Renee Montoya in DC Comics

BTAS 33 - Officer Montoya
by ~basement24

  There are increasing numbers of token and mainstream gay characters in Marvel and DC Comics, but one of my favourites is Renee Montoya.

Renee Montoya is a Latino police officer, from a small religious family (her parents own a small store, her younger brother is becoming a firefighter). She's a very good cop, she's tough, she's smart and she's gay.

Renee becomes the girlfriend of the other central lesbian character - Kate Kane, a.k.a Batwoman (who is also getting her own series soon). So yes, lesbian kisses and strong female characters abound.

52 Week Eleven (11)
(DC Comics)

Renee Montoya as The Question
by *OtisFrampton 

 She's also one of the main characters in several different graphic novels from DC Comics, in Gotham Central, 52, Detective Comics, One Year Later, Final Crisis and Blackest Night (so far). Most of her stories are written by one or both of Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker.

She was also a supporting character in several previous Batman-related story lines, although her sexuality wasn't mentioned. She was originally created for Batman: The Animated Series and was voiced by Ingrid Oliu (season one) and Liane Schirmer (season two).

Renee Montoya in
Batman: The Animated Series 

• Review of Renee Montoya in Gotham Central
• Review of Batwoman: Elegy

And to round out this entry, have some fan art of Renee Montoya with Batwoman from some DeviantART artists with very good taste.

Graphic Novel Review: Gotham Central - Half A Life

In Gotham Central, Batman's supporting characters  step out from the shadows... and the closet.

Gotham Central is a new graphic novel series following the police force of Gotham City, as they deal with everyday disasters and supervillains. There are plenty of familiar faces from the Batman stores, but the focus is emphatically on the GCPD and the Major Crimes Unit. It was one of those comics that completely bombed, sales-wise, but soared in reviews.

And of course, it provides some cop drama backstory for Renee Montoya, lesbian, and future vigilante. Gotham Central has now ended, and Renee Montoya went on to become the focus of some of the comics in 52 (a series of 52 comics -one for each week in the year! Renee's main appearance began in 52 Week Eleven ), in which she's miserable and alone - then falls in with The Question and turns vigilante... and has a few sexually tense encounters with Batwoman. Eventually, she becomes The Question herself.

 The first paperpack book of Gotham Central, In the Line of Duty, is three short stories, one of which focuses on Renee Montoya.

Lambda Literary Awards: Overview of Yearly Award Categories

The 'Lammys' are annual book awards that have been running since 1988. They offer wide range of categories which vary each year.

Awards are given out the following year but named for the year of publication, so the awards announced in 2009 are for books published in 2008, for example. This can be slightly confusing, as other awards are named after the year they are given out (even more confusing when a book appears on both lists!)

The Lesbian Book Awards Page

The Lambda Awards by year:

1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 |1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002  2003 | 2004 |2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011

16th Annual Lambda Literary Awards 2003

16th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners and Finalists

 The Lambda Awards by year:

1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 |1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 
2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010

2003 Categories:
Overview of yearly categories

• Lesbian: 
• Fiction, Mystery,  Poetry
• General LGBT: 
• Fiction Anthology, Non-fiction Anthology, Autobiography/ Memoir, Biography, Children's/ Young Adult, Drama, Erotica, Humour, Photography/ Visual Arts Romance, Science fiction/ Fantasy/ Horror, Spirituality, LGBT Studies,
• Gay Men's : 
• Fiction, Mystery,  Poetry
• Transgender/ Genderqueer

Lesbian Fiction:

• Winner: Southland by Nina Revoyr (Akashic)
• Finalists
• And Then They Were Nuns by Susan J. Leonardi (Firebrand)
• The Way the Crow Flies by Anne-Marie MacDonald (HarperCollins)
• This Wild Silence by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Alyson)
• What Night Brings by Carla Trujillo (Curbstone)

Lesbian Mystery:

