OOC
Gonna do this here because I've seen bits and pieces of the discourse that this tweet (I assume) sparked, and I just don't know where else to respond. Before I get into RJ's lack of rep and bad rep where it does exist, I want to make 3 things very, very clear.
1. You can (1/) https://twitter.com/EHR_Podcast/status/1264986994225999872

like a work and still criticize it. In fact, I think it's good.
2. Criticizing a work is not attacking the author. You can also criticize an author base on what you've learned about them through their work and interviews. Just because you like a person's work doesn't mean (2/)

they are perfect or are beyond reproach.
3. Work made in the past is 100% allowed to be judged by today's standards. For a completely out of season example, I can acknowledge the cultural meaning of "Say, what's in this drink?" from Baby It's Cold Outside at the time it was (3/)

written and performed while still saying it's kind of gross in today's context.

Okay, disclaimers over... RJ flaming sucked at LGBTQ+ representation. I think there are two paths this can take... RJ included queer rep but was so afraid of being explicit that it's impossible (4/)

to know, or RJ didn't include queer rep. (There are a couple explicitely queer characters, and I'll address those, so just wait before you "but what about so-and-so me.)

Alright, characters EXPLICITELY in same-sex relationships in the series:
1. The Seafolk woman and (5/)

Cairhienen woman. I don't even remember their names, so that's not a good start. One of them is cheating on her husband, so there's some fine reinforcement of "bi people are bound to cheat on their partner" stereotype. And there is not one character that thinks what they're (6/)

doing is right. Their relationship is used for blackmail. Great.
2. Galina. I don't recall if she was lesbian or asexual, but I do remember her specifically saying she doesn't like men like that. And she falls so squarely into "militant man-hating lesbian" that it's almost (7/)

funny.
3. Elaida. Again has the "militant man-hating lesbian" sitch going on. But also lord oh lord is she super, horribly abusive to the woman she's with.
4. The woman that bangs Elaida. Again, I can't remember the Aes Sedai's name. And worse, I don't even feel comfortable (8/)

calling her queer rep because she is unwillingly in that relationship. Just gross, really.
5. Random allusions to "men who don't like women" and "women that don't like men." I just... I don't think that needs defending as bad queer rep, right?

So then we have a myriad of (9/)

characters that can be interpreted as in same sex relationships. While I, personally, read these couples as in a relationship for at least part of the series, other readers do not. And there is no more evidence for one side or the other. The very act of not explicitly (10/)

saying they are in relationships means they aren't good rep. If someone can easily say "they aren't dating" then it's queer coding at best.
1. Bain and Chiad. Of these, I think this is the most widely accepted as a couple. But RJ certainly never said so. In fact, there's (11/)

an interview in which he's asked, and he gives a "RAFO" to it. https://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kw=Bain And yet we never did find out, so I guess he didn't think it important enough to put in the notes.
2. Siuan and Moiraine. Called pillow friends, but only by others.
3. Elayne and Aviendha.(12/)

And what you might notice about all of these lovely women... they all end up with men in the end! Now, Bain/Chiad/Gaul can certainly be seen as polyam rep, as can Elayne and Avi with Rand, and every Aiel thruple, those are all very easily dismissed by refusing to see the (13/)

women as in relationships with each other. And that's easy to do because RJ never said otherwise.
And on the topic of wlw always winding up with men, RJ has said that pillow friends move past that relationship upon being raised to Aes Sedai, that it is just a way for the (14/)

Novices and sometimes Accepted to comfort each other. That it's inevitable for young women to do so when men aren't available, but they grow out of it. The whole "situational homosexuality" thing is just such a gross trope. That's all I have to say about that.

You know (15/)

what's missing from these lists? Men. Because there are none. (Except that one tiny note by Sanderson, of course.) And it's not like RJ never had the opportunity! When Egwene learns about sister-wives among the Aiel, for example, she immediately wonders if there are two men (16/)

with one wife as well. But she never asks, so we never find out. There aren't pillowfriends in the Black Tower or among the Children, which are single-gender organizations like the White Tower, so where is our homosexuality there?
I don't want to make any accusations (17/)

against RJ. But it's really easy to jump to conclusions about why this is. (Pst. Lesbians and multiple women with one man are hot. Gay guys aren't.)

That's just sexuality, but gender hardly even seems worth addressing. RJ made a magic system that literally depends on a (18/)

gender binary. And then his entire world built out of that, with literally every society having roles determined strictly within that gender binary. So, uh, yeah...not a lot of gender inclusion there.
And then there's Aran'gar... Yeah, no, I'm too tired to do that right (19/)

now. Aran'gar is NOT trans or non-binary or gender queer rep, and saying that they are, especially in the way RJ presented them, is actively harmful to that community.

Alright, coming to the end of this rant... You might care about these thing or you might not. You might (20/)

not care if there is queer rep in your books. You might not have even noticed the lack of representation.
But at the end of the day, other people have noticed. Other people are upset by it. And they are allowed to be, and you are not allowed to tell them not to be (21/)

upset.
AND we can all still be fans of the series while acknowledging it's flaws. (22/22)