COMMENTS: Users Weigh in on Gay Superheroes - Join the Debate!

I think there's a huge difference between a gay superhero and a superhero that just happens to be gay. If his power(s) completely revolves around his sexuality then, personally, I feel it's just a gimmick, I mean you don't see a superhero called Straight-Man.

This is just...dumb. what does a hero's sexuality have to do with his intentions? Like I said, dumb.

I think there's a huge difference between a gay superhero and a superhero that just happens to be gay. If his power(s) completely revolves around his sexuality then, personally, I feel it's just a gimmick, I mean you don't see a superhero called Straight-Man.

EXCELLENT POINT!!!

People nowdays are too scared to piss off the minorities, if they would like to have themselves represented, and stan lee would like to help, good for them, just leave existing characters alone, and stop forcing your views on people. Take the whole "we're here, we're queer get used to it"... the general public has been used to it for a while, now we are just over it.

The problem that this debate seems too have done and almost certainly will always end up doing is, getting itself entangled between two powerful and overwhelming issues. Those of ‘Religion’ & ‘Acceptance’. So let’s try our best to untangle this mess.

I will do this by starting on an open playing field. I am English (Not British, English). I’m 27, male, white and working class and straight. I have a long-term partner, who I love with all of my heart. However we are married or engaged and we never will be as we neither of us are religious. I have had many gay friends in the past and in fact, my partner’s brother is gay. I am also very strong-minded, and extremely opinionated.

Religion
Many of those who actually bother to read this may believe that I have no real right to comment on this issue since I do not believe in creationism. To those I say “Hogwash & Piffle” I was brought up Protestant, but after learn about other religions, I changed my views and beliefs.

You see one of the many problems with religion is that their teachings are almost always twisted & corrupted more and more to serve the speakers ends. For instance;

"Judge not lest ye be judged" - How many of you have seen on the news or read in the paper about a man facing rape or murder charges, but once this man has been found innocent. How many of you have thought, “There’s no fuel with out a fire.” Even though there are numerous cases of wrongly convicted individuals whom to no fault of their own have fallen victim to corrupt police officials or angered ex lovers.

"Do unto others" – How many of you have screamed at the salesman for a faulty product or service.

However, the most important passage “Love thy neighbour” is also the most twisted. You see how can you claim to be a child of God when you cannot and will not love someone just because through no fault of there own, they love someone in away that you deem to be wrong.

Surely if God did exist than for what reason would he create all men & women to be bisexual from birth. As the majority of psychologist’s now believe that we are all bisexual from birth, and that it is our surrounding, and our perceptions of those surrounding that moulds and contorts our sexuality from a young age. So that went we do hit puberty and adolescence our sexuality has already been formed within our subconscious, but we as you adolescents’ as just becoming aware & to terms of it ourselves.

Acceptance
Acceptance isn’t that what every one of us drives to obtain. From the overly energetic young boy striving for his parent’s attention, too the elder statesman stands by his views whilst all those around oppose him. This being the case, then why must we deny someone the chance of acceptance just because we see the way that they live THEIR lives as wrong.

Since at present some of us seem to refuse to accept that many of us are gay, or bisexual for the FEAR that they might somehow infect our children or us. The gay community thus has to try to promote itself and bring debate were it sees inequality. Just as was and is still being done by many race equality groups. The only problem that these debates and promotions can bring is the feeling of propaganda and forced conformity, which is never a good thing.

This is one reason why there is so much bad feelings towards Stan Lees new comic. I can see where Stan is coming from but lets be honest, there are already characters that have been created that are from the outset gay. For example Rawhide, the first ever openly gay comic book character. Personnally I feel that this issue is actually more about Stan Lee trying to add another string to his bow, which clearly isn’t needed. It would be far better to create a character whom is gay because both the story and the character need it, NOT because some PR department decides that it would be the best thing for the brand.

To be honest this show might actually bring some acceptance on sexuality, which is always a good thing. As it may just help one or two young men and women to feel better and more at easy about there own feelings as a result of watching this series, if it is handled in the correct manner. However, I do have this overwhelming feeling that the whole subject will be handled badly and as a result thus creating more problems.

