Eight-time Jeopardy! winner Amy Schneider has explained her moving gesture of trans solidarity.
Schneider made her Jeopardy! debut on November 17, in the middle of Transgender Awareness Week. Since then, she has won the game eight times, earning $295,200 (£222,000) from her stunning victories.
She’ll soon compete in the annual Tournament of Champions, which sees the 15 top contestants of the year go head-to-head. A contestant must clock five consecutive wins to qualify.
In an interview with Newsweek, Schneider revealed she had been trying to get on the gameshow for more than a decade. She was finally accepted by the show last year, but her appearance was delayed by the pandemic.
After her fifth win, Schneider penned an op-ed in the outlet to mark her becoming the first trans person to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.
As well as elaborating on her strategy and admitting her surprise at her winning streak, Schneider wrote about the importance of transgender representation on TV.
“It was inspirational for me to see transgender contestants on the show before I became a contestant and I hope that I am now doing that same thing for all the other trans Jeopardy! fans out there,” she wrote.
“I hope I have given them the opportunity to see a trans person succeed. Until very recently trans people didn’t see themselves doing much out in the world, so to actually see something like this happen really opens your mind up to possibilities.”
For the Thanksgiving episode of Jeopardy!, which aired on 25 November, Schneider wore a Trans Pride flag pin.
Explaining her decision to wear it, she wrote on Twitter: “Thanksgiving is a holiday that is all about family. And that can be hard for anybody who has been ostracised or otherwise cut off from their family, a group which, sadly, still includes a disproportionately high number of trans people, especially trans youth and trans people of colour.
“So, it felt like a good time to show my membership in, and support of, a community that might be having a hard time right now.”
Sunday, December 5 @ 3 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts is pleased to present the San Francisco Yiddish Combo! Made up of classically trained musicians who enjoy stretching musical boundaries, the group’s leader Rebecca Roudman has fronted groups all over the world, bringing her fiery, virtuosic cello playing to stages from China to Iceland. Check out the SFYC for a fresh spin on Klezmer with plenty of recognizable nods to an eclectic mix of genres. Great for dancing! Tickets $25 General/$20 OCA Members. Indoor masking required. Fine refreshments for sale, Art Gallery open for viewing/gifts. Accessible to persons with disabilities. Get your tickets now @ www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. Become an OCA Member and get free event admission plus perks! 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465.
December 3, 4, 10, 11, 12. Occidental Community Choir Winter Concerts 2021. The Occidental Community Choir, directed by Gage Purdy, is pleased to present a series of live holiday concerts celebrating Harmony.Please join us for festive performances of both original and well loved songs of the winter season, interspersed with spoken word. All concerts will be held at Occidental Center for the Arts on Friday Dec. 3rd @8pm – Community First Night $10, Saturday Dec. 4th @8pm, Friday and Saturday Dec.10th &11th @8pm, Sunday matinee Dec. 12th @ 3pm. Tickets are $15. Vaccinated children 12 & under are free. We ask all audience members to arrive masked with proof of vaccination. Please purchase your tickets ahead of time through our website: Occidentalchoir.org/tickets. Advance tickets recommended. Refreshments will be sold to benefit the choir. Occidental Center for the Arts – 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465. Accessible for persons with disabilities.
Lil Nas X, Brandi Carlile, and Lady Gaga were the most nominated LGBTQ artists for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, which were announced on Tuesday morning from the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, with each artist receiving five nominations.
For the first time, the Recording Academy eliminated voting committees and nominees were decided upon only by the Academy’s members. Moreover, the Academy expanded the number of nominees in the four main categories – Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist – from 8 to 10 nominees this year, in an announcement that came ten minutes before the nominations were announced.
Lil Nas X was nominated in all three big categories that he was nominated for, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/6swmTBVI83kIn Record of the Year, Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” was nominated alongside Brandi Carlile and Lady Gaga, for “Right On Time” and “I Get A Kick Out Of You” (feat. Tony Bennett), respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/iTdHQ065A_oIn Album of the Year, Lil Nas X’s “Montero” will be up against Gaga and Bennett’s “Love For Sale.”
