Homosexual Villains

[Sleepwalker42]

So, I've been asked to talk about homosexuality and comicbooks on a radio show in my area, and I was thinking through the fact that I can't think of any villains that are homosexual. There are plenty of heroes, and a lot of semi-villains (the Wikipedia page was minimally helpful), but are there any actually evil evil villains that are LGBT? Mystique is bi...but as a shape shifter that's an odd quagmire. Most of the villains seem to be anti-heroes (Blithe) or villains with a hard of gold (Savage)...are there any Apocalypse or Joker types out there?

(note: not trying to start scandal or a post war, etc...just trying to see if this bridge has been crossed yet)

[Expletive Deleted]

Machinesmith. Although he's not really human, anymore.

[XPac]

I do wonder if there's some sort of fear about having a homosexual badguy. If they create a homosexual villian, some fringe groups won't start complaining that in marvels eyes homosexuals = evil. It's a pretty ridiculous reach, but I wouldn't be shocked.

I believe Baron Zemo at one point was married to his father, but that's not really homosexuality. That was just weird.

At one point I think they sort of implied that Purple Man might have messed around with the Thunderbolts Swordsman. But I don't believe that was verified, and again I'm not sure that means either were actually gay.

Moon Dragon was a villain maybe 10-20% of her character history, and she's gay. Or at least bi.

[Sleepwalker42]

XPac...that is very much what I was thinking. I thought of Moondragon...but again she has that redeemed or redemptive quality.

[Greg Anderson]

Yeah, I'm drawing some blanks on this one.

There's Venomm from Black Panther, who later becomes a good guy.

[Still Don't Care]

The "evil gay" stereotype exists for a reason. Neither Marvel nor DC need any LGBT villains, period. They need to leave that in the past with their unfortunate "gay men try to rape Bruce Banner" and "Northstar is a fairy" nonsense.

And pro-tip: It's not "reaching" to say that having gay villains is bad. It's being aware of the cultural ramifications of nonsensical storylines. We need more gay villains like we need more black dudes in hoodies being the villain.

[Greg Anderson]

A person being gay shouldn't stop them from being any type of character. We need more diversity period, whether it's orientation or race combined with being heroes and villains.

[Thennary Nak]

Wasn't it hinted that Electro was gay? I don't really follow Spider-Man but I remember hearing something along those lines about him.

[Sighphi]

The "evil gay" stereotype exists for a reason. Neither Marvel nor DC need any LGBT villains, period. They need to leave that in the past with their unfortunate "gay men try to rape Bruce Banner" and "Northstar is a fairy" nonsense.

And pro-tip: It's not "reaching" to say that having gay villains is bad. It's being aware of the cultural ramifications of nonsensical storylines. We need more gay villains like we need more black dudes in hoodies being the villain.

There's an evil gay stereotype?
Where are all these evil gay characters? I dont recall any.

[Mistah K88]

Well DC has the Brain and Monsieur Mallah...but being gay is the only thing normal about that relationship. People tend to forget about them since they aren't hot.

[Trallis]

I do wonder if there's some sort of fear about having a homosexual badguy. If they create a homosexual villian, some fringe groups won't start complaining that in marvels eyes homosexuals = evil. It's a pretty ridiculous reach, but I wouldn't be shocked.

I believe Baron Zemo at one point was married to his father, but that's not really homosexuality. That was just weird.

At one point I think they sort of implied that Purple Man might have messed around with the Thunderbolts Swordsman. But I don't believe that was verified, and again I'm not sure that means either were actually gay.

Moon Dragon was a villain maybe 10-20% of her character history, and she's gay. Or at least bi.

I heard something similar to this.. but it's not as simple as homosexual=bad.. it's that they don't want to look like they consider homosexuality a form of deviance or something that a deviant would do get into. They have all kinds of fine lines to walk, but there's obviously pressure right now to make some characters gay, considering 7% of women and 8% of men in the U.S. identify as L,G,B, or T. For example you can't make too many girl characters gay cause then it just looks like a cop out, like you're exploiting lesbian behavior to please the adolescent male audience. I think they should just take all the characters who haven't had a lot of romance in their stories and throw their names in a box and pull some out. Obviously they can't make Spider-Man or Daredevil gay because they've had pretty consistent interest in women throughout their histories, and if they were to come out of the closet, fans might see the idea that they put in so much effort to hide it over the years as cowardly on the characters part, or they might see the character as dishonest. There are characters whose motivations for hiding it could be easily justified though. Captain America, for example, grew up in a different time. Maybe he kept it a secret not because he was afraid, but because he didn't want to let certain people down who looked up to him, and then he realizes how much he could help others who look up to him, so he decides to come out. He could really make a statement about how times have changed and such.

You definitely have a point about the lack of gay villains.. I can't think of any.

[Greg Anderson]

Wasn't it hinted that Electro was gay? I don't really follow Spider-Man but I remember hearing something along those lines about him.

Bi, I believe. He experimented while in prison and enjoyed himself. But he was also involved with a girlfriend later on.

[Trallis]

The "evil gay" stereotype exists for a reason. Neither Marvel nor DC need any LGBT villains, period. They need to leave that in the past with their unfortunate "gay men try to rape Bruce Banner" and "Northstar is a fairy" nonsense.

And pro-tip: It's not "reaching" to say that having gay villains is bad. It's being aware of the cultural ramifications of nonsensical storylines. We need more gay villains like we need more black dudes in hoodies being the villain.

We need as many gay villains as we need gay superheroes. 7.5%

[chariset]

Here, try this page..

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...avedHomosexual

[Guest_1001]

The "evil gay" stereotype exists for a reason. Neither Marvel nor DC need any LGBT villains, period. They need to leave that in the past with their unfortunate "gay men try to rape Bruce Banner" and "Northstar is a fairy" nonsense.

And pro-tip: It's not "reaching" to say that having gay villains is bad. It's being aware of the cultural ramifications of nonsensical storylines. We need more gay villains like we need more black dudes in hoodies being the villain.

That's just ridiculous. There isn't an "evil gay" stereotype. The closest thing we have to that is the "lesbian vampire" stereotype. Your analogy to "black dudes in hoodies being the villain" is completely flawed because with that, you are stereotyping while by having a gay villain, you're not.

Come on, do you want fully-rounded characters or do you want politically-motivated messages? Because you're asking for the second one. You're asking people to hold sexuality to a higher moral standard than heterosexuality. You should be asking for equality.

Not that it'll happen anyway; comic book companies are petrified of even having female villains. That's why so many of them turn good while those evil, evil men continue being their natural evil selves while the inherently good women can be redeemed (with a few exceptions).