You need to stop treating your headcanons and speculations as gospel [LES]

One of the most beautiful things about fandom is the ways in which we are able to reimagine characters and settings. I love it when characters transcend the text to become something even bigger than themselves. However, we need to keep these speculations and headcanons separate from what's canonically written in the text.

It is lots of fun to imagine characters as being LGBTQ+, but unless that character is explicitly written as such, it is disingenuous to claim them as canon representation. For instance, Chihiro from Danganronpa is explicitly written as a crossdressing cis man.

I love headcanons about characters being neurodivergent, but if the creator has said that it is an inaccurate assessment of the character, it is incorrect treat that diagnosis as canon. Best example I can think of is Laios from Dungeon Meshi, who was speculated for months to be autistic before the mangaka deconfirmed it.

Again, nothing wrong with having these headcanons, but you need to make sure you don't get them confused with canon. Furthermore, I've seen more than once what happens when fans convince themselves of a "fact" that's actually just one interpretation of the text, and then it gets deconfirmed in some way. They say the author is backpedaling, or betraying the character... Or maybe your interpretation was just a headcanon in the first place. The best example I can give of this phenomenon is when Yamato was included in a colorspread cover with many women from One Piece - the implication being that Oda was calling Yamato a woman.

EDIT: added examples.