Queer characters, fiction recommendations, cataloging, and internalized prejudice

I've been thinking lately about queer characters in fiction and how hard it can be for folks to find published stories with queer content in libraries and bookstores -- even when that content is actually there in published books.

( many paragraphs of blather ensue... )

I'm still in a muddle, I guess, and I'm talking it out here hoping to get some kind of mental clarity.