Gay YA

LGBTQ Characters in Mainstream Superhero Comics

By Karen Mahoney

“I heard the whistle of a train as it approached the crossing. I reached my arm around Goran, pulled him in, and our lips met. It felt like flying.”
Perry Moore, HERO

So, I write for teenagers. For young adults. These kids need a gay superhero just as much as they need the supposedly more acceptable – and certainly more commonly represented – straight ones.

We are all – every single one of us – born with the beautiful potential both to love and to be loved. That’s the only thing that matters, in my view. Simplistic? Maybe. But does that make it any less true, or less right? Anything else is just an attempt to force something as natural as love into a form that is less offensive challenging to those who can’t see the simple truth.

When I was growing up, I loved comic books. We’d get US imports over in the UK, and I read everything I could get my hands on. Of course, back in the 1980s, I don’t remember reading a whole lot of superhero comics starring LGBT characters. But now it’s 2011… A lot of time has passed.

Let’s just think about that for a moment.

2011. Dudes. We’re practically living in the future, you know?

Thankfully, there have been some positive changes in the mainstream superhero comics industry, but in my humble opinion not nearly enough. Especially when it comes to representing gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters – heroes and heroines – that young readers can identify with. I think that’s a shame. I may be an adult (allegedly) and I may be the ‘S’ in Straight, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ once upon a time. I’m sure there are many teens who question their sexuality; isn’t that pretty damn normal? So wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do something as… you know… normal as picking up a comic book that has a brightly-yet-inappropriately-clad heroine flying around, who might be a little less than straight?

I think that would be pretty cool.

Luckily for us, there are creators like Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung bringing us comics as awesome as the Young Avengers.*

*I know this makes me a total geek, but I love how the initials for Young Avengers are ‘YA‘ – okay, I’ll shut up now.

My favourite thing about these comics, hands down, is the relationship between Hulkling (Teddy Altman) and Wiccan (Billy Kaplan). Don’t get me wrong, I love the stories and all of the characters – I really do. But Teddy and Billy are just so ridiculously cute together (sorry, I can’t help myself!), and so right as a couple. Their relationship is portrayed in a realistic and refreshingly ordinary way, which works particularly well against the extraordinary backdrop of superhero shenanigans. I like that Heinberg has the boys being open about their sexuality, and about their growing feelings for one another, while not making the comics revolve around it. These aren’t comics centred on issues. No, we are given kick-ass stories with a whole group of brilliant characters – a couple of whom just happen to be gay (and falling love – yay!).

Billy and Teddy in one of their awesomely cute moments.

It’s good to see a mainstream comics publisher like Marvel putting out titles with young LGBTQ characters that represent true diversity, and I hope to see more in the future. There does seem to be a gradual shift (a tiny one, but at least it’s happening!) with, for example, lesbian and transgender main characters in Marvel’s teen Runaways comic. Of course, there are quite a few other LGBT superhero characters in comics, but I’m talking specifically about young adult characters in a starring role.

I’m happy to say that the Young Avengers are back – after their first successful run a few years ago – this time in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. It’s currently available monthly from your LCS.* Go check it out!

*Local Comic Shop

Further Reading:

A quick shout out for a YA novel about a gay superhero: Perry Moore‘s HERO. Sadly, Mr. Moore passed away just a couple of months ago. His essay and accompanying list – Who Cares About the Death of a Gay Superhero Anyway? – are recommended reading.

Please also read this fantastic Gay Times interview with writer Allan Heinberg. Among other things, Heinberg talks about the difference between writing LGBT characters for comics and for television (he has written and produced shows such as Gilmore Girls, The O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy). The whole thing is well worth your time, but I particularly love this:

JG: There are a large number of LGBT fans of comics. What do you feel attracts people of our community to comic books, and in particular superhero stories?

AH: Super hero comics tend to be about outsiders — people who are not accepted by the mainstream — or who feel they don’t belong there — who nonetheless strive and sacrifice to save the very people who rejected them in the first place. Even poor Superman is constantly struggling to prove to himself and to the world that he’s worthy of his adopted humanity. As a closeted gay kid growing up in Oklahoma in the 1970′s, I completely identified with that struggle. Even now, I find it enormously moving.

Karen Mahoney is the author of THE IRON WITCH trilogy and a proud geek. Visit her online at: www.kazmahoney.com

By Maggie Hira

I’d like to think I wasn’t quite eavesdropping on them. But I was. I totally was. And what I heard was extremely enlightening.

It happened a few weeks ago at my local Barnes & Noble. I was in the YA section, as usual, not looking for anything in particular, but browsing for something that would catch my eye or pique my interest. That’s when I heard them chattering in the other aisle—two teenage girls also on the hunt for an interesting read. I didn’t want to listen in on their conversation, but I couldn’t help myself. As an aspiring YA author, I need to be in touch with teens. I know people of all ages read YA, but the truth is that as a writer of YA, I have to remember that I’m writing for teens, not adults who happen to like reading about teens.

So, I listened. I stopped browsing (well, I pretended I was still browsing) to listen to them, because they were talking about books, and I was deeply curious about what they might have to say about YA and which books they would end up buying.

I probably listened to them for five minutes at the most, as they walked from one aisle to the next, looking at titles and making comments—“hate this book; love this author,” etc. Since I couldn’t follow them around without making it look obvious (and, also, that would just be creepy), I didn’t know exactly which titles they were talking about. But one comment stood out from all the rest. As they were about to leave, one of them remarked to the other that one of her friends was looking for a new book that featured a gay couple at the center of the romance, and he couldn’t find one. She added that her friend complained that there weren’t enough gay YA books available for him.

