ElijahSnowFan wrote:Interesting thread, interesting comments.
As for some of the arguments in the thread, my take is this: It's 2012. Kate Kane's creation didn't blow up the internet. Neither did Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass' outing in the mid-80s. But here's the bottom line: That shouldn't be done with characters that have clearly established sexual orientation. If it's ambiguous, then fine.
Again: You could do it with Wonder Woman and I wouldn't blink, because for the majority of her existence, she wasn't with anyone. Depending on how the story was told, it could make a lot of sense.
But at the same time, you can't do it with Gambit. Because that doesn't pass the smell test. Again, the guy has chased Rogue for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, through numerous books, from numerous writers. You can't just ignore that just for the hell of it -- that's bad writing. If you never had Gambit doing it, then fine. But you can't flip that switch on and off -- it's not that it's unfair to readers. It's unfair to the cause, of gays/lesbians, to do that. It doesn't advance the normalization and portrayal of characters to say that, out of the blue, Gambit's gay.
Create new characters, like Kate Kane. If you find established characters who have never really been portrayed one way or the other and it makes sense, then that's fine, too.
I pretty agree with you on this one. I have to care one way or another what a fictional or real persons sexuality is but I would prefer that they create new interesting gay characters if thats what the creators want in the books, instead of changing an existing character to make a statement or publicity stunt or some thing like that.