I find Perry Moore's list to be disingenuous.

Comparing what happened to Northstar to what happened to Phat or Hooded Justice is dishonest toward the writers: Phat was killed, yes, but so were ALL his teammates. And Peter Milligan did write a very good storyline regarding his gay characters in X-Force.
As for Hooded Justice, his treatment by Alan Moore showed him to be one of the very few morally upstanding characters in Watchmen.

Jarvis was killed, but so was Hawkeye's family. That said, Jarvis was such a stupid and offensive character that Mark Millar should be taken to task for writing him, not killing him.

Oh, and Chain in Astro City: his partner was treated with as much dignity as any other straight partners of the characters killed in that storyline. I do wish there were some other gay characters in Astro City, though. It's a pity that hasn't been done in such a good comic.

Renée Montoya... I haven't read what has been done with her after the end of Gotham Central, but it was great there, to see more than one lesbian character, and she was very well written. If I'm not mistaken, Rucka has expressed his disagreement with how things have been done by DC recently.

I quite liked the Rawhide Kid mini-series, too. I guess I'm in the minority. I think it was funny, the Kid was a very good guy with a lot of humor about himself, and he became a role model to the young boy who had a problem with his father. That's something one sees rarely in a mainstream comic.

Jetman! God, did Perry Moore read the same comics I did? He was blackmailed, yes, but that didn't work, and the whole Top Ten series ended with a scene showing him and his lover of 50 years. And then, the whole Top Ten: The 49'ers graphic novel revolved around the beginning of Jetman and his lover's relationship in 1949. Baaaaad treatment, obviously. But then, it was written by Alan Moore...

Starman III was an interesting character. James Robinson showed him as far more than what Perry Moore indicates, and gave him a hero's life at the end of the series. That, and he was shown in tender scenes (not enough, yeah) with his black lover (a blue alien and a black guy, that was new, too).

So, as much as I'm disappointed by the treatment of queer characters in mainstream, superhero comics (not that I'm expecting anything better, except from a few writers who do want to include good, not straight characters), I have to say Perry Moore's list is deeply flawed, in my opinion.

And just to add something else: Perry Moore is also wrong in the count of gay/lesbian characters in the Superman/Batman cartoons. Maggie Sawyer was a lesbian, we saw her lover at one point, in the Superman cartoons. It was never explicitely stated, but it was clear to any thinking viewer.

François
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http://gaycomicslist.free.fr

I will only say that in general, I get the feeling that large comic companies rarely incorporate GLBT characters and when they do, it's usually a promotional event or tie-in that vanishes at some point in the near future.

Every time I hear of a gay character, I'm instantly thinking, "How long is this one going to last!" Those characters are in an alternate universe or end up thrown to the side somehow eventually.

ex: Does anyone know what happened to BATWOMAN? I remember seeing all this hype about her last year and how the character was being resurrected as a lesbian. She was everywhere for it too: newsapers, TV, magazines all ran this story. Now I walk into the comic shop and don't see her anywhere? I see Batman everywhere, Nightwing, Robin, and even Batgirl! What happened to Batwoman?!

Of course, Marvel and DC are guilty of "relaunching" their whole comic universes every 5 or so years. There's always some cataclysm that wipes out everything that's been happening and it all starts over again... BRAND NEW! This is one of the reasons that I my passion for "main stream" (Marvel and DC) comics has pretty much died.

The only book I have been reading is the MIDNIGHTER solo book (published by Wild Storm which is an imprint of DC Comics). So far, I'm pretty happy with what's happened, but will be honest and say that I want MORE: More complexity and character development, and not just action. I realize that Midnighter isn't really the kind of character to get all emotional and deep about his feelings, but he's got a human side... and it's there somewhere! I just want to see it from time to time! But I'm doing my best and it's still in it's early stages and pretty good, so I'm gonna support it and hope for the best.

... and OF COURSE I want to see more out LGBT characters in the spotlight or in their own books!!