In Song of the Year (an award that goes to the songwriters), Brandi Carlile will be up against herself! Both she and Brandy Clark were nominated for “A Beautiful Noise,” Carlile’s song performed with Alicia Keys. And Carlile is up for her solo track, “Right On Time.” Lil Nas X was also nominated in this category for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/tOpWqWK0q4UAnd in Best New Artist, the last of “the big four” categories, Japanese Breakfast – led by queer singer Michelle Zauner – was nominated, alongside bisexual British artist, Arlo Parks.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/mcoC5ZgaFjY https://www.youtube.com/embed/-gFCd5CE4bgLil Nas X was also nominated for Best Music Video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and for Best Melodic Rap Performance (for “Industry Baby” feat. Jack Harlow). In the latter category, he’ll be up against Tyler the Creator, who’s also nominated for “Wusyname.”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NJea386275cTyler the Creator also was nominated for Best Rap Album for “Call Me If You Get Lost.” Bi rapper Cardi B was nominated for Best Rap Performance for “Up.”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/rCiBgLOcuKUIn addition to her two aforementioned nominations, bisexual singer Lady Gaga also received a nomination for Best Music Video for her and Bennett’s “I Get a Kick Out of You.” The song was also nominated in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. And lastly, Gaga and Bennett’s “Love For Sale” was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Brandi Carlile also received further nominations – for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Right On Time.” Over in the country categories, she received a nomination for Best American Roots Performance for “Same Devil” alongside Brandy Clark.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/hmdBm3GYJksAlso in country, The Brothers Osborne – the duo which includes out musician TJ Osborne – were nominated twice: for Best Country Duo Performance for their song “Younger Me” and Best Country Album for “Skeletons.”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wc5j50XbvqsIn the electronic categories, DJ Tracy Young received her second Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording for her Fashionably Late Remix of k.d. lang’s “Constant Craving.” Young won the Grammy the first time she was nominated in 2019 for her remix of Madonna’s “I Rise.”
https://www.youtube.com/embed/9s1VUkWGL3QHalsey, St. Vincent, and Japanese Breakfast were all nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, for “If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power,” “Daddy’s Home,” and “Jubilee,” respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Azv0G85lh8 https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZUTu65AXrJwOver in the Latin music categories, Pablo Alborán was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album for “Vértigo.” And bi Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis was nominated for Best Música Urbana Album for, “Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demionos).”
Stephen Schwartz was nominated for Best Musical Theater Album for “Steven Schwartz’s Snapshots.” He’ll be up against Cameron Mackintosh, who was nominated for “Les Misérables: The Staged Concert (The Sensational 2020 Live Recording).”
Musical theater songwriter Benj Pasek was nominated Best Song Written For Visual Media for co-writing P!nk’s “All I Know So Far” from Amazon Studios’ P!nk’s All I Know So Far.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wGj9oADcyRsQueer artist Tayla Parx was amongst the artists who helped Recording Academy president Harvey Mason Jr. in announcing nominees on Tuesday morning.
As GLAAD can’t know the sexual orientations or gender identities of all of the nominees in the Grammys 100+ categories, we inevitably will have missed some LGBTQ folks. GLAAD will update this article with any nominees we’ve missed as we learn about them going forward.
The 64th Annual Grammy Awards will take place live from Los Angeles, on Sunday, January 31st at 5pm PT/8pm ET and will broadcast on CBS.
In 1986, the Vatican released a letter condemning homosexuality with what The New York Timescalled a “pointed allusion to AIDS.”
A year later, nearly 48,000 Americans had died from the disease.
Even as the death toll rose, the Roman Catholic Church reinforced its stance and also opposed the gay and lesbian rights movement more generally, creating an ongoing tension. Despite this, some nuns and priests went against those teachings and worked behind the scenes to care for and sit at the bedsides of people dying from AIDS-related illnesses.
O’Loughlin, a journalist who lives in Chicago, writes in the first chapter that for as long as he can remember, he’s been on a search. “I am gay and I am Catholic,” he wrote. “And I struggle continuously to reconcile those two parts of my identity.”
Micheal O’Loughlin.Courtesy M. Klein
He wanted to speak with people who had lived through similar struggles, and in 2015 a friend who was a priest suggested that he speak to gay Catholics who lived through the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States. He ran with the idea and began tracking down scientists and doctors involved in AIDS work — nuns and priests who served as caretakers to the ill, and activists, including those from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP.
He said he chose to focus on stories of compassion because he is interested in “people who had a lot to lose by taking on the power structure of the church but still did the right thing.”
“So, the priests who minister to gay men dying from AIDS, some of whom come out as gay themselves, and challenge the churches to be more welcoming and accepting,” he said. “The nuns who are really scrappy people who find the resources to learn all they can about HIV and AIDS and then do their own ministry. The gay Catholics who find themselves caught between their inclination to be part of the gay activism world but also remain part of the church.”
He said he kept asking himself, “How do they make this work?”
