LGBT Fanbases in Literature.
- Despite an utter lack of romance, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has a LGBT fanbase, mainly due to Alice's personality and the setting of Wonderland.
- Animorphs, because it has a confirmed bi character, a pair of aliens confirmed gay, and has the whole aspect of shifting into other forms and bodies. It was assisted in this decades after it ended by the Fandom Rivalry with fellow YA speculative fiction series Harry Potter: K. A. Applegate has been vocally supportive of trans rights, the opposite of Rowling's stance.
- The Camp Half-Blood Series
- Fittingly Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus which bring Greek myths into the modern day gained a LGBT following after fan-favourite Nico came out as gay in The Heroes of Olympus. A totally unprecedented move for a series that started out aimed at middle schoolers.
- The Trials of Apollo increased the LGBT+ presence quite noticeably, and subsequently, the fandom. Not only does Nico have a boyfriend, but the title character, Apollo, was unabashedly bisexual in the myths and remains so here, listing both Daphne and Hyacinthus as his two great loves and revealing that Kayla, a former background character, is his daughter with another man.
- The novel Carrie by Stephen King, along with its film adaptations. It's very easy to read Carrie's powers as a metaphor for homosexuality, and the plot as a Coming-Out Story Gone Horribly Wrong. Carrie is a shy, sweet girl who's bullied mercilessly by her classmates, she has a trait that makes her different (not evil, just different), and when she reveals this trait to her fanatically Christian mother (whose preferred method of punishing her is locking her in a prayer closet), her mother claims that she's been tempted by Satan and later tries to murder her. Finally embracing this trait results in tragedy and ultimately gets the girl killed — and in some versions, she kills herself.
- Older Than Dirt: The Epic of Gilgamesh and its lasting appeal. This springs from Gilgamesh and Enkidu and all their abundant naked Ho Yay. It seems naked gay guys have been falling in love and "wrestling" for many millions of years, regardless of their species. And for as long as beings have been socially acknowledging, there have been those that have found it heartwarming and emotionally uplifting.
- Harry Potter used to be big amongst queer people, due to its emphasis on love being "the most powerful force", Harry being forced to grow up in a literal closet by his abusive relatives and eventually finding a loving adoptive family that cares for him and the overall fight for equality and fairness, plus several characters, notably Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, appearing to be queer-coded. Due to an increasing amount of transphobic comments by the author, however, this fanbase has rapidly declined. Nowadays, queer ex-fans argue against Harry Potter having a fanbase at all, noting how the series' influence contributes to the real life harm of queer people. Even writing fanfiction is a no go, due to how it inherently provides the series and by extension its creator with free publicity.
- The Invisible Man has slowly started gaining more of an LGBT+ fanbase for those who reinterpret Griffin's otherness as being queer and see Ho Yay potential between him and Kemp. The 1933 Universal adaptation giving Griffin a love interest hardly hindered this, as it's just made fans interpret at least this version of him as bisexual.
- Land of Oz: The whole Ozian canon may be Trope Codifier. The Marvelous Land of Oz concerns a boy named Tip who seeks Princess Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz. Tip later finds out that he is Ozma, who was transformed into a boy by a witch when she was young. The novel ends with Ozma being restored to her original gender, a happy ending that resonates with many transgender readers. There is also a healthy helping of Les Yay between Ozma and Dorothy in later books. The two co-princesses have a very close Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with lots of holding hands and kissing. Judy Garland's portrayal of Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film adds to the appeal ("friend of Dorothy"
being an archaic slang term for a gay person, particularly a gay male), to the point where one of several theories on the origin of the Pride Flag cites "Over the Rainbow" as inspiration. Add Gregory Maguire's The Wicked Years novels, which have explicit same-sex and polyamorous relationships as well as Elphaba herself being possibly intersex. - Les Misérables has a substantial gay fanbase thanks to the relationship between Enjolras and Grantaire.
- The Moomins have a prominent LGBT fanbase. Unsurprising, given that Tove Jansson herself was bisexual and most of her characters are a case of Write Who You Know: Moomin himself is based on Tove while Snufkin, who Moomin is almost inseparable from, is based on Tove's first boyfriend. Too-Ticky is, in turn, heavily based on Tove's eventual life partner, Tuulikki Pietilä.
- The Nevermoor series has picked up a following of queer readers, with both young people and the Periphery Demographic of adults. The story has a huge theme of Family of Choice and learning to embrace the things that make you different, as well as showing very progressive politics in general. It's fanon that Jupiter North is gay, and most of the other characters have popular LGBT+ headcanons associated with them as well. Naturally, when the third book gave some canon representation with Miss Cheery being revealed to be dating Roshni, the fandom went insane.
- The Picture of Dorian Gray has a fair amount of queer fans, which isn't surprising given it's the work of the gay writer Oscar Wilde and was infamously condemned at the time for being too homoerotic even after it was heavily edited. In addition to coming to the conclusion that Dorian Gray is bisexual, most fans seem to agree that poor Basil Hallward deserved better.
- Redwall:
- Orlando the Axe from Mattimeo has a few gay fans, mainly because of him being a muscular warrior. This is despite the fact he once had a wife and there is some Ship Tease between him and Constance.
- Matthias has some gay fans, and he occasionally pops up in some NSFW fanart.
- The Sissy Duckling is a children's picture book about a flamboyant, effeminate duckling who is mocked because he's a "sissy". The book is popularly used to teach kids about inclusiveness because it's often read as a Gay Aesop.
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has become popular for more queer reinterpretations by fans who see Jekyll as closeted.
- The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. Gender doesn't matter much to vampires.
- Warrior Cats:
- Word of God is that Ravenpaw and Barley are a couple, that Jake and Tallstar were in love, and that Mousefur is asexual. This helped boost the popularity of the characters amongst queer fans.
- Many LGBT female fans are fond of Leopardstar and pin her as lesbian. Word of God is that Leopardstar was in love with Tigerstar, but this isn't shown in-series.
- Redtail is a tortiseshell tom. Male torties are very rare, nevermind fertile male torties, which has led many fans to headcanon him as a transgender tom.
- Mothwing and Leafpool are very popular due to their Pseudo-Romantic Friendship. On top of Mothwing being popular amongst queer fans for Ho Yay reasons, she has a lot of trans fans due to a popular Alternate Universe where she and Leafpool are the parents of the Three instead of Leafpool and Crowfeather.
- Wings of Fire has one for being a children's xenofiction series with canonically queer characters, such as Snowfox, Snowflake, and Umber, and Sundew, the point of view character of one of the books.
- The Woodwalkers series has a gay couple (Shawod and Frankie) so it's no surprise that the series has LGBT fans. The spinoff Seawalkers continues the tradition with trans man Johnny which made that series popular with queer people as well.
