He's fast, can fly, and used to have a light-based power when in contact with his sister Aurora. Fans speculated about Northstar's orientation almost from the beginning, but AF writer John Byrne was coy about it. For a while Northstar was said to be a descendant of the Vanir, a nordic elf-like race. As columnist Peter David said in response, "That's right, Northstar's not gay, he's just a fairy. That's much better."

The main evidence that he was supposed to be gay was in AF #7-8, which spotlighted Northstar and his sister Aurora. The two of them visit an old friend of Northstar's, Raymonde Belmonde. When Aurora leaves the two of them alone briefly, Belmonde comments to Northstar, "So you didn't tell her all about me." A little later, we meet Belmonde's long-lost daughter, and Northstar is extremely surprised that he would have a child. In the next issue, the narration tells us: "Much more than a friend, Raymonde Belmonde taught a young Jean-Paul Beaubier [Northstar's secret ID] not to be afraid of his mutant power...or any other thing." And at the end of the story, Aurora blows up at Northstar in the following words: "You -- of all people -- dare to judge my love life!"

In the Northstar origin story which was the backup of AF #11, a character mentions that as a ski champion, Northstar had fame, money, and women, but didn't seem to be too interested in the women. He puts this down to the athlete's obsession with competition.

Gregory Wright (the character's creater) had this to say: "...as to Amy Chen's sexual orientation, it was never EXPLICITLY said in print, but numerous references were planted in my stories. Yes, as far as I'm concerned, and that's all that counts since I created her, she is lesbian, or possibly bi. The reason she was never officially outed had nothing to do with Marvel policy as some have speculated. It was simply a matter of it not being relevant to any of the stories written. I'm glad many folks were interested enough in her to figure it out. And no one ever complained. I would have liked to have written a story that did deal with her orientation, but alas, the book was cancelled before I could do it. Maybe someday."

A few stories have alluded to or touched on his orientation. For example, in Flash #120-121, Piper suspected a right-wing anti-gay politician of being a supposedly-dead member of the Rogues, and went "rogue" again in an effort to take him down. A backup story in Flash annual #10 (a special "young romance" issue) featured Piper trying to deal with a former partner in crime and prevent him from harming his current partner in love James (who shows up from time to time).

Meanwhile, Frostbite (a man with ice powers, eventually explained to be a snow elf) was involved in a literally-steamy relationship with Bonfire (a woman with fire powers). Eventually this relationship was going to cool off, as Bonfire figured out that she was in love with another team member. But when the series was cancelled, the writer hastily ended it so that he and George could get together before the end. George was reluctant to admit his attraction to Frostbite, who "brought him out", eventually admitted it, and in the last regular issue, as the other team members all paired up, the two of them sat together, implying that this was the beginning of a relationship between them. The following month, in a #1,000,000 issue set a few hundred millenia in the future, Off-Ramp (travelling through time) ran into Frostbite (still alive). There was no specific reference to the nature of their past relationship, but it was clearly a close and affectionate one.

One of the Global Guardians, the semi-obscure group where Fire, Ice, and Ice Maiden got their starts. He can turn into a big furry guy with superstrength and other undefined powers including a "Devil's Scream" howl. His "outing" came from an offhand comment in Justice League International Quarterly about how bad it is for "our kind" in Australia. Later appearances pretty much ignored this, although I think it was mentioned once or twice. And yes, his powers make him something of a "bear."

(Violet) (Ayla) Shrinking Violet (from a planet where everyone has the ability to shrink down to a speck) and Lightning Lass (aka Ayla Ranzz, who gained electrical powers in a freak accident, and temporarily became "Light Lass" when her powers changed) were said to be lovers. Both women had previously had boyfriends. They were never explicitly shown to be lovers (i.e. they never kissed, said "I love you" or anything else to indicate they were more than good friends), but the book's creative staff (in particular, editor Michael Eury) held them out as an example of a gay couple in comics.

It should also be noticed that Shrinking Violet spent relatively little time with her boyfriend when they were dating (they were on separate teams). Some readers now see him as a "beard" (that is, a disguise to hide one's homosexuality), though he surely wasn't intended as such when the stories were originally written in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Also, at the same time the Ayla/Vi relationship was being shown, the Legionnaires were cloned/duplicated, so that, in addition to the 30-something Legion, there was a teenaged Legion running around. The teenaged clone/duplicate of Vi was shown to be confused because she was feeling attracted to Saturn Girl.

Element Lad, aka Jan Arrah, was often speculated to be gay in the late 1960s, early 1970s. In the late 1970s/early 1980s, he began dating a female named Shvaughn Erin. In 1991 or 1992, it was revealed that Shvaughn was really a man named Sean, who took gender altering drugs because he was in love with Jan and wanted to be with him. Jan then told Sean that he didn't care one way or the other about the gender of his lover.

The Legion was started over from scratch in 1994, and none of the new versions of these characters (nor any of their colleagues) has given any clear indication of homosexuality. The writers of the series (and its joined-at-the-hip sibling Legionnaires) stated that at least one member of the team was gay... they just haven't confirmed this yet by showing us. There was a possible hint in one issue: Due to some mucking about with reality, the old adult versions of Ayla and Vi (and other Legionnaires) appear, and there's a panel (see the ) of Vi saying something sweet to Ayla. In the same panel, the current version of Vi is saying something equally saccharine to Kinetix, a character introduced after the 1994 reboot, who has also been on most fans' "short list" of characters who might be gay.

Shortly after this creative team was replaced, one of them revealed that Invisible Kid Lyle Norg (also on several "short list"s) was the character they had in mind, but he didn't know if the new creative team would follow through on this.

The characters' sexual orientation has never been a focus of any storylines or subplots, and in fact has never been explicitly stated. But during the time they've been around, they've consistently been portrayed as very close, and when one was seriously injured in a fight, the other was shown cradling him with a kind of intimacy and speaking with a level of protectiveness that seemed to go beyond mere friendship.

In response to reader questions, the characters' creator Warren Ellis has said, "Yes, Apollo and Midnighter are, in the debased English parlance, up each other. So what?" (Though he later recanted the implication that it didn't matter, acknowledging the reasons that are quite obvious to anyone reading this page.)

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