IN YOUR FACE JAM: Marvel, DC and the Current State of LGBT Superheroes; Comic Book Resources, 6/15/16

Brett White, Comic Book Resources; IN YOUR FACE JAM: Marvel, DC and the Current State of LGBT Superheroes:

"Whatever relationship 49 people in Orlando had with their label -- whether they accepted it, altered it, celebrated it, denied it, created it -- they died for it on Saturday night, the victims of a hateful man with a gun and a toxic relationship with his labels. This column, most weeks, is fun. That's not this week. I can't, as a gay man with a place to publish thoughts, not talk about this. I have to do everything I am able to do to make sure hate crimes against the LGBT community don't happen again. If that means writing 2,000-ish words in a column on a comic book site, then that's what it means. I will do everything I can to increase visibility and further acceptance of my community. And we need comic publishers to do the same thing.

Following the horrific events of the weekend, both DC Comics and Marvel Comics tweeted images expressing solidarity with the LGBT community, using the hashtag #OrlandoUnited. There's a lot to unpack here, and I got the suitcase popped open, but I want to say up front: thank you. While I don't think it should be considered a risky move to express support of the LGBT community, I do get that there are -- duh! -- bigots on Twitter. If they follow those two accounts, they got a rainbow in their face and a declaration that those publishers stand with the community those haters are bigoted against. That's not nothing, and it's a start...

Queer readers need those labels to be firmly slapped onto these characters for all to see. In the case of the queer community, labels -- and I mean the labels we choose for ourselves -- are life. They are bravery, courage and pride. I went through well over half of my life as an out gay man refusing to admit that "gay" described me. That one label doesn't sum up the complexities of my being, no, but I now know it is the one label that I wear that can get me killed. It is the label that would have given me entry into Pulse, given me a reason to feel at home. To distance myself from that label, a label that people like me were killed for, feels craven.

We need to see Marvel characters brave enough to wear their labels with pride."