Fingers crossed though that Stan Lee and some of the other writers will be made aware of ‘Queer As Folk’ (An award winning English TV Series). This show helped bring more acceptant to the gay community in the UK, and because of which it has won many awards.

Just because of these comments I think it will be an interesting show to watch. Knowing Stan Lee, I think he wants to create something controversial that makes people think! People will perhaps figure out what their position is regarding certain issues in life when confronted with this subject. As a Comic Book fan, I think the question would be " How tolerant would you be if you found out the person saving you from danger is gay?"...Perhaps they need to be careful with turning the Hero into a flamboyant character, although without overdoing it, that would also be interesting to watch!

I created this account specifically to speak on this issue. It's been my experience that people, in general, are stupid and insensitive. So I'm not surprised at the conversation going on in these comments. What I am surprised at is how insensitive comicbookmovie.com is being about the issue. The poll is very ignorant, and the picture is frankly absurd. Gay people are not caricatures and stereotypes. They are real people, just like you and me. In the future, comicbookmovie, try to be more sensitive when discussing these sorts of things.

Lestat74 - 'Considering how many gay people I know with kids, some which (gasp!) they made themselves, not just adopted, your entire argument just collapsed.'

Name me one same sex partnership that has created children without the aid of a third party person and a petri dish and I'll show you a million dollar enterprise and a pair of real life super heroes.

Powergirl - 'As an interesting side note, he has actually told me that he believes homosexuality has a link with mental disease or emotional trama. He says a lot of his gay friends were either abused as kids or have mental issues. He works in a psychiatric hospital and has schizophrenia himself.' + SgtThrobber - 'As the majority of psychologist’s now believe that we are all bisexual from birth, and that it is our surrounding, and our perceptions of those surrounding that moulds and contorts our sexuality from a young age.'

Robbish!!! There's not a single scientist [Who doesn't have a personal/professional bias] that can prove sexuality, straight or otherwise is a result of ones surroundings and not natural genetics. Mental disease or emotional trama please...your gay cousin is by your own addmission a schizophrenic which means his regular persona can swing one way while his nutter side can swing the other...greedy bugger..choose a side already!

Lestat74 - 'We in the LGBT community might have lost this battle, but we're winning the war.'

We in the LGBT community...Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual [Greedy], and Transgender [Ladyboys (The Third Sex), my personal favorite - soft & feminique smooth yet virile and packing heat]...
Lestat74 when you refer to yourself as 'We' you are referring to a separate and unique community are you not? Up here in Canada [On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage] they changed the definition of marriage from a "traditional" definition with Bill C-38 The Civil Marriage Act. This enactment 'extends' the legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes to same-sex couples. Simply put the opposite-sex requirement has been removed giving the LGBT community extending equally under the law . They used the word 'extends' to include same-sex couples without renounceing the union between woman and man. I don't see why you folks [Whatta you mean you folks?] can't do something similar? If certain states don't want to drop the "traditional" wording of marriage then they could look at the idea of a parallel/coextending law that would allow for the inclusion of same-sex unions without completely [And unneccessarily I might add] destroying the "traditional" definition of marriage handed down to us via the three main Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity) which represent 80% of the Canadian population [The U.S. percentage is even higher].

LeonardShelby (One eyed Jack) - 'At least a gay person believes in something that is real. You idiot religous nuts believe in a book of fairytales and everytime the flaws are exposed you look at ways to interpret it differently when all that does is destroy the credibility of your religion further'.

