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

[krazijoe]

Stupid polls wasn't an answer...

[skyvolt2000]

I don't go around asking about anyone's sexual preferences. Of course one assumes what their preferences are if they are married or in a relationship. But we can't always make assumptions about that. It's none of my business to ask or care about it. A character's sexuality is of little interest to me unless it's an important part of the story.

Everybody says that until the character actually shows up or gets added to a team.

The moment he or she says that they are gay-it's a problem for them to be in the book or the moment when you show their private life.

Prodigy, Teddy & Billy can be in a book and never have their sexuality show and folks will still cry agenda.

[CaptCleghorn]

The word "puppy" needs to be in the title of the story.

Seriously, for me it varies by character. Context, is it a homosexual action, or does the character have homosexual feelings? Do I believe that although 50+ years of stories have shown NO LGBT feelings, the character isn't straight?

I believe that Bizarre Adventures 25 pegs Misty Knight as a straight woman despite her actions in the story.
I accept that Johnny Storm and lil' Wolvie might have gotten together and Johnny may have a Kinsey Score > 0 (not much more, mind you).

Actually there aren't any cases in Marvel I disagree with, but then again, I'm not real familiar with a lot of them. But I will handle them on a case by case basis.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

I said in the Storm is Bi thread, I'll say it here. There is enough porn to show that this isn't the case.

To be fair porn performers are payed money to have sex with people of the same gender, hence the term "gay4pay". I don't know of any time that characters have been shown having sex with someone for any reason other than wanting to have sex with the person. Daken has used sex to manipulate people but they've also made it clear that Daken is bi.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

The word "puppy" needs to be in the title of the story.

Lol, I just got your joke.

[judaspaladin]

If a character is outright stated to be LGBT early on or hinted to be be throughout thier history I'm fine with it. I like Wicca and Hulkling, I like Karma -wish marvel would do more with her-, and considering Hercules is bi in Greek mythology I'd approve him being likewise in his upcoming series.

The retcon of Iceman's sexuality after half a century of being written as heterosexual is just plain stupid.

[Kieran_Frost]

I'd like to think that it shouldnt matter, and if the character/writter confirms it in context, so be it. However there are still too many ignorant closed minded people out there who will always make an issue out of it.

Very true; and ultimately most of the controversy (I believe) stems from this. The vast majority just don't care/mind (and therefore won't hound thread after thread objecting to it).

[Greg]

If people can come out as gay after everyone assuming they're straight for years and there wasn't much "hint" to it; they've had hetero relations and may even have children, I can believe a character in a book can come out without much hints. Not every member of the LGBTQ have the same experience and there's no right experience to have that should be showcased. Some people in reality it's obvious due to certain situations or "hints." Some there aren't at all.

[CaptCleghorn]

Very true; and ultimately most of the controversy (I believe) stems from this. The vast majority just don't care/mind (and therefore won't hound thread after thread objecting to it).

I think we need to be careful not to confuse what are two separate issues. Not wanting LGBT characters is, IMO, a very closed-minded stand. However, not thinking a character who has been portrayed historically as straight is not gay or bi is something else altogether. Accepting Wiccan and Hulkling is one thing, and very different from thinking outing Matt Murdock would be a bad story development.

[Lindsey]

I don't read superhero stories for a characters sexuality, I read them for fun, entertaining stories. If the character I enjoy reading happens to be straight, gay, lesbian or other...I don't really care. Just like I don't care about their religious or political beliefs.

Just tell me interesting, well thought out stories and I won't have a problem at all.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

Imagine if there's a character that has been around for a few years and was never shown being attracted to anyone, never shown having a girlfriend or boyfriend, never involved with anything sexual. If that character was then later revealed to be gay then there would still be certain people complaining about there never being any "signs" of the character being gay. This is basically what happened with Robert Kirkman and his Walking Dead character Paul Monroe, he eventually revealed that Paul is gay and some people instantly started accusing him of "shoving the gay agenda down their throats."

