I've gone back and forth on this since reading this discussion, and did start out with a similar kneejerk reaction, but now I'm heading for a slightly different conclusion. The fact that the fandom does, in practice, treat Crowley like a male character makes me think that maybe this exchange is exactly the right sort of place to explore Crowley as anything but male. Despite being fond of Aziraphale/Crowley, I kind of like the idea of wrestling Crowley out of the hands of dudeslash, at least for a little while.