Top 50 LGBTQ TV Characters: The Honorable Mentions

Last week, we published our list of the 50 Most Important LGBTQ TV Characters of All-Time. After polling over 40 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender professionals working in and writing about television, we compiled everybody’s lists and assembled a top 50 that we think proudly represents the TV characters who stood out the most prominently over these last few decades of imperfect but steadily improving representation for queer characters on TV.

Assembling the list was a bit of a heartbreaker, though; watching beloved TV characters jump into and then fall out of the top 50 with every additional ballot counted was some of the toughest scoreboard-watching we’ve ever done. And while we feel like the right Top 50 was chosen, the runners-up were all more than worthy of inclusion and mention.

With that in mind, we thought we’d dedicate this post to the honorable mentions. The following characters ranked 51st through 70th on our combined ballot. They’re being presented here in alphabetical order as further examples of the deep complexity of the TV characters who have made an impact on LGBTQ audiences for decades.

Ali Pfefferman

Show: Transparent
Performer: Gaby Hoffmann
Episodes: 33 (2014 – present)

Ali’s sexual exploration hasn’t exactly been the most unselfish of journeys, but whose is, really? From her sweet, yearning moments with BFF Syd (Carrie Brownstein) to the shifting power dynamics with Leslie (Cherry Jones), Ali’s relationships have been a window into the varied and often fraught nature of gay relationships in all their complexity.

Big Boo

Show: Orange Is the New Black
Performer: Lea DeLaria
Episodes: 61 (2013 – present)

The unapologetic forthrightness of Boo’s gayness makes her one of the most fun to watch characters in Litchfield prison. Her refusal to accept anything less than that which is hers as a proud gay woman is inspirational, even if her skewed moral compass keeps landing her in trouble otherwise.

Billy Douglas

Show: One Life to Live
Performer: Ryan Phillippe
Episodes: 1992-1993

One Life to Live‘s gay teen storyline was a groundbreaker for American soaps, and Ryan Phillippe will always have the distinction of being daytime’s first gay teen. In the early ‘90s, when gay characters of any stripe were exceedingly rare, Billy’s story was a chance for gay youth (or more likely their parents) to see them represented.

Daryl Whitefeather

Show: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Performer: Pete Gardner
Episodes: 26 (2015 – present)

Daryl’s embrace of his own bisexuality gets celebrated in exactly the same way everything else on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gets celebrated: with lovingly goofy fanfare and a high production-value musical number. He also gets a massively hot boyfriend, which isn’t too bad either.

Ian Gallagher

Show: Shameless (U.S.)
Performer: Cameron Monaghan
Episodes: 84 (2011 – present)

In the midst of all the Gallagher scuzziness, Ian’s stands out not as a sainted gay nor as a martyred victim, but rather as a good-hearted but realistically troubled young character, rounded out and given great dimension by Monaghan’s performance. Ian and Mickey’s romance was easily the show’s strongest relationship, and Ian’s struggles with bipolar disorder have been poignant without being sappy, a good example that gay characters have so much else going on.

Jessie Sammler

Show: Once and Again
Performer: Evan Rachel Wood
Episodes: 56 (1999 – 2002)

Future movie star Evan Rachel Wood first caught the attention of critics and a too-small sliver of ABC’s audience with a third-season coming out story that saw her gingerly address her attraction to another girl (played by The O.C.‘s Mischa Barton).

Jude Adams-Foster

Show: The Fosters
Performer: Hayden Byerly
Episodes: 96 (2013 – present)

The Fosters managed to be careful without waffling in their depiction of tween Jude slowly realizing his feelings for another boy. Jude’s storyline was one of the most celebrated aspects of the show, broaching fairly new territory for television and in the process giving countless families and young gay kids something of a template for how to approach a generation of kids who are coming out earlier and earlier.

Kevin Walker

Show: Brothers & Sisters
Performer: Matthew Rhys
Episodes: 109 (2006 – 2011)

The achingly political Walker family could not be more trapped inside the George W. Bush era, with all that that implies. The politically fraught times — just after Bush was re-elected on a platform that included anti-gay-marriage amendments in several states — meant that gay Walker sibling Kevin was both politically strident and yet personally reticent, a combination that felt both frustrating and real.

Lexa

Show: The 100
Performer: Alycia Debnam-Carey
Episodes: 16 (2014 – 2016)

Commander Lexa was a huge fan-favorite, and her death was big news not only in genre-fiction circles but in LGBT circles. Did killing off Lexa to goose the drama contribute to the “Dead Lesbian” trope that’s plagued gay characters for so long? Or did it simply bring out the scores of fans who were deeply into her character?

