The group had its start in the summer of 1997 after a man enigmatically referred to as “Ulu Vakk” (that’s Color Kid from the Legion of Substitute Heroes) attended Andy Mangels’ “Gays In Comics” panel at San Diego Comic Con. The panel served as inspiration for bringing LGBT fans together online. It seemed the perfect solution to the few people who were posting campy and very gay remarks on the old DC Comics message board (that was then a part of AOL at the time), and soon a very informal e-mail list was born.
That initial list grew and grew and KEPT growing, until it became too big to contain in just e-mails. Anton Kawasaki, one of the original founding members, proposed the idea of a making a website where we could take the list (and the group as a whole) public. Anton enlisted the help of Drew Moore for graphics, and later “Zan” Christensen made the site even cooler! Joe Palmer took over as administrator, and the Gay League grew to hundreds, then thousands of members. Local Gay League groups began to meet up in cities, and there were even a few “Gay League Convergences” in NYC where members traveled from all over to meet.
And then…the website was the target of a rather nasty hack, and most of the content was taken down. While the website continued on throughout the years, it was never quite the same — with most of the social stuff unfortunately removed. You can’t keep gays and their comics down, however — as the Gay League was later reinvented as a very active group on Facebook. Joe eventually added Patricia Jeres and Steven Leitman as co-administrators.
In March of 2015, Anton (after learning various web skills) decided to bring back the website to its former glory — and the Gay League site is once again THE social site for LGBT comics fans!
An early “Gay League Convergence” (early 2000’s?) — outside The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.
ADMINISTRATION
Patricia Jeres [ Co-Adminstrator ]