“I’m drawn to those stories because there’s something universal about summoning the courage to do the right thing when it would be much easier to do nothing,” he said, adding that this courage “applies to all sorts of situations even today.”
The book doesn’t attempt to “rewrite history” and also recounts how church leaders advocated against LGBTQ rights. But at the same time, O’Loughlin said he wanted to make sure the people who did extraordinary things and cite their Catholic faith as their motivation were also part of that history.
He noted that many of the people he spoke with said their journeys were complicated. Over 10 years, Sister Carol Baltosiewich, a nun and nurse from a small city in southern Illinois, traveled to Kansas City, Chicago and eventually New York City to care for people living with AIDS. She told O’Loughlin that she didn’t know any gay people before she began her AIDS work, and she had to reconcile the church’s teachings with her drive to care for people.
O’Loughlin said that it was at times painful for the people he interviewed, including Baltosiewich, to take a hard look at their prejudices and biases before their experiences changed them.
“When she began to learn about HIV and how it was affecting the gay community, it was sort of this whole new culture,” O’Loughlin said. “It was this clash between what she had known and something that was foreign to her, so she eventually learned and grew, but I think that some people are maybe hesitant to look honestly at that time, because there was so much stigma and shame that even the most well-intentioned people really couldn’t free themselves without making a conscious decision, which she did ultimately, but many people were just kind of in this culture that looked with such hostility at the LGBT community.”
Some of the people O’Loughlin spoke to experienced that hostility themselves. The Rev. William Hart McNichols, a Jesuit priest and an artist who attended the Pratt Institute in New York City, ministered to people dying from AIDS-related illnesses. In 1989, McNichols came out as gay publicly in a chapter for a book published by New Ways Ministry, a group that ministers to gay and lesbian Catholics.
He asked the permission of his Jesuit superiors at the time, and they told him that it was his choice to make, but that if he came out he wouldn’t be able to work at a Jesuit high school, college or parish. As an illustrator who worked in a hospital, he wasn’t offended by the response and decided to write the chapter.
O’Loughlin said the LGBTQ people he interviewed all made a decision at some point to stay in the church “no matter how strong the headwinds they faced,” because it was their church, too.
“Once people made that decision, there seemed to be something — whether it was grace or just stubbornness — that kept them involved,” he said. “And that kind of spoke to me as I continue to figure out what place I have in the church and as I interview dozens and dozens of LGBT people every year going through something similar, that you have to make that decision to stay and then be prepared to fight to keep your place in an institution that isn’t always welcoming.”
O’Loughlin wrote Tuesday in an op-ed for The New York Timesthat conducting interviews for his book had a “profound effect” on his faith, so much so that he wrote a letter to Pope Francis to tell him about the book and the conversations he had.
In August, the pope wrote back. The letter was written in Spanish but was translated to English.
“Thank you for shining a light on the lives and bearing witness to the many priests, religious sisters and lay people, who opted to accompany, support and help their brothers and sisters who were sick from H.I.V. and AIDS at great risk to their profession and reputation,” Pope Francis wrote.
The pontiff added, “Instead of indifference, alienation and even condemnation, these people let themselves be moved by the mercy of the Father and allowed that to become their own life’s work; a discreet mercy, silent and hidden, but still capable of sustaining and restoring the life and history of each one of us.”
O’Loughlin wrote that the letter won’t heal old or new wounds — the church still won’t bless same-sex marriages and teaches that homosexuality is immoral — but that it gave him hope that church leaders “will be transformed” in how they see LGBTQ people and “others whose faith is lived on the margins.”
Regardless of whether that happens, O’Loughlin said one of his goals for the book is to show LGBTQ people struggling with their faith that they aren’t alone, and that there are many people who came before them.
“By meeting people and learning about the struggles and learning the history, I’ve realized that this is not new at all,” O’Loughlin said. “The reality is, people have been grappling with these questions for forever … and there’s a lot of wisdom in these stories that have helped me realize I’m not alone at all.”
Saturday November 20, 2021 @ 7 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts presents our annual fundraiser: ’Sonoma County’s Got Talent! Please join us we showcase talented community performers of all genres live in our auditorium to benefit OCA. Tickets $25 General/$20 for OCA Members. $15 application fee for participants – please apply by Nov. 7th. Tickets/Info @www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. Fine refreshments available. OCA Art Gallery open for viewing and gift purchase. Masks required for all entry. Accessible to persons with disabilities. Become an OCA Member and get free admission! Keeping the Arts in Our Hearts
Experience an all-new holiday show in 2021 from Transcendence Theatre Company. This year, the Broadway Holiday Spectacular will be live on stage at Belos Cavalos, an enchanting equestrian estate in Kenwood. At this magnificent temperature-controlled location ‘under the big top,’ Broadway performers will fill the season with music, dancing, and holiday cheer in a show suitable for all ages. Join us for a more intimate and immersive experience in this magical new setting!
