A new campaign to make Captain America gay in Marvel’s billion dollar super hero film franchise has picked up steam since the hashtag #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend caught like wildfire across the Twitterverse.
Modeled after another queer Hollywood appeal to give Elsa a girlfriend (#GiveElsaAGirlfriend) in Disney’s Frozen sequel, fans make some compelling arguments for the message an LGBTQ superhero could send.
We’re thinking it might be better to come up with an original queer hero rather than mess with a story that’s been around so long, but what do we know?
Earlier this month, Captain America: Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo even said they’re down for a super queero, telling Collider, “It’s incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to…diversify as much as possible.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
It’s long been joked about the the Captain and Bucky are more than friends (or maybe the Cap’n would go for Hawkeye as pictured above), and this chorus on Twitter clearly thinks it’s time to make it happen:
In a world of aliens, gods and superheroes, Steve having a boyfriend is the one that's unrealistic. Ok. #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend
— pinned tweet (@kirinsjindosh) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend JAMES BUCHANAN BARNES, STEVEN GRANT ROGERS, INSEPARABLE ON THE SCHOOL PLAYGROUND AND BATTLE FIELD
— ™ (@RTHERFRDS) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend Let him date his Bucky? pic.twitter.com/okgLo93njl
— HamletMachine (@Hamlet_Machine) May 24, 2016
If #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend has triggered your homophobia, remember the wheel that squeaks the loudest wants to be greased the most.
— Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) May 24, 2016
Everyone posting about #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend secretly thinking: pic.twitter.com/nP32T9MxUQ
— Mike T (@majtague) May 24, 2016
I AM SO ALIVE #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend pic.twitter.com/kK6PYWuaqO
— angela (@captaindeadpooI) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend because pic.twitter.com/xlqjUFi8dc
— wing (@CIVILBUCK) May 24, 2016
THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD'VE BEEN! WHOEVER MADE THIS REALLY KNEW LOVE #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend pic.twitter.com/o1LvUnNo1x
— maia (@mishaIeckiss) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend because it looks like it's about to happen anyway: pic.twitter.com/YnSpOcPrWG
— Mike T (@majtague) May 24, 2016
Of course, not everyone agrees:
https://twitter.com/Lucas_Le_Fou/status/735106261021282307?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend is more communities and activist trying to force others into living in their head canon. Piss off.
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) May 24, 2016
MacAdvisor
Making Capt. America gay would rather screw up the whole Agent Carter storyline.
DCguy
@MacAdvisor:
Hollywood has never minded screwing up a storyline for any reason. But I notice they get far more protective of any storyline when the suggestion is made to make a character gay.
In the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” the character in the book was gay, that was why he was invited to the gay parties and was involved in the events that occurred, Hollywood didn’t mind screwing up the storyline by giving him a girlfriend in the movie that never existed in the book.
dellisonly
A nice idea. 13-15% of population is gay. 53% of the population is female. Marvel and Disney owe us a female superhero franchise. Strong women kicking ass for justice and what is right. I don’t really care who Captain America is sleeping with.
Paco
I can only say good luck to the studio on trying to balance not turning off the majority of the audience by making it too sexually graphic and pissing off the gay men that will scream it wasn’t sexually graphic enough because there was no visible sex happening.
If they do decide to do something like this I hope it succeeds, because if it were to bomb, no studio would ever make the attempt again. They would just reboot him as straight again and pretend it never happened.
And in other news, Marvel revealed that Captain America was an agent of HYDRA all along. We may want to rethink hijacking this superhero and choose another.
DCguy
@Paco:
Oh yes, because that’s all it’s about, gay guys don’t want a movie, they want a porn film on screen.
If you are that self hating, perhaps therapy is in order?
@dellisonly:
1. They’re already making a Black Widow Franchise, and they’ve also done Catwoman, and non-comic characters like Tomb Raider, Salt, etc… So if we’re playing the “We’ve never had one” game, then LGBT’s are first in line.
Paco
@DCguy: I guess you haven’t seen most of the gay movies littering Netflix.
DCguy
@Paco:
Oh, you mean the ones that never got wide release, compared to the ones that actually made money like Beautiful Thing, The Wedding Banquet, Brokeback Mountain, Trick, Pricilla Queen of the Desert, GBF, Pride, Parting Glances, Edge of 17, All Over The Guy.
Oooops, all made money, all had release in theaters, and no graphic sex. But don’t let actual facts deflect you from your opinions you present as facts.
Bob LaBlah
I hope Marvel puts this gay agenda on the back burner where it belongs. This is utter non-sense. I thought it bad enough the community being hell-bent to make Batman and Robin gay but now they must drag in Captain America.
