I’m way late blogging this, but: rachelmanija and sartorias talk about being asked by an agent to turn a gay character straight.

They found, along the way, that other writers have had similar experiences, and they go on to suggest things we can do, whatever our role as readers, writers, or other industry professionals, to help counteract the still-lagging representation of LGBTQ characters in YA fiction.

Malinda Lo has some numbers on that lagging representation.

(Neither Rachel nor Sherwood identified the agent in question. The agency later choose to identify itself and accused the authors of misrepresenting their conversation to draw attention to their book. I wasn’t present for that conversation and can say little about it, but I can say this: I’ve known Rachel and Sherwood for some years and never found them to be anything but truthful. I also don’t believe they would have gone public at all if they thought this was only about their book; and I know from talking with them that their concern for seeing gay and minority teens more fully represented is real and true and ongoing.)