Green Lantern Is Gay To Stop Kids From Being Bullied (Plus Preview Images!)
Green Lantern is gay, and a new preview — including some hand-holding and  lip-locking — appears in the D.C. Comics preview, which you can read right here. But the motivation for making Green Lantern gay was to stop kids from bullying and being bullied.
Last week (twice, actually) we wrote, based on reports from Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston, that Alan Scott, the first of several D.C. Comics comic book characters all known as the superhero Green Lantern, will be revealed as gay in an upcoming issue.
The New York Post reports that in the new reboot, Green Lantern is “the strongest, most important super-powered character” in the world. The Post adds:
“He’s very much the character he was. He’s still the pinnacle of bravery and idealism. He’s also gay,” “Earth 2” writer James Robinson told The Post.
Robinson, a British writer who lives in San Francisco with his wife, is no stranger to gay characters – he wrote DC’s “Starman” comic in the 1990s, a groundbreaking title that starred a homosexual superhero. He said the only agenda he’s pushing is reality.
“It’s a realistic depiction of society,” he said. “You have to move with the times.”
He said he did hope the character – who’s the most powerful member of DC’s superteam, the Justice Society – would be an inspiration.
“He’s a type-A personality who doesn’t hide in the shadows,” Robinson said.
“I hope he’s a positive figure. If there’s some kind of kid out there who’s reading the comic and who’s worried about the person he is, maybe it will give him a positive sense of who he is. Or maybe a different kid will read it and decide I don’t need to bully some kind of kid in school,” Robinson said.
While a gay wedding in Archie Comics earlier this year and impending same-sex nuptials in a Marvel X-Men comic have recieved a small amount of backlash from angry parents, Robinson said he’s not worried about that because “that kind of negativity is stupid and outmoded.”
“We should be preaching love and tolerance,” he said.
Rolling Stone offers more insight:
When DC Comics relaunched its fictional world from scratch last fall, some aspects of the DC mythos temporarily fell by the wayside, such as the notion of parallel worlds featuring different versions of the company’s iconic heroes. Earth Two, a new series by writer James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott, reintroduces the concept by putting a new spin on the original versions of characters like the Green Lantern, the Flash and Superman that diverges notably from the past several decades of DC lore. In the second issue of the comic, in stores June 6th, Robinson and Scott prove just how different this world is by revealing that their version of Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern introduced back in 1940, is an openly gay man.
Up until recently, a middle aged version of Alan Scott was one of the stars of Justice Society of America, a comic series featuring the 1940s versions of DC’s heroes set in the present day. The new versions of these characters in Earth Two have all been aged down considerably, to the point that Scott’s gay superhero son Obsidian had to be sacrificed. Robinson says he was inspired to write Scott himself as a gay character to make up for that loss. “The logical leap that I made was, oh, why don’t we make Alan Scott gay?,” he says. “To DC’s credit, there wasn’t any hesitation. [Co-publisher] Dan DiDio was like ‘Oh, that’s a great idea, let’s do it!'”
Robinson’s version of Green Lantern differs from his counterpart in the regular DC Universe in ways other than his sexual orientation. “He has a ring which he uses to help manifest his powers, but he doesn’t have a lantern,” he says, noting that the mainstream Green Lanterns are members of a corp of space police who draw their energy directly from their own willpower. “He is the receptacle, the conduit for the energy of the Earth, which is this green energy.” Unlike previous versions of Scott dating back to the Forties, wood will not be a weakness for the new Green Lantern. “He is the earthly powerhouse, and when you see him in terms of his power level, he’s up there close to Superman.”
Though Marvel Comics’ gay hero Northstar is set to face some intolerance from his peers following his marriage to his long term boyfriend in the pages of Astonishing X-Men, Robinson and Scott are planning on portraying an idealized world in which Alan Scott is judged only by the quality of his character. “He doesn’t come out in issue two; he is already a gay man,” Robinson says. “Alan Scott is super-heroic, he’s super gallant, he’ll die for the earth, he’ll die for its people, he’s everything you want in a hero. I imagine he’s such a Type A character that when he realized he was gay, he was like, ‘Okay, I’m gay, now I’m just gonna go on with my life.’ He’s so accepting of it himself and he’s such a compelling person that the world knows Alan Scott’s gay. He’s such a leader, he’s such a good man, that the Justice League don’t care. And that’s a healthy depiction of a team and how it should be.”
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A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.
Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”
The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.
In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”
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Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”
Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.
“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.
Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.
READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil
“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.
“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”
Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”
The House Committee on Ethics has announced it is extending its investigation into U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) after an initial referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics. Congressman Jackson is a self-described “ultra-MAGA” Republican who has spread various conspiracy theories and was demoted by the Pentagon after his retirement from the military.
While the Ethics Committee is always reserved in its announcements, and did not state the issue it is investigating, it did note it will “announce its course of action in this matter on or before Monday, June 24, 2024.” Thursday’s announcement follows announcements in April and May of 2022 confirming its investigation into Rep. Jackson.
In September of 2021 the Office of Congressional Ethics, a separate, nonpartisan, and independent office, launched an investigation into Congressman Jackson, the former Physician to the President under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Dr. Jackson also served as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President under Trump, a position created by the now-indicted ex-president.
