Representation of queer sexualities and identities in entertainment and media has come a long way in recent decades: the majority of new scripted television series that are released nowadays have at least one queer main character, and we see more positive and normalized portrayals of queer relationships. With this greater amount of representation, though, I have come to notice an intriguing and slightly questionable trend in how some of these people and love stories are depicted in TV shows: putting them in new relationships almost instantaneously.
Throughout the past couple of years, I have observed that the storylines of many queer characters in TV series often immediately revolve around their dating life, more specifically their swift discovery of another character whom they are attracted to and eventually with whom they form a romantic relationship. I consider this illustration with how heterosexual characters are portrayed: they go through a mix of stories centered around not just romance but also workplaces, friends, cultures, and numerous other topics; and during those plotlines that are not love- or sex-centric, those straight characters have an equal chance of being either romantically involved with someone or totally single. A lot of queer characters, on the other hand, often find themselves written quite quickly into relationships, as if it needs to be made very clear right away that such characters are queer and their sexual orientations are one of their most important characteristics. While these queer characters do still get other non-romantic storylines, the presence of their relationships is still very prevalent throughout and tends to be a heavy driver behind their actions and decisions and the events that happen to them.
The most recent example of this pattern that I have witnessed is the relationship between supporting characters Fabiola and Eve on the teen-comedy series Never Have I Ever. In the show’s first season, high-school sophomore Fabiola comes to realize that she is a lesbian after discovering a newfound attraction to classmate Eve, and they eventually start dating and have a steady relationship throughout the second season. Of course, this is a perfectly valid trajectory, becoming aware of one’s sexuality through their attraction to a friend—but it’s also quite convenient for the plot when this acquaintance happens to also be gay, and also feels a mutual attraction, and also then agrees to be in a serious relationship with them. Outside of her sexuality, Fabiola’s character is most defined by her passion for robotics, but the majority of her actual storylines revolve around her newfound path as a lesbian.
Worth mentioning is the fact that Fabiola is the only main character in Never Have I Ever who is not straight, and other instances of queer characters landing in instantaneous relationships see the characters involved being the token gay cast members of their shows, as if to, once more, make their sexualities very clear right away. In the Spanish drama Élite, high schoolers Ander and Omar date each other—mostly monogamously, with a hiccup here and there—throughout four seasons. Again, there is nothing particularly wrong with depicting two characters who meet and fall in love; but there is a noticeable contrast between these two gay people existing in a romance throughout the majority of the series and most of the other mostly heterosexual characters who experience multiple relationships and hook-ups with different people. Then, in the procedural drama 9-1-1: Lone Star, firefighters Owen and his son T.K., who is gay, relocate to Texas, where T.K. meets policeman Carlos, the one other gay person in the cast, and they fall into a serious relationship for almost the entire three seasons of the show. While I am not as familiar with this series, it has been made evident to me that T.K. and Carlos’s love story is a very large aspect of the narrative, despite the show’s main focus being these rescue workers’ jobs.
But all of these examples beg the question: is this ongoing depiction of gay love necessarily a bad thing? I still insinuate that most of these queer character arcs are too fundamental—it comes across like TV writers don’t know how to depict gay people outside of putting them in storylines about gay relationships—but in this current era, should we be complaining at all? Because it is one thing to depict queer people simply existing as individual human beings, and it is another, probably much more significant, to show them in relationships with other queer people—and in this present time when many people in society still view gay relationships as wrong, it is universally important to simply show these relationships as normal and beautiful. And of course, examples of gay characters that aren’t always in monogamous romances also exist: I think about Travis the firefighter in Station 19, who dates a man in season 1 but breaks up with him and goes on to have a few flings and romances throughout the next few seasons; or David in Schitt’s Creek, who goes through a mildly messy string of casual connections before only truly getting a boyfriend in season 4. So perhaps there is more variety in queer characterizations in the media than I am being totally considerate of. While there are some ways that gay characterizations can be improved, we are fortunate to be in a time when gay characterizations can exist as much as they do now, with as much acceptance and appreciation as they get now, despite still backlash against general ideas about homosexuality and queer identities in our real society. Let us hope that queer representation in movies and TV still only goes in a positive direction in the future.