Love Is Love: Ignorance and Hate

I’ve been wanting to write this for a long time now, but real life has prevented me from doing so. Thus, I have started this on a piece of paper with a pen. This is not something I usually do, but this is something I feel very strongly about and there are a few things that need to be said in this opening. One: Reading my obsession piece would help a lot since my fan girl obsessions do play a major role in what I have to say and a general idea of the extent of what extremes fan girls can go to. Two: A general knowledge of the anime fanbase would most likely help a lot as well. I touch on a few of the major fanbases out there and if you don’t have any idea what they are like then some points may not make much sense. And three: Read this with an open mind because I will most likely insult some people’s belief. Do I quite frankly care? No, not at all. If you flame me than you will only prove the point of this essay. As such, I will turn around and make fun at your absolute stupidity. I show no mercy when it comes to stupid people as friends of mine can justify. If you are still willing to read then please continue.

To relate to the real world I will draw from things that have angered me in the past. In our day and age, despite the attempts of other democrats like myself, the world still oppresses bisexual and homosexual people. In all of the years that we have struggled to make these people seen as equals has improved very little since the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the 1940's, during the years of World War II, three of the major groups that were killed by the Nazi’s were: Jews, gypsies and homosexuals. I am not saying that I wish the homosexuals should have been spared, far from it. I wish that all of those people has not been killed and tortured to such a degree. On October 12, 1998, a young man named Matthew Shepard was beaten to death and strung up on a fence like an animal because he was homosexual. This story made headlines. Some people were shocked and disgusted by the sheer brutality of it while others seemed to shrug it off as if it was just another hate crime. Whether a person should live should not be determined on their sexual preference. These are the two major world issues, but I have seen my share of hateful acts in just around my school and neighborhood.

Where I live, as some may know, is a very religiously founded state. In my opinion, despite what arguments may be presented to me, there is little separation between church and state.

Allow me to clear something up before I go any further because I seem to have pissed some people off already: I am not just touching on Mormon beliefs, but all aspects of Christianity as well. I am also not trying to generalize anything here. On the contrary, I know that there are many exceptions to what I have to say, but I am trying to get a point across. Where I live, this is what the majority is and this is what I am exposed to. All of my information is based off prior knowledge. This is more of a rant than an essay and rants are things that people feel the need to say. This is my view on things and even though it may not be complete accurate, this is the way I see the world.

Many people here are Mormon and the Mormon church has been known to be very conservative and very republican. People here are fairly sheltered and few even know th bit of ethic diversity. As such, the majority of people are white, conservative and republicans. The Mormon churches view, as well as other Christian based religions, all shun very highly on homosexuality. These thoughts and feelings towards the same sex are considered distasteful and sinful. My father is a perfect example of a close minded religious person. When I mentioned that I wanted to join GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) at my school he sneered and said something along the lines of “oh that will look great on your transcript. I got a similar response from my mother whom I always thought to be more opened than that. I was quite frankly shocked by such a close minded response.

I see things like this in school as well. People always tear down club posted, but the most widely vandalized posters in my school are the posters for GSA. They are the first one’s that are torn down, ripped up and in the garbage. From these hateful acts I have come to the conclusion that there are many people in my school afraid, afraid to come forward and be open about their sexual preference out of shame, perhaps fear of being oppressed. I can only imagine how many “closet cases” there are in my school. With all of the hate that I see I quite frankly can’t blame them. I hear derogatory terms used constantly and comments to the length of: “Bisexuals are confused fuckwits who can’t make up their minds.”

It sickens me to think that people are still thinking the same state of mind as out ancestors. What do I see in the future for homosexuals and bisexuals? More oppression, more hate crimes, more hate in general. Just because a person is not heterosexual does not mean that they are a bad person. Just because they have a different sexual preference it does not give anyone the right to judge them with the excuse that they deserve death and they deserve hell. If people were only a little more opened minded we would not have this problem. The root of it all? Ignorance. “Humans fear what they cannot understand and what they cannot understand they often seek to destroy.” A quote from the cartoon Gargoyles and it explains oppression and ignorance perfectly. Not all cartoons rot your mind.

Now to move onto things that people I know can relate to. The fanbases online these days are constantly growing. Sites that were once on free hosts and getting one hot every month have grown into now have their own domains and are getting half a million hits a day from all over the world. (FYI: That was exaggerated.) The anime fanbase is hardly limited to Japan. Fanbases are all over the world with people of all ages and of both sexes and in all countries. The size of these fanbases is impossible to even begin to calculate. The people that fall into fanbases often react to them all very differently. Some just fall in only fall out in six months. Some fall into fanbases to remain there for years. Much like a cult, fasnbases seem to suck you in and keep you there. You sign your name away never to be rid of the nagging to check that site or wonder when the next episode will come out. Some people fall too deep and take it a step or two too far. These people can be defined as “obsessive” and are almost scary in a way. This is a different form of obsessive compulsive behavior not like the kind that I partake in.

The first fanbase I am going to touch on is the Gundam Wing fandom. This was my first real anime addiction and the first fanbase I fell into. I fell long and I feel hard though I hardly went to the extremes that I have seen. There are people out there who claim to be the girlfriend or boyfriend of that character. Gundam Wing is a shounen anime which means it was made for boys, but you can tell by one glance at the fandom that girls jumped all over the show. Did Bandai have any idea swarms of girls would come over swooning over five, young, good looking men? Of course they didn’t and I can only imagine what their reactions were. I like the way Yamato ( ) puts it in her “naoi” campaign. It is something she did when she wanted to make her site “yaoi” and “non-yaoi” safe.

