GATEKEEPING WRITERS | BEST WRITER ADVICE

In this post I am covering what I have personally witnessed in terms of gatekeeping, and finish off with my very subjective advice.
In so many ways, I have seen and heard readers and writers try to play gatekeeper on what other authors can write. With some to the Left of American politics, they think white writers shouldn't write about POC if racism is used at all. Which as any of us know, it's pretty damn hard to write about POC without that being a plot point. They also think cisgender people shouldn't write about transgender issues, and same with straight people writing about gay issues.
So, me, Eldon Fucking Macwood, I will just get this out of the way. I'm mostly white, I am part Cherokee and Crow, but I look so white that I make snow blush. Nobody gives a shit about Native blood, and ergo, as the American Left would say, I'm a privileged white boy, blah blah blah. Also, I'm cisgender, and to be fair, I have never had an issue for being cis, although I have seen some cis women cis-male shame. Again, to the American Left. I am, however, pansexual. Meaning that gender is not an issue for me when it comes to attraction. This covers binary and non-binary genders. 
So, does this mean any struggles I write for characters based on their status in the eyes of the Political Correct Court of Public Opinion has to be based on white, cisgender pansexual issues? Fuck that shit. I don't even care if straight people write gay, bi, or pan characters. I don't care if POC write white characters. We're fucking writers, for fucks sake. We're supposed to write or be open to writing people we are not.
I do in fact have trans characters in some of my stories. Hell, before I knew I was pan, even before I came out as bi because I didn't think about how I'm pan more than bi, back when I was just a straightie as far as I knew, I still had gay and bi characters. I wouldn't not one day write and publish them. Fuck the American Left if they disagree.
Likewise, the American Right as a whole (not all to the Right, just like with the Left, there are good people, just not enough, like with the Left) it's all too common if your MCs aren't white, cis male, and straight, you're A Woke-ass-motherfucker. God forbid (usually literally with that side) you write about diversity. Bigots will hate whatever story I write or you write that breaks off from the trite cookie-cutter we have seen all of our lives.
There are other forms of gatekeeping as well. Now, us readers, we are very diverse in what we like. Some of us know what we like, some of us want to check out the book first before we can say if we will like a different approach, but we're all different, as it should be. But, there are many readers, many of whom are fellow writers who want to tell you what format to write in. They don't just tell you what characters you can and cannot write, for them, they take it to the point which person you write in and which tense.
For many, you don't dare write outside of third person, past tense. If you do, they call it trash. They hate 1st person, 2nd person is lost on them, and tense should never be like a movie. Oh noes!!!! I personally like 3rd person, present tense. I like to write in the here and now. I want you, the reader to see the story unfold in real time as much as possible. It does mean for me extra editing, because I am terrible at mixing my tenses in large due to how people talk. Sometimes I brain fart on that. Even though I do know enough grammar to know better, lol. But I welcome that challenge.
So here's the whole point. Here's the BEST writer advice EVER, subjectively speaking, of course... write YOUR fucking story. Write it well. Have editors. If you write a different race, sexuality or gender, just make sure you do with respect and to have sensitivity readers. Make sure you vet them so they understand where you're coming from, but make sure you take what they have to say to heart. They're your experts who will make your story shine!
Write your story your way. Sure, there are very nasty writers out there who don't deserve to be big names. They're terrible, terrible people. Some, like Terry Goodkind not only shitted on the very genre he wrote in, shitted on other fantasy writers, but half of his books glorified rape. He made it seem like rape was good. Maybe as an author, he didn't write what was in his heart, maybe I should separate him from his art. But as I have been told by many of his former fans, he was a POS about it. So who knows. But still, even being the POS Goodkind was, he had every right to write his books in his own voice. If we played Cancel Culture back then, we would have built for him a bigger fanbase. Trying to ruin people and silence them all because we don't like them is also gatekeeping. And it makes a martyr out of them. I for one DO NOT want someone like Terry Goodkind to be a fucking martyr! Ewwww.
What we write, just like with what we read, is always up to us. I think it's great if you want to one day make a living at writing, I do as well. But we live in a world where so many people get offended. They get worked up over an extreme horror story being too extreme. I'm sorry, as a lover of that genre, I can tell you it's supposed to be extreme, HELLOOOOO! Just like some get worked up over grimdark being too dark. They might handle dark fantasy, but then grimdark comes along, and it's too much for them. Which is fine, just as long as those people don't shit on it and try to cancel it. There should be stories for all of us to enjoy. Which is a lot easier when gatekeepers shut the fuck up.
Your story isn't my story. Your preferred books may not be mine. AND THAT'S OKAY! We need diversity. And some authors are fucking shitty, we talk about them, we do podcasts and YT videos on why they are shitty in the most objective way possible. Not just to talk shit, we need to make sure we're being fair in our assessment. It's okay to talk about where they went wrong. But whether or not they agree or would agree, that's on them. And they have a right if they are living to share their side of it. 
As writers, we're artists. We need to share our art in our voice. No matter how much you write for an audience, which is your call, most of us anyway should write for ourselves. Because if you're so worried about offending people, you will write their books, not yours. And I want to read authors who actually write their own fucking books. Even if it makes them unpopular. If I love your story, I do whatever I can to help you to become more popular. I respect that shit. I love people who are real. Who aren't afraid to speak up. Even if I don't like your message, I'll still respect the fuck of ya.
Write your story in whatever tense you want. In whatever person you want. And if you wish to understand these things better, here are a couple of posts to make these topics more clear:
https://blog.reedsy.com/sensitivity-readers/
https://www.aliventures.com/choosing-viewpoint-fiction/