Comics: "Barbara, I'm transexual"

Earlier this month, Batgirl #19 came out. While on the whole the comic was quite unremarkable, one scene has caught a fair bit of attention for the matter of fact coming out by a transgender character. This is a first for superhero comics, (while other comics have featured transgender characters as far as I'm aware this is the first in the capes and tights genre to). While some characters have breached the transgender gap before through shapeshifting, the most famous of these being X-men villain Mystique, this is the first true transexual in mainstream comics.

While chatting with her flatmate Barbara, the eponymous Batgirl, about Babs’ evil brother who Alysia is dating; Alysia reveals her transgender status. This moment comes suddenly and is revolved in the space of about two panels. Alysia outs herself, Babs at first seems a little shocked but then says she loves her (as a friend) and they have a hug and cry session then its back to the main issue's action. The way this isn't presented as a big deal, is ironically a pretty big deal. It truly shows how far the comic book community has come that a character can out themselves without it begin a full on event. It's just a fact of life, why should it be any different in comics. 

It’s also quite interesting that Simone chooses to present her as bisexual, so her transexual identity isn’t totally tied to a desire to date men. She is simply a man who identified more as a woman, so had gender reassignment surgery; as many people do. 

This issue has seen its fair share of haters already, denouncing the need for transgender characters in comics, just as bigots like to denounce everything. Gail Simone, the issue’s writer, says of the controversy “I just could not care less about that. If someone gets upset, so be it; there are a thousand other comics out there for those people. We have a problem most media don’t have, which is that almost all the tentpoles we build our industry upon were created over a half century ago… at a time where the characters were almost without exception white, cis-gendered, straight, on and on” It appears Simone wants to create a comic that is a bit different, diversifying their world.

However the character does present something I've stated about DC before, they seem much more willing to have LGBT characters if they aren't very major. I mean this is a secondary character, in a secondary comic book (essentially a spinoff of Batman); hardly a big deal as characters go. I suppose for now I should just be happy that Batwoman is a lesbian and leave it at that but I still feel they could have benefited from making the first transgender character more involved in the story. Maybe someday we will be able to see every minority represented fully in comics, I suppose we can only dream. 

[Originally published on: www.vadamagazine.com]