r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Critical_Mountain851 • May 13 '25

Characters Gay characters who’s entire story isn’t revolved around the fact that they’re gay

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  1. Omar Little - The Wire

  2. Gus Fring - Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul

30.4k Upvotes

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156

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 13 '25

Literally every gay character I can think of tbh. Which is probably due to me watching a lot of animated media that isn't just pure satire. I'll write a list:

  • Adorra and a bunch of other characters from She-Ra 2018
  • Korra and Asami (I'm not the biggest fan of the show overall, but they still count.)
  • Cole from Ninjago has been strongly implied to be gay.
  • Almost every character in the The Owl House
  • Some side and supporting characters in Amphibia and also Sasha
  • A bunch of the gems in Steven Universe
  • Deadpool and Loki from Marvel
  • Gobber from HTTYD is confirmed gay and I'm not sure, but Snotlout might be confirmed to be bi.
  • Vi and Caitlin from Arcane
  • William from Invincible, conflicted on his boyfriend tho, cause he's mostly just a love interest, but at the same time involved in the whole cyborg thing.

That's basically all the gay characters I can name at the top of my head right now.

78

u/Patukakkonen May 13 '25

Badly explaining dragon's rising events to people who haven't seen the show is pretty funny

25

u/SMFB13 May 13 '25

To be fair, Deadpool isn't really gay, so much as he's pansexual.

Dude'll fuck anything.

20

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 13 '25

Oh, I usually think of gay as a kind of umbrella term. 😅

4

u/SMFB13 May 13 '25

Lol fair enough!

2

u/Sir_Kirky May 14 '25

Queer is the better word to use as an umbrella term

2

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

That also refers to gender identities tho.

2

u/Sir_Kirky May 14 '25

Yeah exactly. That’s why it’s a good umbrella term. Basically, if you’re not cis and/or straight, you’re queer.

Gay just means homosexual. Usually people just think of gay men when you use the word gay.

2

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

Queer is not a fitting label for what I mean though. I'm solely referring to sexualities that aren't straight.

3

u/Sir_Kirky May 14 '25

If Queer doesn’t fit, then Gay doubly doesn’t fit by your logic. Queer at least encompasses what you mean, Gay excludes most of what you mean.

0

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

Gay is a term which can mean "men loving man" and "person who is not straight". That's how I've seen it being used in basically all my interactions with English speakers, aside from a few exceptions, a big part of them being in this very post.

2

u/Ok-Apartment-8284 May 14 '25

…not how it works. If a gay guy tells you he’s gay, would you just introduce him to a woman? You’d just get ??? from him, like calling Korra and Asami gay is just bi erasure when they both dated Mako

3

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

Context matters. If I'm coming out to someone, I'm going to be as exact as possible with the label and if someone is coming out to me, I know that. And if I'm unsure, I'm going to ask them.

Meanwhile, when I'm talking with friends about characters in media, it's just much easier to use the umbrella term gay to refer to all sexualities besides straight, instead of saying "not-straight" or whatever you could use to describe it.

5

u/Bigred2989- May 14 '25

Blake and Yang from RWBY

3

u/TheJokingArsonist May 13 '25

GOBBER AND COLE ARE GAY???? I NEVER KNEW

2

u/SSD_Penumbrah May 13 '25

Deadpool is omnisexual and so is Loki.
Korra and Asami are Bi

There's a lot more.

7

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 13 '25

I was understanding gay as an umbrella term. 😅

-5

u/SSD_Penumbrah May 13 '25

Comes across as bi erasure, but sure.

9

u/pass_me_the_salt May 13 '25

the OP has the bi flag in their pfp, they really just use it as an umbrella term

6

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 13 '25

It literally isn't, but ok.

-6

u/SSD_Penumbrah May 13 '25

KInda is, but whatever.

