LGBTQ Representation in Children's Media

Can you make a video about LGBTQ Representation in manga and anime

This isn’t necessarily children’s media. But, one of my favorite places to find great representation for not just LGBTQ+ people but also disabled people is in indie games. Some great ones like Frogsong and Chicory: A Colorful Tale wisely and masterfully touch on topics like depression, generational trauma, religion, non-binary identities, and belonging. It’s a beautiful thing to see how so many developers have found a place to tell their own stories openly and proudly without the need for an overbearing production company or the pressures that come with other types of media. Also, Hollow Knight has lesbians! And my favorite game, Rain World, while subtle with its representation as it is with literally its entire story, has a character who uses they/them pronouns called Seven Red Suns (who, while a robot, notably stands out from their peers who commonly use she/her and he/him). Not everyone enjoys games, or prefers to play them, but for those who do I find that representation in them can be just as important if not more than that in other media. I wish for it to happen more and more openly in non-indie games :7.

Some more wholesome representation in steven universe!!
-in one episode, as Pearl attempts to cope and move on from Rose Quartz’s “passing”, she meets a girl at a party, is immediately starstruck, and ends up getting her number. It was treated just as normally and cheesily as any straight pairing doing that would have been, and I was so happy to see it.
-in Steven Universe Future (might have been the movie? It’s been a while since I watched either), one of Steven’s friends, Sadie, has a partner who is both a person of color and openly non-binary! They’re my favorite character in the series, I love them and the representation they bring.
-I’m fairly sure it’s canon in the Steven Universe Universe (lol) that all gems are female, or are at least all referred to using she/her pronouns (except for Steven, of course). So basically all potential gem romances could be lesbian. Ruby and Sapphire are both referred to using she/her exclusively (although to be fair this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re female of course).
That’s all I have for now but to all who see, don’t be surprised if this comment is edited in the future :P

Please don't make all tomboys queer.... thx

Well Steven fuses with his dad too.....

Owl House! Owl House is the best!!!❤! Everyone forgets about, Raine, though. They're one one of my favorite characters and I love their relationship with Eda.

Bert & Ernie, my fathers!

after seeing her excitement when talking about the children's tv shows, i'm sure she would love tangled the series / rapunzel's tangled adventure

there's one canon lesbian character and one implied ( or "semi-canon"? idk ) bisexual character: cassandra and varian, respectively

cassandra is rapunzel's lady-in-waiting and ( more unofficially ) her personal security, like a knight ( and was confirmed to be in love with her! ) it isn't shown explicitly in the show, but is one of that characters you look at her face and you can tell she's queer, and her feelings for rapunzel is pretty obvious. it was confirmed by the story revisionist of the show and reaffirmed by some storyboard artists. things start to get bad in the third and last season of the show, when they turn cassandra in a villain with motivations and actions kinda confuse, let's say, in comparison to her s1 and s2 personality and moral rules. they try to make a narrative of them both being """sisters""" but it is basically taken down at the same time by the character herself, and in the second season we have an episode that's basically "what if cassandra found rapunzel in the tower before eugene did?" and it's just the cutest thing ever.

varian was supposed to get an spin-off called "varian and the seven kingdoms", and he would have a boyfriend!! sadly, the spin-off was cancelled and by disney bc they didn't wanted to make more tangled content without rapunzel ( and for "reasons" )

As a trans masc, I obvs have beef with JK. I will say though, I grew up reading HP as a young child and always assumed the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald was romantic. The way they talk to each other, the way they describe each other, it all screamed in love to me. I was so confused when everyone was surprised when she officially announced he was gay. I was instantly like, wait that’s news? And even now, seeing the problematic content within the series and Joanne’s horrific attitude, I’m still baffled that people didn’t also see how gay Dumbledore was with Grindelwald lol.

Representation in childrens media is so important omg. I am both queer, and I have divorced parents and a whole huge blended family. Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb still having a good relationship with his ex wife and co-parenting well with her means a lot to me because I so often have people assume that one of my parents is horrible, or that they hate each other or something, which is not the case. It gives me some hope that people might try to take the time to get to know someone's individual situation before defaulting to pity. Also, as a trans person, Alex Fierro in the Magnus Chase and the gods of asgard series (basically the norse version of Percy Jackson) is such and important chatacter to me. Especially the quote where's he/she is explaining being genderfluid to Magnus. "Just don't ask me to represent all genderfluid people, okay? I'm not a poster child, I'm just me. Being me the best I can." I love that Riordan included that bit in particular, emphasizing that everyone's experience is different, even among people who share a label. There's so much representation of a lot of different kinds of people in Magnus Chase, including also a deaf character and a Muslim character. Not every bit of representation is perfect, but no representation can be perfect. The fact that it's there at all means so much to me, and I'm sure to so many other people as well who see themselves in these characters.

