Make queer art.

If you’re an artist, create a queer superhero. If you’re a writer, include queer characters. If you’re a filmmaker, don’t shy away from LGBT content. If you like video games, please, for the sake of queer gamers, create.

Of course, you don’t have to make queer art. You have no obligation to, even if you’re the queerest queer artist who ever dared to queer.

But here are 15 amazing reasons why it’s worth it.

1. LGBTQ youth need to see queer representation now more than ever.
2. Writers keep killing off LGBT characters. Only you have the power to make it stop.
3. We’re sick of tragic coming-out stories. For the love of God, introduce writers to the concept of happy endings.
4. Not all lesbians are hot women secretly looking for a man. Or gym teachers. Let’s start making lesbian stories realistic.
5. Cisgender white men haven’t realized that gender and sexuality are a spectrum. You can create something truly diverse.
6. The media industry is frantically looking to queer people for new stories.
7. You’ll grow a thick skin. Why? Because you’re going to accidentally offend someone at some point, most likely conservatives. You’ll get used to it.
8. I mean, Disney is doing it.
9. The world is becoming so openly diverse that if you don’t include queer characters, you’re going to look behind the times.
10. People finally have the courage to ask – no, demand – to see themselves represented.
11. You can finally create the characters you dreamed about seeing as a teenager.
12. You’ll get to roll up to the Lambda Awards in style.
13. Think of it as slash and femslash come to life. We all know you wrote Sirius Black/Remus Lupin fanfiction when you were fourteen.
14. You can shine light on the LGBT issues people overlook, like microaggressions or police brutality against trans women.
15. You can collaborate with other amazing queer artists and form a coalition of queer talent.

What are you waiting for? Pick up a super-gay notebook and start brainstorming!