I recently read online about a European mystery novel called "The Swede". It features a main character that is bisexual and when it started selling in North America people started complaining that there was no "warnings" about the main character being attracted to men. They didn't know that the main character in the novel they bought wasn't straight and apparently they felt cheated into buying an "LGBT book." Unfortunately there are still too many people that think a story that has a gay/lesbian/bi protagonist automatically means that it's a "gay story."

[AntoninoC]

I don't read superhero stories for a characters sexuality, I read them for fun, entertaining stories. If the character I enjoy reading happens to be straight, gay, lesbian or other...I don't really care. Just like I don't care about their religious or political beliefs.

Just tell me interesting, well thought out stories and I won't have a problem at all.

Where's the "like" button....

[DDD]

Imagine if there's a character that has been around for a few years and was never shown being attracted to anyone, never shown having a girlfriend or boyfriend, never involved with anything sexual. If that character was then later revealed to be gay then there would still be certain people complaining about there never being any "signs" of the character being gay. This is basically what happened with Robert Kirkman and his Walking Dead character Paul Monroe, he eventually revealed that Paul is gay and some people instantly started accusing him of "shoving the gay agenda down their throats."

Not me. That's fine because it isn't contradictory. If a character detail is altered, then I want an explanation. It's like you can't have Lisa being fascinated with Hollywood gossip one episode of the Simpsons for no reason.

[Ascended]

If people can come out as gay after everyone assuming they're straight for years and there wasn't much "hint" to it; they've had hetero relations and may even have children, I can believe a character in a book can come out without much hints. Not every member of the LGBTQ have the same experience and there's no right experience to have that should be showcased. Some people in reality it's obvious due to certain situations or "hints." Some there aren't at all.

This reminded me of a guy I knew in high school. I was friends with his brother and we all hung out a lot. They were hunters and fishermen and trappers, and while this brother was a huge nerd and computer geek (we got along quite well) he was still into all the "macho" stuff. Years later, he finally came out of the closet and it completely floored all of us. He had never given any "hints" of being gay in any way whatsoever. So yeah, sometimes that's how it goes down. And Im not judging that. It must be hard coming to grips with something like that, especially back in the day when homosexuality wasnt nearly as accepted as it is today.

But with comics, we can see inside their heads. We read their thoughts. And as my old English professor used to say, in literature there is no evidence but what is on the page. So, again just to use Iceman as an example.....we have fifty years where he's straight, and old Iceman is still straight, but out of the blue, with no foreshadowing at all, teen Iceman is suddenly gay (this also annoys me because it feels to me like Bendis is saying sexuality is a choice; like teen Bobby decided to be gay while his older self remains straight. It makes no sense, and we're talking about a time travel story about super powered mutants). He's not a real person, he's a fictional construct. I have no issue with Bobby being made gay despite fifty years of continuity, what I take issue with is Bendis' crap job handling it. Because unlike real life, there aren't a lot of hidden facets to these characters; you can read between the lines a little bit, but basically, what you see is what you get. He could, and should, have handled it with more subtlety and care.

[Tiamatty]

To be fair porn performers are payed money to have sex with people of the same gender, hence the term "gay4pay". I don't know of any time that characters have been shown having sex with someone for any reason other than wanting to have sex with the person. Daken has used sex to manipulate people but they've also made it clear that Daken is bi.

Gay for Pay doesn't apply to these characters. But Straight With An Exception is a thing, so I tend to think characters like Psylocke fall under that.

If a character is outright stated to be LGBT early on or hinted to be be throughout thier history I'm fine with it. I like Wicca and Hulkling, I like Karma -wish marvel would do more with her-, and considering Hercules is bi in Greek mythology I'd approve him being likewise in his upcoming series.

The retcon of Iceman's sexuality after half a century of being written as heterosexual is just plain stupid.

Actually, Karma didn't have much hinting at it before it happened. In New Mutants, she just plain didn't show much romantic or sexual interest in anyone. She cameo'd in an issue of X-Force that kinda-sorta hinted at it, but it was extremely vague - honestly, barely even a hint. And then Claremont used her in a Kitty Pryde mini, and just about outed her. With Karma, it was less a matter of there being previous hints, and more a result of, well, why not? There were no hints that she was straight, so they decided to make her gay, 15 years after she'd debuted.