I absolutely love Will! ... I don't like his fans.

I used to feel reeeaaaallly weird about myself in this fandom because of Will fans.
Why I like Will so much: I found myself really connecting with Will at a scary time in my life. I was a very anxious person. I, too, was drifting away from my best friend, and I happen to be gay. I saw a lot of myself in Will, which made me feel good and secure. I liked being able to see a character on TV who's gay and not super political or prideful or anything. The casualness of his sexuality is one of the subtle reasons I appreciate him. I, myself, am not super loud about my identity, and I honestly don't talk about it unless I'm sharing a point like this, which isn't that often. I even felt like I had my own Mind Flayer for a while, and S2 is what made me fall in love with this show. His entire storyline that season was awesome!! He has an interesting character outside of his sexuality. He made me feel human because of that.

The issues: But a good chunk of his fanbase completely ruins that. They basically use his sexuality as a punchline and it feels like they deface such an interesting character! How can you watch all four seasons, especially two, and then act like his crush on Mike is the only thing interesting about him? The Mind Flayer is so cool, yet all these people want from him is some cheesy boy-love story. It completely waters him down. Will is so much more than shipping potential. Not only does it water down such a character, but the jokes... Oh, god, the jokes. All they do is make him into a joke about being a Mike simp or a lil gay bean. His fandom treats him like he's some rainbow-colored purse. It's awful! If they treat someone like WILL like that, would they treat someone like me like that? It's so uncomfortable. Not to mention something I've seen people ACTUALLY SAY in response to the "It's not my fault you don't like girls" scene.

"Actually, Mike, it kind of is"

What?? Mike doesn't make Will gay. Bisexuality is a thing. Will could very well have girl crushes along with Mike, but it just so happens that he doesn't. Will isn't into girls, but Mike didn't "make" that happen. I'd rather get mauled by a pack of demodogs than have a conversation with one of these people. Will is kind, nerdy, timid. He's into art, got possessed, made a sweet homage to Bob. He's a sweet brother to Eleven, he's an amazing painter. And... Oh, yeah, I guess he has a crush on Mike, too. Will is so many things besides a crush on Mike, but all people would ever talk about (revolving around Will) when S4 came out was stuff like: "💅💅💅" "Slay king 😍" "Fruity 🍎🍍🍇🍉🍐🍓🍒" "Such a queen" "aint beating the 🏳️‍🌈 allegations". How could they treat him like that?? Why is that the most interesting part? It just sucks so bad in my mind.

If you read all of this. Thank you. What are your thoughts? Please be nice. If I seemed rude throughout this, let me know, but please don't come at me guns-a-blazin'. Will means a lot to me and it makes me seethe to see fans act like this. Though, If I need to work on my response, I will.