Homosexuality on Pern

Question

TLDR - Are all male green riders homosexual or bisexual? If they are not, then how do those riders handle unwanted same sex encounters during their dragons mating flight, and why do the weyrs themselves bring this on by not allowing women to attend general hatchings away from the Queen egg?

I know a question exists about Green riders sexual encounters, but this is quite a bit different to that one I promise.

We know that, just like Queen-Bronze pairings, riders of Green Dragons and whoever flew the green also engage in the merged draconic sexual pairing. We can assume that the majority of these are homosexual encounters, since almost all non-Queen riders are male.

I am curious about the dynamics here. Are all male green riders homosexual or bisexual, or do they have to endure sex outside of their own sexuality because of their dragons? The same could possibly be asked about blue and brown riders.

And if they are not all homosexual or bisexual, then I can only question the way Weyrs run hatchings. Surely a large number of those hetero green riders would feel violated, much like the female green rider Tai did. So why after many hetero male green riders have gone through this experience would they not have women attend the hatchings of normal eggs rather than only the Queen egg?

I don't believe these questions are addressed in universe, except possibly in Todds books, I have not read all of those yet. But perhaps they have been addressed in other out of universe books, like in The People of Pern. Or by Anne herself, or even by Todd.

Answer 1

I have finally read all of the books that Todd wrote/co-wrote.

From Dragonsblood.

As blue dragons mated with green dragons, and both were ridden by male riders, the riders themselves tended to be the sort who could accommodate the dragons' amorous arrangements.

From Dragongirl.

It had given Fiona a sublime sense of relief when she discovered that riders of blues and greens, while deferential to her as a Weyrwoman, treated her womanness as something unimportant to their relationship with her. Fiona had always understood intellectually why that was so, but it was only when she recognized it on a subconscious level that she truly allowed herself to open up to them. These older men, who did not see her as a potential mate, were free to see her as the person she was.

From Sky Dragons

Green and blue riders, she was discovering, were hard to keep in one category. With browns it was even more so. Only the bronzes and queens were steadfast in their preferences. The rider of a female green could be the dominant partner in a relationship, although that role was more prevalent among blue riders. And while the male riders of greens were more likely to prefer male partners, it wasn’t always the case. Based on her experience of the past four Turns, the only thing that seemed certain to Xhinna was that when dragons rose to mate, passions flowed freely, with the controlling passion being that of the dragon’s over the rider. At all other times, riders were free to follow their own hearts.

Also in this series of books there are a few unexpanded mentions of "doing their duty," from which I infer, from context of the conversations and thoughts, to mean producing children. One of these mentions actually included the Queen rider Fiona trying to avoid thinking about what that meant to blue and green riders.

During certain times the Weyrs do allow and even encourage women to try to Impress greens and even blues. But it is definitely not traditional, frowned upon by many - from some remarks it seems to be more because of chauvinism than anything else, like, "Can you imagine having women fighting thread, the horror!" The use of women to Impress greens and blues has nothing to do with sex and sexuality - though it does seem that many of the female blue riders and some female green riders are homosexual or bisexual.

There is nothing at all that I can find about how heterosexual riders feel about having homosexual sex, and vice versa. Whilst those who are Weyrbred may be okay with it, raised to be open, I still cannot imagine those who were Holdbred being so okay with it - since we see that some have difficulty opening up to sexual freedom at all!

So...

The majority of male blue and green riders are homosexual or bisexual. But some are not.

Women are allowed to Impress greens and blues, sometimes, in certain circumstances.

Dragons riders seem to be expected to produce children no matter their sexual preference. If this is so, then homosexual riders are expected to have heterosexual sex. As such I can't imagine the Weyrs would think much about heterosexual riders having to have homosexual sex.

Answer 2

In the earlier days of Pern, (Dragon's Dawn, First Fall era) Dragon Riders were paired predominately by gender with males bonding to male and female, however at some point it became traditional that only males could be presented to fighting dragons and so greens were bonded to males. Since Kitty Ping was a "traditionalist" (Dragon's Dawn: “I was just thinking.  Kit Ping was such a traditionalist...”  Sorka regarded her husband for a long moment, until he ducked his head, unable to maintain the eye contact.  “All right, Sean, you know every symbol in that program.  Did Kit Ping introduce a gender discrimination?”) The greens may prefer to seek out a female partner but lacking any in range at hatching may therefore be predisposed to choosing men whose gender preference would be the most compatible.

There are some references that indicate that while the mating is going on and the riders are overcome by the dragons' desires, the riders don't necessarily have to have sex with each other.