DC Stargirl sts Tim Gabriel as gay character Todd Rice for season 3

Contents:

• HOW DC REEMED THEIR FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO
• DC FALLY STS GAY GREEN LANTERN — BUT RAIS NEW QUTNS
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• DC FAC SEVERE BACKLASH AFTER TRODUCG GAY ROB
• WHO IS DC'S NEW GAY CHARACTER?
• DC STARGIRL STS TIM GABRIEL AS GAY CHARACTER TODD RICE FOR SEASON 3
• MARVEL ANNOUNC FIRST GAY CAPTA AMERI

HOW DC REEMED THEIR FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO

In addn to havg several gay and bisexual characters, the Secret Six was among the first mastream ics to have a non-bary character (though a gimmicky one). The Comics Co Authory explicly forba pictn of homosexualy until 1989, fluenced by Fredric Wertham's Sctn of the Innocent, who saw homosexual elements the relatnship between Batman and his ward Rob.

Millennium #2 was not the first appearance of homosexual characters DC Comics, however, is the first time we have seen an openly gay character at DC Comics. Carver Colman, an actor who was known for portrayg the fictnal tective Nathaniel Dk, me out to the public the 1950s and beme an LGBT rights activist, beg stmental gettg homosexualy removed om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs 1973.

[46] Later versns of Stt, cludg his post-Flashpot eratn, portray him as a gay man, jt like his son Obsidian, havg been his ma relatnship wh Jimmy Henton. Jericho, although his creators have cid not to prent him as homosexual bee his sensivy would make him stereotyped, [50] was revealed to be so at the Convergence event, [51][52] which retroactively mak him the first gay Tan. Pied Piper was the first super-villa to reveal that he is gay, although when he did he was already a reformed vigilante, havg bee a good iend and ally of Flash (Wally Wt).

DC FALLY STS GAY GREEN LANTERN — BUT RAIS NEW QUTNS

[64] Prr to this, his Earth-0 eratn was the first one to be revealed to be gay, [65] and he subsequently entered to a romantic relatnship wh JLA engeer Xenos. The vlent gay bashg the "Hate Crime" arc agast Terry Berg, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's art assistant and for whom he harbored a csh, was notable, havg even been stamped on the ver of the issue. We’ve put together this list to troduce some of the most fluential gay superhero, rangg om groundbreakg figur like Marvel’s Northstar to characters like Harley Qun who only me out the past few 12 most inic gay superhero1) Wonr WomanDiana of Themyscira has a long and storied history as a queer in.

(CC-BY-SA)2) MidnighterPossibly the bt-known gay superhero ic book circl, Midnighter was created as a parody of Batman, startg off the adult-rated Wildstorm ic Stormwatch. Thanks to the X-Men ics’ love of time travel hijks, there are actually two versns of this character at the moment: A teenage Iceman who realized he was gay after Jean Grey read his md, and an adult versn who stayed the closet and dated women for years, but me out after beg nonted by his younger self.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

The recent Iceman solo seri foced on his life after this revelatn, earng a mixed rponse bee while ’s great to see a gay character gettg their own ic, his emotnal arc is a rather old-fashned g-out story. She first appeared as Batman’s love tert the 1950s, shortly after the publitn of Sctn of the Innocent, a book that acced Batman of homosexual propaganda.

In recent years she was rewrten to be gay herself, a ntroversial cisn that led to some problems of s her ic’s creators wanted her to marry her girliend, DC nixed the cisn by sayg hero “shouldn’t have happy personal liv, ” a dub statement that sounds pretty ridiculo the ntext of, say, Superman.

DC FAC SEVERE BACKLASH AFTER TRODUCG GAY ROB

Whout makg a big fs about , Tans nfirmed that Mercy is ed queer and she has a fay—which is a HUGE relief to *this* Tans fan who has been sperately wag for some gay sh to happen for two seasons already!! Steve Orlando wanted to brg back Gregor for a new generatn of rears, lettg them see a gay character live and love their own way that wasn't a bad joke.

One of the origal X-Men, Bobby Drake is probably one of the most high-profile hero to e out recent is easier for publishers to make queer characters si-characters or one-offs, makg Iceman gay was a huge shift for ics. Not only did the character have a history on the screen, but when to the X-Men, Iceman is one of the stars who will no doubt appear Marvel tl until the day when Marvel shuts he hasn't been onscreen sce he me out officially, if the character do appear the future, makg him anythg but gay would fely e an uproar. When to queer ic book characters, one of the first and most important was Northstar, who was the first character a Marvel ic to e out as gay "Alpha Flight" #106 (1992) then, the mutant superhero has had a sttered rerd of appearg the ics, but 2012 ma history once aga by beg part of the first gay weddg Marvel ics history.

