Crowder Superman Jon Kent

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Right-wing media complain bisexual Superman is “indoctrination,” “deviant”

Right-wing media react with homophobic outrage after the new Superman comes out as bisexual

Right-wing media attacked DC Comics and writer Tom Taylor for portraying Superman as bisexual in an upcoming issue of the current series, complaining that they were attempting to cater to the left and sway the minds of children.

On October 11, DC Comics announced that the new Superman Jon Kent, son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, has come out as bisexual and will have a male love interest in an upcoming issue. Unsurprisingly, conservative media figures expressed their outrage over the announcement while claiming not to care about a character’s sexuality. Most dismissed the announcement as DC Comics pandering to woke people, while others read a darker meaning, claiming that the decision to portray Superman as bisexual is an attempt to “erase straight white male characters.” 

  • Fox News

  • Fox media contributor Ben Domenech argued “nobody cares” that “Superman is bi.” He also said, “As many comic book industry folks have tried to take advantage of their success at the movies, these types of appeals to woke people and trying to get some new audience for actual comic books, this one is just one more attempt to trend on Twitter for a day.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 10/11/21]

  • Fox contributor Raymond Arroyo implied bisexual people are more likely to get sexually transmitted infections: “Why are they sexualizing superheroes? … We just wanted them to get the bad guys, not a venereal disease.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/11/21

  • Greg Gutfeld said that “if there was one thing important to me as a 10-year-old reading comic books, it was who the characters were sexually attracted to” and said the stories are “no longer about adventure, it’s about indoctrination.” His show then aired a sketch of Superman’s agents telling him “nobody wants a straight white male superhero anymore, OK. It’s not enough to save people, you have to appeal to LGBTQIA+.” [Fox News, GUTFELD!, 10/12/21

  • Co-host Todd Piro claimed that the bisexuality storyline is “bravery for the left, it’s not bravery for the world, and Superman used to fight all injustice.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 10/12/21]

  • One America News Network

  • PragerU’s Will Witt said Superman “was something in America that represents America, right. So instead of creating a new superhero that is gay, … they take an existing superhero and make then that person gay. And so it’s like the left instead of trying to create something new or have a new type of idea, they want to destroy something that’s already been around the cultural lexicon for a long time.” The on-screen chyron during the segment was “Everything Woke Turns to Sh*t.” [One America News Network, Tipping Point with Kara McKinney, 10/13/21]

  • Newsmax

  • Host Greg Kelly said that the sexuality of the new Superman is a “great big phony waste of time. Our culture is involved in a lot of dumb things, and this is one of them.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 10/11/21]

  • Kelly also tweeted:

  • EVERYBODY KNOWS SUPERMAN IS NOT GAY. SUPERMAN IS NOT GAY. GIRLS LIKED HIM AND HE LIKED THE LADIES. HE WAS SEEING NUMEROUS WOMEN DURING THE SUPERMAN MOVIE. NOT GAY!
  • Host Rob Schmitt mocked the storyline, saying, “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a bisexual 17-year-old.” He added that because the Democratic agenda is “pushed always from everywhere …  next thing you know, Wonder Women is going to come out as non-binary” and be known as “Wonder Person.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 10/11/21]

  • Newsmax hosted a panel on the topic in which guest Rick Green railed at “constant indoctrination” of “children of America” by teaching them “deviant sexual behavior.” Host Shaun Kraisman suggested  that this decision could lead to authors changing the sexuality of other “iconic figures” like James Bond and Ethan Hunt. [Newsmax, The National Report, 10/12/21]

  • Co-host Sean Spicer complained that the bisexuality of Superman’s and LEGO’s inclusivity marketing is “almost like we’re creating problems and doing things, like everyone’s going to outdo the next thing.”Co-host Lyndsay Keith claimed it is “very confusing” for children. [Newsmax, Spicer & Co., 10/12/21]

  • Host Eric Bolling preceded his segment by exclaiming, “The woke mob is at it again. What is happening in America, folks? I mean, apparently this is perfectly fine to the leftist running the place.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, 10/12/21]

  • Podcasts

  • Steven Crowder and his co-hosts made a series of extremely homophobic remarks and claimed that the LGBTQ community is overrepresented in media. The episode aired on YouTube but has since been removed. During the segment, Crowder said that Superman “has a new costume” that now “includes knee pads.” His co-host Dave Landau responded, “It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's two fellows sodomizing each other. I'll be ​darned.” Crowder also suggested that Lois Lane would now need to “get tested.” Lane is the mother of Kent, the new Superman. [Louder with Crowder, 10/13/21]

  • Video file

    Citation From the October 13, 2021, edition of BlazeTV's Louder with Crowder

  • While discussing Superman, Matt Walsh claimed that “even the most iconic and enduring characters are forced to undergo this kind of conversion therapy.” Walsh went on to complain that “the percentage of gay and trans characters on TV and in comics now far exceeds the percentage in the general population.” He went on to claim, “They want to erase straight white male characters, because the people doing the erasing despise straight white male people. … They don’t want all the straight white male people in society. They want to create a society filled with different sorts of people.” [The Matt Walsh Show, 10/13/21]

  • Ben Shapiro accused DC Comics of “hijacking iconic American figures and then using them for social justice purposes” and “attempting to tell you what morality looks like and to shape the minds of young teenage boys.” [The Ben Shapiro Show, 10/12/21]

  • Shapiro also tweeted:

  • Ben Shapiro tweeted, “Until Superman is a disabled trans man, spare me your pinkwashing, DC Comics”
  • Other

  • Far-right pizzagate troll Mike Cernovich tweeted:

  • Cernovich tweeted, “Today's comic book reader is a man in his 20's and 30's. Gen X freaks out over Superman being whatever, as they / we read comic books as kids. Kids aren't being influenced. My bros, kids aren't reading comics. It's incel man children. Let them read their comics in peace!”
  • Conservative Tik-Toker Matt Convard tweeted:

  • Superman ain’t gay, hate to break it to ya [Man shrugging] I don’t feel more represented by turning a straight character gay. I feel embarrassed that straight people who make these comics think that’ll make me happy. Make more *unique gay characters than anything