Queer Establishing Moment

Courtney: So I was thinking maybe we could catch a movie sometime. Nothing scary...
Mitch: That sounds great, Kathy. You know, you're gonna love my boyfriend. He's a total chick-flick nut!

— ParaNorman

A Queer Establishing Moment is the moment when a character is revealed to be LGBTQ+.

In older works, this was often Subtext, as taboos around the topic made it harder for queer characters to be too apparent in media, especially with the The Hays Code. However, plenty of media is willing to be more open, explicit, and even casual about the topic, and has been for quite a long time.

This moment can come either as a clear moment when a character says something such as Sorry, I'm Gay or mentioning an Incompatible Orientation, or more subtle variations such as pointedly not denying attraction to someone of the same gender. Some moments can lead to a Trans Audience Interpretation if the moment remains only as subtext. The reveal can turn into a Wham Line if it has significant ramifications to the plot.

This trope can overlap with Coming-Out Story if said story is not the main focus of the work. See also LGBT Awakening, when the character in question first realizes their gender or sexuality, and Bi-Wildered for characters who might be confused about a reveal of queerness.

Compare Word of Gay for when a creator confirms a character's orientation or identity outside the context of the story, though it remains ambiguous In-Universe. Examples may use Adaptational Sexuality. Compare and contrast Ambiguously Gay and Ambiguously Bi, and Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality, which may overlap if the moment is left as subtext. This trope, however, is usually quite confirmed in canon.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Asteroid in Love, Moe "Suzu" Suzuya is already established to enjoy Girl Watching and making same-sex ships among her friends. However, her homosexuality is only revealed in Chapter 7, when she is dripping with jealousy as she mistakes her crush Misa of seducing Ao. This foreshadows her Coming Out via a Love Confession in Chapter 29 when she makes a Love Confession to Misa after years of Cannot Spit It Out.
• Bocchi the Rock!: Within the episode of her first appearance, Ikuyo Kita is established to have joined the main group, Kessoku Band, for her huge crush on the bassist Ryo Yamada, indicating she likes girls.
• My-HiME:
  • Shizuru Fujino is outed as a lesbian when Yukino and Haruka spy on her planting a kiss on an unconscious Natsuki Kuga.
  • Earlier than that, Shizuru came across a sleeping Natsuki at her desk in the Student Council Room. She softly calls Natsuki's name, and when there's no response, she gently runs her fingers through Natsuki's hair. By the time Natsuki awakes, Shizuru has moved over to the window.
  • It can be easy to forget, since Shizuru and Natsuki becoming an OfficialCouple is well known by fans, but there was actual Ship Tease between Natsuki and Takeda, such as when he fell on her and her initial response was a Luminescent Blush. The first real indicator that Natsuki could be attracted to another girl was when she laid a Big Damn Kiss on Shizuru in episode 25 as part of a Cooldown Hug.
• One Piece:
  • Kiku from the Wano arc is revealed to be Kikunojo in hiding, known as a man long ago. When Chopper asks her about this, she says she "has the heart of a woman", a common Japanese way of saying she's a trans woman.
  • There was also some confusion over Yamato, who was introduced as Kaido's son. When he first appeared on-page, however, he was revealed to have a very busty female body. The confusion was mainly because he claimed that he was seeking to "be like Oden," and since Oden was a man, he would be, too. The resolution of this was after the battle in Wano was over, and Yamato said there was no mixed-bathing, followed by two frames of the hot springs: one with the girls, including Kiku, and one with the boys, including Yamato, confirming that he's a trans man.
• In the eighth episode of Zombie Land Saga, Lily tells Sakura the story of how she died and became a zombie, revealing that she's trans in the process: she used to be a child actor on TV, but had a lot of anxiety due to the stress of the work, which her father ignored. On top of that, she was nearing puberty and angsted about the possibility of looking like her father (who is a huge, manly guy). Following a heated argument with him, she noticed that she was starting to grow facial hair, which caused an immense mental shock due to her dysphoria. All of these factors combined caused her to have a fatal heart attack. As she died, her father cried out "Masao", which is revealed to be Lily's deadname.

Comic Books

• Ghost-Maker, a new extremist vigilante character as part of Batman (James Tynion IV) was casually revealed to be bisexual in a scene where he bids farewell to a man and a woman in his bed after they had Three-Way Sex.
• Chili Storm has been a supporting character in Marvel's various Millie the Model books since 1947, and even headlined her own title in the late 1960s. But it wasn’t until 2009's Models, Inc. that she was established to be bisexual, with a reference to her coming out (in the first issue) and tabloids running stories on her girlfriends and boyfriends.
• Runaways fans suspected that Karolina might not be straight as early as the first issue of the original series when she was very enthusiastic about how hot Nico was. Any doubts about her sexuality were banished in the second series when she tries to kiss Nico.

