LGBT+ Community Representation in Modern Animation

LGBT+ representation has become increasingly better over the last decade. Before this new wave of cartoons, gay characters were often only very subtly alluded to (Mr Simmons from Hey Arnold, for example) or, in animation geared towards adults, their sexuality was used as a joke (Mr Smithers from The Simpsons, for example).
In media imported from Japan, heavy cuts were made to ensure there was nothing remotely gay about the series. Sailor Moon is famous for having two lesbian lovers who were censored and turned into cousins. Because the characters were too important to remove or cut too heavily, all this resulted in some uncomfortably incestuous scenes.
Luckily our society has been becoming more accepting. Adventure Time (first airing in 2010) is often considered the beginning of this “new wave” of cartoons. One of the things Adventure Time tried to incorporate was a relationship between Marceline the Vampire Queen and Princess Bubblegum. We get some strong hints that they have had a past romantic relationship, but unfortunately, the crew have been unable to do more than give subtle hints.
The pushback was from the studio, Cartoon Network, who have been mindful about the profitability of the series overseas (this includes the UK). In many countries it airs in, homosexuality ranges from “not suitable for children” to flat out illegal. While the series is responsible for a resurgence of cartoons, at the time of its initial airing, Cartoon Network was struggling with a decline of quality programming and didn’t want their new series to fail.
This issue of overseas airing is present in all studios and is still an on-going issue. In an age where TV is being watched less and less while internet usage is on the rise, animated content (which is expensive and time consuming to produce) needs their international exports to stay running.
Despite this, we have been getting better and better breakthroughs with on-screen representation. In The Legend of Korra from Nickelodeon, the series ends with Korra, our female lead, walking off into the proverbial sunset hand-in-hand with Asami to go on holiday together; “just the two of us” Korra says.
While the series has not been exceptionally clear about their relationship, with many people arguing it was too ambiguous or flat out denying any romance between them, their relationship has been confirmed by the creators; “At first we didn’t give it much weight,” Co-creator Bryan Konietzko wrote on a blog post confirming their relationship, “not because we think same-sex relationships are a joke, but because we never assumed it was something we would ever get away with depicting on an animated show for a kids network in this day and age, or at least in 2010.”
“We approached the network and while they were supportive there was a limit to how far we could go with it.” He went on to explain and then confirm that the scene purposely designed to mirror a wedding scene earlier in the episode.
Another step forward is The Loud House, another Nickelodeon series premiering in 2016, two years after the end of Legend of Korra. The Loud House features a gay married couple whose son is a major re-occurring character. They have also released a Valentine’s Day episode where one of the Loud sisters gives a love letter to a girl in her school.
Not to be outdone by Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network returns with Steven Universe. A series where nearly every character is (or at least hinted at being) a member of the LGBT community. This show is one of the best examples of representation period (and not just within animation or children’s media). There are too many examples of their representation to list, but the top three include:
– Pearl, one of the main characters, has an arc dedicated to mourning the loss of her friend, Rose, of whom she was in love with.
– A character called Stevonnie identifies as agender and goes by the pronouns; they/them. Several characters of all genders have been shown to find them attractive.
– One of the main characters, Garnet, is a literal representation of a healthy and loving gay relationship. Ruby and Sapphire (who make up Garnet) have had several on-screen kisses, share some very fluffy and romantic scenes including a proposal scene and an episode dedicated to their wedding day.
Unfortunately, many scenes from Steven Universe have been censored for foreign audiences. In some countries, Ruby has been dubbed by a male voice actor to make their relationship seem straight. Thankfully the UK have not censored any of the LGBT+ moments bar a few frames of Rose and Pearl’s “fusion dance” that was considered too sexual.
Lagging behind on the Representation Train is Disney. In Gravity Falls (2012 – 2016) they had pushed back on showing a man pick up another man bridal style and requested for one of them to be changed into a woman, they also requested a change to a pendent to remove the transgender symbol and keep the “male” and “female” symbols.
Although, there had been hints that there might be something going on between the two male police officers, but it is played for comedy and arguably less overt than Adventure Time’s Marceline and Bubblegum. More recently, there has been blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background characters kissing in Star vs the Forces of Evil.
We still have a long way to go, but despite those foreign law issues, we have been making some very large strides forward recently and with a very promising future.
> Charlotte Lenihan