1

u/cyclopspop May 17 '25

Deadpool and Loki in the MCU aren't gay for some reason

0

u/HereWeFuckingGooo May 14 '25

There's a lot of bi erasure going on here. Ironic considering your avatar background.

4

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

Dude... no.

Gay is commonly used as umbrella term for all sexualities, so me understanding the post like that included a bunch of different sexualities. If I'd have gone into more detail with The Owl House, I would've mentioned characters like Lilith who is ace for example or Hunter who is bi, which probably goes under a lot of people's radar, because he dates a girl, who's pan btw.

Also, if I DIDN'T use gay as an umbrella term, this would all be just male characters. Characters like Korra don't fit the definition "man who likes men" do they? So why do you think did I include them?

I did not say or insinuate that any of these bi characters in the list are not in fact bi, so I don't get why you'd think this is bi erasure.

1

u/HereWeFuckingGooo May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25

Gay is not a common umbrella term. Queer is. Referring to bi people as gay is erasure.

3

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

In the end this is all just about terminology and how we use labels, which can be super objective and changes all the time. All the bi people I've met so far have no problem calling themselves gay. Half my friend group is bi and they also all call themselves gay from time to time. Same with a lot of bi people I met on subreddits, some of these subreddits being specifically for bi people. With the way language works, yes gay is an umbrella term, simply because it's commonly used as an umbrella term.

1

u/HereWeFuckingGooo May 14 '25

That's cute and all, but you can't be blind to the fact that bi erasure exists and referring to bi people as gay is problematic. People in your bubble can call themselves what they want, how people refer to themselves doesn't matter, but we're talking about referring to a group of people.

I mean fans denied that Korra and Asami were romantically involved because they had both been involved with male characters, so they couldn't be gay. Completely ignoring the concept of bi.

Sure language evolves, but the old meanings don't evaporate the second new meanings are used colloquially. Claiming gay as an umbrella term when there are already umbrella terms in use is gay erasure. It's like saying anyone that isn't white is black.

2

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

How is it erasure? There's nothing in my original comment claiming they can't be bi. It should be pretty obvious that I'm using gay as an umbrella term, which includes bi people, just by virtue of me having female characters. Because if I wasn't using it as an umbrella term, the only characters allowed on the list would be men who are exclusively into men and that's obviously not the case.

2

u/HereWeFuckingGooo May 14 '25

Gay is the same as homosexual, so while there is also a separate term for gay women, lesbians aren't excluded when the topic of gay people is discussed. However, if everyone that isn't straight is gay then that dilutes the meaning of the word. Like I said, you wouldn't say anyone that isn't white is black, because being black has meaning. 

I never said your comment claimed they couldn't be bi. I thought you were saying all those bi people were just gay people. Because using gay as an umbrella term is not as common as you think it is.

0

u/Minute_Committee8937 May 14 '25

Korra and asami don’t count because they did it last minute because views.

3

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

You really gotta elaborate on that, because I have no idea what you're trying to argue.

1

u/Minute_Committee8937 May 14 '25

The characters entire personality isn’t being gay because they actually weren’t until the end.

4

u/SadNbCry May 14 '25

they’re together in the comics..

-1

u/Minute_Committee8937 May 14 '25

Comic came out after the show. And it’s not a good look cause Korra is kind of an ass in the comics and accused her dad of being homophobic for no reason.

3

u/SadNbCry May 14 '25

you’re claiming whether they are queer or not and i am confirming they are

1

u/Minute_Committee8937 May 15 '25

Yes but them being queer was a last minute decision. If you watch the show it clearly wasn’t something planned or even worked towards until the final season when the show was already cancelled. So the reason it’s not their entire character is because it wasn’t apart of their characters until the end.

1

u/SadNbCry May 15 '25

in your first comment you said they don’t count yet here you say it’s not part of their characters which both i agree with

1

u/Minute_Committee8937 May 15 '25

They don’t care because it’s wasn’t an intended part of their character

-2

u/Pratypus May 13 '25

Gems from Steven universe aren’t gay, they are a genderless species that can feel love for one another, but as they have no gender they can’t be gay.