• Winner: Damn Straight by Elizabeth Sims (Alyson)
• Finalists
• Cry Havoc by Baxter Clare (Bella)
• Epitaph for an Angel by Laruen Maddison (Alyson)
• Owl of the Desert by Ida Swearingen (New Victoria)
• The Woman Who Found Grace by Bett Reece Johnson (Cleis)

17th Annual Lambda Literary Awards 2004

17th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners and Finalists

 The Lambda Awards by year:

1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 |1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 
2002 | 2003 | 2004 |2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010

2004 Categories:
Overview of the categories by year

• Lesbian: 
• Debut Fiction, Fiction, Mystery,  Poetry
• General LGBT: 
• Fiction Anthology, Non-fiction Anthology, Autobiography/ Memoir, Biography, Children's/ Young Adult, Drama, Erotica, Humour, Photography/ Visual Arts Romance, Science fiction/ Fantasy/ Horror, Spirituality, LGBT Studies,
• Gay Men's: 
• Debut Fiction, Fiction, Mystery,  Poetry
• Transgender

Lesbian Debut Fiction:

• Winner Crybaby Butch by Judith Frank (Firebrand)
• Finalists
• Death by Discount: A Mara Gilgannon Mystery by Mary Vermillion (Alyson)
• Dish It Up, Baby! by Kristie Helms (Firebrand)
• Fire & Brimstone by Laurinda D. Brown (Strebor)
• Minus One: A Twelve-Step Journey by Bridget Bufford (Alice Street)

Lesbian Fiction:

• Winner A Seahorse Year by Stacey D’Erasmo (Houghton Mifflin)
• Finalists
• Abundant Light by Valerie Miner (Michigan State University)
• Life Mask by Emma Donoghue (Harcourt)
• Skels by Maggie Dubris (Soft Skull)
• Venus of Chalk by Susan Stinson (Firebrand)

Book Review: Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Moon

A close-up on the cover of Sassinak -
cover art by Stephen Hickman

Sassinak is a title that gets mentioned fairly frequently as a 'good lesbian book'. But it's not. Not exactly...

The book is LGBT friendly - at one point, in a discussion with Wefts (shape-changing aliens), it is stated that humans are bisexual, and Sassinak considers females as bedmates. But all her shown relationships are heterosexual. Others are described as being in a variety of relationships, but the focus is almost entirely on Sassinak, so these are scarcely touched on.

The plot is a bit rambling, although the theme sounds impressive - Sassinak is taken in a pirate raid on her planet and enslaved. Luckily she ends up rescued and instrumental in finding the slaver base (although in the end, uninvolved).

1st Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners 1988

1st Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners and Finalists

The Lambda Awards by year:

1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 |1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 
2002  2003 | 2004 |2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010

1988 Categories:
Overview of yearly categories 

• Editor's Choice
• Lesbian: Debut Fiction, Erotica, Fiction, Mystery/ Science-fiction,  Non-fiction, Small Press Book Award
• General LGBT: AIDS, Poetry, Publisher's Service Award
• Gay Men's: Debut Fiction, Erotica, Fiction, Mystery/ Science-fiction,  Non-fiction, Small Press Book Award

Editor's Choice

• Why Can’t Sharon Kowalski Come Home? by Karen Thompson And Julie Andrzejewski (Spinsters/Aunt Lute)

Lesbian Debut Fiction:

• Winner Bird-Eyes by Madelyn Arnold (Seal Press)
• Finalists
  • Sunday’s Child by Joyce Bright (Naiad Press)
  • Mundane’s World by Judy Grahn (Crossing Press)
  • The Finer Grain by Denise Ohio (Naiad Press)
  • A Mistress Moderately Fair by Katherine Sturtevant (Alyson Publications)

Lesbian Fiction:

• Winner Trash by Dorothy Allison (Firebrand Books)
• Finalists
  • After Delores by Sarah Schulman (E.P. Dutton) [Stonewall Book Award winner, 1989]
  • The Secret in the Bird by Camarin Grae (Naiad Press)
  • The Prosperine Papers by Jan Clausen (Crossing Press)
  • Bingo by Rita Mae Brown (Bantam)