“My issue had nothing to do with homophobia or anything against LGBTQ. Quite the contrary, it had to do with oversexualization, exposing our children to comic book characters or social media where they’re constantly being bombarded with sexual images.” — Sophia Nelson

Yes, in case it slipped past your current events radar, DC Comics announced a month or so ago that Superman will now be the newest member of the LGBTQ+ superhero community. The initial headline(s) I saw said “gay”, but in fact he is bisexual. Thankfully, they are not so bold as to retcon the original Superman, Clark Kent (i.e., Kal-El of Krypton). Rather, the “Superman” in question is Jon Kent, teenage son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

Apparently, recent storylines have the original Superman exiled from Earth, so he has left the mantle of Earth’s protector to Jon, who inherited his legendary father’s Kryptonian abilities. The young hero will come out (or discover new feelings?) in issue #5 of his new title, Superman: Son of Kal-El, which will have him not just battling supervillains and giant robots but dealing with “political” issues like climate change and illegal immigration.

According to writer Tom Taylor,

“I knew replacing Clark with another straight white savior could be a real opportunity missed. I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes. Today, Superman, the strongest superhero on the planet, is coming out.”

Yet, as National Review‘s Phil Klein observed (and I tend to agree),

“This development — as well as Superman getting more political — just strikes me as a boring and lazy way to try to generate headlines and put the iconic franchise on the correct side of the cultural divide. But the latest turn also seems to be a bit behind the times — in 2021, a character being gay does not quite generate the shock value it did decades ago.”

That’s the backstory, so to speak. Now, enter author/journalist Sophia Nelson, the new scholar in residence at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. A few days after beginning in her current position, and not realizing that it was National Coming Out Day, Nelson commented on the Superman news in a since-deleted tweet:

“I just don’t get why this is necessary. I don’t! What if Christian parents of children reading comic books don’t want their kids exposed to bisexual characters? This is being pushed on kids. Then parents have to explain it. And most cannot!”

Of course, the pro-LGBTQ crowd pounced, calling her everything from “homophobic” and “racist” to “antisemitic”. (Those last two really baffle me!) “Triggered” students have protested and petitioned to have Nelson fired. (The petition has over 1000 signatures, so far.) Nelson strenuously objected:

“This is where I must draw the line. Neither me nor my words are racist or homophobic. And to characterize them as such in a petition to remove me is very shocking and damaging to me as a professional and as a human being.”

In a recent interview with Rob Bluey of The Daily Signal, Nelson elaborated a little on her initial tweet and her concerns about the whole experience:

“I made it clear that I was talking about kids, preteens, teens being exposed to this type of sexualization with one young boy grabbing another and kissing him. I don’t think that’s appropriate. I don’t think it’s appropriate for heterosexuals. I don’t think it’s appropriate for… I wouldn’t want to see a character with a big cross around his neck flying through the air as Super Christian….

I want [children] to see Superman rescuing buildings and rescuing Earth and saving people and something positive and affirming in their lives. I don’t think we should be injecting sexuality and all that kind of stuff, again, whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual.

That was the context and it was a great debate and people had thoughtful comments and there were people from the LGBTQ+ community who wrote back and said, “Well, let me tell you how you should talk about it with your kids, if you’re inclined to do so. Here’s some tips.” They were thoughtful. They weren’t being nasty, mean, or unkind.

Nobody thought my tweet was bad. Nobody thought my tweet was evil. I did not get put in the jail by Twitter. I did not get my tweet flagged.”

Yet, the woke did what the woke do. You might think that since Nelson is a woman and a person of color, they might go easy on her, maybe even allow her to tell “her truth”. But, as a self-described conservative Christian who doesn’t celebrate all things LGBTQ+, her intersectional cred just isn’t strong enough. Her public apology and removal of the offending tweet were, of course, insufficient.

University President Paul Trible, a former Republican U.S. senator and congressman whom Nelson respected, admired, considered a mentor, issued a statement confirming the institution’s commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and effectively throwing Nelson under the bus. Her colleagues in the CNU Communications Center, including one bisexual professor, issued an open letter expressing their concerns and “forcefully denounc[ing] anti-LGTBQIA+ rhetoric.”

Nelson tried calling in to student forums and requested a virtual meeting on the matter, but to no avail. Her comments were deemed unsafe and hurtful. Her arrangement with the student paper for an open letter and Q&A was quashed. She was effectively silenced for three weeks. Nelson was scheduled to appear in person on campus last week, but she ended up canceling that one herself. (Unlike those afraid of her words, she has reason to be concerned for her physical safety, due to all the hate mail and threats she has received from the “tolerant” people. The campus police chief hasn’t offered any protection, either.)

The attacks on her reputation and attempts to have her “canceled” have riled her up, and she ain’t havin’ it!

“I’m not afraid of anything or anyone…. I’m not going to be afraid of some Twitter trolls or some Ivy League smug academics who think that they’re going to tell me or anybody else what to say. That’s No. 1. No. 2: This is America….

I see LGBTQ+ people daily, daily denigrate (on Twitter, on Facebook) Christian people all the time, and nobody gets their job called up, nobody gets told they need to be removed. People are afraid of this community, I’m going to say it….

[I]f we’re raising a generation of young people — whether they be gay, black, white, Latino, Asian, whatever — who are so frail and so fragile that they can’t have discussion, that they can’t have debate, that they can’t express their feelings with their words without calling names and saying, “I want your job and I’m going to wreck you and I’m going to destroy you,” if this is the kind of generation we’re raising, we are in very serious trouble, because folks, you cannot lead with your feelings. You have to lead with facts.

In this case, I asked a question. And the school’s general counsel has been clear from Day One with the university. I know this because it was shared with me by the people who have to keep me apprised of things that the general counsel was clear on two things with Christopher Newport. One, Mrs. Nelson’s speech on her Twitter feed was protected. No. 1. No. 2, she said nothing that had anything to do with this school, its students, its faculty, or anyone.

Now, none of that has been respected, as you know, because clearly they made a decision that they were going to coddle this community. They were going to let them come at me with everything on Earth and run me over like a truck and not let me speak….

It doesn’t mean I won’t talk to students at some point, but what I know right now is that they’re not interested in dialogue or respect or listening.

What they want me to do, Rob, is come to campus so they can yell at me some more, tell me how bad I am, tell me how wrong I am, and that really bothers me because free thought is the essence of America — free faith, free thought, free speech, free assembly. Freedom is who we are in this country and we are losing that because of progressivism and all these other woke things.

Yeah, I’m saying it out loud because I just don’t care. It has to stop because it’s wrecking the United States of America as we know it….

I’m going to fight for those founding [American] principles that I believe in, and free thought, not free speech, but free thought is at the essence core of who we are. And I am not going to let this moment pass without me making sure that they know that they should never ever do this to anybody again and that I was the wrong one for them to do this to.”

Will she keep her job? If so, is that the best thing for her? I don’t know. From what I gather, she is not as conservative as I am in some areas. But, I hope and pray that she stands firm, her voice is heard, and true justice prevails.

Tags: appealing to feelings over facts, bisexual Superman, call for civil debate, calls to fire scholar, cancel culture, character assassination, Christopher Newport University, Jon Kent, lack of tolerance, LGBTQ+, nastiness from the left on campus, oversexualization of children, ruined reputation, Sophia Nelson, this fragile generation, triggered by tweet, unwarranted accusations, wokeness

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