If, like me, you have a profuse fascination with all things comicbook, movies, or videogame storytelling and have always wanted to see more gay characters in these stories. I mean I can clearly remember how I loved the not so subtle hints from Final Fantasy’s Kuja and how his elusive sexuality was an accent of his persona rather than the contributing reason of his villainous ways. But seeing a well developed gay characters like that are rare in general and even more so as a villain.
But are we beginning to see more diverse characters in our geek world? well we may be seeing changes in that department. With characters like Dexter and Skyfall show rich development as their sexuality is just that. We have to reiterate that often because when we look back as an examination into how gay villains were once perceived it was quite different:
“In the early days of LGBT characters on screen, it was often the case that a character’s sexual orientation or gender identity was directly tied to their villainous nature as things like lecherous prison guards, blackmailers, or even psychotic killers. Though that’s almost never the case now, it’s still something writers and directors should be conscious of. What this also highlights, however, is that there are still too few LGBT protagonists and leads in popular media, particularly in genre film and television. Where is the gay equivalent to James Bond?”
No there is still no character that has been made a true lead, either protagonist or antagonist that can be compared to the level of Bond. But characters like Fring from Sons Of Anarchy are seen as progress. And it can be argued that immaculately written character Omar from HBO’s The Wire is a sign of changing times:
As played by Michael K. Williams, Omar holds up drug dealers for a living, sometimes with a pretty younger man by his side. Like Sirko and perhaps Fring, he longs to avenge a lover’s death, which makes him more sympathetic than the usual bad guy motivated by greed.
Omar’s homosexuality, in other words, brings out the best in him. And it does nothing to make him less of a man. Even as his enemies denounce him as a “cocksucker,” they fear him as much as they fear anyone.
Is this enough? Of course not. We need to be cognizant of how LGBT characters are portrayed even more than ever as we are at the precipice of change, It’s necessary to question today because of past misconceptions of gay being weaker or less than in the past just as racial and ethnic minorities must do as well. We want to see representation everywhere.
