Posts
For Obama and Romney, Gay Green Lantern Could Provide Guidance
Yahoo! Contributor Network
By Ron Hart | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Fri, Jun 1, 2012
COMMENTARY | As Mitt Romney and Barack Obama gear up their campaigns and rally their bases (such as they are), I hope they both are looking to the story line of a B-Level comic book hero for instruction.
Today, one of DC Comics oldest characters, Green Lantern "came out" as gay. It seems to be largely a non-story. Indeed, the series author, James Robinson, said that Green Lantern's sexuality will not be part of upcoming story lines. Presumably, it would seem, because few really care.
On a recent episode of Real Time, Bill Maher spoke on how Americans increasingly aren't opposed to gay marriage. His basic premise was that President Obama's recent support of gay marriage was the right thing to do politically. Maher said, in part, "Of course, there are still millions of people in America who think that homosexuality offends God, or that pot leads to hard drugs. But, they mainly belong to a specific demographic called "people who will be dead soon.' "
Two specific incidents in my daughter's young life come to mine that give me optimism about the future of our society, even as a straight white man.
One occurred the morning after the 2008 election, when I realized that she would never wonder whether our country would elect an African American president. The other came was the morning in New York City in June of 2011. The night before had been marked by loud cheers on the streets. She asked what all the noise was about. My wife and I delicately began to explain what gay marriage was. When I asked her if she knew what 'gay' meant, her eight year old eyes squinted and said, "yeah…of course."
When I explained that they could now marry if they wanted to, she seemed confused and said, "Who would tell them not to?"
While certainly there is still a block of voters to be had by lamenting the fact that there is now a gay comic book super hero, that block is, to paraphrase Bill Maher, dying by the day.
DC Comics knows it will not lose one net customer of their comic books based on the fact that one of their long time characters is gay. If any groups plan to protest DC Comics, or boycott their products, it seems certain the fallout would be so small as to not matter to their bottom line.
Barack Obama has seemed to realize he won't either lose one vote as he somewhat haltingly supports gay marriage. He should state it forcefully now, and in the process take it off the table as a major issue in presidential politics. In turn, Mitt Romney would be well advised to strop defining marriage as something between "one man and one woman". His grandfather did not agree, and I suspect his grandchildren someday will not agree either.
