[I tend to get passionate about this so - nothing to do with you OP or you DA] but: why? Because I want to imagine a context in which homosexuality has never, and never will be considered something to be ashamed of. Because it's tiring and I am tired, to see everything queer-related in mainsteam media to be all Suffering and Pain. Because it bugs me - I was first introduced to this trend through mid-00 slash fanfic writers of the Drarry variety that only used homophophobia as a cheap plot device to write sadfic. Not all the struggles queer people face have to do with being discriminated - what if, novel concept, we wrote about queer people... who have issues... unrelated to their being queer.... like Normal People(TM)? I write fic because it's fun, not a political statement, and I don't see why I've got to import bigoted thinking into my fun time. I mean, we are the first to get pissed when a Sad Gay Movie is about homophobia, so why bring it over to fanfic? Is it so hard to imagine a world in which being queer is seen as a perfectly normal alternative to being straight?
(Incidentally, this is the same reason why, as a woman, I'm perfectly happy assuming sexism doesn't exist in the SW universe. Leia being a woman doesn't get her patronizing talkings-to, and Rey's hero journey is every bit that of every stereotypical male hero, and after two or three hints of sexism happening I just groan and close the tab because I don't need that shit in my life.)
Again, I hope this doesn't come across as angry or anything? God I hope not. Generally, when I write fanfic set in the real world I'm fine with a few reference to homophobia being a thing, though I usually don't like it being the focus of the work; in context in which homophobia doesn't need to exist, by bar of tolerance for it existing gets really low. It's just a personal thing - I know there's people who like to write about actual RL queer struggles in fic as a coping mechanism, but I'm here to have fun, so.
Re: Kylux, tw internalized homophobia, alcoholism
(Incidentally, this is the same reason why, as a woman, I'm perfectly happy assuming sexism doesn't exist in the SW universe. Leia being a woman doesn't get her patronizing talkings-to, and Rey's hero journey is every bit that of every stereotypical male hero, and after two or three hints of sexism happening I just groan and close the tab because I don't need that shit in my life.)
Again, I hope this doesn't come across as angry or anything? God I hope not. Generally, when I write fanfic set in the real world I'm fine with a few reference to homophobia being a thing, though I usually don't like it being the focus of the work; in context in which homophobia doesn't need to exist, by bar of tolerance for it existing gets really low. It's just a personal thing - I know there's people who like to write about actual RL queer struggles in fic as a coping mechanism, but I'm here to have fun, so.
Whoah, this was a rant. Sorry :)