Queer Writers Shouldn't Have to Apologize for Writing Heterosexual Romances

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this note from an author:

“Sorry, this is a straight romance…Please don’t hate me!”

Wow.

Why did they apologise for something as ordinary as a straight romance?

For context, this was in Pokemon fanfiction. The main character is Piers, the Dark type gym leader in the Pokemon Sword and Shield games.

Piers is a punk musician, has long ponytails up to his hips, and wears eyeshadow all the time. He also wears a lot of pink (technically magenta.)

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with straight men who have long hair, use makeup, or wear pink.

But because Piers has such an androgynous, gender-nonconforming appearance, it’s hard for us queer folks to see him as a cisgender straight man.

One reason is that queer men are uncommon, so it’s encouraging to see a video game character who could be read as gay, bisexual, or transgender.

When you rarely see people like you in mainstream media, including popular video games, why wouldn’t you grasp onto the hope that this beautiful, brave, and powerful pokemon trainer is a fellow member of the LGBTQ+ community?

The subtle art of writing “straight romances”…

All that said, fanfiction is a place where the author is free to fantasize and write whatever they wish.

Just because gay romances greatly outnumber straight romances in Piers fanfiction, doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to write the latter.

See note at the end of this article for evidence that gay romances are way more common than straight romances for Piers fanfics.

It’s also important to recognize that even if he’s being shipped (i.e. paired) with a female character, that doesn’t mean he is straight.

I’ve seen several romances with him and a girl, where he is bisexual. Some fics mention him having a male ex.

Moreover, a few of these hetero romances have Piers as a trans man. So that’s not cis straight, that’s for sure.

As an aside, while I adore gay trans romances, it’s good to see some straight trans romances as well. E.g. Between a trans man and a cis woman.

Some trans folks I know identify as straight. Some of them told me that they feel like an outcast in LGBTQ+ groups, because even though they’re transgender, they are only attracted to folks of the opposite gender.

So it’s awesome to see more celebration of diversity.

Likewise, I always feel for bisexuals and pansexuals who are read as straight just because they’re with an opposite gender partner.

It would be wonderful if society learns that bi and pan people with an opposite gender partner, are just as valid as those involved with a same-gender partner. It doesn’t make them any less queer.

How about cis straight romances?

So far, I’ve read just one romance where Piers was a cis guy who was only attracted to women, not men.

Admittedly, I felt bewildered, since I was so used to Piers being queer.

But still, this is fanfiction so the author has the freedom to write the characters as any sexual orientation. As long as they’re not being homophobic about it, of course.

This leads us into a deeper issue that few people address:

The fault isn’t with straight romances or characters. The fault is with homophobic attitudes. Obviously being heterosexual doesn’t mean you will be a bigot. And I’m sure you’ve met queer people with internalized homophobia too.

Once, a cis straight male friend mentioned, in an effort to support me, “There’s nothing wrong with being straight or gay.”

That struck me, because I realized that, subconsciously, I saw heterosexual as boring. But there’s actually nothing wrong with being straight. It is just as natural and normal as being gay, bisexual, pansexual, etc.

The point isn’t to kick straight people out of our lives. Rather, it’s to make more room for queer people to take the stage as well.

What’s more, I do genuinely enjoy some romances between cis straight people.

My ideal is to be able to enjoy romances involving any genders equally, to see them as simply a person loving another person (or people, for poly romances).

There was a time in my life where I lost interest in all straight romances, and I binged hundreds of gay romances like no tomorrow. (Yes, I actually counted. It’s not an exaggeration.)

But thankfully, I’ve gotten back to the point where I can love any gender pair. Yes, I admit that I still favor same-gender couples. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a straight romance, nor does it mean that I’m guaranteed to enjoy a gay romance.

One of the latest romances I’ve gotten excited about, happens to be between a cis woman and a cis man. We don’t know for sure if the two of them are straight, but neither has mentioned same-gender attractions before.

So, why should we apologize for writing straight romances?

We shouldn’t.

There’s nothing wrong with writing a love story between a woman and a man. Even if they’re both cisgender and heterosexual.

The fight for equality literally means equality, not a “squash the straights under our foot” kind of thing.

Such vengeful thinking, though understandable, will only hurt us in the end.

Another issue, is that some queer authors, including myself, feel embarrassed if we want to write a heterosexual romance. As if we’re “betraying” our tribe.

It’s better if one or both partners are bisexual or pansexual, or if one or both are transgender.

But if they’re both cishet, then it becomes extra embarrassing.

It’s quite sad why we have to worry about the type of romance we’re writing.

Like we need to stick strictly to “our team.”

I hope that one day, we will live in a world where no one would feel any shame for writing a romance between any genders. Even if they’re the opposite gender!

How about you? Do you also find it baffling that some folks feel the need to apologize for writing a straight romance?

Here is evidence that gay romances far exceed straight romances in popularity when it comes to Piers fanfiction.

I checked out Archive of Our Own, which is one of the biggest fanfiction websites. They have a handy tool that shows you specific numbers for different categories.

For stories with the “Pokemon Sword and Shield” tag that have Piers as a character:

917 are M/M (romances between two male characters)

390 are F/M (romances between a female and a male character)

For the “Pokemon main video games series” tag, fics with Piers have:

942 M/M

399 F/M

For the “Pokemon all media types” tag, fics with Piers have:

973 M/M

422 F/M

For criticisms that fanfics are mostly gay anyway, I searched through the tags without specifying any characters.

For Pokemon all media types, we got

21,064 F/M

17,711 M/M

6549 F/F

(Yes we want more F/F ships!)

For the Pokemon main video games series tag, we got

11,986 F/M

10,902 M/M

3,766 F/F

Interestingly, for the Pokemon Sword and Shield tag, we got

3038 M/M

2302 F/M

601 F/F

So for Pokemon in general, most ships written are straight. But in Sword and Shield, most are gay male. For Piers fics, the overwhelming majority are gay.

You may not agree with which way Piers swings, which is fine. But when it comes to the fanfic community, most fanfic authors see Piers as queer rather than straight. (Not to mention that some of the F/M ships actually have Piers as bisexual and/or transgender.)