Okay, in response to what has already been posted:
Stereotypes and ArchetypesTry to be Predictable and SurprisingMaintain Consistency, Especially When Being Inconsistent"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."The third could be better written, bleh.
Anyway, minor spoiler here. Lucretia, the main character of my novel Bystander, is bisexual and her love interest, Sightseer, is gay. This is not something I come right out and say in the first book for a couple of reasons:
a) it is one of those controversial traits that dominates a character once its revealed and it is not what I want Lucretia or Sightseer to be defined as until they've been thoroughly characterized around other traits
b) Lucretia behaves in ways that resemble the stereotypical "chase anything that moves" bisexuals in some movies and I'd rather not people instantly assuming that I'm saying bisexual=promiscuous
c) neither fact has ANYTHING to do with the story of the first book, and thus making a point of it is just like dancing around and yelling "look at me, I wrote a book with gay people! I'm progressive! Yay!"
As such, the only clue that Lu is bi in the first book is a single come-on directed at Robles which may or may not be teasing (given that she was sober at the time, I can guarantee you that Lu had no intent to go anywhere with that flirtation) in the eyes of the reader.
The only clues that Sightseer is gay are comments from Lu that nothing she wears will "stuff [her] pants" and a conversation at the end where she's warned that their relationship would never become sexual.
The idea being to lay the foundation to show that their orientations run that way without sledgehammering it into the ground.
Incidentally, Lu's dress habits would be lipstick, her behavioral something more butch.