All Are A Part of Me

*clicks for better quality and zooms in*

i will protect and love unconditionally

and rent free in my head

This is capitalism’s vast irrationality and inhumanity in action. Markets and The Economy™ matter more to capitalism than the concrete distribution of resources according to tangible human need.

Resources exist in abundance – give them to people. Housing sits empty – give it to people. The rules of the feast table should apply to our economic system – no one gets seconds until everyone has gotten a plate.

To my fellow Neil Gaiman fans, I do not think this “Neilman” thing should be considered a good thing.

I ask you to look on the Tumblr search for what comes up when you search “Neilman.”

“Assigned not gay by Neilman”  and “Neilman, They’re gay!”

It’s a Nickname recently popularized by people who think Neil Gaiman is anti-Gay (he’s winner of GLAAD awards and has several LGBT+ characters but based on recent Google searches of “Neil Gaiman, gay” anyone can mistakenly think he’s somehow more homophobic than Hitler. Simply based on some of the rants being posted against him…)

“Neilman” is NOT a pro-Neil Gaiman nickname, at least not here on Tumblr.  It’s not something that was even remotely in common use before Good Omens the mini-series, and it only started to spread when kids who don’t know any better decided he must be homophobic for not using the term “Gay” for Crowley and Aziraphale.  

If you doubt me, just look on the Tumblr search.

Neilman is NOT being used as a cute / positive nickname, especially on this site…  There’s a reason it specifically cuts out the “gay” from his name.  

Look at this conversation.  The removed image was a picture of a character holding a gun and demanding Neil Gaiman give up the “Gay” from his name or else.

https://thenightling.tumblr.com/post/185498543228/i-still-cant-believe-a-homophobe-has-the-last-name

And yet another conversation where I tried to defend Neil Gaiman…  https://thenightling.tumblr.com/post/186082381428/sandman-is-one-of-the-most-homophobic-and

I don’t know if you missed it, but there was a long rant circulating a few weeks ago from some kids here on Tumblr about why Neil doesn’t deserve the “Gai” in his name “because he’s anti-Gay so we’re taking it from his name!  He doesn’t deserve the ‘Gai’ in his name!”  I replied to it with a list of all of his LGBT+ characters I could think of and it was a long list.  I doubt I even remembered all of them. only for me to get DMs telling me that Wanda is “Transmisogynist” and “Did you just google Gay Neil Gaiman characters?   Because if you really read Sandman you’d know how problematic it is.”   (My Tumblr avatar is Morpheus free falling / flying with style from Sandman: Overture…)   

Neilman was not a popular shorthand until it started to get used by the anti-Neil Gaiman people here on Tumblr who decided he must be homophobic, ignoring that he doesn’t even consider the apparently-hetero angel relationships in Good Omens straight either. (Context is your friend.)

Why am I posting this?  Because this morning I just saw a non-negative Neil Gaiman post, for the first time ever, use the “Neilman nickname” and the people sharing it seem to think it’s a cute and common pet name that was always in use.

No.  No, it really wasn’t… At least not the way this site has been using it…  For all the popularity Good Omens had received there has been an unpleasant surge of Neil hate, and Sandman bashing.   And I’m two-years into a Sandman obsession that isn’t dying any time soon.  

i get so mad at those people who think neil is homophobic for not saying crowley and azi are gay,,, like thats such a anti-enby thing to say

he didnt say they’re gay because he said they’re not cisgendered. they can’t be gay men if they’re not men. he’s said multiple times they’re are genderless beings. and crowley is canonically genderfluid (not just from him as nanny ashtoreth, neil has also confirmed that in golgotha (the crucifixion scene) crowley is identifying as female which is obvious when you look at the clothes he’s wearing). aziraphale can be seen as agendered or genderfluid or anything.

he’s straight up said they are in love, and only didn’t say gay because he see’s their genders as on the trans/non-binary spectrum.

anyone who thinks the refusal to use the word gay for them means you’re homophobic needs to start understand there’s a whole range of genders and if someone’s isn’t identifying as a man and is in love with someone who also doesn’t identify as a man, or just does sometimes, yeah they’re not gay men.

it’s okay if you don’t like neil gaiman, you dont have to. but don’t say he’s homophobic for not wanting to call to non-cismale characters gay. thats really fucking stupid.

It’s worse than it looks.  Not only are people trusting hearsay and out of context quotes but it’s snowballed.  It went from “He’s homophobic” and “He’s Transphobic” to “He’s pro-CP!”  The reason?  He wrote an essay a few years ago about why freedom of speech, even speech you don’t agree with, is important.  He said, in that very speech, that he does not condone illegal activity or harming children but they ran with it anyway, cropping out what was inconvenient to the narrative.  Including out right leaving out his explanation that it stems from a Jacksonville Florida sheriff trying to declare Death Talks about life obscene.  Death Talks about Life was a pamphlet disguised as a comic book that Neil Gaiman wrote, debunking AIDS myths, providing helpful places you could call if you think you might be infected, and safe sex instructions, including the use of a banana to show the reader how to properly put on a condom. 

