Superman writer Tom Taylor pledged donations to LGBTQ+ charity after receiving incessant online hate.
Last year, DC Comics made headlines after Jon Kent – the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, came out as bisexual in Superman: Son of Kal-El.
In the groundbreaking series, Jon has taken over the famous mantel while his father is on a mission in space.
The inclusion of an LGBTQ+ Man of Steel was met with immediate praise from comic book fans and critics.
The excitement surrounding the issue also required DC Comics to order reprints due to an “unprecedented” amount of orders.
Even though the news was primarily well-received, homophobic fans still inundated Taylor and the comic’s illustrators with death threats.
The continued backlash also led to the creative team receiving police protection.
Even in the new year, Taylor has continued to receive pushback for the inclusive storyline. But instead of clapping back at the online trolls, the esteemed writer found a clever new way to combat the hate.
Taking to Twitter, the 43-year-old highlighted one of the anti-LGBTQ+ messages he received.
“Superman f****** gay??” one message reads. “You will die in pain, f*cking piece of sh*t!!” the message read.
Rather than responding to the vile user directly, Taylor donated to the LGBTQ+ charity Minus18 in their name instead.
“Miroslav from Facebook, like so many before you, I made a donation to [Minus18] in your name,” he wrote.
Miroslav from Facebook, like so many before you, I made a donation to @minus18youth in your name. 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/1QNJMEE86i
— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) January 10, 2022
The Australian-based organisation promotes a safe space for queer youth and offers various services and resources.
Taylor’s iconic response comes a few months after he opened up about the inspiration behind Jon’s inspiring coming out story.
In an interview with The Washington Post, he revealed that the plan to make him queer was two years in the making.
“This was an opportunity to do something different, something not seen before. And to have this Superman represent people who haven’t been represented before and haven’t been able to see themselves in Superman,” he explained.
“To pitch something like this [to DC] is a little bit daunting. You go, are they going to go with this? Because historically, I have had queer characters erased or rejected [at other publishers]. But there’s been a real shift, a really welcome shift in comics.”
Taylor went on to say that before he explored Jon’s sexuality within the series, he wanted to establish the young hero’s role as Earth’s new Superman.
“First and foremost, I wanted to establish [Jon Kent] as Superman. I didn’t want the narrative to be DC Comics creates new [bisexual] Superman,” he said.
“I wanted it to [later] be Superman comes out, because … that is much more powerful.”
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