Happy Pride & Queer-Coded Characters

Happy Pride Month, everyone! Every June since 1970 queer folx (whether they are openly queer or "closeted") and allies march to celebrate their true colours and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, while acknowledging the history of pride and those in countries where queer people are unprotected and criminalized by law. Without the work of activists such as Marsha P. Johnson, North America would likely not be as safe of a space for the celebration of queerness, though even in 2021 there aren't always accessible safe spaces. At times when queer folx have been isolated, attacked, and underrepresented, we have turned to our favourite queer-coded characters for comfort. 

Historically, queer coding - which here refers to the process by which characters in fictional media are implied to be queer - was used in a time when it was all but banned for LGBTQ+ characters to be represented on screen (and it was banned from the 30s until the 60s in accordance with the Hays Code). For this reason, characters were written with traits that queer audience members would be able to identify, without writers explicitly identifying the character as queer. Popular examples are: Betty from Rugrats, Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid, Shego from Kim Possible -- actually, most Disney villains. The trope of the villainous queer is harmful as it implies that deviating from the cis heterosexual norm deems someone as evil. Regardless, it's comforting seeing the community you belong to on screen! 

Only recently have we started seeing explicitly queer characters, rarer still are trans characters played by trans actors. So much progress has been made in the ways of representation but there is a long way to go. If you're looking for a book to read for Pride Month, we can certainly help you out there, with queer characters popping up in fiction of all genres (some of my personal favourites include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Red, White & Royal Blue) . Come to the Learning Commons to check out our displays, or look at our LGBTQ+ page for inspiration.