Matt Fielding

Show: Melrose Place
Performer: Doug Savant
Episodes: 159 (1992 – 1997)

A landmark character among primetime network television shows, Matt was always a frustrating one for Melrose Place viewers looking for a little equal-opportunity salacious drama. Matt never got to engage in the bed-hopping, rival-slapping, head-scarring drama the way all the other characters did; when he did get to have his own story, it was cloistered away from everyone else (and often skittishly edited). But hoping for better for Matt (and bemoaning what we got) was almost a galvanizing experience in its own right, proving that LGBT viewers will make lemonade out of its cultural lemons time and again.

Maxxie Oliver

Show: Skins
Performer: Mitch Hewer
Episodes: 18 (2007 – 2008)

Original British Skins didn’t give us a whole lot of time with its characters, separating its episodes out by character. But the Maxxie episodes always stood out for being sensitive but not overly sentimental, sexy without being salacious. A perfect teen soap for the 2000s.

Michael Tolliver

Show: Tales of the City
Performers: Marcus D’Amico, Paul Hopkins
Episodes: 6 (1993)

Michael “Mouse” Tolliver was an out gay character having relationships and breakups and living the San Francisco life while most TV shows were too scared to even include gay characters. Tales of the City is an old-school gay classic, but its existence as a building block for the gay TV to come should not be underestimated.

Oberyn Martell

Show: Game of Thrones
Performer: Pedro Pascal
Episodes: 7 (2014)

Westeros’s dashing, bisexual prince wasn’t long for the Game of Thrones universe, but while he was there, he gave us a glimpse of a world that didn’t necessarily have to be bogged down by retrograde dark-age mores and could instead be a kind of pan-sexual pleasure fortress. (You know, before those homophobic White Walkers come calling.)

Oliver Hampton

Show: How to Get Away With Murder
Performer: Conrad Ricamora
Episodes: 38 (2014 – present)

A character who initially seemed like he would be a one-time conquest for Connor (Jack Falahee), Oliver clicked with fans and obviously the producers too, because he’s become easily the most well-liked of the show’s ensemble. Additionally, his HIV-positive status makes him an incredibly rare and valuable representative in an era where complacency is a danger.

Ray Holt

Show: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Performer: Andre Braugher
Episodes: 90 (2013 – present)

Captain Holt isn’t incidentally gay, but he’s also a character whose sexuality is more a piece of his overall puzzle than a defining trait. It’s not always easy to make those characters feel out and proud, but the fact that Holt is such a stern rule-follower means that everything in his personal life is more guarded. It also makes it that much more fun when Holt’s sexuality comes into play.

Sarah Pfefferman

Show: Transparent
Performer: Amy Landecker
Episodes: 33 (2014 – present)

Like all the Pfefferman siblings (and, honestly, their parents), Sarah can be an absolute monster. But facing our least pretty characteristics head-on and figuring out how to deal with them is a huge part of what Transparent is all about. Sarah’s sexuality isn’t always (ever?) neat and tidy, but her searching has always been meaningful.

Shea

Show: Transparent
Performer: Trace Lysette
Episodes: 10 (2014 – present)

In Transparent‘s third season, the former side-character of Shea came into her own, brought into focus by Josh’s storyline but never letting her feel incidental to her own story. She’s insistence that she be treated as a person and not just an object for other people to measure their own sexual fluidity against was a vital storyline that many people connected to.

Suzanne “Crazy-Eyes” Warren

Show: Orange Is the New Black
Performer: Uzo Aduba
Episodes: 64 (2013 – present)

Much credit to Uzo Aduba for navigating through Suzanne’s first big storyline — her intense crush on Piper — without losing sight of Suzanne’s humanity. Subsequent to that, every season has brought us a few more pieces to the big Suzanne puzzle, making her a queer character of deep complexity.

Uncle Arthur

Show: Bewitched
Performer: Paul Lynde
Episodes: 11 (1965 – 1971)

The history of gay characters on television would be incomplete without addressing the contributions of actors like Paul Lynde, whose cheerful mincing as Samantha Stevens’ uncle Arthur was delivered with a wink big enough for all of America to get onboard with the subtext.

Yorkie

Show: Black Mirror
Performer: Mackenzie Davis
Episodes: 1 (2016)

It only took one episode of the anthology series, but in “San Junipero,” LGBTQ audiences were able to latch onto a sad, sweet sci-fi love story between two women. Yorkie and Kelly found each other in a kind of in-between place, and their story was told with sensitivity and intrigue, leading to an emotional payoff that rivalled anything on TV last year.