When I was a kid, I was definitely shy & insecure.  In general I didn’t feel like I fit in.  The fact that I was Jewish added to that, giving me one more thing about which to feel different.  This was especially true in December, when everywhere you turned it was Christmas all the time.  It’s worth noting that I felt this way even though I lived in New York, which has a significant Jewish population.  So I can only imagine how much more of an outsider I would have felt if I had grown up in a different part of the country.

As a result, when I saw Jewish characters like Kitty Pryde and Doc Samson in comic books when I was younger meant as lot to me.  I was already in my mid-twenties when the Thing was revealed to be Jewish, but it nevertheless felt really significant to me that one of the most iconic Marvel Comics characters was revealed to be Jewish.

And just as I really wanted, and needed, for there to be Jewish heroes in the stories I read and watched, so too do women, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, the LGBT community and other groups want and need the same thing.

I'm just glad nowadays Northstar is actually out of the closet (it's unfortunate John Byrne himself could not have told that story, since he would certainly have done a far better job of it) and that there are other LGBT characters in comic books.