Hi Gail, first of all, I wanted to say thank you for everyone at DC doing such a great job promoting LGBT characters and especially solo leads. Between books like Secret Six, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Constantine: Hellblazer, and Midnighter I feel like the D

I don’t know what is the cause of what’s happening right now, I suspect it is a mix of the desires of creators to be more inclusive and an awareness from DC that is well overdue.

If you are talking a few years ago, when there were only a very few of us trying to make this happen, I would say it was much more creator-driven. I don’t remember anything really coming down from above on these topics. 

HOWEVER, that’s not to say DC didn’t care. In fact, I’ve said this many times, Dan DiDio is actually pretty freaking awesome on including lgbtq characters. I have worked for a lot of publishers and Dan sincerely cares about this issue and has never turned me down on it, and I know that he has backed other creators on these characters all the way. I know Marvel has made some great strides recently, but DC was publishing out gay headline characters when Marvel’s editorial was still saying they couldn’t do it because they were ‘all ages.’ So that was a BIG factor in me staying at DC so much.

And Bob Harras is very concerned about representing POC. I have had many notes from him recently asking if a character can be included who is POC, or if a new character can be POC instead of white. Bob wants books that look like our audience today, not in 1950 (if it was true even back then). 

So I think that much of the diversity they have at DC is creator-driven, HOWEVER, it is possible because the higher-up’s are open-minded and actually thinking about these issues. It doesn’t mean DC (and creators) haven’t messed up because we all have, but there is an atmosphere where you can have a book like MIDNIGHTER or The Movement and that happens because someone up top believed in the message and the material.

I do give most credit to the creators. HOWEVER, the downside of this is true as well. If you have a willing and supportive editorial department and your books DON’T have diverse casts, that’s also the creator’s doing. So if we get most of the credit for cool new diverse casts, we also should have to take the heat when a book doesn’t have that, to a large degree.

That’s my opinion, anyway.