Animated shows are leading the way for LGBTQ+ representation—but will that continue?
As The Owl House and Dead End: Paranormal Park return, here's how YA animated shows have dialed up representation, and why that progress could be at risk
TV Features Korra
If you want to see some examples of great LGBTQ+ representation on television, take a look at just about any animated show made for young adults in the past 10 years. These shows have been flying under the radar of the mainstream media, stealthily giving queer characters and their creators a much greater voice and visibility than is often found in other sectors of entertainment. But there are signs that trend could be on the decline.
This week brings the return of two animated series that are prime examples of how YA animation has been stepping up efforts to include LGBTQ+ characters. On October 13, the second season of Dead End: Paranormal Park will premiere on Netflix. Then, on October 15, Disney Channel will release the first of three specials that wrap up the final season of The Owl House. Both of these shows put queer characters front and center, and make no apologies about it.
But while fans are very much on board with this trend, the companies behind these series may not be. The Owl House only got two seasons and three specials before being canceled. And Dead End: Paranormal Park creator Hamish Steel got so little promotional support for season two that he took matters into his own hands.
How Netflix made diversity a priority
Netflix has been historically ahead of the curve when it comes to inclusion in its animated shows. Nearly every original animated series on the streamer in the YA category has at least some kind of LGBTQ+ representation, including The Hollow, DreamWorks Dragons, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and The Dragon Prince. The animated film The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, which premiered on Netflix in 2021, includes a lesbian main character. And 2020’s Kipo And The Age Of The Wonderbeasts features a gay main character as well as his love interest. But when it comes to the sheer volume of representation, She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power takes the crown. The series, which premiered in 2018 and ran for five seasons, has 23 characters that qualify, either explicitly or implicitly, as queer.
When Dead End: Paranormal Park first premiered on Netflix earlier this year, it was positively received (the show still has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and praised for its inclusivity. Not only does it feature a trans protagonist (voiced by trans actor Zach Barack), but it also showcases characters who are racially diverse and neurodivergent. Based on a series of graphic novels that were later developed into webtoons, it follows the adventures of Barney and Norma (voiced by Kody Kavitha), two teens who work in a haunted theme park.
Although the stories are generally based around whatever supernatural force is making trouble in each episode, it doesn’t gloss over the fact that Barney struggles with being accepted by his family, particularly his old-fashioned grandmother. Meanwhile, Norma, an autistic Pakistani-American girl, has a crush on another girl who works at the park. Other characters have been introduced who fall along multiple areas of the gender and sexuality spectrum. The overarching theme of found family is one that anyone can relate to, but it’s especially meaningful for kids who may feel unseen because they fall out of what’s considered the norm. In this show, there are no norms (just a Norma).
Disney’s checkered past—and present
In contrast to Netflix, Disney doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to queer representation. The studio has been notoriously coy with its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in the past, doing the bare minimum of throwing in a line about a same-sex spouse or a two-second shot of a happy couple. That may check a box, but it hardly counts as quality representation. Especially when that line or shot can be easily edited out without losing anything from the story.
Disney employees, however, have stepped up to champion LGBTQ+ causes when executives dropped the ball. After the studio cut a same-sex kiss from the recent Pixar film Lightyear—not great optics in the wake of its missteps over the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida—protestors within the company threatened to walk out. The scene was eventually put back into the film.
Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch has talked about how hard he had to lobby to include confirmation of the long-hinted-at relationship between two minor characters, Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland. That show was one of the first to launch the golden era of YA animation, so even though it was hard-won, the inclusion of a gay couple is still significant.
In an ironic twist, one of the best examples of representation in animation can be found in the Disney Channel show The Owl House. Its main character is in a loving same-sex relationship, and it features a non-binary character, Raine Whispers, who uses they/them pronouns (voiced by non-binary actor Avi Roque). The main character is Luz Noceda (Sarah-Nicole Robles), a human girl who stumbles through a doorway to a demon realm full of magic. When she arrives in The Boiling Isles, built upon the gigantic carcass of a dead titan, she’s taken in by Eda Clawthorne (Wendy Malick), an iconoclastic witch.
Hoping to learn how to become a witch herself, Luz enrolls in Hexide School of Magic and Demonics, makes friends, and eventually admits she has feelings for a rival student named Amity Blight (Mae Whitman). It turns out the attraction is mutual, and they become a couple. They hold hands, kiss, and have pet names for each other. It’s adorable, and no one bats an eye. Except maybe Disney; despite attracting a devoted fan base, the series is coming to an end next year. Considering the studio has renewed shows with lower ratings and far less cultural impact, it’s suspicious.
In a post on Reddit, The Owl House creator Dana Terrace offered a more charitable view of the reasons for the cancellation. “While we have had issues airing in a few countries (and are just straight up banned in a few more) I’m not gonna assume bad faith against the people I work with in LA,” she wrote. She wasn’t involved in the conversations—“LOVE the transparency and openness here (this is sarcasm)”—but her take is that some executive at the top decided the show simply didn’t fit the Disney brand due to its older-skewing target audience and serialized storytelling. Whatever the reason, all fans can do now is continue to support the show through these last three specials and prove to the studio that taking big risks will ultimately pay off.
