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🏳️‍🌈 - Showing Queer Identity Without Labels

I left off my last blog post in this series with the question of subtlety in identifying queer characters in fiction. How subtle is too subtle? And how does one show queer identity in a casual but identifiable manner?

It is in this debate that the question of labels surfaces. A label is about the most obvious way possible to plant a flag in your book and say, "THIS CHARACTER IS QUEER!" While not required for education-intending or otherwise obvious representation, it is very common there, as well as in shorter forms of fiction where space is limited and more things need to be told, not shown. The English-speaking queer community has a plethora of labels for different identities: sexual orientations, gender experiences, romantic attractions, and every spectrum or combination thereof. This nuance is, for the most part, something to be celebrated.

From a global and historical perspective, it is also very rare.

Labels are a lot more niche in the grand scheme of things than many people who use them realize. For one, I specified "English-speaking" for a reason—many languages do not have these words, or all the same nuance captured in them. Many languages have their own labels with different nuances that may be broader, narrower, or culturally embedded in a way that's hard to explain to a non-native speaker, or anyone unfamiliar with the culture and its worldview. Many countries oppress queer people so heavily, the language there hasn't even had a chance to develop yet.

Secondly, most English queer-identity labels are a relatively new phenomenon on a historical timescale. Those that did exist in ancient times were often derogatory, or have become so over time. In many parts of the world, many identities simply weren't recognized in the past, or didn't make it into historical records, for reasons as varied as the circumstances queer humans find themselves in today. Colonialism has wiped out historical understandings of identity in many cultures (particularly those that used to be more inclusive than they are today), while evolution of understanding on what is appropriate and what is a slur has taken others.

And thirdly, this isn't just a Contemporary or Historical Fiction problem. Almost any speculative fiction writer can attest to the difficulty of wrangling our-world or anachronistic language in their books, and queer labels are no exception.

There are two major approaches to this. If you're writing spec fic like Sci-Fi or Fantasy (SFF), you have the option to make your own labels. However, this is a complex process, and runs the risk of transposing a lot of our-world bias and bluntness onto a fictional world. The alternative is to write without labels at all. This can be a good thing for many reasons. In contemporary or historical settings where labels are not prevalent, it's just realistic. It can help the author (and readers) steer clear of the boxes our minds put a character in—usually subconsciously—the moment we apply a label to them. This in turn leaves room for nuanced identities, questioning identities, identities that labels have never really done justice to, and identities just a little off from the "norm," all of which need representation.

There's also the question of the need for labels, or lack thereof, in inclusive SFF worlds. I've met many SFF authors who are of the mind that a truly inclusive society won't feel the need to label queer identities at all. There is merit to this. And in any context, time, or place, non-labeling allows queer characters (in Fantasy worlds or otherwise) to simply exist, as humans, without boxes, and concern themselves with more important things. Or, y'know, with the struggles that come with their identity, if someone's writing ownvoices. Non-labeling spans the whole spectrum of this.

So the question, then, becomes the one that this post is titled after: How do you show queer identity in a book without using labels?

Read on!

1. Relationships. I put this one first because it's the first thing most people's minds jump to. The most obvious possible flag for a gay character is who they marry, date, or (especially for bisexual identities) have dated before. This makes it a very clear marker! It's also very efficient, requiring only one mention to establish identity in some cases. The downside is, it's also inapplicable to a large swath of the queer community. It's not useful for asexual characters, bisexual ones who haven't dated much, gay ones who've only dated as society dictates, trans and generally genderqueer identities, anyone who hasn't dated much or at all, anyone who hides their backstory and/or doesn't disclose personal details, or books where romance is not a relevant topic of conversation that can come up organically. In short, it's very easy to use for a specific subset of queer characters and books, and kind of useless everywhere else.