In May of 2022 the Office of Congressional Ethics released documents stating it had “found ‘substantial reason to believe’ Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) spent campaign funds on personal expenses,” Forbes reported at the time.
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The Office had referred its findings to the House Ethics Committee one month earlier.
Congressman Jackson “refused to cooperate with the review,” CNN reported in 2022, noting it was “not the first time Jackson has come under scrutiny. Last year, the Pentagon inspector general outlined a scathing critique of his behavior, saying he drank alcohol and took sleeping pills while serving as a White House physician – and made ‘sexual and denigrating’ comments about a female subordinate. Jackson disputed the report’s findings.”
The New York Times in March reported on Dr. Jackson’s military demotion.
“In a report completed three years ago, the Pentagon found that Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson had mistreated subordinates while serving as the White House physician and drank and took sleeping pills on the job. The report recommended that he face discipline,” according to The Times. “Now it turns out that the Navy quietly punished him the next year. Though he had retired from the military in 2019, he was demoted to captain — a sanction that he has not publicly acknowledged.”
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Last summer at a Texas rodeo Congressman Jackson attempted to assist a person experiencing a medical event, but was “briefly detained” by law enforcement officers, his office stated, after reportedly refusing to move away from the woman.
According to The Texas Tribune, Jackson spewed multiple profanities at a trooper.
“’You are a f*cking full-on dick!’ Jackson told the trooper after being brought off the ground, according to bodycam footage provided by the Department of Public Safety. ‘You better recalculate, motherf*cker!'”
“I’m gonna call the governor tomorrow and I’m gonna talk to him about this sh*t because this is f*ckin’ ridiculous,” Jackson also reportedly said. “F*ckin’ ridiculous.”
The Tribune reported Jackson’s “office has emphasized he was ‘not drinking,’ though the sheriff’s report challenges that assertion.”
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Bombshell reports from The Washington Post and Politico are fueling concerns over the promises 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly has been making to “Big Oil.”
“What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign,” is The Washington Post’s headline.
“Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry,” The Post reported.
“You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.”
“Giving $1 billion would be a ‘deal,’ Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people,” The Post added.
“Political contributing is often a type of legalized bribery,” The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo remarked. “But the way Trump is so explicit about making a ‘deal’ is going to raise eyebrows.”
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It has.
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, an attorney and University of California, Berkeley professor of public policy issued this warning:
“Trump asked Big Oil execs to give him $1 billion for his campaign. He promised lower taxes and a rollback of Biden’s climate regulations and clean energy programs in return. Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet. Be warned,” Reich wrote.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) also issued a warning: “Donald Trump is saying the quiet part out loud. Re-electing him will guarantee ‘deals’ that work against our climate future. He cares more about campaign donations from oil tycoons than the fate of future generations and the health of our planet. Take him at his word.”
“We cannot believe this,” wrote government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “Donald Trump essentially told a room full of oil executives ‘raise a billion dollars for me and I’ll get rid of the regulations that you want.’ This is blatantly corrupt behavior.”
READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’
Former LA Times reporter Steve Weinstein called it, “Bribery straight up.”
“Wow,” exclaimed U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) “a report today finds donald trump demanded a straight up billion dollar bribe from oil executives. Republicans want to sell you out to big oil to line their pockets.”
Liberal Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century wrote: “New reporting uncovered Trump is already planning to sell the White House to the highest bidder. He’s demanding a $1 billion bribe from oil execs in exchange for massive tax cuts and the repeal of environmental protections and clean energy investments.”
Josh Dorner, a communications executive, responded to the Washington Post’s Heather Long’s summation of the paper’s report, by writing: “Bribery, how does it work?”
Bribery, how does it work? https://t.co/WKvb4wbKSr
— Josh Dorner (@JoshDorner) May 9, 2024
Marketing executive Jason Karsh, also responding to Long’s post, wrote: “How cool is it to have a presidential candidate so broke and so corrupt that he’s asking for bribes out in the open. I mean, he’s a Republican so nothing will happen, but this is so clearly what the founders intended, it’s just … *wipes a tear*”
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom commented, “Big Oil is literally writing up Executive Orders for Trump to sign on Day 1 — with the promise of $1 billion in return. He’s giving away our planet in return for cash. Have we just accepted this as the new norm??”
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Laurie Garrett in a lengthy social media thread reached back into history and compared Trump’s alleged billion-dollar request to the Teapot Dome scandal. “Until now, it was the biggest presidential corruption case in US history,” she wrote.
Trump’s deal to Big Oil [give my campaign $1B & all #Biden climate & green policies will be void] echoes the Teapot Dome Scandal in another #Republican #POTUS race 100 yrs ago. Until now, it was the biggest presidential corruption case in US history.
MOREhttps://t.co/B8glCJmeDM— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 9, 2024
“The Teapot Dome Scandal was, in the 1920s, the greatest threat to the integrity of the US Presidency the Nation had experienced. Not only was Big Oil bribery unfolding, but Harding, a golfer and womanizer, & had a child out of wedlock,” she noted in one post.
See the social media posts above or at this link.
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