Okay.

Me: 

Tolkien who in his Letters (fn 110) praised the work of British novelist Mary Renault, who at this point in her career had already written the Gay classic The Charioteer. 

Both The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea feature positive male characters who loved and lived with men.

Tolkien who, as a medievalist, was intimately acquainted with legends of intense male warrior friendships, such as the one of Amicus and Amelius, friendships that transcend the distinction between platonic friendship and sexual love. While Tolkien’s depiction of Sam and Frodo was ostensibly modelled on the relationship of a gentleman officer and his batman in WWI (in itself not a resoundingly heterosexual relationship), the theme of the ultimate sacrifice 

points towards medieval models of male-male warrior friendships.

Tolkien who, other than his close friend C.S. Lewis, never felt the need to (however humble) publicly condemn homosexuality.

Also x2, the Valar were canonically gender-weird! There are bits in the Silmarillion (which I would look up to cite but cannot as I am at work-if someone feels so inclined I’d appreciate it) where they are taking physical form ‘as one puts on clothing’ , and so were described in terms of forms they would “usually” take to best express their internal sense of gender, but with it acknowledged in text that that wasn’t necessarily a perfect fit.