#TRANS CHARACTERS DONT NEED THEIR STORIES TO CENTER AROUND IDENTITY

[jameswilsonsupremacy]

was telling someone abt my trans gregory house thoughts, and they were like “yeah but it doesn’t make sense for house to be trans”

girl. have u considered that trans people are literally just people? it doesn’t have to “make sense” bc it quite literally does not change his character. if anything, it adds depth to why he is The Way He Is, but he doesn’t need Reasons/Proof From Canon Material to be trans.

[aropride]

as someone who has never been involved in like. kinning stuff or whatever I am very curious about what kind of discourse they would have

surprise anon u just unlocked an old hyperfixation .sorry in advance also oh my god i wish i was you

ok . theres two. main types of what i generally consider "kin discourse". the first is "well im this character so you CANT be this character fuck you fuck you fuck you stop committing identity theft" . which is definitely something someone could say online for sure! and thats more of an in-community thing that likely someone who Doesnt Go Here has seen/heard about but hasnt been involved in. its probably happening on tiktok considering all the rehashed 2014-2017 discourse on tiktok rn

the second is a lot more complicated and ive got my own opinion on why it happens which ill explain. the take is basically "well, if you kin a character outside your race/gender/ability/etc you're being racist/sexist/ableist/etc by appropriating another group's struggle."

which, my theory is that. there's two things ppl mean when they say "kin." one began in the 1970s-1990s (with the otherkin/therian/elfinkind communities, the word fictionkin didnt come until the early 2000s and was originally called otakukin) and was popularized in the early 2010s right here on www.tumblr.com, and the other was popularized around 2014-2016 at the height of this particular subsection of kin discourse

the first one is what ppl generally call spiritual kin. it's a spiritual belief that's usually (but not always) explained by a belief in the multiverse where basically you believe you were a character in a past life, you share a soul with them, something along those lines.

the second is, in spiritual circles, most frequently called "kinning for fun" or "kinning to cope." it used to be most frequently called copinglink or mirrorlink and i like those terms a lot more bc it allows the language to be clear so im using them. kff/copinglink/whatever u wanna call it is basically "i relate to this character a lot"

so what i think happened in around 2014 when this particular discourse started is copinglinkers or outsiders were going, for example, "hey. this cis person is saying they kin a trans character. but I heard kinning is when you relate to something. how could a cis person relate to a story that's centered around being trans? that seems kind of odd." whereas the cis person i just made up would be thinking "i believe in a past life i was this character, and i dont claim to have trans experiences in this life"

basically what I think happened is two groups of ppl with entirely different experiences started using the same word to describe their experiences, leading to a bunch of discourse that just . didnt need to happen at all

this is so long . im sorry

[xcherry-popx]

[teddy] please feel free to share new oc ages :eyes:

okay! so the distribution is 11:10, which looks something like

children: 10(?), 12

teens: 14, 14, 15, 17, 17(?), 19

young adults: 21, 22, 22, 25, 26(?)

older adults: 27, 28, 32, 49, 62, 78, ??, ???

with aster and em as 10 and 12, dawn and eve at 14, statue at 15, houdini and persephone around 17, lancelot at 19!

that leaves annabelle at 21 and rhoslynn and marie at 22, jayden at 25 and oskar beside him, meret at 27 and joan at 28, amy at 32, gilbert at 49, cyrus at 62, and maia at 78.

gamer/river and brownie are both older fae, with river being elderly (but looks like a younger human, albeit not the most attractive) and brownie somewhere between 55-79 in fae years.

aster is hovering around ten, but thats also in fae years (however, they are a child and thus think like one). i conceptualized them as a child, so their story is pretty reliant on that, but im worried about having a kid in this kind of game... at least its not a straight up killing game like yttd or dr, but in the end, they have a bit of plot armor. part of me wonders if its okay to have a character thats automatically protected, but. at the very least, their story is focused on healing, with a satifying resolution, unlike some stories >_> (nankidai...)

i want dawn and eve to be late middleschool/maybe early highschool (probably starting highschool post game), so i set them at 14.

statue i want to be under 16, but highschool age, so he's around 15.

