Cartoon Network and LGBTQ representation

Queer coding

Some Cartoon Network series have included coded characters. For instance, The Oblongs, which aired from 2001 to 2002, features Biff who is implied to be gay.[1] He was confirmed to be gay in a bonus feature from The Oblongs Complete Series DVD.[2] Additionally, in 2012, Mark Hamill, the voice actor of Larry 3000 in Time Squad implied that Larry could easily have been interpreted as gay,[3] due to his femininity and presentation as the "gay best friend" to Cleopatra in "Shop like an Egyptian", even though Larry has stated on multiple occasions he dislikes humans in general. Hamill also described Larry as "fierce" and "flamboyant".[4]

Space Ghost Coast to Coast included a gay character. On December 25, 1994, Lokar, a locust-like alien and member of the Council of Doom, was introduced in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast Christmas special A Space Ghost Christmas. Supplementary material for the series had Lokar refer to himself as a confirmed bachelor while an article on the official Cartoon Network website featured a reference to a slang word for gay sex.[5][6] His sexuality was confirmed in audio commentaries for the Space Ghost Coast to Coast Volume 2 DVD and it was revealed that Lokar died at some point during the series.[7][8] However, this was eventually contradicted when Lokar returned in Season 11 in which he is shown to be alive and well.

Multiple scholars have analyzed how Steven Universe creates queer representation, many focusing on how its specific animation techniques represent queerness and its fluidity through character design and movement.[9][10][11][12] In March 2020, Peridot, a character in Steven Universe, was confirmed by storyboarder Maya Peterson as asexual and aromantic.[13] She said this despite her reservations that she is only a secondary creator on the show,[14] pleasing fans. However, before and after this point, fans had shipped Peridot with various other characters, specifically Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst, with some reviewers seeing Peridot and Lapis in a "close, loving relationship".[15]

Positive representation

Many Cartoon Network series have included LGBTQ+ representation. For instance, Superjail!, which aired from 2008 to 2014 on Adult Swim, had two gay characters: Jean Baptiste Le Ghei and Paul Guaye. In an interview with the creators of the show, co-creator Christy Karacas called them well-rounded characters, who are a couple, with Paul as more feminine and intelligent than Jean who is "the bad boy".[16]

Summer Camp Island, which ran from July 2018 to August 2023, had various LGBTQ characters, such as Puddle, a non-binary alien who uses they/them pronouns, and their husband Alien King, who is the king of their planet.[17][18] Craig of the Creek confirmed in December 2019 that the show had a non-binary character named Angel José. Their original voice actor, Angel Lorenzana, an agender storyboard artist for the show who also uses they/them pronouns, confirmed this.[19]

In May 2020, DC Super Hero Girls series creator Lauren Faust said that everyone was "on board with this idea" of Jessica Cruz having two mothers, and that she was glad it was approved.[20] Later, in July 2020, Tony Cervone, a producer of Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated stated that Velma Dinkley was a lesbian. James Gunn, who wrote the screenplays of Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, concurred, stating that Velma was "explicitly gay".[21] She has feelings for another woman, Marcie "Hot Dog Water" Fleach.[22]

In December 2020, Amy Friedman, head of programming for Cartoon Network and HBO Max Kids & Family, stated that they are looking "at ourselves across the inclusion and equity spectrum", including the LGBTQ+ community, to evaluate projects in production, development, and post-greenlighting.[23]

Challenges faced by creators

Creators of Cartoon Network series have occasionally talked about facing challenges. On May 18, 1996, Silver Spooner, the sidekick to Barbequor, appeared in an episode of Dexter's Laboratory titled "Dial M for Monkey: Barbequor". Both characters are parodies of Silver Surfer and Galactus. The episode was later banned; while some said this was because Silver Spooner was a stereotype of gay men, with complaints to that effect after it aired,[24][25][26] others said it had more to do with copyright infringement as the estate of Jack Kirby threatened to sue Cartoon Network over the parody character.[27][28] The episode was, in later broadcasts, and on its Season 1 DVD (Region 1), replaced with "Dexter's Lab: A Story", an episode from season two.[29]

Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe, was told by executives that the inclusion of a central queer romance could have ended her show.[30] At the time the wedding episode of Steven Universe was first drafted, gay marriage was not yet legal in most of the United States. Previously, the series was said to be a "strong champion...for LGBT representation" as was Adventure Time.[31]

In October 2014, Spencer Rothbell, a writer, head of storywriting,[32] and voice actor of multiple characters, for the show Clarence, said that they had to change a scene in the episode "Neighborhood Grill", which showed two gay characters after pushback from Cartoon Network executives.[33][34] According to Rothbell, the original scene showed the two characters kissing on the lips, noting that "originally the guy had flowers and they kissed on the mouth." Later he lamented that the scene in the episode is "better than nothing", adding that "maybe one day the main character can be gay and it won't be a big deal."

In the summer of 2018, Steven Universe would make headlines with a gay wedding between two characters: Ruby and Sapphire, challenging Cartoon Network's history of "not overtly depicting same-sex marriage"[35] as Sugar struggled to get any LGBTQ+ representation on the show, with the network ultimately accepting her reasoning.[36][37] When she originally pitched the Steven Universe episode with a lesbian wedding, "Reunited", she encountered challenges presenting it to the Cartoon Network. Sugar was able to convince network officers that the wedding was organic to the show's development and a natural progression of Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. When the wedding episode (a double episode titled "Reunited") aired in 2018, network policy progressed. Scorcher noted that it became standard policy for the network to treat homosexual relationships like heterosexual relationships.[35]

The episode, "Reunited", which aired on July 6, which she and the crew had worked on for years,[38] was praised as an example of the network's frank portrayal of "sexuality and gender identity in children's programming", and it was positively received by the LGBTQ+ community and fans.[39][40][41] This episode made Steven Universe the first kid's show on U.S. television to feature a lesbian wedding.[42] The creator of Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch, believed that because of this episode, it meant that Sugar was moving everyone in kid's programming forward in terms of LGBTQ+ representation. ND Stevenson praised the episode as "bold and courageous", serving as a moment which "knocked down so many walls" for other storytellers.[43][40]

In September 2018, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline kissed in the Adventure Time finale, "Come Along with Me". However, the kiss was not scripted, as showrunner Adam Muto admitted. It was only added after a storyboard artist, Hanna K. Nyström, advocated for it.[44][45] Previously, some of those behind the show played down the relationship. Some reviewers had hoped that "queer cartoon subtext" turns into "a queer cartoon subplot" or even a main plot in the future, and pointed to the Adventure Time Presents Marceline and the Scream Queens comic, created as part of the franchise, as fleshing out this relationship.[46][47]

In March 2020, Rob Sorcher, chief content officer at Cartoon Network, spoke about the factors that go into content decisions for storylines. One important factor to consider was that Steven Universe aired in nearly 200 countries that had culturally conservative audiences. A common challenge when designing kids' animations and cartoons is considering conservative and religious audiences who will often vocalize backlash on non-traditional storylines. Sorcher explained, "On a personal level, as a gay executive, I was taking extra pains to be sure that inside my company, I'm being completely neutral – really listening to all the business issues going on around the world," Sorcher says. "And that there's not the optics of me coming in with an 'agenda' to drive through the content."[35]