It’s a question I kick around in my head from time to time. I think a lot of the problems people have with fictional characters in the media being gay isn’t so much of the specific characteristic, but what happens outside of the medium. I think many dissenters just look past these kinds of details in real people, and the celebrations that are done in commemoration of these announcements feels not only unnecessary, but condescending. Some may also say it’s counterintuitive to the goal of eliminating prejudice towards the non-heterosexual, as it only reinforces the idea that we should judge a person based on their sexual orientation; that there’s a huge difference between Tracer being explicitly gay versus leaving her sexuality undefined.
It kinda reminds me of other related stories I heard associated with gay game characters. I remember during the development of Sony’s first entry of the Sly Cooper series, all of the characters were envisioned with specific characteristics that were compiled into a profile for each character. These profiles were then given to the voice actors along with a picture of the character to help them find the right voice.
One of the characters was a big pink hippo that drove the main character’s van, and the creative team listed his sexual orientation as being “experimenting”, or something along those lines. The voice actor did several recordings of what they were looking for, and it really was just the hippo having a stereotypical flamboyantly gay accent. The game also never clearly stated the hippo’s sexuality, as the developers were hoping the older kids would realize what his sexuality was based on the character’s accent.
So when they did some play testing with a sample of older kids, the kids were asked if they could infer anything about the hippo’s voice, and they were like “Oh, he’s supposed to be like Barney the dinosaur right?” After the developers realized the accent alone wasn’t a clear enough indicator, they just scrapped the performances of the hippo’s stereotypically gay accent and went in a direction absent of suggesting a sexuality. It’s unclear if they also changed the character’s sexual orientation, as while some of the other characters in the series had defined love interests, I don’t think there was a single instance of the hippo’s sexuality being stated or even implied.
Anyway, there are a few more examples I have in mind of other ways developers have handled a gay character, but it’s late at night while writing this, and I don’t want to make this too long.
Share your thoughts and maybe some other examples below!
One of my favourite shows, Brooklyn 99, handled its gay character (well, there’s two but no spoilers), Captain Holt, perfectly. His sexuality is alluded to several times and built upon from the very start but it is never his defining trait, and that is honestly how it should be handled. It shouldn’t be the first thing to cross your mind when you think of the character, nor should it feel forced or abrupt.
It’s important for everyone to remember that when it comes to representation and media, what we’re seeing is the product of a writers room, of some person or group of people deciding what is and isn’t shown on screen. How ‘good’ or ‘bad’ that representation is still is not a real person, but a work of fiction.
Holt is a great example of a gay character; I’m a bit tired of over the top representation just for the sake of it, but on the other hand it’s somewhat better than remembering what it was like to never see gay characters do anything but die on screen. Like I have a visceral reaction to seeing lesbians anywhere because I’m just waiting for the writers to kill them off, that’s how commonplace fridging lesbian characters was because it was an unwritten rule of the 90’s that no gay characters could be happy.
It’s sad that people make such a big deal about it; the ones that are happy to have the gay characters should be allowed to be happy about it. The people who want to rain on their parade about it clearly just don’t get what it’s like to be excluded for so long and finally included.
To me it is very simple, "is being gay your defining characteristic? " If yes it is a poor depiction (just imagine the inverse for a simple reason why), if no then it is fine. Soldier and Tracer, for example, are both fine because they are heroes who happen to be gay. Their entire character does not revolve around it.
Brooklyn 99 is literally has one of if not the best depictions of a gay and bisexual character I have ever seen.
Most gay men are depicted in stereotypes. Flamboyant, extremely sexually active, deep into drugs or alcohol, and the ability to never be happy is a few of them. It is very, very sad.
I’m glad that there’s more lgbt characters in shows today. Like someone else said, I’m old enough to remember when being gay/gay coded meant they were going to die, were the sassy sidekick to the female lead, were perverts, or were outright evil.
