LGBTQ+ Media Representation: Then vs. Now in 2026

Q: What was the first major TV show to centre a queer character?

It's debated, but Ellen's 1997 "Puppy Episode" is the most-cited US milestone, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian both on her sitcom and in real life on the same week, in front of 42 million viewers. Will & Grace followed in 1998 as the first long-running US sitcom centring gay leads. The UK's Queer as Folk (1999) was earlier in featuring queer characters as the show's full focus.

by Delwin Tan July 24, 2022

The short version

LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream media has gone from forbidden (under the Hays Code through 1968) to coded and tragic (1970s-80s) to "first major gay sitcom" milestones (1990s) to genuinely diverse and joyful queer storytelling (2020s).
Major 2020s shows that have shaped current representation include Heartstopper, Our Flag Means Death, Sex Education, Pose, Schitt's Creek, Yellowjackets, and The Last of Us.
According to GLAAD's "Where We Are on TV" reports, the percentage of LGBTQ+ regular characters on US broadcast TV has grown from under 2% in 2005 to roughly 12% in recent reports.
Persistent gaps: trans rep is still mostly white; bisexual / pansexual rep often gets erased on-screen; asexual and aromantic rep remains very rare; older queer characters and disabled queer characters are underrepresented.
Representation matters because it shapes both how queer people see themselves and how the broader public understands LGBTQ+ communities. Better media leads to measurably better outcomes for queer youth, per The Trevor Project research.

We're Delwin and Jimmy, co-founders of Proud Zebra, a queer-owned Canadian small business designing pride pins and accessories from the Lower Mainland, BC. We grew up in different decades of LGBTQ+ media representation, and the shift between then and now is one of the more visible cultural changes of our lifetimes. This post walks through the history of queer representation in media, what the portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters in TV and film looks like now, and where we still have ground to cover.

It's part of our complete guide to LGBTQ+ pride flags, and it pairs well with our 10 LGBTQ+ misconceptions debunked piece for context on how media shapes public understanding.

How has LGBTQ+ media representation evolved?

Quick decade-by-decade summary:

Era	Dominant pattern	Notable examples
Pre-1968	Hays Code explicitly forbade "sex perversion." Queer characters appeared only as coded subtext, villains, or cautionary figures.	The Children's Hour (1961), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
1970s-80s	Visible but tragic. AIDS crisis dominated representation. Characters often punished, killed, or framed as warnings.	The Boys in the Band (1970), Making Love (1982), Longtime Companion (1989)
1990s-2000s	"First major gay sitcom" milestones. Coming-out narratives dominate. Still mostly white, mostly cis, mostly about struggle.	Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, The L Word, Brokeback Mountain, Ellen DeGeneres's 1997 coming-out episode
2010s	Substantial expansion. Trans characters played by trans actors. Queer characters of colour increase. Stories beyond coming-out emerge.	Pose, Orange Is the New Black, Schitt's Creek, Sense8, Modern Family, Killing Eve
2020s	Joyful queer narratives, expanded identities visible, less trauma-centred storytelling.	Heartstopper, Our Flag Means Death, Sex Education, Yellowjackets, The Last of Us, Bottoms, A League of Their Own

What did pre-2000s LGBTQ+ representation look like?

For most of the 20th century, queer characters in mainstream Western media were either invisible or punished. The Motion Picture Production Code (the Hays Code) explicitly forbade "sex perversion" in films from 1934 to 1968, which kept queer characters off the big screen except as coded subtext (think femme-coded villains, suggestive friendships) or cautionary figures who ended up dead, alone, or "cured."

The "Bury Your Gays" trope (the pattern of queer characters dying to advance straight characters' arcs) traces back to this era. It persisted long after the Hays Code ended, and queer audiences were trained to expect tragedy whenever a queer character appeared on screen.

The 1970s and 1980s brought visibility but at high cost. The AIDS crisis dominated queer storytelling: films like Longtime Companion (1989) were among the first mainstream films to humanize gay men, but the lens was almost always grief. Will Smith's character in Six Degrees of Separation (1993) marked one of the first Black gay characters in a major studio film.

The 1990s shifted the conversation. Ellen DeGeneres came out on her own sitcom in April 1997 (the "Puppy Episode") in front of 42 million viewers. Will & Grace launched in 1998 and ran successfully for years, demonstrating that queer-led shows could be commercially viable. Queer as Folk (UK 1999, US 2000) showed queer characters as full sexual and emotional adults rather than tragic figures.

