2024 was a weird year for animation. Many industry artists went on strike and fought to get rightful protection against AI and fair wages for the shows they work hard to make. These bold artists are also responsible for some of the year’s best strides in queer representation. We had some gay weddings, lesbian endgames, the end of Velma (thank God), and devilish queer demons making showtunes.
2024 in animation saw miraculous updates on beloved characters like X-Men’s Morph and Bob’s Burger’s Marshmellow, CaitVi became canon and then kinky, and Nimona was Oscar nominated. And did I mention, Velma ended?
Here are ten queer animation WINS from this year. (I’m sorry there’s no anime here. I wish I had time to watch more yet the medium evades me! I am open to recommendations though.)
Korvo and Terry Get Married on Solar Opposites
Solar Opposites is a humorous and raunchy satire on suburban life with a sci-fi twist that managed to distinguish itself from its sister series, Rick & Morty. This is because of the romantic relationship between the aliens Korvo, the hot-tempered scientist, and Terry, his eccentric partner. The show has improved for the better since disgraced co-creator/voice actor Justin Roiland was replaced by dreamboat Brit Dan Stevens as Korvo. During the Valentine’s Day Special, An Earth Shatteringly Romantic Solar Valentine’s Day Opposites Special, the two tied the knot and officially became husbands, not before they had to bang to save the world from a mess they caused.
Hazbin Hotel adds an H in LGBTQ
Vivienne Medrano’s portrait of hell is full of demonic sinners of different humanistic and animal features. They are all proud queer people. You have demons who are gay, bisexual, ace, and all kinds of demons who are sexually fluid. That includes Charlie Morningstar, the princess of hell. With the help of her loyal girlfriend, Vaggie, they try their best to create the best hotel to rehabilitate sinners and send them straight to heaven. As abrasive and raunchy as the series is, Hazbin Hotel takes an empathetic examination of toxic queer relationships and strides in exploring compelling interpersonal dynamics. Did I mention it’s a dope musical with many great songs? Like legit R-rated earworms that’d rival Disney’s? Hell yeah.
Morph Shapeshifts Into Their Nonbinary Identity
The long-awaited return of the X-Men in X-Men 97 saw Xavier’s students make notable updates. Morph, the shape-shifter mutant, is one of them, for they have a new voice actor in genderqueer actor J. P. Karliak and is depicted as non-binary. Although it may be 1997, the X-men’s ahead-of-their-time members refer to them as they/them. Additionally, Morph is deeply in love with Wolverine/Logan, their closest companion. During the season finale, Logan is out of commission, but Morph takes the form of Jean Grey to express their love for him. Let’s hope the second season does something with that. But for now, we’re here for our shapeshifting mutant enby update.
Nimona Gets Her Oscar Nom
Nimona, the shapeshifting punk-rock rebel and walking allegory for trans tolerance, whose animated movie lived and died and lived again, got an Oscar nomination. If you are not aware, the film based on ND Stevenson’s acclaimed graphic novel was initially adapted into a film by Blue Sky Studios, which also produced Ice Age and Rio. Subsequently, the acquisition of Blue Sky by Disney resulted in the closure of the studio and the cancellation of the film. And also reports stated that execs weren’t fond of its LGBTQ representation. Then came, Annapurna Pictures and DNEG to bring it back to life. I wrote an article about it at Rolling Stone if you’d like to take a gander at it. When Disney dropped Wish, a self-congratulatory misfire, they thought the industry would love it. NOPE! Wish didn’t make it to this year’s Annie’s and didn’t make it to the Oscars. But hey, Nimona did. I’ve never felt prouder.