WHO IS DC'S NEW GAY CHARACTER?

After weeks of reports, HBO Max has officially filled the role of Alan Stt, the origal Green Lantern of Earth who me out as gay the pag of DC Comics, for the upg Lantern seri om Arrowverse archect Greg Berlanti. Irve has proven himself to be an imprsive actor, though 's hard to divorce his portrayal of a famo gay ics hero om that wily loathed movie, which he played a gay man the midst of the most well-known moment the Amerin LGBTQ rights movement.

In one particular terview wh BuzzFeed, the filmmaker said, "You have to unrstand one thg: I didn't make this movie only for gay people, I ma also for straight people. Wilson/Getty Imag; DC Comics Irve's stg as Danny — and now also Alan — further speaks to the ongog nversatn still happeng Hollywood about straight actors takg on gay rol. "It's unrstandg what the stggl have been, why there's a mp that says gay characters should only be played by gay people vers the mp that says actors should be able to mimic or bee who their character is.

The producer, an out gay man who's brought some of the most proment LGBTQ pictns to the superhero TV space, has a proven track rerd when to stg that shouldn't be dismissed. Openly gay and lear of the Alpha Squadron, he was recently promoted to the New X-Men squad before was disband and is currently a member of the Young X-Men. Debutg 1992 and starrg gay voice actor Kev Conroy, Batman: The Animated Seri was jt one of many ic-based rtoons hopg to break the nventnal kids’ show formulas.

DC STARGIRL STS TIM GABRIEL AS GAY CHARACTER TODD RICE FOR SEASON 3

Startg as Static’s lightfully nerdy IT guy and eventually evolvg to the hyper-telligent superhero Gear, his late creator Dwayne McDuffie tablished the character as gay (via MiltoneWorld - warng: triggerg language the ments). Addnally, unlike the ics, where Rick’s outg ially me wh some unfortable homophobia on Static’s end, the show, Richie and Static proved to be bt iends who always had each other’s back both and out of stume.

MARVEL ANNOUNC FIRST GAY CAPTA AMERI

Thgs slowly began changg as old norms were st asi, allowg both publishers to troduce gay characters and better reprent the full spectm of sexualy and genr. In honor of openly gay and openly badass superhero Midnighter gettg his own seri this month -- which jt so happens to ci wh LGBT Pri Month -- DC Comics tak a look at how me out of the closet, p blazg.

But as The Advote's Jase Peepl puts , "one uld argue that bee was forbidn for the character to be openly gay, the only way for a wrer to nvey that a character's sexualy was anythg other than straight was for him to f to stereotyp that rears uld unrstand. " No matter how broad or offensive those stereotyp ntued to make stris, however, troducg a number of mor and supportg characters, then 1991 Pied-Piper beme the first openly gay DC af -- and by the looks of , lor-bld -- Pied Piper received special implants which allowed him to hear, makg him obssed wh sound. DC then attempted to make amends by hirg an openly gay wrer to take over the this time, DC troduced an alternate, gay versn of Alan Stt, aka Green Lantern, Earth ath of Stt's boyiend Sam a tra accint precipated his transformatn to Green Lantern and Stt ed the rg he had proposed to Sam wh to harns his ntued to troduce lbian, gay, bisexual and fally a transgenr character, Batgirl's roommate Alysia Yeoh.

Whether is bee their stori revolve around their genr and sexualy — and the stggle that om this — or bee they're jt superhero that happen to be gay, the characters expand on the Arrowverse diversy.

Wh DC Comics announcement of the reveal of an tablished, inic character as gay this June igng bate and njecture across the web, CBR weighs wh our theori on who may be g out the New 52. The only tails fans have managed to glean om DC Entertament senr vice print of publicy Courtney Simmons, who revealed the character is "major, " "inic" and male, followg the weekend revelatn by DC Co-Publisher Dan DiD that a character who was heterosexual prr the New 52 relnch will bee "one of our most proment gay characters. " While "Batman" wrer Stt Snyr -- who clarified on Twter that 's not Bce Wayne -- emphasized the quote "a character not seen sce the relnch will e out as gay, " many of the statements ma by DC so far seem purposefully ambiguo, beggg the qutn, what do words like "major, " "inic" and "not seen sce the relnch" actually mean?

