For this week’s Book Unicorn post of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read a sapphic book in which the characters practice safer sex. Maybe there’s a scene in the book in which they talk about safer sex, or we find out they’ve gotten tested for STIs (sexually transmitted infections) before sleeping together, or we see them use dental dams or condom-covered sex toys, etc. 

As I mentioned in a blog post that I wrote for the Ylva Publishing blog a few years ago, sapphic romances and erotica rarely depict safer sex practices. The characters never seem to worry about contracting sexually transmitted infections, even if they have only just met and don’t know each other’s sexual history. 

I get that it can interrupt the buildup and flow of a steamy scene, but as an author, I try to find a way to incorporate it, especially if I’m writing a story in which one of the characters had a lot of one-night stands in the past.