It’s especially nice when you remember a lot of older films where the protagonists who were LGBT in things directed at LGBT audiences met tragic ends. The Crying Game, A Home At The End of The World, But I’m A Cheerleader, and a ton of others are good examples of this. And it becomes tiring when the message keeps telling you that your life is suffering. Or you aren’t important.
So compare that kind of stuff with more recent films and TV. You still get a lot of Bad Ends for your LGBT characters, but we have things like Sense8, Brooklyn 99, Love Simon, and a whole bunch of others that have narratives with not only positive but important characters that are LGBT that have so much more depth they used to.
We’re in a better spot than we were, but I can still think of a lot of famous shows and movies where the character is the Sassy Best Friend, the Magical Wise Queen, Bad End Billy or Sad End Sally, and so on. I just want more common portrayals where the characters who are LGBT have a lot more personal agency.
Yeah, some gay characters in TV shows are terribly written. If you have to prove/demonstrate to your audience that a character is gay (ie. through stereotypes), then you’re doing it wrong.
What I also love about Brooklyn 99 is that it establishes Holt’s sexuality being important to him, but not by bringing it up 24/7. Rather, it is through the prejudice he has faced for it in regards to his career. It feels very humanistic. Also, the comedic moments are hilarious.
I remember watching this and being absolutely floored that they didn’t die, I was waiting for the truck to go off a cliff or something! It’s definitely gotten better, though; we need a quantity of representation, and like straight couples, it’s going to be a long time before the quantity of homosexual romance is at a similar level to heterosexual romance. It’s not like there isn’t an absolute SEA of badly written heterosexual stuff out there; flat characterizations, people falling in love for no reason other than the writer wanted them to, I mean twilight exists - where’s the version where it’s two hot dudes doing that whole shebang?
I think that’s why I can’t help but roll my eyes when people are so mean to stuff like the Legend of Korra; on the one hand, her and Asami had like, no development really. On the other hand, why does it need to be that well done? Isn’t it nice that it’s being done at all? Heck that entire show was rushed, it got half the episodes that ATLA did, of course it was rushed. My point is, there’s going to be bad gay stuff out there, that’s gotta be OK with y’all, otherwise you’re setting the bar unfairly high.
There’s a right way of going about it, and most franchises fail at it.
The reason why the character exists should never be because of their s£xual orientation. Overwatch did this quite well I thought. Tracer is still the same hero we knew when the game launched, and Soldier (although there was a lot of drama at the time) is still the same hero with the same story. The fact he had a boyfriend in his “past life” did not take over his whole arc, what was important in that moment was that he had a partner, not that he’s gay. The fact he’s gay is a miscellaneous fact about the character, and that should be the case always. It shouldn’t be ignored though.
Overwatch did this really well, but many franchises have done it just for the sake of press and LGBT-fishing.
I am someone who thinks Soldier is a bad depiction of being gay personally. Then again, when I grew up negativity attached to being a gay male involved a lot of what soldier is going through and I’d just like to see way more positive stuff.
Is there a wrong way to depict a gay character? - In my opinion yes there is, if the character is only designed to be gay its a one dimensional character and very little people can enjoy them.
Is there a right way to depict a gay character? - This is an obvious yes, the best way to make a character is to not base their personality off being gay, it should be as useful of information as what favorite food they like, equal like everyone should be.
If their identity/personality becomes “I’m LGBTQ” and everything around them revolves around that then that’s a wrong way of doing it IMO.
I watched Supergirl for a bit and that show had a habbit of just putting a spotlight on certain things that are important that we see more of in mainstream media but they did it in a really annoying way.
Characters would just have their entire storyline and personality be about that thing and nothing else.
I think the only Arrowverse show that handles homosexuality slightly well is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow with Sara Lance/White Canary. It isn’t her defining trope but it leads to a lot of development for her character, something that shoehorned gay characters can only dream of.
