Querying as a QUILTBAG author

Okay, as a straight dude who's written a few lesbian-themed novels (see avi) I never mentioned my orientation to my publisher and I don't think that's a prereq in querying. If I were a publisher, I'd be more interested in reading something good rather than knowing about your orientation--gay, straight, bi, transgender, or whatever.

I suppose that if you landed a big, fat contract with a major publisher who for some reason didn't like the idea of someone in the LGBTQ set writing a great novel, then it might be cause for concern, but let's face it, if your novel is THAT good (and I hope it is) then they'll publish it. The bottom line is green. Always has been and always will be.

JMO...

I think the agents in question just want good books featuring characters who are diverse like that. I don't think they care if the person who wrote it is a member of that community or not. They're selling books, they're not selling you.

If it's not relevant to your book (and it isn't), then you don't mention it in your query. If you were a plastic surgeon and were writing a book about plastic surgery, then you could mention that, if that makes any sense, and even then, it would only really be relevant if the book in question was a non-fiction plastic surgery book.

I only mention my being gay in the bio that appears in both books. It didn't come up in my query letters because, as mentioned above, that's not linked to my writing ability. If part of the submission requests a short bio then, yeah, I'd include it ("BenPanced lives with his boyfriend and his cat in St. Paul, Minnesota").

I would think a Masters in English would be more relevant to a prospective agent and, since you probably wouldn't include that in your query, why would you tell them who you are attracted to?

Sell the book, not the author.

I was thinking about this as well, particularly with the focus on diversity in books lately. If I do include it, it would probably be in the personalization part of the query, along the lines of, "I was also pleased to see your interest in representing LGBT authors."