I suppose I should explain what those terms are. “Yaoi” is the Japanese term for male/male relationships sexual relationships and content. “Yuri” is the term used girl/girl sexual relationships. “Hentai” is the term used for heterosexual relationships. I will use these terms quite a few times when writing this essay.

Anyway, Yamato started up her naoi campaign when she realized that no Gundam Wing pair can be proven. There are convincing pictures for both sides of the story. Fans of both sides present these pictures and act as if it proves everything. It proves nothing. Being a follower of the Heero/Duo relationship I tend to stray towards the yaoi fan fictions out there, but at the same time I am also very supportive of Heero/Releena relationship. Mostly because I can see how either one could be right. There really is no way to prove if it’s one or the other or if there is none at all.

Another fanbase I will touch on is the Yu Yu Hakusho fandom. There are many different couples flying around for this couple and hands down my favorite couple is Hiei and Kurama. I have presented this couple a fellow Yu Yu Hakusho fan (a boy nevertheless) and some of my arguments and he blinked at me and said something to the extent of “whoa”. He told me that he never thought of it that, but now I pointed it out he could see if with no problems. Another friend of mine saw one episode and then asked me if they were a couple. This couple is controversial couple out there because, no matter what you support, you can see the strong emotional bond between the two men. There is defiantly something there that goes beyond a simple partnership. The problem is no one can figure out just how far those waters run. The site that I am going to use as an example is Hiei and Kurama’s Den ( ). I go to this site a lot for a good set of very nicely written fan fictions and a general place that supports my favorite couple. The thing is that this site is flamed so much that it can literally make me sick. I’ll present some of the examples that have been placed in this guestbook:

Name: hiei’s lover
Homepage URL:
You are from: the planet of hiei
Comments: hey im back.i just wanted to say I still don’t belive it and heres why.i just got on a site with an interview with the creator he said and I quote"I don’t know where they got this from but its not true this is a kid show"end quote so there (plus hiei would never betray me we love each other)any way I gotta get back(hieis gettin fiesty)bye
Sign Time: April 18 2003 at 22:19:39

(Oh my good lord almighty. Not only is that the worst spelling I have ever seen, but there are so many things wrong with what she just said)

Visitor's Name: Pop Star Kitty
Homepage URL: http://
You are from:
Comments: Go to hell lil' bitch! Kurama and Hiei aren't gay! Your sick!
Sign Time: April 22 2003 at 19:26:47

(This is another one that pisses me off. She is damning the creator because she supports a couple.)

Visitor's Name: Kuroi-Chi and Shigatsu
Homepage URL:
You are from: Somewhere!!
Comments: Why you fucking bitch!!!!!! HOW DARE YOU PUT HIEI AND KURAMA GAY!!!!! THEY ARE NOT! AND WE REAPETE, ARE NOT GAY!!!! We checked out the evidence and you are really just making up lies and some pretty big bullshit! what the hell are you thinking?!?!?!?! Thank you, bye! ^_^ P.S. The site was allright, but........ THEY ARE NOT GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THEY ARE NOT GAY!! AND NOT UNTIL WE SEE THAT ON T.V. AS PROOF WE ARE NOT GONNA BEALIVE IT!!!
Sign Time: April 26 2003 at 09:38:37

(I love all of the exclamation points and the capitalized words. Some great spelling going on here too.)

Visitor's Name: ~Shiitake Inu~
Homepage URL: http://
You are from: Faaar away. ^_^v
Comments: Geez... Why does EVERYONE have to say they're gay? That's so wrong in every since of the word, especially because that was probably some dumbarse rumor that a retard made because they didn't like the show. Yeesh... They're cool and japanse but most importantly STRAIGHT! *Sits and fumes* --
Sign Time: April 28 2003 at 16:17:01

(The rumor thing is funny because it makes it sound like people gossip about anime couples. The Japanese comment is just a little weird too. Very strange. I think this girl is thirteen at the highest. Who else says “dumbarse”?)

And those are just a few examples. I am quite frankly both amused and disgusted by this guestbook. It is here that I see the ignorance she sheer stupidity of these people. The most common thing here is very bad grammar and spelling. There are so many aspects that are so wrong about some of those entries. There are limitations to the extremes that people go to. I have also gotten comments on one of my stories that made me want to lecture someone. “I don’t see a lot of good stories these days...too much yaoi *shudders* yuck *sticks out tongue*” I sat there and wondered if I should delete the comment, but she did tell me I wrote a half decent story. It is still there and

So, what are people doing about all of this hate? I have to say that people are not sitting on their asses and doing nothing. There are support banner sites all over the web and webrings that are made just for yaoi/yuri content and just hentai material. There are also button and banner campaigns that are trying to open the eyes of people. One of them is Love is Love ( No Link Is Available) and Open Your Heart And Your Mind ( ). These both support not just yaoi and yuri, but also hentai pairings. There is a button on Open Your Heart and Your Mind that says “some of us swing both ways” meaning that some of us like both yaoi/yuri and hentai pairings. Some of those people include myself.

I am not here to change your view on what you should believe. I am not telling you what to believe. In fact, all I want is for people to look beyond what the boundaries and beyond their ignorance to see that, in reality, one out of twenty people will be homosexual. Look beyond the boundaries and see that there is no way to prove any pairing on any show. Anything is possible and it is all open for interpretation. If you do not approve with homosexual or bisexual beliefs then please do not make comments that are hurtful. With that I leave you with this comment I found on a site:

“This site is anti-yaoi and anti-yuri. Why? Because homosexuality is not what God wants for mankind. God designed the male and female bodies differently to mate with the opposite sex. Love does see gender. Homosexuality is perverting God's perfect intentions for mankind.”

This is the kind of hate that will eventually drag us all down the long path of destruction. Open your mind and look beyond your ignorance and see that they are people as well...and that love is love...no matter what the gender is.