Let me preface this by saying that I'm straight, and I'm putting these issues in my writing because I think the way straight people treat gay people is unfair and wrong, and that these issues at least need to be mentioned.
I'm working on a serial fantasy novel, and I've kind of wound up in a tangle. I'd like to know if I've dug myself into a pit and should get out of it, or if I should keep running the way I'm going. The VP character is straight, but two members of the supporting cast are gay and are in the process of adopting a kid. The novel is set in Texas.
There is a breif mention of sexual assault.
In the last book the VP character asked them how the adoption process was, and we had a (short) conversation about the circumstances (In short: stranger adoption fell through, so one character is now fighting to adopt his sister's unborn kid. It's the product of a sexual assault and she didn't want to abort, so she's fine with the process, but a rapist's parental rights are protected in that state and the "father" is fighting the adoption.) and I just laid everything out, that this is what they're going through, and left it there.
My intent was to show that our treatment of would-be gay parents is that hideously unfair. Now I'm not sure if this is problematic or not. Is it?
And a second question: in the second book I've planned the following: one member of this couple (the brother) was seriously injured and the other character mentions to the VP character that he's realized how much he loses if anything happens to his partner. That if the adoption goes through and something happens to the brother, the partner might lose the kid, that he doesn't even get to marry--which is a touchy issue for the VP character because she's dealing with fallout from her own marrige and there will be an undertone of "at least you got legal blessing to be with him" during this conversation--and I plan to have it end with him saying something like "This isn't about you (straight people) and the only reason that you've got anything to do with it is you won't let us fix it."
Would it be more wrong to have the VP character try to say something, or to end the scene without having her say anything?
(...and is it wrong for me to be writing this at all?)
I'm working on a serial fantasy novel, and I've kind of wound up in a tangle. I'd like to know if I've dug myself into a pit and should get out of it, or if I should keep running the way I'm going. The VP character is straight, but two members of the supporting cast are gay and are in the process of adopting a kid. The novel is set in Texas.
There is a breif mention of sexual assault.
In the last book the VP character asked them how the adoption process was, and we had a (short) conversation about the circumstances (In short: stranger adoption fell through, so one character is now fighting to adopt his sister's unborn kid. It's the product of a sexual assault and she didn't want to abort, so she's fine with the process, but a rapist's parental rights are protected in that state and the "father" is fighting the adoption.) and I just laid everything out, that this is what they're going through, and left it there.
My intent was to show that our treatment of would-be gay parents is that hideously unfair. Now I'm not sure if this is problematic or not. Is it?
And a second question: in the second book I've planned the following: one member of this couple (the brother) was seriously injured and the other character mentions to the VP character that he's realized how much he loses if anything happens to his partner. That if the adoption goes through and something happens to the brother, the partner might lose the kid, that he doesn't even get to marry--which is a touchy issue for the VP character because she's dealing with fallout from her own marrige and there will be an undertone of "at least you got legal blessing to be with him" during this conversation--and I plan to have it end with him saying something like "This isn't about you (straight people) and the only reason that you've got anything to do with it is you won't let us fix it."
Would it be more wrong to have the VP character try to say something, or to end the scene without having her say anything?
(...and is it wrong for me to be writing this at all?)