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What did 2010s representation change?

The 2010s brought a generational shift. Three things happened simultaneously: streaming platforms made niche shows commercially viable, social media amplified queer audiences who could organize around representation demands, and a new generation of queer creators entered positions of decision-making power.

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Major 2010s milestones included:

Trans actors in trans roles became the expectation rather than the exception. Laverne Cox's role as Sophia Burset in Orange Is the New Black (2013) was a watershed moment. Pose (2018-2021) cast multiple Black and Latine trans women in lead roles.
Queer characters without coming-out plots became more common. Schitt's Creek's David Rose was pansexual in a world without homophobia, a deliberate creative choice by Dan Levy.
Diverse queer cast ensembles showed up in Sense8, Modern Family, The Fosters, and others.
Animated representation opened up via shows like Steven Universe (2013-2019) and The Owl House (2020-2023).
Queer characters of colour received more dedicated screen time, though still proportionally underrepresented.
Openly queer actors and celebrities became a much larger share of who plays queer roles. Elliot Page, Hunter Schafer, Kristen Stewart, Janelle Monae, and Lil Nas X are a few of the most-visible out celebrities whose work and public lives have shaped the cultural conversation around LGBTQ+ representation. For broader-spectrum identities like pansexual and omnisexual, on-screen examples remain rarer than gay or lesbian rep, which is partly why public celebrity examples carry so much weight.

What does 2020s representation look like in 2026?

The 2020s have been, by most measures, the strongest decade for LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream media to date. A few defining features of the current era:

Joy-centred queer storytelling. Heartstopper (Netflix, 2022 onward) and Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max, 2022-2023) both deliberately rejected trauma-as-default. Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman has spoken explicitly about wanting to give queer teenagers stories that aren't about pain.

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Asexual and aromantic visibility (still limited, but growing). Todd Chavez in BoJack Horseman remains one of the most prominent ace characters; more recent shows have started including asexual and aromantic characters by name rather than just by implication.

Queer characters in mainstream prestige drama. The Last of Us's "Long, Long Time" episode (Bill and Frank, 2023) was widely considered one of the best episodes of television that year. Yellowjackets features queer characters across multiple timelines without their queerness being the central plot driver.

Reality TV mainstream queer presence. RuPaul's Drag Race has expanded into an international franchise. Queer Eye continues. Dating shows include queer cast members more frequently.

"A beautiful lanyard that shows people that I am an ally."
Jai, on our inclusive pride lanyard

Customers tell us at our pride festival booth that they came out to themselves, in part, because they saw a version of their identity on screen. We design inclusive pride pins and accessories partly so that visibility moves off the screen and into daily life. For allyship context, see our straight ally guide; for 100%-of-profits-to-charity merch, browse our awareness pins collection. Browse the full pride pins collection for the complete range.

What gaps still exist in LGBTQ+ media representation?

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Even at the high water mark of LGBTQ+ visibility, the gaps are real and worth naming:

Trans representation is still mostly white. Trans women of colour, trans men, and non-binary characters are underrepresented relative to white trans women.
Bisexual and pansexual erasure on-screen. Bi and pan characters are often paired with same-gender or opposite-gender partners and then read as gay or straight by the show itself, erasing the explicit identity.
Asexual and aromantic visibility is very limited. Despite some recent inclusion, ace and aro characters remain rare. The aspec community has a long way to go in mainstream media.
Older queer characters are rare. Most LGBTQ+ media skews young or focuses on coming-out narratives that age out queer characters past their 20s.
Disabled queer characters are very underrepresented. Intersecting identity is still mostly absent from mainstream queer storytelling.
Religious queer characters and working-class queer characters are routinely missing from a media culture that defaults to secular and middle-class settings.
Recent political climate has chilled some representation. Several US states' education-content restrictions and corporate retreats from explicit Pride marketing in 2024-2025 have led some networks to walk back planned LGBTQ+ programming.

Why does media representation matter?

This isn't just a cultural-criticism question. The Trevor Project's research has consistently shown that LGBTQ+ youth who see positive representation of their identity in media report measurably better mental health outcomes, including lower rates of suicidal ideation. Visibility translates to safety in concrete ways.

For non-queer viewers, media is also one of the primary places people learn about LGBTQ+ identities and lives. A trans character on a popular show can do more to soften misconceptions than a thousand explainer articles. The 10 LGBTQ+ misconceptions we debunk in our companion post are the same ones media has historically reinforced, and the same ones better media is now correcting.

