DC's First Transgender Character: A Positive Look

On April 10, DC Comics revealed that Alysia Yeoh, roommate of the current Batgirl Barbara Gordon, was transgender.  While certainly not the first transgender comic book character, Alysia is the first one in a major comic run, making her a significant milestone in the comic book world.  She was created by writer Gail Simone, the same writer who rebooted Batwoman as a lesbian to positive results. She explained the idea of making Alysia transgender in an interview with Wired: “I looked out into the audience, saw dozens of faces I knew well — LGBTQ folks, mostly — all avid comics readers and superhero fans and DC supporters, and it just hit me: why was this so impossible? Why in the world can we not do a better job of representation of not just humanity, but also our own loyal audience? I thought I might have to sell it, so to speak, but he ( DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio) just paused for a moment, asked how this would affect Barbara’s story, and immediately approved it."
While there is some backlash to this announcement, most people are totally ok with the announcement. In fact, the LGBTQ community is new at all to comics. In 1992, X-Men member Northstar revealed himself to be gay and got married to his partner Kyle in June of 2012, marking the gay marriage in comics history. The same month, DC Comics announced that Alan Scott, the first hero to be called Green Lantern, was going to be the newest gay superhero in the DC Universe, making June a great leap forward of LGBTQ community.

Comics are a great sign of the times. They evolve as new things arise and are no stranger to controversy. In the 1970s, Marvel tackeled the idea of interracial marriage by having Vision, an android, marry Scarlet Witch. This lead the way for Cloak and Dagger and many other interracial couples in the Marvel Universe. In 2011, Superman renounced his American citizenship, causing some outrage in the non-comic fan world. Eight years earlier, Superman had the Red Son storyline, in which he was working with the Soviet Union.  There was also some outrage when Marvel "killed" off Captain America. But as comic fans, these events are minuscule in the overall universe. 
I think what DC Comics did with Alysia Yeoh was a brave step forward. With what's going on the political world, I think it was an appropriate time. While there is always to going to be some backlash from the conservative side of things, I feel like the positive reaction will be the highlight of this story. I saw posts on social network sites praising DC for taking a bold step forward. I look forward to learning what happens as Barbara and Alysia's friendship progresses through the next couple issues.