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“I often marveled at how appropriate it was that I should land this role. As a gay boy growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s in a devoutly Catholic family, I’d grown adept at concealing parts of myself,” Conroy wrote.

Conroy further wrote that the loss and disorientation Wayne felt mourning the death of his parents in Crime Alley echoed his own childhood experience witnessing his father drunk and bloody after injuring himself with a broken bottle. He said his lived experience making “too many” compromises while balancing his public and private face as a gay man allowed him to find his voice as Batman.

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“My heart pulsed, I felt my face flush, my breath grew deeper, I began to speak and a voice I didn’t recognize came out. It was a throaty husky rumbling sound that shook my body,” Conroy said. “It seemed to roar from 30 years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, yearning…Yes, I can relate. Yes, this is terrain I know well. I felt Batman rising from deep within.”