The "retroactively making old DC characters gay/bi/biracial" thread

[Assam]

Btw LoSH has Element Lad too, who is bisexual male, and his partner Shvaughn/Sean who can shift between both male and female.

I'm aware, although in a modern context, given his world views, I think Jan being Pan would make more sense.

I'm surprised the 00's animated show didn't boost their popularity much.

I'm not. I've met a few people who got into the comics from it, but on the whole its inconsistent quality and its airing on Kids WB meant it didn't grab as much of an audience as Teen Titans or the DCAU.

I don't know why people thought they were in danger, its completely asinine.

Its just insecure straight white males being insecure straight white males.

[TheCape]

Well, to be honest, i don't have a horse in this race becuase characthers with long stablished romances (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wally West and some others) that had a lot of importance in their stories would never change in that regard, they could make some of then bi wich i wouldn't mind, even if they don't really fit with their stablised stories, but i think that we can give then a pass, if a writter wants to explore it.

Of course, i wouldn't really mind if they made some of the old member of the JSA like Dr Midnite or Mr Terrific gay, because they don't really have long and important relationships with any women (in a romantic sense) so i'm all in for it.

That being said, i'm far more interested on seeing one of this old characthers as Asexual, it sounds more intriging for me, personally speaking .

[BatmanJones]

So, are you then saying that if a character in 70+ years of stories is assumed to be straight, then a writer who wasn't even born when the character was first created decides to make that character gay in stories he writes, then that character will always have to be depicted as gay in any future stories by any other writers?

That's exactly what I'm saying and I explained in my last post that no person goes from gay to straight but many people go from straight to gay. What you leave out of your argument or don't acknowledge in mine is that during the vast majority of those 70 years no character could be gay. So there's no such thing as "intending" to make a character straight since there was never any other option.

My whole point of asking this specific question is because there are people here that seem to feel that since New52's Earth 2 Alan Scott was gay, a returning (if/when that ever happens) Golden Age Original Alan Scott should now also be depicted as gay, something I do not feel is a necessary change for the original Golden Age version.(I wasn't necessarily thrilled with that for the New52 Earth 2 version, but since that was supposedly a different character, it didn't bother me as much as retroactively changing the original Golden Age one would have.)

This is an entirely different argument. There are two different Alan Scott's and we all know that. I've already said there's no need for Golden Age Alan Scott to be gay because he never was. It's not a case of removing Alan Scott's sexuality as portrayed in E-2. That was a different character. I've repeatedly said it makes a lot of sense for actual Golden Age characters to come out of the closet but not necessarily Alan Scott because GA Alan Scott has never been portrayed as gay.

[BatmanJones]

I don't know why people thought they were in danger, its completely asinine.

It's a lot like the "war on Christmas" or the 'epidemic' of flag-burning. Straw man.

[BatmanJones]

To paraphrase the old adage "when the minority starts to receive the same rights as everybody else, equality begins to feel like oppression to the majority."

Exactly. Thank you.

[MajorHoy]

Besides this double standard being the reason there are far more female LGBT characters than males, Classic Salu and Ayla have basically been written as a couple since the mid-late 80's, being so blatant that I have to imagine the only people who couldn't see what was on the page were the ones who didn't want to.

I don't really remember that relationship between the two prior to the "Five Years Later . . ." jump in 1989.
(Buts it's been a few decades since I last re-read those issues.)

[BatmanJones]

Its just insecure straight white males being insecure straight white males.

For the most part, yeah. And I say that as an (otherwise insecure) straight white male that just happens to favor inclusion over exclusion. I'm not insecure about representation in comics though because I'm well aware people like me (hetero white male) will always be over-represented in comics and all others remain badly under-represented.

[KC]

There is NO danger of straight white male heroes going away. Some of them will always have fans.

Has anyone in this thread said that they object to this because it will reduce the amount of straight white male heroes? That is not the part of this topic that some fans are taking issue with.

[Ascended]

Has anyone in this thread said that they object to this because it will reduce the amount of straight white male heroes? That is not the part of this topic that some fans are taking issue with.

No, no one has said that at all. This is just about rebooting, really, and if tweaking the continuity in the name of added representation is a price that should be paid.

[Ascended]

Its just insecure straight white males being insecure straight white males.

Damned insecure white males with their inadvertent racism and casual misogyny!

*edited to make the intended light-hearted tone of the post more clear by adding that badass smiley face*

[Assam]

Damned insecure white males with their inadvertent racism and casual misogyny!

Did I specify you? No. Did I say "ALL straight white males?" No. If you're not guilty of what we're talking about, you shouldn't be offended.

[Ascended]

Did I specify you? No. Did I say "ALL straight white males?" No. If you're not guilty of what we're talking about, you shouldn't be offended.

??

I'm not sure why you got the impression I was offended. Sh*t man, that was a joke. Sorry, sometimes what I mean to say gets lost in the text.

Did anyone else get their wires crossed by my post? Maybe I need to go put a smiley face in there so there's no confusion.

EDIT: there we go. Smiley face should help make my intention clear. Sorry for any miscommunication folks!

[Assam]

??

I'm not sure why you got the impression I was offended. Sh*t man, that was a joke.

Did anyone else get their wires crossed by my post? Maybe I need to go put a smiley face in there so there's no confusion.

Apologies for any misunderstanding, but it read to me as if you were making fun of the idea of people being racist and misogynistic. Not really sure what joke you were going for.

Also, not a man.

[Ascended]

Apologies for any misunderstanding, but it read to me as if you were making fun of the idea of people being racist and misogynistic. Not really sure what joke you were going for.

No need to apologize. Like I said in the edit, sometimes my humor doesn't quite translate through text. Actually, sometimes my humor is just off anyway.

And....if I have to explain the comment, it defeats the purpose. Either it was just a bad joke (hey, they can't all be zingers!) or you just missed it. You didn't miss much in any case.

[MajorHoy]

??

I'm not sure why you got the impression I was offended. Sh*t man, that was a joke. Sorry, sometimes what I mean to say gets lost in the text.

Did anyone else get their wires crossed by my post? Maybe I need to go put a smiley face in there so there's no confusion.

I had assumed you were being facetious even pre-winky-smiley.

But then again, people would probably label me as an "insecure white male" if they weren't using more . . . strenuous and "colorful" terms (which they definitely had been doing in other threads on similar scenarios).