Sailor Moon Meets the (Trans?) Sailor Starlights
"A Night Alone Together: Usagi in Danger" (August 17, 1996) In our fourth look at Sailor Moon, we're discussing the final season, which features the Sailor Stars. Canonically, they're female superheroes who magically become boys in order to remain in disguise, and as a result some Sailor Moon fans consider them to be trans-coded or metaphorically transgender. It's not really for us to say one way or another, but there's enough discussion about how to discuss these characters' gender that it made sense to cover this episode. Will it be the last? Sailor Moon, previously: The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Sailor Moon Sailor Moon Meets a Lesbian Couple Sailor Moon Meets a Beguiling Genderfluid Villain Also listen to the complete run of The Cartoons That Made Us Gay on the GEE Patreon!
Ellen Won't Say Gay on Christmas
"Ellen's First Christmess" (December 17, 2001) Yes, we're closing 2025 with a lump of coal rather than a sugarplum fairy. Believe it or not, Ellen Degeneres had a second sitcom between her first one and her reign as the iron-fisted queen of daytime. It's mostly lost in the shuffle today, but we're taking a look at her Christmas episode to point out how she chose to shut up about her sexuality this time around. Was it worth it? No. See you in hell, 2025. We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode's art was designed by Ian O'Phelan. Sound cues for this podcast were composed by Meika Grimm.
The Golden Girls Meet a Gay… for the Final Time?
"The Artist" (December 19, 1987) Over the years, we've shared a lot of laughs with the girls on the laini, but our journey with the four horniest seniors in the history of Miami has come to an end, as "The Artist" is the final gay episode of The Golden Girls that we have much to say about. It's a slight episode, in terms of gay rep, but it actually has a lot to say about the show and the way gay men relate to it, we'd rager. Links what Drew discusses: Drew on Super Mario Moment podcast (video and audio) Drew on Cinema Oblivia Drew on Call Me By Your Game Drew on What a Cartoon
Happy Endings Comes Out for Thanksgiving
"More Like Skanksgiving" (November 20, 2012) Here you have it: the one other gay-themed Thanksgiving episode of a sitcom. Three seasons in, this one reveals heretofore-unheard canon that the Happy Endings characters exist as they do solely as a result of MTV's The Real World — and that Max things he might have been the first gay person on TV. Meanwhile, no one is remarking how Jane's 2002 raver outfit is one of the more explicitly bisexual things she's ever done on this show, and we at one point meet her ex-girlfriend. Listen to our previous Happy Endings episode, and if this one isn't Thanksgiving enough for you, check out our Bob's Burgers bi Thanksgiving extravaganza. We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode's art was designed by Ian O'Phelan. Sound cues for this podcast were composed by Meika Grimm.
The Gay Subtext of Dobie Gillis, TV's First Teen Sitcom
"The Ruptured Duck" (October 10, 1961) On the surface, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis tells the story of a teen boy who falls in love with every girl except Zelda Gilroy, who pines for him hopelessly. All of this is complicated by the fact that the Sheila Keuhl, the actor who played Zelda was in real life a gay woman who ultimately lost out on getting her own spinoff because she didn't fit the idea for what a leading lady was in the early 1960s. But Keuhl got the last laugh IRL, and Zelda Gilroy's queer adjacent legacy lives on in Velma from Scooby-Doo. We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode's art was designed by Ian O'Phelan. Sound cues for this podcast were composed by Meika Grimm.