Of all the mainstream literary genres, speculative fiction has long been the most progressive in accomodating themes alternative sexuality. For the longest time, authors embraced the lgbt community to shock and titilate their readers, and to drive an agenda of socio-political change. Whether it was as an extension of the counter-culture movement in the 60s, an outgrowth of radical feminism in the 70s, or the product of the 80s excess, the lgbt community was frequently used (and sometimes abused) by a wide range of authors.

As we've progressed through the 90s and into the new millenium, the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes and characters has become less of an event, and more an aspect of storytelling. Sometimes, a character is written as gay for the same reason he's written as having brown hair, or as a lesbian for the same reason she's written as having green eyes - just because that's how the story goes.

Most of the books I've gathered within deal with alternative sexualities in a positive, sympathetic manner. It may be a gay time-traveler, a transgender dragonslayer, a lesbian goddess, a bisexual sidekick, or anything and everything in between. There may be some works, especially in the horror genre, where the portrayal is a little more edgy and/or questionable, but I've done my best to exclude anything negative.

A few notes on the abbreviations I’ve used to tag books within the site:

• Bisexual – characters involved in both ‘straight’ and same-sex relationships
• Gay – characters involved in male/male relationships; societies that are exclusively male
• Herm – characters are hermaphrodites (i.e. possessing both male & female sex organs) or are neuters (i.e. possessing no sex organs)
• Lesbian – characters involved in female/female relationships; societies that are exclusively female
• TG – characters that experience a physical change of gender, either through magical, scientific, medical, or alien means (includes body-swaps)

All questions of gender and sexuality aside, these are great stories that are worth reading, regardless of who you are or how you define your place in the world. So, step on in, browse a bit, and enjoy!