Progressive superhero fans took to Twitter Monday to petition Marvel to change Captain America’s sexual orientation in an upcoming film.
Using the hashtag #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend, thousands of people asked the company behind the popular superhero to re-fashion him as a gay man in an upcoming installment.
Some Twitter users were quick to offer a candidate who could capture Captain America’s heart; Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, played by actor Sebastian Stan in the latest installment in the Marvel cinematic universe, Captain America: Civil War.
Marvel fans apparently took a page out of the Frozen playbook for their hashtag campaign; earlier this month, Disney fans used the social media service to petition the studio to make that film’s protagonist, princess Elsa, a lesbian.
Twitter users in that campaign used the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend.
While the majority of tweeters used the Captain America hashtag earnestly, a vocal contingent of critics questioned why the character’s sexual orientation needed to be explored at all.
Of course, there is some recent precedent for gay Disney characters; last month, an episode of the Disney/ABC television series Once Upon a Time featured a lesbian “true love’s kiss” between Ruby and the Wizard of Oz‘s Dorothy.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum