The Return of Young Justice May Carry the Promise of More LGBTQ Representation

Fans of Young Justice have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. It was a pretty big deal when it was announced that we would be getting new episodes a few months back. Now, though, we can hopefully expect those episodes to carry with them the hope of more LGBTQ representation. Greg Weisman, co-creator of the series, explained in a series of tweets that, essentially, times have changed, and they may very well be allowed to acknowledge and openly talk about characters who were once thought to be only coded as LGBTQ.

@Superhero_News1 @JasmineShawarma @SexyDeadpool69 There are already LGBT characters in #YoungJustice

— Greg Weisman (@Greg_Weisman) January 6, 2017

In fact, that very same Twitter thread was started by someone tweeting at Weisman, hoping that none of the characters would be bi or gay on the basis that it would “RUIN the show,” according to them. Sure, yeah, okay, pal.

In another tweet, Weisman somewhat explains why they may not have been able to directly acknowledge these coded charaters, writing:

“@Superhero_News1: @SchweitzerMan @JasmineShawarma Just looked it up. Here you go;https://t.co/EQSXm3YDCP” Again, that was then.

— Greg Weisman (@Greg_Weisman) January 6, 2017

It’s been a longstanding fact of life (albeit a sad one) that LGBTQIA characters within cartoons are often only left as coded characters, which is to say that they’re often never allowed to be shown acting on such desires, to the degree that they’re often not even allowed to kiss each other. Our own Maddy Myers covered the topic well in her essay on the line between sexualizing and sterilizing same-sex romances in media.

With this new season of Young Justice, one can hope that the much-beloved DC animated show can hopefully err on the side of boosting representation as opposed to shying away from it. You and I and all of us know we certainly could use more of it.

(via io9)

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