Paco
@DCguy: Actually, my original comment was referring to memories of many Queerty commenters complaining about that latest Alan Turing movie not being gay enough and desexualizing him. Some of them sounded like they needed it to be soft core porn to even know he was gay.
But my my aren’t you combative today. Chill out Mary.
We could simply create our own superhero that doesn’t have to be a closet case for decades.
Paco
@DCguy: Oh and I’m pretty sure all those movies you listed didn’t come close to making the billion+ dollars studios expect from their superhero movies today.
Will they be willing to gamble on us gays with so much at stake?
And if they do, will we be able to accept a gay character that will help the studio reach its profit goal with the money it has gambled, by making that character appeal to the largest audience possible? Let’s not fool ourselves here.
DCguy
@Paco:
No, the complaint about the movie was that they made his sexuality “Theoretical”. The very fact if what got him attacked was basically hidden. Nobody said anything about sex. The example was given that the movie about Stephen Hawking showed him laughing and holding hands and kissing his wife. Touring had a partner but that wasn’t shown.
And if you consider that any actual affection between LGBTS and there partners is only graphic sex, then it really sounds like you are carrying some major baggage.
Paco
@DCguy: I think the best we would get would be a theoretical gay Captain America.
But Deadpool is already theoretically pansexual, and Ryan Reynolds said he wouldn’t object to the character having a boyfriend (or something to that effect If I recall correctly) so maybe there is hope it could move beyond the theoretical and still make the studio obscene amounts of money.
Billy Budd
I am pessimistic about our chances. But there was a pioneer in gay comics. It is a graphic novel by Alan Moore called MIRACLEMAN. In the last episode, Miracleman kisses Kid Miracleman. He proves to be bisexual. It is from the 80’s if I am not mistaken.
JolliDaJerk
Sooooo when does this become Pandering? It feels like it to me. It churns my stomach seeing this marketing of gay culture only after it becomes ‘Ok’ to be Gay. It doesn’t feel…authentic…which is important to us Millenials. #Don’tChaKnow
stranded
I can understand wanting this to happen, in Captain America, the scripts lack or a lack of chemistry between Chris Evans and his female interest never seems to amount to much. At the same time they keep reinforcing Steve’s love for Bucky. I get bothered by the idea that any kind of male emotion has be gay. Meaning just because they’re friends who love each other and have each other’s backs, that it means there’s an undertone of sexual attraction. I do feel that their should be a gay superhero. I was disappointed that Deadpool wasn’t more pansexual in the film. I doubt they’ll make the new Spider Man gay, though Ice Man is also gay
Tommy91
@stranded: finally!!! A lot of people have strong feelings against making Elsa a Lesbianismo because they think it perpetuates the idea that independent women are lesbians, but almost no one talks about the fact that making Cap gay would be basically the same message towards emotional men.
Tommy91
I’m so against this, Captain America shouldn’t be gay, he’s a product of a different time, and his loyalty to Bucky is due to the fact that the basically grew up as brothers and that he was with him in the army, even today it’s possinle to see how strongthe loyalty is between people who were at the army together, besides Marvel has written Steve and Peggy to be each other’s big love, who due to tragedy weren’t allowed to be together. If anything it would make more sense for Iron-Man to be gay, since a lot of closeted men, try to cover up their sexuality by being man-whores.
I’m totally against changing the sexuality of any of the avengers, if Marvel wants a gay character, find a way to introduce Wiccan and Hulkling to the movies, they are amazing gay characters with an amazing relationship.
Marky
Here’s an idea : WRITE SOMETHING NEW.
DCguy
@Tommy91:
The product of a different time. Exactly, and now that he is in a more open time he can actually come out.
Chris
I prefer that the Twitterverse come out against his having been, all this time, a secret agent of Hydra. Now that is a major mind-f**k that will make me stop having anything to do with the good Captain.
Paco
@Chris: probably best to wait and see how that whole thing plays out before begging to make him gay. We don’t need a gay nazi superhero.
Creamsicle
I say leave Cap be, but capitalize on the apparent support for LGBT super heroes and make a movie based on Ultimate Colossus, or Northstar, or do an X Factor movie featuring Richtor and Shatterstar, or see it as a signal that people are ready for House of M and Young Avengers so they can bring in Wiccan and Hulking.
There are so many LGBT cape comic characters already without needing to resort to retconning anyone.
Stache
@Paco:Pansexual? If he is it sure wasn’t shown in the movie.
Paco
@Stache: He is pansexual in the comics. Just google and there are plenty of articles addressing the lack of his pansexuality in the movie. Here is one to get you started…
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/02/deadpool-pansexual-superhero
scotty
Thor and Spiderman are gay. always have been in my mind. capt america, not so much.