: Re: How to write a convincing character with a opinion that differs from the author's? So I wrote a short text recently in which the character has a very strong political opinion (anti-LGBTQ), which

@LarsenBagley300

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This is why I say the worst piece of writing advise is "Write what you know". It discourages you from actually writing about topics you do not know all that well... I.E. Research. I tend to say it's better to "Write what you don't know, but make absolutely sure people don't know that you don't know."

In essence, you want to play the Devil's Advocate. Defend Satan against a crime as competently as you would defend an innocent man (the term derives from the Catholic Church's tradition of naming a Devil's Advocate when determining the sainthood of a candidate... they were the person charged with defending the position the guy was not a saint... which would be something the devil would do... in effect, it's prosecutorial... but meh...).

I would also make a distinction between bigoted against LGBT people on principle, between people who may take seemingly anti-LGBT positions but have no problem with interacting with LGBT people (i.e. People can and do oppose gay marriage, without having issues with gay people... there are some subsets of this who oppose legalization of gay marriage because they would prefer the government is removed from marriage issues as a whole.). You have some people who are opposed to laws requiring you to address someone by preferred pronouns because they believe the government should not force anyone to say anything or punish them for doing such... but they will call a trans person by correct personal pronouns when asked by an individual.

None of those are wholly due to the "Sacred Texts say it's a sin" and even in religious circles, the opinions on the matter run a gamut. This character could even be an Archy Bunker... who has preconceived notions from a different era... but never let those get in the way of him being a decent person when it was important... a much more closer approximation would be Clint Eastwood's character from Gran Torinio, who's dislike of his Hmong neighbors was motivated by his experiences in the Korean War and what they did to him as well as being uncomfortable with changes his community was going through. There's also an element of the fact that Eastwood's character had a sense of humor to him that was mostly irrelevant to all races, his own included, as he tells a joke that is demeanining to Irish, African-Americans, and Polish people. The joke was rather surprising to the audiences which were too busy reacting to the text to read the subtext: Eastwood is playing a man with the last name Kowelski... a polish last name. In another scene one of his teenage neighbors endears herself to him when, at the party the family have invited Walt to, she introduces Eastwood's character to her Grandmother, who despite not speaking English, is clearly not happy about sitting by a white man... Eastwood appreciates that he has found a kindred spirit. Later, when the teenage girl hears him using a racial slur for Asians and explains that, it's an inappropriate slur for the Hmong because it was used to denote Koreans specifically, not the Vietnamese Hmong, to which she points to a more correct slur for her people. She and Eastwood have some amusing conversations where it was clear that racially-offensive responses were fair use... but neither disrespected each other. In fact, her rape by the local gang leaders resolves Eastwood's to the course of actions he takes in the finale.

There could be a character like this, who's only knowledge of LGBT people are the Pride Parade crowds, but could find a person who was less of a political gay activist who had a similar opinion of the Pride elements that they gave LGBT people a bad name. This isn't an unheard of thought in the LGBT community either.

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