Location: Belos Cavalos Estate, Kenwood Dates/Times:Friday, December 3, 2021 @ 7:30pSaturday, December 4, 2021 @ 2:00p and 7:30pSunday, December 5, 2021 @ 2:00p and 7:30pFriday December 10, 2021 @ 7:30pSaturday, December 11, 2021 @ 2:00p and 7:30pSunday, December 12, 2021 @ 2:00p and 7:30p
Group Levels and Benefits*: Groups of 10-24: 15% off ticketsGroups of 25-49: 20% off and Furnished Private Event LoungeGroups of 50+: 20% off, furnished private event lounge, 2 drink tickets per person included, and more!*Subject to Availability
The ceremony is an opportunity to make a stand for gay and trans civil rights worldwide in the central European nation that has moved to curtail them, said Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of MTV Entertainment Group Worldwide.
“We’re looking forward to using the event to amplify our voices and stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ siblings,” McCarthy said in an interview with The Associated Press.
No government censorship of the telecast will be tolerated, McCarthy said.
“We’ve made it very clear and we have from the beginning…. we do not allow editorial input as it relates to the artists” and the content we create, he said. “That’s always a condition regardless of whatever country we go into.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s conservative ruling party introduced the measure that on its face was aimed at fighting pedophilia. Amendments ban the representation of any orientation besides heterosexual, along with gender change information in school sex education programs, or in films and advertisements aimed at anyone under 18.
MTV, which made a deal two years ago to hold the show in the nation’s capital, Budapest, planned to issue a lengthy memo to staffers in apparent anticipation of possible criticism of its decision.
“This may surprise anyone who knows that in June of this year, Hungary passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation banning television content featuring gay people during the day and in primetime,” allowing it only to run overnight, McCarthy said in the memo.
McCarthy said his immediate and personal reaction to the law, as a gay man, was to move the event to another country. But after consulting within MTV and with LGBTQ advocates globally, including in Hungary, the decision “was very clear to us.”
“Instead, we should move forward, using the show as an opportunity to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community in Hungary and around the world as we continue to fight for equality for all,” he said in the memo.
MTV’s pre-emptive outreach comes amid backlash by some Netflix staffers to the streaming service’s handling of a Dave Chappelle stand-up special, “The Closer,” which includes derogatory comments about trans people. Netflix has declined to remove the program.
As a gay youngster in a Pennsylvania steel mill town in the 1990s, McCarthy said he felt isolated and alone until he saw LGBTQ characters on TV, including Pedro Zamora on MTV’s “The Real World.”
“I started to think, ‘this might be OK,’” he told the AP, and said it’s alarming to imagine a young person deprived of the same opportunity because of Hungary’s TV restrictions.
The Europe Music Awards, known as the EMAs for short, will honor young LGBTQ activists with MTV’s Generation Change Award, to be given in partnership with the activist group All Out to amplify its worldwide campaigns for equality, McCarthy said.
Proceeding with the EMAs in Hungary is “absolutely the right decision,” given the nation’s “concerted onslaught” on LGBTQ rights and scapegoating of minorities, said Matt Beard, executive director of All Out.
Such visibility “gives fuel to LGBT-plus communities living in Hungary an incredibly precious sense of international solidarity that comes from a big global media event like the EMAs,” Beard said.
In a September interview with the AP, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the new law is intended to protect children from pedophiles and ”homosexual propaganda.” An EU decision to delay billions in economic recovery funds earmarked for his country amounted to “blackmail,” he said.
The MTV EMAs were launched in 1994 with a ceremony in Berlin hosted by Tom Jones. The awards have since hopscotched among nations, including France, England, Sweden, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
The host, nominees, and performers for this year’s ceremony have yet to be announced. The 2020 event was held virtually because of the pandemic.
Comics fans are still reeling from the news that next-generation Superman Jonathan Kent, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, is bisexual. Although DC shared the news on Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, Kent will explore his feelings for another young man in “Superman: Son of Kal-El” No. 5, dropping in November.
Queer representation in comic books has exploded in recent years, but in 2021 it went supernova: In part that’s due to an expanding presence in sci-fi TV shows and — with the release of Marvel’s “Eternals” next month — a blockbuster movie.
