This turned up a few days ago. I remember the camera (which apparently quit halfway through) and we had an interesting conversation about the representation of LGBTQ people in SF&F. The audience question period comes at the end.

In the Substrate Wars books, one major character is an older gay man who’s lost his partner to HIV, and a minor character is a young transgender black male whose primary interest is fashion and marketing, but who is not a victim type and refuses to toe anyone’s party line. The panel as a whole agreed characters need to be well-rounded, and LGBTQ characters are no different — it’s no longer ground-breaking just to include them (and hasn’t been for thirty years) so they need to be realistically detailed and have story problems just like anyone else. As for “sensitivity readers,” if you’re in doubt you can certainly have LGBTQ beta readers give you feedback, though I would be leery of anyone who bills themselves as such.

Like many people, I don’t like watching myself, and I’m so soft-spoken you can barely hear me in this, but if you really want to hear me talk… I haven’t watched the whole thing.