LGBTQ representation in animated web series

A fan, cosplaying as Plum, a bisexual character from the animated series Bravest Warriors, in April 2015

In 2006, Lizzy the Lezzy premiered on Myspace[2] included LGBTQ+ characters like Lizzy, a lesbian. The show would later air on YouTube.

In January 2013, Plum, a bisexual character, would appear in the animated show, Bravest Warriors, a show which aired on Cartoon Hangover's YouTube channel. The show was made by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and featuring Ian Jones-Quartey, who voiced the character, Wallow, while he directed his own show, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes which featured multiple LGBTQ+ characters. Although Plum had a crush on Chris, kissing him multiple times during the show, she is also madly in love with her doppleganger as shown in the comics[3] and kisses Peach in another comic.[4] Furthermore, on numerous occasions, she has identified as bisexual, confirmed by Kate Leth, who wrote all three volumes of the Bravest Warriors comic, writing "Plum is bi and it's canon and I'm proud of her."[5] A few years later, Nico Colaleo's animated web series, Too Loud, the first season which ran from July to August 2017, and the second season which aired from September to November 2019, includes a LGBTQ character. In the episode "Slumber Party Sneak-In," Desiree plots with her sister, Sara, to dress up as a girl in order to go to a slumber party. The rest of the girls find this out, the console her, accepting, and deciding they like her no matter whether she is a trans girl named Desiree or as a closeted boy.[6] In September 2019, Colaleo later called the episode important, described it as his favorite episode of the show's second season, and a "pro-transgender episode."[7][lower-alpha 1] Molly and Rachael were also confirmed by Colaleo to be a lesbian couple.[8][lower-alpha 2]

In October 2019, Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano released an animated production with LGBTQ+ characters. The first of these productions was Hazbin Hotel which introduced a gay pornstar named Angel Dust, a bisexual character named Charlie, a lesbian character named Vaggie, and an asexual character named Alastor.[9][10][11] According to one of the animators of Hazbin Hotel, Faustisse, Husk is pansexual.[12] In the stream she said "every hole is a goal" and when someone asked if Husk is pansexual she repeated the same thing. In February 2020, My Pride: The Series premiered, following a "queer, disabled lioness" named Nothing who is trying to heal the world.[13] The series creator, Madeleine Patton, stated that it is important to tell diverse stories, and notes that the story deals with "ableism, queerness, feminism, womanhood and also, of course, lions."[14] The mate of Nothing is Hover, formerly named Longrun, as indicated in episode 7, "Hover," in September 2020. On August 7, it was announced that A24 had picked up Hazbin Hotel as a full television series, but any information related to its production or release date remains unknown.[15] The same day, Matt Braly, the creator of Amphibia offered his support, calling it a "fantastic fucking step forward" and "great."[16] As turns out, Medrano worked as a character designer on the two seasons of Too Loud, and Ashley Nichols, an animator for Hazbin Hotel worked on animated web series as well.[lower-alpha 3]

In October 2020, it was announced that a full season of Helluva Boss, an animated web series which is in the same universe as Hazbin Hotel, would be released in fall 2021 on the YouTube channel of series creator Vivienne Medrano.[17] Helluva Boss has various LGBTQ characters, specifically a bisexual demon named Moxxie,[18] and a pansexual demon named Blitzo.[19] Medrano also acted positively toward a fan who shared the idea of a sitcom set in an alternative universe where "Blitzo and Stolas are two single dads getting married" and explained that the season of Helluva Boss is being started in the fall, but the eight episodes of the first season won't drop at once, but over time.[20][21] Stolas is also presumably bisexual as he is married with a wife and a daughter, but also has sex with Blitzo. The previous month, Medrano had expressed support in shipping two male characters in an animated short featuring characters from a webcomic she worked on,[22] titled ZooPhobia, after Benjamin Diskin shipped them together.[23] In the show's third episode, Loona, the "adopted daughter" of Blitzo acts as a honey pot as she flirts with both men and women. This is indicated by the fact that she is seemingly interested in Verosika, Blitzo's ex-girlfriend, and appears to have a crush on a male Hellhound, who works for Verosika, named Vortex.[24]

Apart from the news about Helluva Boss in October 2020, there was another series which featured a LGBTQ character. In October 21, 2020, the Ollie & Scoops episode "Tutor Suitor," displayed an anxious Ms. Bellie Bivvins has a crush on a science teacher, Ms. Wendy Whippleworth.[25] In the episode, they both get together in the end, with the help of the series protagonists Ollie and Scoops. Series creator Nico Colaleo, who had created Too Loud a few years before, noted that in the episode, Bellie, wanted to tell "her crush how she feels" with butterflies from her tummy as the "physical manifestation of her anxiety" and praised fan art of Bellie and Wendy.[lower-alpha 4]

Rooster Teeth, a division of Otter Media, a subsidiary of WarnerMedia Entertainment, produced a number of shows with LGBTQ characters which aired on their site and on their affiliated YouTube channels. In the 2020s, there is the possibility that RWBY or other shows produced by Rooster Teeth will include LGBTQ storylines or characters. Some of the Rooster Teeth shows only had incidental representation, like Red vs. Blue. In the latter case, on October 2, 2016, Shannon McCormick, who voiced Agent Washington in Red vs. Blue, confirmed that Agent Ohio and "Vera" and Sherry were a lesbian couple in the show.[26] Another show, Nomad of Nowhere, released in 2018, was similar. It featured a lesbian protagonist named Skout, who had a crush on Captain Toth, her superior.[27] This crush has been officially confirmed.[28][29] In the show, Skout often tries to inspire confidence in her superior, she is often the voice of reason for Toth, who is a rule-oriented and may like Skout too,[30] despite the fact she is occasionally dismissive, causing fissures in their relationship. More significant was gen:LOCK, airing the same year as Nomad of Nowhere. In the fourth episode of the latter show, Val/entina Romanyszyn reveals they were genderfluid.[31] The creators of the show originally approached Tatiana Maslany to voice the part, because she voiced lesbian and trans characters in Orphan Black. However, Maslany told them that "trans actors should play trans parts." Due to her decision and encouragement to look for trans actors, leading Rooster Teeth to bring in Asia Kate Dillon instead, to voice Val.[32]

A cosplayer, in July 2017, known as accentkisses dressed as Yang Xiao Long of RWBY with a replica of Yang's distinctive motorcycle, which is what the Blake/Yang ship is named after

One show had more LGBTQ representation than the others: RWBY. On September 4, 2014, the episode "Burning the Candle" was posted on YouTube, with some fans citing as the first episode which ships of Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, commonly known as Bumbleby. Fans and reviewers pointed to growing friendship between Blake and Yang, as they work to understand each other better in the show's first two seasons even though they don't immediately hit it off.[33][34][35] In later seasons of the show, Blake and Yang try to confront Blake's abusive ex-boyfriend and villain, Adam Taurus, leaving them both traumatized and injured, an experience which strongly bonds them together.[36][35] In the show's sixth season, Yang and Blake work together with precision to kill Adam, binding them together more than before,[37][38] with the relationship between Yang and Blake "has been strongly hinted."[39] After the battle their foreheads touch[39] and they share a tender moment.[40] In the show's next season, some of the episodes included Yang/Blake romantic undertones. For example, Yang tries to compliment Blake on her new haircut in the November 16th episode "Ace Operatives."[41] Apart from this, in December 2019, Kaila Hale-Stern of the The Mary Sue described the Blake/Yang "Bumbleby" ship in RWBY as one of the most popular fandom ships on Tumblr.[42] This allayed past shipping wars involving RWBY, which took place between those that shipped Sun and Blake (BlackSun), and Bumbleby (Blake and Yang).[43]

