Among all the political flamewars and awkward interactions with distant relatives, Facebook sometimes produces a true work of art. This time, it’s a strange tale of brotherhood, homophobia, cross-country road trips, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
In Sonic fandom, there’s a certain contingent of people who believe that Sonic’s friend Tails is gay. This is what Tails looks like. He’s a cartoon fox. Canonically speaking, his sexuality remains unverified—probably because, as we mentioned, he is a cartoon fox.
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But for those who want to fight back against the scourge of Gay Tails Truthers, there are plenty of online venues for discussion and support. One such hub is the Tails from “Sonic” is NOT gay! Facebook page, launched in 2010.
For the first five years, this group posted nothing but cheerful posts celebrating Sonic fandom and Tails’s heterosexuality. Some of them inevitably inspired other fans to reply with homoerotic Sonic/Tails fanart, but the group’s moderator remained upbeat.
Then in January 2015, something changed. Not in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, but in the (apparently) real life of the page’s moderator.
Faced with the discovery that his or her own brother is gay, the anonymous moderator reevaluated their online hobby of defending the heterosexuality of a cartoon fox. Suddenly, it felt awkward to continue moderating a mildly homophobic Sonic the Hedgehog fanpage.
After that, there was almost a year of radio silence. It seemed that real life had finally gotten in the way of the Tails from “Sonic” is NOT gay! crusade, and the Facebook page was going to die a quiet death. But in March 2016, this story got an unexpectedly dramatic conclusion. After the moderator’s brother was kicked out by their parents, the two siblings decided to move to San Francisco together and start a new life.
According to the comments on the most recent post, the moderator is now thinking of going to school to become a counselor. Oh, and they adopted a dog named Scoob.
This story is just begging to be made into a heartwarming family drama.
Photo via Sonic/Wikia