It is true that organised religion especially, the three Abrahamic forms, can be taken to task over their past and present trespasses [Including Mass murder, rape and general chaos etc.] and that their credibility can be seen as 'out of gas' in the light of this post-modern era but still the general population [80%] continue to cling to the so-called flawed fairytales, why?
From my experience we 'idiot religous nuts' can not humbug the idea of G*D, like you non-believers [Everybody - 'Shun the non-believers!, ShuuunnnnNN!] because of that old intangible business we like to call 'Faith'. Faith or the adherence to something other than yourself is immutable to those in the theological community. Now theology defined as 'Concerning a god-centered philosophy' [Not necessarily centred around an organized religion, which I personally reject] has been,is and will remain a cornerstone to all things in existence. Simply put atheism [Which according to a study done by the University of Minnesota are viewed as the least American, more than blacks, gays, immigrants, lesbians and even Muslims...Thank G*D I'm a Cannuck.] does not make sense to me. It says in PSALMS 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no G*D". They are corrupt, their deeds are vile...Blah,blah,blah.., Bunk I say, atheist represent 10% of the general population and only 0.2% of the prison pop soooo... Corrupt? Vile? Nah! Do they make sense? [Like 2 + 2 = 4 makes sense?] Once again Nah!
A well none atheist Carl Sagan said "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" Well the universe as it really is...is Faith in G*D [Defined as 'Concerning a god-centered philosophy'] which includes the science of Carl Sagan, Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, the muse of Marlon Brando, Angelina Jolie, Ian McKellen, the philanthropy of Warren Buffett & Bill Gates [All atheist]. What these folks don't get is G*D is not found in a book, it is the book...the hands that hold it...the eyes that read it...the mind the thinks it...G*D is everything including delusions [Satisfying and reassuring not withstanding], it is religion...it is Science...Atheism...Agnosticism [The Bisexuality of the philosophical world (Pick a side people).]...the Abrahamic community...LGBT community [Particularly the Ladyboys]...and yes even a Gay superhero.

jordan heath - 'I'd be ok with Rorschach being gay or Robin or even the new Captain America, but as long as his or her love life doesn't get involved. Not that I mind, but the character would not be easily taken seriously if Captain America went home, hung up his tights and hopped into bed with some guy.'

Having Captain America gay makes no sense at all. Steve Rogers [67 + Year old Character] just wake up some day and BAM! he's gay...Yyyyyeh.
When they do create a gay superhero we should know he's gay or what's the point?
'The character would not be easily taken seriously if Captain America went home, hung up his tights and hopped into bed with some guy.' But then he wouldn't be gay if he didn't do that jordan. You can't have a guy character that professes to be gay in just some Rinky Dink bit of dialogue and leave it at that. You have to at the very least have his social life revolve around the LGBT community.

Powergirl - 'The problem is that homosexuality is being forced on the masses propaganda style'/'Media is forcing an "accept homosexuality" agenda on the public.'
No Powergirl, the media (Which is made up of people after all) is pushing the envelope of change in the direction that the wind is taking society and that is in the acceptance of homosexuality. Before woman's suffrage[Right to Vote] came in New Zealand (1893), Canada (1918), U.S.A. (1920) there was those who had to push society in the direction it was already going. Kate Sheppard (New Zealand), Agnes Macphail (Canada) & Lydia Taft (U.S.A.) were just three of the many who nudged society forward and yes they used the media. Newspapers, cartoons (Comics) & posters were the media/propaganda tools of the day.
Yes there were those at the time, who believed that issue of universal suffrage was being forced (A decidedly Conservative POV) apon the greater society by the few, but we know who made it in the history books. This same thing happened during the Civil Right Movement, once again the conservative point of view failed. Nuff Said!

Alrighty...let me breath here for a minute...

I whent all out because of people that discriminate, judge and condemn others for who they are but saying it's because of what they do and on top of that... all in the name of an unconditionnal loving God. People that enjoy some cardboard and koolaid every sunday but call others koolaid drinkers that don't have the same views as them. For some people, all they can afford is koolaid and that doesn't make them any less intelligent. Just less fortunate. How can someone preach religion without following there own commandments...seems to be a regular fashion now a days. Before pointing the finger at someone and condeming them to hell, point it at the one in the mirror!

I'm sorry i whent overboard. Hate fuels alot of anger.

BJBear 69IN said "Wow Powergirl! I've never met your Jesus, but he sure scares me!

MY Bible tells me "Judge not lest ye be judged" and "do unto others"."

