🏳‍ :rainbow: 𝕃𝔾𝔹𝕋ℚ+ ℝ𝕖𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕟 𝔸𝕟𝕚𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 🏳‍ :rainbow: by ★🅦🅞🅡🅣🅗🅨★

𝒜𝓁𝑜𝒽𝒶 𝒪𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒶!

★🅦🅞🅡🅣🅗🅨★ here and today I wanted to do a fun blog about a topic that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, LGBTQ+ characters in animation.

In recent years, we have seen many LGBTQ+ characters in animated shows, films and shorts and I love that! Having our wonderful and diverse world being reflected in our media is always a positive thing as films and TV shows are watched and enjoyed by so many people. So today I wanted to talk about some of the best examples of LGBTQ+ representation in animation and the history of LGBTQ+ representation in cartoons, anyway let’s do this!

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𝕃𝔾𝔹𝕋ℚ+ ℝ𝕖𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕟

𝔸𝕟𝕚𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

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⌝🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌣🏳‍ :rainbow: ⌜

★。＼｜／。★

TᕼE ᔕIᗰᑭᔕOᑎᔕ:

★。／｜＼。★

In of LGBTQ+ representation in Western Animation, The Simpsons is one of the earliest and biggest examples of LGBTQ+ representation in Animation as LGBTQ+ characters have featured throughout the shows over thirty year run. The two most notable LGBTQ+ characters on the show are Mr Smithers who is Mr Burns’ assistant who clearly loves his boss and Patty Bouiver, Marge’s Sister, who was revealed to be a Lesbian in the 2005 episode, “There’s Something About Marrying”. Mr Smithers debuted in the first season of The Simpsons in the episode “Homer’s Odyssey”. Smithers is closeted for most of the series but in the 2016 episode, “The Burns Cage” he finally came out as a gay and the relationship between him and Mr Burns has become a running gag throughout the series.

★。＼｜／。★

ᔕᗩIᒪOᖇ ᗰOOᑎ:

★。／｜＼。★

Whilst Sailor Moon is an anime, the CA rules say I can talk about it so I will! Sailor Moon was extremely popular in the mid-90s but this show was also significant as it introduced one of the first prominent queer couples in Japanese media and I’m talking Sailor Neptune, who was Bisexual and Sailor Uranus, who was Lesbian, although they aren’t the only LGBTQ+ couple to appear in the series, they are the most well-known.

Unfortunately, when DIC got the rights to bring Sailor Moon to America, they wrote this LGBTQ+ couple as extremely affectionate cousins which I’d say is the one of the worst decisions that any studio have ever made in regards to bringing anime into a wider territory. Fun fact: I was listening to a playlist whilst writing this and here’s the song that came on...

I can’t make this up!

★。＼｜／。★

ᗷIG ᗰOᑌTᕼ:

★。／｜＼。★

Big Mouth is basically a weird sex education video but cranked to carnage but the show does contain its fair share of LGBTQ+ representation with Jay being bisexual, Matthew being gay, Jessie’s Mother being a lesbian and having a girlfriend, so I wouldn’t say the show is lacking diversity but I wouldn’t say it’s perfect in its representation as it does rely on quite a few stereotypes, particularly Mathew but I’m glad that it’s there to begin with. There was also an arc in Season 1 with Andrew trying to figure things out and even though he realised he wasn’t LGBTQ+, it gave us this masterpiece, just sit back and enjoy!

★。＼｜／。★

TᕼE ᒪOᑌᗪ ᕼOᑌᔕE:

★。／｜＼。★

In the twenty-third episode of the first season of “The Loud House”, “Overnight Success” Howard and Harold McBride first appeared after being mentioned in episodes beforehand. They are a gay interracial couple who are the adoptive fathers of Clyde McBride. The characters were quite rightly met with praise as the show didn’t focus on their sexual orientation but rather the couple being loving and capable parents to Clyde and honestly, not making a fuss over the characters sexuality and casually introducing them into the show was wonderful and many people were extremely happy to see Howard and Harold McBride as part of big cast of characters in “The Loud House”.

However, Howard and Harold McBride aren’t the only LGBTQ+ characters on the show with Luna Loud, one of Lincoln’s sisters having a crush on a girl named Sam in the episode “L is for Love”, revealing that Luna is Bisexual.

Unfortunately, in 2020 there are still people (morons) that don’t accept LGBTQ+ people and the show has faced backlash and censorship most notably from Kenya Film Classification Board who had the show banned and some group called One Million Mums who tried to get Nickelodeon to edit the episodes with Howard and Harold McBride saying, "Nickelodeon should stick to entertaining instead of pushing an agenda.", f**k you both!

★。＼｜／。★

ᔕTEᐯEᑎ ᑌᑎIᐯEᖇᔕE/ᔕTEᐯEᑎ ᑌᑎIᐯEᖇᔕE ᖴᑌTᑌᖇE:

★。／｜＼。★

I really could just let that one song say everything but there’s way more I want to talk about! Steven Universe is easily the most diverse and LGBTQ+ representative show on Cartoon Network right now. The entire gem race are gender less but they all use she/her pronouns and two particular characters I wanted to point out are Garnet and Pearl.

Garnet is the physical form of the love between Ruby and Sapphire and “Stronger Than You” is a power anthem that shows the strength of love and Garnet shows how love comes in so many forms and she’s an amazing example of an LGBTQ+ character.

Pearl is another amazing example of an LGBT character, her relationship with Rose is a critical plot point that really shapes Pearl and her feelings throughout the series and “It’s Over Isn’t It” is a song that really captures those feelings beautifully.

YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE?! I’m just getting started, I need to talk about Shep! Shep was a new character introduced in Steven Universe Future in the episode, “Little Graduation”, and they are Sadie’s new parter and they are non binary and they were introduced into the series without a fuss over their pronouns or having it made a big deal of and honestly, I really like that they didn’t make Shep’s introducing over the top because often in media like cartoon, LGBTQ+ are introduced and the story pushes the fact that they are LGBTQ+ rather than actually represented them in a way that normalises LGBTQ+ people as they are but the way Shep was introduced is the PERFECT way to introduced an LGBTQ+ character in any piece of media.

★。＼｜／。★

ᗩᗪᐯEᑎTᑌᖇE TIᗰE:

★。／｜＼。★

Ok, Marceline and Bubblegum is all that needs to be said. That kiss was beautiful, iconic and just wonderful! It was known for a while that they were in a relationship and broke up before the series began and watching the build up throughout the show was honestly brilliant and we really saw their development and this kiss really capped that development off well. Marceline and Bubblegum are both Bisexual and seeing them finally get back together was a long time coming!

Overall, I’d say it’s extremely important that we include LGBTQ+ characters in animation because people are unique in many ways including sexuality and we want our media to reflect that and be just as diverse and colourful as we are. Cartoons can be a really powerful tool and representing LGBTQ+ characters in animation can allow people for future generations to accept people for who they are and seeing representation in our cartoons really makes me happy knowing that big studios like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network care about what about the characters they put on their screens and the audiences who watch their shows. Characters like Garnet and Howard and Harold McBride show powerful representation can be because it makes people feel included and cared about and I hope that our cartoons continue to strive towards great representations of LGBTQ+ characters!

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So that was the blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I’m definitely interested in visiting this topic again sometime as I know there’s many characters and couple that I didn’t include here, also I’d love to hear who your favourite LGBTQ+ characters are in the comments below! Well, until next time...

αdíσѕ,

cαвαllєrσѕ!