Frankly, I think it's a bit silly to be looking at mainstream super-hero comics and hoping to find diverse and thoughtful story lines with quality characterizations and writing. The big colorful mainstream superheros are fun stories, and in the right hands can tel stories of excellent quality, but between the editors and the continuity they try to preserve (but mostly royally mangle), the stereotypical demographic mainstream comics are marketed to, and the inherent limitations that mainstream comics by their very nature impose upon themselves severely limits any kind of originality and change.

To be sure, queer characters in comics are few and far between, and frequently mistreated, but as other readers have pointed out, the point of superheros and their brethren is to suffer and overcome. Since the main characters of all comics have been defined and labeled, in some cases for nearly a century, there isn't a great deal of room to add more characters or revamp existing ones in any way that really alters the status quo. At their most basic level, mainstream comics have not changed overly much since the first Superman adventures were released. Those characters like Batman and the Fantastic Four are not dynamic and never well be, they only have room for real challenging innovation on the side-lines, and frankly most comic book writers are simply not up to the task of taking a 70-year -old property and doing anything other than conforming to the pre-established forms of the medium.

And it's not just women and queer characters who suffer because of this, basically anyone who isn't a white male suffers from it. Even Gail Simone, who wrote Birds of Prey (a series that focuses on a group of female superheroes) wrote about a solely caucasian group of adventurers. The problem of mainstream comics is that there is only so much than can be done with them, especially considering all the barriers in the path of original writing. It's a problem that's simply indicative of what all mainstream media suffers from.

This isn't in any way meant to justify the position of queer characters in mainstream comics, but what Perry Moore is doing seems to be empty posturing based more on his indignation as a gay man rather than an understanding of comic books and their editorial continuities. What's more, change is happening, albeit slowly, but it is happening. Frankly, I think that presenting the information the way he does is not just disingenuous as François Peneaud said, it's also counter-productive.

Lastly, I've read Hero, and I have to say, I was distinctly unimpressed. Moore is not a strong writer and the narrative of the story feels decidedly jerky. The plot is unimaginative, and the focus of the story is laughably similar to the way gay characters are treated in mainstream comics, in that the entire focus of the story cannot seem to get away from the fact that it's a insertion of a homosexuality into the superhero storytelling device. It feels no different than a mainstream comic saying "look we have a gay character and that's important because gay people are people too!" His book just alters the message to say "look we have a gay boy who is a superhero because there should be a gay superhero!" Thom Creed isn't a character, he's a plot device, and the book cannot get away from that fact. Moore spends so much time having the story pat itself on the back and slapping the reader in the face with with its message so much that I nearly put it down to stop reading it. The irony of Moore lambasting the state of queers in mainstream comics and then proceeding to to tell a story that follows nearly the exact same model of storytelling that those comics use to introduce a gay character almost bowled me over.

All the same, I owe Moore a debt of gratitude. Now I know what to what to watch out for while I work on my book about a young gay man in a fantasy setting.

While there are legitimate problems with how gays are portrayed in comics (mostly with how little there are), a lot of the stuff he mentions is pathetic and taken out of context. I'm sorry, but it's embarassing.

Example: Renee Montyoa becoming the new Question is homophobic? Wha?? How much of the stuff he talks about here has he actually read, I wonder?

And AGAIN with the Heroes-bashing!! Both times the writers wanted to have a gay character, they were forced to change their plans when the person playing the character had to leave the show. It's not their fault, for chrissakes!

Perry keep saying what you are saying.  Some guys don't have the balls to challenge the status quo.  Gay comic characters undoubtly are treated with malice and disrepect.

