I agree #5 is mostly the right way to do it. Characters should be liked because they are interesting. Adding some cookie cutter stereotype to pander to an audience is bad writing. They can embody certain traits, but it should be normal. You shouldn't add a prejudice to a character to explain them.

"Mitchells vs. The Machine" the daughter in that was done so well. There is no "omg you're a lesbian?!" from anyone. The family accepted it before the start, so it wasn't even a plot point, which is how it should be. That's just her sexual preference and not her whole identity. They didn't hang on that as a reveal, it just happened naturally. I think it's great to incorporate characters from all walks of life. But just remember they are normal people and not sideshow acts.

sure, but people want to see characters that represent them in books to feel validated. if you reveal that a character was lowkey gay years later that does nothing for the thousands of gay kids that read the stories when they were actually popular.

besides, it's just lazy. a good writer can make a character gay without it being a major facet but also make it obvious to the reader to help gay kids feel validated and seen.

if you really just want to write a straight character but also want the liberal cred of saying you do positive representation you can just have them mention their husband and it would at least show a forethought and like you weren't just reacting to trends on Twitter. something a certain famous author has shown a penchant for in years that have come to pass.

alternatively, you can actually write a good gay character. it's not impossible. look at that one episode of the last of us with nick offerman. it was really gay. it was also very human and relatable. it was very much about their gay romance and yet their gayness didn't effect them in important moments. they didn't love or die any differently than the rest of us, but it wasn't a straight romance turned gay either. shit was beautiful.

though if my experience with my gay friends tells me anything what they really want is extremely raunchy stories about problematic, abusive, and neglectful relationships. specifically weird Chinese gay romance right now, but that's just what's trendy i guess? maybe my sample size is too small...

Only a valid argument when the media does not spend a significant chunk of time developing an heterosexual romantic plotline with a different set of characters that is not integral to the plot.

Which is the vast majority of media. Hollywood cannot help but shove straight love interests into absolutely every man-woman character pair they see without any regards for plot relevance.

It's so pervasive that when it doesn't happen (e.g. Mad Max: Fury Road) it's as much a marked point of pride as if they had a gay romance.

When a straight character does it, it's "building a deeper emotional connection with the audience".
When a gay character does it it's "pandering", a "political statement", "unnecessary", "irrelevant to the plot", and "something that should have been left for the audience to read between the lines".

Yeah, if someone asks why a character knows a thing and the author points out that the parts of the character that were under the surface of the page or got cut because they weren't interesting are because he spent his teens as a cliche theater kid and had a much older boyfriend who survived the Reagan genocide before becoming a special forces guy involved in the alien conspiracy

Or a fan asks why that character did a slightly off thing that doesn't make sense without context, and the author explains how she reflexively avoids touching her friends not because she's traumatized but because she's internalized narratives of lesbians as creepy or predators or something and thinks she's being a bad friend if she cuddles with a straight girl she thinks is hot.

That's not what this ever is though

I know about Dumbledore, what are some other examples of number 5?