‘X-Men: First Class’ Screenwriter Says ‘X-Men’ Is About Gay Rights

Zack Stentz agrees with my theory that Magneto and Professor X are secretly in love! Well, sort of. When Alyssa Rosenberg put out an essay painting the X-Men series as a continuing allegory for LGBT rights, at least one commenter fought back, reprimanding her for putting a queer lens on the movie. Then in came Stentz, one of the four writers of X-Men: First Class, who easily corroborated Rosenberg’s viewpoint.

In a Facebook response to the essay, he confirmed that not only was it acceptable for LGBT fans to see correlations to their personal struggles in the movies, but that the writers weren’t stupid and had purposely included this commentary on various persecuted groups.

OK, so Stentz didn’t say that Erik/Charles is a real couple, but he’s still openly supported an excellent interpretation of the franchise. The X-Men movies have always presented mutation as a perfectly natural change in the body that mainstream society is simply unwilling to accept — due in part to how bizarre some of the powers manifest, but mostly because they fear getting “infected” with the same thing.

Considering that the humans in First Class who encounter the mutants are all CIA, there’s even a sly dig at the government regarding queer rights: When Xavier (James McAvoy) accidentally outs Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) to his boss, Hank sheepishly says, “You didn’t ask, so I didn’t tell.” Hank’s discomfort with his beastly feet helps to forge, and then damage, a relationship with Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence): Though they’re both insecure about having very physical mutations, only one of them comes to accept his/her outward appearance.