Sneering at fictional gay characters: Wrong.
Sneering at real gay people just because they won’t back up your attempt to show how really cool and enlightened and unprejudiced and right-on you are: Juuuuuust fine.

So when a very popular or respected creator like Ross makes a statement that essentially says “being gay is a bad thing” even implicitly people give that statement or sentiment a certain level of credibility that it doesn’t necessarily deserve, but is higher than if average fan said it in the comic shop. So, heterosexist thought and priviledge becomes reinforced.

Gay readers, especially young gay readers, potentially may have their self-image damaged because they give more credit to a statement by a pro than they would by average fan making the same comment or implication.

That’s why it annoys me – professionals have a responsibility, a social and civic one, even if they don’t realize it.

“Roy told me that Obsidian’s being gay was not necessarily inherent in the character from the beginning, but it’s not offensive or ill-suited to who he was.”

Roy Thomas told him that this was a change that made sense. And I think its an even stronger statement here than saying “Roy Thomas basically doesn’t care” – at least the way that Ross formulated the response, Thomas seems to be saying that it made some sense for the character to take that direction. That would be enough for me to shuffle off with my tail between my legs if I was trying to make the “creator disrespect” argument.

I know that I have some of my own annoying fanboy tics when it comes to superhero comics that I harp on about (like the fact that it irritates me to no end that the companies always want superheroes to be more “realistic” and serious), but it irritates me to see stuff like this in creators. I know it shouldn’t – that the only difference between most of them and the folks I BS with at the comic store or online is the level of talent they have and the fact that they pursued a career in their chosen fandom – but I still think that they should be thinking a bit more about stuff like this than it seems like they do.

[...] Oooh, here’s one Alex Ross probably wouldn’t like: What if Captain America was gay? (Link via Johanna Draper Carlson.) [...]

So in other words, yes, what he was saying is somewhat homophobic (in the sense that this society in general is homophobic and he’s simply not examining his assumptions), but not actively offensive.

(I would assume he didn’t object to Northstar’s coming out, given his logic, but one never knows.)