18 Milestone LGBTQ+ Moments in TV History: ‘Dawson’s Creek,’ ‘All My Children’ & More
While Pride Month is typically when networks and streamers drop their new LGBTQ+ content, the television milestones have never been confined to a single month.
From family sitcoms to soap operas to teen dramas, major strides have been made in LGBTQ+ representation on TV, even if it took 50 years to do it. So what were those big leaps forward? Below is a trip through TV history, though it doesn’t include every milestone met because the list has never been longer than it is today.
First Transgender Actress to Win a Golden Globe: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (2022)
No mother has ever mothered harder as Blanca Evangelista in FX’s Pose, and the Television Academy could no longer ignore it in 2021 when Michaela Jaé Rodriguez became the first transgender person to earn a nomination in a major acting category at the Primetime Emmys. She then made history once again by becoming the first openly transgender performer to win a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series –Drama. The 2022 Golden Globes weren’t televised, but Rodriguez earned a standing ovation for her win during the 2023 ceremony.
Blanca was the heart and soul of a show built on found family, and Rodriquez’s performance across its three seasons was deserving of a revolutionary spot in the history books.
First Openly Gay Black Man to Win a Lead Actor Emmy: Billy Porter (2019)
Billy Porter’s towering performance as ballroom MC Pray Tell was one of the many pleasures of FX’s pioneering drama series Pose about New York City’s ballroom culture, led by a predominately transgender cast. Porter’s Best Leading Actor in a Drama Series win in 2019 solidified not only his work in the series, but proved that LGBTQ+ performers were more than deserving of recognition of the highest order—10s, 10s, 10s across the board!
First Black Lesbian Superhero: Black Lightning (2019)
TV’s first Black lesbian superhero was more than just her crime-fighting alter ego, Thunder (and later Blackbird). Anissa Pierce (played by Nafessa Williams) was a medical student and a high school teacher. She was saving lives in more ways than one as the meta-human daughter of Black Lightning himself, and she did it without compromising one atom of who she was and who she loved.
First Openly Gay Character on Disney Channel: Andi Mack (2019)
It was never going to be easy to get substantial queer representation on the Disney Channel, but Andi Mack proved it wasn’t impossible. In the Season 3 episode “One in a Minyan,” Cyrus Goodman (Joshua Rush), the best friend of the title character, came out to his friends. By the end of the series, Cyrus was holding hands with TJ (Luke Mullen), the captain of the middle school basketball team.
First Gender Non-Binary Character on TV: Billions (2017)
Asia Kate Dillon made history as the first non-binary actor ever cast in a major television series when they joined Showtime’s hedge-fund holy war series in Season 2. Dillon played Taylor Mason, a rising financial analyst (also identifying as non-binary) whose talent makes them an asset and a target in equal measure. Dillon was a series regular for the last five seasons.
First Openly Transgender Actor To Be Nominated For An Acting Emmy: Laverne Cox (2014)
By the time Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix in 2013, it felt like a certainty that Laverne Cox would be nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards for her role as hairdresser Sophia Burset. That shouldn’t diminish the moment though. In a series full of big personalities and breakthrough performances, Cox’s honest portrayal of an transgender person, let alone someone trying to survive in prison, was undeniable and earned her a total of four nominations.
First Openly Transgender Actress Playing a Transgender Role: Candis Cayne, Dirty Sexy Money (2007)
Candis Cayne is known for playing the Fairy Queen in Syfy’s The Magicians and she has been a long-time collaborator of RuPaul Charles, making several appearances on RuPaul’s Drag Race. But Cayne made history in 2007 when she played Carmelita Rainer, a transgender woman having an affair with New York Attorney General Patrick Darling (William Baldwin) on ABC’s family dynasty drama. It was a groundbreaking TV first to have Cayne, a transgender woman, playing a transgender character on a primetime drama.
First Transgender Character on Daytime Television: All My Children (2006)
Zoe Luper (Jeffrey Carlson), initially introduced to audiences of ABC’s All My Children as a rock star named Zarf, was not the first transgender person on television. But they were the first storyline to depict the male-to-female transition of a character in daytime television. Whereas a few post-surgical characters had been represented by 2006, following a character through their coming out and transition over the course of nearly 60 episodes was another trailblazing period for the soap.
First Gay Kiss on TV: Dawson's Creek
While two women locked lips first on TV, one of the most well-known queer firsts on TV came when Jack (Kerr Smith) kissed his crush Ethan (Adam Kaufman) in the Season 3 finale of The WB’s landmark teen drama. It’s a tale as old as time: a “straight” boy falls for an openly gay college stud, and he can’t help but act on his feelings — even if Ethan had a boyfriend. The response to the kiss was seismic, and it is considered to be one of the most important leaps forward for representation in the 21st century.
