LGBT advocates criticize DC Comics for forbidding marriage for lesbian superhero

DC Comics, already criticized earlier this year for hiring noted author Orson Scott Card to write stories featuring flagship character Superman, is being knocked again by LGBT advocates for refusing to depict a same-sex marriage in the award-winning comic Batwoman.

Pop culture site IO9 reported that the series' current creative team, W. Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams III, cited continued editorial interference as their reason for leaving the book, including a directive that the heroine (aka Kate Kane) not be written to marry her partner, detective Maggie Sawyer, despite being shown kissing her as she proposed.

"We've always understood that, as much as we love the character, Batwoman ultimately belongs to DC," the creative team said in a statement. "However, the eleventh-hour nature of these changes left us frustrated and angry -- because they prevent us from telling the best stories we can. So, after a lot of soul-searching, we've decided to leave the book after issue 26."

A request for comment from DC Comics on Thursday was not returned as of press time.

Williams later clarified on Twitter that DC's rule against marriage "was never put to us as being anti-gay marriage."

Advocacy group GeeksOUT, however, seemed to take little solace in that in a statement on its website on Thursday.

"It's not as though DC comics has a long and embarrassing history fumbling LGBTQ issues (Teen Titans' Bunker,Earth-2's gay-for-no-reason Alan Scott, trying to serve Superman fans a big steaming pile of Orson Scott Card)," GeekOUT said in its statement. "Or of mishandling the impressive roster of talent that keeps loyal readers coming back despite bone-headed world-altering relaunches and repetitive characters. Or, do they?"

The Batwoman comic has won two awards from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Competitors like Archie Comics and Marvel Comics have prominently promoted same-sex marriages within the past two years.

[Image via Batwoman Facebook fan page]