The Green Lantern is gay.
But it's not Hal Jordan. In DC Comics' "Earth 2," Alan Scott is a revamped parallel-earth Green Lantern. Scott, who first appeared as the Green Lantern in 1940, is also younger in the series. A writer of the new series, James Robinson, said to the Associated Press that he suggested making Scott gay because by making him younger, they erased his son who was gay.
Even though Scott's Green Lantern is not the first gay superhero, he will be the biggest openly gay superhero when "Earth 2" drops on Wednesday.
One group I noticed that got angry about Green Lantern's sexual orientation is One Million Moms. According to its website, the group formed "to give moms an impact with the decision-makers and let them know we are upset with the messages they are sending our children and the values (or lack of them) they are pushing."
Recently, the group started and ended a failed campaign to get J.C. Penney to fire Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson. The group is also boycotting J.C. Penney for a Father's Day advertisement that features a same-sex couple.
One Million Moms isn't very fond of open and proud homosexuals.
In a Guardian article, the organization said, "Children desire to be just like superheroes. Children mimic superhero actions and even dress up in costumes to resemble these characters as much as possible. Can you imagine little boys saying, 'I want a boyfriend or husband like X-Men?'"
The X-Men reference pertains to Marvel's new "Astonishing X-Men" issue, which features the marriage of superhero Northstar to his boyfriend.
One Million Moms' statement struck me as hilarious.
If little boys decided to say they want a boyfriend or a husband because of X-Men or any other comic book, that's fine with me. I highly doubt all of the boys or girls who dress up as superheroes will run around saying they're suddenly gay because of a comic book, though. It will probably just result in children saying they're OK with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.
How can that be bad? It'd be great for people to learn to be accepting earlier in life. No one likes a bigot.
Under 'current issues' on the group's website, it urges people to "take action now" against DC and Marvel for its homosexual superheroes, saying the comics should not have sexual orientation shown to readers.
Since One Million Moms doesn't want DC or Marvel to have sexual orientation displayed, I wonder if the group just meant it didn't want homosexuality to be shown. If so, then any superhero in a heterosexual relationship would need to be rewritten, which is as ridiculous as the thought of asking them to rewrite gay characters.
Homosexuality is sometimes viewed as a corrupting force, but perhaps the suppression of being oneself is more harmful to a child's life.
Being oneself is something consistently taught to children. I never heard "Ashley, be who you are, unless it's different," but unfortunately, that's exactly what society is saying.
I'm not a huge comic book fan, but I'm excited DC decided to write the parallel-earth Green Lantern as a proud gay superhero. It's important to have prominent figures - even fictional - stand up and out to show the normality of it.
So the Green Lantern's gay. As Robinson said to the AP, being gay is just one aspect of Scott, just like it is for anyone.
I think the children will be just fine. The world won't burn.
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