I forgot about Him... he's at least a cross dresser if not flat out gay. Interesting how the animators got away with it...

If you're adding comics, there are more examples. Colossus in the Marvel Ultimates imprint for one. There are more, but I just woke up.

Enigma is a one-shot Vertigo trade paperback about a gay superhero.

Neil Gaiman has numerous mentions of homosexuality in The Sandman comics, and he deals with it in a very positive way.

As I wrote the following I realized I haven't really watched any children's programming in about a decade, so this is likely a dated perception:

Cartoons specifically aimed at children are, I would say, "not supposed to" deal with sex at all. As sexual preference is within that realm, it'd be quite difficult to slip that kind of diversity in. Even heterosexual displays stop at a kiss (usually a single kiss for the whole relationship at that.) If the characters are children themselves, or generally below marrying age, the show can pretend they haven't sexually matured and any affection they have for others is a somewhat platonic puppylove. Even when the characters themselves would have to be biologically mature, just being in a child's show will stunt their emotional maturity.

I agree with Tamago that comics are an entirely different medium, for example you can't find (as a random example) a teenaged boy being graphically eaten by an anthropomorphic alligator on daytime television. (And yet, even though the same comic could feature an openly gay former police detective, full frontal nudity would still not be acceptable.)

So the exception is when comics and cartoons overlap. Batman - The Animated Series had a lot of fun pushing the boundries on what could be shown in an afternoon cartoon show. There were a number of implications that Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy had a physical relationship, making them bisexual at least. This continued on in the rest of the DC Animated Universe, in Superman the character Maggie Sawyer (who is openly gay in the comics) is shown with her female partner while in the hospital, although nothing is stated out loud. By the time the DCAU had moved on to Justice League (and even more so Justice League Unlimited) they were really pushing the envelope though they still refrained from using words such as lesbian. "I hear she's... you know... Brazilian." At the same time, anyone who was, say, eight years old while watching the original Batman TAS series would have been twenty-two by the end of JLU...

The Authority is a lovely comic book with the main characters Midnighter and Apollo [an offshoot of Batman and Superman, respectively] as a married gay couple, with many pansexual/bisexual characters. What's nice is that they aren't stereotypical, which makes me very, very happy.

Of course, we all know about Batwoman, who was/is in a relationship with the new Question, Renee Montoya in the DC Universe.

Jason Todd is arguably bisexual, but has not been confirmed by DC. [But he probably is, so I'm going to go with that.]

Raven Nightshade wrote:

Same site, next page: http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/index.php

...are you trying to steal my thunder? Because that isn't cool.

Also, it seems to me that there are more LGBT webcomics around than actual published comics. I made a list of a few notable ones last year, so I'll look and see if I can find it.

I can't think of any in animation that aren't mere speculation...but as for comics I'd like to add that Renee Montoya (who is the new Question), and Kate Kane (Batwoman) are lesbians.

Raven Nightshade wrote:

Adrasteia wrote:

Raven Nightshade wrote:

Same site, next page: http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/index.php

...are you trying to steal my thunder? Because that isn't cool.

No, not on purpose, I swear.

I'm just kidding around. I'm not sure my thunder is worth stealing.

Also, this might just be stating the obvious, but doesn't it seem extremely, extremely usual that a sexually repressive culture like Japan's contains more homosexual themes in their pop literature than America's? I've always wondered about this, and can only come to the conclusion that, when people are taught to conserve their sexuality in the public eye, they explode with sexuality when given the opportunity to express themselves.

Last edited by Adrasteia (02-21-2009 08:12:42 PM)

ok is batman and robin gay together?

None of the Robins were "gay with Batman" in canon. That's all speculation. There have been insinuations about Jason Todd, but otherwise, no dice.

I might as well be the wet blanket that points out the catch in the Robin/Batman thing is more to do with it being pedophiliac than homosexual.

And I might as well  plug that Detective Comics will be running over a year of Batwoman stories soon.  Yes, the gay Jewish Batwoman, Kate Kane.

Ragnarok wrote:

Which Robin? Two of them were female, making that difficult.

WHAT?!! okay robin had a brother, a mom and a dad. so how would there be 2females?