DC Pride 2025

In the waning hours of June 2025 and what's left of Pride Month, let's take a look at DC Comics' annual edition of DC Pride.   

We're off to a strong start with this kick ass Alan Scott/Green Lantern cover by Kris Anka.

A variety of writers and artists provide stories that contribute to one over arching plot about a mystical event converging on a 100 year old speakeasy turned gay club in Gotham City that is set to close it's doors.   

This bar has served as a sanctuary a variety of characters including Kate Kane (Batwoman), Renee Montoya (The Question), Connor Hawke (Green Arrow), Harley Quinn, Jo Mullein (Green Lantern), Apollo, Midnighter and so many more.

Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern has a central role as he explores the grief he has for his former lover, Johnny Ladd (also known by his Russian name of Vladimir Sokov), who became the Red Lantern.

This story does delve deeping into DC mythology surrounding the Green Lantern Corps and the whole Lantern spectrum (Red, Green, etc.) so that may be a bit confusing for a novice reader.

DC Pride 2025 introduces new character Ethan Rivera who serves as the heart of the story. 

Ethan is a former army veteran and a transgender man which is why he is a former army veteran. 

He also happens to be the one person who can pass between the alternate realities presented in this story. 

Various LGBTQ+ characters find themselves in worlds where it appears their dreams have come true.  

But not quite. 

For example, Midnighter and Apollo are living openly as a gay couple in a safe and happy life of 1950's suburban contentment. Except for the homophobic bigots who keep popping up.  When Midnighter punches them, they disintegrate into flowers. That's weird, right? 

There's also the small matter of a reality destroying crimson fire threatening to consume everything and these bubble of reality are not as safe as they originally appear.  

It's up to Ethan Rivera to convince them to leave their bubbles even though they may not want to.   

Probably the most controversial element of this storyline involves a super villain called the Blue Snowman who is gender fluid and is outet in public by Wonder Woman's lasso.

She was asking him to come clean about his crimes and did not ask for his gender identity.  

The art on the Blue Snowman segement is by Alex Moore who provides artwork for the Dungeons and Daddies podcast.  As for the story, I think the politics on display are too complex for a mere ally to navigate.  I'll leave to more experienced minds to parse this segment.

Overall, this issue of DC Pride 2025 feels like a stronger event for connecting the stories into a single narrative, a narrative that feels sadly relevant in a world where the LGGTQ+ community in under attack in the current political climate.

As has become tradition with these volumes of DC Pride, the 2025 issue ends with an autobiographical tale.  This year, that story is told by Jenny Blake who came out as a transgender woman at the age of 72.

Jenny tells her story with humor and heartfelt sincerity.  Jenny is an important person from my comic book reading youth as the co-creator of Black Lightning which I read back in the 1970's.  

I enjoyed DC Pride 2025.  As an ally and not a person who is LGBTQ+ (although my son says as I have been designated an "honorary gay"), I am not always fully cognizant of the challenges that come with living this life but books like these opens up a new perspective.  

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Meanwhile and elsewhere.....

Around 100,000 people defied a government ban and police orders Saturday to march in what organizers called the largest LGBTQ+ Pride event in Hungary’s history in an open rebuke of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government.

The 30th annual Budapest Pride was outlawed in March by Orbán’s right-wing populist governing party.

This is the world autocrats like Viktor Orbán and wannabe dictators like Donald Trump want. 

This is the world that people are coming out in force to stand against.