#a friend of mine wrote a short comic script and it has spawned a few sequels of decreasing seriousness

[mjvnivsbrvtvs]

lick his hand, antony

[thenightling]

LGBT+ Neil Gaiman characters

All right.  Let’s begin.  This is a long list so I’m bound to accidentally leave a few out.  Feel free to correct me if you think of one or two I may have forgotten to list.

April Spink and Miriam Forcible from Coraline (couple.)  

Angela (Lesbian). 

The character Neil Gaiman created for Spawn is Angela.  Angela is now owned by Marvel.  Angela is a lesbian in a loving relationship with a transwoman named Sera.

Salim and The Jinn from American Gods (Couple).

This relationship got nominated for a GLAAD award.  

Sam Black Crow in American Gods (Bisexual)

Snow White (Lesbian) Snow White (Yes, the fairy tale character) is the lesbian protagonist of The Sleeper and the Spindle, which is a sort of crossover fanfiction of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty that Neil Gaiman wrote as a short story.

Captain Shakespeare in the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust (Gender nonconforming.)

His sexual preference is ambiguous but he loves feminine, soft, and pink things including womens clothing, hairdressing, and theatre. He also leads a band of cutthroat pirates who follow him loyally so there is that.    

Loki (Loki)

There’s Loki in Neil’s book on Norse Mythology.   Loki also appears in American Gods and The Sandman.

There’s also quite a few LGBT+ characters in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, which include (but are not necessarily limited to):

Paul and Alexander Burgess (male couple).  

It should be noted that Alexander and Paul were clearly in an open relationship (Polyamorous?) in the 1960s (With Alexander Burgess likely being panasexual) and they are now exclusive to each other by the end of Sandman: The Wake.

Judy (lesbian). 

Judy was, unfortunately, phyiscally violent with Donna and it cost her the relationship.  Judy died along with several other character at a diner when John Dee (Doctor Destiny) got a hold of Morpheus’ dream stone.

Donna AKA Foxglove (lesbian). 

Donna is Judy’s ex-girlfriend but she ultimately found happiness with Hazel.  

Hazel (lesbian).

 Hazel had a one night stand with a man that resulted in pregnancy. She did not really enjoy it and now she and Donna (Foxglove) raise the baby together after having overcome many relationship issues.  The baby was named after Wanda (the transwoman character).  Since the baby was a boy they named him with Wanda’s deadname to remember her (Personally I think Wanda should have just been his middle name. Wanda hated the name Alvin).     It should be noted that Donna and Hazel’s love story (which starts in Sandman: A Game of you) got a spin-off comic called Death: The Time of your Life and that comic won a GLAAD award for representation in the mid-90s.    

Cluracan (Bisexual.  Possibly panasexual by modern standards.),

Wanda (Transwoman). 

Desire (Genderfluid and panasexual).    Desire is the living embodiment of desires, good and bad desires.  One moment they might want your death, the next they’re helping save the universe.  Desire can be male, female, both, or neither at will.   

The Corinthian (gay), 

John Constantine  (Bisexual.) Though not originally created by Neil Gaiman he was written by Neil Gaiman in a few stories.  Including his appearance in Sandman.

Lucifer Morningstar. (Complicated.) Lucifer Morningstar (like all of Neil Gaiman’s angels) is depicted as having no true biological gender in both The Sandman comics and in Lucifer’s own solo comics.  Lucifer presents as male and uses male pronouns.  He self-identifies as male but many other angels don’t really consider themselves as male or female despite how they present themselves.   

In the TV adaptation of Lucifer he is portrayed as having male and female lovers.  It should also be noted that in the comics Lucifer was physically modeled after biseuxal rock star, David Bowie.  

Mazikeen (Female identifying.  Bisexual) Mazikeen is a female-identifying demon portrayed as bisexual in both the TV show Lucifer and in Lucifer’s spin-off comics.  In Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman she was Lucifer’s lover.

Eve (Bisexual)

Eve appeared in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and in Lucifer as well as American Gods.   In the Lucifer TV series she is portrayed as bisexual.

Note: Eve can change her age and appearance at will.   Sometimes she’s young, sometimes she’s old.  Sometimes she’s middle aged.  And though she’s often appeared as white (such as in Sandman), she is black in the newer Sandman Universe comics, and in Good Omens.  

Various angels.  (Diverse)

This one is a little complex.  Many of Neil Gaiman depictions of Angels do not actually identify as male or female though many of them present as male.  

Anatomically they are without gender unless they will it to be otherwise. Many of them have taken male and female Earthly lovers.   You can see Lucifer depicted without physical gender in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and other angels depicted similarly in the Lucifer solo comics that spin-off from Sandman.  

Pollution from Good Omens (Non-Binary)

Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens (Couple. Demi panromantic celestial?)  

Neil Gaiman does not personally view Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens as gay because they only present as male but aren’t truly male or female by nature. He has also said he does not view a male and female presenting angel couple as straight either for the same reason.  He has said “I never said they are not queer.” just that he wouldn’t use the word gay for them.

I know that’s not all of them but there you go.   A list of LGBT+ characters created by Neil Gaiman.

And before I get a stupid hate-DM about how Wanda is “transmisogynist” because you read a Mary Sue article by someone who doesn’t understand context, understand this.   There was no Trans representation when Wanda was created.   She can’t follow a stereotype.  The stereotype didn’t exist yet.   She had not medically transitioned and ask yourself if you find her problematic just because she isn’t the conventional idea of feminine in her bone structure and height (Something even cis women have to struggle with).   Yes, Wanda died but it was to show the cishet readers of 1992 that her soul was always that of a woman.  There are still people today (even some Trans people) who don’t think you really count unless you fully medically transition. Wanda was scared of surgery but that shouldn’t matter.  She was always a woman and that was the point Neil was trying to make.

Yes, Wanda’s family was transphobic.  They were supposed to be seen as transphobic.  Also Thessaly AKA Larissa and George are NOT supposed to be seen as good people.  They are supposed to be seen as Transphobic. Thessaly is a pretty horrible person in The Sandman comics. She’s selfish and kind of homicidal.  She represents the cold, self-absorbed immortal Morpheus used to be like.   And before you try to argue “Just because Transphobia is real doesn’t mean Neil has to depict it!” (and yes, I’ve been given that argument while defending Neil Gaiman) ... Before you argue that, I want you to know something.

A Transman friend of mine was deeply moved by Wanda’s story because he went through similar.  His parents still deadname him and misgender him on birthday and holiday cards and gifts.   They never disowned him but they want to pressure him to “realize” he’s a woman.  When he saw that Wanda went through similar, especially at her own funeral, he no longer felt so alone.   Wanda may well have saved his life.  So yes, I will defend that “problematic” character who died nobility and who was used in the early 90s to teach cishet readers that Transwoman (medically transitioned or not) are still women.  Also, Neil is NOT accountable for how the story was drawn.  He’s not the illustrator.  So stop using the artwork to claim he’s homophobic.  A comic book writer essentially writes a script and then it is up to the illustrator to draw it as best they can.   By the way, the illustrator of Sandman: A Game of You (Where Wanda came from) was Colleen Doran, who was nominated for a Gaytastic Spectrum award in 2001.     

Stop looking for reasons to hate one of the only men who has been trying to give the LGBT+ community representation since the 1980s.