One Million Moms Against Gay Superheroes

DC and Marvel have both been making some pretty big moves recently with gay characters. DC announced that one of its established characters will be coming out of the closet. They were originally going to create an entirely new character to fill the role of the new gay character, with the first one being Batwoman, but somewhere along the way DC decided to use the New 52 reboot to reinvent one of their characters as gay. Marvel, on the other hand, is having one of their main gay characters marry their long-time boyfriend. Northstar, who was the first openly gay superhero, recently popped the question to his boyfriend Kyle. They will be getting married this June in Astonishing X-Men 51.

With all the gayness happening, someone with some kind of voice was bound to get pissed off about this. That someone was One Million Moms, a conservative Christian group run by the American Family Association. They had the following to say about DC and Marvel’s push of their gay and soon to be gay characters:

“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?”

This is ridiculous! Why do adult gay men need comic superheroes as role models? They don’t but do want to indoctrinate impressionable young minds by placing these gay characters on pedestals in a positive light. These companies are heavily influencing our youth by using children’s superheroes to desensitize and brainwash them in thinking that a gay lifestyle choice is normal and desirable…

Unfortunately, children are now being exposed to homosexuality at an early age. Comic books would be one of the last places a parent would expect their child to be confronted with homosexual topics that are too complicated for them to understand. Children do not know what straight, homosexual, or coming out of the closet even means, but DC Comics and Marvel are using superheroes to confuse them on this topic to raise questions and awareness of an alternative lifestyle choice. These companies are prompting a premature discussion on sexual orientation.”

While the idea behind all this bullshit OMM is claiming is really stupid, I do find the statement kind of funny. They say that children don’t know what anything gay even means, yet a comic book showing someone marrying someone of the same gender will  somehow ruin them and make them want to marry gay people. It reminds me of the argument Fox made a while ago about Bulletstorm turning kids into rapists because they wouldn’t understand all the sexual jokes in the game.

What’s also very, very stupid is the idea that putting these gay characters in the spotlight will “indoctrinate impressionable young mind” and “desensitize and brainwash them in thinking that a gay lifestyle choice is normal and desirable.” These moms don’t want comics to indoctrinate or brainwash children, they want to do it themselves.

OMM is calling upon its followers to email both DC and Marvel to bitch at them in hopes of stopping all further plans for gay superheroes. It’s most likely not going to work and will probably result in more gay superheroes if the past is any indication. Earlier this year, Archie Comics released a story about a gay wedding and OMM emailed Toys ‘R’ Us, asking them not to sell the issue. In response, Toys ‘R’ Us “had the audacity” to put the issues right at the check out counters for everyone to see, and the stores sold out of the comic quickly.