houdini and persephone's exact ages may be changed, and houdini likely doesnt keep track of his exact age. however, i want persephone to be at least 16 and under 19, and houdini stays somewhere around the same age since theyll likely end up love interests

lancelot i wanted to be 18-19, since his character arc would be accentuated by making him about the age he needs to learn to be independent from his family/mother

annebelle, rhoslynn, and marie will remain similar in age, since i dont want a drastic age gap since they will be at least hinted at being together. the exact ages arent as important and may be changed, but i was thinking at least 20 and younger than 25. i may change them again, but for now i centered it around annabelle being the youngest at 21, since i want to make her just old enough to start getting married (with family drama around this possibly kickstarting her joining the game)

i want jayden to be late college, assuming he either waited to join college or took longer to complete it. i was thinking about to leave college/just graduating, and oskar will remain somewhere around the same age (likely not older than 26ish)

meret is 27 and joan is 28, because i want joan to be starting to be pressured to marry. i may adjust the gap, because i feel alot of the characters are close in age up to adults? although part of this cant be helped since i planned for teen/young adult love interests to not have large gaps

amy is 32, because even thougfh she was a teen at first, i feel like it would be better for her to have some more experience! that also means shes had more time to become secure in her identity as a trans woman

gilbert is 49, i wanted to start spreading the ages out and i think he should be dad aged, since hes a dad... but also, not an experienced dad, if that makes sense.

cyrus is 62, because i want him to be an older rock star starting to fade from the spotlight

maia has always been around 78

anyways! i think this is the first time talking about some of these characters, so feel free to ask a bit about them! most of them arent fully fleshed out, but i can give you a basic character premise!

[writtenbyhappynerds]

Fanfic 102: Unit 3, Diversity

          Hello! Welcome back. This week we’re going to talk about Diversity. Beyond how to insert diversity into your writing, the nuances, and the ways you can create a believable character. The Editor and I understand how sensitive of a subject this is, and wanted to take the time to make sure the information we are doling out is inclusive and well-written and quality. There is often a lack of diversity in media and books, and often when it is included it’s shoe-horned in for brownie points. We understand that, and we want the up-and-coming writers to be better than those before them. The two most important things to remember are the following: no diversity beats terribly-done diversity, and, the way that the character is diverse is not and should never be their whole personality. We will be discussing LGBT, ableism, and race.

          The LGBT community is a vibrant community with members of all shapes and sizes. The most important part when writing a character who is gay or trans is that this aspect is part of their identity but it is not their whole identity. When we discussed characterization in Fanfiction 101, we talked about not reducing side characters or members of the cast to one-note aspects of their personality. The same applies here, and a character’s sexuality or gender expression should not be at the forefront of every conversation. You shouldn’t create these characters with their sexual or gender identity being at the forefront of your mind, because you wouldn’t do that for a straight or cis character. You wouldn’t sit down to make a character with your first thought being ‘ok but they have to be cis,’ so it’s silly to do the same to a gay or trans or nonbinary character. Make them like you would any other character. What changes would be aspects of their identity, or values they hold near and dear to their heart or motivations. Those may be different than a straight character or a cis-gender character.

          If you’re straight or cis and writing a gay or trans character, you need to do your research to accurately portray the character in a realistic and believable way. An example we love is Todd Chavez in Bojack Horseman, who portrayed an asexual character, and Todd’s journey as he came into his own. Bojack Horseman also portrayed polyamory with Hollyhock, who was the adopted daughter of 8 dads. What we enjoyed was that Todd’s sexuality added dimension to his character. It didn’t reduce him to being the token LGBT representative, and it didn’t force him into a box where he could only focus on LGBT issues. Todd was and is so much more than that, and his sexuality is a part of his story, but it’s not the sole story.

Rick Riordan is a master of writing experiences that are not his own, and he cheated the system by basing his characters off of people he knew. This is a method that you can use. You can base your characters off of friends, public figures, etc. If you decide to not do that, googling what transgender men and women have to experience or what top surgery is isn’t enough. I would suggest looking to Youtube, where many transgender and LGBT  influencers have talked about their experiences. I would suggest looking to forums, Reddit being one of them. Yahoo Answers is also a really good source. What you want is as many experiences as you can get: ones that are similar, and ones that contrast. The goal is to combine them and make your own character in a melting pot of other experiences. You owe it to not only those who read your story but yourself to do the research. You want your characters to represent the communities you do, and the ones you don’t as best you can.

