The Animation Guilda union representing more than 5,000 animation industry workers, is now at the bargaining table, negotiating a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The union’s previous contract expired on July 31, and after the first week of negotiations ended on August 12, the guild and the AMPTP failed to reach a new agreementThe . current contract has been extended until Septemberwhich allowed for another week of negotiations.
If the animators and AMPTP negotiate about Job security, AI protection, streaming regulations and more. Union members continue to raise awareness for the struggle. Now, they’ve harnessed the power of yaoi to spread their message via social media.
You see, when a fictional man really likes another fictional man…
Yaoi originated as a term for Japanese boy love stories written specifically for the female gaze, such as Datum And Crimson Spell. In the West, however, yaoi was historically more of an umbrella term for all male-male content from Japan. Nowadays, it has grown in fandom spaces, and essentially any gay male relationship can be called yaoi, even if it’s not from anime or manga. And the relationships don’t even have to be canon: House MD can be poisonous yaoi, for example, and so can Anne Rice’s vampires.
It is a genre that has become a collective term for gay shipping. But how does it relate to the animation guild?
The Story of the Pink Husband and the Green Husband
To raise awareness and gain support from fans of their work, a few animators from Animation Workers Ignited, an online community supporting the Animation Guild but not officially affiliated with the union, got together to make some informative videos. One of these specifically focused on generative AI, which is a major concern at the negotiating table. The video follows a concerned parent (voiced by Gravity waterfalls‘ Alex Hirsch), who fears his child is consuming strange AI content, learns about the Animation Guild from a slick, confident union organizer voiced by Adam Conover (Adam ruins everything).
Hirsch and the short’s director Laura Serrano Miralles had a brief chat on X, jokingly suggesting names for the character. Miralles called them “pink husband” and “green husband,” which prompted storyboard artist Moss Lawton to chime in and ask if anyone had drawn yaoi of the two characters yet…
“Someone came close but not enough and I WAIT,” Miralles wrote.
Then one brave soul (aka animator Jess Am) answered the call.
#UNIONYAOI quickly became a thing, with artists—some affiliated with the guild, and some just allies at home—sharing their versions of the two characters, deeply, madly in love. There are meme re-drawings, general shipping art, and even some fan videos
Animation Workers Ignited fully supports the trend, reposting some of the artwork and video edits. The memefication of the yaoi ship became an easy way to bring the union’s concerns to more people, fully enjoying what animators do best.
Eventually it became a global effort when the official Canadian branch got involved.
People on X are calling on those who enjoy #UNIONYAOI content to “pay the yaoi tax” — aka donate to the mutual aid fund who directly supports animators (and indicate that the donation goes to TAG 839).
The Animation Guild will be back at the negotiating table on September 16. You can read more about the current status of the negotiations at the official websiteAnd if you’re joining the #UNIONYAOI trend, don’t forget to pay your yaoi tax.