Babylon 5's Talia Winters and Susan Ivonana!!! THEM!!!!!!! WHY DIDN'T THEY GET TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Legend of Korra and She-ra❤❤❤❤

You can't mention the Owl House without mentioning gravity falls and Amphibia!

Gravity falls went alongside Steven Universe with them having the BEST early representation for queer identities, with the police officers. The creator Alex Hirsch was the voice of both Hooty and King in the owl house, and is close with Dana Terrace. Being an early Disney Channel show though, that was really the extent of what he could do, but an interracial gay couple in TV was definitely a new thing at the time.

Amphibia has a little more but still less representation than The Owl House. In season 3 we're introduced to 3 very diverse characters, Ally and Jess, who are a lesbian couple, and Terri, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. The characters General Yunnan and Lady Olivia are a canonical lesbian couple we meet in season 2 that act as almost parent figures to Marcy Wu once she gets to amphibia. Straying from queer representation, Marcy was relatable to many autistic people (theres a WHOLE lot to unpack, i can't explain it here, you'll have to watch it, its so worth it even if s1 is slow) anyway shes relatable to many autistic people including me and despite not being written with autism in mind, Matt Braly made it canon later. (which in my opinion is the best kind of autistic representation) anyway I love marcy she's so me (thats why shes my profile picuture)

The Owl House definitely has the most representation out of ANY TV show, and you barley skimmed the surface. It's too much to go into detail so:

Eda is Bisexual and dating Raine, who is non-binary and queer (probably lesbian), Luz is Bi and dating Amity who is lesbian, Vee has a crush on masha who is non-binary (ITS SO SAD THEY NEVER GOT TOGETHER SCREW DISNEY FOR CANCELLING IT EARLY), Hunter is bi and is dating Willow (great representation for queer people in straight relationships might i add), eda's sister lillith is aro-ace, the bully boscha has no confirmed sexuality, but in s3 e2 she seems almost obsessed with amity, the collector is non-binary and uses he/they (hes a little space dude awwwww), camila is an ally, alador and darius are supposedly queer and i THINK they get together in the last episode when alador leaves odalia, but i dont think it's confirmed. Dottie and roselle aren't confirmed but they have a real gay grandmas vibe to them. Gus is effeminate and has no confirmed sexuality but it was confirmed that him and matt didnt like each other so it's also possible he's straight

ANYWAY THATS IT BYEEEEE

Edit: Also the main trio is up to the audience whether they're a poly couple or not

In the Owl House, Amity DEFINITELY didn't start out as a friend, Amity hated Luz (probably because of internalized homophobia) and they became friends later. Also Luz is pronounced the same as the word "loose"!

GOODDDDDD what was missing is such a good adventure time episode i LOVE bubbline, and their relationship during the stakes ark UGHHHHHH THEYRE THE BEST

I can't believe you mentioned the star-wars kiss and not the ugly slug that it immediately cuts to

I recently found your videos and channel, one thing for sure I love your vibes so much. It's sad to see some countries having laws that banned anything lgbtq related. I'm from Malaysia and I enjoy your videos so much!

I love how you worded "It's how we're wired, not a choice or corruption"
Whenever this topic comes up I never know how to say this correctly so thank you.

I'm a teen who found out within the last 2 years or so that I'm a lesbian and It's always been a thing. When I was really little and was looking up porn, it was never straight people, it was women.
Aside from that, Elsa was my gay awakening. And the actress that make me stop and think like.. maybe there's a reason I'm not interested in boys is Katie McGrath as Lena Luthor in Supergirl and Morgana in Merlin

There are so many straight relationships in shows where the characters are more like siblings than partners but yet the creators or people put them together anyway...
Like Finn and Bubblegum
Alura and Lance (Voltron)
And I'm sure there's more that I just can't remember right now.

The Owl House also has Raine Whispers. They’re a confirmed non binary character who is former lover of Eda’s, and the get back together before the end of the series

My Little Pony: Friendship is magic has Scootaloo’s aunts Holiday and Lofty in s9 ep12, and Lyra and Bonbon in the background of the entire series (including their proposal in the background of s9 ep23!)

