Not surprisingly, Gaiman writes eloquently and personally on why he supports the efforts of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in protecting comics creators and retailers from censorship, even when it’s not very nice or defensible things that are the target of the censors.
It’s long, too long to quote here, but here’s the Niemolleresque crux of it.
Neil Gaiman’s Journal: Why defend freedom of icky speech?
Still, you seem to want lolicon banned, and people prosecuted for owning it, and I don’t. You ask, What makes it worth defending? and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you’re going to have to stand up for stuff you don’t believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don’t, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person’s obscenity is another person’s art.
Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost.
The CBLDF will defend your First Amendment right as an adult to make lines on paper, to draw, to write, to sell, to publish, and now, to own comics. And that’s what makes the kind of work you don’t like, or don’t read, or work that you do not feel has artistic worth or redeeming features worth defending. It’s because the same laws cover the stuff you like and the stuff you find icky, wherever your icky line happens to be: the law is a big blunt instrument that makes no fine distinctions, and because you only realise how wonderful absolute freedom of speech is the day you lose it.
Read the whole thing. And, for the heck of it, I’ll throw in a parallel thought from another favorite creator of mine, Phil Foglio:
I believe that the First Amendment should cover everything. Even the incredibly icky, distasteful stuff. Because if we let “them” start making ethical judgments, they might not stop until it’s nothing but Norman Rockwell and Hummel figurines.
And, let’s face it — there are some folks who aren’t real fond of some of the more politically assertive Rockwell paintings, either.