Is Stargirl going to be first transgender hero/ine?

[Agent_Dark]

Would they have to change the name to Starperson?

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Actually, Rachel Pollack made the first intersexual hero in her run on Doom Patrol.

[T Hedge Coke]

Actually, Rachel Pollack made the first intersexual hero in her run on Doom Patrol.

Before that, Rebis was intersex via magic.

Many a body-hopper, of course, from Boston Brand to Shade. You think Deadman feels he's a woman just because he's got a female body at the moment? Nah. Dude's a man, and he knows it (just ignore the anatomy).

Before that: Cloud. Nobody remembers Cloud, but Cloud was awesome. Ask, half the team who - despite Cloud being a weirdly ignorant, terrified teenager - went gaga in love/lust over what turned out to be a nebula that grew legs and a head to walk amongst us.

We've also had cross-dressing characters, previously, though, who weren't doing it for work-purposes, and sometimes took it to exceptional lengths. Which, isn't quite the same, but the if we're gathering trans, intersex, and genderqueered all here, I say lump in the transvestites and socially-passing-transgendered, too.

[vampiric_cannibal]

*checks title. checks still in DC board. Glances at X-books tab suspiciously. Realizes serious. Now not confused.*

Would they have to change the name to Starperson?

No. Transgender's rather unsurprisingly view themselves as a member of the opposite gender than they had the bits for at birth. Might get touchy over being referred to as gender-neutral.

[Flash Gordon]

This is just constant now.

No source, no facts, no problems.

[T Hedge Coke]

This is just constant now.

No source, no facts, no problems.

If we're going that route... pssssstt! Storm's a man, yeah? And secretly white. Pass it on.

[Sk8maven]

Comics already HAD the first transgender hero/ine, back in the 1940's. "Madam Fatal" was a man posing as a little old lady to kick criminal ass - usually played for broad slapstick, but the ambiguities were an intrinsic part of the concept.

In the other direction, the original Red Tornado was a burly middle-aged housewife who ran around in a soup-pot helmet and longjohns kicking criminal ass, and everybody else just assumed that such a butch character had to be male. :-)

For that matter the original concept of Wonder Woman was straight-up role reversal: she was the knight in shining armor, and Steve ("her guy") was the damsel in distress. (He was pretty useless when he wasn't being rescued - no wonder hardly anyone ever knew what she saw in him, other than his being the first man she'd ever seen!)