As children most of us grew up under the impression that Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were all cisgender, meaning they conform with the gender that corresponds with their biological sex. That was the standard sexuality that most of us were raised upon. As time goes on, more people have become more accepting of the LGBT community. With this increase, many have also realized the lack of sexual diversity within pop culture, such as the superheroes in comic books.

Recently, there have been multiple announcements that many superheroes, especially those in DC comics, have come out as gay, lesbian and bisexual. Wonder Woman was announced as lesbian; The Ray, who is getting his own spinoff show from Arrow, was announced as gay; and Harley Quinn was announced as bisexual, just to name a few.

Naturally, my first response when I heard of all these superheroes coming out was, “Wow, finally some diversity around here!” However, I did have to question the superheroes’ sudden enthusiasm on the announcement of superheroes’ sexual preference. Obviously, with the gradual increase of those coming out in the LGBT community, along with a more accepting society of the various sexualities, most people would naturally crave diversity in every aspect of their life. But the real question is, if there was still a lack of sexual diversity in the world, would the announcements of the coming out of multiple superheroes still have taken place?

Personally, I don’t think that the eagerness of the coming out announcements would have been as eagerly hoped for in a less diverse world. Honestly, if the society was still as closed-off to sexual identifications as it was just a couple decades ago, I don’t think that any of the superheroes would have been announced as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Children would live under the impression that the superhero whom they admire is cisgender, which in turn would probably lead the child to fall under the impression that they have to like girls to be a hero like Superman.

While the sexuality of some superheroes has been revealed before in small fragments in their comic books, it was never emphasized as a full-on debut the way it was announced recently. Avid comic book readers have probably already spotted Harley Quinn’s love for both male and female characters, but Wonder Woman’s lesbian identity was kept very well hidden and even comes as a shock to those who just have currently heard the announcement. The Ray, a new and upcoming superhero, is even getting his own spinoff show as the first gay superhero, but would he still gave obtained this new show if he hadn’t been openly gay?

I’m not discouraging the fact that the superheroes have become more diverse. In fact, I completely support it. Hopefully with people’s favorite superheroes outing their own sexuality, acceptance for the LGBT community will increase, which is something that I’m all for.