Blake and Yang were not alone in RWBY in terms of representation. In a December 2017 episode, "Alone Together," Ilia Amitola confessed her feelings for Blake, her former-current-best friend. However, it wasn't until a 2018 Reddit AMA that Miles Luna, a showrunner, confirmed the sexuality of Ilia as lesbian.[44] Then, in December 2018, the seventh episode of the show's Volume 6, "The Grimm Reaper", featured a lesbian couple, Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc, who have a son named Adrian, with all three making their debut in the seventh episode of Volume 6, "The Grimm Reaper."[45] The couple helps the show's protagonists, letting them stay at their house, and are featured in other episodes during Volume 6.[46]

The following year, in December 2019, Kdin Jenzen, the voice actor for May Marigold, confirmed that her character was a trans woman and the first trans character in RWBY.[47] "I think my favorite part of May Marigold's story, overall, is that she found herself before she found herself," Jenzen, who is a trans woman herself, told CBR the following month. "It's the truest part of what helped me resonate so personally with her character. May's choice of the people who needed her over the privilege she was born into, brought on by self-reflection, helped her be who she was always meant to be. While the themes go so perfectly hand-in-hand with self-discovery and that realization, RWBY's handling of it all really stood out to me compared to how most other shows/movies/etc. handle these moments."[48]

On May 8, 2020, Amanda Bruce talked about five of the best and five of the worst relationships in RWBY, noting that even though there is a continuing debate among fans if Yang and Blake are couple, she stated that "it’s fair to say they’re a couple until the show says otherwise."'[49] Later that month, on May 24, the voice actress for Blake Beladonna in RWBY, Arryn Zech, confirmed that Blake is bisexual, with the other cast members concurring with her assessment.[50] Apart from the fact she gets along with Yang, her teammate, she previously had a relationship with the abusive Adam Taurus,[51] which Ilia implied as romantic in the episode "Alone Together" even though these feelings have since faded away.[lower-alpha 5] Then, on July 11, 2020, on an episode of the podcast Talk CRWBY to Me, Miles Luna revealed writer Kiersi Burkhart originally joined Rooster Teeth to work on Season 2 of Nomad of Nowhere and the process went "pretty far along," but production was halted when it was decided continuing the series at the time was not advisable.[52] The timing of Season 2 pausing production, and Burkhart's subsequent move to RWBY Volume 7, suggests the controversy surrounding Gray Haddock and Georden Whitman's outspoken criticism of Rooster Teeth influenced the decision. It is not known if the series will be continued in the future. On September 21, 2020, Yssa Badiola of Recorded by Arizal hosted a RTX panel with Christine Marie Cabanos, Joshua Kazemi, and Kdin Jenzen, the latter who moderated.[53] Toward the end of the panel, Jenzen asked about LGBTQ characters in the show. Badiola said that if there was a full season, while Arizal's sexuality (and gender) would be explored, and that there were a "lot" of LGBTQ characters in a "show proper" they originally pitched.[54] On September 26, it was confirmed that gen:LOCK, which featured a genderfluid character, Val, would be returning for a second season.[55] On December 26, 2020, Kdin Jenzen, the voice actor for May Marigold, talked about confirmation of May as trans on screen in the December 19, 2020 episode "War", the eighth episode of Volume 8 of RWBY. She added that she never saw anything like this and only dreamed of "something so wildly powerful & meaningful existing in media," how she was crying while "delivering the lines" for it, and said the scene in the episode was everything she "dreamed of seeing."[56][57] She also said that the amount of support for a trans character like May blows her mind and noted that May is the first "onscreen trans character" confirmed for RWBY.[lower-alpha 6]

• List of yuri anime and manga
• List of LGBT-related films by year
• Cross-dressing in film and television
• List of yuri works
• List of animated series with crossdressing characters
• List of anime by release date (1946–1959)
• List of animated films with LGBT characters