On Tuesday, the hashtag #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend as becoming top trending topic on Twitter and other social media, which advocacy group GLAAD stated that this a sign that audiences are eager and have interest for significant LGBT characters in their superhero movies.
This comes less than a month after GLAAD issued its annual studio responsibility index , which found that Walt Disney Studios, which owns Marvel, included zero LGBT characters in its films last year.
“It’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore that LGBT people remain almost completely shut out of Hollywood’s big budget comic films that have dominated the box office over the past couple of years,” said Megan Townsend, GLAAD’s entertainment media strategist, who noted there are LGBT characters in both the source comics and in television adaptations, but not on the big screen.
Tuesday’s trending was powered by both advocates and dissenters. Scores of Twitter users suggested that Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) be paired up with his old friend Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), who has been a significant player in all three Captain America films.
But other tweets decried the rallying call, stressing that the character has never been gay in the comic book source material.
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