          Let’s move on to people of color (POC). The same rules we’ve discussed prior apply: A poorly written POC is worse than no POC (Looking at you Baljeet). In addition, that POC’s ethnicity should not be their entire personality, and if you are creating a character just to say that you have made a POC, then you have already failed. There are many issues we see when we find people of color in fanfiction. Among them are language barriers, naming, and a misinterpretation of cultural values and experiences.

          Putting words in a foreign language in the middle of fanfic is very, very common. You see it everywhere. In Avengers fanfic it’s Russian or Norse. In Batman fanfic, it’s any of the languages that the Batkids speak. The writers put in these conversations that sometimes go on for pages in another language, and then add an author’s note at the bottom with the translation. This is awkward, and when you read books, this is something you never see. If you want your character to speak another language, you don’t need to actually write the other language. Putting a few sentences through Google translate doesn’t make you a better or more dedicated writer than someone who adds the tag: “she was screaming now, all her words coming out in rapid French.” Tags can be used to dictate a change in language, and I encourage you to use them. Now, there are of course exceptions to this rule, and those exceptions usually lie in food, names, and things. Calling someone a name that is in another language is fine. Describing food in another language is fine, and things are generally ok. But that’s just for you. Your characters also have to speak the language.

          No one worth their salt or heritage is going to go through a moment where they start out speaking in their fluent tongue and then “forget” to switch back and forth between English and their native language. It is so incredibly unrealistic and awful and it lets the reader know someone who is not actually bilingual wrote this piece of work. When you learn two languages, here’s what really happens: you forget words. You have to stumble through words in your own language before you get to the one you need. You call things, “that thing.” You point. You sometimes say “what’s that called?” you find aspects of the second language, or even your own language stupid and you don’t want to do it. You get words mixed up and you make mistakes. That’s all okay, and that all happens, and should be written as such. One of my teachers never forgot the French word for spider because she got the shit scared out of her by one and didn’t know what to call it when she needed someone to kill it. My aunt took 3 years to learn Turkish by immersion and now can speak it fluently. You don’t even need to be fluent in every language, and many people only know a handful of words in one or a few sentences in another. That’s totally okay! If anything that’s more realistic because it’s super hard to learn a new language and speak it fluently. Don’t force your characters into a box like that. Let them make mistakes.

          Culture is a huge thing when writing POC. You have to keep in mind that culture shifts, and what may have been culturally huge for one set of characters won’t be as significant for others. You want your characters to interact with their culture in a way that is realistic, and not reductive. Kelly from the Office is a great example, as she invites the office to celebrate Diwali with her. Lara Jean from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is another example. We see her eat Korean food at home, and in the books, she still celebrates Korean holidays. Where the shift comes into play can be seen in Never Have I Ever where Devi is not as Indian as her parents, and we see her struggle with the culture. She still goes to Hindu association things, Ganesh puja, and she wears Indian clothes. However, she’s still a normal teenager out chasing boys and worrying about colleges. In Superstore the Muslim character prays 5 times a day, and still works at the grocery giant. The big takeaway is that these people have lives that include, but aren’t limited to their cultures. They aren’t reduced to stereotypes.

          Naming characters is already rough. However, naming characters from a different background than you are even tougher. The Editor has a lot of anger towards Panju Weasley, from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Her exact words, as they were texted to me:

**

>Like Cursed Child where Ron and Padma has a kid named Panju.

>What the fuck is a Panju?

>That’s literally the dumbest name in the world

>All she had to google was Indian names.

>There are so many fucking lists.

>I dont even think it’s an actual name. Like it might be a nickname for some people but I dont think people have actually named their child panju.

**

          As usual, the Editor is very correct. There is a simple solution to getting around what we’ll call the Panju Dilemma- a phrase which we’ll use to describe terrible naming choices of POC. In Fanfiction 101 we had an entire unit centered around naming. Nameberry.com exists, and if they don’t have it all you need to do is Google the country of origin and the sex of the OC. Sometimes you can add in the year the OC was born, to really get a feel for the time period, but that doesn’t always work. For example, in one of our stories we have a cluster of kids from Syria. When it came time to name said kids, we Googled: popular Syrian names 2003. That’s how we got our OCs: Reem, Nour, Nizar, Jano, and Stella. Naming is very important, and you owe it to your readers and your characters to do them justice, and not saddle them with a terrible name.

