Hello everyone first off I want to say it is a pleasure to meet everyone I can in advance. This seems like a wonderful site for the LGBT community. Now onto why I am on this website. I came to this site because I am starting my own company with my wife to publish a comic series, and would like to reach out to people to help me understand more about the LGBT community. As a writer I want to accurately portray the LGBT community with interesting characters in my stories. I hope that anyone who sees this and is interested wouldn't mind taking a small amount a time to tell me what you would to like to see in a Super Hero Comic book series. I want to do a real bang up job so that I can really give everyone characters that inspire. I honestly admit that the LGBT community hasn't been accurately represented in comics along with many other groups. But I want to help change that.
Probably not the answer you are looking for but the best way to treat and LGBT character in a format like that is to treat them like anyone else. Half the problem with misrepresentation is that people have a tendency to assume that being LGBT is what defines us, as if it's the MOST important thing in our lives. I, for example, am trans and pansexual. If I were to be turned into a cartoon character by someone, you can bet your life that it would be a constant commentary about how I used to be a man and wondering how I cope, as opposed to other characters just treating me as female! With sexuality you rarely see a same-sex couple in something without someone making a comment or two about it. Nobody treats it like it's just a normal thing.
Hello and welcome! :icon_bigg We come all different shapes, so there's no "correct" way to portray "us". I think we all (almost all) agree on the fact that stereotypes need to be avoided. If you want to use a gay character, I think you should not make him look gay, that is, not using the stereotypes. There are gays who are stereotypically gay, but it would be more supporting to have "an awesome and interesting character who happens to be gay". Don't let the sexuality play a prominent and obvious role. Good luck! :icon_bigg
:welcome: to EC, it is a very well rounded community I hope you find the answers you're looking for when it comes to representing LGBT in your work.
Thank you all for the helpful advice. I do agree that the best way to write people no matter what they classify as is to remember at a base level we all are sentient beings. (It's a superhero comic so it's gonna have aliens, robots, humans all that jazz lol) The best characters are real and so I would say I'm hoping to meet some real people here that won't mind offering input. I really want to craft some amazing stories for everyone and to do that I'm starting small and just meeting people to get inspired. I have many ideas just need a little more direction to make it work optimally.
Well I'm sure we have enough vaguely interesting stories to keep you going for a long time, but I have to ask what exactly you plan on doing with them. See the thing is, you often get people who want to do LGBT characters right. They start off with noble intentions, they do their research and treat the characters with complete respect. Basically they take the approach you are taking. Then they hit a snag. How the heck do you bring it up without making it seem like a really big deal! I mean honestly, how do you write a trans character without making a point that they are trans and without confusing the hell out of the audience? That's when the problems start! You can have the most accurate character in the world and then in order to do justice to their personal issues you have to think of a way to bring them up. This seems to be were most people mess up! Good luck to you
Welcome! If you need any help on some questions dealing with a transman character (who is gay as well), you can feel free to post on my wall. I'll be more than happy to help. Other than that, I wish you the best of luck with your comic!
x1000 This describes it all really. How are you planning to let the readers know? How are you going to make sure there's not much confusion (I think you don't want readers to be confused :lol: )?
Welcome to EC. Just make the LGBT community in the comics real people:with goals, interest besides sex, and break the stereotypes. Goodluck with your comic!! I might want to read it, I love comics!
