“THESE TWO ARE CANON SHIP IT YOU HOMOPHOBE”

Thank you!

I am a gay male. Likely I’m one of the oldest users on tumblr. I’m 74. Yes, young readers seventy four. I have been with my partner Carl for 47 years now.

Please know that while we both know technology very well, we are also trying very hard to remember, and use correctly, the new dialogue that has grown. So, if any words appear here that are not considered correct…it is not because I refuse to use them. It’s because I haven’t heard them. Or seen them. Or am emotional enough while writing this that I simply use “old fart” words.

We have both been through it all. The hiding because it was illegal, the fear and pain of the loss of fifteen different friends and acquaintances from A.I.D.S. The times when you literally (not virtually) could not walk the streets without meeting someone that had a sign, or a pamphlet that declared A.I.D.S was God’s way of “ridding the earth” of homosexuality. We lived through the burning of homes, and clubs, and bars. We lived through the beating deaths. I lived through a beating that nearly lost me my right eye and left me completely deaf in the right ear. Carl lost several jobs because “he must be…” or “we know.” We lived through hatred that was terrifying and sickening and unimaginable to some today.

The hatred is still there. The overt and the subtle. Things are, however better (it’s a terrible word, I know). Carl and I married. We debated making it very public, but decided on a personal ceremony. The photos are filled with our friends who are 90 and…well…have a few pages stuck together, to new friends who are young enough to be our grandchildren.

Carl and I are in a variety of fandoms. Yes, we are trekkies-we bought our first color television just for Star Trek. Now Carl loves Supernatural (and thinks it’s gone so far down the crapper that they’ve actually made Naomi an Alien). I like Teen Wolf and we both watch Sherlock.

The opening statement made by the anon is so, so true. And to us, it is a new form of hatred. I read fanfic and write it. Carl and I both enjoy all forms of fanworks.

Here’s the kicker… Neither of us is a Sherlock/John shipper. We both see Sherlock and John as two men who have a very unique and incredibly strong friendship. Here’s the irony: I have been called a homophobe for not shipping Sherlock and John. I received hate messages in my (now deleted) Sherlock blog when I answered ‘do you ship Johnlock?’ with the single word ‘no’. It was oddly amusing: “Homophobe”, “die cis scum!”, “go kill yourself”, “you must be a lonely, fat, hag”.

When straight people go out of their way to “prove” that John and Sherlock (and other fandom characters) are gay, and do so with the cry of “if you don’t ship it, you hate gays!” It is an ironic form of hatred and, in a way, homophobia: These straight people are so determined to show that they aren’t homophobic, that they fail to see how damaging their fetishization and “look at how accepting I am!” is. That, queers can actually see a friendship between John and Sherlock (and any other fandom characters). That seeing a friendship, and not shipping John and Sherlock is simply that… Seeing a friendship.

When you demand, dear straight people, that others ship Johnlock, and demand that if you don’t “ship” you are homophobic… You are the one that is showing intolerance and hate: Your quest to prove that you’re on “our side” only proves your ignorance, your desperation to been seen as an ally, and the fact that you don’t actually see queer issues, or respect those that are queer.

You only want to see two guys have hot (or painfully bad, and painfu,l considering the how…painfully it is written the majority of the time) sex.