23, SHE/HER, INDONESIA

My first BL introduction was around 2000. The Internet was still pretty limited in my country and my family was one fortunate enough to have access. I was around 10 years old snooping around the web, where I was able to find a closed group on LiveJournal who shared doujin scans. At that time I was not yet familiar with manga terms. I thought doujin was just an indie published original manga (instead of fanworks of existing IP). I binge-read almost all the scans available, where mostly were ‘yaoi’ doujinshi. I just rolled with whatever I could get for free from the internet, as I didn’t have my own money to buy regular shoujo or shounen manga in bookstores. Indonesia was (still is) very wary about homosexual relationships, and this was one of my first exposures to that aspect of sexuality, where the younger me could accept that BL can be just as nuanced and deep as heterosexual romance manga. (Haha) I have some memorable BL titles that I still hold dear even now that made me cry while I was reading it. Then it snowballed as I dove deep into fandom, reading fanfic, etc. I mostly joined the shounen manga fandom, so with an abundance of male characters, alot of the popular pairings are also M/M.

While certainly I recognize that some people were apprehensive about people’s first contact with homosexual relationship was through BL, I think it’s still better to be able to access something that conveys homosexual relationship not in hateful light. I was able to learn about the LGBTQ movement later because I had seen BL first and enjoyed it. A better understanding can be gained by having desire to know more and being open-minded, instead of instantly judging as it is in the current fandom climate.

— 23, She/Her, Indonesia