I have railed against this particular trope before. Take the fake-dating plotline in Meet Cute Diary. Half the time the reason the lovers can’t be together is because one of them is in another relationship (with a terrible, disposable love interest, of course), and the other half of the time it’s because of some dumb miscommunication that could get cleared up in a single conversation. All that drama caused by the universe pulling the lovers apart in ways that the universe never does. All those couples hiding their relationship for no reason.
Authors have to jump through a lot of hoops to drum up the kind of drama they’re looking for when their characters are in a socially approved relationship. A lot of the things that are contrived for a straight romance feel more organic for a queer one. It tends to focus more on identity than instalove, putting the focus as much on individual character development as the romantic love story.
I’m rapidly revising my “I don’t like romance” stance to “I don’t like straight romance.” Queer romance is just better. Meet Cute Diary is that, and it comes recommended by lots of authors I love-Becky Albertalli, Kacen Callender, Mason Deaver, and Aiden Thomas-so I decided that I’d give it a shot even though it ran the risk of being too romcomy for my taste. Earlier this year I made some lists of great LGBTQ+ pride reads, and I realized that despite my efforts I haven’t done a great job of reading books by and about trans and nonbinary people.
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