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Animated LGBTQ+ characters have come a long way. These days they’re people – or sometimes even pink lions – and rather than tokens to fill a quota, they’re fully rounded parts with stories to tell, where sexuality can be entirely secondary.
It wasn’t always this way. For years, queerness in cartoons was mostly a case of reading between the lines (Kenneth Williams voicing Willo the Wisp, anyone?). So how did we get here? Let’s look at a few of the shows that shifted things.
South Park
When the show – only four episodes old at the time – announced George Clooney as a guest voice, the media were agog. Giving him the part of Sparky the gay dog, where he literally just barked and growled, set the irreverent tone South Park has kept ever since.
Its LGBTQ+ characters are judged on their character, not their sexuality. Big Gay Al might be the most wholesome person in the whole show, and a shout out to Mr. Slave, perhaps the first leather character not to be a cartoon of one (even if he is, technically, in a cartoon). Mr. Garrison’s storyline, meanwhile, takes in two rounds of surgery and, eventually, a turn as the show’s Donald Trump stand-in.
The Simpsons
Another South Park episode was famously called Simpsons Already Did It – and when it comes to queer characters, Springfield very nearly did. The show’s first gay guest character, John, voiced by John Waters, appeared in 1997, the same year South Park launched.
It took until 2005 for Patty Bouvier to come out, and Marge’s journey from uncertain to fully supportive of her sister won the show praise from GLAAD. Being part of The Simpsons also means being part of everything that comes with it – the merch, the albums, the video games, the film and the action figures.
Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty hasn’t spread itself quite as far as those two, but it’s still found its way well beyond the TV, from the mobile game Pocket Mortys to an online slot featuring the characters and branding.
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With the duo warping around infinite universes, the show often brings its take on representation back to Earth. In the episode ‘Rixty Minutes’, interdimensional politicians try to outlaw a race of ‘trunk people’ who can have sex with any and all other species and genders.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Over on Etheria, Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018 to 2020) rebooted the 1980s Masters of the Universe spin-off and fully embraced lesbian and trans characters. Netflix has been backing queer stories elsewhere too – Heartstopper even works animation into its live action.
It might be a stretch to call the original She-Ra a lesbian icon, but it was one of the first cartoons to show that female characters didn’t need a man to rescue them. Beyond the premise that She-Ra was He-Man’s twin sister, men barely featured. Created by ND Stevenson, the reboot lets its queerness build steadily across five seasons. We won’t spoil the finale, but it’s worth the wait.
Have we missed any? Let us know.
Nonchalant x
This article was written by one of our creative team writers here at Nonchalant Magazine.
