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DC FAC SEVERE BACKLASH AFTER TRODUCG GAY ROB
More than 80 years sce he was first troduced to rears, and after s of homoerotic subtext wh his pann Batman, ics’ most tsty sikick Rob has nonilly e out as a cliffhanger endg to DC’s latt issue of Batman: Urban Legends, the current eratn of the Boy Wonr, Tim Drake, is shown acceptg a date vatn om his iend Bernard, havg jt rcued him om a villa while disguise as Rob. Former Batman ic wrer Grant Morrison even told Playboy magaze that “gayns is built to Batman. In March, Marvel unveiled their first gay Capta Ameri character — a queer youth advote named Aaron Fischer — to be clud the upg “Uned Stat of Capta Ameri” ic book miseri.
The list of superhero accintally or liberately d as queer who have never nonilly been brought out of the closet bee of homophobia is long and prsg. But wa, I n hear the ments already: So now Tim is jt The Rob Who Is Gay?
Tim Drake’s story speaks to what advot for diversy n fet and homophob would rather ignore: There are legimate reasons to give a long-standg straight character a g-out story beyond “more diversy is more. Acrdg to a ep-dive to the topic by Slate, an anti-ics psychiatrist even ttified before a Senate Submtee on Juvenile Delquency 1954, slammg the Batman ics as “a wish-dream of two homosexuals livg together. ” Ocsnally, Batman ic wrers seemed to slyly embrace the ia of Rob beg gay, even as DC Comics officially mataed the character was straight.