Here's the thg: DC might have some trepidatn about a villa as malicly twisted as the Joker beg at the center of such a high profile outg -- pecially durg Lbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trangenr Pri Month. It may be a pafully obv choice for DC to create a homosexual Earth 2 versn of one of the many inic, major characters not seen sce the New 52 relnch, but would also totally f the publisher's creria to troduce, for example, a gay Batman Earth 2 Dick Grayson.

However, fans seem to be expectg Alan Stt (Green Lantern) to be revealed as gay, and sce the "Send Wave" of the New 52 lnched wh "Earth 2, " the tle has had some ser fan tert, makg a gay Earth 2 character a high-profile al. Northstar was the first gay character to e out a Marvel ic book and was part of the first same-sex weddg a mastream ic when he married his hband 2012. The show stars Matt Bomer and Matthew Z as Larry Traor/Negative Man, a gay superhero, and the genrqueer Danny The Street (later Danny The Brick and Danny The Ambulance) they/them pronouns and provis a home for people shunned by society.

So far there have been three bisexual characters (Jericho, Gar Logan, and Tim Drake) troduced, one lbian character (Mercy Grav), one gay character (Larry), and four unlabeled characters (Koriand'r, Molly Jensen, Bernard Fzmart and Ga). Jackson - a fan-favore character sce his simultaneo but DC ic books and on the Young Jtice animated seri - has bee somewhat emblematic of the rise of characters wh queer inti morn ic books, now g full circle to the role of Aquaman as one of DC's most unique legacy Stt(Image cred: DC)The origal Green Lantern Alan Stt has been ic books sce 1940, but 's only been sce 2012 that he's been out as a gay man.

Intertgly, Alan Stt's son Obsidian has been out as a gay man sce 2004, beatg his dad to the punch and reflectg a rare, but very real experience shared by many rears who have multiple fay members - even parents - who are (Image cred: Marvel Comics)Beg magil nature has lent Loki the abily to take on many different forms and those forms display many different forms of attractn. Northstar(Image cred: Marvel Comics)Jean-Pl Bebier buted 1979 at a time when both the Comics Co Authory and Marvel's edor--chief Jim Shooter were opposed to openly gay characters, acrdg to thor Shirrel Rhoas 2008's A Complete History of Amerin Comic Books.

Creator John Byrne has explaed that Northstar was wrten as gay om the get-go, "even if I would never be allowed to say so many words the ics themselv. "Dpe not utterg the words "I am gay" until 1992's Alpha Flight #106, Northstar has long been accepted by X-Men fans and ic book fans at large who picked up Byrne's nods as one of the first nonilly gay superhero sce his ceptn. Endurg Civil Wars, Secret Invasns, Origal Ss and every event between, openly-gay wrer Allan Heberg created the pair 2005's Young Avengers #1 and remd rears that Marvel's "world outsi your wdow" clud more than jt the fns of love that had been portrayed to that two also enabled other wrers to create more realistic portrayals of sexualy their team books as evinced by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers volume that also featured queer characters Miss Ameri, Prodigy, and Loki.

Inially rejected by the Jtice League, Coagula found a home wh the Doom Patrol, though she's rarely been seen recent (Image cred: Marvel Comics)In 2015’s All-New X-Men #40, the younger Bobby Drake was psychilly outed as homosexual by Jean Grey, retroactively makg the foundg member of the X-Men Marvel's hight-profile queer mutant. While Jean Grey's vasn of Bobby's privacy was problematic bee he did not choose to e out on his own, makg one of Marvel's olst characters gay is notable the way ream past and future stori. Midnighter and Apollo(Image cred: DC Comics)Created as analogs of Batman and Superman, Apollo and Midnighter were among the first openly gay superhero ic books and were certaly the most visible gay superhero uple the late '90s and early '00s.

Especially key moments for superhero brought upon by DC's The New 52, the revamp and relnch of DC's entire list of ics late summer 2011, and the further character and story velopment of Marvel's first openly gay superhero. Wh New York Comic Con this weekend, there is no better time for a tch-up ssn wh some of your favor (and maybe new favor) om the world of gay 's Batwoman Kathy Kane has been around sce the 1950s on and off, but she did not make as big of an impact as she did 2006 when she was brought back om ic book limbo and retroduced as Kate Kane; wh a edgier look and openly gay (makg her the hight profile gay superhero om DC).