my first ever LGBT character was a gay dude named Jim Cocker-Focker. I was 11 years old and my parents said that name was “a bit much”. Jim was one half of a Team Rocket-style duo tasked with kidnapping my friend and I for their mysterious boss who wanted us to go on some kind of heist that involved various locations around the world. Jim was incredibly camp and also incredibly frustrated because his companion, Bob, whom he had known since childhood, had still not noticed he was gay.
something I distinctly remember from 11-year-old me’s handwritten magnum opus was a scene at the first meeting where my friend and I are cornered and I say “are you… kidnapping us?” and Jim looked us up and down, curled his lip like he smelled something bad, and said “mmm… not dressed like that we aren’t”