          The final note of diversity we want to talk about is actual ability. Ableism is often overlooked in movies, shows, or books. It is something that is shoehorned in as an extra adversary for the OC or the cast, only *gasp* This time the biggest adversary is themselves. I hate that. I want to eliminate that because as someone with a disability and someone who has worked with kids with disabilities, you can absolutely write and code characters like that in so long as, and say it with me now, it is not their entire personality.

          You can totes write a character with anxiety and/or depression, so long as you don’t snub these very real mental disorders that millions face on a daily basis. You also have a duty, especially with anxiety and depression, to not glorify, glamorize, or romanticize either. Do not romanticize self-harm. Do not romanticize anxiety. Do not romanticize depression. They are not cruel tricks of life that befall beautiful intelligent women. It is not “tragically beautiful.” Depression and anxiety and self-harm are not a paragraph for you to lament on while the OC gazes longingly out the window at her lover. Anxiety keeps some people from talking on the phone they’re so nervous. It gives girls panic attacks in mall food courts because they don’t know what’s going on anymore. Depression isn’t your OC watching the rain in a hoodie and sweats, it’s not showering for days on end because you can’t find the motivation to. It’s having insomnia because you can’t sleep. Self-harm is not an OC’s love interest holding their wrists and telling them to stop. It is deep pain and numbness and hurting yourself to try and feel something. It is rubbing Neosporin on your cuts and hoping they go away. It is forcing your friends to keep it a secret because you don’t want anyone to know because what if they take it away from you. These mental disorders are not yours to romanticize. They are yours to show the growth and power and strength of your characters. They are yours to use to show how trauma has affected your character and can represent normality behind mental health and emotion and talking about things like this. Even more so than girls, writing a male OC with anxiety or depression is more empowering because you are allowing a character to talk about their feelings when that isn’t seen as acceptable by their sex. If you feel you are able to take that plunge, and you can do the adequate research to represent the disorder well, go for it.

          In addition to mental health, physical disabilities are often overlooked. I have a chronic illness. I have never seen in a book, movie, TV show, or fanfiction anyone with a chronic illness, let alone my chronic illness. That in of itself is a broad term, and I’ll let chronic illness mean anything from lupus and POTS to asthma and anemia. These disabilities make a character have to work harder, but hey, look at Captain America. The boy had every disability under the sun and he got out alright. No one is going to make changes for you. You have to be the change you want to see. If I want OCs with chronic illnesses, I have to write them and do them justice by not only my community but the communities that I don’t represent. Jeremy Scott’s The Ables is a great example of writing disability and using it as part of, but not a character’s entire identity. The main characters all have superpowers but are put in a class that doesn’t allow them to use said powers. This is because they are all disabled. The main character is blind and telekinetic, another can read minds but is in a wheelchair, another is a genius but has cerebral palsy. Their disabilities are a minor obstacle, but not the big bad, and that is a great way to write disability. People who live with physical disabilities or chronic illnesses have to deal with said limitations every day. To us, as time goes on it becomes less of the monster at the end of the story and more of an everyday beast. It becomes normal, and there are bigger things for us to worry about than just our disease. This speaks for every aspect of diversity we have covered in this chapter: The people with said note have to live with it every day. It is a common enemy, not the final boss. To treat it as such is to say that it is our biggest concern in life. I wish my chronic illness was my biggest concern, but I have other fish to fry.

          What we have done here is not an all-inclusive list of diversity. This chapter took 2 weeks to write because the Editor and I wanted to do right by our community. Not just the communities we proudly represent but the communities we don’t. There are many more nuances and aspects to diversity that are out there, and what we have presented is our best. Yet it is still incomplete. If there is something important that you feel we have left out, we sincerely apologize. We acknowledge that what we have written here is not all-encompassing for diversity. We wanted to talk about issues that are common occurrences. However, what we have covered is not the end-all of what’s out there. We apologize for the delay, and to make up for it, our next unit Writing Children will be published at the same time as this one. We sincerely apologize for the delay.

Xoxo, Gossip Girl

[anarcoqueer1994]

Andi Mack but absolutely no one is both cis and het

So I loved this idea but got overwhelmed trying to think about squeezing in all the headcannon ideas I have for each character and their gender and sexuality and having it flow well in a single story. So these are a list of my headcannons for each character. I pretty much already picture ever character as either not cis or not straight, or both. Every once in a while Buffy gets straight, cis rights but not often. Anyways, if there is anything particularly interesting I may expand it into a story. I know alot is pretty well established but I needed to collect my thoughts into one list.

