Batgirl writer Gail Simone on writing the first major transgender character in mainstream comicsComi

Batgirl writer Gail Simone on writing the first major transgender character in mainstream comicsComics Alliance: "As a young woman living in fairly white, homogeneous Iowa, I was first introduced to transgender people through things you talked and wrote about. It was actually really helpful for understanding the concept when I didn’t know anyone like that (that I knew of, anyway). You work a lot of diversity into your books and seem really passionate about that. Where does that come from for you?“Gail Simone: ”Well, I am the same, a white het female from a farming community with no diversity at all. This bit is a little shameful, so please bear with me. When I started, I had a secret agenda, I mean, I literally was thinking, “Oh, yeah, gonna get in there and create some new female characters for readers like me!” That was always part of my plan…I say “secret,” but I was open about it. So I created a lot of fun, quirky female characters and that made me happy.But then I started going to conventions and I just felt like a fraud, I felt very selfish. There was this incredibly diverse audience of dedicated, passionate readers, all ethnicities and sexualities and on and on, and they loved comics so much they stuck with them even though comics did not really seem to appreciate them back, at least in terms of representation. And over and over, I would go to these panels and there was a huge disconnect between the diverse audience and our non-diverse product. And when you are in signing lines, you have to either choose to ignore it or at least try to push the boulder a little bit.You can’t worry about representation only for the group you belong to, I think. I don’t think it’s something anyone should be getting medals and cookies for, it’s like basic levels of humanity to try to acknowledge that our audience exists and they don’t all look like Ron Howard.“Read the full interview here | Photo SourceGail Simone on Tumblr | On Wikipedia -- source link

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