Before Batwoman: Looking at LGBTQ+ representation in the Arrowverse

As Batwoman suits up, we reflect on how the Arrowverse has incorporated queer characters in the past and contemplate where it could go next.

In October, Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane will take center stage in Batwoman and become the first lesbian superhero to lead a TV show. What’s noteworthy about this isn’t the fact that it’s historic (even though it technically is), but rather the fact that it doesn’t feel particularly noteworthy.

Television in 2019 is far from a utopia for LGBTQ+ people (or any marginalized group, for that matter). Still, too often inclusion feels obligatory, insensitive, tentative, or tenuous — when, of course, it exists at all. But it’s gotten to the point where a show sticks out like a red cape if it fails to have at least one queer character in a major role, where not every instance of representation demands a parade be thrown.

As the latest addition to the Arrowverse, Batwoman joins a world populated by enough queer characters that it makes the MCU and DCEU’s continued struggles to include even one explicitly queer character seem laughable in comparison.

Like everything else, it started with Arrow. Early in the season two episode “Heir to the Demon,” a woman — later revealed to be Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law) — approaches Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) with a dagger. However, instead of fighting, they kiss. Since then, Sara has died, come back to life, become the lead of her own show, flirted with men and women throughout history, and committed to a monogamous relationship. Her growth between that initial kiss, quickly cut off by a commercial break, and the IKEA storyline in “The Eggplant, the Witch & the Wardrobe” is incredible.

The Arrowverse has grown as well. As of now, the following characters have all been confirmed as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer:

• Arrow: Nyssa al Ghul, Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), William Queen (Ben Lewis)
• The Flash: David Singh (Patrick Sabongui), Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker-Kennedy)
• Legends of Tomorrow: Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe (Jes Macallan), John Constantine (Matt Ryan), Gary Green (Adam Tsekhman), Charlie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers)
• Supergirl: Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima), Nia Nal (Nicole Maines), Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai)
• Black Lightning: Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams), Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy)

Due to the sheer amount of options on display, no individual character is pressured to represent an entire group of people. They all have their own personalities and their own ways of relating to and expressing their sexuality. Supergirl explored Alex’s coming out as lesbian in painstaking detail, while Arrow disclosed that Curtis and, later, William were gay so casually you might have had to rewind just to make sure you heard right. Relationships have flourished and disintegrated in ways both tragic and mundane.

A particular highlight was the 2017 crossover, titled “Crisis on Earth-X.” In addition to a plot that involved Sara and Alex having a one-night stand, it introduced an alternate-universe version of Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) and his boyfriend Ray Terrill (Russell Tovey). The pure joy of seeing an intimate moment between gay characters played by gay actors was compounded by the pleasant surprise of seeing Snart’s sexuality, which fans had long speculated about, fueled partly by Miller’s assertion that he views him as pansexual, made canon.

Nonetheless, the Arrowverse has had its share of missteps in this regard. It has been at times Modern Family-like in its reluctance to depict same-sex romance, particularly between men. On Arrow, for example, Curtis’s personal life, including a marriage that ended in divorce, unfolded almost entirely off-screen. And even when it happened onscreen, it never got more physical than a hug. Compare that to Oliver and Felicity’s relationship, which has featured multiple steamy, full-on sex scenes.

This prudishness extends beyond sex. Except for Gary, who is frequently the butt of jokes, the characters are all gifted with air-brushed good looks, falling somewhere between “pleasing” and “hot” on the beauty spectrum. The men look like men, and the women look like women, and no one looks like they’ve been inside a gay bar ever.

Perhaps it’s an inevitable result of being on The CW, which can’t seem to resist making every actor that enters its vicinity look like somebody who once appeared on a teen soap. In general, though, mainstream pop culture tends to conflate the desire to belong with the desire to blend in, suggesting that straightness might not be the ideal anymore, but the appearance of straightness is. And isn’t looking like everyone else just a different way of being invisible?

I’m not asking the Arrowverse to be transgressive, subversive, or even especially progressive; at the end of the day, it’s my version of a hangout sitcom, meant for winding down, not pumping up. But it could stand to branch out a little more, to take more risks. That’s something Batwoman could do.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday, showrunner Caroline Dries emphasized that the upcoming season will delve into Kate Kane’s romantic exploits.

“What’s important about this character is that she’s like Oliver Queen,” she said, referring to Arrow’s playboy hero. “We didn’t want to neuter Kate. She’s in this complicated relationship with Sophie [an ex played by Meagan Tandy] because it’s an intellectual past relationship, but to me, what makes part of her character is that she has girlfriends. She goes on dates.”

So, a lesbian character will not only be front and center, but she will experience a variety of relationships with a variety of women. One can imagine (or at least hope) that those people won’t all look like teen soap alums.

Batwoman premieres October 6 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.