That’s how we end up with headlines like the “first openly gay character” ones, or the ones that confirmed Lefou was gay in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast - technically, what these headlines say is true, and the milestones they celebrate seem like a big deal. The company dominates the entertainment press because the 2010s have proved especially fruitful for two specific types of stories in the entertainment press: stories that tease major developments in new projects based on major pieces of intellectual property (Marvel, Star Wars, Disney animation, etc.), and stories that suggest important progress has been made in terms of representation both in front of and behind the camera. This is often the way these things go when it comes to Disney and its many subsidiaries.
“First openly gay character” doesn’t imply “random peripheral character.” It implies someone who at least has a name. If you’re going to use a random peripheral character to illustrate how the world is struggling to get past this traumatic event, why not a gay guy? But the triumphalism around the “first openly gay character” headlines irked me and plenty of others. The entirety of Grieving Man’s character is: He lost someone in the Thanos snap that eliminated half of all life in the universe, and after working his way through the ensuing grief, he’s started dating again. He just didn’t have a name or a personality, and he appeared in one scene.ĭubbed the “Grieving Man” and played by director Joe Russo, the character turns up early in the film, at a support group attended by Captain America. But reading the details revealed that, sure, Endgame featured the MCU’s first openly gay character. I didn’t remember a scene where Captain Marvel kissed a girl (and liked it) or a scene where Groot declared that he only liked boy trees or a scene where Captain America turned his chair around to remind kids that gender isn’t binary. When these headlines first appeared, I was confused.
In the spring of 2019, a flurry of headlines sprang up around the blockbuster hit Avengers: Endgame, insisting that the film featured the first openly gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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