Below we celebrate a dozen comic book characters who hoisted the rainbow flag this year in print or screen.
Superman
DC Comics announced the new Superman is bisexual and will start a relationship with a man in the forthcoming issue of “Superman: Son of Kal-El.”DC Comics
No, Clark Kent hasn’t come out: His son, Jonathan, is taking on the mantle of the Man of Steel while Dad pursues an existential threat off-planet.
After Jon physically and emotionally burns out from “trying to save everyone that he can,” according to a DC Comics news release, Jay is there to support him. The two have their first kiss in the book’s fifth issue, out on Nov. 9.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/erqkh9l?app=1
Series writer Tom Taylor insists the storyline “is not a gimmick.”
“When I was offered this job, I thought, ‘Well, if we’re going to have a new Superman for the DC Universe, it feels like a missed opportunity to have another straight white savior,’” Taylor told Reuters.
“So, this isn’t everything to do with them. And there’s a reason this is coming in issue five and not issue one. We didn’t want this to be ‘DC Comics creates new queer Superman.’ We want this to be ‘Superman finds himself, becomes Superman and then comes out.’ And I think that’s a really important distinction there.”
Taylor added that he was proud “more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”
Robin
Batman’s “Urban Legends” series featuring Robin.DC Comics
Numerous young men and women have donned Robin’s iconic red and green tights, but it’s Tim Drake exploring his sexuality, starting in “Batman: Urban Legends” Number 5, released Aug. 10.
In the story, Tim reconnects with an old friend, Bernard, who gets kidnapped by the Chaos Monster. Over the course of the issue, Tim realizes his feelings for Bernard are deeper than he’s realized.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that night and I — I don’t know what it meant to me,” Tim says after rescuing his friend. “Not yet. But I’d like to figure it out.”
Bernard then asks Tim out on a legitimate date, which the young hero accepts.
“Batman: Urban Legends” is an anthology series, so readers won’t learn what happens next for the pair until issue No. 10 in December, when Drake is expected to leave Gotham City.
The character has previously been linked to Stephanie Brown, the superheroine Spoiler. Should he prove to be bisexual or even bi-curious, he’d be the first male member of the Bat family to join the LGBTQ community.
“While female LGBTQ representation is very important, especially in comics, there is also a history of deeming these characters as ‘acceptable’ only because LGBTQ women are often fetishized,” “Urban Legends” writer Meghan Fitzmartin told NBC News earlier this year.
In the DC Comics universe, Batwoman is an out lesbian, Catwoman has been presented as bisexual and antiheroes Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy have been portrayed as romantic partners.
“It becomes uncouth for male characters to explore their sexuality because of what it may mean for the male readers,” Fitzmartin said. “Ultimately, what I want from art is for it to challenge the way we see the world and face us with the truth that exists below the surface.”
The Flash
A variant cover for “Future State: Justice League” by Kael Ngu.DC Comics
Jess Chambers debuted as Kid Quick, part of an alternate-universe version of the Teen Titans, in the holiday-themed anthology “DC’s Merry Multiverse” in December 2020. Their universe, “Earth 11,” is not that different from the DC universe we know except genders are reversed, with heroes like Wonderous Man and Aquawoman.
The speedster, who uses they/them pronouns, got a major promotion during the “Future State” storyline that ran through various DC books, miniseries, one-shots and anthologies in January and February and continues to impact current continuity today.
Chambers debuted as the Flash in the first issue of the two-part “Future State: Justice League,” released Jan. 12.
Writer Ivan Cohen said in a reality that is already commenting on gender, it felt natural to introduce a hero that defied the binary.
“In the DC superhero universe, we’ve got a superfast character, Kid Flash. And I thought about how ‘Kid’ can really be any gender,” Cohen told NBC News in November 2020. “There are all these choices we can make — why don’t we do something besides what we would have made up if it was 1965?”
Setting the story on an alternate Earth also freed him from decades of comic-book continuity.
“Earth 11 is such a blank page that making it more diverse didn’t require a lot of shoehorning. No one is going to run to their back issues and complain we contradicted something,” Cohen said. “If someone has a problem that a Flash from an alternative universe is nonbinary, there’s a lot of other comics they can read.”
Batwoman
Javicia Leslie as Batwoman.Katie Yu / The CW
Batwoman, a.k.a. Kate Kane, debuted in the 1950s as a female foil to the Caped Crusader. But in 2006, writer Greg Rucka reintroduced the character to comics readers as a lesbian vigilante kicked out of the military for violating “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
During the “Batwoman” season two premiere on Jan. 17, 2021, bisexual actress Javicia Leslie took over Batwoman’s cowl, playing a brand new character, Ryan Wilder.
