Did y'all already forget that it's only been a week since it became illegal to fire queer people?
Ownvoices is GREAT but it should never, ever mean outing someone.

I am out and loud about it because I have the privilege to be. I'm also a cis lesbian, aka the least vilified along the QUILTBAG spectrum.
Not everyone has that privilege. It's 2020 and being out can still cost you your family, your job, your community.

I briefly considered adding ownvoices to the queer sff lists I was doing in the beginning, but it quickly became impossible. When I found myself scouring interviews, websites, their tweets, it immediately felt creepy and wrong. I couldn't know if they were comfortable being out.

Even if they had mentioned their identity in an interview once, was that still how they id'ed? Was that just a throwaway comment because they didn't think many people would read that interview?
I couldn't know. The risk of outing someone when they didn't want to be was too high.

Add to this the amount of shit bi and ace and pan and trans and demi people STILL get, even in our community, and you're really going to insist they out themselves to write queer MCs?
Really?

I can't even count the number of bi writers I have talked to who have been made to feel like they can't write queer MCs because they aren't out. Or because they're bi and that's not "queer enough."

This is not to say ownvoices isn't important. We do need books by out writers as well, especially if it's a book about a particular experience from that perspective. We need that trust, too.
But policing books with queer MCs silences so, so many already silent voices.

Out queer writers need to make sure this space is safe for all of us.
It's our privilege and responsibility.

Addendum: If you're worried about the rep in a book, reviews are your friend. There are a ton of amazing queer reviewers doing that work.