The only ace author I know/follow is Yueliang and she’s written Ace of Hearts. I haven’t read it yet >~<
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The LGBTQ+ Community and People of Color
We all know that for years, people of color have been ignored throughout history and misrepresented. But homosexual people of color? They have it just as hard, maybe even more. Perhaps you might deny it, but studies show that more transgender/gay people of color are more likely to commit suicide, go to prison, or be murdered, assaulted or even raped in America. It’s still a crime to be gay in many countries, my home country included. Considering that people of color invented most things and even shaped the United States, homosexual people of color deserve their credit too. They have helped modernise the LGBTQ+ community.
Ballroom Culture
Ballroom culture is a very famous subculture of the queer community. It began in the 1920s in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance as a way for black gay and trans people to escape from the homophobia of black churches. Ballroom was an underground culture. This is also where vogue originated. (No, Madonna did not create vogue, and it was named after the magazine.)
Vogue is a style of dance that includes unique movements and poses, especially from Ancient Egypt and mannequins. A very famous part of vogue is “dipping”, that is, what most people call a death drop. Madonna did make a song about it in 1990 with two back-up dancers from the famous House of Xtravangaza. (More about that in the “famous people” section.)
Ballroom culture reached its peak in the 80s and 90s, during the AIDS crisis, which disproportionately affected people in color and homosexuals. In ballroom, you “walk” for different categories and whichever person/house gets all 10s in the category wins a trophy. Winning categories earns that person/house fame and glory in the community. So yes, Pose got it right.
In ballroom, houses were created to help people and build “families” within the community. Think of it as gangs. These houses would compete against each other in balls to win trophies and fame & glory for their houses. The leaders of these houses were called house mothers and fathers. Transgenders, gays, lesbians, and anyone else in the community could create their own house and anyone could be let in.
1969 and the Stonewall Inn Riots
There’s no sugarcoating right here: the reason why the LGBTQ+ community has rights at all is because of a black drag queen. The legendary Marsha P. Johnson. During the 60s, the police used to raid gay bars, arrest the people running it there and close the bar because homosexuality was still a crime in the U.S. at that time. In Manhattan, June 1969, the Stonewall Inn hadn’t been raided. The mafia was paying off the police in order for the bar to stay open. One day, they stopped and the police broke in. The people decided that they’d had enough of the police treating them unfairly, and Marsha threw a brick at one of the officers. This initiated the Stonewall riots which lasted for 3 days. In 1970, the first Pride Parade was created and they had it in Manhattan. As for Miss Johnson, she mysteriously died and no one knows how. Some say it was murder…
Slang
Most of the slang that cisgender and straight people use today came from the LGBTQ+ community. Honestly, they never really credited them. This includes:
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“tea”, “spill the tea” - to gossip
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“work” - often used in ballroom
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“hunty” - honey, but this was also used in ballroom to hype up the competitors
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“queen” - used for effeminate gays, and drag queens. Also used to hype up people in ballroom.
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“throw shade/shade” - for insults, mostly nonverbal
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“read” - the equivalent of modern day “roasting”. To brutally attack someone verbally, it’s like throwing shade but worse
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“drag” - encouragement to “read” someone
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“beard” - a spouse/romantic partner used to hide one’s sexual orientation
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“butch/femme” - two terms used to describe lesbians
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“dyke” - a masculine lesbian (sometimes this is offensive, and it was originally a slur, so be careful with this word)
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“closeted/in the closet” - hiding one’s sexual orientation from others
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“come out” - to admit to being a homosexual
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“daddy” - an older gay man
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“down-low” - homosexual activity being kept secret mostly by men (an African-American term)
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“batty boy” - Jamaican term for a gay man
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“fairy” - stereotypically gay man
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“fag/faggot” - slur for homosexuals. Don’t use it
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“friend of Dorothy” - a gay man (Dorothy, meaning Judy Garland, who was a big supporter of the community and may or may not have had a gay husband)
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“packing/tucking” - for transgender women. Mostly the act of using things to hide their penis during their transition
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“gag/gagging” - surprise, shock. Used in ballroom as well
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“living for it” - delight. To love something or like something a lot
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“queer” - originally a slur against the community, recently reclaimed. Be careful with this word as well
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“heteroflexible” - to be mostly heterosexual
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“top/bottom” - sexual roles during homosexual sex/relationships
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“swish” - effeminate
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“passing” - being perceived as one’s gender identity/sex
Famous People
There are many famous people in the LGBTQ+ community. Some are celebrities, while others are legendary in ballroom or activists.
