LGBTQ Roll Call

[neo_prodigy]

With June being LGBTQ Pride, I couldn't think of a better time to do a Roll Call celebrating exceptional LGBTQ characters in comics.


While there have been a number of LGBTQ characters, most of them at best have been relegated to minor characters and at worst deplorable homophobic queer minstrel shows.
And don't get it conflated.

Visibility is not progress.

If it were then the Rawhide Kid and Northstar would be progressive trailblazing characters.

 So no, this isn't just my list of queer comic characters.

This is a salute to the elite characters who have provided me with a more than a few OH HELL YEAH! moments.
A list of characters and made me proud to be a comic book geek and an LGBTQ.

Also, if you haven't already, feel free to check out my recent post on No_Scans discussing Queer Tropes to better understand where I'm coming from on this.


That being said: ROLL CALL!!!!!!!

 

Batwoman










Jack Harkness










Ianto Jones










The Question (Renee Montoya)











Ozymandias




Black Cat



Daken



Destiny



Mystique




Rictor & Shatterstar 

 


 

 



And by the by: The Greeks/Romans/Spartans were like TOTALLY GAY!!!!! (nsfw)


Victoria Hand





Richie Foley/Gear









Dani Baptiste





Tim Gunn

He's awesome and must therefore be included.



Catwoman (Holly Robinson)



Lafayette Reynolds



Scandal Savage



Hulkling



Karolina Dean



Wiccan



HE"S GAY HONEY!!!! Stop trying to recruit. Straight people: Always trying to push their heterosexual agenda on us God-fearing gays. ;D




Xavin







Achilles







DAYUM is my boyfriend sexy!!!!

Go ahead. It's okay to look.

THAT"S CLOSE ENOUGH.

I'm gonna need you to back away from my man, right the hell now.

Satsu













(Ultimate) Colossus









Not sure if the live-action movie version featured 616 Colossus or Ultimate Colossus.

It really doesn't matter because you're a fool if you think I"m about to pass up a chance to partake in some Grade-A beefcake like one Daniel Cudmore.








Willow Rosenberg

















Tara MaClay













John Constantine







Xena






The Midnighter



Apollo & The Midnighter







Now, I'm willing to bet there are some gems out there that myself and others may not be aware of and/or should (re)consider checking out.

So if you have any recommendations of awesome exceptional prominent LGBTQ characters in comics then by all means, sharing is caring. Please post them away in the comments.

 

Comments

[neo_prodigy]

And Amos and Andy were the first blacks on tv but telling black folks to be thankful for that racist shucking and jiving tripe is the same as telling me to be grateful for that gay minstrel show. Visibility is not progress.

[crabby_lioness]

When there are other examples, visibility is not progress.

When there are no other examples, visibility is progress.

Context is everything.

[neo_prodigy]

When examples reinforce bigotry that isn't progress. And I have serious problem being told I should appreciate said racism and homophobia. This isn't about context this is about me having enough self respect as a gay man to demand better.

[crabby_lioness]

I'm sorry you feel that way. Goodness knows I get outraged often enough at the stereotypical portrayal of women, Pagans, and Southerners. However, the first time the invisible becomes visible it's always progress, even if it's couched in the inevitably biased language of the day.

Right now I'm showing my daughters examples of women and minorities in popular media, including comics, over the decades. I'm pointing out the first time that Negative Stereotype X is addressed, the first time Negative Stereotype Y is addressed, and that while the overall pictue still looks derogatory to our eyes these incremental steps (forex from "No Girls Allowed" to "The Token Girl" to "There Must Be Fewer Girls Than Boys" to "Runaways") were what laid the groundwork for the more well-rounded characters we see today.

[auggie18]

The X-men broke that last barrier first. For a while, in the eighties, I think, the X-men consisted of Storm, Dazzler, Psylocke, Rogue, Wolverine, and Longshot. Then Havok joined, but it was still 4-3.

[crabby_lioness]

Actually the New Mutants broke it first In fact, it wasn't until the team of Karma, Danielle, Wolfsbane, Magik, Sunspot, and Cannonball appeared that I first saw someone state that rule in writing as an objection to that team.

[galateus]

LOL "I'm sorry you feel that way"

A+ fauxpology.

[neo_prodigy]

thank you.

[shadowpsykie]

i don't see how Including Northstar would be bad. the way i see him, yes at times he has been written ineptly. but that does not change the fact that he is who he is, he is PROUD of who he is, and he makes no appologies for who and what he is. I would be proud to have Northstar as a role model.