The creators who are leading a quiet revolution
Representation in The Owl House was always a priority for Terrace, who previously worked on Gravity Falls and the DuckTales reboot. She’s been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ issues and often participates in online fundraisers for The Trevor Project, along with other creators, like Steven Universe’s Rebecca Sugar. That’s one of the big reasons we’re seeing so much inclusion in animation these days—the animators themselves are writing from their own personal experiences. Sugar, for instance, identifies as bisexual, non-binary, and “gender expansive.” You’ll find all of those represented in Steven Universe, including one character, Garnet, who is literally the physical embodiment of a lesbian couple.
A lot has already been written about how much it took for Sugar to get a lesbian wedding into the show, and the brutal aftermath of that episode. That was only in 2018, not so long ago. Clearly, there’s still progress to be made, but look how far representation has come. And that’s not even counting the likes of Adventure Time, Craig Of The Creek, Danger & Eggs, or The Legend of Korra, all of which serve as great examples of how to do representation right. The key is to give diverse creators a platform to tell their own stories their way. Few spaces in entertainment are doing that right now as much as TV animation.
If you want some hard data to back up that claim, Insider compiled a list in 2021 of LGBTQ+ inclusive animated shows through the end of 2020, and tracked their trajectory over time. The interactive database is searchable, with filters for sorting by character, show, or network. In all, they identified 259 queer characters in animated children’s programs since 1996. You can see the spike in shows over the last decade.
An uncertain future
You may also notice something else significant in this chart—the drop-off in the number of shows since 2019. Part of that is due simply to the reduced volume of content being produced post-pandemic across the board. But there may be more going on. Disney’s cancellation of The Owl House could be a canary in a coal mine, at a time when transphobic and homophobic rhetoric is on the rise.
This past summer, Warner Bros. downsized its animation division and removed titles from HBO Max. Today the company went even further, gutting Cartoon Network—the home of Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Craig Of The Creek, and a bunch of other shows with prominent LGBTQ+ representation—and folding it into Warner Bros. Animation. With animation as an industry facing a potential contraction, creators will have to fight harder than ever to get their shows on the air.
Despite these struggles, YA animation continues to grow in popularity. If animation fans continue to expect and demand LGBTQ+ content, it will make a difference. For a generation of younger viewers, LGBTQ+ inclusion is now considered a normal part of storytelling. They’ve grown up accustomed to seeing narratives told from different points of view, rather than centering one group exclusively. And the kids who are watching these shows today will be the ones making them in the future.
46 Comments
Funny thing is, Norma from Dead End wasn’t deliberately autistic. The show’s creator simply modeled her after themselves, and then they were later diagnosed as autistic.
As usual, everyone sleepin’ on Venture Brothers:…but then, that’s not YA.
Personally i would have went for the “Genital Formal Wear” shot but i couldn’t find it.
I’d have posted the video, but it seems they’ve now violently arsefucked YouTube vids in the comments.
Kind of thought it was a misstep making Hunter Gathers detransition though
I dunno… Shoreleave always stuck me as more of a “ha ha, people in the navy are all gay!” gag and less of a conscious decision to have a character be gay.
He started like that. But it quickly became clear that he is cool as fuck, absolutely badass, and also 100% gay.
I can’t find the exact quote, but he has a line about not giving a fuck about what people think about him, even though he knows everyone out there judges him for who he is, and that’s really awesome for a character that started as “haha, navy guys are so gay”
Found it!
Pete White:
I’m not gonna fight him, they can’t make me fight him.Shore Leave:
White you are such a sissy.Pete White:
I’m a sissy. You’re calling me a sissy.Shore Leave:
Oh yeah, I get it. I’m out and proud and I’m the sissy. I’m brave enough to be who I am in the face of assholes like you, and I’m the sissy. Maybe when you come outta the closet you can walk a mile in my jimmy Choos.
It’s weird that the article namedrops Korra as an example of “representation done right,” because the Korra/Asami relationship at the end felt completely unearned and out of left field.
According to the trolls sure
The two did not have good chemestry because Asami had less character than Plank from Ed,Edd, N, Eddy.
It was steadily built up since the start of Season 3, where Korra crashes a car because she’s staring at Asami.
yep, it’s a lot of background references and hints from season 3 onwards that a lot of people just apparently were too deep into the kool aid to notice.
I also love that they expanded on it way more in the comics.
Having watched the show as it was aired, that is most definitely not the case.There was a steady build up in the last couple seasons, and it was only shocking because I remember thinking “Are they really gonna do it? On a Nickelodeon show?”When Korra is in her self-imposed exile after the trauma of Season 3, it is repeatedly stated that she only kept in touch with Asami, which clearly confuses and upsets her other friends in Team Avatar. Because she felt a particular connection with Asami.There are also multiple interactions once they physically meet up that hint towards obvious attraction (ie. Asami commenting on Korra’s haircut which causes Korra to blush). The clues are there, the seeds were planted, and I vividly remember thinking as the season progressed that that was exactly where it was going.