“What I love is that she’s not only strong enough to keep going, but she’s also an advocate and fights for her community,” Leslie told NBC News previously. “I think that subconsciously it plants seeds of empowerment in our community … seeds of power, strength, and toughness.”
Green Lantern
Green Lantern is more a title than a single superhero name — it’s been used by numerous characters throughout DC Comics’ history. The most famous is Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 “Green Lantern” film. But the first hero to slip on the magic green ring was Alan Scott, created in 1940 by writer Martin Nodell and artist Bill Finger.
When Jordan’s Green Lantern debuted in 1959, Scott was relegated to an alternate universe and, over the decades, he’s retired, returned to crime-fighting, been tossed in limbo, become an elder statesman, and been rebooted as a young gay crimefighter on yet another alternate Earth. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/HeWRxar?app=1
This year, Green Lantern Alan Scott returned to his roots as an older WWII-era hero who has “walked this Earth for a long time, much longer than should have been allotted,” as he said in March’s “Infinite Frontier” #0.
In the same issue, penned by bisexual writer James Tynion IV, the gray-haired ring-slinger comes out as gay to his adult children, the superhero duo Jade and Obsidian.
Scott admits to having had relationships with a few women — including their mother — but added, “I knew there was something about myself I was hiding away.”
Scott says he was asked to be a guardian of the Earth, and tells Jade and Obsidian, “I didn’t think it would be right to take that job without finally being the whole of myself.”
In May, EW confirmed British actor Jeremy Irvine will play Alan Scott in the HBO Max “Green Lantern” series from Arrowverse architect Greg Berlanti.
Dreamer
Nicole Maines as Dreamer in “Supergirl” on The CW.Dean Buscher / The CW
Transgender character Nia Nal, whose powers include precognition and astral projection, premiered on The CW’s “Supergirl” in 2018, played by trans actress Nicole Maines.
But she didn’t make her comic book debut until June 2021, in a story featured in the “DC Pride” anthology that also featured out crimefighters Batwoman, Aqualad and Alan Scott.
“Date Night” was actually written by Maines. In it, Nia Nal stops the League of Shadows from poisoning National City in time to make her date with super-intelligent alien Brainiac 5.
“The bar is now set very, very high, because if you can be a superhero, you can be anything,” Maines told Buzzfeed in April. “It’s like, ‘Well, if I can be a superhero, everything else is very easily within reach.’ So, that’s what I hope people take away from seeing Nia.”
She also praised Dreamer as a chance to demonstrate “trans people are more than what’s in our pants. We are more than our trauma. We’re more than our gender. We are just fully-fledged superheroes, who have an arc outside of our transness.”
Captain America
“The United States of Captain America” comic book coverMarvel
In June, Marvel’s “The United States of Captain America” miniseries hits stores, introducing readers to a variety of everyday people from all walks of life who’ve taken up the mantle of Captain America to defend their communities.
One is gay teenager Aaron Fischer, “the Captain America of the Railways,” described in a release as “a fearless teen who stepped up to protect fellow runaways and the unhoused.”
Joshua Trujillo, who wrote Fischer’s debut, said he is “inspired by heroes of the queer community: activists, leaders and everyday folks pushing for a better life.”
Trans artist Jan Bazaldua said she really enjoyed designing the character.
“I am happy to be able to present an openly gay person who admires Captain America and fights against evil to help those who are almost invisible to society,” Bazaldua said in a statement. “While I was drawing him, I thought, well, Cap fights against super-powerful beings and saves the world almost always, but Aaron helps those who walk alone in the street with problems that they face every day.”
Loki
Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie in Marvel Studios’ “Loki.”Marvel Studios
Adapted to Marvel Comics by Stan Lee himself in 1962’s “Journey Into Mystery” No. 85, the Norse trickster god Loki is both Thor’s wicked half-brother and a perpetual thorn in the side of the mighty Avengers.
In Norse mythology, Loki is a shapeshifter who has appeared as a fish, a fly and a mare — and gave birth to Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse. In the comics, he’s been presented as an adult male, a child (“Kid Loki”) and a woman.
In the 2021 Disney+ series “Loki,” Tom Hiddleston’s version of the character was confirmed to be bisexual in the show’s third episode, which aired June 23. In it, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), an alternate-reality female version of Loki, asks Hiddleston’s character about his romantic history.
“What about you? You’re a prince. Must have been would-be princesses,” Sylvie says. “Or perhaps another prince?”
