In addition to the 'only gold/bronzeriders (aka heterosexuals) have inherent leadership potential' factor, even male blueriders didn't get shown in the most flattering light in the few books where they were notable characters (such as Dragonseye). That sort of thing actually bugs me more than the books where gay characters aren't featured at all (but that definitely has its own problems - for instance, Lytol, Jaxom's future mentor, was originally written in Dragonflight as a male greenrider who'd lost his dragon; the dragon was 'upgraded' to a brown in later books, presumably because Lytol couldn't have been taken seriously as a wise old father figure if he were, as you note, 'effeminately gay').
A notable fanfiction author has a lot of more realistic theories on how Impression works (or would work in a more logical universe), if anyone's interested; her novels are also very good.
Re: Deladria#242017
In addition to the 'only gold/bronzeriders (aka heterosexuals) have inherent leadership potential' factor, even male blueriders didn't get shown in the most flattering light in the few books where they were notable characters (such as Dragonseye). That sort of thing actually bugs me more than the books where gay characters aren't featured at all (but that definitely has its own problems - for instance, Lytol, Jaxom's future mentor, was originally written in Dragonflight as a male greenrider who'd lost his dragon; the dragon was 'upgraded' to a brown in later books, presumably because Lytol couldn't have been taken seriously as a wise old father figure if he were, as you note, 'effeminately gay').
A notable fanfiction author has a lot of more realistic theories on how Impression works (or would work in a more logical universe), if anyone's interested; her novels are also very good.
https://www.dragonchoice.com/on-impression/