Richard Boom over at Broken Frontier posts Bluewater Production’s solicitations for this June. Among the indy publishers typical fare is a new Female Force comic devoted to conservative Laura Ingraham. Bluewater’s copy reads: “Born into a middle-class family, Laura Ingraham has become an American success story. Denounced by many early in her career as a bigot because of her deeply held Christian views, Ingraham has drawn strength from them to succeed at almost everything she’s tried. Whether as a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, a best-selling author or host of a radio show listened to by millions, Ingraham has made her mark and become one of the most influential voices in America.”
Last month Bluewater publisher Darren Davis sent a press release regarding his company’s upcoming Rosie o’Donnell bio comic. In this press release Davis stated Bluewater is a gay owned company, which is true, and that the Lost Raven graphic novel, written by Davis, features a gay man coping with the news of an HIV diagnosis, which to me seemed and still does seem, open to debate. Zak Raven does indeed learn he’s become HIV positive, but nowhere in the novel or any subtext that the character is gay. Davis disagreed with me in his comment on my piece. Fair enough. I wouldn’t mind Raven being straight because straight men can become HIV positive.
Davis is free to pursue publishing comics that he believes will sell. Despite right wing rhetoric that Obama is turning America socialist, this is still a free country. I do not think that the LGBT community should bury its collective head in the sand and not be knowledgeable about various people who stand in opposition to it, nor do I believe every other person should have the exact same philosophy that I hold. But Bluewater’s attempt to cast Ingraham as a martyr for her deeply held Christian beliefs is affront. Perhaps once having avoided restaurants where she feared waiters might be gay who would then try to expose her to HIV by touching her silverware or spitting into her food speaks as much about ignorance as it does bigotry. Admittedly, the two often go hand in hand. As editor of Dartmouth Review, she painted the Dartmouth campus gay rights group as “cheerleaders for latent campus Sodomites”. True, she supposedly did somewhat soften her views on homosexuality, at least with regard to the plight, humility, and humilation experienced by her gay brother and his partner in the face of AIDS. Still and all, Ingraham clearly is not a supporter of gay civil rights and equality.
If Bluewater does indeed and not just in words want to promote itself as a gay owned company then I find its continuing decision to capitalize on right wing politicians and pundits personally disconcerting.