The right way is the opposite of what jk rowling did which is creating a character have all this info on them and then many years later say oh btw they are gay in order to pander to a group of people. Its called creative honesty and being dishonest about your creation really tells a lot about the person. Im fine with the gay community im fine with every community tbh but I sure as heck wont put them on a pedestal to gain their approval, its called respect for yourself and others.
Yeah, I stopped watching Supergirl because the show was basically just shoehorning different problems into it and it being the main focus.
I agree about the Legend’s of tomorrow thing. Been a while since I watched it but if memory serves right, it’s just showing LGBTQ people as people like they should. No reason to make a big deal out of it. Just let people be “normal” characters and whenever romance etc. is a part of it just show it as it is. If they are lesbian they are flirting with girls or their SO is a girl. It doesn’t have to be a character arc.
I actually think the Tracer comic did it well for what it’s worth. To some it felt shoehorned but it was just a story of Tracer doing Tracer things and looking for a gift to someone who turned out to be her girlfriend.
Gay is one trait in a thousand. I find it very bland and shallow for a character to be DEFINED by this trait.
Though, in my opinion it’s totally fine to be gay. The pent up scary rednecks who threaten your life for being gay, are usually the result from a lifetime of suppressing your own desire.
You can be gay and still loyal to a partner, without dehumanizing yourself in the moderately depraved way some people seem to encourage.
Murray’s love interest is his van, duh. As for depicting LGBT, I believe Tracer did it waaaaay better than Soldier (neither of them coming close to Captain Holt of course). Tracer getting a gift for her girlfriend was cute, plus the couple of pictures she has are nice touches. Not too forced, and a nice addition for her character.
Soldier having an ex-boyfriend didn’t add anything to his character and felt like pandering. Then there’s the whole issue of his sexuality reveal being the main focus (within the community) for Ana’s short story as opposed to, ya know, Ana. I feel like they chose Soldier for two reasons: A. They wanted to “subvert stereotypes” by making the old grouchy white guy gay and B. He is the second most present character in the story, next to Tracer of course.
The problem with this, though, is that it feels like they just threw a dart at a poster of characters and picked one to be gay. It felt so random, and I personally thought the writing for that particular story was bad (but then again I just dislike Chu’s work in general, so it’s probably that. XD)
However! I do like that fact that he wasn’t stereotyped, too. If they want LGBT to be normalized and not used as a stereotype for characters, then it’s good that they’re making it a casual trait instead of designing the character around it. So on that front it was done well, but on the other hand … it still feels like they just threw a dart at the poster. XD
I know he’s a giant stereotype, but I flippin’ love Magnus Bane from Shadowhunters. He was a hilarious character, even if his personality was the usual “sassy yas queen” gay guy. (To be fair, he had major awesome badboy points too.) But eh, oh well. His sexuality did at least matter in the story. Or, rather, Alec’s did, and he played a big part in that.
I think it’s a hard line for writers to balance, tbh, and since some of them can’t even pull it off unless they clarify it in a tweet … well … XD
The way they portrayed Tracer is the right way to do it. She has a lot of personality, cool abilities that make her stand out as and individual, and btw she’s gay. Here is her lover and even a side story about what she comes home to when she’s not shooting at omnics.
Soldier on the other hand is the bad way to do it as it is lazily tacked on. Mainly years later story comes out I am looking at random unnamed dude in a picture, I’m gay too.
Who knows they might have left it open to be his cousin or brother from another mother. Still random dude in picture is a lazy plot device.
Representation matters just don’t do it like ya trying to make a quota.
Like the way they threw in Genji going to cougar town with Mercy on a date. It’s cute as it is fun and nobody is thinking this is some cyborg interracial older lady fantasy going on (well outside of fan fics)
OW is supposed to be the future so I hope nobody cares about who sleeps with who, then again might be fun to shoot a bigoted villain especially if turned out to be an evil omnic that’s triggered by humans having relations.
I think the only Arrowverse show that handles homosexuality slightly well is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow with Sara Lance/White Canary. It isn’t her defining trope but it leads to a lot of development for her character, something that shoehorned gay characters can only dream of.