Ummm... at what point did Powergirl EVER mention Jesus, the Bible, or Religion? You're attacking her religion even though she never once mentions religion! This has nothing to do with religion... or prop 8... or whatever other bunny trails you guys are going down here.

All powergirl said, is that gays are overrepresented in the media. And anyone who disagrees with her lives in a cave. I mean just look at last weeks Saturday Night Live. Over half of the skits had something to do with being gay. Yes they were all hilarious and I enjoyed them immensely, but let's not all pretend like this is somehow proportional. How many gay people do you know personally? Chances are you know a few... but you wouldn't say that HALF the people you know are gay. You probably wouldn't even say that 1 out of 10 of the people you know are gay despite the statistic that powergirl mentions. I'm not going to complain about how this is a secret media conspiracy to turn us all gay or something... but you have to admit that gays are WAY overrepresented, and that it is understandable if someone like powergirl is tired of having another gay character pushed in front of her just because the media thinks it's edgy or cool. Most people are not gay, and most people have limited to no interaction with gay people... and yet for some reason a large portion of sitcoms, dramas, movies, books, etc... have something to do with being gay. I think it's silly to complain about it all the time... but you also shouldn't attack someone just for pointing it out and call them a religious bigot when all they said was that the number of gays represented in the media is much more than the number of gays present in the country. A person would think after watching tv for a couple of hours that massive portion of the country must be gay, when in reality it's just no the case. You can throw up your hands and call powergirl a bigot all you want... but it doesn't change the simple facts that she mentions, and it's unfair for you to assume some kind of prejudice on her part just for pointing it out.

Hey guys! You still going at this? I thought I had ended it with peace and love on the other comments board.

My thanks to all of you who are defending me from the rabid haters out there.

Shaman, warpath is right. My original comment was only that there was an overabundance of homosexuality on the screen already. If you take the time to go back to the beginning, I wasn't the one to insert religion into the debate. JohnnyKrypton did when he made the remark about not liking religious nuts forcing their views on people--which my comment never implied.

You rabid liberals get a little too hot under the collar about this stuff, and it is always you guys that want to stifle the free speech which you hold so dear.

Sorry for being rabid there Powergirl, all this going to hell has gotten me a bit edgy. I understand that johnny called you names and stuff. Kids are cruel these days but he's not the one that unleashed the great flood here.

Shaman,
Pleeeze! You know very well that you cannot generalize about religion like you are doing. Bad people can do all sorts of evil things in the NAME of religion, just like you can do all sorts of bad things in the NAME of secularism. I don't label all secularists and liberals evil, but you sure are quick to put all religionists in that category.

And just for the record. I never said anyone was going to hell. You secularists don't fight fair. You put words in our mouths to make us look bad.

Roar, you practically made me piss my pants! Thank you.

Shaman,
I said the WORLD is going to hell. You made it sound like I was insulting gays in particular. And just because I call an act perversion doesn't mean I am condemning the person committing the act.

Again, you try to twist my words to say something that I didn't.

Incidentally, why can't you guys ever pick up the Bible and learn a few NEW verses to quote? It's always, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." Like that is the only scripture in the book.

It really shows your ignorance that you can't quote anything else. And if you actually looked into it, you'd see that the gospel is all about making RIGHTEOUS judgements. Again, you are an example of what it is truly talking about: making ill-informed judgments from prejudice.

Anyway, I'm done with this argument. It's gone on far too long. Anyone that reads my posts can see that I'm not the bitter, hate-filled, ignoramus here. I'm sure readers who are logical can discern the truth of my comments. Ciao!

So the bible which was writen by man, which transcribed the "rules to follow", which stated "judge not lest ye be judged"...is full of RIGHTEOUS judgements? Are you saying that the good book is contradicting itself? Sign me up! Geez... you're beginning to sound like one of us seculars that don't believe in a self contradicting book written by man that states in indirect words that gays are going straight to hell even though their the most peacefull and unjudgemental people ever to walk God's green earth. From the sound of them, they sound like they followed Jesus's example to a T. Oooh but they're doing the inkiddy dinkiddy with each other...damn! Back to the drawing board. Send them all to hell.