Until I found Haley Cass and her debut contemporary novel Those Who Wait.Ĭass wrote with such depth that I physically felt the presence of and could see myself in both protagonists, Sutton Spencer and Charlotte Thompson, in this slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance about coming out, politics, resilience, and standing up for what’s important in life and in love. Always surface level or through the lens of someone straight. Like many others in the queer community, I had minimal exposure to LGBTQIA+ characters, and the exposure I did get involved families disowning their children after coming out, kids getting bullied, or Black Trans women getting assaulted or murdered. It took me 25 years to fully realize my sexual orientation because I never saw myself reflected in the pages or on a screen. Boy and girl fight then make up and live happily ever after. I didn’t admit it or know what it meant at the time, but I thought to myself “I’m team Bella.”Ĭountless times before that growing up, my adolescent brain consumed romcoms and love stories about what relationships were “supposed to” look like: Boy meets girl. I felt like there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t drawn to the male characters at all. They hung up posters, scribbled on their notebooks, and wore t-shirts to the movie theater claiming whether they were Team Edward or Team Jacob. In high school, I remember the fandom around the Twilight book series.
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