On the planet Thwart, the dominant species is much like humans: bipedal, bilaterally symmetric,
two sexes.
As with us, there are some male Thwarts that are sexually attracted to other males, and similarly
for females. As with us, their society had a problem with that for awhile, but they got over it and
now nobody gives it a second thought.
But there is one large physical difference from us: with about a fifty-fifty split, Thwarts have either
a face that is on the front side or on the back. Since they're used to it, their culture and infrastructure
have been built to accomodate it. But it does cause one big problem: "spooning" with a lover, which they
enjoy as much as us, is thought to be normal only between two "fronters" (like humans) or two "backers".
As with sexual matching, there is a minority that doesn't go along. But unlike homosexuality, which has
been sorted out as I said, there is still great social pressure to be "normal". Nonetheless, there are
people who form a couple between a fronter and a backer, and they face significant discrimination. Even
when a front/back couple walk down the street holding hands, there are people who give them dirty looks
or even take measures to not come near them. Most such couples think that they're the normal ones, since
each can gaze into the other's eyes while spooning.
Fortunately, there has never been a proscription against front/back marriage, and the first contact
team reports optimism that such discrimination will go the way of the lewlew (Thwartian dodo).
After all, none of the Thwarts that they interacted with even thought to ask why there was not a single
backer among the ship's crew. They'll return in about three hundred years and will update us then.
300 words for BQ 2025