Today some jackass commented that the new Ultimate Spider is half-black and half-Hispanic and half-gay. First of all it was a dumb statement. Second-off it would be great to see any sort of minority gay character. It’s gotten to a point where there is no dearth of gay characters in media. But most of the gay characters are white (not to mention B-character and still stereotypes to varying degrees). That is with a few notable exceptions there are very few works that are aimed at teens that have gay characters in my experience. Let’s admit it right now folks, comic books are aimed at teens and kids (the Ultimates line in particular). Let’s say that Ultimate Spiderman was gay and Latino and Black. This this might be the most progressive character idea ever.

Everyone understands that people realize there sexuality during puberty. Being gay is something is often treated with contempt at worse and too often misunderstanding. In Tennessee, they tried to ban the word in an attempt to whitewash the issue away. If this is the environment that young gay people have to live with, it will only cause other issues later in life (often not that later). But this issue is really about the fact that there are gay people in every ethnicity. There are many articles and there has been a lot of talk about the greater difficulties of being gay in the Black community. I cannot speak from experience but I have met people who have gone through this.

I think that there is a need for those who are growing up the black community and are gay to have the ability to turn to fiction for a character that they are able to relate to and be able to identify with. There have been black and gay characters for a long time now. There may have even been a gay black character before but if they were to make Spiderman (even Ultimate Spiderman) a gay minority, this would be a huge step towards helping many young men and women who due to deep issues in our society have difficulty just admitting they are who they are. It would also be a bold move to make a flagship character Black and gay. Some people will stop reading because of that but those who do might learn that gay people are just that people.