#again i would like to iterate her views were homophobic regardless of her time period

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Had author Anne McCaffrey not been homophobic and transphobic she truly would have had one of the greatest science fiction/fantasy series ever. So much potential only to be stifled by the author. She also actively forbade fan fiction, fan art, and fan head-canons, and actively frowned upon gay and trans fan inserts, thus effectively stifling any chance her writing had to attract a larger audience. The concept and world-building are delicious, there would have been so much to build off of. But she actively made the decision to hate lgbtq+ people and fans

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This post bugs the shit out of me because it completely divorces the author from the culture of the time she was writing in and ignores the fact that having nonvillainous gay characters in her work at all was actually insanely progressive, and not allowing fanfic or art was just. How it was. She was no where near anne rice levels of protective, and in fact her fan forums in the early 2000s did allow fanfic to be posted as long as the characters were all ocs.

Like, circling back to the gay and trans rep, she was writing in the 60s-90s, when being openly gay got you openly beaten to death in most parts of the us, reagan let the aids crisis go unchecked because of the perception it was only affecting gay people, being gay got you dishonorable discharge from the military, queer people had no civil protections from retaliation if their orientation was discovered, and anne McCaffrey was making gay dragon riders be the protectors of her fictional planet. Like. That's not homophobic especially for the times. She wouldnt be considered progressive by TODAYS standards, sure, but most of the pern books came out 40 years ago when dont ask dont tell was progressive policy.

And for a straight woman in her 50s writing background gay characters she was being pretty damn progressive for her time

PLUS op doesnt even bring up the most truly homophobic this she ever said which was her tent peg theory of homosexuality. Like do a little research before popping off