When poverty and homelessness are the consequences of living your truth, you might be willing to lie a little longer. According to The Trevor Project, 40% of the youth homeless population is comprised of LGBTQ+ kids who were either kicked out of their homes or ran away from an unsafe environment. It is probably safe to say that, unlike Kate, the majority of them are not billionaires. Those protections now exist nationwide, but many likely still hold jobs in workplaces where coming out remains unsafe, and that rule does not extend to the same 42% who could face housing discrimination for those identities. Until the landmark Supreme Court decision on June 15, 42% of LGBTQ individuals lived in a state where they could lose their job due to their sexuality or gender identity. While Kate represents what most of us wish we could be, Sophie is far closer to the reality for a lot of queer people. Where Kate possesses every tool required to overcome the expectations thrust upon us by society, Sophie possesses only what she can hold on to, and for years she holds on by conforming. Kate grew up with money, Sophie did not Kate's family supported her no matter what, Sophie's were so homophobic she dated a woman for two years without telling them Point Rock was important to Kate but not her only option in life, Sophie saw the military as the only way to escape Kate is white, Sophie is Black. But Batwoman used the character and her history with Kate to craft a near-perfect juxtaposition of circumstance. A lesser show, though, may have left it at that, allowing Sophie to fill only the roles she needed to propel the plot forward. A CW series is always going to need plenty of love interests for their main characters, so a version of Sophie was always going to appear. Sophie Moore did not need to exist - not the way that she does, anyway. We also need heroes who take a while to get there. But we also need heroes who look like us and who face down demons like ours even though they are afraid, even though it could cost them everything, and especially if it does. We need people who live their truth loudly to inspire us to stand up for ourselves and discover our own. A lesbian hero who steadfastly faces down homophobia would have been inspiring to watch all on her own. Sure, there are consequences, and sure, she makes sacrifices, but none are so bad she could not easily recover.Ä«atwoman could have been content to leave its exploration of queer existence at that, allowing Kate to be the only LGBTQ+ character on the show to deal with and overcome adversity. No matter the possible consequences of her actions, Kate always has a safe place to retreat, a backup plan in which she was supported and protected. When she is kicked out of Point Rock, Kate has just spent six years training on her own, on her family's dime, with a plan to join her father's security company. For someone like Kate, there is very little risk to her personal safety when she defies authority in the name of her pride and principles. Kate is fearless, but that fearlessness comes from privilege. When Gotham City starts shipping Batwoman with a man, it is so in opposition to her personal identity that she risks potentially giving away who she is to allow Batwoman to come out on the cover of a major magazine. When a homophobic restaurateur asks her to leave, she opens up a real estate business across the street named Gotham Pride and turns her first acquisition into a lesbian nightclub. When her military academy tells her to choose between her identity and her career, she tells them to take their regulations and shove them. There is nothing in her backstory so far to suggest that she ever felt the need to hide who she was up until the moment she became Batwoman. Kate is white, cisgender, and comes from a family that is both wealthy and supportive. Instead, she represents perhaps the best possible queer experience, at least in a world where queerness is not yet universally accepted. Kate Kane, though an inspiring role model just for existing, does not represent the vast majority of queer experience. As the first series to feature a lesbian hero in the titular role, Batwoman was always going to break barriers, but the series has used the opportunity to explore queerness itself - and the myriad ways that queerness is encountered, expressed, and inhabited - as a central theme, something that might not be possible on a show with a straight lead. The CW's Batwoman fills an important role in the larger Arrowverse, and in the world of TV superheroes in general.
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