Judge Dredd may be gay, wrers ht | Comics and graphic novels | The Guardian

Contents:

• COMICS CORNER – THAT TIME JUDGE DREDD WAS GAY (KDA)
• IS JUDGE DREDD GAY?
• JUDGE DREDD IC WRERS SAY THAT HE ‘ULD BE GAY’
• JUDGE DREDD... IS GAY?
• JUDGE DREDD MAY BE GAY, WRERS HT

COMICS CORNER – THAT TIME JUDGE DREDD WAS GAY (KDA)

Back 2013, also looked like the law might be gay. On the n up to the release of Prog 1817 of 2000AD – for the uniated, “Prog” is what the publitn lls “issu”, one of many bs of unique lgo that are associated wh the ic – Brish mastream media was swept up wh reports that Dredd would be revealed as gay a one-shot story ftgly-tled ‘Closet’, wrten by Rob Williams and wh art by Mike Dowlg.

IS JUDGE DREDD GAY?

Many outlets ran wh the same image at the top of this article, released by 2000AD publisher Rebelln to build hype for the story – Dredd grabbg a man and kissg him, while his ner monologue reflects on how he’d always known he was gay, but been “too sred to adm ”.

JUDGE DREDD IC WRERS SAY THAT HE ‘ULD BE GAY’

At a cursory glance, Dredd fs many of the tras of a closeted gay man – emotnally stunted, throws themselv to their work, never discs their private life, has a penchant for leather and uniforms. Visually, much of Judge Dredd as a character is already gay-d. Right-wg voic onle were aghast that this paragon of manls might be revealed as one of those dastardly homosexuals, and raged at how the story was jt to appease leftie liberals.

JUDGE DREDD... IS GAY?

At the time, wrer Williams even told The Guardian that Dredd “may well be gay, straight or bi” but that any attractn was subsumed by his votn to the law.

Sure, Dredd uld be gay.

In realy, ‘Closet’ followed a young man named Taylor Cook, and the now-famo kiss took place at a nightclub phemistilly lled “Dredd’s Daystick”, where gay men drsed as the Judg of Mega-Cy One, scribed as “a secret unrground club spired by the most macho man drsed leather and a helmet this cy had ever seen”.

JUDGE DREDD MAY BE GAY, WRERS HT

The story self is actually oddly sweet plac, or perhaps btersweet, wh Taylor reuntg his difficulty wh g to terms wh his own sexualy, and facg up to his abive, homophobic father. From the re theme of s patrons role-playg as Judg – a nod to real world uniform and leather bars emergg as plac where gay men uld explore a form of masculy that society nied them – to a panel of two men walkg to a dark room lled the “Hall of Jt Us” (a play on the Grand Hall of Jtice where the Judg le om), don’t shy away om the sexual nature of such venu.

While there’s a ht of posivy to the ncln, wh Taylor refg to n om his arrt or his gayns, stead silently vowg to be “out” more ways than one once he’s served his time, the story also rais qutns about the kd of reprentatn we want to see mastream media. That ellipsis do a lot of heavy liftg, a momentary eeze as the jack-booted lawman dodg directly addrsg the very obvly homosexual party his forc had terpted, patg the ia as anathema to his sensibili. So y, had Judge Dredd himself been revealed as gay, would certaly have been a major moment for gay reprentatn ics and wir media – the qutn is, would we have wanted him as one of “ours”?