“Oh, is he gay?” her friend asked.

“Yeah, he’s gay,” the girl said.

Then they both turned on their heels and left. I remember they both looked a little disappointed as they walked away empty-handed from the YA section.

I spent the next few minutes walking around the B&N aimlessly, thinking about what I’d overheard.

I have to admit I’d never given gay YA much thought. Maybe it’s because I’m straight, or maybe it’s because I could always easily find the kind of YA books I was looking for—mainly paranormal or contemporary coming-of-age—but the conversation between the two teen girls made me think about gay YA more deeply than I ever had before. I realized that there were tons of teens out there looking for YA books that represented their experience or included characters they could relate to on a personal level. But, they weren’t finding them as easily as I was finding paranormal romances and contemporary coming-of-age stories featuring female narrators.

If I closed my eyes and chose a book at random from the YA section of the B&N, it would most likely be a paranormal romance. If I wanted to find a YA book with gay characters or a gay romance, I would probably have to ask an associate to help me find one. Honestly, I wouldn’t even know where to look.

Now, I love paranormal romance and it’s great that I can find those titles so easily, but it’s also clear to me now that there is a huge need for more gay YA books. I didn’t come to this realization just from overhearing this one conversation, because I have heard and read about the lack of gay YA many times before. But this particular conversation really brought the idea home because I heard it coming from real-life teens. I saw their disappointed faces as they walked away without any books.

Hearing it for myself made it different from reading about it on a forum or on an anonymous blog. It made everything more real.

As an aspiring YA author, I don’t know if I’ll ever write about gay characters (I’m actually working on a paranormal romance, haha), but I know that I will think about this issue more often and more profoundly. I’d like to think that one day I will have developed my craft to the point where I will be able to write about a variety of characters.

I will never forget what I overheard real teens say that day at the bookstore—that they want more gay YA. And I hope that one day I will be one of the authors that gives them some more of what they want.

Maggie’s favorite gay couple is Niall and Irial from Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series. You can read about her adventures in writing at maggie_writes.livejournal.com.

Last weekend I was driving near the Brown campus in Providence, RI with my family. When we stopped at a light, two male students crossed the street, holding hands. They were chatting away, smiling, like what they were doing was the most natural thing in the world. My husband and I both commented on how nice that was. And how rare.

Because honestly? In most places in this country, you will not see two boys walking along a busy street holding hands. Carefree. Safe.

In most places in this country, there are still boys and girls just like those two ,wondering what’s wrong with them. Wondering if their parents will kick them out of the house if they tell them they’re gay. Wondering if their best friends will still be their best friends. Wondering if they will get the crap kicked out of them if anyone finds out.

I hate that this is true.

When my book, LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL, was banned from classroom use in a Kentucky school, the objection was that the book contained  ”inappropriate themes, including homosexuality.” Calling homosexuality inappropriate is ridiculous. I know this. You know this. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.

In my latest book, PEARL, a blogger who reviews books wrote that, while she liked the book very much, she couldn’t recommend it because of the homosexual content. A reader thanked her, saying homosexuality in books made her feel “uncomfortable.”

When I read this, I cried. Not because I care about the review,  but because of what it says about where we are in this country. The irony about all of this, is that the objectionable piece in the book is about two women who love each other and hide it all their lives because they’re too afraid to be themselves. And why? Because who they are is “inappropriate.” It makes people feel “uncomfortable.”

What message do reviews like this give to gay teens who stumble across them? Keep hiding.

That’s why I cried.

My older brother was gay. He didn’t come out until he was in his twenties. He waited to come out because he was afraid, too. The whole first half of his life he had to be two people. In public, he was one Scott. In private and among a small group of friends, he was the real Scott.

I was lucky enough to know the real Scott.  The real Scott had a huge heart. He loved adventure.  He loved to travel and eat and read and cook and watch James Bond movies and Dr. Who. He wanted to share all of these things with the people he loved. He used to force me to watch cheesy movies with him, trying to convince me to love them as much as he did. He could put his arm around you and I swear you could feel the unspoken words he meant in that simple gesture. The love he gave in it. But far too few were lucky enough to experience this Scott. This beautiful man who was bursting with love and life and never able to fully share his true self. Because for some crazy reason, for some reason I will never accept, people thought who he was, was “inappropriate.” So he hid that side of himself for years. And that is tragic.

What do we do about this?

That’s my big question. How do we make the world a more accepting place? How do we make our communities, our schools, our classrooms, our homes, more accepting places?

I wish I knew the big answer.

But I think one small one, is books.

The beauty of books is that they show us a new point of view. They show us what it’s like to walk around in someone else’s shoes for a while. They show us the world through a different lens. Sometimes it’s a more frightening world. Sometimes it’s a more beautiful one. Sometimes, it’s a more accepting one. Sometimes, it’s ugly. But even in those frightening, ugly worlds, we see some tiny reflection of ourselves and the world we know. We find connections to what we ourselves believe, and maybe we shift those beliefs just a little. Maybe we step away a little less intolerant, because we’re able to see more clearly the ignorance our intolerance stems from. Maybe we step away able to see the person down the street who we’ve always been a little afraid of, as a little less scary. I don’t know. But I think always, always, we step away changed somehow.  For the better. Books do that.

Maybe that’s what people who ban gay books are afraid of. Maybe they just need to read more. It’s a start.

Jo Knowles is author of Lessons From a Dead Girl and Jumping Off Swings. She can be found online at http://www.joknowles.com/