Scattered Thoughts on Sexual Orientation in Comics:

This newsarama post is pretty interesting, linking as it does to a message board post that makes a very valid complaint. In the DCU, it mentions, there are quite a few more lesbian characters than gay male characters.

This is definitely true and it's definitely something that I would really like to see rectified with more gay male characters. Variety is a good thing after all.

However, and I hate to say this, whenever I see this argument, I end up bracing myself internally, because in my experience, it's very easy for this argument to be turned around as an attack on the lesbian characters in comics. As though it is the fault of the lesbian characters that they outnumber the gay male characters.

The first time I'd ever seen this argument was back during the Batwoman-is-gay kerfluffle. Admittedly it was phrased in the sort of "Why do we need another lesbian when gay men are so few! It's just pandering to the desires of the straight male creators." (This was also brought up by the fact that Batwoman is hot and sexy, rather than being dumpy and average looking. Which on one level I sympathize with, as hot lesbians are occasionally tricks used to titilate a male audience. But on the other hand: We are dealing with superheroes here, and if you can show me a "dumpy and average" looking superhero of any sex, race, creed, I'd be pretty surprised. Ted Kord at his heaviest was still more attractively pictured than most real people alive.)

The thing is, on one level it's definitely true. Lesbian characters are more common than gay male characters, and a lot of that really does have to do with the fact that the majority of comic creators and comic audiences are straight men. There is an element of pandering involved in these characters, whether we like it or not. And that's pretty awful.

But on the other hand, the alternative pretty much means no lesbian superheroes at all. It's a hard situation here, a lesser of two evils sorts of things.

In the meantime though, what we need is more lesbian AND gay characters in general, not less. We know that for every straight female hero that's character design is somewhat pandering, there are a number of straight female side characters at least that are given more normal, mundane, plain appearances. I think it'd help a lot if we had more lesbian side characters that are more normal/mundane/plain. After all, Batwoman's design is actually on the conservative end of the spectrum, heels aside, and is probably no more or less tawdry or pandering than say Manhunter. The difference is really that it's hard to think of, well, a lesbian Etta Candy, for example.

And honestly, I think there's an inherent flaw in the "there are more lesbians than gay men" argument, and that's that, in the end, it's targetting the wrong group. The scant handful of lesbians versus the miniscule numbers of gay men creates a false conflict. As though that scant handful of characters is the pool we have available for alternative sexualities period. If Kate Kane were straight, it wouldn't make Connor Hawke suddenly gay.

What the bigger issue is, what the bigger issue should be, in my opinion is that there are hundreds of straight superheroes out there. Possibly even thousands if we count all the one-shots or cannon-fodder types that have shown up for maybe an issue over the last half a century. Compared to those numbers, the portrayal of gay AND lesbian (as well as black, asian, hispanic, differently abled, and so on and so forth) is outright pitiful.

So how about we just have more? There are a lot of abandoned/inactive legacies out there that could shine with a new character behind them. There's still a lot of room for brand new heroes as well. There's lots of room for new supporting casts and even just one-shot people too. Why can't Diana's next studious scholarly liaison a.la Julia Kapitelis and Helena Sandsmark be a lesbian? Why can't one of Hal Jordan's brothers (I think there's one still alive we haven't seen) be gay? It'd allow for some interesting reactions, for one. It's always fun to see Hal brought face to face with his own unconscious bigotry, and we'd get a chance to learn a little more about Amazon society in general.

Heck, there are a few heroic characters ambiguous enough in sexual portrayal to be easily read as being "in the closet" a.la Obsidian. (Who was *actually* surprised that Todd turned out to be gay? I'm just sayin').

I just want to see more, you know? More variety of all types, in heroes AND supporting characters, would go a long way.