Please ignore typos, I'm running on stress and sleep deprivation.

Andi

• Pansexual/pan-romantic, cis girl, she/her

• She and Buffy got that serious pan/bi solidarity. (More on that later)

• In love with her amazing girlfriend, Amber. But both Amber and Buffy were ready to fight anyone who tries to erase her pan identity just bc her SO is a girl.

• Literally Amber almost got into a fist fight with a girl who was insisting Andi was a lesbian even when she was corrected.

• Reminds people constantly that Pan and Bi are not always interchangeable and you should always respect the labels a person asks for.

• She, Libby, and Walker did everyone's makeup and/or face paint for their first PRIDE.

Buffy

• Demi-Bisexual/bi-romantic, cis girl, she/her

• Literally the reason she fell for Marty started with the fact that he was such a good friend. Also she thought he was really cute but will never admit it

• Is tired of trolls online belittling bi-girls validity, especially bi girls in relationships with men.

• Has a shirt that says "My sexuality is not your fetish."

• Loves Marty so much but is tired of justifying her bisexuality to both straight people and gay people.

Cyrus

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, Cis Guy, He/him

• Definitely a theater gay. Like you can't tell me that he did not listen to "I'm not that Girl" from Wicked constantly when he thought TJ and Kira were dating.

• Literally makes gay puns constantly.

• He and Amber founded Grant's Queer Alliance. Straight, cis folks could be in it but didnt want them in the name like GSAs because straight people don't needed to be centered to be an ally

• Accidentally chaotic

• Ships Ryan and Chad

• Is a Tumblr gay

Jonah

• Heterosexual/Aromantic, Cis-Guy, he/him

• He loves making out but is not a fan of the whole heavy romance emotions

• People tell him constantly that he will feel those feelings someday when he meets the "right person".

• He disagrees.

• "Why can't it just be fun?" He has literally no interest at all in being in a romantic relationship.

• Like at all.

• He is happy with and values his platonic relationships and does not want more than that.

TJ

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, Trans-Guy, He/him

• He was so stressed out when he realized that not only was he trans, but he is also gay.

• Built up emotional wall and mean persona to let everyone know that he was definitely a super masculine guy.

• He told Amber he was a boy when he was 5 years old, so she at 7 years old, snuck the scissors from their parents' room and chopped off his hair.

• His whole family has been so supportive.

• Cyrus was the 2nd non-Kippen to know he was trans, after Reed.

• Reed was his first crush because in kindergarten Reed kissed TJ on the cheek. That was his "first kiss." The crush eventually went away when he realized he just really wanted Reed as his best friend.

• TJ's mom helped him pick out safe binding options once puberty started. His mom also got him hormone therapy starting pretty early in his teen years to minimize the effects of puberty. He is super grateful.

• Always chaotic.

• Uses "I'm gay" as an excuse for anything.

• Made out with Cyrus in front of some shitty evangelical preacher protesting at PRIDE.

• Cant even picture ever dating a girl and has no idea how Cyrus ever thought he was straight.

Amber

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, Cis Girl, She/her

• Sapphic queen

• Is overwhelmed by how pretty girls are

• Loves Britney Spears

• Probably too good for you.

• Is ready to ruin anyone's life if they say anything homophobic or transphobic to her girlfriend(Andi), Best Friends(Cyrus and Iris) or her little brother. (TJ)

Marty

• Heterosexual/Hetero-romantic, Trans Guy, He/him

• Runs fast to outrun that dysphoria.

• His family was not supportive like TJ's but TJ and his family have his back.

• Unsafe binding methods until TJ forced him to be safer

• Big dumb boy energy

• Is so proud of his girlfriend all the time.

• At a track meet, some asshole guy from another school kept telling Marty to go run with the girls because there is no way he can keep up with "real" guys.

• Marty beat every guys time and won in both events he participated in: Sprinting and Long Distance.

• He still can't believe how lucky he is to have Buffy as a girlfriend.

Libby

• Pansexual/pan-romantic, cis girl, she/her

• Attracted more towards fem folx but she has dated both fems and mascs.

• Polyamorous

• She and Walker are currently dating and are the cutest SAVA couple.

• Her other partner is Iris. They met through Andi and Amber. At Andi's 16th birthday, both Iris and Libby were there and they clicked right away.

• She was very open to Walker about this and they were so supportive.

