Queer Romance

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    Works that have a same-sex and/or transgender romance as a major theme.

    In the West, gay and lesbian romances aimed at LGBT readers have existed as a publishing niche since the 1950s, but are still relatively obscure (and Sturgeon's Law applies to what can be found). Most broadly-known Western same-sex and LGBT romances are aimed at general audiences, and have a tendency to be tragic.

    In Japanese media, these have more well-defined genre expectations and usually fall into the Boys Love (m/m romance for a female audience), Bara (m/m romance for gay/bi men), and Girls Love (f/f romance generally, although there is a separation between works for men, for women in general, and for lesbians in specific).

    Sub-genres:

    Examples of Queer Romance include:

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    Anime and Manga

    • Arashi no Yoru ni was always this, but became most obvious after the 2005 animated film, when both lead characters were cast with unmistakably male voices.
    • Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa is a Romantic Comedy with an intersex protagonist.
    • Wandering Son is a Slice of Life revolving around two Transsexual children. While Takatsuki (a trans boy) doesn't seem to have had a crush yet, his mostly-lesbian trans girl friend has had quite a few crushes on girls (including Takatsuki himself). It doesn't work well considering the objects of her affection think of her as a boy.
      • Aoi Hana, by the same author, has a predominantly straight cast overall, but the main characters are mostly lesbians.

    Comics

    • The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green Book website. (Also made into a movie in 2005)
    • Ralf König's comics, such as Konrad and Paul, The Killer Condom and The Most Desired Man.
    • Dykes to Watch Out For is about lesbian romance, mixed with drama and political commentary.

    Film

    Literature

    • Affinity
    • Annie on My Mind, a lesbian Young Adult novel. That rare thing: one with a definite happy ending for the lesbian couple.
    • At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill
    • Boy Meets Boy, a queer high school romance (and possibly the most cheerful and adorable one ever at that) by David Levithan
    • The Book of All Hours, where the central story is Jack trying to save his love Thomas from dying by finding the one fold in the multiverse of the Vellum where he isn't murdered. Also, a brutal criticism of the trope Bury Your Gays.
    • The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley
    • A fair number of British boarding-school stories written by Dorita Fairlie-Bruce and Angela Brazil, among others. Just to what extent these reflect overt lesbianism is up to you, but kissing between best friends (implied to be several kisses in a row, delivered with feeling, and not just a hesitant stolen peck) occurs in the canons of both the above authors and would appear to satisfy this trope.
    • Some of Edgar Pangborn's post-holocaust stories feature strong same-sex friendships, often implied to be gay ("Tiger Boy") if not stated outright ("Harper Conan and Singer David", "The Night Wind"). And yes, most of these friendships/romances are doomed, one way or another.
    • Empress of the World
    • Fingersmith
    • Giovanni's Room
    • Havemercy, at least for half of it. And that's not even the tragic side of the story.
    • Hero
    • King And King is a children's book about a prince who falls in love with another prince, rather than any of the princesses presented to him. Caused quite a bit of controversy...
    • The Last Herald-Mage trilogy of the Heralds of Valdemar series has The Hero Vanyel's homosexuality as a primary plot element. His first love, Tylendel, awakens him not only to his sexual orientation but also to his mage powers, and his sexuality and the reactions of others to it is a defining part of his characterization.
    • Maurice: The 1987 film is better known than the novel (written circa 1913 but only published in 1971).
    • The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault
    • Slave World has many relationships that breaks with heteronormativity in many ways, from being same-sex relationships to having a power dynamic that isn't at all based on gender.
    • Tipping the Velvet

    Live Action TV

    Music

    Theater

    • There are several romantic pairings in the play The Miracle At Naples, but possibly the most adorable is the two male best friends who fall for each other.
    • Among other themes that were considered subversive at the time, there is a gay romantic pairing in the play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind (you may know it from the recent musical version).

    Videogames

    • The Freeware Game Calamity Annie.
    • The Interactive Fiction game Gun Mute.

    Web Comic

    • Khaos Komix focuses on romance between a cast of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans characters.
    • Punch an Pie's main characters are a pair of bisexual women who end up getting involved with both men and women.
    • Sandra K. Fuhr's comics. Boy Meets Boy deals mainly with a male/male romance. Successor comic Friendly Hostility focuses more on the wider life of a same-sex couple, but keeps romantic elements. However, newest entry to the universe Other Peoples Business relegates same-sex romance to background details (albeit important background details).
    • Venus Envy deals prominently with the romantic love life of a bisexual MtF Transsexualism.

    Web Original

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