Gender vs. Sexuality in RPing

We all find rping characters of our own gender easier than characters of a different gender. But despite this, we're all asked to work through it. We need to grow, and writers and rpers and storytellers, and not just do what's in our comfort zone. And I really do think that's good for us.

I've always imagined that trans and NB issues are more intense, and more painful, and orientation issues. I think I've heard trans and NB suicide rates are higher than those of non-straight-but-cis people. Your orientation only matters in relation to other people. It's about who you like, but you, yourself, alone, is more or less unaffected by it. It only comes into question when you like someone else — which is only sometimes. Your whole day isn't about people you're attracted to — you eat breakfast, you do your work, you brush your teeth. Where as your gender or lack of is you. It's part of who you are, regardless of other people. You're you ever instant of every day. It's a bigger deal.

If gender is a bigger part of who you are than your sexuality, why is rping characters of a different gender than you a smaller deal than rping characters of a different sexuality than you?

I only recently learned of the terms gynosexual and androsexual. It really made me stop and think. Why do we group people by their own gender in relation to the gender they like? Straight guys and lesbians all like girls — they're all gynosexual. So why aren't they categorized together more often?

If you're a straight girl, how is rping a straight guy — who is a different gender than you and is attracted to a diffent gender than you — harder than rping a gay guy? He's a different gender, yes, but he's the same sexuality. It's got to be easier to rp 1 difference than 2.

I really really don't want to restart the how-many-gay-chars conflict, but I was thinking about how then, Jay's argument was that she didn't feel conformable rping chars of a different sexuality than hers. Echo said the same. But because Echo's straight, so her characters are statistically more likely to be like her, and so therefore Echo started no conflicts, even thought she was saying the exact same thing as Jay. Yes, I know the how-many-gay-chars conflict wasn't really about sexuality; it was about variety, and not making your characters all the same as each other. But this is still something it made me think about.