Gay Characters in Young Adult Fiction

Over the last couple of weeks the Literary/Gay blogosphere has focused on the inclusion (or lack there of) of LGBT characters and protagonists in young adult fiction.  It began when two authors, Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, came out about how an agent for a major publishing house told them to remove the gay point of view/relationship from their sci-fi novel.

The Post That Started It All - The two authors wrote about an experience they had while trying to publish their joint post-apocalyptic novel Stranger.  There are five POV characters, one, Yuki, is gay and his relationship is important to the plot of the story.  One, unnamed agent from an unnamed, but major, publisher told them to remove the gay POV (along with at least one other POV) and references to his relationship.  The authors refused and the agent suggested that he could be revealed as gay in a sequel.  The authors refused and some time later decided to write about their experience and use it as a jumping off point to talk about queer inclusion in YA fiction.

Several days later an agent from the publishing house, but not the one Brown and Smith were in talks with, presented the publisher's side of the story. She called Brown and Smith liars, but didn't contradict most of what they were saying, and provided justifications for why Yuki should not be a POV character and his relationship, with another boy, be removed from the novel.

Other authors, and people in publishing, speak up.  Some relate their similar experiences with "straightwashing" while others call YA the most gay-inclusive area in fiction and claim nothing so homophobic could happen in YA fiction, or publishing in general. Two bloggers address the the various points people raise and provide links to a bunch of other posts. General Summary/Points and More Points.
Meanwhile Malinda Lo addresses the claim that YA in queer inclusive by breaking down the stats and percentages on the publishing of LGBT novels in the last 50 years.  She finds there has been a general increase in characters, but that less then 1% of published YA novels have a LGBT protagonist or supporting character. Of this 1%, half are male gay characters, and a quarter are lesbians.  Transgender people makes up only 4% of all LGBT characters in YA novels.

AfterElton, a gay media site, weights in on the topic, as does writer Sarah Rees Brennan.

Now, in case it needs saying, I'm all for the inclusion of queer characters in fiction, especially YA fiction.  I think all forms of media needs to get better at portraying LGBT(QIA) folk.  Several months ago I did of Book List with children and YA books with queer characters/protagonists, which you can find here.  I agree with this post on Where Change Must Come From. It isn't enough to say readers need to buy more LGBT books, or authors need to write more, or publishers need to publish more.  All these things must happen together.  And, in my humble opinion, publishers are the ones with the most power to enact change.  I can only buy LGBT books if they publish them, and my favorite authors (some of whom self publish) whose books I buy as soon as they come out, write books with queer characters.  And I wish there are more queer books, especially ones with bi-sexual and trans characters, I want these stories, for myself, and all the children out there.  And as this event, and others before it, shows, some authors are writing books with LGBT characters, and they're being told to remove the story lines (for marketing reasons).  Until this stops, and publishers have more then 1% of their total books include prominent LGBT characters (I refuse to believe only 1% of all YA books submitted have prominent queer characters and are of quality) then the vehicle for significant change rests with the publishing houses.