Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-38091275-20190322183431/@comment-96.233.147.248-20190727191054

Look folks, I’m seeing a lot of people on here saying things along the lines of “oh its for 8-12 year olds, some kids don’t know that being gay is,” or “she could lose readers and it would hurt her finacially” but seriously, representation is REALLY IMPORTANT, even in (and maybe especially) middle grade/kids books. A relationship between to girls or two boys isn’t more mature than one between a girl and a boy, and since Shannon is including hetero relationships, she should include LGBT+ charcters and relationships too. For kids, its important for them to see themselves or their family/friends represented in books, bc it serves as education that love is love and LGBT+ people exist. For LGBT+ kids, seeing themselves represented in their favorite book is important and can be very encouraging and inspiring for them. Straight, cisgender kids see themselves represented in tons of books, and LGBT+ kids should be allowed to to see themselves in books too. And honestly, as long as an author does research and tries their hardest, representation isn’t super hard. Think about Rick Riordan — he’s a straight, white, cis, male and he writes amazing diverse characters. Saying a straight author can’t write gay characters is like saying female authors can’t write male charcters. Also, Shannon has two more books lined up already with a publisher, and a well established fanbase, so she would be able to get by, I’m sure. As an older member of this fandom, (I’m 16) I feel its SUPER SUPER IMPORTANT to let you guys know it is very possible to do LGBT+ representation, an author just has to be dedicated to making sure the characters is more than getting brownie points for their sexuality.

(whew that was long winded, but I hope I made my point)

—magicalwalrus