What Does It Take For Straight Readers To Accept That A Character Is Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual?

[The_Greatest_Username]

Don't get me wrong, I like Fitz and Simmons together too. Nerd love is always great.
I just think it would be interesting if Fitz had an unrequited attraction to Mack.

[Darkspellmaster]

It's rare you have two nerds end up together. We have it on the Big bang theory which is nice, although the whole hot girl dating nerd guy is done there too, and I wouldn't mind the idea of nerdy girl getting the hot guy. I want fitz/simmons, although looks like we're going to get a Simmons/Fitz/Skye/Other inhuman who's name I can't think of right now triangle. Still I would be fine with Fitz/Mack if it was a possibility. If I like the characters I'd be happy with nerdy guy gets hot guy, or nerdy girl gets hot girl, or two nerds get each other. As long as it's shown well and written well. (Still wanted phil with the cello player.)

As for time frame. Here's the thing, I know it's sliding time scale, but any time the O5 show up I automatically think of the period they came from when they were first created, because of my association with the history of them. It's kind of hard not to see them from that time because that's kind of what's been drilled into our heads. I would have honestly preferred if prior to the whole lets do the time warp again with the X-men we had at least a few issues showing us their lives in the time they were pulled from. I kind of wonder, given most writers read them in the 60s and 70s if that's what they're thinking about when they write the characters.

[VolcanikTiger86]

If Colossus was gay, I think Kitty might need some sort of therapy. Come to think of it, it would be pretty hilarious.

I’m not sure because if the fans had their way, I could be mistaken but Kitty wouldn’t care because she would be too busy with her new girlfriend Illyana. I think it would be an interesting story so long as they had him address the relationship with Kitty because for a longtime it was a big one and then Gillian broke it off and Bendis put her with Star Lord.

Interestingly we did have a bisexual Pixie in the Runaways Secret Wars tie-in. Just a shame that they killed her off to make a point of how evil the school really was under the surface.

Really Dammit Marvel killing off possible story material, anyone know what the hell is up with Pixie post secret wars.

I'll bite, agreeing with VolcanikTiger86 in regard to Black Widow, Nico, Deadpool, Leo Fitz is up in the air for me, while I can see it, I can't...I guess it's partly because of TV show head injury and not sure of the Shield comic yet as I don't have enough, Jemma Simmons I can see, Pixie, X-23, Wonder Man as a possibility, Emma sure, oddly enough Havoc, Gambit, Maximus, Franklin Storm as a possibility...

Black Widow -Natasha strikes me as someone who isn't exactly one to be labeled. I think she would float, I guess never really saying exactly what she is.

Nico -I guess because of her personality and the way she treats others. Although if I did see her as Bi or gay I would probably see her as someone that is very exclusive in the relationship, very committed.

Deadpool -Given his personality, I can see him just enjoying whoever.

Of Fitz and Simmons -I can see Simmons more naturally leaning this way because she has a more openness about her and seems like the type of person who could fall deeply in love with someone not based on their gender

Pixie -As was said before she has the "I love you" ability which I think would let her feel for anyone.

X-23 -Pansexual maybe? I'm not sure I can kind of see it, but she doesn't strike me as the sort that really goes deeply into relationships due to her nature. Very loner like in her qualities.

Wonder Man -Something about him, I can't exactly explain it, but I can see him wanting to be with a man at some point. Probably the fact that he strikes me as someone that loves life and it's been shown that he doesn't have biased in regards to caring for people.

Emma -Her nature makes her an easy person to see sleeping with who she finds attractive, but only will commit if it's something that gives her what she desires.

Havoc -Personality, his nature, given the way he acts in a relationship and how he takes it, I can see him being more easily sleeping with a guy at points.

Gambit -We know how Remy feels about other people. We know that he's a lover of fine things and fine attractive people. I'm pretty sure if he found someone he was attracted too there wouldn't be much that would stop him from at least making out with them.

Franklin Storm -Right now he's a kid so, but how he was written in the MC2 and the way he views things, I can see him being gay if the writers went there.

Maximus -Like some of the others I don't know quiet what makes me think this way. Maybe it's something in the way the body language of the character shows things? Just something about him makes me go "Yeah I could see him working out if they made him gay."

