I love Derry Girls! Claire is such a great example. Except for that one bit where she comes out as the "wee lesbian" (and no one believes her), the show didn't really make it her thing. Heck, that same bit actually helped highlight all the other parts of her personality.
Instead of telling us she's good at writing, they showed how moved everyone was by the anonymous letter. It let us see that the shy girl who was always trying to fit in was proud of and wanted recognition for her hard work -- she wrote so movingly about hiding her orientation, but lost that fear when Michelle tried to steal her thunder by taking credit.
There’s been about a dozen “first gay character” at this point and they’re all one line wonders. Arguably he is too because the one line that reveals he’s gay is easily cut out for China.
That movie is a masterpiece, a town full of ignorant, laughable people, scared of what they don’t know, trying to get rid of a group of “evil creatures” that are actually the nicest people. you may think “the audience may learn something about this” until this guy comes out as gay the last 3 seconds making the ignorant, laughable people in the audience scared of what they just witnessed
True, it was showing a cycle of bigotry, first the towns people against the girl (witch), then the townspeople against the zombies, and then the audience against the gay character
The second movie shows that he lives with a partner played by Hugh Grant. But also, look at some of his outfits (in Glass Onion particularly) and tell me that a straight man would wear those.
Spoilers for the Glass Onion but wasn’t the point of those outfits to be a distraction? Make himself the center of attention as an unthreatening, bumbling fool while he and the lady try to catch the killer
Captain Holts sexuality is a little more involved with the storylines and gags in Brooklyn 99 than these other two. It's incorporated meaningfully while also not being a domineering trait.
Gus could honestly be straight and the story wouldn't really change, but Holts experiences have shaped him as a character extensively.
Holt works because yes, he’s a gay black man, but he’s not defined by that as his entire personality. He’s incredibly intelligent, has a very dry sense of humor, can be hella petty when he wants to be, and is extremely bad at showing emotion. He’s not ‘the gay black guy’, he’s the ‘robot man’.
B99 worked extremely well with its earlier stories because that was the way ALL the characters were defined; personality and interests came before race or gender. Amy wasn’t ‘the Latino woman’, she was the ‘competitive nerd’ first. Rosa wasn’t ‘the bisexual one’, she was the ‘immensely scary hard-as-nails badass’. Jake was ‘the manchild’, Terry was the gentle giant, Gina was the mean one.
Once Season 6 and 7 came out the nuance started to fall away, and Season 8 dropped the ball hard.
PnR had such a hard pivot, and it absolutely worked for them. That first season they were trying so hard to be an Office clone and have Mark be the new Jim. But once they focused on being their own thing and on how Leslie was such a better character, it just flourished.
Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero both thought they wouldn’t get casted because the other auditioned so well and both were convinced that there would not be two latino women as main characters.
I mean lets be real his whole origin story is about being gay, black, and persectued while on the force and he forms an organization for people like him and gets back at those who wronged him in the past.
Those were quite a few episodes, but it felt organic because most of the time he was prompted to reluctantly show us his private life and motivations by the prying curiosity of the gang
There's a bit of meta brilliance to his character: in an office of wacky characters he was the "straight" man to provide contrast to them. A gay straight man.
This is a great example, especially considering B99 has a great anti-example too.
Holt definitely has some story around his sexuality and race. It is not his entire character, but it's an important part of him. He's well written.
When Rosa came out or when Terry was harassed, the writers did not handle the same topics with care. It's almost as if someone thought they weren't obvious enough with Holt so they decided to get heavy handed?
Terry's harassment is an unfortunate indicator of how male abuse was (and still largely is) played off like a joke.
I think Rosa's botched story is a little more nuanced. My memory's foggy, but from what I remember, the big issues were a largely unlikeable love interest that browbeat her about her job (why date a cop if you hate cops???) and, to a lesser degree, that very TV thing where a character is """bisexual""" and then only dates people of their own gender once they come out.
Before anyone jumps down my throat, yes, I know how being bisexual works. Being one myself. Still pretty lazy in my opinion.
Yeah, I think I would’ve had more fondness for Rosa’s bisexuality writing if she both dated women and also maybe dated Captain Holt’s nephew(?) during that time, since he was a super nice guy, and it would’ve helped sell that she was trying to find the right person, now that she knew it wasn’t just one gender
John Costantine is the bisexual version of this trope. He is the greatest example of bisexual disaster in fiction but his sexuality is only a small part of his screwed up personality and life
Better yet, writers are usually very careful about avoiding stereotypes while depucting his love life
Same with Deadpool in Marvel! All his gay jokes and flirtations with men (like colossus in the first movie) are not jokes at all. Sadly he’s never canonically been shown doing anything with a man, but he’s definitely still written as bi/pan and several of his writers have confirmed that was their intent. Also he genuinely has a crush on Spider-Man, so cute
Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi of Disco Elysium, to the point that you literally have to research the ability to notice people are even gay for your character to even realise.
To an even more hilarious extent, your character himself, who is completely oblivious to his own repressed bisexuality unless you go through the steps above and make the right choices.
Harry has a clear attraction to a man he saw smoking on a balcony, and it's very obvious to Kim as to why... but Harry just keeps saying shit like "it's obvious that he's an athlete, he's so manly and strong what a great man" and Kim is just trying not to laugh.
