chair. The first obviously gay character featured by DC was Extraño, an effeminate Peruvian man whose name means "strange" in Spanish, created by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton, and appeared in Millennium and New Guardians in 1987. New Guardians was not successful, but during its short run it also featured one team member, Jet, contracting AIDS. The series was controversial, as several characters on the team were infected with HIV through the scratch of a character called the Hemo-Goblin. Many angry letters were printed in response to this misinformation about HIV transmission, along with some gay readers complaining that Extraño was too stereotypical. An official aftermath to Millennium, The Spectre (vol. 2) #11, depicted a "mostly male and mostly gay" AIDS rally. Several characters, including the Enchantress (describing them as "filthy disgusting men") and a police helicopter pilot named Ed (screaming about "fags") are influenced into attempting to crush the rally by a seven-headed spirit. Thanks to the actions of the Spectre, Doctor Fate, Deadman, Madame Xanadu (later herself revealed to be bisexual), and Ben Turner, the men are saved. In 1988's Wonder Woman Annual #1, Kevin Mayer, brother of Diana's late publicist Myndi Mayer, shows up at her will reading, saying she was the only member of the family who didn't hate him for being gay. Mitch Sekofsky, mechanic for Task Force X, is a gay dad. Simon La Grieve, the organization's head psychiatrist, refers to this as his "choice of sexuality" and wonders how Sekofsky's son is adjusting. Priest Kramer counsels Mitch and tells him that his homosexuality is a natural part of himself that does not conflict with Christian scripture. The early 1990s saw a few more LGBT minor characters portrayed in DC titles. John Constantine dealt with gay bashers in Hellblazer #6 and 7 and Swamp Thing #74 (1988). In the latter issue, Constantine, having jumped from a train at the end of Hellblazer #6, is found by gay bashers in a weakened state and severely beaten until rescued by Swamp Thing. While Constantine is not gay (he is bisexual), one of his gay friends was beaten to death in Hellblazer #7 by a fundamentalist Christian cult. In an earlier issue, a group of skinheads follow a man they presume to be gay into a toilet with the intention of killing him, but he turns out to be the demon Nergal, who tears them apart. Both