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

[shadowpsykie]

then Tim Gunn should be left off (the fashionable queen) because he is a stereo typica gay guy.

i dont think it is fair to exclude Northstar what ever anyone else may say, he might be stereo typical, but he's unapologetic about who he is. he is who he is, he kicks ass, and he makes no appologies about it. THAT takes balls

How does Anole conform to stereo types? he Kicked Santos ass for "accidently" calling him queer. He fought demons in hell and is currently there again to back up his friend (Pixie) Anole is anything BUT a Stereo type (and its the Maiming, hell EVERONE of the young x-men has been through shit, Pixie has apar of her sould missing, Laura is a mess, Prodigy lost his powers, Hellion lost his hands)

one would argue that They Killed off Ianto in a stereo typicical (WiR) fashion, to give Jack nothing else to lose, same thing for Tara. (though personally i am one of those who believe that in both cases it was for the furtherment of the story, and it made for good and heart breaking story telling)

while i am on the ball with the freedom ring character (the writer has appologized profusely for that and i am over it... mostly) i don't think that gay characters should be treated with kids gloves, or writers walk around on egg shells for them. Yeah they killed and brought back Northstar as evil, they also did that to wolverine, and Elektra. They took Anole's arm, well he was in hell and he kinda got off easy compared to some of the New X-Men. i could go on, and explain a few others... (there is absolutely no defending the decision to kill off Freedom Ring though... that was... yeah)

[iambickilometer]

I don't know most of the characters you're talking about -- have not read any recent X-Men stuff besides Nation X, not familiar with Freedom Ring. Never really felt much interest in Northstar. You'd have to take that up with Neo.

[neo_prodigy]

You know what, I am so sick and tired of this gawd damn tired of every time queer minstrels get called out on their bullshit be it Rawhide Kid, Will & Grace, or Northstar, gays get talked down too that we're only disapproving because their effeminate, or that we're ashamed of being gay. Much akin to what black folks receive when we call out racist stereotypes.

"Oh you're just aspiring to be white."

I also find it interesting this bullshit usually comes from straight folks who have a fetish for gay boys and/or enjoy being entertained by said queer minstrel shows and heaven forbid a gay man harsh their fanperson squee.

I also remember the uproar last year when female members were pissed off that Marvel Divas was being pushed as progressive and trailblazing for female comics and that fangirls would love that. And they were right to be pissed. Just as they would've been right to flip their shit if someone tried to mansplain to them why they're wrong.

Northstar wasn't excluded because he's effeminate. He was excluded because he's a piece of shit character who's done more harm to gay folks than most right wingers could dream. He's still a walking stereotype and is the gay = Amos & Andy.

And defending him to a proud gay man is akin to defending BET or Amos & Andy to black folks.

I know the fucking difference b/w being yourself and being proud and folks who play the role and make shit harder for us. I also know the irreparable harm and destruction such depictions can cause.

Furthermore, Lafayette Reynolds is FAR MORE effeminate and "stereotypical" than Northstar and Tim Gunn put together and yet he's being praised for being a progressive ass kicking character.

Now THAT'S a gay man I'm proud to call a role model. Funny how no one failed to mention that while they were so busy playing professor x with my gay black ass.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!!!!!

As far as Anole goes, I don't have much of an opinion of him one way or the other. The only thing I've seen him depicted as is the gay guy. Do I think he's a fail on the level or Rawhide Kid or Northstar, no. But I've yet to be impressed either.

Now on Ianto and Tara, I'm with you on their deaths and think their deaths were story-driven.

And don't get me started on fucking Freedom Ring. The one gay character who SHOULD be brought back from the dead, they keep dead.

But the walking minstrel show keeps getting phoenix downed over and over and over again.

Funny how that works.