• Best aesthetic

Walker

• Pansexual/pan-romantic, non-binary, they/them

• Polyamorous

• Obviously with Libby

• Recently broke up with their other partner so only dating Libby right now.

• Loves to wear androgynous, slightly more masc. clothing. As they gets older, they are getting more daring in their feminine clothing elements though

• They can't picture just feeling like one set in stone gender.

• Has days where they gets a little dysphoric about their body but has other

• If one more boomer says "They" is plural, so help me god.

Iris

• Homosexual/Homo-romantic, trans Girl, She/her

• She and Amber became friends in the third grade when a mean guy called her freak for wearing a dress to school. The guy said "Boys don't wear dresses." And she started crying and saying she was a girl. Amber saw him laughing at her so she kicked him in the not so nice parts and She and Iris have been friends ever since.

• She finally feel right when she is with Libby. She, herself is not polyamorous but is fine with Libby having other partners.

• Realized she was a lesbian about a day into dating Cyrus but wanted to try to be straight.

• Did not work.

• Literally the sweetest.

• She and Walker actually love playing video games together even when Libby is not around.

Reed

• Bisexual/Bi-romantic, cis boy, he/him

• Loves to flirt... with everyone

• Used to have a crush on TJ

• Even though he and TJ aren't friends anymore, he would never out TJ as trans bc that crosses a line.

• Has dated like half the school

• Will ruin your life and not give a fuck

• He made out with this cheerleader behind the bleachers and literally an hour later made out with her "straight" boyfriend

• Literally loves chaos

Gus

• Asexual/aromantic, genderqueer, he/him/she/her/they/them

• Really only wants friendships

• Pronouns dont matter to him but will alway respect yours

• Doesn't like to be touched at all.

[aidenwaites]

on the ng stuff, even Luc/fer is a good example of his written representation :0

if I’m not mistaken, Luc/ifer himself is said to be bi?? It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched it, lmao 

The thing about ng is like,, if lgbt “representation” is what you’re looking for, he’s not the person to go to. Many, many of his lgbt characters are what everyone here is gonna consider Bad Rep. Their sexuality or identity is mentioned once or twice, usually off-handedly, and the story goes on. (he has written trans characters too, notably a trans lady in the Sand//man comics. He’s also expressed the fact that, while he’s proud of the story as it was then, it was 25 years ago, and he would write it differently now. Here’s the discussion on his personal tumblr concerning her.) 

But also, a lot of NG’s stories don’t center around those aspects of those characters. NG very rarely has a story where a romantic or sexual relationship is the center of it- at least concerning what I’ve read/watched, and it has, admittedly, been a hot minute and I haven’t read the majority of his works. Luc/ifer mentions his attraction to men maybe once or twice and we usually see him with women. (Which, its also worth noting, I dont think NG is involved all that much with the show.) In the America//n Gods book, there’s a character that travels with Shadow for a span of time who’s a lesbian. It’s mentioned once, I think maybe she has a girlfriend she goes home to once they part ways, that part of this character isn’t what’s being explored. I don’t really fault that part of her not being mentioned all that often. There’s a difference between this and the gay man in the marvel movie, too- the marvel “gay rep” was an insignificant, unnamed character shoe-horned in for Clout. The girl in America//n Gods had a bigger role to play in the story, even if she’s a supporting character who isn’t there for the entirety of the book. She still has a little bit of her story told. 

 I also think we have to realize that a lot of NG’s more popular stories are, in fact, his older ones, written around 20+ years ago. Good Om//ens, America//n Gods, Sandm/an.. Luc/ifer, which is an extension of Sa/ndman. This needs to be considered, especially when talking about Good Om/ens- co-written with Terry Pratchett, who passed a few years before the show was conceived. The show itself is something of a love letter to him and that’s why it remains mostly the same story they told in the 90′s. The changed and additional scenes are, in the majority, scenes and changes they’d discussed at one point or another. He’s stated for a long, long time that they didn’t consider the protagonists gay, because they didn’t consider the protagonists to be of human gender. I don’t really see the issue in that way of presenting them, either. They’re human-like, ethereal beings. Alright, sure. 

I just don’t like the people who treat NG as some kind of massive enemy to the LGBT community. Can we look at his works with a critical eye? Yes, certainly. But he has shown himself to be supportive and more importantly, he’s certainly made efforts to learn when it comes to these characters.