Mighty Rebekah
Gender: Transgender Girl
Publisher: Marvel
Character Type: Primary
Alignment: Good
AKA: Rebekah Brueshoff
Summary: A real-life activist fighting for trans rights, 13-year-old Rebekah Brueshoff was added to the Marvel Universe in 2019 as part of Marvel's Hero Project. As she explains on her web page, Rebekah Brueshoff "is a twelve year-old activist who is on a mission to spread a message of hope and improve support for transgender and LGBTQ youth. Rebekah is transgender. That means when she was born, everyone thought she was a boy, but she deeply know herself to be a girl." Rebekah "advocates for transgender and non-binary kids who are fighting for the right to be who they are in their homes, schools, and communities. Arts and crafts turned into making protest signs, and school writing assignments turned into speeches. By being an out and proud transgender young person, Rebekah helps make space for other kids to be themselves." Rebekah is the first transgender kid to become a Marvel hero. Note: Since Rebekah is a human teenager who lives in the real world, we were not sure if she would want to be included in this site. We contacted Rebekah and her mother and they gave us permission to include her so she can serve as an inspiring example for transgender people of all ages.
"It's really important for me to share my story because a lot of kids like me don't have support in their homes, communities, or churches," Rebekah explained. "I want them to see people like me as role models and as a sign of hope. I can teach people that trans kids are just like other kids, and that it's not all about my gender. I often say that my gender is the least exciting thing about me — I have a bunch of other things that I do, things that I love." (Read more)
Murphy Moroney, "13-year-old trans activist Rebeka Brueshoff: 'My gender is the least exciting thing about me,'" Popsugar, June 10, 2020.
The Mighty Rebekah explains: “They can’t take that away from me hate us for who they are, because they don’t really know who we are. They just think we’re different... and that scares them. If people took the time to actually get to know us, they’d see we’re just like any other kids. Same dreams. Same hopes. Same fears. And they’d see we all want the same thing: to be accepted. No matter how many stones they decide to throw our way, we can’t just let it break us. This is who we were born to be. No one can change that.” (Read more)
Nick Duffy, "Marvel turns transgender 12-year-old into comic book superhero, and we love it 3,000," Pink News, December 9 2019.