First Leading Character to Come Out on TV: Ellen (1997)
One of the most controversial and talked-about episodes in television history is written into the history books under the title “The Puppy Episode.” It was the codename for the long-rumored episode of ABC’s sitcom Ellen, when lead actress Ellen DeGeneres’ character Ellen Morgan came out as a lesbian. With an assist from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Laura Dern, k.d. lang, Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore and Melissa Etheridge, millions of Americans watched as DeGeneres herself came out in a daring confession accidentally broadcast across an airport terminal. The coming out of a lead character was met with enough pushback that the series was eventually canceled, but the moment stands as a defining cultural touchstone for the power of a great episode of TV.
First Openly Gay Actor to Play an Openly Gay Character: Wilson Cruz, My So-Called Life (1994)
For a generation of queer people and beyond, Rickie Vasquez walking the halls of Liberty High School in all his glory—and in spite of homophobia within his own family—was one of the first, if not the first, time they saw themselves on TV. Wilson Cruz being an out gay man playing this incredibly proud, trailblazing role was just an extra bonus for the history books.
First Ever Same-Sex Commitment Ceremony on TV: The Real World: San Francisco (1994)
Pedro Zamora’s importance to queer representation on television cannot be overstated. As a gay man living with HIV in the public eye in the third season of MTV’s reality hit, Zamora was subjected to the nation’s prejudices throughout his time on the show. But that didn’t stop him from speaking openly about his life and his struggles. In the November 9, 1994, episode titled “Love Rules,” Zamora exchanged vows with his partner Sean Sasser in a moving commitment ceremony. It was the first real same-sex commitment ceremony ever aired on TV. As for fictional same-sex commitment ceremonies, the first came a few years earlier in 1991 on FOX’s sitcom Roc, when Richard Roundtree’s character, Russell, exchanged vows with his partner in front of friends and family.
First Openly Gay Teen Character on Daytime TV: One Life to Live (1992)
Ryan Phillippe‘s arrival as Billy Douglas in Llanview and the world of the Lord family helped broaden queer representation away from the tropes of estranged family members or random supporting characters. Seeing a teenager come to terms with and live openly with their sexuality over the course of several years was groundbreaking, even if it was short-lived. Billy would go to college at Yale the following year, make one more brief appearance, and then disappear from the show.
First Same-Sex Kiss: L.A. Law (1991)
Late-night law work led to a kiss between Abby Perkins (Michele Greene) and C. J. Lamb (Amanda Donohoe), in an episode written by future creative force David E. Kelley. This wasn’t a loving embrace by any means though, and launched a trend known as the “lesbian kiss episode,” when a lesbian or bisexual character kisses a straight character, but the attraction never goes anywhere. In the case of L.A. Law, C.J described her sexuality as “flexible” while Abby was a straight woman. And you guessed it, nothing came of it but a little bit of history. In another bit of irony, the episode’s title, “He’s A Crowd,” couldn’t be less interested in acknowledging its place in TV history.
First Openly Gay Character on an American Soap Opera: All My Children (1983)
Soap operas have never shied away from storylines that test the boundaries of social norms and logic, so it makes sense that All My Children would test the waters of queer representation with the introduction of psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Carson (Donna Pescow), who was a lesbian. Brought in to counsel recent divorcee Devon McFadden (Tricia Pursley), Carson eventually found herself the subject of her patient’s unexpected (and unrequited) crush.
First Gay Lead Character on Primetime TV: Love, Sidney (1981)
While technically the first instance of a gay character leading a TV series, NBC’s Love, Sidney did not do its place in history justice. Following a gay man named Sidney (Tony Randall) and his relationship with a single mother and her young daughter, the series ran through 1983 without acknowledging its leading man’s sexuality beyond already veiled references in its two-hour TV movie/pilot.
First Openly Gay Person on a Reality TV Show: An American Family (1973)
PBS’ An American Family was the first reality show, documenting the daily lives of the upper-class Loud family in Santa Barbara as they weathered the realities of life, including divorce, growing up, and the changing attitudes of America. During the 12-hour series, the oldest son, Lance, came out to his family, becoming what is believed to be the first openly gay person on TV. After Lance’s death in 2001, the family reconvened for a special titled Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family, billed as the final episode of the series.
First Gay Character on Television: All in the Family (1971)
A random Tuesday night in February 1971 played host to a revolutionary moment when Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), the grouchy patriarch of All in the Family, found out his drinking buddy Steve (played by Philip Carey), a football player and all-around epitome of masculinity, was actually gay. It seems low-key now, but the “Judging Books by Covers” episode of this classic sitcom drew national attention and broke down a barrier too long in the making.
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