LGBT Literature: “When you shut your eyes, afraid to see yourself..."

by bruh1 for Readers and Book Lovers

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015 Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015 at 4:30:10pm PST

LGBT Literature is a Readers and Book Lovers series dedicated to discussing books that have made an impact on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. From fiction to contemporary nonfiction to history and everything in between, any book that touches on LGBT themes is welcome in this series. LGBT Literature posts on the last Sunday of every month at 7:30 PM EST. If you are interested in writing for the series, please send a Kosmail to Chrislove.

From Yaoi to superhero to literary, from the mainstream to the independent to experimental and from the profound to cotton candy, there is a vast territory to cover in comic books and graphic novels. It is impossible to cover in one short diary. Instead, I mention below some stories and characters that you should check out.

To understand the allure of comic books and graphic novels, I will start with a scene: A dirty bathroom in the slums of Rio. Lord Fanny, a Brazilian trans shaman and recent victim of a brutal gang rape, contemplates suicide and questions her patron god, Tlazolteotl.

...and Tlazolteotl says, “I have made you strong, and wise, and incorruptible. I have shown you the worst there is and made you free.” Lord Fanny responds, “Tlazolteotl, who mated with a jaguar and brought forth Quetzalcoatl, who seduced the virtuous hermit into sin. You who are mystery and redemption. You who teach witchcraft and forgive all who fall. I will crawl through shit. I will take all the filth of the world and turn it into the purest gold. I will rise from darkness, shining like the morning star, illuminated woman am I...”

Thus, we are transported into a world where LGBT characters exists in comic books and graphic novels. This is not always the case. Like the rest of the world, in fact, many writers refuse to see. Lord Fanny, the character I choose to start this diary, was wonderfully complicated. The scene takes place in The Invisibles, an anarchist supernatural story written by Grant Morrison. She is an integral part of the success of The Invisibles. She is often attacked due to trans- and homophobic characters and some of her own statements may make one uncomfortable with her views of being LGBT while other statements are inspirational. It is Fanny's words that gives us the title of this diary, “When you shut your eyes, afraid to see yourself as you truly are... That is when you see only darkness."

The writer of The Invisibles is in my mind controversial because of his questionable views on being gay and trans, including an interview in which he said Batman is gay not because of same sex attraction but because of the author's views of gay identity, and he uses the word “tranny” because he once dressed in drag. Nevertheless, he manages to create, in Fanny, a character whose identity is complex. On the one hand, her identity as a woman can be seen as a social construct pushed onto her by her grandmother who wished to raise her as a witch, because only women are allowed to be witches in her family, but on the other, the grandmother leaves it to Fanny to accept or not accept a dress at the start of her training as a witch so we are left to believe that the grandmother is only acting on Fanny's true nature as a woman. As a witch, Fanny is confident at times to the point of arrogance. Yet, at the same time, she is committed to the cause of stopping demons. She is, in short, messy, and, thus, we see the interior of who she is, both good and bad. The messy isn't a stereotype. Its what makes her human.

While still limited in numbers, LGBT characters are arising in every aspect of the comic book and graphic novel world. Perhaps the most successful of the mainstream superhero comics with a lesbian as its lead is Batwoman. The character's run in Detective Comics, which was later collected into a graphic novel with a forward by Rachel Maddow, under the title Batwoman: Elegy, is both beautifully written and visually stunning. Kate, the protagonist, is full of the same pathos you might expect to find in a Batman series, but she places her own unique perspective on it as a woman thrown out of the military under Don't Ask, Don't Tell dealing with the childhood trauma of her twin sister being kidnapped and murdered. She is trying to find a way to make a difference, even if it's as mad as becoming a vigilante. This is in my mind how one should view LGBT characters. We are not just LGBT, but it does shape our stories. You wouldn't feel how desperate Kate is to help and be denied that ability without Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and you wouldn't feel the desperation that leads her to the crazy idea of dressing up like a bat without it.

She is by no means the only superhero. Apollo and Midnighter who became the first gay couple to both lead their own series and to marry comes to mind. They demonstrate gays are no more against violence than straights with their brutal form of justice. They are also a kind of satire about Batman and Superman reimagined as a couple. I certainly cannot say enough about Wiccan and Hulking who appear in Marvel Comics' Young Avengers as millennial, post-gay characters who become the heart of the team. Meanwhile, characters like John Constantine in Hellblazer bring bisexuality into mainstream comics. His character is especially complicated as a con man and street wise magician who says “screw you” to heaven and hell. Here's a man who is so determined to say screw you to the world that he gives the middle finger to the devil just to say, "I will serve neither you nor God." Early it is established that he has had relationships with men and women. Many writers have refused to explore his bisexuality.

For a character so against labels, it is odd that they would ignore his bisexuality as it was originally written in the early days of the series. Instead, writers choose to ignore it. Straight-washing is a constant struggle.

I certainly can not ignore Starman (which rocked my world in the 90s), Green Lantern, Rictor, Shatterstar and many other heroes. Nor can I ignore that there are LGBT villains like Daken, Mystique and the Pied Piper who appear in Marvel and DC Comics. I think its important that we are both heroes and villains. If we were just one or other, this would destroy the chance for great stories that can be told about us. That Pied Piper is a villain due to his family's lack of acceptance of his sexual orientation is great. That Daken's daddy issues has nothing to do with his sexuality is also great. He's a psychopath without being the bisexual psychopath. LGBT are also there in semi-mainstream series like Lucifer, Y the Last Man, and Sandman. We are there in independent series like The Walking Dead. The semi-mainstream especially have created complex, unique characters. Not all of them make me feel comfortable. In Lucifer, for example, a skinhead eventually becomes the lover of a man he originally attacked and left in a wheelchair. He is possibly in love with the man, but also stays with him as penance for putting the man in the wheelchair. In the issue, we assume that the man in the wheelchair is unaware that his boyfriend put him in the wheelchair, but by the end, the judge of God tells the skinhead that the man in the wheelchair has always known what the skinhead did. There are so many layers to the act of forgiving or not forgiving here that I am left simply accepting that I don't quite know what the characters are feeling in the story. The emotions are just too messy.

LGBTs are not limited to the mainstream. One can find stories such as Fun Home, which stayed for a long time on the NY Times best sellers list. One can also find other great stories like Pedro and Me , The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal, Artifice, and Scott Pilgrim.

Yet, the visibility remains small. Part of the issue is geek culture, which has tended to cater to the fantasies of insecure young white American males. If a character is gay, it is making the story about being gay. Not that the character can be interesting and be gay too. At least, that's the common assumption in the trolling that one finds in online communities discussing LGBT characters. “Why do they need to be LGBT” is the common response to LGBT characters from those who don't want to see us. Its the same issues we see in the rest of society.

Few ever ask, “Why does the character need to be straight?” It is ultimately the challenge caused by the power of simply being in the majority. The majority need not see the minority. Thinking of us is to the majority a sign of special treatment. We are expected to always see the majority as paramount. If we ask for more than that, we are seeking favor. The mere fact there are any stories with us in them is a violation of the majority's belief. This is not to say that there isn't a yearning for these stories. There are. It is just a challenge to fight against the expectations in the publishing industry and the echo chamber that phobia produces.

I end with a discussion of this topic in a panel that included the Hernandez Brothers, who are famous for the Love and Rocket series. I highly recommend that you check out Blood of Palomar.

I also recommend Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez. The panel discussion with the brothers and other writers is a great read.

P.S., You may also want to check out the comic, Blood Syndicate, which includes both a closeted Latino anti-hero, Fade, and a transgendered shape shifter.