Why the World Needs (More) LGBTQ Heroes / Wolverine Says I'm OK

As a heads up, while reading this entry, you'll see the acronym LGBTQ a few times. For those of you who do have never seen, it stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning.  Though this acronym is by no means perfect or all-inclusive of the brilliantly complex and colorful world that is humankind, it's the one I'll be using for this particular blog entry.

The other day, a couple of friends and I were discussing the topic of gay superheroes.  One friend seemed slightly irritated by the notion, claiming that gay people just want everything gay - gay heroes, gay celebrities, etc. but without any specific reason save for a fulfillment of fantasy.  The timing was perfect (though it wasn't mentioned in our particular conversation), because recently, the actor who starred in Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, had posed the question: "Why can't he be gay?" in regards to the famous web-slinger.  He later stated that he was raising a philosophical point and that he understood that it wouldn't really make sense to retcon a character's orientation mid-movie series, but it's not as if that kind of thing doesn't happen in real life - sexuality and orientation can be fluid things that do not necessarily have to be set in stone... but I digress.

Why can't the Amazing Spider-Man be gay?  Could you imagine how the world would react if a mainstream character suddenly came out of the closet?  People may stop reading their books, people may refuse to watch the films, and though some comic-creators are in the business out of passion, publishers may not excitedly jump through hoops to risk money for the sake of societal revolution.  But... notice I said mainstream character.  Many people have no idea that there are, in fact, LGBTQ characters in the superhero world.  I don't mean comics that one has never seen in stores, either, or comics that one buys from the back rooms of certain kinds of shops or from darkly lit internet websites.  There are LGBTQ characters both in mainstream continuity (comic stories that almost every one knows the stories to) and alternate universes.

Rictor and Shatterstar

The first gay kiss in the Marvel Universe happened between Rictor and Shatterstar, in X-Factor v.3 #45 in August of 2009.  Every Marvel comic reader can tell you they've at least heard of X-Factor, but the truth is that the two characters are not exactly household names.  This ended up being a good thing though, as it allowed the writers to continue to explore their relationship and sexuality without fearing censorship.

Wiccan and Hulkling

There's also Wiccan and Hulkling from Young Avengers.  This particular set of characters has been pretty open about their being in a relationship together.  However, it took more than 5 years before there was ever an on-panel kiss between them.

The Wedding

I'd say that Northstar and Kyle Jinadu are possibly the more well-known gay characters (at least Northstar, originally from Alpha Flight, is) of the mainstream Marvel universe.  The two characters got to tie the not in Astonishing X-Men #51 in June of 2012.

Batwoman proposing

In the DC universe, Batwoman was retconned as a lesbian.  This is slightly comical, as she was originally brought into being to show that campy Batman wasn't gay.  I admittedly haven't read any of her comics, but have always heard amazing things.  And she looks kickass.

Alan Scott, the very first Green Lantern

Then we get into some big names, but these characters felt like cop-outs.  A short while back, DC hinted that a very well-known and already well-established character was going to come out of the closet.  It was Green Lantern... however, it wasn't Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern that was portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the recent film, or any of the Green Lanterns in the animated movies that have been released - it was Alan Scott, the very first Green Lantern from the Golden Era of comics.  After the New 52 revamped the DC universe, Alan Scott was re-imagined as a part of Earth 2... which isn't the main universe of the DC line of comics.  Interestingly, before the DC line of comics was revamped (which time, right?), Alan Scott had a son, named Obsidian, who was also gay.

Alan Scott's son, Obsidian

Nightcrawler and Colossus

Ultimate Comics is one of my favorite non-mainstream comic universes.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the stories and was quite surprised when I learned that Colossus was gay. Before meeting and beginning to date Northstar (the go-to gay guy, I suppose), he'd felt an unrequited affection for this universe's Wolverine, going so far as to beating the snot out of Magneto for hurting our favorite canucklehead, once.  It was awesome.  The writers also introduced some interesting drama between Colossus and his very good friend Nightcrawler - the latter has always been very old-school Catholic, so it wasn't surprising that he was rather disgusted by his friend's orientation.  Colossus called him out on it and commented that he'd expected someone who had always been so different from the rest of humanity in appearance, who'd experienced so much ostracism and hatred for being different to understand him.

