The Green Lantern is Gay

Good.
Gays exist! Get over it! (Not directed at you Maisie. )

Every step counts.

When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s there seemed to be NO place for me in the world.
I was made to feel sick, dirty, sinful, and evil, and if I knew what was good for me I'd grow up to be as invisible as possible.
This is not healthy.

It is normal for a gay kid to be gay.

Perhaps increasing visibility of gays in media that some children see will result in less bullying and suicides by gay teens.

I worry about the parents or those "community leaders" thinking this will "make" kids gay.
Not so.
They are already gay and can grow up to have miserable lives of low self-esteem, or grow up to be as happy and healthy as possible.

Don't forget, straight parents give birth to gay babies.
Please love and accept your kids.

I'm for anything that makes people accept others and mind their own business.

That is awesome. That is the character that Ryan Renolds played in the movie last year, right? I want to see a sequel with him gay I vote for Orlando Bloom as his love interest.

It seems that there are a few gay cahracters in comics now. I am wondering about the motivation behind this "trend". Are the comic creators trying to be instruments of social chance? The cynic in me wonders if there is just a very large gay market for these magazines -- either existing currently that the comic creators want to please, or an untapped market that the comic publishers want to open up.

Written by kenny » June 3rd, 2012, 12:30 pm:Good.
Gays exist! Get over it! (Not directed at you Maisie. )

Every step counts.

When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s there seemed to be NO place for me in the world.
I was made to feel sick, dirty, sinful, and evil, and if I knew what was good for me I'd grow up to be as invisible as possible.
This is not healthy.

It is normal for a gay kid to be gay.

Perhaps increasing visibility of gays in media that some children see will result in less bullying and suicides by gay teens.

I worry about the parents or those "community leaders" thinking this will "make" kids gay.
Not so.
They are already gay and can grow up to have miserable lives of low self-esteem, or grow up to be as happy and healthy as possible.

Don't forget, straight parents give birth to gay babies.
Please love and accept your kids.

Amen.

Arguments against portrayals of gay characters in the media is really flawed for a couple reasons. First, idea that media can make someone gay is a really bizarre argument. I suppose it is possible that greater social acceptance could lead dispositionally straight people to experiment with same sex if they are curious; because it is less taboo. But so what? And even if the hard argument is true -- that watching Glee will literally *make* people gay -- again, so what? Fearing such an outcome simply betrays people's prejudices all over again.

I get that the prevailing attitude these days is that being LGBT is biologically determined. But in my opinion, it should not matter if it is biological or a choice. If we are a truly accepting society, then either way, an LGBT person should not face prejudice or discrimination. The very fact that believing something is biologically determined makes people feel better about its existence ("oh, he can't help it, its in his genes") just means we are not as tolerant as we think we are as a culture. If one of my sons is gay, I will not care if his genes caused it or he independently chose to live a life loving men. Either way, I will love and support him.

Written by Dreamer_D » June 3rd, 2012, 2:57 pm:If one of my sons is gay, I will not care if his genes caused it or he independently chose to live a life loving men. Either way, I will love and support him.

p.s. I think Thor should be Green Lantern's love interest.

No it's another green lantern.

Written by ForteKitty » June 3rd, 2012, 3:12 pm:

Written by Dreamer_D » June 3rd, 2012, 2:57 pm:If one of my sons is gay, I will not care if his genes caused it or he independently chose to live a life loving men. Either way, I will love and support him.

p.s. I think Thor should be Green Lantern's love interest.

I totally agree with dreamer. If one of my sons or daughters is gay, they are still my child and still who they are and I will love and support them no matter what.

I love the idea of a superhero being gay, but I'm not sure this was the right way to do it. It erases 70 years of history of this character, having been married to women and having a child. That child now...doesn't exist? Or are they going to write a storyline that explains how he was adopted or born from a surrogate? I don't know, it makes the story line very messy and strange. I would have much preferred they choose either a character with less history of being straight, or created a whole new superhero. I think this looks like nothing other than a publicity stunt, which is a shame. Having positive gay role models for young children is very important, but not when done in a manner that doesn't 'make sense' and is thus completely unbelievable.

Written by justginger » June 3rd, 2012, 11:54 pm:I love the idea of a superhero being gay, but I'm not sure this was the right way to do it. It erases 70 years of history of this character, having been married to women and having a child. That child now...doesn't exist? Or are they going to write a storyline that explains how he was adopted or born from a surrogate? I don't know, it makes the story line very messy and strange. I would have much preferred they choose either a character with less history of being straight, or created a whole new superhero. I think this looks like nothing other than a publicity stunt, which is a shame. Having positive gay role models for young children is very important, but not when done in a manner that doesn't 'make sense' and is thus completely unbelievable.

I understand what you're saying, but I also think this can be a totally believable story line. I have two friends whose fathers didn't come out of the closet until they were in their 60s and their kids were all grown up. Both men had been married for over thirty years, and both fathered children with their wives. While they had public histories of being straight, they had both been gay their entire lives, of course. I don't know how often this happens, but I can't imagine it's all that uncommon for men of the Green Lantern's generation--society was certainly not as accepting of gay men 30 years ago as it is now.

That's awesome! I was kind of hoping that it would be The Flash though... I am a comic book geek and I love The Flash.

Written by justginger » June 3rd, 2012, 11:54 pm:I love the idea of a superhero being gay, but I'm not sure this was the right way to do it. It erases 70 years of history of this character, having been married to women and having a child. That child now...doesn't exist? Or are they going to write a storyline that explains how he was adopted or born from a surrogate? I don't know, it makes the story line very messy and strange. I would have much preferred they choose either a character with less history of being straight, or created a whole new superhero. I think this looks like nothing other than a publicity stunt, which is a shame. Having positive gay role models for young children is very important, but not when done in a manner that doesn't 'make sense' and is thus completely unbelievable.

