This article is a guest post by author Trip Galey. Trip is a writer, a doctor of the academic persuasion, and a researcher of all things pursuant to bargains, exchanges, and compacts of a faery nature. It is inadvisable to attempt to make a deal with him. He has been, in the past, a reluctant cowboy, an Ivy League collegian, and an itinerant marketing professional. Mostly harmless. Check out the Kickstarter for Trip’s latest work: The Fall of the House of Valenziaga.
When we think about queerness in worldbuilding, it’s often in terms of the social components of a world: is homosexuality accepted?; are there roles for diverse gender expression?; etc. However there are a multitude of ways to incorporate queerness into your world on various levels outside of the social layer. Here are two that I used when writing The Fall of the House of Valenziaga, my queer, post-apocalyptic science-fantasy family drama.
Queerness is a Collective Experience
Modern queerness often carries with it the idea of solidarity, of a collective. LGBTQIA+, the colours of the rainbow coming together on one flag—we are unique in our experiences, and part of a variety of communities, but we share a common place that exists outside the cishet (often white) patriarchy that otherwise dominates the world.
You can take this fundamental aspect of queerness and reflect it throughout your worldbuilding in several different ways. In the case of Valenziaga, you can see it reflected in the core setting, a city called Twixt, which exists beyond the bounds of time and space and is a mosaic of fragments from already-destroyed worlds. Like the queer community, Twixt is composed of different realities and experiences, all bound together as part of a greater whole. But this isn’t the only way to express this aspect of queerness.
Imagine you want to tell a story about resistance against a powerful, invading force. Rather than create a world with a single country or people who are resisting, you can make it a story about coalition and alliance, about different people coming together under common cause to defend themselves and their various ways of life or experiences. And this works on smaller levels as well (politics within a court or city, cliques within a magic school, etc).
Queerness is Personal
Queerness is also, at its core, a very personal thing as it touches directly on one’s identity. Many of us have similar experiences, and shared joys and pain, but the personal aspects of queerness remain undeniable. And it can be very inspiring and satisfying to weave some of that personal queerness throughout the worlds we build!
Maybe there’s a certain singer whose work carried you through the hard times that sometimes accompany being queer, and you want to incorporate that into your world by making music central to the magic of your world, perhaps even as a gift from a mysterious and glamorous goddess. Or you had a particularly meaningful relationship or first love that you want to quietly embed into the mythology and storytelling traditions of your world. Your queerness and your life is a boundless font of inspiration and creativity.
For Valenziaga, one thing I did was take some of my favourite queer songs and turn them into worldmotes (pieces of the city of Twixt) and hidden references for others to find. For example, there is a disco in an abandoned church that is run by a small red-and-white unicorn (IYKYK).
The options, however, are endless! Think about how your own experience(s) can inspire the worlds you create, then grab your queerest hammer and go worldbuild!