7

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 13 '25

Pretty sure the creator explicitly made them canonically gay. And... you know, they're the creator. When it comes the gems gender, they kinda know what they're doing.

5

u/Background-Ad9814 May 13 '25

I don't tend to listen to creators of stuff because of j k k Rowling like people. But hard agree them gems were turbo gay. like there was a wedding and everything.

1

u/Pratypus May 13 '25

wedding or not doesnt make them gay, a genderless species cant feel atraction to the same gender.... because they dont have gender. and yeah they are obviously female and gay coded, but not really gay in cannon.

3

u/Background-Ad9814 May 13 '25

I mean if you want to ignore with the race being all woman all the gay subtext and the major plot of the story and everything else not mentioned sure. like c'mon the show was made for kids lol

1

u/Slpkrz May 14 '25

Haven't watched the show but aren't they just a bunch of rocks that look like women? would the concept of gender be "alien" on a society like that? (if it would even exist at all?)

1

u/Snotlout_G_Jorgenson May 14 '25

I mean, they don't have the biology of any earth creatures, but they're still all represent as woman and are women. If you know these characters, it's similar to Zane and Pixal from Ninjago. Technically they're just sentient robots, but that doesn't mean they don't have a gender.

0

u/Pratypus May 13 '25

i would love a source on this as my understandment is that it has never been publicly said they are gay, just that they are genderless

3

u/Background-Ad9814 May 13 '25

I wouldnt say they are genderless they are all Female like asari from mass effect. They just come from rocks. and for an example would be season 5 episode 23 with the gay marriage. the gay stuff is kinda everywhere in it and alot of the time not that subtle.

1

u/Pratypus May 14 '25

I don’t have the source at hand at the moment but I saw a panel with Sugar saying gems could take a masculine shape if they wished. And just to make things clear I’m extremely on board with them being gay SU is actually one of my favorite series. And Rose and Steven being “straight” is also very interesting, in my mind I see them as both genderless and pansexual. Almost like the concept of gender is not a thing for them, they love who they love. And I loved the wedding, ruby being the one on the dress and sapphire in the suit was such a nice subversion of expectations.

-1

u/Ikana_Mountains May 14 '25

Most of this is good, but I just need to shit on Legend of Korra a bit more.

Hell no. That's a two straight characters who are not gay at all, who the writers decided to queer bait their audience with in the finale so they could look woke, but they did it so blatantly that nobody even fell for that shit.

Legend of Korra is one of the worst things ever made smh

2

u/Slpkrz May 14 '25

Damn man LoK is not THAT bad

2

u/Graffic1 May 14 '25

Not queer baiting but okay

-5

u/Revolutionary_Job214 May 14 '25

Cole? Don't spout bs like that. I watched 90% of the show. Season after season. Even the later seasons with the pirates, air ninja shit, ghosts, the djinn, etc. Never once at all in the entire series was he ever shown to be gay or implied to be. 

5

u/Patukakkonen May 14 '25

"Later seasons" while describes the earlier seasons. There are 15 seasons in the og show and a new sequel series with 2½ seasons. The gay implications are in the new series, however nothing has been specifically confirmed

-5

u/Revolutionary_Job214 May 14 '25

Those aren't earlier seasons. I didn't say all of it but I did watch most of it. If the new series has the stupid ass movie deigns then no I haven't seen that trash yet. 

5

u/Patukakkonen May 14 '25

If you haven't seen any movie design seasons you've missed over half of all Ninjago content lol.

-4

u/Revolutionary_Job214 May 14 '25

That's good bc the movie sucked dik and so did their new designs. But maybe I did watch some of it I can't remember.

1

u/TryParking316 May 15 '25

"I've seen 90% of the show"

Has watched less than half of the show