Yeah, I'm going there!
So, this is probably one of the most heated and divisive topics throughout the United States, even the world. There are many views on homosexuality in both the "secular" and Christian world views. This is going to be more of just some things to consider about writing a gay main character than an "if it is it okay to write a gay character" as a Christian author.
I am limiting this to the Christian world views because this is a blog geared towards the believer. There are pretty much four main views the believer has.
1. homosexuality is a sin and completely against God and the bible.
2. homosexuality is not a sin and against the bible.
3. I'm not homosexual and I really don't care if you are.
4. everybody deserves equal rights.
Those are pretty much the four views, for the most part. I'm pretty sure everybody will fall into one of those four. So, is it okay for a Christian to have a gay main character? I suppose it depends on which of the above four categories you fall under as a Christian writer. The real question is if you believe it to be sin or not. So, weather you don't believe it to be sin or if you do believe it to be sin, it might help you to think about the following.
If you say homosexuality is a sin, and you want to write a main character that is gay, you want to think about if you are "glorifying" the sin. This sometimes is an argument people say about gore, violence, sex, murder (you know, when the hero is a serial killer and you are rooting for him), etc.
Another thing to think about is that you may lose readers by having a gay main character. What is your readership? Are you writing to a lot of readers in the Christian group that falls under the view that homosexuality is sin? You might lose them. If you try and get around that and call it a book about redemption, where the gay character finds God or "comes into the revelation" that being gay is wrong, then you may lose the 2nd and 4th group of readers. These are things you might want to consider. Who do you want to read your book?
One way to get around the whole controversial aspect is simply to write under a pen name the stories where you think you might lose readers. This way you keep your current readers, but you might even gain more of a fan base.
Think about this, if you are writing to non believers, the same questions arise, but many more non believers will accept a gay character. Think about the culture and how many people view the idea of equal rights for gays. They view it just the same as when the civil rights movement began, when the black men and women didn't have the same rights as white men. The women (of any color) didn't have the same rights as men. Many futuristic movies and shows adopt this idea and run with it, claiming that in the future man has risen above racism, sexism, and prejudice, as well as "risen above the nee for religion", but that is a different blog.
The main thing to consider.....who are you wanting to write to?
A short blog, I know - but hopefully it was a good read for you.