Tag Archives: Black Panther

‘Black Lightning’ Is Bringing To Life This AWESOME Lesbian Superhero

When The CW debuts Black Lightning on January 16, they’re not just debuting a show about an all-black family of superheroes.

They’re also debuting the first on-screen DC canonical lesbian superhero, who also happens to be a woman of colour.

Black Lightning features the title character as a father to two daughters: Thunder and Lightning. And it’s Thunder, played by 28-year-old Nafessa Williams, who is set to make history.

Thunder, whose real name in the show is Anissa Pierce, is the eldest daughter of the eponymous superhero, Black Lighting, aka Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams).

In the comics, she agrees to a deal with her mother and father. Graduate college; THEN you can become a superhero. While her younger sister, Jennifer Pierce (China Anne McClain), has powers more in line with Jefferson’s electrical abilities, Anissa is able to increase her body mass while completely reserving her volume.

And there’s even more for LGBT fans to get excited about. Just like in the comics, Thunder’s getting a love interest.

Played by Pretty Little Liars actress Chantal Thuy, the half-Amazonian, Asian-American Grace Choi will feature in the show as Anissa’s girlfriend.

In the comics, Grace is bisexual, and there seems to be no reason to doubt she will be in the show as well.

Another show currently on TV to feature a lesbian superhero is Marvel’s Runaways, in which one of the main characters – Karolina Dean – slowly realises her sexuality.

Last year, Thor: Ragnarok included Valkyrie, a bisexual superhero and woman of colour – though fans were ultimately disappointed with the fact that her sexuality wasn’t made clear on screen.

Marvel also launched a comic led by America Chavez, a queer Latina teenager with lesbian parents.

The comic, called America, prompted an outpouring of support from readers who were overjoyed to finally see an LGBT Latina superhero lead her own comic.

However, Marvel also moved to quash speculation that two warriors in the upcoming film Black Panther will be in a lesbian relationship, sparking outrage and accusations of erasure.

Marvel Straight-Washes Queer Women in ‘Black Panther’ Film

Superheroes have gotten queerer than ever.

Power Rangers announced that the yellow ranger would be queer. DC comics recently confirmed that Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are queer. And let’s not forget Marvel’s America Chavez, a fiery queer Latina superhero that Gina Rodriguez has her eye on.

Unfortunately, when it comes to queer superheroes, it’s two step forwards and one step back. Marvel recently announced that two queer main characters from Black Panther will be straight in the films.

Black Panther is a hit comic book series about T’Challa, the king and protector of the (fictional) African country of Wakanda. The series is notable not just for its strong racial diversity, but also for having powerful queer women of color at the forefront.

Black Panther: World of Wakanda delves into the relationship of two female Wakandan protectors, Ayo and Aneka. Ayo and Aneka are recruited into an elite task force, but find their relationship taking center stage instead.

As the official website says,

What happens when your nation needs your hearts and minds, but you already gave them to each other?”

Yeah. That’s pretty gay.

The Black Panther movie is set to be released in February 2018. Movie footage recently dropped that appeared to continue the relationship of Ayo and Aneka.

In a certain scene of the trailer, Ayo (Florence Kasumba – Captain America: Civil War) and Okoye (Danai Gurira – Walking Dead) are dancing.

After looking Ayo up and down flirtatiously, practically drooling, Okoye says, “You look good.”

“You look better,” Ayo.

Okyo looks smug as she says, “I know.”

Yeah. That’s pretty gay.

Unfortunately, Marvel doesn’t seem to think so. In response to a Vanity Fair article about the footage, a Marvel representative interceded to say that, despite all of the flirtatious lesbianness of that scene, Ayo and Okoye would be totally straight in the film.

According to the representative, that particular storyline didn’t make the cut. Even though the women are flirting in the released footage. Are we supposed to believe that they’re flirting platonically?

Sadly, this is an example of Hollywood straight-washing queer characters in order to make the film more attractive to wider audiences. With the film already centered on characters of color, the representative didn’t want to push any more boundaries.