. . . Instead, he’s a parallel earth Green Lantern. James Robinson, who writes the new series, said Alan Scott is the retooled version of the classic Lantern whose first appearance came in the pages of ‘‘All-American Comics’’ No. 16 in July 1940.
And his being gay is not part of some wider story line meant to be exploited or undone down the road, either.
DC has been a leader in incorporating gay characters into its comics. It had one of the first male gay kisses back in 1988.

‘‘This was my idea,’’ Robinson explained, noting that before DC relaunched all its titles last summer, Alan Scott had a son who was gay.

But given that ‘‘Earth 2’’ features retooled and rebooted characters, Scott is not old enough to have a grown son.
‘‘By making him younger, that son was not going to exist anymore,’’ Robinson said.

‘‘He doesn’t come out. He’s gay when we see him in issue two,’’ which is due out Wednesday. ‘‘He’s fearless and he’s honest to the point where he realized he was gay and he said, ‘I’m gay.’ ’’

http://bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/06/03/hero-who-brave-mighty-and-gay/e3LgGOkODgoM1j8kAtGmaM/story.html

Its funny I told my husband about the (prior) thread about this, and he predicted Green Lantern. I have no idea why.

Written by davi_el_mejor » June 4th, 2012, 6:52 am:

Written by justginger » June 3rd, 2012, 11:54 pm:I love the idea of a superhero being gay, but I'm not sure this was the right way to do it. It erases 70 years of history of this character, having been married to women and having a child. That child now...doesn't exist? Or are they going to write a storyline that explains how he was adopted or born from a surrogate? I don't know, it makes the story line very messy and strange. I would have much preferred they choose either a character with less history of being straight, or created a whole new superhero. I think this looks like nothing other than a publicity stunt, which is a shame. Having positive gay role models for young children is very important, but not when done in a manner that doesn't 'make sense' and is thus completely unbelievable.

. . . Instead, he’s a parallel earth Green Lantern. James Robinson, who writes the new series, said Alan Scott is the retooled version of the classic Lantern whose first appearance came in the pages of ‘‘All-American Comics’’ No. 16 in July 1940.
And his being gay is not part of some wider story line meant to be exploited or undone down the road, either.
DC has been a leader in incorporating gay characters into its comics. It had one of the first male gay kisses back in 1988.

‘‘This was my idea,’’ Robinson explained, noting that before DC relaunched all its titles last summer, Alan Scott had a son who was gay.

But given that ‘‘Earth 2’’ features retooled and rebooted characters, Scott is not old enough to have a grown son.
‘‘By making him younger, that son was not going to exist anymore,’’ Robinson said.

‘‘He doesn’t come out. He’s gay when we see him in issue two,’’ which is due out Wednesday. ‘‘He’s fearless and he’s honest to the point where he realized he was gay and he said, ‘I’m gay.’ ’’

http://bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/06/03/hero-who-brave-mighty-and-gay/e3LgGOkODgoM1j8kAtGmaM/story.html

Aaahh... I like this way of making it all work out better, though as haven says, reality would be reflected if he came out later in life after marriage to a woman and fathering kids, too.

I don't really get comics though All I know is my cousin was obsessed with Wolverine when we were both young.

I totally get what you're saying Haven, with the coming out later in life after attempting to live as a straight man. But just the write-ups I had read about it, that wasn't the way it was being approached. The article I read just flat said that now his child "won't exist" any more. The description of the comic suggested that it was going to be a flashback, pointing out that he always was gay, and that he was never married to women. If they chose to handle it that way, I felt disappointed. If they want to reveal he was always gay during his straight-ish history, that would be more than realistic for me.

That is a shame, Justginger. I agree with you that if that's the way they handle it, it does stink.

I really know nothing about comics. The closest I've gotten to reading a comic was Alison Bechdel's Fun Home graphic novel, which is hilarious, BTW.

Written by justginger » June 3rd, 2012, 11:54 pm:I love the idea of a superhero being gay, but I'm not sure this was the right way to do it. It erases 70 years of history of this character, having been married to women and having a child.

There are at least 5 different (earth) Green Laterns, including John Stewart, who is African American. This relaunch is a brand new character.

I see, that changes it all for me. I completely misunderstood - especially after reading direct quotes that said, "This is not a new character. This is a character who has always existed, and has always been gay." I prefer the idea that it is new and they are not undoing comic history.

And no, Haven, I don't know much about comics either. I used to read Archie when I was a little girl!

Hi,

When Kenny first posted this I told him my son collects comics. I told my son the news at that time and he called his dealer to order 6 copies. When Maisie posted i did an extra, extra news run through my house shouting the "The Green Lantern is gay." My son came downstairs and said he needed to sit to absorb the news. He looked pensively and then said with a serious face, "Yes, I thought there was something different about him in that last movie" Of course we both chuckled.
Well, yesterday my son called his dealer again, and guess what, its such a hot item they wouldn't let him order his six copies unless he paid more. The magzine comes out today. So he got the first copy at the newsstand price, but had to pay $15.00 for each additional copy. I spoke to the owner briefly and she told me it was a hot item now. Ebay was pre-selling for $20.00. It is historic. I just thought you all might want to know.

Annette

My guess would have been the green lantern too since there are multiple incarnations of him (or so I've been told), so I would have thought itd be say to write the newest one as gay but I guess they chose a different approach.

Either way, cool beans.