Queer Comics

“Just as ordinary crime books contribute to the fixation of violent and hostile patterns by suggesting definite forms of their expression, so the Batman type of story helps to fixate homoerotic tendencies by suggesting the form of an adolescent-with-adult or Ganymede-Zeus type of love-relationship.” - Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent (1954)

Dedicating two pages worth of dialog making a case that comic books featuring Batman and Robin would encourage homosexuality in the same way they encourage violent, criminal behavior, Fredric Wertham became the flashpoint of a hysteria that engulfed America, with parents and politicians, clergy and parents alike called for bans on comic books and participated in public book burnings. At time period when homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, treatable by lobotomy or castration and punishable by incarceration, a homoerotic subtext between Batman and Robin was viewed as a form of “gate-way drug” to sexually deviant behavior. The United States Congress called for investigative hearings and as Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels documents “in the face of mounting threats of censorship from the government, the Comics Magazine Association of America opted for self-censorship, resulting in the drafting of the Comics Code in 1954 and the establishment of the Comics Code Authority to implement it.” A sweeping ban on anything that could constitute sexual perversion was set in place, and DC Comics swiftly introduced the original Batwoman Kathy Kane in 1956 and her niece Betty Kane the Bat-Girl in 1961 as love interests for Batman and Robin respectively to assure readers that they were heterosexual.

With the CCA dictating appropriate content, the invisibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people extended to the world of fiction, as our lives were deemed unfit for mainstream publication. Changes in society over the next few decades would slowly erode the authority of the Comics Code, starting with the birth of the Gay Liberation movement in the late 1960s, the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 by the American Psychiatric Association, and ever increasing visibility by LGBT people in the public sphere. Marvel Comic’s Northstar would become one of the world’s first openly gay superhero and a number of characters would emerge from the closet in his wake, including Apollo, Midnighter, The Rawhide Kid, Mystique, Destiny—and in a feat of poetic justice—the original Batwoman would be reimagined as a lesbian, becoming the most high profile LGBT character in the industry.

The LGBT Comic column features articles that reflect LGBT interests in mainstream and independent comics, as well as the development of openly LGBT characters in modern publication and their depictions.

J. Skyler

Last Updated: November 10, 2023 - 14:53