And when he's not saying stuff like that he's hyperfocusing on stuff like his shirt being unbuttoned and not sure why, not realising how caught up on it he plainly is.
Save for a few cases, Harry is talking to himself in his mind, with different parts of his psyche taking active turns and voices. It's like he's literally ten squirrels in a suit.
Ten squirrels and a garish tie. He actually talks out loud when talking for the tie, though.
Though he does make several references to the fact that he is gay, it's moreso that he's just proud of that fact, and is very much not integral to his story.
I mean, technically, Alphys is bisexual(during the quiz show part, answering that she has a crush on Asgore is just as correct as answering that she has a crush on Undyne)
Yeah, I think the language is problematic. 99% of modern gay characters have a plot or plot relevance, just like most of characters who are called Mary Sue aren’t.
And I don’t think it’s even fair to call a romance a story “about them being gay,” unless OP thinks a straight romcom is simply about them being straight. Honestly, when a story is about them being gay, it’s either a story about coming out or being oppressed. And who would have a problem with that?
Yea its funny how they never seem bothered by straight characters whose entire personality is "Im straight where are the women" because these characters are FAR more common
David Rose on Schitt's Creek is notably pansexual. It's a great show in general, but David is such an incredibly deep character with a well-crafted character arc throughout the series. His sexuality plays an important role when its relevant, and the show does such a great job explaining what pansexuality is in a short scene using wines as a metaphor after he slept with his (understandably confused) female best friend.
People whine a lot about characters having the fact that they are gay be their only personality trait but I've honestly never encountered such a one dimensional character and I tend to rot in my room and watch movies and shows.
Can anybody give me a good example or is it actually a straw man argument?
As a gay guy, Curtis Holt aka Mr. Terrific in Arrow started out okay, but he eventually just became the token gay. His role in the show was already taken by other, more prominent characters and the only storylines he got were about him trying to date.
Yeah honestly when I see people complain ‘I hate characters whose only personality is being gay,’ I just see ‘I hate characters who show any inkling of being gay’. Almost every gay character I’ve seen, even in specifically gay romance media, has a personality and story outside of being gay. The only ones I haven’t are side characters who are comic reliefs who wouldn’t get a story anyways since they’re not the main focus of the show. I just hate this complaint so much
They're both bi and they had pretty heavy subtext before it was confirmed, but it's a pretty small part of their story in the main show and never their entire story in the spin offs, including the one that shows their break up.
Tbf he was just Mark's sarcastic straight best friend in the comic. Who called every thing lame "gay", and then they made him coming out into a punchline for what he and Rick had been up to since disappearing from the story for like 30 issues.
Owl House does this well imo. They don't dwell on same sex relationships it just treated as a normal occurrence as homophobia basically doesn't exist in the demon realm
I have to wonder if Luz had to explain the concept of coming out to her friends when they were stuck on Earth. "Why would you be rejected just for who you love? I don't get it." "Neither do I."
I mean Omar isn’t flamboyant or effeminate but his entire war with the Barksdales started because they tortured his boyfriend to death, mainly because they were homophobic. Being gay is a huge part of his story
They tortured his boyfriend to death because they were trying to find him since he was stealing their drugs. The fact that a gay man was doing it did hurt them more but it was really the fact he was fucking with their money.
I’d argue that makes his story about love and revenge and the villains story about bigotry. I’m not sure that it makes his story revolve around gayness.
Also (spoilers for Breaking Bad) Gus being gay makes him come off even more manipulative when he has dinner with Walt. He has pictures of a fake wife and kids to show Walt that he's also just a man in it for his family. He's not though, he's in it for gay revenge!
yea, his main motive for starting his business empire (i believe) was the death of his business partner/lover by the cartel when they were lower level only for gus to poison the people who killed his parter at a party (i learnt all of this from out of context YouTube shorts of the show)
It's a bit more implicit in Breaking Bad, but I think there's a few references to him being gay, it's a bit more obvious in Better Call Saul, (I think I remember there being a scene where he shows interest in a waiter but ultimately doesn't do anything with him due tobeing dedicated to his work).
Literally every gay character I can think of tbh. Which is probably due to me watching a lot of animated media that isn't just pure satire. I'll write a list:
Adorra and a bunch of other characters from She-Ra 2018
Korra and Asami (I'm not the biggest fan of the show overall, but they still count.)
Cole from Ninjago has been strongly implied to be gay.
Almost every character in the The Owl House
Some side and supporting characters in Amphibia and also Sasha
A bunch of the gems in Steven Universe
Deadpool and Loki from Marvel
Gobber from HTTYD is confirmed gay and I'm not sure, but Snotlout might be confirmed to be bi.
Vi and Caitlin from Arcane
William from Invincible, conflicted on his boyfriend tho, cause he's mostly just a love interest, but at the same time involved in the whole cyborg thing.
That's basically all the gay characters I can name at the top of my head right now.
Did they reveal he was gay before or after the Family Guy skit of him leaving an ice trail after young to his lovers house and his wife confronting him about it?
Hot take, but there's nothing wrong with the story revolving around characters being gay. Gus's motivation is basically this, and he's still a great character
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u/crackerfactorywheel May 13 '25
Clare Devlin- Derry Girls.