Write the gay characters exactly like you'd write them if they were straight. A straight man and a straight woman can be just friends, so two gay men or two gay women could be too. I know it might come as a shock, but not all gay people are automatically attracted to all other gay people. Don't fret over the love interest bit either. If the characters were a straight man and a straight woman would it make sense to have them fall in love? If so, your gay characters should fall in love. You don't need to 'explore their sexuality'. It's 2013, everyone knows (or at least should know) how non-hetero sexualities work (here's a hint: usually pretty similar to heterosexuality). You don't need to fetishize their gayness. It's part of their character, but not their whole character. Basically, write them like real people, as real as your straight characters. Don't worry about having a 'controversial' book. What is this, the 1920s? Any publisher who won't publish your book because the characters are gay is an a**hole and you don't want to work with them anyway, and people who are shocked by reading a book with a few gay characters are also a**holes and you shouldn't care what they think. Besides, if your writing is great it shouldn't matter what the sexual and/or gender identities of your characters are.
Last edited by Karzkin on Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I see it as, to overcome racism, homophobia, etc, we need to stop acknowledging it. We can have heritage, but it doesn't matter that there wasn't a (trigger warning, for lack of a better example) black or Hispanic person on the Trayvon Martin jury.