One of the most powerful aspects to animated television shows is their ability to portray fantasy worlds that would otherwise be impossible to portray with actors and real cinematography.

If it can be imagined, it can be created in animation. That’s why it is particularly disappointing to see the lack of animated characters with a LGBTQ+ sexual orientation portrayed in the vast majority of animated shows.

In the early days of animation, the representation of LGBTQ+ characters wasn’t the greatest since most times they would stick to stereotypes. Like how the a gay man also has to be more feminine and girly or how lesbians are more tuff and manly. They would only stick to gay or lesbian and no other kind of LGBTQ+ characters since those were the only two people knew the most. Those weren’t the greatest representation at the time but those were the ones we had.

Today’s animation is being more inclusive by showing more LGBTQ+ characters and sometimes they’re even the protagonist of the show.

One of the first big things was in The Legend of Korra when the protagonist Korra and supporting character Asami left to go to the spirit world. The scene had high queer tension but it wasn’t clearly said until the creators confirmed it a few days after the series ended.

A more recent show that shows a queer romance is The Owl House. In the first season, the character Amity is shown to have a crush on Luz, the protagonist of the show. In an episode Enchanting Grom Fright Amity has a letter to ask someone out to Grom. At the end of the episode, we find out that it is Luz. In the next episodes whenever she talks to Luz she blushes and runs away. Luz never returns her feelings until season 2 and their interactions became more flirty. Then in season 2 episode 8 Luz is trying to ask out Amity. She is trying to make sure it’s perfect because she doesn’t want to make Amity think that she’s weird. At the end of the episode, Luz finally gets the courage to ask her out but then Amity decides to take the lead and ask Luz out instead, giving Disney their first openly female queer relationship.

Now Disney is not canceling the show but they aren’t giving it a full third season which is making a lot of people mad. The creator said it’s too late to try and make Disney give the show a full third season. This is showing that Disney isn’t ready to be more inclusive like other networks including Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network with their shows, like The Loud House, Steven Universe, and Adventure Time.

It’s disappointing that Disney characters are shown to be queer right when the series is about to end or is stated by the creators after the show has already ended. This is usually because Disney won’t allow them to say until it ended since it doesn’t fit with their brand. But The Owl House gives them a their first female queer characters and first non-binary character. But they decided no and cut the show short.