queer love stories that made history

While mainstream film is still lacking in LGBTQ representation, television has long been a vehicle for providing fully-realised queer characters and the relationships they share – in fact, a recent study from GLAAD found that the number of LGBTQ characters on primetime television is at an all-time high, with 10.2% being part of the community. From Buffy’s WIllow and Tara, the first long-term lesbian relationship on US television, through to Pray Tell and Ricky on Pose, who became the first gay, HIV-positive black men to share a love scene, these are the queer love stories that have changed hearts and minds over the last three decades.

Scott and Leon

Roseanne (1995)

Roseanne Barr has been a controversial figure as of recent, thanks to her unflinching devotion to Donald Trump and the Republican party and racist Twitter comments about a former Obama official, but her television show did provide a landmark moment for queer representation: the first ever gay wedding on American television. In the show’s eighth season, recurring characters Scott (Fred Willard) and Leon (Martin Mull) tie the knot in the gayest way possible - with strippers and drag queens. However, the episode was moved from its 8pm time slot to 9.30pm, with an ABC spokesperson stating the “adult humour in this episode was more appropriate for the later time period”. Barr later proposed a spin-off for the two characters (with RuPaul) but the