If you're interested in a comprehensive list of queer characters in mainstream comics, check out this website:

http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/index.php

Also, saying that gay comic characters are undoubtedly treated with disrespect basically shows that you're being disrespectful of the discourse because you know nothing about the medium, except the misinformation that Moore is spreading. Cylon put it best about Moore's list, "a lot of the stuff he mentions is pathetic and taken out of context." He's taking offense to things that are the basics of what comic book characters go through. At this point I don't even think Moore is really a fan of comics, more like he read some X-men comics as a kid and now that he has some money and influence he's created an agenda based on his limited understanding of the medium as a whole. If Moore wants to actually effect change in how comics treat queer identity and non-heteronormative sexuality he'd benefit from taking a much more educated position that focused on positive progress in addition to all the negativity he insists on displaying.

Why are words being put in my mouth that I did not say? Nowhere did I say that because of my criticisms there is not a problem with queer characters in comics, and nowhere did I say that we should ignore the problem of queer characters in comics. Or let go, to use your words. I'm simply saying that Moore is doing a disservice by spreading misinformation and damaging the strength of the debate with incomplete knowledge. I feel that when attempting to bring about change through discourse it is important to preserve the integrity of the argument by not succumbing to propaganda or acting with incomplete knowledge of the subject. 

I've been meaning to return to add my reactions to Moore's list, I've written about this elsewhere but not here.

I disagree with debating each individual character on the list, the point I take away from the list isn't that specific incidents were homophobic but (and this is also how I read the Women in Refrigerators list) a wider look at how gay characters are treated in the major publishers' superhero comics.

The biggest trend I see in WiR is one I also see on Moore's list -- because comics are largely created and managed by the classic "boys' club" a truly positive gay is only a positive character under one (or, if lucky, two specific creators -- see my above comment about Storm). With superhero characters belonging to the publisher and not the creator, that's a frequent issue. I don't think it's a coincidence that the first insensitive moment with Young Avengers and Runaways came from a writer who doesn't typically handle either team... or that Obsidian pretty much disappeared once he was taken away from a writer like Marc Andreyko and put in JSA. There's a response to WiR titled "Dead Men Defrosting" that makes the point that, yes, the straight white male characters get killed and depowered, too, but they usually make a triumphant return to the status quo -- frequently unassisted -- the "boys' club" connects with those characters so you'll find plenty who care about them to make sure they come back one way or another. (DC practically made a side business out of teasing Hal Jordan fans before eventually giving them what they wanted.) On the other hand, there isn't the same urgency with characters belonging to underrepresented groups.

The other major take I get from Moore's list is that there's still a lack of a major gay characters. Aside from Apollo & Midnighter, Sarah Rainmaker and Renee Montoya, I have a hard time thinking of gay characters I find to be prominent. (While Northstar is well known, he makes a frustrating few appearances.) Like in other media, most gay characters tend to get stuck in secondary roles.

I used to defend the lack of diversity in superhero comics by pointing to the fact that the direct market is so hostile to new concepts, forcing superhero publishers to stick with the limited batch of supers it had for decades. My mind changed, however, after the success of Runaways (which, admittedly, was an example of Marvel succeeding entirely by accident). The market has expanded beyond the direct market and there's a template for making a successful title that steps out of the restrictive box of sticking with the big names of the 80s. Frustratingly, neither Marvel and DC have learned much from that success (at least with their superhero lines) instead sticking with the shrinking customer base that patronizes the direct market. There's a way to break that cycle, now. The frustrating part to me isn't that they're avoiding the right thing to do, but they're avoiding a path that makes business sense.

in that they don't addreess specific cases. I don't fault comic writers for not writing characters they aren't comfortable writing, as they will invariably do a poor job. I personally like the treatment of Wiccan and Hulkling in Marvel, where they are interesting characters who happen to also be romantically involved, and Obsidian in DC, where his private life is adressed in Manhunter, but he also plays a role in JSA, where his private life (as well as much of the cast) is unimportant. A far cry from the usual depiction of gay males as angelic victims whom the major straight characters must fret over in order to show how empathetic they are. Spare me. I think any of those characters could sell in a book devoted to them, just as I always thought could Northstar, a super-speedster with light powers. How many Flash/Impulse books have there been that prove that the such powers work for a major character?