OUT & PROUD!!!

By Corey Floyd

This upcoming weekend in my hometown we are celebrating Pride day. A day for celebrating the LGBTQ community for being who they are out and proud. Once upon a time being this was extremely frowned upon and they were treated just as bad as being a minority in the 1940’s. A matter of fact it wasn’t until 1989 comic book creators were not allowed to have gay characters in American comics. I thought that today I would touch on characters from across our nerdy planet that have been used as great representations of the community. Some are very known and some are unknown.    

 I thought It would be nice to get the obvious out of the way. Thanks to a strong fan base and an awesome movie Deadpool is on the forefront when it comes to great comic book movies. He has also been known to get it own with a lot of ladies between the page as well as a few men. But he is not bisexual. The Merc with the mouth considers himself pansexual. For those of you who don’t know it means that he does not limit his sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, and gender identity. Ryan Reynolds who plays the mutant has actually been very adamant on having a male love interest is his upcoming sequel. I think if Fox Studios was okay with the pegging scene this should be 

a walk in the park.  Next is Northstar is a member of Alpha Flight. A Canadian mutant task force kind of like the X-men. They are not as popular as the x-men but they were in a lot of adventure where they crossed paths. He was Marvel's first openly gay character.  With his powers of super speed flight and energy flashes. The character creators John Bryne and Chris Claremont also thought it would be great for him to get married and in issue astonishing x- men #51 he did. 

Here we have Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Who went through a very relatable character arc for those who are not sure of themselves. In high school, she was the shy girl who fell in love with a boy named Oz played by Seth Green. Who also happened to be a Werewolf. Eventually, the relationship fizzled out and while she was in college she met the love of her life Tara who showed her a deep understanding of Love and Witchcraft. Eventually, Oz returned to the show and put Willow at a crossroad or at least he thought. Like most guys he assumed it was a phase but by the end of the ordeal, he understood. This was a very compelling character development at this time in television since there wasn't a lot of forward-thinking on tv. Lucky for us Joss Whedon was several steps ahead.  

 Batwoman had to make my list. She pre-dates Batgirl! A lot of people don’t even know that. That’s okay I don’t expect them to the character's original run wasn't very memorable. She was originally made to be a love interest for Batman because they were concerned that he was gay and Robin has his partner in more than just crime fighting. She ended play the damsel in distress one too many times. The character faded into obscurity in 1964.  Little spots here and there for a few decades. 2006 she returned in a big way with a red and black suit that was originally designed for bat girl and a more vicious style of fighting that always incorporated weapons. When it came to making the character a lesbian Dan DiDio executive editor and senior vice president of DC Comics said “ It was from conversations we’ve had for expanding the DC Universe, for looking at levels of diversity. We wanted to have a cast that is much more reflective of today’s society and even today’s fanbase. One of the reasons we made her gay is that again when you have the Batman Family—a series of characters that aren’t super-powered and inhabit the same circle and the same city—you really want to have a point of difference. It was really important to me to make sure every character felt unique”. and her adventures have been pretty awesome.

That where I will leave you today. One of the reasons I wanted to write this was to give everyone an idea of the little differences between us as a people.Also to point out that nerd culture has been way more progressive for the LGBT community than most sets even though there was a ban in place till the late 80’s to have it in comics.  What I'm trying to say is we need to learn how love each other despite our differences. GOD that sounded sappy here a pick of Steven Universe fan art. See ya next week .