Love, Victor.RuPaul’s Drag Race.Dickinson.While LGBTQ+ shows, characters and storylines like these have grown immensely on television over the years, it’s thanks in part to those trailblazers that came before them who paved the way for them to shine.
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From the late-2000’sModern Familyto the 90’sEllen;from daytime toDisney;certain TV shows broke barriers for the LGBTQ+ community to receive warm welcomes on television. While most were applauded for their inspirational strides, some were condemned for the very same thing.
Kurt’s Journey To Falling In Love With Blaine (‘Glee’)
Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) fromGleewere what millennials referred to as a “super couple,” thanks to theFOXdrama’s bravery to showcase a love story between two boys on primetime television when the topic was still teetering between taboo and respectable.
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After Kurt’s coming-out struggle, viewers got to watch him blossom into an out and proud teen who found love with Blaine Anderson.Gleetook Kurt through the wringer — everything from an unaccepting parent to making love with another man to an unexpected hate crime — andbeautifully crafted Kurt’s evolutionas an openly gay man.
Cyrus Comes Out On Disney Channel (‘Andi Mack’)
Cyrus Goodman (Joshua Rush) fromAndi Mackwas not Disney’s first LGBTQ+ character, nor was he Disney Channel’s first attempt at representing the community, but he was the very first character on Disney Channel to come out.
Though the show and the network were hit with some backlash for the 2017 storyline ofCyrus coming out as gayto his friends and later dating a boy, it broke ground forDisney Channelto feature a story of a struggling teen who eventually comes out and becomes an openly gay character.
Maya Avant Is The First Regular Transgender Character On Daytime Television (Bold And The Beautiful)
The character Maya Avant (Karla Mosley) joined daytime soapBold and the Beautifulin 2013, is depicted asB&B’sversion of Erica Kane fromAll My Children.What drew Maya apart from a character like Erica Kane was how Maya was revealed to be transgender.
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Maya Avant is one of the soap genre’s most groundbreaking characters, being the first regular transgender character in the history of daytime television. The show even featured transgender actors in recurring and guest-starring roles to help tell Maya’s story.
Santana Comes Out As Lesbian (‘Glee’)
Mean-girl-turned-lesbian-icon Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) made strides asGlee’sfirst lesbian character. After months of dating her openly-bisexual girlfriend Brittany (Heather Morris) and being publicly outed by Finn (Heather Morris), Santana makes the tough decision to finally come out to her family.
Unlike with Kurt’s coming out where his father was hesitant but ultimately accepts his son, Santana’s coming out ends in tragedy when her grandmother disowns her, an example of howGleeshowcased many different aspects of a person’s coming out.
Will Horton Comes Out As Gay On Daytime Television (‘Days Of Our Lives’)
When the son of Sami Brady and Lucas Horton came out in 2012 — while he wasn’t the first LGBTQ+ character on daytime television — Will Horton’s (Chandler Massey) story of self-hatred to self-acceptance earned the soap aGLAADAward for its portrayal of a young man’s struggle with his sexuality.
After a lot of lashing out, impulsive decisions, and therapy sessions with his grandmother Marlena, Will comes to love both himself and his friend Sonny (Freddie Smith), who made history when they marry in daytime television’s first-ever MLM wedding in 2014.
Brittany Is Bisexual (‘Glee’)
Gleeshowcased every color of the rainbow in their six seasons; gay characters, lesbian characters, transgender characters — and with Brittany S. Pierce (Morris)— a bisexual character. The character of Brittany dated both guys and girls throughout the series, ultimately marrying Santana in the final season.
The remarkable thing about Brittany’s character was that she never had a coming out the way other LGBTQ+ characters on the show did. Sure, she questioned her bi-curious sexuality, but she never struggled with it, making her one of the most positive representations of an LGBTQ+ identity on television.
Jude And Connor Are The Youngest Same-Sex Kiss On Television (‘The Fosters’)
Freeform’sThe Fosters— as well as its spin-offGood Trouble— was always full of LGBTQ+ representation, starting with showcasing foster moms. But one storyline, in particular, made television history back in 2015.
Best-friends-turned-boyfriends Jude (Hayden Byerly) and Connor (Gavin MacIntosh) shared a history-making kiss in Season 2, not for being two males, but for being the youngest characters on television to share a same-sex kiss. The kiss leads to the 13-year-olds to date and begins the long-anticipated storyline of Jude’s coming out.
Cam And Mitchell Adopt A Child (Modern Family)
Modern Familystands out not only for its positive representation of LGBTQ+ characters but for the way they took the plunge in the very first episode when couple Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) announce to their family that they’re adopting a baby girl from Vietnam.
Cam and Mitchell will go down in history as one of the biggest LGBTQ+ couples on television, and watching them adopt a child wasn’t something you saw on primetime television every day in the early 2000s.
Will And Jack Are Out And Proud (‘Will & Grace’)
A sitcom set in the late 90s with half its characters being gay men wasn’t something television expected only a year afterEllen’scancellation due to the main character’s coming out. But as television’s first mainstream LGBTQ+ sitcom, it paved the way for the future of LGBTQ+ shows.
The show made such an impactin an interview onMeet the Press, then Vice President Joe Biden said, “I thinkWill & Gracedid more to educate the American public more than almost anything anybody has done so far.”
Ellen Morgan Comes Out As Gay On Television In 1997 (‘Ellen’)
Ellen DeGeneressingle-handedly paved the way for so many LGBTQ+ characters that came after her. In a 1997 episode of her sitcomEllen,the show’s frontrunner shocked the world when both the character and the comedian came out as gay.
Although DeGeneres was met with so much backlash that her show was ultimately canceled — despite the coming-out episode being the highest-rated episode of the series and winning anEmmy Awardfor its writing — DeGeneres dared to come out on primetime television in the late 90s that inspired generations of LGBTQ+ people.
