Fandom has always had queer aspects. From the first fanzine dedicated to Kirk and Spock from Star Trek to the plethora of queer fanfic written about our faves, queer culture has always been a part of fandom. Over the years, it had progressed from “under the table” to “out and proud” and that couldn’t be more wonderful.
For a bit of fun this Pride month, I thought we could go over some of our favorite canon queer characters.
Outside the popular television shows over the years that have LGBTQ characters as the focus: Queer as Folk, The L Word, Pose, Sense8, and Gentleman Jack, I’ll be adding some old and new popular shows with queer characters who were/are either main or reoccurring characters. Shows like Supernatural and Law and Order have minor characters who are LGBTQ but only show up for one episode as “random person” or “victim number one” that are too numerous to count.
Disclaimer: everyone has their head canons and their fanons so please don’t come at me if I don’t mention your favorite queer character or have an issue over how they are identified. I am going by a few websites that mention how and when these characters sexually identify. There are more than a few like Captain Jack Harkness, Willow Rosenburg, Irene Adler that are listed in the bisexual section with caveats that they identify as something else; Jack Harkness, for example is identified as omnisexual and Adler and Rosenburg self-identify as lesbian even after relationships with men.
With those out of the way, let’s count them down!
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Everybody's favorite pansexual!
There’s a mix of shows with multiple characters so let’s get the popular ones out of the way first.
Doctor Who and it’s spin off Torchwood has a diverse cast of not only humans and alien life forms, but they come in all sexual orientations as well. Other than the Doctor themselves being what could be said as gender neutral able to regenerate as both male and female, there is as mentioned before Captain Jack Harkness who loves anyone no matter their gender. From that show came Madame Vastra-Suliran lizard species and her wife Jenny Flint-human. Bill Potts, the companion of Twelve who was a lesbian. Clara Oswald, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones and Professor River Song all identify as bisexual and have been mentioned to have partners of both genders.
Other fan favorites like Delphine Cormier and Cosima Niehaus from Orphan Black, Kevin Keller, Moose Mason, and Cheryl Blossom from Riverdale, Anne Bonney and Captain James Flint, Thomas Hamilton from Black Sails, Waverly Earp and Rosita Bustillos from Wynonna Earp, Piper Chapman and Sophia Burset from Orange is the New Black have integrated into the fan consciousness.
The superhero television shows have their own representation as well. From Sara Lance from Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, Nyssa Al Ghoul, Alex Danvers, and Katherine Kane as openly lesbian characters, to Oswald Cobblepot from Gotham and John Constantine from Legends of Tomorrow who identify as gay and bisexual respectively.
Some of the fan favorite shows, the shows that have a cult following and subsequently devoted meta regarding both the characters and the episodes, host several queer characters, even if some of them aren’t canonically stated yet. Hannibal has the two main characters: Hannibal Lector and Will Graham stated as bisexual or omnisexual by the creator Brian Fuller as well as Dr. Alana Bloom, who had a relationship with both main characters before eventually marrying a woman by the name of Margot.
Another fan favorite; Supernatural, despite its host of one-episode queer characters host three reoccurring characters who are on the queer spectrum; Charlie Bradbury, who becomes a Hunter and as a lesbian as well as Castiel and Chuck Shurley aka God, both of whom have had emotional/ romantic relationships with men, women, and genderfluid characters and are identified as bisexual.
Lastly, I wanted to take special care regarding the transgender characters in television shows, but they deserved to be recognized as well. Being a cis person, I didn’t want to add people like Jeffrey Tambor’s Maura from Transparent or David Duchovny’s Denise from Twin Peaks because these are characters who were not only played by cis men but ended up being problematic for one reason or another.
I’m throwing coach Shannon/Sheldon Beiste from Glee on this list because while there were some complaints regarding the way and some verbiage that was used in the show, the discussion of an adult transitioning from female to male was one of the first times it was done on television. The character is played by a cis lesbian who while I’m adding it, please, feel free to let me know if you don’t think this character should be listed.
The other three, Sophia Burset from Orange is the New Black, Ms. Hudson from Elementary and Denise Lockwood from Chicago Med are all played by transgender actors playing transgender characters. There should be more.
So, who do you like on this list? Who didn’t you expect, you do you think is missed? (personally, Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf was suggested to be bisexual, but he wasn’t on any of the lists I looked at, so I didn’t add him.)
Let me hear your thoughts regarding any of these and remember it doesn’t have to be canon. If you love it, it counts for you! So, find your favorite queer representation characters and enjoy the hell out of them.
