It’s been a great year for LGBT characters on television. We saw new productions whose main plot focuses on how their protagonists deal with their sexuality, LGBT secondary characters with exciting backgrounds and even cast changes to include them.
Here is a list of the characters that could be this year’s highlights:
Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) – Heartstopper
It is one of the most talked about series this year, inside and outside the LGBT community. It’s about how two teenagers slowly discover that their friendship could mean something more to them, something many of us have experienced in our lives.
It’s a fascinating story, but also a very familiar one. We, viewers, feel identified with them at all times, especially those who have gone through the same situation: falling in love with your best friend of the same gender.
More complicated topics, such as sexy London escorts, are not discussed to give an outlet for the characters’ sexuality. Instead, it is a young and innocent plot for an adolescent queer audience.
Calliope (Imani Lewis) and Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) – First Kill
The series follows these two teenage girls in a seemingly familiar story. However, everything takes an exciting turn when we realize that Calliope is descended from a family line of monster hunters and Juliette is the youngest daughter of a family of vampires.
The series naturalizes the sexuality of both girls, but their families disagree with the relationship because of their traditions. It is an interesting analogy of how family members lack acceptance and understanding when they become aware of a non-heteronormative relationship.
Younger viewers will identify with the situation of both girls, just as they might be doing with their relationships.
Viktor (Elliot Page) – The Umbrella Academy
Although The Umbrella Academy is a series that came out a couple of years ago, this season surprised us with the “change” in the cast. Elliot Page’s gender change was reflected on the small screen when we saw Vanya introduce himself to his family and us as Viktor.
The Hargreaves’ new brother doesn’t get all the attention as the season unfolds. Instead, his family treats him matter-of-factly and accepts him as if he were one of them from the start. In fact, at one point, they make a little joke about whether they should make a bigger deal out of it.
The Umbrella Academy is about family relationships and how siblings build back their bonds. This time, Viktor is introduced as a trans character, but no new conflict is generated within a plot with massive problems.
And yes, perhaps it’s utopian that no family conflicts are caused, there are indeed more significant problems that require our attention.
Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) – Euphoria
Euphoria deals with the most demanding and joint problems in adolescence: drug addiction, trauma, social pressure, the discovery of sexuality and more. Its new season delves into the characters’ previous history and how they got to where they are now.
This way, we get to know Rue and Jules better. Rue is the protagonist, an addicted girl trying to get her life back on track after returning from rehab. Jules is a trans girl trying to start a new life in a relatively small town, who plays a role similar to an aussie escorts hired at Skokka on one of her first nights. The two meet and start a relationship.
Rue and Jules show the other side of love relationships: not everything is pretty, and there are communication problems. In addition, each has difficulties that further complicate the relationship. Here they show the other side of the naturalness of any relationship, regardless of being LGBT or not.
Luz and Amity – The Owl House
It’s a Disney animated series, but it has given a lot to talk about. Luz is an eccentric teenager who accidentally travels to a world full of magic, but things are not as she reads in her fantasy books. Here she meets her new friends and gets involved with the life of The Boiling Isles.
Amity is a talented witch who despises Luz for believing she can learn magic just by wishing for it. They get to know each other a little until they create a beautiful friendship in which you can tell the girls feel more than they tell each other. It is a similar story to Heartstopper, but the protagonists are girls this time.
The series has suffered many problems in its production, and the creator has stated that the cancellation is because it is an LGBT story. However, it is an example of how much is still to be done to achieve equality in the media.
The plots of the LGBT community used to be more hidden or mocked. It was not uncommon to mix topics such as a charming Bangalore escort‘s life with her sexuality, even though they were separate issues. Today, belonging to the LGBT community is seen as something natural, and television has followed this trend.
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