List of lesbian characters in animation


This is a list of characters in animation that either self-identify as lesbian or have been identified by outside parties to be lesbian. Listed characters are either recurring characters, cameos, guest stars, or one-off characters. This article does not include any characters in Japanese animation, otherwise known as anime. For the corresponding list of bisexual and gay animated characters, please read the list of bisexual characters in animation and list of gay characters in animation pages.
Please see the lists of gay, trans, bisexual, non-binary, pansexual, asexual, and intersex characters for information about fictional characters in other parts of the LGBTQ community.
The names are organized alphabetically by surname, or by single name if the character does not have a surname. If more than two characters are in one entry, the last name of the first character is used.

From the 1980s to the 1990s

In the 2000s

In the 2010s

In the 2020s

Background

It would not be until the first episode of The Simpsons on December 17, 1989 that a gay character, Waylon Smithers, named after openly gay puppeteer Wayland Flowers, would appear on a U.S. animated show. However, like other shows at the time, The Simpsons approached the subject gingerly, not drawing much attention to the sexuality of Smithers, as he remained in the closet, officially, until 2016. In the early 1990s, a few U.S. shows featured LGBTQ characters. In 1997, ' featured two lesbian characters: Maggie Sawyer and Toby Raynes, although they were secondary or tertiary to the story.
One show stood apart from this checkered representation: Queer Duck. It was the first U.S. animated TV series to have homosexuality as a major theme and was produced by Mike Reiss, a producer of Simpsons and The Critic. The show became relatively influential after premiering on Icebox.com, later shown on Showtime beginning in 2000. It was received positively by some in the LGBTQ community since it had lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters. Then, on February 20, 2005, in the episode "There's Something About Marrying" that Patty, Marge's sister, came out as lesbian. GLAAD's first report listed Patty Bouvier in The Simpsons as a white lesbian character. There was some backlash, with Postcards From Buster, a spinoff of Arthur, was pulled from PBS after featuring a lesbian couple in the episode "Sugartime!", criticized by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who decried the episode as inappropriate. Years later, Rebecca Sugar described Spellings' idea as "absurd," saying she recognized the challenges of creating LGBTQ-friendly animation when she tried to enter the animation field. Apart from this, there was a lesbian character named Sarah in Family Guy, two lesbian characters in Moral Orel: Stephanie Putty and Coach Daniel Stopframe while the show, Lizzy the Lezzy premiered on Myspace included a protagonist named Lizzy who was a lesbian.
In later years, the show, ' featured a lesbian couple, while a lesbian couple appeared in Superjail! and Venture Bros. debuted a lesbian character named Virginia "Ginnie" Dunne. Additionally, two lesbian couples appeared in the June 19, 2009 episode of The Goode Family, titled "A Tale of Two Lesbians." The following year, a Canadian show named 6Teen introduce a one-time lesbian character named Jean, In the years that followed, Brickleberry included a lesbian character named Connie Cunaman, and Adventure Time began hinting at romantic subtext between two characters, Marcy and Bonnie, with the airing of the episode "What Was Missing" on September 26, 2011. Also, lesbian characters appeared on shows such as Dofus: The Treasures of Kerubim, The Awesomes, BoJack Horseman, and Clarence
While Disney executives axed a proposed lesbian relationship in Gravity Falls, there was increased representation with lesbian moms in Good Luck Charlie, lesbian characters in The Legend of Korra, LGBTQ representation in Clarence and Adventure Time,
two lesbian characters in Red vs. Blue, and a lesbian character named Ilia Amitola introduced in RWBY. Apart from this, Kya of Legend of Korra was shown to be lesbian in the graphic novel following the series finale, Doc McStuffins featured a lesbian married couple, and Zarya Moonwolf and Kitty Boon were a lesbian couple in Mysticons. Other shows had lesbian characters, like Bob's Burgers, RWBY., Craig of the Creek, Nomad of Nowhere, and Bojack Horseman. The episode Reunited in 2018 made Steven Universe the first kid's show on U.S. television to feature a lesbian wedding and it broke down the assumption that same-sex romance is "inherently more adult," in Sugar's words. Episodes like "Reunited" were the reason that the creator of Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch, believed that Rebecca Sugar was moving everyone in kid's programming forward in terms of LGBTQ representation.
In the 2020s, there was much progress. In May 2020, the final season She-Ra and the Princesses of Power aired, bringing the slow-burn lesbian romance of Catra and Adora full circle with their kiss saving the world from destruction. The show also included a canon married lesbian couple: Netossa and Spinnerella. The same year, The Loud House aired an episode with a lesbian character named Lainey dating a girl named Alice, an episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog, "The Big Red Tomato", featured the two moms of the character Samantha Mulberry Furthermore,Cleopatra in Space introduced the two moms of Akila, Theoda and Pothina, friend of series protagonist, Cleopatra who work as scholars, use dated social expressions, and love their daughter. while in an n episode of Harley Quinn, "There’s No Place to Go But Down," Harley Quinn saved her partner-in-crime, Poison Ivy, both kissed each other after they escaped from prison. The critic who reviewed the episode stated that Harley and Poison's romance is "slow burn" one, adding that this love affair could turn into a "more realistic exploration of how it feels to fall in love with a friend or to have an awkward hookup with a workmate."