From Miss Frizzle to Splter, we know a gay mentor when we see one.
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GAY BEAR CLIPARTS #2444335 (LICENSE: PERSONAL USE)
Tom of Fland and Bill Ward of Dm fame are gay artists whose work I greatly admire, as well as the humor and imagatn of Roberta Gregory, Howard Cse's precise le and sophistited storytellg, and Ivan Velez 's ic/soap opera Tal Of the Closet. When live-actn televisn began makg roads for gay reprentatn durg the turn of the century, animatn remaed a tratgly straight (if equently queer-d) affair.
The reasons behd the medium’s slowns were obv and, predictably, homophobic. So, pearl-clutchg TV crics would argue, children shouldn’t be exposed to “adult” (read: gay) characters through rnchy rtoons. Wtern animatn, meanwhile, eher featured gay characters one-off episos (see “The Simpsons'” inic John Water’s gay steel l episo) if they were aimed more at adults, or kept hidn subtext if the target dience was younger.
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For example, years after “The Proud Fay” first aired, creator Ralph Farquhar admted that the character of Michael was wrten as gay, but had to be merely queer-d to nform wh Disney’s standards at the time. Between the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill and numero anti-trans laws passed red stat, there has been a ncentrated nservative effort to monize LGBTQ people and prevent discsn of sex and genr inty among children. In celebratn of Pri Month, let’s take stock of the bt and gayt that animated TV has to offer.
Pl, was ambig enough that the creators had to e out and affirm they were gay to a nfed fanbase. It might not be the bt gay animated show, but between s numero LGBTQ characters and a seri fale set at a pri celebratn, might be the most gay animated show. When Kipo attempts to make a move though, Benson reveals he’s gay a sweet, funny, and lovely sual g out scene.
Anime fans had seen hundreds of shows of s ilk premiere before: sports seri ( this se, the sport is men’s figure skatg) where the protagonist (anx Japane performer Yuri Katsi) velops a blatantly homoerotic relatnship wh his bt iend/rival/mentor (his new ach, Rsian champn Viktor Nikiforov). The show isn’t by any means the first gay anime (there are three others om beforehand on this very list! And beyond the central pair, the show works credibly well as the gay sports drama of your dreams, wh a banger openg and credibly animated and choreographed skatg sequenc that’ll have even the most figure skatg ignorant cheerg for Yuri to get the gold.