Cool Points I forgot about Gambit though shame on me,

I'd accept Elektra as bi. She's really only had DD as a lover, and her trysts with Wolverine and Punisher were largely based on the aftermath of shared violence. I can see Elektra as someone who craves acceptance, which she's not ever going to get from DD. I'd introduce someone who is peripherally involved with her line of work, but isn't a killer. A person that makes Elektra feel like she has the capability to be more than an assassin.

I could see it

Regarding Fitz and Simmons, I remember an episode of AoS where Fitz's imaginary Simmons admires on Mack's physique and Fitz acknowledges that it's actually his own admiration for Mack's body. I honestly thought they were going to take a direction with Fitz where he might be gay or bi, but they didn't do anything with it.

I know the episode you mean it’s one of the reasons I included him on my list.

There's nothing wrong with admiring Mack's body. The guy's a sexy slab of beefcake.

As far as characters who could be LGBT: I'll throw out the curveball of Hank Pym. I don't mean that he is LGBT. I'm quite certain he's straight, and that he'll always be straight. But if a writer did decide to out him as bi, or even gay, I could definitely see it.

And of course, Storm should be outed as pansexual already. Just get it out there. Everyone knows it, so just make it official. Maybe make Psylocke officially bisexual, too - she and Mystique will be in Uncanny X-Men together, have them fool around with each other. As an added bonus, this would also mean that Mystique would finally engage in same-sex shenanigans on-panel.

About Psylocke I agree I think she would be pansexual as well as Storm, having to feel attracted to the person it would explain what happened with Cluster.

I haven't watched the show in quite some time, but if my memory serves, it does seem to go beyond that. Mack is ogled by fake-Simmons which is actually just a part of Fitz's subconscious so really it's Fitz ogling Mack. Not to mention he actually starts to value Mack more than he does Simmons for a time.
Though, gay people don't exist in the MCU, so I doubt they'll follow up on any of this.

Yep that’s what happened and they was a whole thing about him admitting that Simmons wasn’t real and he really no longer needed her. I think they should at the most introduce the Young Avengers into the MCU at some stage.

Threesome. Simmons would be totally down for that.

Mack and Fitz as bi and in a relationship with Simmons, I’m pretty down for that, I could try my best to enjoy the Mack/Fitz parts but hey why not.

It would definitely be a love triangle we don't see often and therefore interesting

Whoever mentioned anything about a love triangle, I could be wrong but I think it was a poly relationship he was talking about.

Side question about Bobby that really has not much to do with his status except I keep seeing posts even in this thread that young Bobby is from a time when homosexuality wasn't openly discussed but with the sliding scale he is from the early 2000's especially with the ASM thirteen years ago for Peter Parker's origin. It wasn't the taboo then it was in the sixties but posters are acting like they came from then instead of the early twenty first century so it's confusing

More than likely because of the sliding time scale its just confusing try to figure everything out. Trying to get ages for most of the characters, but even in the 2000’s I think some people still think its as taboo basing on factors like homelife, parents beliefs, what you think is excepted etc so some people may still struggle to come out because of it I would like to think it’s better than it was in the 1960’s but how much is open to debate.

Bobbie, Mack, Fitz, and Simmons would make an excellent love rectangle. I ship them all, so it's clouding my judgement.

NOOO I’m at work dammit I shouldn’t have those images in my head. 

It's rare you have two nerds end up together. We have it on the Big bang theory which is nice, although the whole hot girl dating nerd guy is done there too, and I wouldn't mind the idea of nerdy girl getting the hot guy. I want fitz/simmons, although looks like we're going to get a Simmons/Fitz/Skye/Other inhuman who's name I can't think of right now triangle. Still I would be fine with Fitz/Mack if it was a possibility. If I like the characters I'd be happy with nerdy guy gets hot guy, or nerdy girl gets hot girl, or two nerds get each other. As long as it's shown well and written well. (Still wanted phil with the cello player.)

So many characters so many relationships would it be wrong for me to want a full poly not that it would ever happen on the show but dammit I like too many of them it makes picking my OTP really hard.

As for time frame. Here's the thing, I know it's sliding time scale, but any time the O5 show up I automatically think of the period they came from when they were first created, because of my association with the history of them. It's kind of hard not to see them from that time because that's kind of what's been drilled into our heads. I would have honestly preferred if prior to the whole lets do the time warp again with the X-men we had at least a few issues showing us their lives in the time they were pulled from. I kind of wonder, given most writers read them in the 60s and 70s if that's what they're thinking about when they write the characters.

