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In the end Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to everything connected to Superman to Action Comics for a total of $130.

The whole story
https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/education/resource-roundup/december-2017/the-creation-of-superman

Although, they have to be credited with creating him in any and all Superman incarnations - movies, shows, cartoons...forever.

I always figured Lois Lane for a bit of a beard...
Exactly. Same reason soap operas have bizarre and barely plausible storylines. They ran out of the good stuff decades ago.

All the good Superman ideas have already been used, so for the sake of originality they make a character gay? 

Oh yeah, that hasn't been done a million times over already in just the last ten years alone. 

How many years was the tv series Gunsmoke on?

They must have had just about every kind of plot there was.

But one thing they never did was turn Matt Dillon gay

Why not?

I mean seeing him and Festus kiss would have made headlines

Probably would still be on the tube

maybe Kitty turns out to be transgender

the possibilities are limitless

what's next? Batman a Transgender?

so was Batgirl or woman or whatever the hell she is called before the show was cancelled

I like this post, because it reveals some things easily glossed over.
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A - this may entertain a new audience - growth is important, right?
B - the awkward, contrived storylines are very likely being written by straight people who are writing about what they don't know

So it's not a bad idea if it's executed well.  Maybe they should've hired writers to write what they know about.  Maybe everyone should.
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Loosely-related:  when i watch any kind of romantic movie, I need to be able to see why the main characters are into each other.  For the guy, it's 99% easy, the woman is hot and while she begins the movie insufferable and obnoxious, she dials it back and the red flags go away.  Easy. 
But look at these movies from a woman's POV.....the guy is usually conceited or doofy......always confident, though, no matter his ability....and 99% of the time does something major to screw things up.
Most romantic movies fail at making the man desirable to the woman because...............anyone?......anyone?.........men write everything!!!  We have the same issue with more progressive aspects of shows coming into gear......studios are having middle-aged white guys writing for the roles of bisexual teens. 
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And we complain that it's awkward. No shit.

I agree with you almost across the board.  It's potentially awkward and clunky because it's being written by people that don't know how to write it. But it's also potentially awkward and clunky because it's being unnecessarily shoe-horned into  a vehicle that doesn't require it.  This happens all the time in TV shows and movies, with any kind of agenda, not just controversial ones.  Once an agenda is being driven, the writing loses its authenticity-- by definition.  It's impossible to be authentic, and also overtly push an agenda.  These are two entirely different writing styles.  This is basic screenplay writing 101 stuff here.  And I know, because I took basic screenplay writing 101.

I will also counter your point A with the fact that the show is being canceled because it lost its original audience, and didn't develop a new one.  The proof is in the pudding.  It failed to grow or expand anything.  It just became awkward and cringy.  Even my 14 yo daughter who has a couple of very close LGBTQ+ friends, and has even marched several times in support of them, was turned off by how contrived and unnecessary the extraneous storylines were.  We started watching that show together, because I'm always in support of her seeing strong female characters in TV/movies/books.  But this, was not that.  And it quickly set off her bullshit meter.

It's possible the show was on its last legs anyway and this was a hail mary. 

Often people up the ladder dictate what to do and tell people down the ladder to just get it done.  Have any of those types of ideas/dictations ever been a good idea? lol

almost never. 

the best movies/shows are typically the ones where the studio execs give the creators free reign and don't interfere. 

Just off the top of my head but shows like It's Always Sunny, Curb, GoT, Sopranos - all masterpieces and all shows where the studio execs left the creators the hell alone and let them do whatever they wanted. 

How many years was the tv series Gunsmoke on?

They must have had just about every kind of plot there was.

But one thing they never did was turn Matt Dillon gay

Why not?

I mean seeing him and Festus kiss would have made headlines

Probably would still be on the tube

maybe Kitty turns out to be transgender

the possibilities are limitless

11 years

Every kind of plot? There are a lot of kinds of plots. Did they make the main guy do grotesque things? Now that woulda been wild.