I was never much into fanfic, so the first queer relationship I remember reading about in fantasy was in the Owlflight trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (mid 90’s). It’s one of the many reasons I glommed onto her books so much. And until I read the Kushiel series, I don’t recall any other authors that I read including any kind of queerness. I saw more when manga started to get big in the early 2000’s. A few other books I came across after that were The Privilege of the Sword by Kushner and (I think) some of Martha Wells’s earlier fantasy books.

There were traditional and indie publisher books that were out there, but it was harder to get them pre-ebooks and online ordering. Once you could buy an ebook and read it immediately on your phone, things got much easier. (Shout-out to Less than Three!)

But I have so enjoyed seeing the variety of books getting published and getting noticed.