This has potential

Legendary Western Hero Comes 'Out'

and no, most comics--short of things like Casper--are not read by young kids, for those of you concerned about sexuality and violence in comics. The comic industry has also done a fairly good job at labelling their content for parental guidance. Any librarian ordering this title for a library should be aware that some may protest--but like most objections for censoship, it's probably unfounded. And I'm glad that in making a character gay, that isn't the main aspect of the character--after all, despite what some think, a person's gayness is really not particularly central to most people who are gay, anymore than a heterosexual tends to see his own sexuality as his defining trait.

Despite some of the issues I had with Marvel back when I worked in a comic shop and had to deal with them as a distributor--which they don't do anymore--I have always admired Marvel's depiction of superheroes you could really identify with--with real emotions, real problems, real settings. DC heroes tend to be more cerebral, but less human. And of course, there are a whole host of alternative producers; but those are the two biggies, and I like elements of each and collect comics from both camps.

Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute--and one does wonder why the director of an organisation with that name is male (can the poor little ladies not speak or act for themselves???)--shows that he really doesn't understand homosexuality in the following quote from the article: "e;Why is Marvel glorifying homosexuality when it has taken so many lives and played a role in so many sexually transmitted diseases?"e; One might ask why someone would appear to equate a character's homosexuality with pornography and put forward such prejudiced thinking in the supposed defence of children. I have news for them...there are a lot of teens and young people grappling with their sexual orientation right now. Many gay kids, under pressure from societal values such as those supported by the CWAFFI, commit or attempt suicide, because they find that an essential--althought again, not central--aspect of their being is rejected by those around them. Maybe books like Rawhide Kid will help at least one person out there avoid such a fate. And in the meantime, I seriously doubt the world will come to a crashing halt because of one dashing comic book character who happens to shoot straight but dress well.