Thank you! Everyone should feel welcome at the game table and, in my opinion, seeing characters like yourself in the stories you find there is the easiest way of conveying "You're wanted here."
As for how being gay has influenced my writing, for a long time, I'd say it didn't. When I was first starting to find my voice, I really tried to blend in and write like all the other people I was reading and working with—I didn't want to be "just that gay writer." Now that I feel like I'm more established and have an inkling of what I'm doing, I'm much more comfortable mixing things up. While I still love my dark fantasy and gothic tropes, I see the value of using multiple tools much more these days. Among those, is just the desire to mix things up and write things I haven't seen before. Another is finding places for queerness in my work. So far this year alone I've written stories featuring queer vampires, a bisexual prostitute-detective, and two with male dryads. It's not not just about getting more LGBTQ characters out there, it's about looking at my knee-jerk decisions and thinking, "maybe my first choice isn't the best one." Five years ago, I might have avoided some of this. Now, screw it. Everyone doesn't have to like my stuff, but if one person finds something that resounds meaningfully with them, then that could really matter.
It was HUGE for me when I was reading Green Ronin's Freedom City and found Steven Kenson's openly gay character Johnny Rocket in there. That's the first time I saw a character in an RPG that was gay, accepted, heroic, and absolutely not some swishy sterotype. It meant a lot. If I can throw in a few characters here and there with the potential to affect even a small number of readers in the same way, that's fantastic. And if I can share that inclination with my co-workers and other writers—both established and just starting out—all the better!
Also, I feel like over time it's made me more open to criticism. I screw up constantly. I say dumb things. I misrepresent myself. I misspell and screw up my grammar. I stammer, trail off, and misspeak. I've also accepted that, despite my best efforts, I will screw up. If I say something that unintentionally offends, I'm happy to apologize and try to do better in the future. It's easy to take criticism as an attack—and even now I often need to step away from the reaction my vulnerable inner artiste' wants to have, but that's how you grow as a creative. The best criticism can be "writer medicine." It can be hard to swallow, and sometimes you need to take lots of it, but stick with it, get stronger, and eventually you won't need it anymore (at least, for that particular ailment).
I'm sure my experience influences me in a billion other ways—like, it certainly makes me very conscious of the type of person I don't want to be—but, I'll leave it at that for now.
I'm running out of room here, but I'll continue this on my Tumblr if anyone's interested in more.
Thanks for the great question
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