Yeah I thought that was a weird one too, because the show isn’t really explicit about it. I’m sure they did as well as they could for the time, but by today’s standards and compared to the shows mentioned you could hardly call it being done right.
Calling it unearned when they had to fight tooth and nail to get them to just hold hands, never mind Nickelodeon screwing them over on promotion and underfunding episode production, miss me with this shit.
Unfortunately, thanks to people like David Zaslav, animation itself won’t be around for long anyway. Except maybe for targeted AI-created short-term video TikTok cartoon gags that can be created for next to nothing and somehow make tons of money.
Something, something….China
It’s not even China, it’s the companies just thinking China might object to something
but China nonetheless
a boogieman
I’m so bummed about The Owl House’s premature cancellation. it really found its feet/figured out the tone with s2, would’ve loved to see where they went nextbut hey at least they’re getting a few specials to wrap things up, instead of being completely cancelled and then scrubbed from the internet, so small mercies
I hate to say it, but Netflix is doing rather well with its live action shows, it just needs to get out of the habit of cancelling the WLW shows that it makes, or at the very least promoting them properly.Heartstopper is genuinely lightning in a bottle and all they had to do was trust the creator of the comics with a modest budget and creative control.The show has changed the narrative for what queer drama can be for a younger generation, it’s just nice, twee and normal.Sadly they dropped the ball completely on First Kill, and continue to do so with anything involving WLW, hell getting their shows to say the word “lesbian” seems like a longshot sometimes.
Really disappointed in the cancellation of The Owl House as the show is genuinely hilarious.
Damn, my daughters and I just recently started watching it. Had no idea it was canceled. BUMMED OUT.
It turns out maybe a majority of parents are not interested in programming that attempts to indoctrinate their impressionable children into a homosexual lifestyle? Who knew?
How are they indoctrinating anyone any more than shows with straight people are indoctrinating people into a heterosexual lifestyle?
It’s all indoctrination dummy. Difference is homosexuality is a sin.
don’t get your values from a work of fiction
how can you be this stupid?
they’re not. one furthers the human race the other is a mental illness.
The mental illness being believing that LGBT representation is in any way harmful to people.
only breeders deserve human status.
Everyone already assumed you were a giant piece of shit. You didn’t have to add onto it.
I hope your children are raped and murdered by police officers and i hope the only consequences they have to suffer is a free vacation. Everyone hates me? You say that like it wasn’t my sole intention in the first place twatmonger. Why don’t you kill yourself.
homophobia is definitely a mental illness
NOTES FROM THE GRAYS:It turns out maybe a majority of parents are not interested in programming that attempts to indoctrinate their impressionable children into a homosexual lifestyle?Who knew?So let’s field this dipshittery in order:1. When is it “indoctrination?” Is it only when we’re talking TV and education, or do the dinner table and church count as well?2. Did seeing hundreds upon hundreds of hetero romance scenes turn you straight? Or did it really have no bearing on whether you were straight?3. Were you born this fucking stupid, or did it have to be cultivated?
1. the difference is the parent’s choice you fucking imbecile. Parents are supposed to indoctrinate their children to the social norms they want them to follow.2. Heterosexual is the norm. LGBTQ is an aberration against God. 3. this insult might hold weight if the person making it wasn’t even dumber than I am. Which is pretty fucking stupid. At least I’m not a fag though.
yep, these people only see it as “indoctrination” when it isn’t their indoctrination.
It’s because they’re feeble-minded fucks with no concept of intellectual consistency or integrity.
Ah! The dipshit responded! 1. the difference is the parent’s choice you fucking imbecile. Parents are supposed to indoctrinate their children to the social norms they want them to follow.Huh. Maybe they shouldn’t be dogshit at it then, and actually navigate the complexities of the world rather than hiding from said realities. Y’know, like cowards do. 2. Heterosexual is the norm. LGBTQ is an aberration against God. OH NOES! Which God? Do be specific. Actually, don’t. You can’t be specific, because you’re fucking stupid. ;-*
you realize i dont believe a word of any of this right? im just fucking with you because youre the epitome of the self righteous virtue signaling assholes that frequent this site. i hope your children die in your arms from butt rape with a wooden stake.
I’m hopeful Disney keeps pushing forward. it’s done incredibly well with owl house and hopefully they don’t close any doors.
“She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power … has 23 characters that qualify, either explicitly or implicitly, as queer.”Wait really? I can think of 8:AdoraCatraBow’s dadsScorpiaThe princess couple who’s names I can’t rememberThe shapeshifing mimicSo I’m missing 15
Checked the wiki, found the article below.https://she-raandtheprincessesofpower.fandom.com/wiki/LGBTQAIP%2BTake note that some characters are presumed/hinted to be queer and they are not outright confirmed to be. Others were confirmed by the creator himself and the crew rather than the show itself. And a few are fairly minor characters; nevertheless they still count.
Thanks!