New Database Shows Cartoon Network Leads in LGBTQ Representation in Children's Television

The Business Insider has compiled a list of LGBTQ-identified characters in children’s television.

 

The “Insider Database” includes 259 characters and seeks “to track the historical presence of LGBTQ and gender-minority characters in animated children’s television.”

 

Readers can view the webpage, which displays a long list of characters, some going back years,  “But in the past decade, small-screen animation has undergone a noticeable shift. Representation in children’s cartoons in particular has increased in frequency, nuance, and overtness.”

 

 

The list categorizes by show or by character. In addition, the page allows readers to filter the list of shows by platform and rating and the list of characters by gender, race, disability, and orientation.

 

 

You'd likely expect Disney to be the platform with the most LGBTQ-identified characters; however, that title goes to Cartoon Network, which features a whopping 99 LGBTQ-identified characters. Second place goes to Netflix with 59, and Nickelodeon comes in third with 20.

 

According to the Business Insider:

 

We found that 62% of the characters, or 160, were identified with explicit confirmation. But that dipped to 43%, or just 111, when out-of-show interview confirmations were removed.