Scans_Daily

Meet

( Somnus )

Darn it, got distracted yesterday by events, so forgot to post this, but I'll blame the time difference and my complete disconnect with the space time continuum resulting from lockdown.

Some fun fusions from Luciano Vecchio, who was inspired by Newsarama's recent Amalgam Again feature.

( Two into one DOES go )

You may thought we were ignoring Pride Month, but rest assured we're not.


Art by Luciano Vecchio

Scans_Daily owes it's origins to the efforts of women and supporters of the slash community and we maintain our support for them absolutely.

This year is something of a milestone!

It's fifty years since the Stonewall riots in the US, a series of civil disobedience acts in support of queer rights where the likes of Marsha P Johnson, a gender-nonconforming drag queen and gay/queer activist and Stormé DeLarverie came to the fore and ensured the battle for rights was fought and won.

It's also fifty years since the de-criminilisation of male homosexuality in the UK.

And we've seen such extraordinary progress since then. When Scans_Daily started in 2003, and apologies for speaking from a UK-centric perspective, Civil Partnerships for gay couples weren't even a thing yet (that was 2004), and now, since 2014, we have full marriage rights (2015 in the US).

And yet, it's not something we can take for granted, There are many parts of the world without such liberal acceptance.of being anything other than a cis heterosexuality.

Even in the current US administration has taken a hostile view to many such advances, with Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo both campaigners for anti-LGBTQ+though it is far from straightforward, Trump declared in 2017 that transgender troops would not be allowed to serve in any capacity, but the US military themselves have contradicted this.

Whereas in 2015 the White House was lit up with the rainbow to celebrate the Marriage Equality act, the current Adminsitration has refused embasssies around the world to even fly the Pride flag, though the extent to which diplomats have worked around that ban is delightful, and some States are outright defying the ban. And then there's this guy.

At any rate, in the world of comics, though there are ups and downs we're seeing more mainstream represntation than we might have dreamed possible. Some, yes, were probably added for shock value, but it's a start.

Gay and lesbian characters are established parts of mainstream comics from Midnighter and Apollo, to Chromedome and Rewind, to

Jughead in the "Archie" comics is asexual,

There's some bi representation, though more (and more openly) would be good, especially as "outing" a character as bi rather than gay wouldn't invalidate any past relationships if such things are likely to cause upset (Looking at YOU Kitty Pryde, Johnny Storm, Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson, amongst many others).

In Niki, from "Moth and Whipser", we have a genderfluid protagonist.

Openly transgender characters are still rare (The most recent new such character I can think of is Blaze in "Jem and the Holograms" though I might have missed new ones), which is a lack that should be addressed, but we can hope we'll see more.

Plus, of course, we're seeing more representation amongst creators, so depictions can be based on experience rather than pure imagination or, worse, fetishisation.

So for the last week of Pride Month, we want Scans_Daily is going full on Pride!

Bring us your Gay, Bi, Pan, Demi, your Trans, Non-Binary and Genderfluid, your Asexual and Aromantic, bring us or the one's whose relationships don't fit into precise terms who might still be thought of as Queer, and let them be celebrated.

And remember, no matter where you are in the spectrum of sexuality and gender;  you are valid, you are loved, and you are welcome here.