Before anime... heck, even before scanslations, I was into fanfiction. I don't know what the landscape is nowadays, but back then, I started with Gundam Wing. Despite me being obsessed with the RelenaXHeero relationship, pretty much 90% of anything was something like 1X2, 3X4, or 1X5. I tried some of them, but it honestly wasn't my thing.
So I moved on to Neon Genesis Evangelion, despite not having seen an episode of it (which to day I'm proud to say I haven't totally finished the TV series
). At that time, the good, long-written fanfics have shifted from Ranma (another series I haven't finished yet I think one highly influential Ukyo fanfic paved the way for my shipping craze later on) to NGE, so I was naturally drawn to well-written fanfics. While NGE fanfics has a lot of ShinjiXAsuka and ShinjuXRei, there was still a HUGE following for ShinjiXKaoru. Like I remember being always at odds with Rei fans (being a huge Asuka shipper), but I find liking much with Kaoru shippers.
Even when I was crazy about Harry Potter, while HarryXRon wasn't a big bleep in the radar, HarryXDraco caught on. This was especially true when the movies came out, and people were squeeing left and right about Felton and Radcliffe. Just like NGE before it, you would see me always debating with RHr shippers, but the het shippers by and large got along with the slashers. In fact, there was a lot of overlap because a lot of times you got people with a canon ship and a fanon ship, and that generally was a het for the former and a slash for the latter. So you've got no choice but keep an open mind because a lot of your fellow canon shipmates are fanon slashers as well.
(This is where OTP terminology comes from because OTP is supposed to be your MAIN ship, be it canon or fanon. OTP nowadays refers to the canon ship that has more or less sailed, which it isn't supposed to be :facepalm: )
So when I discovered manga scanslations, yuri was like an entirely new world for me. One particular group, Lililicious, I always dled their releases, because they consistently put out quality scans with good stories. In fact, it was only until Kannazuki no Miko aired that I forever stopped with yuri, because you know, childhood friend loses there.
(I just looked them up now, and HOLY SHIT they're still active. Outlasted the likes of mangaproject and shoujomagic by pretty large margins, but I'm getting off-topic here XD)
So yes, that accusation thrown out that I might be homophobic just because I don't agree with 'homoshipping' was greatly offensive to me. I've hung around homosexuals all my life (one is even blood-related to me), even for the entire time I was in the internet. I've met and interacted with slashers and fujoshis, read content from both gay and lesbian stories for THE PAST 15 YEARS. If that isn't being open minded, I don't know what is.
So yes, excuse me for the long rant, but I just had to get this off my chest.
Now this is a generalization, but I feel more close to yaoi shippers than yuri shippers. Sure I've had more experience with yaoi shippers, so I might be biased in that regard.
Still, I find yaoi shippers are more often than not the ones looking for subtext that support their ship and 'twist' it to their own ends (in fact, the term 'fujoshi' is exactly a reference to this), while yuri shippers want something more concrete. Considering childhood shipping is a lot of times subtle and/or the story is a lot of times that they love each other but hasn't realized it yet, I just find much more in common with fujoshis in the way I ship.
Case in point, fujoshis I know IRL are just happy with what little they get in this cour's Owari no Seraph. The few yuri shippers I know IRL got quite upset with Euphonium, DESPITE having like ten times more substance than fujoshis have with their lead title of the season.
(Just a disclaimer that Kekkai Sensen and Arslan are also pretty popular with the fujoshi crowd, but I personally couldn't get into either so I can't make any comparisons. But from what little I know, it isn't much different there)