Cassandra from tangled the series/Rapunzel's tangled adventure is so gay (not sure if it was ever officially confirmed but she had an episode where she pretended to be into a man, her fear of being sent to live in a convent, the episode where she basically re-enacted the tangled movie with her in flynn/eugene's place, honestly just her entire relationship with Rapunzel in general)

The new Duck-tales reboot is great for headcanoning replace best friend with girlfriend when webby or Lena refer to each other and you’ll see exactly where Dana terrace got the inspiration for lumity.

I’m not sure if it counts, but the doll franchise Ever After High featured a same-sex kiss in an internet special called the dragon games between Snow White’s daughter Apple and princess knight Darling Charming. Additionally, the voice actress for Faybelle Thorn, daughter of the dark fairy from sleeping beauty (who just so happens to be head cheerleader), was confirmed to be a lesbian by the character’s voice actor herself.

Not even from an LGBT+ perspective, in the show Full House both Stephanie and Michelle have to explain to their friends why don't have a mum (she is dead) and their young friends struggle to grasp the concept and ask some incredibly rude questions. Watching that show would have allowed so many children from the 90s to understand why asking questions like that was inappropriate.

Other kids media with canonically queer representations:
- MONSTER HIGH (G3 and some G1 comics, they tried for more queer rep in G1 but Mattel was like um no) G3 has interracial nblw relationship and they're both disabled in different ways
- LEGEND OF KORRA comics, Korra herself is bi, they tried to put that in the show but Nickelodeon was like um no. But hey along with ATLA they do some what represent a wide variety of cultures.
- 2018-2020 SHERA AND THE PRINCESS OF POWER, maybe 4 named non LGBT+ characters, no characters specifically said to be not LGBT+, many characters in opposite gender relationships are canonically bi. Lesbian wives shown in literally the second episode. Also canon non binary characters. Canonically disabled characters, POC representation.
- DRAGON PRINCE Interracial disabled lesbian elf and human brides, who use sign language as the main form of communication and have a wedding ceremony that joins traditions from both cultures, gay (as in mlm) elves, trans elves. Over all very gay
- BLUEY, very briefly mentioned that one kid has two mums, conservatives had a field day with that one
- PEPPA PIG, shows lesbian mums like once
- Very old but Enid Blyton's THE FAMOUS FIVE, idc what you say George is trans. He is literally described as a boy who was born a girl and all of the "good characters" use he/him and masculine language when talking about him.
- ANYTHING BY RICK RIORDAN, pretty much.
Techinically, Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson but I think the author made a mistake when writing the rules of charm speak, a power some children of Aphropide have, and through process of elimination the only way this power could have worked on Annabeth was if she was attracted to the girl using the power, but this does happen 2 books after the rules of charmspeak are explained. But Nico DiAngelo from the series is canonically gay and has a bi boyfriend, Will. Kayla has two dads.
In the sister series Magnus Chase, Magnus is pan and his partner Alex is genderfluid there is also a deaf elf, a dwarf who combusts if he is in contact with the sun, homeless teens and an Arab Muslim main character. Also included is a scene where Magnus asks Sam (who is muslim) if her half sibling Alex being gender fluid bothers her because of her religion and she is like um no I have actual problems to deal with.
The other sister series The Kane Chronicles has a thruple technically, two people combine into one person, hard to explain. A central plot point is the differences in treatment a white passing mixed race girl faces from her non passing brother.
But overall the books are full of racial and religious diversity including Native American, Arab, Muslim, black, Latinex and Chinese main characters. Also a lot of disability representation, almost every character has ADHD and dyslexia, and a beautiful story of a deaf elf overcoming abuse and leaving his "family". Also so many single parent families.
Oh, and did it bother you how in Harry Potter they sent Harry back to the abusive house? In literally the first book they turn the abusive step dad to stone, and the first 5 books are a lot less fruity thanks to Rick wanting to build himself as a writer before he could be shut down for more diverse characters. Also there's like 30 books and more are still be published so there will always be new content.
- Wings of Fire has multiple wlw dragon couples and a non binary human

Don’t forget Raine Whispers! They’re from the owl house and are nonbinary

Marceline and Bubblegum had more of their relationship explored in Adventure Time platnium and it was a really great bit of it.

kipo and the age of wonderbeasts ❤

Anne with an E has queer characters in it!

I totally read Dumbledore as gay in my first reading on book 7

Stephen Universe is so great for emotional connections in all contexts of gender.

