Editorial: On The LGBT Comic Book Community

When we posted last week's LGBT Comic of the Week, Tommy Roddy's Pride High, we had no idea how large the reaction would be from our readers. I believe that, to date, this has been our most commented on story in Pink Kryptonite's history. Tommy has posted his own response to the comments, but I felt the need to write something regarding some of the negative comments.

When I first started writing for PK, we didn't have as many resources to seek out LGBT creators and their work to be able to highlight them. But when we did come across an LGBT book, we held it to the same standards as any other book, and we were quick to dismiss them because they weren't "real" or "authentic" and didn't portray the world to our liking.

When I took over being editor of this site, I had to face my own prejudices and set of standards that I held to LGBT comic books. Facing so much specialized and intense adversity as a gay man, my world strictly became me against everyone else. Then when I met other gay men who shared the same interests and beliefs, it became my skewed perspective of what gay men should be like vs everyone else. What ended up happening was that I dismissed any gay person who didn't fit within the confines of my ideal. So of course when this type of thinking is applied to comic books, you could see how easy it is to dismiss something like Brian Andersen's So Super Duper. As I met more people outside of my comfort zone and witnessed how diverse we truly are as LGBT people, my attitude started to change.

Exposure to new ideas eases the dissolution of prejudices.

One of the major changes to the site that we made conscientiously was to grow and foster the LGBT comic book community by supporting the already small amount of LGBT books out there. Because LGBT characters are so rarely portrayed in mainstream comic books, it's been refreshing and interesting to read the wide spectrum of characterizations that these creators present to us. If Pride High isn't your cup of tea, don't read it. The benefit of having sites like Prism Comics, After Elton, The Gay League and Pink Kryptonite is that we are offering you many choices for you to pick and choose to your liking.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not everyone is entitled to delimit the advances of a minority without exploring all recourses for understanding.

Tommy's advancing the LGBT community. Whether you like it or not. It has people talking, and you my friends, are the proof.

jonostarsmore
Posted to Hot Stuff, editorial on 1 April 2008 · Comments (1)
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