Michael Davis: DC Is Coming Out
Orson Scott Card does not like gay people. In fact, I think it’s fair to say he hates gay people. Orson Scott Card is writing Superman stories for DC Comics. A lot of people are pissed over that, but DC is standing by their man.
But will Orson Scott Card still stand by DC?
Why, you ask, would I ask that? Because DC Comics now has a transgender character the first ever in comics…except for Johnny Storm but he is on the down low and come on, that’s so freakin’ obvious. DC’s new transgender character is also…wait for it…wait for it…
Wait for it… Bisexual!!
But wait! There’s more!
Alysia Yeoh is her name (I think she’s Asian and if so…hot!) is the roommate of Batgirl!
Batgirl is living with a bisexual transgender hot Asian woman. Clearly Orson Scott Card won’t want to write Batgirl and who knows he may just quit Superman after his extreme right wing hate buddies start bitching about the Gay Mafia which is now clearly running DC Comics.
Man, I’d love to write that book but the odds of me writing anything for DC are about as good as Obama getting an A rating from the NRA.
Wait. That’s not true. I almost forgot I wrote a piece for the Static Shock Dwayne McDuffie tribute issue. That’s a good a sign as any that someday I’ll work on another DC Comics project. Hell, that’s not a good sign, that’s a great sign.
On the other hand, they still haven’t paid me for that piece… which could be considered a sign also.
Shit.
But I digress (sorry Peter hope you are doing well my friend). Orson Scott Card may not even care that Batgirl, an iconic major character in the DC Universe is shacking up with an bisexual transgender hot Asian woman.
Yeah, right.
Someday soon a reporter, journalist, creator or fan will ask Card in a public forum for his reaction to the bisexual transgender hot Asian woman living with Batgirl and when they do I hope Card responds and doesn’t dodge the question.
Will he stand by his homophobic hateful views and then have to answer what will surly be a follow up question along these line “Will you continue to work for the company that considers this type of lifestyle, which you abhor, a legitimate one?”
That is the rock and hard place that Card will find himself between. Hope for his sake neither rock or hard place are names of guys but just a metaphor.
WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold
THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil
It’s sad that Scott Card has put himself in this fix – he’s a nice guy (or at least, was, twenty or so years ago when i occasionally ran into him at conventions or through mutual friends…)
I remember he got himself in trouble with the fans before all this gay stuff came up by writing a story that read as if he was recounting an actual tragedy in his family life … and then revealing it was all fictional after a lot of people got deeply concerned for him.
I seem to recall that he didn’t get why people were upset about it, though.
Given OSC has written deep, sympathetic gay characters in his own novels, this really is a non-issue. People need to grow up. Orson Scott Card knows how to write believable characters. How many “pro-gay” authors can say that?
Orson Scott Card doesn’t hate homosexuals. Anything who thinks he does is ignorant, confused, or a fanatic.
Lincoln,
I’m only ignorant, confused, or a fanatic when it comes to women.
Among MANY other hateful things Olson Scott Card had the following to say about Gay people:
“Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.”
THAT is calling for outright revolution if the government allows gays to get married.
Maybe that’s not hate but it is ignorant, confused, fanatical, fucking crazy and reeks of treason. ALL which sound like hate to me.
Michael, Card’s statement is out and out bizarre and he deserves to be called on the carpet for it…but Lincoln’s point is pretty damn valid. If Card has himself written decent portrayals of gay people it stretches credibility to the limit to imagine that he will somehow feel obligated to quit DC comics for doing the same.
I have not read any of card’s books and I find his views on gays, at least the ones attributed to him, to be awful, so I have no reason to support the guy, but stuff like this (and the open calls for his firing that some have promoted) manages to make me have to defend him. And I’d rather not.
Point taken Bill but just to be clear, I never called for him to be fired I said let him write the book in a previous piece. It is fair to say that I can’t know for sure if he hates Gay people.
It’s also fair to say that his words are hateful and I tend to think the pen is mightier than the sword and his words cut a pretty damn hate filled wound.
He may not hate Gay people and it was unfair of me to suggest that.
I did assume he was a man of his word and his words show a great deal of hate towards gay people.
From just a Wikipedia search, “Yeoh” is Asian. To take a line from Tintin and be more precise, it’s a Hokkien dialect derivative of “Yang”, which is the 6th most common name in China.
However, this doesn’t mean that Alysia Yeoh is necessarily from the People’s Republic of China.
There’s a lot of ethnic Chinese throughout Southeast Asia — for one thing, they fueled the Malayan Emergency anti-colonialist war against the British. My guess is that the writers of Batgirl are alluding to the female Arnold Strong — excuse me, Schwarzeneggar — of Hong Kong action films, Michelle Yeoh. Whom (thanks again, Wikipedia!) happens to be ethnic Chinese, but born in Malaysia.
In any event, it’ll be interesting to see what they do with Alysia. And not just because it’d drive Orson S. Card up the wall…;-)
Matt,
Thanks for your insight. If I had any sense I would have looked it up.
Duh.
I sincerely hope this does not make Card crazy. If it makes him rethink even a little his views towards Gays I’d be happy. But he has every right to think what he wants as Bill and Lincoln point out and I have every right to disagree.
Just for the record, I believe their first Transgendered character was the police liason in Legion. Shvaughn Erin? It’s been a while.
They devoted an whole issue to his coming out to Element Lad I believe.