They're Failing

The "will bash for cash" crowd, that is. I just had a flash on one reason for their failure this morning. (Aside from the fact that their message goes against the grain for most Americans, who are basically decent people willing to live and let live.)

Superheroes.

Let me explain. I've dived back into comics after an absence of many years, and am finding some surprising things. For example, there are several series I've started following, including Secret Six, Young Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, and X-Factor, all of which include prominent gay characters. In fact, Northstar, who somewhere along the line joined the X-Men when I wasn't looking, is due to marry his boyfriend in June. This is not including the Authority, which spun off a series focusing on its gay character, Midnighter. (Not a nice person at all, but he's completely different when he's with his husband, Apollo.)

So where are the OneMillion(minus 960,000)Moms while all this has been going on? Well, aside from the fact that their organization was formed last week, while gay characters have been in superhero comics at least since the late '80s, they've been wasting their time hating on Archie, who is sort of impervious to anything they can do at this point. Do they think that anyone who runs around in Spandex must be straight?

And I'm not going to go into detail about the small but devoted fan base for boys' love manga in this country. Think about boy on boy romances written for teenage girls who, in all probability, just figuring the percentages, are going to be dating boys. Think about the ripple effect on attitudes toward gays.

Because you see, in both the BL manga and the superhero comics, the same-sex relationships are viewed very matter-of-factly and positively. (In fact, one of the most humorous scenes in Young Avengers is when Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) decides to come out to his family as a teenage superhero. His boyfriend, Teddy Altman (Hulkling) comes by and they decide it's time. Before Billy can get the words out of his mouth, however, his parents are welcoming Teddy to the family, figuring that must be what he wants to tell them that's so serious.)

Now think about a universe in which being gay is fine, being a superhero, not so much.

This is what the AFA, FRC, AFTAH, NOM, and all the other anti-gay hate groups and hate-group wannabes are fighting.

Is it any wonder that they're losing? After all, the only bigots in superhero comics are the bad guys.

(And it occurs to me that comics have been, for quite some time, very heavy on social commentary, and as far as I know, the message has been overwhelmingly toward tolerance, respect for others, and acceptance of others' differences -- none of which are in the anti-gay repertoire.)