In this story, Laura, who lives with her father, meets Carmilla, and they form a close relationship, with Laura becoming ill as Carmilla draws nourishment from her. Countess Mircalla KarnsteinĬarmilla, published as part of the book, In a Glass Darkly, is considered the first lesbian vampire story. Joseph and His Friend is considered to be the first gay-themed novel written by an American author.
Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania This story, which takes place in Brazil circa 1870, deals with an interracial gay relationship, with Amaro as an enslaved person, and his White partner is not. If more than two characters are in one entry, the last name of the first character is used. last name), or by single name if the character does not have a surname. The names are organized alphabetically by surname (i.e. Additionally, only notable/significant characters from a given work (which may have multiple LGBT characters) need to be listed here. Items listed here must have verifiable third-party sources commenting on the sexuality of the character(s) in question, and additional explanation may be necessary. Nonetheless, there are gay characters that broke barriers and became cultural touchstones. It's no great surprise, then, that gay literature - or even gay characters in literature - are so relatively new as to still be shiny. In a historical sense, literature as we understand it is a fairly new innovation, and the current concept of homosexuality is even fresher from the cultural oven. See homosexuality and bisexuality for criteria that have traditionally denoted lesbian, gay and bisexual ( LGB) people. Some prefer to simply follow an individual's self-definition or identity. However, most definitions include a psychological component (such as the direction of an individual's erotic desire) and/or a behavioral component (which focuses on the sex of the individual's sexual partner/s). Indeed, several studies have found that much of the research about sexual orientation has failed to define the term at all, making it difficult to reconcile the results of different studies. A number of different classification schemes have been used to describe sexual orientation since the mid-19th century, and scholars have often defined the term 'sexual orientation' in divergent ways. The historical concept and definition of sexual orientation varies and has changed greatly over time for example, the word "gay" was not used to describe sexual orientation until the mid 20th century. This is a list of LGBT characters in modern written fiction.
You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.