And then it turned out Wolverine was gay.  No, not the Wolverine that you've wanted to dress up as for multiple Halloweens, silverware between your fingers; and not the Hugh Jackman-Wolverine that graced the big screen, but James Howlett - the Wolverine from the X-Treme X-Men universe.  He was every bit as furry and gruff and kickass as the Wolverine that you instantly picture in your head when you hear the name (the yellow and blue), but he existed in another world, in another line of comics, and therefore out of the minds of people who may have needed him.  Yes, needed him, because if there ever was an LGBTQ hero that I could've really looked up to growing up, it would've been him.

Hercules and James Howlett

I've written before that I absolutely felt like the only gay guy in the world, but allow me to delve a little deeper into that.  I knew, logically, that I wasn't alone - I wasn't so foolish to think that I was so different that I'd be the only one like me in a world populated by countless people.  However, I never felt connected to anyone or anything, be it a character on TV, the guy who cut my mom's hair, or the stereotypical archetype that has been implanted in every brain as the typical gay guy.  I never felt the urge to dress up and sparkle as fabulously as Elton John, nor was I ever as magical or witty as Jack and Will (respectively), from Will & Grace.  There was simply no character that I felt drawn to in the way that the people with S-shaped tattoos who looked up to the All-American hero that is Superman may have been.

Granted, aside from a healthy amount of back fur, I'm nothing like Wolverine.  But I admire him.  Yes, he's been known to chop things up and ask questions later, but he's also really old, wise, and passionate.  If I'd have known from a young age that a character like Wolverine could be gay, maybe I wouldn't have struggled so much.  If Wolverine can kiss Hercules on-panel what could ever possibly dare to intrude on my sense of self and cause me to question my very existence?!

Too many people have taken their lives, because they felt alone, because they couldn't shut out the onslaught of overwhelmingly hateful voices, and because they believed they were sin itself.  I'm not saying that having more LGBTQ characters in comic books will stop kids from committing suicide or getting bullied, but they sure as hell wouldn't hurt.  Just as every turd-for-a-brain celebrity or politician that opens their shit-eating mouth and callously says things that have the possibility of completely debilitating an already unsure soul, every superhero, ever celebrity, every image that says "It's completely OK to be different" can do the opposite.

We need more mainstream heroes that are unabashedly different, even amongst their flying and teleporting teammates.  We need mainstream questioning and transgender heroes that are not afraid to show that their sexuality or gender is not limited by the societal constructs that surround the culture into which they were written.  Because the truth is that comic book characters are as sexual as real human beings; they don't have to have sex on-panel, they create meaningful relationships with other fictional characters and it's what we expect, because we want our  heroes to be as realistic as possible.  We absorb them as they are the magnificent ones we wish to emulate; they are the beautiful and the brave that we hold inside ourselves. These characters are taken into the human psyche and they have the potential to influence the real world as much as they do their fictional ones.

So when Wolverine says it's ok to be gay, no one could ever take that away from me.  Now imagine if the whole world could hear him say so.

<3

tossing this one in for comedic effect. they weren't bashful about it and that's awesome

"If you can't say something nice..." / Why You Should've Cared

For the most part, I tried (really really hard) not to post anything personal about that entire chicken debacle, save for a few minor discussions with some friends.  However, I read a comment a couple of days ago that finally shattered the camel's back... and I needed to write and hope that people listen.

i think gay people should be shot.

To many, that was just another bigoted and hateful thing to say... and some people will go on, blissfully unaware of the gravitas of such comments.