“A bit of both,” Loki responds. “I suspect the same as you.”
In a tweet that morning, “Loki” director Kate Herron confirmed the character’s sexuality, writing, “It was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual.”
“It is a part of who he is and who I am, too,” wrote Herron, who identifies as queer. “I know this is a small step but I’m happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now canon in [the MCU].”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/5bHJrpt?app=1
Loki won’t be the only queer in Asgard for long: Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie, confirmed her character will be involved in an LGBTQ storyline in May 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder.”
“First of all, as king —as new king — she needs to find her queen,” Thompson told audiences in July at the San Diego Comic-Con. “That’ll be her first order of business. She has some ideas. Keep you posted.”
When Marvels’ “Eternals” arrives in theaters on Nov. 5, viewers will get to see the first out superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Played by “Atlanta” star Brian Tyree Henry, Phastos is described as “a brilliant inventor with a mind for creating weapons and technology.”
While Phastos is part of a tribe of alien immortals with fantastic powers, he is married to a human husband, played by out actor Haaz Sleiman. The two share a kiss, according to Sleiman.
“It’s a beautiful, very moving kiss. Everyone cried on set,” Sleiman told Logo TV last year. “For me, it’s very important to show how loving and beautiful a queer family can be.”
That may explain why the movie has earned a mature rating in Russia, where depictions of LGBTQ people in pop culture are prohibited.
Sprite
Sprite (Lia McHugh) in Marvel Studios’ “Eternals.”Marvel Studios
Another Eternal, Sprite appears to be a mischievous tween but is actually centuries old and has been trapped looking like a child. Created by legendary artist Jack Kirby in the 1970s, Sprite has alternately been depicted as male, female and gender fluid.
In the upcoming MCU film “Eternals,” the character is being played by actress Lia McHugh, though it’s not clear what their gender identity will be.
Interestingly, Makkari, an Eternal whose super-speed allegedly inspired the myth of Mercury, has been changed from a male character in the comic books to a female character in the film, played by deaf actress Lauren Ridloff.
Wiccan and Speed
Jett Klyne as Tommy and Julian Hilliard as Billy in Marvel Studios’ “WandaVision” on Disney+.Marvel Studios
Super-powered twins Billy and Tommy Maximoff, the sons of Wanda Maximofff, a.k.a. the Avengers’ Scarlet Witch, made their print debut back in the 2005 comic book series “Young Avengers,” with Billy, alias magic-user Wiccan, already paired with his shape-changing alien boyfriend (now husband) Hulkling.
The twins didn’t make their MCU debut until January 2021 in the hit Disney+ series “WandaVision” as the titular couple’s five-year-old sons. While they don’t exactly assume their grown-up identities in the show, they do begin to exhibit powers — Billy magically ages the boys into adolescence — and wear Halloween costumes that hearken to their superhero alter egos.
With the Scarlet Witch expected to appear in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” coming to theaters in May, and fellow Young Avenger Hawkeye debuting in her eponymous Disney+ series in November, it’s possible these queer siblings will be back soon, either on the big or small screen.
Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat
The cover of a “Maurauders” comic bookMarvel
Since her 1980 debut in the pages of “Uncanny X-Men,” Kitty Pryde has been romantically linked to fellow mutant Colossus and Guardians of the Galaxy leader Star-Lord.
But she’s also been, in the words of writer Kat Calamia in GamesRadar, “the queen of subtextual storytelling” with flirtatious relationships with female X-Men Rachel Summers and Illyana Rasputin.
“Some may even go as far to say it was queerbaiting,” Calamia wrote. “Giving just enough to make queer fans ‘happy’ without actually having to deliver on any real representation.”
In Marauders #12, Pryde, who now goes by “Kate,” has been resurrected by her fellow mutants after being murdered by the treacherous Sebastian Shaw. Eager to celebrate her new lease on life, Pryde gets a tattoo and shares a kiss with the female artist who gave her the tat.
“It’s a wonderful scene,” Screenrant’s Thomas Bacon wrote, “not least because artist Matteo Lolli gives Kate a look of sheer delight after she’s initiated the kiss.”
Technically, Marauders #12 had a Nov. 2020 cover date, but since it confirmed long-held suspicions about the X-fave, we’re going to allow it.
“Kitty was trying to find her authentic self, and her near-death experience helped her achieve it,” Calamia wrote. “With so few bisexual characters in superhero comic books (and even fewer bisexual coming out stories), it makes it that much more important for Kitty Pryde’s bisexuality to continue to be visible,”
In the 2014 live-action film “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” Pryde was played by transgender actor Elliot Page.
