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

[psychopathicus_rex]

Forgive me if this is a little off-topic, but has the terminology for this sort of thing changed recently, or have I just not been paying attention? Last I checked, it was 'LGBT' - where'd the 'Q' come from? I know what the other letters mean, but what's the 'Q' stand for?

[neo_prodigy]

Q usually stands for queer and/or questioning generally covering other people's sexualities that may not fall in the other categories.

Both LGBT and LBGTQ are legitimate acronyms but I use LGBTQ for posts like this to make it clear that I want to be inclusive.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Ah, I see. I would think 'questioning' would make more sense.

[alienist]

Not necessarily - queer can also cover asexuality and pansexuality.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, I'm far from an expert on the subject, but the term 'queer', to me, specifically implies gay, lesbian or bi, or variants thereof. I don't see how it would cover asexuality - as I understand it, that means that you're attracted to NOBODY, that sexual attraction just isn't a factor in your life - and I'm fairly certain that the term 'queer', as it's generally used in this context, specifically implies sexuality of some sort. I could be wrong, of course, but...

[alienist]

To me, queer implies anything outside of the majority sexuality, so not having one would certainly qualify.

That's certainly not the definitive definition, though, and I don't believe there is one. I just like to see asexuality included, and adding it under 'Q' seems less unwieldy than tacking another letter on.

[psychopathicus_rex]

These things are really very subjective, I suppose. Sexuality is such a vastly complicated thing that it can make your head spin - I'm not surprised that that would apply to the language involving it, too.

[alienist]

It's one of the most frustrating and brilliant things about language, really.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, sure - it's a constantly growing, changing, morphing and metamorphising thing. It is endlessly fascinating and amazingly rewarding, and, yes, it can severely piss you off at times. It'll be interesting to see where it's going, what with text-messaging and the internet twisting it into new and at times alarming configurations - will we see 'ROTFLMAO' (which I maintain is actually the sound effect for when one is choking to death on a thick wool sweater) making its way into novels anytime soon - and if so, would it be a good or a bad thing?

[theletterfour]

First, many asexual people have a romantic orientation - and of romantic aces there are many who are not heteroromantic. These aces may or may not consider themselves LGB, etc. as well as Ace, and may consider themselves queer regardless of that. (Also the thing with queer meaning "not-heteronormative" to many people that alienist discusses below).

Second, you might want to reconsider your wording, because the way your comment is written seems to be implying that because asexuality involves sexual attraction to no one, it is a lack of sexuality and therefore not a sexuality. That's a problem, because that opinion (asexuality isn't a real sexuality) has been used a lot to invalidate the experience of asexuals, and to erase their existence. I don't think that's what you meant to say, but that's the message I got on first reading.

In short, the word queer describes individual asexuals if they feel it describes them, and saying it universally does or does not describe asexuals is problematic, since the asexual community is fairly divided as to whether the word queer should describe us..

[neo_prodigy]

Do you have any resources you could recommend? This might be an educational opportunity that many of us may need to look at and also add to the resources page.

[neo_prodigy]

Thank you for this. I really appreciate it. ;D

[theletterfour]

Reposted for HTML fail and accidentally hitting submit instead of preview

I've been going through the asexuality blogs and sources I follow for the past few days trying to find some 101 type stuff, but I find that the 101 stuff is really basic and the more advanced stuff is pretty much written by asexuals for asexuals.

As far as 101 stuff goes:
The AVEN wiki: and more specifically
The overview on asexuality
The various FAQs

And as far as more advanced resources go:
asexual_fandom is a community here on dreamwidth discussing asexuality and fandom and representation and all that good stuff
Asexual Explorations, a website about the academic study of asexuality
Asexual Explorations Blog, the blog corresponding to the above website.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I don't see how a lack of sexuality would 'erase the existence' or 'invalidate' asexuals - it's just sex, for cryin' out loud. There's a hell of a lot more to a person than that. As far as I'm concerned, a person's sexuality is their own business, whether they actually have any or not; it doesn't diminish them as a person. Their personality and interests and so forth are what define them, not their sexuality or lack of it.
So yeah, I certainly wasn't trying to say that a lack of sexuality 'invalidates' someone. Sorry if it came off that way.
As for the definition of 'queer' - well, like I said, I'm no expert. I wasn't saying that such-and-such actually WAS the definition of the word as it's used in this context, just that that was my perception of it.

[theletterfour]

Sorry, I wasn't intending to say you were attempting to erase or invalidate us, just that you were one step of logic-fail away from unintentionally doing so.

In many (I hesitate to say most or all, even though in my experience, it is) discussions of asexuality that take place in a non-safe space, people show up claiming asexuality doeesn't exist, and they use the argument that "asesxuality=lack of sexuality," paired with "sexuality = sexual orientation" to claim that us asexuals must be lying, since we can't possibly exist.

The other issue with "asexuality is not a sexuality" is that there's a lot more to sexuality than just sexual attraction. And asexuals are very diverse in their experience of the other aspects of sexuality. Some are disgusted by sex, some are indifferent toward it, some are intillectually curious about it. Similarly, some asexuals have no sesx drive, but some do have a sex drive, they just don't find that it's undirected. See the AVEN Wiki for more info.

Perhaps I simply define sexuality differently than you do. I see it as how humans relate to sex, and is therefore part of being human, and relating to sex by not being particularly interested in having it with other people... is a way of relating to sex, albeit a different one than most people have, and therefore is part of sexuality.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, yes, but what I was basically saying is that, unless you're interested in relating to someone sexually, their sexuality is only one component of who they are. It should be kept in mind, yes, but it needn't be the dominating factor in your perception of them. Of course one's attitude and relations towards sex is part of being human, but it needn't be the dominating factor. It's not like most conversations start off with 'so - had sex lately, and if so, with whom, and if not, why not?' It's like defining someone solely by their race, or their politics, or whether or not they like baseball - you can do it, sure, and people do, but it reveals you as an awfully shallow person, in my opinion.

[theletterfour]

I'm not sure what you're arguing for and have the feeling we're merely talking past each other and may well be in agreement, so I'm going to disengage now. Thanks for the discussion.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Just trying to clarify my original point, but I am addicted to tangents, so I may not have succeeded. You're welcome; anytime.