Did ‘Bluey’ introduce its first gay couple? The history of LGBTQ+ representation in animated series (2024)

The beloved Australian animated series, "Bluey," has taught our children "loads" of things, as Bluey's dad would say.

It taught kids how to be patient, how to fail and try again and how to "run your own race."

The show may have also taught viewers about the many types of family structures in a recent episode called "The Sign."

In a brief and otherwise ordinary moment, a character named Pretzel seemed to say, "When my guinea pig ran away, my mums told me he might come back. But he didn't."

Did the show intend for Pretzel to have two mothers? It's hard to say, especially since U.S. closed captioning on Disney+ shows the line as, "My mom's told me he might come back." (Curiously, the U.S. translation is grammatically incorrect.) We've reached out to Disney for confirmation but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

"Even though these current moments of inclusion can be incredibly brief, they can still sometimes be enough to make kids and families feel represented on the shows they love, which is important," says Polly Conway,senior editor, and head of TV and streaming at Common Sense Media.

"For LBGTQ+ kids, seeing themselves represented affirms their presence in society and validates theirlived experiences," therapist Colette Browntells TODAY.com. For non-LGBTQ+ youth, seeing representation onscreen may make them more empathetic.

"A kid seeing a character with two moms creates an environment of acceptance and safety — and what can be wrong with helping a kid feel accepted and validated, and also, modeling kindness and community?”

"What's up, doc?"

"In the old days, LGBTQ representations were coded or suggested. You could identify them if you're paying attention and reading between the lines," Robert Thompson, founding director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture tells TODAY.com.

One of the first "coded" characters is none other than Bugs Bunny, Thompson says. Introduced in 1940, he often wore women's clothing and kissed male characters, like Elmer Fudd, on the lips. "This was always done, though, for the purposes of comedy, humiliation and that kind of thing."

"SuperTed," a cartoon series about a superhero teddy bear, featured a campy skeleton who wore pink slippers. The series ran from 1983 to 1986, but it wasn't until years after it ended that creator Mike Young revealed Skeleton's true identity.

In 2014, Young told Radio Times that his show had "a gun-slinging cowboy, a flamboyantly gay skeleton and a fat guy who had jokes made about his weight,” adding, "all these things you just wouldn’t do today."

What happened between the 1983 and 2014? A lot.

Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004. Ellen DeGeneres came out in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1997. And, of course, primetime NBC show "Will & Grace" featured two characters sharing an onscreen kiss outside the TODAY studio in 2000.

As politics and adult-focused entertainment began to shift, so did kids' programming.

New century, (some) new ideas

The path to slightly increased nuance and understanding in entertainment didn't run smoothly, however. There were some major hiccups along the way, including two in 2005 that stand out.

There was a public outcry when SpongeBob Squarepants held hands with buddy Patrick Star (creator Stephen Hillenberg responded that he is not gay but "almost asexual"), and the PBS series "Postcards from Buster" featured a same-sex couple, earning a stern warning letter from the secretary of education (The Washington Post reported that the letter read: “many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode”).

"In the early years of the new century, you can see why we didn't see a lot of these representations," Thompson explains. "Because when we did, even in very understated kinds of ways, there was controversy."

Some animated series aimed at slightly older children — like "The Legend of Korra," "Adventure Time" and "Steven Universe" — began introducing LGBTQ+ plotlines with what Thompson calls "mitigation techniques" roughly 10 years ago. Two characters may have held hands or walked off into the sunset ... but not until the finale, and viewers didn't get to see what happens next in their relationship.

Enter the world of streaming

When we were mainly watching cable television, there was a bigger chance that kids would all be watching the same shows. But with the "added real estate of streaming services, television isn't as mainstream as it used to be," says Thompson.

It can feel less risky for a streaming service to take a chance on diverse characters than it would for a cable show. Even so, there was unrest over the cancellation of "Ripley Jones" on Netflix in 2023 after Fred the bison told their grandmother (voiced by Cyndi Lauper) that they’ve changed their name and pronouns.

We don't know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but Chris Nee, the show's prolific creator wrote on X: "Doesn’t surprise me that Netflix has quietly dumped the first preschool show that has a nonbinary character coming out."

Today, the "Paw Patrol" spinoff, "Rubble & Crew" on Nick Jr., has a nonbinary character named River, Disney Jr.'s "Doc McStuffins" shows an interracial lesbian couple named Thea and Edie, and "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic," streaming on Netflix, has five different LGBTQ+ characters.

Children's shows are especially problematic in terms of representation, Thompson says, because you not only have to appeal to the intended viewer, you also have to appeal to the gatekeeper: the parent.

Thompson notes that there may still be an ongoing struggle between adults who think kids' shows should accurately reflect the world we live in and those who "think kid shows should erase all kinds of things about the world we live in, including the existence and the very identity of many of our fellow citizens."

Conway agrees we're slowly moving in a positive direction.

"There are more and more LGBTQ+ characters in kids’ animation all the time, and the breadth of their experiences are being shown in respectful and thoughtful ways," she says.