Wicked Pretty Things and the erasure of LGBTQ characters

I've fallen a bit behind on keeping up with my friends/reading pages and so haven't followed too much about all the reactions to the Wicked Pretty Things anthology kerfluffle (last month, Jessica Verday withdrew her story from the anthology after receiving a note from the editor which stated that her story “would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers.”) But I'd guess that Jim Hines' reaction is among the classiest. See Jim's post to read more about the dispute and aftermath. Way to go, Jim. Thanks for continuing to be a hero. And kudos of course to Jessica Verday and the rest of the authors who took a principled stand by withdrawing their stories. (Jim says that a commenter has passed along the subsequent announcement that the anthology has now been cancelled.)

Am considering....

starting Game of Thrones. I am a total neophyte to the series.

Good idea/bad idea? (Alas, I do not get HBO and so cannot feast my eyes on Sean Bean.) But I saw some initial promotional material which certainly intrigues me. Especially given a cursory check with Googlefu, which notes the influence of the history of the War of the Roses on the series.