

I haven't really thought of characters' sexualities too much (or romance at all, actually), but for the most part I tend to use the "all or nothing" approach and make them either pansexual or asexual. In general, if their sexuality isn't explicitly stated, then it's safe to assume they're pan.

I didn't start writing characters in the LGBTQ+ spectrum until after I figured who I am, where I belong in the spectrum. I wanted to write my experience being confused and finding who I am. I'm still in the closet, but I still wanted to share my experience through my writing. I want to get out and be proud of who I am, but I'm afraid of my family not being accepting of me. My parents are sort of traditional, add to the fact they're Asian, and even though they're exposed to the thought of gay people (seeing that my uncle is gay), but sometimes they make fun of people or make rude remarks about people apart of the LGBTQ+ community. My siblings are too young to understand, but it's scary thinking about my family knowing and not being accepting.

True, but people that aren't those main four would want more exposure to the world. To see more diversity. Wouldn't you agree?

I think lgbt representations outside of just pan bi ace and homo is suuuuuppppeeeerrrr important since if a poly individual sees their (just an example) sexuality it’ll just bring them confidence knowing people recognize their existence while also letting others see that poly is NOT the same as Pan or bi and that they won’t be pushed away as “making it up”

all the time

Shouldn't we get exposure to all on the spectrum though? I feel like people would appreciate the diversity, especially if they are one themselves. Although, if it isn't an accurate representation and just stereotypically then there will be criticism

No problem @Allatron

now that i think about it, i don't think i have any straight main characters haha

In most all of my stories, no one's sexuality is stated or easy to tell, because it's completely unrelated to the story. Am I the only one who's afraid that some of their straight characters are about to get lost in a fire of LGBT+? I mean, they're all wonderful, and I have a few characters that are LGBT+. But, I Don't think each story Has To have one. I think stories can be fine without.

I am currently writing a book where the protagonist is gay and he is trying to get out of an arranged engagement. There also is a prince, whom the protagonist falls in love with, who is polysexual. I hope that it turns out good. This book is mostly about love but I also want to write another story where the character isn't straight but it isn't the main focus.

The two biggest romantic subplots in TMB both are relevant here
Zaura, the 2nd protagonist has a crush on Angelica but Angelica is straight and engaged. This leads to some tension between Zaura and Jackson (Angelica's fiance) Angelica never directly talks to Zaura about her feelings as she dies in the beginning of the final book. But Zaura and Jackson cope with Angelica's death by leaning on each other and becoming good friends throughout the book.

The other is between Cameron and Carissa. Throughout the first two novels Cameron quite openly expresses his feelings for Carissa. (Carissa is asexual) Carissa let's him express himself by going into a relationship ship with him in the second novel. This does not last long as she betrays the group only 12 chapters later. Their relationship goes through a lot throughout the end of book two and the majority of book 3.

It all comes to a head after they fight in the pocket dimension (context? what's that? XD) Carissa defeats Cameron and uses her power to bare his mind to all of her experiences. Cameron understands Carissa, the way she feels about the rebellion and other humans in general, after a long talk, they make peace. Cameron openly says that he accepts Carissa the way she is and that all he ever wanted was for her to be happy.

Yeah Carissa dies to like 3 chapters later and the page I wrote it on is all messed up because I always cry when I read it. Yep. Yeppers. Representation is nice.

My only advice is don't write about the experience of it unless you have experienced it yourself. But feel free to make your characters anything you want.

I don't really think about my character's sexuality when I make them, or really at all until I decide for whatever reason they need a love interest. It isn't brought up, and I don't make a big deal out of it if a character is gay (For one I'm in no position to write about the struggle of being gay, and for two I don't want being gay to become the character. I'd rather them be remembered as "that character who was really shy but also had super cool powers and did all this cool stuff" than "The gay one"). Since it's not actually decided until I'm involving them in a romantic relationship my general rule is "Pansexual Until Stated Otherwise" that gives me freedom to pair them with whoever I see fit if I realize someone matches them (which is really how it normally goes, I like to pair by whether I think they're cute together and if I think their personalities meld). I actually have only a few characters with an explicitly stated sexuality.

My characters are almost always LGBTQ+ just because it makes me (as an LGBTQ+ person) relate to them and I feel like there isn't enough representation for the community. I'm with @Dallas, my characters are always "Pansexual unless stated otherwise" and have very few characters who have actually canon sexualities. Harvey is Demi-Homosexual and Kaden is Bisexual but, other than that, my characters are all basically "idk, bro, they date ppl" mostly because I'm indecisive. xD