Frequently asked questions

What was the first major TV show to centre a queer character?

It's debated, but Ellen's 1997 "Puppy Episode" is the most-cited US milestone, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian both on her sitcom and in real life on the same week, in front of 42 million viewers. Will & Grace followed in 1998 as the first long-running US sitcom centring gay leads. The UK's Queer as Folk (1999) was earlier in featuring queer characters as the show's full focus.

Has LGBTQ+ representation actually improved?

Yes, by most measures. GLAAD's annual "Where We Are on TV" reports show LGBTQ+ regular characters on US broadcast TV grew from under 2% in 2005 to roughly 12% in recent reports. The shift is also qualitative: queer characters today are more likely to have full storylines beyond coming-out arcs, more likely to be played by queer actors, and more likely to be drawn from across racial, gender, and identity lines.

What is the "Bury Your Gays" trope?

"Bury Your Gays" describes the long-running pattern of queer characters being killed off in television and film, often to advance straight characters' arcs or as a punishment for queerness. It dates to pre-1968 Hays Code-era media and persisted long after. The trope has been actively criticized by queer audiences and queer creators since at least the 2010s, and many recent shows deliberately reject it.

Which 2020s shows are best for LGBTQ+ representation?

The most-cited 2020s shows for strong LGBTQ+ representation include Heartstopper (UK queer teen romance), Our Flag Means Death (queer pirate romance), Sex Education (broad queer cast), Pose (Black and Latine trans women), Yellowjackets (queer characters across multiple timelines), Schitt's Creek (pansexual lead in a world without homophobia), The Last of Us (the Bill and Frank episode), and Bottoms (lesbian comedy). Each takes a different approach to queer storytelling.

What kinds of queer characters are still underrepresented?

Significant gaps remain for: trans people of colour, bi and pan people whose identity is explicitly named on-screen (rather than read away as gay or straight), asexual and aromantic characters, older queer characters, disabled queer characters, religious queer characters, and working-class queer characters. The intersections of multiple marginalized identities remain particularly underrepresented in mainstream media.

Are LGBTQ+ people overrepresented in media now?

Short answer: no, not by the numbers. GLAAD's most recent "Where We Are on TV" report puts LGBTQ+ regular characters at roughly 12% of broadcast TV regulars, which is in line with how many people in the general US population identify as LGBTQ+ (Gallup's 2024 polling puts that figure at about 7.6% overall and over 20% for Gen Z). The perception that "everything is gay now" usually reflects how much more visible queer characters are compared to even a decade ago, not actual overrepresentation. Most major franchises still default to straight and cisgender leads.

What did early LGBTQ+ portrayals in media look like?

For most of the 20th century, the portrayal of LGBTQ+ people in TV and film was either coded (subtext only) or punitive (queer characters as villains, tragic figures, or cautionary tales). The Hays Code from 1934 to 1968 explicitly banned depictions of "sex perversion," which kept queer characters off the big screen. Even after the code ended, the "Bury Your Gays" trope and AIDS-era tragedy framing meant most early queer characters didn't get to live full, happy lives on screen.

Where representation goes from here

Media representation tracks alongside, not ahead of, broader cultural acceptance. The fact that we're in a strong era for LGBTQ+ representation doesn't mean the work is done. Backlash periods (like the current rollback attempts on trans visibility in education and entertainment) show how quickly progress can stall.

The most useful thing audiences can do is keep showing up for the queer-led work that does get made: streaming the shows, buying the books, going to the films, recommending them to friends. Representation is partly a market signal, and the market responds to engagement. We've donated $10,219.58 CAD to LGBTQ+ organizations to date (lifetime, as of 2026-05-13), including Rainbow Refugee Society, Covenant House Vancouver, GLSEN, UNYA (Urban Native Youth Association), and BC pride societies. Sayoni was previously supported through our charity-pin partnership program (paused 2025+). See our donations page for the full breakdown. Every order helps that number grow.

Written by Delwin Tan, Co-Founder of Proud Zebra

Published 2026-05-06. Last updated 2026-05-06.

Delwin co-founded Proud Zebra with his partner Jimmy Cheang in late 2020. We're a queer-owned Canadian small business, designing pride pins, stickers, and accessories from the Lower Mainland, BC. We've donated over $10,219.58 CAD to LGBTQ+ organizations to date.