For my Writing and Thinking class last semester, we took a period of time to focus on comic books, and one of our assignments was to read an article referring to a topic involving comic books and write about how we felt about that particular topic.

I was scrolling through databases, looking through material surrounding the comic book world, only to come across an article that gave me a lot of new insight. The article was entitled “Trans Representations and Superhero Comics: A Conversation with Mey Rude, J. Skyler, and Rachel Stevens”, and it touched upon something in the comic book world that would have never crossed my mind before that moment: the impact of transgender characters in graphic novels and comic books.

Transgender people in comic books are often limited in their actions. Rachel Stevens, a staff writer for Women Write about Comics, feels that transgender people should be writing these roles for the characters, only because cisgender people tend to limit what “super abilities” transgender men and women would have in comic books and graphic novels. Transgender characters are sometimes downplayed in their roles. Wanda in Sandman, one of DC Comics’ first ever transgender characters, was only really looked at as someone who had the strength of a man, but “unfortunately” choosing to be a woman makes her character “not as strong”; something that transgender men I would imagine could relate to. Transgender characters also shed light on what it really means to be part of the LGBT community.

Transgender heroes, much like real-life LGBTQ people, spend every day hiding their true identity, even from the people that are closest to them. Just recently, our new president Donald Trump, according to The New York Times, "rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity." Transgender people are treated so poorly in this country, that they can't even use the restrooms they want to use. I find this to be unfortunate, for most people spend their childhood idolizing someone that they can relate with in order to make themselves feel important and powerful.

It is not so much about the bathrooms for transgender people, just like it wasn't about the water fountains for black people. It is the principle behind it. Let us not forget that transgender people are still people, and deserve ideal role models just as much as the rest of us do.