 The irony is I think most of them had no idea what the Hell Death Talks about Life even is.  When I tried to explain it to one of them I got a sarcastic response of “Oooh, he showed people how to put on a condom.  Ally of the fucking year.  No one can top that!”  

They didn’t understand that this was during the AIDS crisis, and even today much of America has “abstinence only Sex Ed” AND that even today you can get in legal trouble in many parts of the US for trying to teach that sort of thing.  AND in the heart of the AIDS crisis he was providing discrete help tips and phone numbers BEFORE the age of simple googling.  And no, there weren’t many other allies doing that at the time. 

Some of the anti-Neil Gaiman crowd have openly admitted this is just some sadistic prank because ‘He’s an old, rich, white man.  He can take it.”  Funny how Jewish people are only “White” when it’s convenient for Tumblr.   At least THREE times I’ve been told it’s “Just a joke” but others have fallen for the out of context quotes and just assume “If others are saying he’s homophobic, it must be true.”   

Hell, some of the Good Omens fans who have blocked me even tried to “prove” to me he’s homophobic because he once said (in response to a question about an erotic fan fiction) “Sounds like someone is hoping I’ll make their slash canon.”  They took that to mean he was against Aziraphale and Crowley being together even though most fan fiction writers know perfectly well that slash is more than just a ship.  It’s usually sexual and requires a sex scene within the original story the fic is derived from.

One person tried to claim he’s transphobic because a serial killer in Sandman: the Doll’s house uses the word transsexual.  When I pointed out that WAS the correct term at the time I got a “That doesn’t matter.  It’s still offensive!”  How?  Was he supposed to use a crystal ball to see the term change?   The woman who coined the term in 1969 was originally using it to distinguish between those that get surgery and those that don’t.  And in the early 90s most of the trans community did not know he word yet, it was too new and didn’t gain common use yet.   

Some are grasping at straws.   One of the stupidest claims is that he’s racist.  One claim toward that I’ve seen was “He uses the Mexican Jesus just to push the narrative of his white protagonist in American Gods.”   And I’m like…  “Uh… The main character in American Gods isn’t white.  Also, Mexican Jesus is the only NICE Jesus in the whole story.  The white one is an asshole.”   

I even have to repeatedly tell people that he left the Sandman franchise in the hands of a transwoman in the mid-90s.

One of them was so disgusting that when I told them his wife is bisexual I got “Lots of homophobes marry bisexual women and then abuse them.”  switching gears to claiming he must abuse his wife!  

And when I tried to tell them he has several LGBTQ characters I got “That doesn’t matter!  Saying he has other gay characters was never and should never be a valid argument.”  Why not?!??   The argument was you claiming he doesn’t want to be seen with gay characters! 

There are a few admitting it’s a “joke” but many others fell for it and are now desperate to justify their beliefs rather than admit they were wrong.  I even came across a post just yesterday of “Think of the damage we could do to Neil Gaiman if we could still edit posts.” And it got at least two positive replies the last time I checked.   

To quote Mark Twain “It’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them they had been fooled.”

I’m sick of:

forced straight relationships with 0 chemistry just because they apparently needed to add a love story *cough Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter cough*

gay characters whose entire storyline is about them being gay (boring and not the kind of representation I’m looking for)

when two characters of the same sex have a great chemistry and clearly love each other (whether in a romantic way or not) but only “love each other like brothers”. *cough Destiel and Stucky cough* Because we all know, if they weren’t of the same sex, they would be canon since the very first scene together.¹

which leads me to the next thing: when the first character of the opposite sex than the main character is introduced to the story and you just KNOW they’re going to be a couple within the next hour. I’m having a really hard time explaining this right now, so I hope you’ll get the point anyway. (E.g. Cassandra Clare does it very often, like many other YA authors. Or Marvel)

when the love interest of the female main character seems to be the most important thing in her life, even though she barely knows him and he treats her like shit. *cough Bella and Edward cough*

queerbaiting in general (yes I’m looking at you Sherlock)

I want to see/read more of:

strong friendship and other not sexual/romantic relationships (e.g. Dean and Sam Winchester, Harry and Ron, Harry and Hermione, Frodo and Samwise and many more)

interesting, non-toxic, well built up romances, between a man and a woman AND same-sex (e.g. Harry and Ginny and many others)

LGBTQ+ main characters in fantasy etc (their sexuality doesn’t even have to be a big part of the story) I’m tired of the gay side character who just exist for representation. (I can recommend the Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling)

canon lesbian pairings. Are there any canon lesbian ships? There’s the one from Pretty Little Liars (Isn’t there a lesbian ship in Riverdale too?) Oh and the very short-lived one from Supernatural (I’m not going to mention it because of spoilers)

friendships between men and women because guess what, men and women can be friends without having sex! (Again, Harry and Hermione are a great example, the Doctor and Donna)

If I forgot something, feel free to add it. What’s your opinion? I’m curious

amazon, disney, pepsi, pretty much any company that owns enough subsidiaries that you’re probably touching five of their products at any one time without realizing unless you know very well where everything you buy comes from

that’s a megacorporation

Katsucon 2017: I’ll do a separate post with my cosplay.