[neo_prodigy]

at times? at times? NATION X #2.

[shadowpsykie]

i feel that issue was hit and miss for me, i liked the concept, but the execution sucked

but its not like that is the only issue he has been in, so far he's been good in Hellbound. and though it was Anole's story, i he showed he was beyond the superficial self centered exterior (he was brought up in privilage) and tried to talk to Anole after he went missing.

Nation X #2 does not define Northstar as a character. in my opinion. but this is your post not mine. its your opinion here and i respect it. just as i wish mine would be if i posted something here. we dont have to agree on everything.

[crabby_lioness]

He got fussed at by Cyclops for being off his game. That Cyclops' job. Off the top of my head, in the past year the people Cyclops has fussed at on-panel for being off their game include

Colossus,

Nightcrawler,

Rogue,

Gambit,

CHARLES XAVIER,

MAGNETO,

NAMOR,

and that's just the senior staff. It doesn't include the junior staff or the students. How is it a biased stereotype that he fussed at Northstar but not that he fussed at the others?

[ian_karkull]

No, I'm sorry, Neo is right. Visibility that only enforces bad stereotypes is just harmful. Northstar's career has been such a conflated, ugly mess of stereotyptes that it's really hard to see him as anything other than the Avatar of Straight Privilege.

[icon_uk]

It depends if you view it as being a bad stereotype in the first place.

It's true that Northstar has been badly depicted (As have many straight characters) over the years, but we'relooking specifically at his debut here.

As someone who was around when Alpha Flight was launched, it's hard to argue that his appearance as the first implicitly gay character (I was in my early teens, and coming to terms with who I was at the time, but it was easy to see what the intent was with JP) had significance.

The fact that he wasn't actually a particularly pleasant character wasn't impacted on by his sexuality, his being an arrogant, stuck-up git did that already. I found that... refreshing.

[wasabi.livejournal.com]

The fact that he wasn't actually a particularly pleasant character wasn't impacted on by his sexuality, his being an arrogant, stuck-up git did that already. I found that... refreshing.

Thank you. Growing up in the '80s, it was actually Northstar's anti-heroic charm in his very first appearance (unfairly clocking Uber-Goddess Ororo Munroe) and upsetting Cyclops' boy-scout demeanor that actually got my nose closer to the page.

I didn't then, and don't need now, a gay version of Captain America, which frankly would have irked me more than anything.

[neo_prodigy]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

[brilliantnova]

Hmmmm

It's like being handed a molded piece of bread that will make you sick while those more privileged than you get a full plate of fresh food.

Would you eat that moldy bread, make yourself ill and your body reject it anyway and make your health worse and should you expect me to for the sake of moving forward and progress?

[crabby_lioness]

I have eaten molded bread when there was nothing else for me to eat and eating it gave me the strength to move forward and progress.

Let's look at Wonder Woman. Have you ever read any Wonder Woman comic written before the 1970s? The sexism in them is enough to make a person gag! Anyone who tried to write a woman character like that today would get their head handed to them. At the same time, no one is trying to take away from Wonder Woman the title of "First Female Superhero Who Starred in Her Own Title". The bias present is an unfortunate but all too common byproduct of the trailblazer status.

Likewise, anyone who wrote a gay character today the way Northstar was written when he first appeared would and should get their head handed to them. That doesn't take away from him the title of the "First Publicly Out Gay Superhero".

[neo_prodigy]

He's still being written in the same fail he was then. THAT'S WHAT'S FUCKED UP.

Wonder Woman and other characters were portrayed as fail back then but they evolved......at least by comic standards.

Not Northstar which is why once again VISIBILITY DOES NOT EQUAL PROGRESS!!!

[brilliantnova]

Wow really when I ate molded bread it made me sick for 2 days. I wanted to die and I couldnt keep even water down. Thus why I used that analogy.

I rather not take the crumbs people throw at me gratefully, I rather fight or stand up for something more.

I guess we can agree to disagree based on perspectives

[felinephoenix]

But Daken is okay? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall a time his bisexuality wasn't written to squick readers. Northstar has plenty of problems, but he's still a better example of visibility than Daken, in my opinion.

[neo_prodigy]

We'll have to agree to disagree.

Bendis handled him pretty decently during the Dark Reign. I can't speak for how other writers have handled him.

[felinephoenix]

That's cool! And sorry if that last comment sounded a little combative, I didn't mean for it to.

[neo_prodigy]

It's all good. ;D

[brilliantnova]

hi i love you and this comment. this this this