Dirk’s fucking gay and never “makes a point of not labeling himself,” he responds to Roxy exactly once with “why does it have to be a thing” which is a way of saying “stop making a fucking production out of it, we live in the future.” It is not “I’m not gay, Roxy.” It is not “stop labeling me, Roxy.” It is “Roxy would you please fucking stop assuming I don’t platonically like you based on human sexuality models that may technically apply to me but I don’t like to talk about.”

Gay people are perfectly within their rights to feel insulted and erased by oh-so-fictional roleplay that labels one of the few canonically gay (not bi, not pan, not straight, not “unspecified”) characters in the comic as not being gay, or being gay with an exception, or being “biromantic homosexual,” because all of these things are things they face daily trying to cage them into “it’s okay, though, you’re a LITTLE bit straight, right??”

( DISCLAIMER: I don’t think bi/pansexuality is “a little bit straight,” but the people who try and force gay people to “admit” they aren’t gay sure do.)

Dirk’s gay.

Jake was his only romantic option because of his orientation. He considered trying a relationship with Roxy, but couldn’t, because he had to be “true to himself.” Roxy feels bad about her advances because he was so obviously gay. And I mean, y’all take Dirk at his word about Jane being straight, but you don’t take Roxy at her word about Dirk being gay? 

Really?

Dirk is gay. Dirk is not “biromantic homosexual,” or “homoromantic bisexual.” Dirk is also not secretly aromantic (he was desperate for a romantic relationship with Jake). You could make an argument for asexual, [pretend the “I GUESS” comic image is here], but even then, he would be a gay asexual. Dirk is a boy who likes boys. Dirk is gay. 

And you can say all you want that oh it’s just an RP it doesn’t affect anything but at some point you have got to examine where these preferences come from; if you are perpetuating them out of unconscious heteronormativity. If you are insisting he’s not gay because … why? Is he too tough and masculine for you to see him as gay? Do you just really want an excuse to ship him with girls? How about that ever-old excuse, “love is love and you’re the bigot if you think I can’t ship him with girls,” which is literally turning a phrase used by LGBT people into an excuse to shove him into a straight ship? Or the ever-popular “it’d just be so interesting and new to see someone who thinks he’s gay struggle with opposite-sex attraction,” despite the fact that “gay person ends up in straight relationship” is a trope pretty much as old as fiction itself? 

You may not be erasing the canon, but you’re sure not fostering an environment of inclusion and acceptance. No matter how much you tell yourself you are. Stripping Dirk (or Kanaya, but nobody’s Trying It with Kanaya right now) of his gayness is not more inclusive. It’s alienating. You are alienating gay people by taking one of the two confirmed, canonically gay characters and saying “oh, he’s mine now. You wouldn’t want to argue with me, would you? That’s being bigoted.” When there are literally dozens of presumably-bisexual characters in the comic, and there are straight ones you could fuck around with instead because, here’s a shocker: “straight erasure” is not a media phenomenon that has been perpetuated for decades by homophobes, and making a straight person bi or gay doesn’t have a nasty history behind it.

Funtimes RP is all good but sometimes your funtimes are actually reminding other people of the shit they have to face daily. Like being told that they can’t really be gay, or being asked if maybe they just haven’t found the right person, or being asked if they’re really sure they’re actually gay.

He’s fucking gay.

You’re goddamn welcome.