However the practice of hiding LGBT characters in the early part of the twentieth century evolved into open inclusion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and comics explored the challenges of coming-out, societal discrimination, and personal and romantic relationships between gay characters. LGBT existence was included only via innuendo, subtext and inference. LGBT themes in comics are a relatively new concept, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) themes and characters were historically omitted from the content of comic books and their comic strip predecessors due to anti-gay censorship.
Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in a panel from DC Comics Batman #84 (June 1954), which was used by Frederic Wertham to allege that comic books promote homosexuality.