My fellow heteros: it happened again. It’s only been a few months since the original Green Lantern came out as gay, and now DC Comics has taken another beloved straight character and changed their sexual orientation. Now Tim Drake is bi, and I know what you’re going to say (because you always say the same thing): “The alphabet academy is trying to ruin comics. No one cares. Why don’t they make new gay characters instead of changing old ones? Why does the woke community keep shoving this stuff in our face? I’m sick of their gay agenda.”

We sure have done a lot of laps around this track, huh? I know how exhausted you must feel about the gays, because that’s how tired I am of hearing you complain about them. But here’s the thing about inclusivity in media: it’s legitimately in your best interest. I’m not going to preach to you or try to appeal to your empathy, that approach clearly isn’t working, but I am going to offer another perspective. If you’re willing to be a consequentialist about this for just a minute, I think you’ll be able to understand why I, as a straight, white, video game and comic book lover, am psyched to see better representation.

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First of all, some people are just bigots. If Tim Drake’s new bi status makes you mad because you simply hate gay people, then I have nothing to offer. To you, I say: enjoy your miserable life. You cannot stop progress from happening, and as you become older and angrier you will suffer as you watch the world become a safer and more loving place for LGBTQIA+ people. Sucks to be you.

But I don’t think that’s most people. I know that the vast majority of people that bristle at “the gay agenda” don’t consider themselves homophobic. For media to become more inclusive to different races, genders, and sexual orientations, it has to become less exclusive to straight white males. This is why you sometimes hear people describe games and comics as “male spaces.” Some people feel really threatened by better representation because letting more people into these hobbies means it won’t belong to them as much. They know representation matters, they just want all of the representation for themselves.

A lot has already been written about representation by smarter people than me, so if you really want to understand why media is and should be for everyone, here’s a great study from earlier this year that shows how queer representation is making the world a better and safer place LGBTQIA+ people. If you’re still wondering how Tim Drake dating men makes comics better for you personally, then I have a different perspective to offer.

There are people that are really happy about the Tim Drake news. Just search his name on Twitter today and you’ll see tons of fan art, celebrations, and positive comments. It conceivable, perhaps even inevitable, that some people who have never read a Tim Drake comic before will pick up Batman: Urban Legends #6 to see what all the fuss is about. Some of them will want to learn more about this Tim Drake fella too. They’ll start looking for back issues of Teen Titans. Maybe they’ll get into Future State or read the latest arc of the Nightwing series. People that don’t read comics will pay attention now, and some of them will become fans and customers.

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Meanwhile, you’re put off by the Tim Drake news, so instead of buying Urban Legends this week, you decide to try something new, like this week’s Hardware #1. The truth is, not every comic book is for everyone, and that’s OK. No one can read every single comic book that comes out, after all. So don’t read the ones that don’t interest you, and someone else will.

This is why inclusivity is in your best interest. We want more people reading comics because it means a bigger, healthier comics industry. More people buying comics means more comics get made, which also means there will be more comics that you will like. I’m sorry if Tim Drake was your straight icon and you just lost him to the gays, but the good news is that you still have a thousand other straight superheroes to look up to. Representation is in your own best interest if you want comics (and games, and movies) to thrive. Even if you don’t care that inclusivity makes the world a better place (which you should), you should at least understand why representation is good for you personally. Would you rather have five comic books that all appeal to you, or ten that appeal to you and ten that don’t? I’ll take more comics every time.

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