It may not be available in the UK but the Netflix series Centaurworld explores a LOT of queer coded characters especially male ones

Zulius is very gay coded right from the start but as it goes on you see that Chet has a secret crush on him, Durpleton has big gay himbo energy, and Zulius ends up in a relationship with another male character named Splendib. And even Wammawink gets some bisexual energy with her love of Horse

Also another great Netflix show in general was the movie Mitchells vs The Machines. Keen eyed viewers may notice the main character, Katie, wears a pride button on her jacket, implying that she’s already out or at least a gay ally from before the movie. Her sexuality is never discussed or a part of the plot till are very end of the movie where she gets to college and is on a video chat with her parents who ask if she’s bringing her girlfriend home to meet them. Honestly to me this is PERFECT representation. Her story is about her without her sexuality needing to be part of the plot or conflict. She’s a queer character in a situation not a person in a queer situation

Also She-ra and the Princesses of power, and Dead Boy Detective Agency- not a kids show, but very good)

Highly recommend Nimona (2023) very gay, very very good!!!

In many episodes of Gravity Falls, including the original series and the mini series, there are several clues that the character Mabel Pines may be part of the LGBTQ+ community.

In many episodes of Gravity Falls, including the original series and the mini series, there are several clues that the character Mabel Pines may be part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The Dragon Prince is an excellent (kids) show for representation. Whilst the main 3 characters are not explicitly shown to be queer (one’s like 9) there are loads of other characters who are. From trans characters to lesbian and gay marriage and gender-nonconforming characters, it really allowed me to express myself the way I feel I really am. It’s great and well worth a watch! (if you don’t mind mildly choppy animation for the first season)

RICK RIODAN BOOKS!!!!

No Carmen San Diego mention?

Luz from Owl house was the first bisexual that I saw that looked like me and acted like me with he quirky personality and having Hispanic parents who accepted her since most of the people in my town were Hispanic and traditional it was nice to see that representation and that show made me feel better about myself and how I acted differently from a lot of people now I just tell myself to be as crazy and as weird as I want cause if someone is calling me weird it means I’m doing my job

Before I even knew I was queer I related to all the queer coded characters 😂 how did I not know for so long?

My parents took me to a lesbian wedding when I was little. My little brain wasn't thinking about how there were two girls getting married,that seemed pretty normal.I was thinking about the disco floor and funny little cameras. :)

❤❤❤❤ great video

You say you want Elsa’s queerness to be explicit. But is there any way to do that without her being monopolized by a specific segment of the Queer community? You see —- her queer-coding is done in a way that resonates with more than one segment. If she were to get a girlfriend, then all of her queer-coding becomes specifically lesbian — which can take her away from trans people who really, really really need her these days.

I'm so grateful that you mentioned the owl house, but I can't believe you didn't mention Raine, one of very few older non-binary characters we see, especially considering that they get to have a romantic relationship with a main character

I love The Owl House so much!! I'm autistic and TOH is definitely a special interest of mine. The world-building, character development, art style, everything, is amazing! I also just adore the open representation, and the fact that on the Boiling Isles, LGBTQIA+ characters and relationships are just a thing, there doesn't seem to be any discrimination there. As a closeted enby teen in an extremely transphobic, slightly homophobic household (my parents also don't believe in the validity/existence of non-binary gender identities, asexual and aromantic spectrum, and things there are too many labels), watching TOH on my computer was and is still an escape. Raine is one of my favourite characters.
It's also refreshing that it does represent a number of queer characters, with Raine being non-binary and using they/them pronouns, the Collector using they/he, the Titan being implied to be some gender outside the binary, despite being comfortable with being called 'dad', and Lilith being aroace.

I made a mistake early on with my first son. I didn't even think about informing him about disabled people and he asked those very questions and harassed a boy with one arm in kindergarten. I was embarrassed, guilty, and just so sad. That's why it's important to recognize your privilege and consider other perspectives. We've talked about it now, and I will not make the same mistake with his brother

Sailor Moon! Although it wasn't produced in the west, it certainly made a big impact. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, both women, basically have the healthiest relationship in the series, although you wouldn't know that if you just watched the original English dub because they changed the dialogue to write them as cousins. Fortunately, they made a new and much improved dub which not only correctly portrayed them as lovers, but also included the 5th and final season, which had previously been cut because the show introduced the Three Lights, who have the magical ability to switch between male and female bodies whenever they need to sing and fight respectively.