I really don't know how to frame this thought wiggling around in my head, but I feel like there's an assumption of one 'queer' culture, or at least of one 'gay' culture, one 'lesbian' culture, (or to be a little fairer, put racial and regional qualifiers in front of that). But that assumes that the authors of fic or the readers are taking part in that culture. Think of kids who are just coming to terms with their sexual identity, and using fandom and fic as an explorative tool. Or just people like me, who identify as some flavor of gay/queer/bi/lesbian/ace (and no, seriously, fandom's obsession with sex when you're ace can be -- OMG), but don't date or go out or interact with anyone along that axis, do we count as part of that culture? Because a lot of the time, the way these discussions go, I don't know if we do.

(And, on an entirely different note, I'm not sure why this is a sister discussion with one about being straight in fandom when that other discussion has entirely different questions that would be just as relevant to ask queer people!)