America Chavez: The First Openly LGBTQ+ Woman of Color in the MCU

Note: This will contain many Multiverse of Madness Spoilers

America Chavez, portrayed by Xochitl Gomez, made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the latest movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, on May 6, 2022. Many fans, including myself, had very high hopes for this newfound representation after 2021’s Eternals featuring Phastos, the first openly gay superhero, who even having an onscreen husband and son. Phastos and his husband also kiss onscreen, which is an enormous step in the direction of representation, especially for such a big corporation as Disney and Marvel. Chavez is fourteen years old - the youngest in the movie and one of the youngest in the MCU. I attempted not to get my hopes up for full representation upon learning her age, but I was pleasantly surprised upon seeing the movie. Many close-ups of her pride pin on her denim jacket were featured, and this “controversial” scene: Chavez has two moms, and the twelve-second clip of them led to attempted censorship in places such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar. This scene consists of Chavez learning about her ability to jump through the multiverses and depicts her mothers getting lost in the multiverse after Chavez accidentally opens a portal. Due to the bans on gay content in the countries mentioned above, they requested Disney and Marvel cut the scene, but the studios refused because they want inclusion and representation to increase in their films. That news filled me with hope for Marvel to introduce more LGBTQ+ characters into their films. Many of the characters are canonically LGBTQ+ in the comics, such as Loki, Yelena Belova, and Wiccan (who translates into the MCU as Wanda Maximoff’s son, Billy Maximoff). I am very optimistic about her future in the MCU.