CatVi Get It On
The second and final (ugh) season of Arcane was like a kaleidoscope of animation styles and steampunk action. It also followed through with Caitlin and Vi (Caitvi) becoming official. Throughout the season they made out, broke up, and had rough make up sex. And in a prison while an original King Princess song plays in the background. The lesbians were fed that evening as the sex scene pushed the limits of the TV-14 rating. In fact, the animators at French-based Fortiche went so hard on CaitVi’s big romantic display that they had to cut out a few shots. But somewhere out there on a hard drive lies the full scene. Who’s going to be the brave soul to leak it? And speaking of leaks…
“The Gatekeeper” Gets Unlocked by Leakers
If there’s a running theme within this listicle, it’s that Disney is a bunch of bitches regarding LGBTQ content. I mean, what else is new. But this year, they really took it to the next level by shelving a trans-centric episode of their Marvel animated series, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, because of Trump’s anti-trans ass winning the election. That’s until one brave soul leaked it to the masses. The mouse house was criticized on social media platforms by former Disney animators and the LGBTQ community. Fortunately, the episode isn’t lost. But will it make its television debut in the near future? Only time will tell but I sure hope so.
Adam Elliot’s Gay Arsonist
Adam Elliot, an Australian stop-motion animator, takes great pleasure in putting individuals through biblical trials more than God herself. (Yes, God is a woman, as per Ariana Grande.) His long-awaited feature followup to Mary & Max, Memoir of a Snail is no different. The film depicts the story of twins Gracie, an introverted girl who enjoys snails and stop-motion, and Gilbert, a boy who loves starting fires, who were separated during childhood and struggle to reconnect with each other in the following years. Gilbert’s sections are probably the cruelest because his adoptive family were a bunch of Jesus freaks that took issue with his rebellious nature. Later on, the film reveals that he’s gay after being caught by his adoptive mother, Ruth, making out with his adoptive brother. And right when you think Elliot, being the madman that he is, would smash the “bury your gays button,” he does a fake out and lets Gilbert and Gracie find their happy ending after all! Woo!
Marshmallow’s Magnificent New Voice, Jari Jones
The shows by Loren Bouchard (Bob’s Burgers, Central Park) haven’t been the best when it comes to representation, voice acting wise. Usually, Bouchard would cast white actors to voice characters of color. After the pandemic and the George Floyd protests, Bouchard, and the rest of Hollywood finally started listening to voices of color, getting the right people to fit their character’s voices. Jari Jones, a Black trans actress and model, is now the voice of Marshmallow, Bob’s Burgers‘ most — as Bob describes her — “beautiful” character. In the episode “Hope N’ Mic Night,” Jones got to shine as Marshmallow during a scene as she sang and played electric guitar to a soulful composition of Alessi Brothers’ “Seabird.”
Harley Quinn & Renee Montoya’s Romance in Batman: The Caped Crusader
Batman: The Caped Crusader transformed The Dark Knight into a noir-styled crime thriller with episodic adventures that gave his rogue gallery of villains a new identity. One of them is Harley Quinn, who takes businessmen and gives them torturous brain lobotomies to correct their corruption. We stan. But also she’s very into girls on main. Under her physician Harleen Quinzel persona, she asks out Renee Montoya and sparks a cute, but brief romance with her in the episode “The Stress of Her Regard.” We love how in every universe, Harley is still bagging the Gotham ladies.
JayVik Were Endgame
Forget everything Arcane writer Christian Linke says. The Riot Games account knows it, the queers know it, we all know it. Viktor and Jayce were meant to be. At the end of Arcane, we saw Viktor become a God. He becomes a celestial being and an unstoppable threat within the final battle. But leave it to Jayce, his “hex-tech” bro, to reach him in space and bring him back to Earth. They sacrifice their lives to save Zaun and Piltover, and together they embrace and disappear into the stars. At their end, Jayvik became inextricably linked. Despite Linke’s statements on Twitter, as he continues to dispel those who perceive their relationship as romantic and refrains from allowing it to be open to interpretation, Jayvik was the endgame we got and we all deserved.
Lesbian actress Punkie Johnson played a lesbian grandma in Tubi Original animation Big Bruh
Just realized it was from 2023, my bad – I just discovered it.