A couple of weeks ago, DC Comics introduced someone who is being billed as their first transgender character in a mainstream comic book series. DC recently relaunched Batgirl, and in Batgirl #19, Barbara Gordon’s roommate, Alysia Yeoh, comes out to Barbara as a transgender woman. Take a look at the page here:

Source: http://www.hrc.org/files/images/blog/batgirl19_full.jpg

In an interview with Wired, Gail Simon, writer of Batgirl, said that Alysia will be “a character, not a public service announcement…being trans is just part of her story. If someone loved her before, and doesn’t love her after, well — that’s a shame, but we can’t let that kind of thinking keep comics in the 1950s forever.” She also wanted to have a transgender character who wasn’t based in fantasy, and she talks about adding another transgender character to another comics she’s working on (but mum’s the word, for now). The Comics Code Authority once banned LGBT characters from the pages of comics, but there have been more gay and lesbian heroes in today’s comics than ever before. By introducing Alysia in such a prominent series, comics take another progressive step forward into diversity and inclusivity.