The criticism also hones in on the fact that the BBC continues to platform anti-trans charity LGB Alliance, which the public broadcaster has received backlash for in the past. In fact, the BBC has previously been branded “institutionally transphobic” by senior MPs, LGBT+ campaigners and public figures for its anti-trans coverage.
Linda Riley, publisher of DIVA, Europe’s top magazine for LGBT+ women and non-binary people, told PinkNews that the BBC News article about trans and cis lesbians is “biased” and “very harmful”.
“I don’t understand why BBC News has published an article perpetuating the idea that trans women are sexually preying on lesbians,” Riley told PinkNews. “During all my time as the publisher of DIVA magazine and indeed as a member of the community, I have never heard from a lesbian saying she has been pressurised into having sex with a trans woman.”
Riley, who is also the founder of Lesbian Visibility Week, made clear she is “not saying” the accounts of women featured in the article “are untrue”. However, she is “reiterating that this is not a common experience in our community”.
“I have also noticed how many people who are not part of the LGBTQI community are voicing their opinions on this matter,” Riley continued. “An ally’s role is to amplify our voices. They are not amplifying mine, nor the voices of thousands of DIVA readers.
“It seems clear to me that they are amplifying a transphobic campaign.”
BBC article is ‘anti-trans’ and also ‘anti-lesbian’
Another cis lesbian, Amy, who is based in London, told PinkNews that it is “emotionally exhausting” to see the BBC “stirring up anti-trans rhetoric”.
“It’s also anti-lesbian,” she said, “because this narrative does not fit with the majority of lesbians. It does not speak for me or any lesbians I know.”
Amy points out that many of the individuals driving the narrative that trans women are a threat to cis women are not even lesbians themselves.
One such person, anti-trans comedy writer Graham Linehan, went to the lengths of making himself an account on a queer women’s dating app to “prove” that trans women are dangerous to cis lesbians. Linehan, who is a straight cisgender man, was banned by the app (he is already banned by Twitter for hateful conduct) but spoke on a panel at the LGB Alliance conference last week.
Amy also said that as a survivor herself, she wishes the BBC “would instead chose to spend our money on holding the police and CPS to account on tackling sexual violence and the horrifically poor conviction rates, rather than stirring up hatred that pits struggling minorities against other struggling minorities”.
“The obsession with women’s genitalia in the mainstream media is bizarre and dehumanising – if you don’t want to date someone, you don’t have to, it’s simple. In reality, most trans women are probably dating other trans people who won’t judge them for who they are anyway!
“Please leave trans women alone, please stop painting lesbians as anti-trans and please, let’s get back to fighting misogyny and sexual violence so we can all be free.”
She added that a better use of BBC time and money could be spent highlighting the inequalities that British lesbians do face, “such as the fact we have to have thousands of pounds to access any kind of IUI or IVF treatment in the UK, while straight couples immediately get free IVF when they need it”.
“This is a major issue that is getting very little mainstream media attention, meaning the government is not held to account and lesbians are unable to become parents.”
Cis lesbians take to Twitter to defend trans women
Other cis lesbians added their voices in support of trans women on Twitter.
Lisa Power, co-founder of LGBT+ charity Stonewall, said: “I’ve been a lesbian for almost 50 years. I’ve known trans women, mostly lesbians, all that time.
“None have ever ‘pressured’ anyone into sex that I know of. This grubby fantasy is identical to the straight sex fears of the 80s about gay people.”
Folk singer-songwriter Grace Petrie also pointed out that the real issues lesbians face are rarely covered by the media, and that the BBC is contributing to a “baseless moral panic” against queer women, while ignoring “the real threat of a culture of violence against women”.
“You know what has happened to me, as a lesbian?” she said. “A man once threatened to break my nose when I asked him to stop harassing my then-girlfriend. A group of men harassed me and my then-girlfriend and attacked our home for 10mths w/ vandalism and bricks (once a firework) til we moved.
“I have been physically intimidated by homophobia and misogyny at various points my whole life. None of it has ever been from trans women.
“My experience reflects that of hundreds of lesbians I have met. That article does not reflect the experiences of anyone I have ever met.”
Responding to criticism of the article, a BBC spokesperson said: “The article looks at a complex subject from different perspectives and acknowledges it is difficult to assess the extent of the issue.
“It includes testimony from a range of different sources and provides appropriate context. It went through our rigorous editorial processes.
“It is important that journalism looks at issues – even where there are strongly held positions. The BBC is here to ensure debate and to make sure a wide a range of voices are heard.”
