Portrayal of LGBT themes in comics is recognized by several notable awards, including the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards and GLAAD Media Awards for outstanding comic book and comic strip. Pornographic manga also often includes sexualised depictions of lesbians and intersex people. Since the Japanese "gay boom" of the 1990s, a body of manga by queer creators aimed at LGBT customers has been established, including both bara manga for gay men and yuri aimed at lesbians, which often have more realistic and autobiographical themes. These works are often extremely romantic and idealized, and include archetypal characters that often do not identify as gay or lesbian. Japanese manga tradition has included genres of girls' comics that feature homosexual relationships since the 1970s, in the form of yaoi and yuri. Notable comics creators have produced work from France, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Britain. A lack of censorship and greater acceptance of comics as a medium for adult entertainment in Europe has led European comics to be more inclusive from an earlier date, leading to less controversy about the representation of LGBT characters in their pages.
The popularity of comic books in Europe and Japan have seen distinct approaches to LGBT themes. Today comic strips educating readers about LGBT-related issues are syndicated in LGBT-targeted print media and online in web comics. Since the 1990s, equal and open LGBT themes have become more common in mainstream US comics, including in a number of titles in which a gay character is the star. The first openly gay characters in American comic strips appeared in prominent strips in the late 1970s and gained popularity through the 1980s.
Starting in the early 1970s, however, LGBT themes were tackled in underground comix, independently published one-off comic books and series produced by gay creators that featured autobiographical storylines tackling political issues of interest to LGBT readers.
With any mention of homosexuality in mainstream United States comics forbidden by the Comics Code Authority (CCA) between 19, mainstream comics contained only subtle hints or subtext regarding an LGBT character's sexual orientation or gender identity. However the practice of hiding LGBT characters in the early part of the twentieth century evolved into open inclusion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and comics explored the challenges of coming-out, societal discrimination, and personal and romantic relationships between gay characters. LGBT existence was included only via innuendo, subtext and inference. LGBT themes in comics are a relatively new concept, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) themes and characters were historically omitted from the content of comic books and their comic strip predecessors due to anti-gay censorship. They would tell you if something was unacceptable and that was usually that.Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in a panel from DC Comics Batman #84 (June 1954), which was used by Frederic Wertham to allege that comic books promote homosexuality. There were no written definitions, no list of previous rulings to argue precedent. You might wonder, what was the Code’s definition of “sex perversion” and “sexual abnormalities”? What was the line for what makes a sex relation “illicit”? Well, all of that was up to the Comics Code Authority Administrator or whomever was working in the office that day. “Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.”.“The treatment of love-romance stories shall emphasize the value of home and the sanctity of marriage.”.Violent love scenes, as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.” “Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at or portrayed.And three rules dealt with how sex and love were to be portrayed: Unless it involved super-powers or impossible technology, you could not show how crimes were committed. Supernatural beings (except for sorcerers and magic-users who did not invoke the Devil) were banned. The Code had many rules on how characters could appear physically, how violence was to be handled and how authority and government figures could be portrayed. In response, the Comics Magazine Association of America formed as a new industry trade group, and created the Comics Code Authority.
There was no ruling advocating government intervention or censorship, but the subcommittee report stated that the comic book industry needed to address how their stories could adversely affect the American public. Soon after the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham spoke before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and testified that comic books were a major cause of juvenile crimes.