If you’d like to read the actual queer love story, pick up the comics here.

Gina Rodriguez Eager to Play America Chavez in Marvel Movie

America Chavez is Marvel’s newest, most badass superheroine – and one of the most badass queer women in Hollywood wants to play her in a movie.

America Chavez is a queer Latina superheroine that doesn’t bow to anyone’s notions of femininity or sexuality. She’ll kick butt and kiss whomever she wants, thank you very much.

Her title as Marvel’s Miss America is a slap in the face to anyone who thinks that Americans have to be straight, white men. America Chavez proves that there’s nothing more American – and more radical – than being yourself and battling evil face-to-face.

Actress Gina Rodriguez has recently expressed interest in playing the role if Marvel ever takes America Chavez to the big screen – which, given the intense popularity of diverse upcoming Marvel films like Black Panther, could be sooner than we think.

Gina plays the titular character from the hit show Jane the Virgin, a satiric telenovela that follows the mishaps of a young Latina woman who becomes accidentally artificially inseminated with a rich, handsome bachelor’s baby while she’s engaged to another man. Oh yeah, and in the show, her estranged dad is a superstar. And an evil villain named Sin Rostro is killing people. And everyone has an evil twin. And the narrator is sassy. (Somehow it all makes sense within the show, okay? I did say it was like a telenovela.)

Rodriguez opened up about her sexuality recently. When a fan asked her, “Are you straight?” she replied with, “I don’t need anyone to define their sexuality to me. Nor do I feel the need to either. I love hearts. Period.”

Her response confirms what queer women have long been speculating, seeing as Gina rocks a fierce queer undercut. Fingers crossed that Jane in Jane the Virgin will eventually get a queer love interest.

Learn more about America Chavez here.

Daily Juice: Tegan & Sara’s New Single Hits The Air Waves, Queer Black Women Lead New ‘Black Panther’ Comic, Plus Jodie Foster Talks Taxi Driver.

Tegan and Sara have premiered their new single Boyfriend today on Beats Radio,

Sara Quin had this to say about the track:

It’s a pretty straightforward pop song about a relationship that I was getting into with a girl who had never dated a girl before and she had a guy, a boyfriend guy that she was sort of seeing, and we used to joke around that she was treating me like her boyfriend, and I was trying to get her to sort of you, you know, tie it down.

I wanted her to make it official with me. I think that’s pretty relatable. Obviously, being gay, you know, the sort of bit of a gender twist in the song. I get that that it sometimes doesn’t seem immediately relatable to everybody whether they’re straight or gay or whatever but we’ve all been in that situation where we really like someone and we want to make it official, and they’re not ready.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates has been discussing the direction his new Black Panther series is taking, and the fact the comic introduces us to the first queer, African couple to mainstream comic books.

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This week in Love & Hip Hop Atlanta revealed that key star Mimi Faust was in a relationship with a woman named Chris Gould. Since then the reality star faced criticism from fans who accused her of being gay on the show simply for the sake of a good storyline.

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Even her former partner and co-star Stevie J also voiced his disapproval, telling TMZ he doesn’t want their daughter raised in a lesbian household.

Mimi has now taken to Instagram to address the matter, and lets hope she can put this too bed once and for all.

In 2016 we should not be using gay and lesbian as a way to degrade someone. Someone’s sexuality is not a reflection of their character and more importantly what type of parent they are. The most important thing is that the child feels love regardless of whether it comes from a man or a woman. We should continue the strides we have made over the last 50+ years and allow people to be who they are.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BD3qZYphJ5q/

A 16 years old lesbian from the UK was left “humiliated” when staff mistook her for a boy using the women’s toilets. Ny Richardson from Hull says she was asked to “prove her gender”.
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Be sure to watch below Brandy Clark perform her new song Girl Next Door on Ellen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BgDxpgz-zY

Unicorn Booty has a great article on how Empire has failed its queer female characters.

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Jodie Foster has been recalling working with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver as a Kid to Vanity Fair.

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The Guardian is discussing gay conspiracy to queer chic.