I think one of the most telling conversations I’ve had about queer representation in media was actually in reference to Deadpool. If I am recalling correctly, it happened around when Ryan Reynolds had come out stating that his Deadpool was ABSOLUTELY pansexual, and a friend of mine asked why Ryan felt the need to announce it. He thought it wasn’t important to the plot, and therefore thought the confirmation was unecessary and most likely only done to score points with the queer community.

The thing is, whenever a character ISN’T explicitly stated to be queer, the cishet community ALWAYS uses that as proof that the character couldn’t possibly BE queer. “Straight until proven LGBTQ+” is the general mainstream consensus – and then when a character IS proven LGBTQ+, the cishet community asks why the people behind said character felt the need to announce it, because how is their sexuality important to the plot?