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Marsha P. Johnson - credited with starting the Stonewall riots in 1969, and began the gay liberation movement
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RuPaul Charles - a drag queen, he has a show on VH1, “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. He was also a singer in the 90s. His most famous song is “Supermodel”
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House of Xtravaganza - one of the most famous and legendary houses in the community. It was originally a Latino-exclusive house and the first of its kind, later they started letting other races/ethnicities in. They have many famous members, including:
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Hector Xtravaganza - co-founder, house father, later grandfather. He died last year
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Hector Valle Xtravaganza - original house father, died of AIDS complications in 1985
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Angie Xtravaganza - founder, house mother
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Danni Xtravaganza - founding member, house father
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Venus Xtravaganza - transgender Italian-American woman. Was killed on Christmas Day in 1988. She was an aspiring model and was strangled to death
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Jose Xtravaganza - original member, he is mostly known for working with Madonna for “Vogue”
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David Xtravaganza - temporary house father
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Carmen Xtravaganza - house mother, temporary
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Gisele Xtravaganza - current house mother
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Octavia St. Laurent - famous black transgender performer, died of AIDS complications
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Barbara Gittings - founded the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian organization and worked to remove “homosexuality” as a mental illness
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James Baldwin - famous black gay author
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Bayard Rustin - a black gay activist who helped Dr. Martin Luther King organise the 1963 March on Washington
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Lawrence Michael Dillon - English transgender man, first person to undergo gender-affirmation surgery
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Oscar Wilde - Irish writer, most famous for The Picture of Dorian Grey
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Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) - lead singer, and songwriter of the British band Queen. He was openly bisexual, and died of tuberculosis from AIDS in 1991
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Wanda Sykes - black lesbian comedian/entertainer
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Alice Walker - black female writer, famous for The Color Purple
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Elton John - famous British singer, gay and has been out for a long time
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Boy George - British pop star, mostly known for being androgynous during the 80s
This took me 2-3 hours to write. 
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It’s awesome, and really helpful. 
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This includes asexual people too!
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bump cuz we need the info
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Ace of Hearts is a really good story. I’m always on the hunt for proper LGBTQ+ stories on Episode, and Ace of Hearts is one of the best ones I’ve read so far.
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I wrote a whole blog post once on the fact that I wanted Elsa from Frozen to be asexual and aromantic and choose not to settle down! I get that there’s never been a gay Disney princess/queen, but there’s never been an ace one either!
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I’ve seen screenshots from it but it looks really good, I love that there’s an Ace protagonist written by an Ace author, it’s done really well.
I should actually open the app and read it.
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I love the story Ace of Hearts! Lacey is one of my top ten favorite MCs of all time.
I’m also writing a story about a girl that is ace and likes guys but is not interested in sex whatsoever.
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Be careful with that. Being Ace is not the same thing as not being interested in sex. Some asexuals have sex, they just don’t experience sexual attraction.
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Ah, okay… well, I have this scene in my story where the MC is telling her best friends that she has no desire to have sex, and that every time she’s had a crush on a guy, she never fantasized about doing sexual things with them.
According to asexuality.org:
Many asexual people may experience forms of attraction that can be romantic, aesthetic, or sensual in nature but do not lead to a need to act out on that attraction sexually. Instead, we may get fulfillment from relationships without sex, but based on other types of attraction. Romantic attraction is the desire to be romantically involved with another person. Aesthetic attraction is appreciation for a person’s appearance. Sensual attraction is the desire to engage in sensual (but not sexual) activities with a person, such as cuddling, hugging, or kissing.
This is pretty much what the MC has experienced in the past. However, in the first chapters, she’s still coming to terms with it, which is why she’s still hesitant to label herself as asexual.
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Bump
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This is great and extremely helpful! Once I have time, I’ll read through all the replies!
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Did you know that the Bible actually never stated that being gay is not right?
Yeah, this If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. is acutally a case of bad translation and the word male in this sentence was originally meant to be boy, as in a child. So this actually banned pedophilism.
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The original translation was lost or something, right?
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I don’t know that, all I know is that the translation is wrong, but honestly after the Bible being translated trough Greek and then through Latin and then to English, something had to be lost in translation
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Correct. That part was mis-translated, but people decided to use it anyway.
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Thank you for the confirmation
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It wasn’t lost exactly. It just depends on how you translate the word. I mean, no language can be directly translated into English word for word without some issues.
And then there’s the fact that lots of Bibles are translated from the Vulgate bible, which was the first ever accepted Latin translation. So lots of bibles are a translation of a translation. Nuances get lost and words get misinterpreted!
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Ah, ok.
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