[shadowpsykie]

I don't dislike Lafayette, something about him just rubs me the wrong way... maybe its the drug dealer angle (it seems too much of a stereotype in the other direction)... i agree that while he is effeminate (and it doesnt matter with me one way or the other) he does kick ass. ( i also wanted to hug him after he was kidnapped by Erik.... im kinda shipping them two...:)

Personally i loved will and Grace. mainly because i knew a Jack Mcfarland, and loved how he and Megan Mullalay played off eachother... Will was too bland in my opinion. i mainly say this because, well there are real flamers out there (very much like jack, and my friend) and to say that they do not deserve repesentation is not fair (now should thye be the ONLY representation? no.) but to each his own

yeah i hated the deaths of Tara and Ianto, but thier deaths had the impact that was needed. they did what they were sent out to do, make us feel the depths of loss and in both cases, these characters were the "Center" of the group, after their deaths the center couldn't hold.

not touching Freedom Ring, I am past it in that i sincerely believe the Author apologizes for his... short sighted ness. it does not make what happened any better, but as the lady of Avalon would say "whats done is done" (they could have however brought him back, and possibly still could.. i mean a piece of the cosmic cube SCREAMS loophole.....)

PS enjoying the civil exchange of opinions :)

[neo_prodigy]

Again.....Lafayette is a full on "flamer" and is a character done right. Emmett from QAF wasn't my favorite character but I respected him. Anyone who turns down $1 million on principle is ten shades of awesome.

And as far as Will & Grace goes, seeing as how they fucked over John Barrowman, tells me where their agenda really was about representing gays.

[shadowpsykie]

John Barrowman? what happened there?

[neo_prodigy]

He was up for the part of Will but the producers shot him down because they thought he was too masculine and instead hired a heterosexual man to play what they thought was an authentic gay guy as opposed to a more qualified gay actor to play a gay character.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm that was something i was not aware of....

[icon_uk]

Or, and here's a random thought, maybe he didn't get the part because John Barrowman just isn't a good enough actor to carry a show where he's supposed to be the buttoned down one of the cast, whether he's gay or not.

We've only EVER heard his side of that story (and he trots it out at every opportunity), so I'd hold fire on treating it as fact.

[neo_prodigy]

or here's another thought. maybe he's telling the truth about the show making with the homophobia, something that show reinforced for 9 fucking seasons.

so if there's evidence to the contrary, i'd be happy to see it but i'm not dismissing his comments for being an inconvenient truth.

[icon_uk]

I'm not dismissing them either, they may be true, but he has no supporting evidence either and it's also entirely possible that he didn't gel with the cast they already had or they didn't like his performance for reasons other than him being gay.

He had had little acting experience working on television at that time (Central Park West was about it, beyond some rather wretched kids TV presenting roles in the UK, which even he feels were poor) so that may well have contributed tp not getting a headline role in an American format (eg 20+ episodes in a row at a time) series.

He would have been a major gamble for headline Will and Grace, whereas Eric McCormack, whatever else one may think of his acting, had much experience in the field.

[neo_prodigy]

But seeing as he dealt with the people directly and knows the intricacies of his experience, I'm going to trust him to it.

[icon_uk]

And you are of course entirely free to do so, personally, I'd rather hear both sides of a story like that before I pass judgement. Actually, I don't recall JB ever saying how he knows he was turned down for that reason.

Plus, given his tendencies to camp it up at any opportunity, I can imagine he might have gone OTT for an audition. They certainly didn't need two Sean Hayes... personally, I don't think they needed one, but that's apropos of nothing.

[neo_prodigy]

That's good for you. Just like I go by the evidence presented.

"Actually, I don't recall JB ever saying how he knows he was turned down for that reason."

Check out his autobiography.

[wasabi.livejournal.com]

Northstar redeemed himself at least twice to me during his stint with the X-Men. In the first, he didn't take any guff from a boneheaded Paulie Provenzano when both were on Jean Grey's team (Uncanny X-Men, the "Eve of Destruction" 2-parter). Granted, Paulie was written as an almost one-dimensional oaf, but still.

In the second, when Northstar is asked to join the school's faculty, he initially declines, but reconsiders after sent on a mission by Xavier to collect a young mutant whose uncontrollable explosive powers threaten to kill him and everyone he comes in contact with. Despite the risk to himself, and even while tersely bonding with the boy (who is mildly homophobic), Northstar does his level best to complete the mission, which fails when the boy's mutant abilities overwhelm him and he dies, injuring Northstar in the process. Despite this, he agrees to join the Xavier Institute anyway. Even if seen as simply an attempt at redemption, I thought the story provided enough of a heroic characterization to keep Jean-Paul well above the level of a one-dimensional stereotype.

[neo_prodigy]

"Even if seen as simply an attempt at redemption, I thought the story provided enough of a heroic characterization to keep Jean-Paul well above the level of a one-dimensional stereotype."

We can agree to disagree.