You see, sometimes, when people say horribly inane, bigoted, and hateful things... people listen.  People hear things like that, and sometimes, whether things are said in jest or not, they're taken seriously.  In fact, it doesn't even matter if the things said weren't threatening or murder-related... all it takes is a personal opinion or point of view that expresses highly polarizing sentiment for people to react.

I want some of you to close your eyes and imagine a line of cars, curling around a building and down a road. Now, I want you to imagine hundreds, maybe thousands, of similar images, at one time, in the same way that one might stare into a swarm of ants and understand that there are more moving creatures than can be counted at that one instance.

Now imagine that every one of those people are lining up, because they agree with a particular expressed sentiment, and said sentiment happens to be against you.

That's how I felt, when I turned on the TV and saw tons of cars lined up to defend someone's hurtful opinions.  But most of all, my heart broke because I had family members and friends in those lines.  Someone said something hurtful, and rather than stand up for me, because I ached, people that know me instead chose to defend people they don't.

If this was all just about freedoms of speech, it wouldn't have been such a huge deal.  But many people just don't understand.  They don't understand how opinions can affect so many people so, so deeply.  Opinions  create the air that all of society breathes... regardless of what side.

For example: an amazing friend of mine has a strong allergic reaction twice a year, in tune with the changing seasons.  Since middle school, he's had to deal with these rashes that would painfully bubble, bleed, blister, and crack, and any doctors and dermatologists that his family would take him to see would tell him that it was all due to anxiety and stress.  Unfortunately, he could only attribute any and all stresses in his existence - those resulting from being picked on, constantly hiding tears, being hatefully bullied - to being gay.  And so, this friend of mine spent decades attributing this allergic reaction to his sexual orientation, and feeling like he could never talk to anyone about it.

But you see, there are millions of variations on this story, because there are millions of people that have felt the effect of the disgusting stigma.  I have friends that were forced to leave home, before they were of age.  I have friends that have attempted suicide.

One story comes from home...

Brandon and I were both raised Catholic, and we were both very devout kids.  When we realized we were different, he went to speak to his priest and I to my youth leader.  We both received the same pamphlets that taught us that we, as homosexuals, were accepted by the church as naturally occurring.  However, we were never to act on our impulses - we had been called to lead a "special life."

So, a flesh-rending dichotomy was then born within my soul:  I was both an incredibly devout child of god, from whom I craved infinite understanding and love and a monstrous pariah, undeserving of such attention.  I developed an impossibly ferocious and abysmally deep self-loathing, and it took years before I could begin to see myself as a person... and even longer before I could love myself.

However, my best friend and partner in life has recently told me that, until recently, he'd felt that as though a part of who we are together, a dynamic shared by us, was innately sin.

And my heart broke.

My heart broke for him, for ever having to suffer that sort of ridiculous nonsense.  My heart broke for us...I mean imagine trying to cultivate and nurture a relationship, when a Half felt (perhaps unconsciously, if not actively) that there was something innately wrong with the Whole.

And my heart hurt for every little boy or girl who's ever had to grow up internalizing such a terrible stigma.  For boys and girls who've ever had to hide who they were, from peers, from classmates, from teachers, from family, from society.

For the teenage girls that were recently shot in the face, or for the one beaten by a group of adult men until more of her blood poured onto the floor than an onlooker had ever seen.  And for all the stories that haven't made it to the news.

YOU. ARE NOT.  SIN.  Whether your family, your friends, your community, your government, or even other members of the GLBT community do not support or empathize with you, you are perfect as you are.  You are beautiful.

I want people to understand that when people speak their minds, be they Chuck Norris, rap artists, ignorant misspellings on Facebook, or popular restaurants, others listen and react.  People are affected across time, for decades, and the effects are incredibly damaging.  They may not always be direct causes, but they do not help.  It's time for old stigmas to disappear and opinions to change and it's time for my brothers and sisters to stop living in fear of rejection, severed ties, and blood.

Stand up for what is right, next time.