I’m always fascinated when people say they don’t read books about queer characters because they can’t relate.

So if a queer character was, say, very happy because they got a promotion at work, you wouldn’t understand at all because it’s . . . Gay happiness?

A character is sad, but once you see her wife comfort her it's Lesbian Sadness and too hard for the humble heterosexual to fathom?

I'm confused. (Sorry, it's Queer Confusion – a niche sub-category of the well-known emotion, so totally understand you may not get it)

I guess once you insert gay characters into a world it becomes a Big Gay Universe and nothing else in it matters but its rainbow-sprinkled gayness

See that horse? It's gay.

The castle? Gay.

That fountain pen that's key to a thrilling mystery? That's probably gay, too.

I'm not being too serious with this, because I find it more puzzling/comical than genuinely anger-inducing, but it does have interesting implications.

I do understand that readers have preferences, and we all connect to some stories more deeply than others. But the idea that you can't relate to a character on a human, emotional level at all, that you can't see past their sexuality, is really perplexing to me.