I would be interested in the reply myself but I doubt they will mention it because that might **** the whole timeline up what with the aging.

[Darkspellmaster]

That's another thing I think you have to take into consideration about the character in question regarding the idea of acceptance, how old the character is in regard to what's presented on the page. If we take two characters as examples about this you can say that age does factor into how readers view a character and how easy or hard it is to see the change in the character as far as believable.

Nathan "Cable" Summers for example is seen as a very mature figure, age wise he falls into his late 30s I think, and we've seen him behave as such. He's wiser then he appears in most cases, can handle raising a child and has been shown to be able to handle the crazieness of Deadpool. The fact that we as reader can see a mature adult figure here in regard to how he acts and looks can, I think in some cases, make it easier to believe the character is LBGT.

On the opposite end of things, you have Deadpool. We know Wade is a lot older then he acts, but the thing is that his goofiness makes it hard to take anything seriously. While I can see him dabbling in whatever he finds fun, as far as if it can hold water in the long run, I think not because Deadpool is way to weird of a person to take anything seriously. If someone were to say "I think you're gay" to him, I think he would laugh about it and just act like himself, so we as readers couldn't take him seriously because he wouldn't be able to be honest about various aspects of this. Younger characters I think fall into this too, because they're not at that age where we can rely on them to be sure of how they feel as they may be teens or in their early twenties.

I think the more mature and direct the character is in facing the situation the more we as readers can get behind something, because it's not a flip flop feeling from the writer at that point and it makes it more solidified.

[Kieran_Frost]

It's rare you have two nerds end up together. We have it on the Big bang theory which is nice, although the whole hot girl dating nerd guy is done there too, and I wouldn't mind the idea of nerdy girl getting the hot guy.

The Big Bang Theory is still guilty of all the women being vastly more attractive than the guys. Even the "nerd" girls have rockin' bodies (unlike the guys, who are getting fatter and less toned each season).

Wesley and Fred are the only "two nerds" couple I can think of, and even by then Wesley was moving into "sexy ambiguous hunter" territory.

[Awwwvenger]

American TV is a fantasy land of unreasonably beautiful people. If you want average-looking actors, news anchors, etc., you have to watch British or non-English-language TV.

[Kurolegacy]

Really Dammit Marvel killing off possible story material, anyone know what the hell is up with Pixie post secret wars.

Yea apparently she and Jubilee used to date at some point before the start of the series and she showed an interest in Tyrone (Dagger) mentioning that she isn't just into girls. Though we know about as much is going on with Pixie post-Secret Wars as we do any of the Young X-Men so your guess is as good as mine.

[Darth Kal-el]

Simmons may be a nerd but she is one of the most attractive women on the show

[John Ossie]

Don't get me wrong, I like Fitz and Simmons together too. Nerd love is always great.
I just think it would be interesting if Fitz had an unrequited attraction to Mack.

Simmons seemed to have a bit of a crush on Mockingbird as well.

Simmons may be a nerd but she is one of the most attractive women on the show

Of course she is. It's TV they're not going to have an ugly girl on tv LOL.

[hulivar]

I'm straight and I really don't care. For some reason what comes to mind is the comic 'Loopers'. After reading a few issues of this, I finally read the comments on the back page. Had I not read the back page comments, I would never have known that the comics was about gay love being accepted by society and what not...I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing on my part though?

I mean...it's just sex and who you find attractive man...just write it the same way you would write straight people sexuality imo.

What turns me off, is when it seems forced, or seems awkward for whatever reason...like "we need to make this character gay because we don't have enough gay characters at the moment"

I understand all the stereotypes and what not, but I hate how creators feel forced to include gay characters, or black characters, etc. Comic creators should just write what they want to write about, end of. If there isn't enough black character or gay characters, then perhaps there should be more gay artists/black artists. Or maybe their is and I don't know??? I'm just assuming there isn't that many, but don't crucify me cause I could be wrong

[Blue Reloaded]

Simmons may be a nerd but she is one of the most attractive women on the show

The two are not independently exclusive from each other. Some of the best programmers at my job are also the most attractive.