Fan Works

• In the Another Day in Misterland chapter "A Baby Comes to Misterland" when given the option to adopt Baby Bubbles, Mr. Nosy says he should consult Mr. Small, and "ran off to find his husband".
• Guys Being Dudes: Arlo is established as being Transgender when he asks where Sierra left his binder after doing his laundry.
• Junior Officers:
  • In "The Realization", Deborah and Shellington realize they love each other. They both think, "Will it just be Glenn/Donna all over again? What's a lad/girl to do?" The ending disclaimer reveals that Shellington is bisexual, as he previously had a crush on a male fox named Glenn (though he ended up losing his chance with him because he was too timid to confess his feelings). In Deborah's case, she had her first kiss with her best friend Donna, but neither of them felt the right clicks, so they decided they'd be Better as Friends.
  • "It Was Only a Kiss" elaborates more on Deborah falling under the questioning part of the LGBTQ spectrum. She kissed Donna and felt rather good about it, but Donna felt nothing from the kiss.
  • In "Valentine's Day", Kwazii admits he's never cared much about dating. Sarabi points out that he's aro, and he agrees with this.
  • In "Blythe and the Risso's Dolphin", Tweak says she hopes she has as much fun as Blythe and Lekona once she gets married to Anita, revealing that she's a Butch Lesbian.
  • In "A Pirate's Tail", Kwazii mentions in his narration that as a teen, he had been through four years of "identity crises". The ending disclaimer reveals that these "identity crises" refer to the fact that he's a trans man; he used to be female for a time until he became male.
• Ma Fille:
  • In the chapter aptly-named "Coming Out", Joe explains to his daughter Katrina (then six) that he's gay, and what being gay is. Katrina asks if that means she can marry a princess when she grows up.
  • In the chapter "Valentine's Day", Katrina (now twelve) is revealed to have come out as a lesbian. In the Sequel Series Shining and Sweet, she gets a girlfriend, Princess Hook.
• The Panda Chronicles: The chapter "Cooking with Aaron" confirms Tae-young to be trans by showing him suffering menstrual cramps.
• Rise of the Save-Ums: In "The Exposition", Alexa randomly brings up that she's a lesbian. Jackson points out how out of left field that is, and she responds that if she hadn't admitted it now, she would've had to wait until five minutes before the ending credits.
• In The Season's My Reason, Rosemary is revealed to be gay when his boyfriend visits him in the hospital with flowers.
• It's offhandedly depicted in Solarhood that Sonic The Hedgehog is a trans man when he suffers from period cramps.

Films — Animation

• How to Train Your Dragon 2: When Stoick goes to speak to his wife Valka after he upsets her, Gobber comments that this is why he never got married; "That, and one other reason." Word of God confirmed that this other reason is that he's gay.
• The Stinger for The Mitchells vs. the Machines has Katie tell Linda that she wants to invite her girlfriend over for Thanksgiving.
• ParaNorman: When Courtney asks Mitch (her crush) if he'd like to see a movie with her sometime, he accepts this offer and tells her she's going to like his boyfriend, revealing that he's gay.

Films — Live-Action

• While Negasonic Teenage Warhead was introduced in Deadpool (2016), we find out that she is a lesbian in the sequel, when she introduces Yukio as her girlfriend, and accuses Deadpool of being homophobic when he reacts aghast (though he quickly says he's just surprised anyone would be willing to date her). Ironically, Deadpool himself is queer (pansexual, per Ryan Reynolds' confirmation), though of course, he makes so many ridiculous comments that, whenever he comments on being attracted to men, it can come off as a joke rather than this.
• The first time we see Deena in Fear Street, she is writing a letter to her ex "Sam". We later see her looking at a couple, and we are led to believe that the boy is the ex in question... until the girl confronts her afterwards and Deena addresses her as Sam.
• Glass Onion, the sequel to Knives Out, reveals that lead character detective Benoit Blanc is gay by showing him at home during COVID-19 lockdown with his partner.
• Somebody I Used to Know: Cassidy casually mentions while talking with Ally that she's dated women in the past, before she'd gotten engaged to Sean.
• Trap For Cinderella: Do confessed that she loved Micky, her Best Friend, in the past, while until then it hadn't been explicit (despite them being very close).
• Girls Like Magic: Maggie, aka Magic, at her own engagement party with her boyfriend of 15 years Jacob, realizes that the whole thing is just to celebrate him, so she decides to hide out in the attic and get drunk with Jamie. The two start joking around, and just as Jacob announces his engagement to Maggie, she casually admits to Jamie that what is between men's legs is not her thing.
  Jamie: Aren't you the one supposed to like dick?
  Maggie/Magic: Well, I don't!
• How To Blow Up A Pipeline: Theo and Alisha, two of the female main characters, are shown to be a couple early, kissing each other on the lips while they live together too.
• Atomic Blonde: Lorraine kissing Delphine while they're in a nightclub together reveals she's also into women (after having shown attraction to men), and they soon have sex together.
• Holy Smoke!: Ruth, after having sex with PJ, makes out with another woman in a club as he watches lustfully.
• Head in the Clouds: After it's strongly hinted beforehand, Mia confesses just prior to having sex with Guy that she was lovers before with Gilda.

Literature

• Adachi and Shimamura: Adachi quickly establishes herself as a lesbian when she has a Homoerotic Dream of her and Shimamura. Shimmamura becomes more attached to Adachi as the series goes on and accepts Adachi’s feelings in Volume 6, and she becomes Adachi’s girlfriend followed by a love epiphany in Volume 8 which solidifies it.
• Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic: For most of the story, Trixie Roughhouse is referred to with "she/her" pronouns. At one point, an alarm goes off on Phoenica's phone, revealing that Trixie is non-binary, with the alarm being a reminder for Phoenica to switch which pronouns she addresses Trixie by. For the rest of the story, "they/them" pronouns are used for Trixie.
• The Executioner and Her Way of Life: Momo and Akira are quickly established to have affection that goes beyond any ambiguity for Menou.
• I'm In Love With the Villainess: Rae’s first scene upon waking up is confessing her love for Claire. When a friend outright asks if she’s a lesbian, she answers yes.
• InCryptid: In Imaginary Numbers, Artie's pheromones are shown to work on James, proving that he's attracted to men (incubus pheromones only work on people of a compatible orientation). The author later confirmed that James is gay, rather than bisexual as some readers had guessed.
• The Jasmine Throne: Priya casually says her preference would be to marry or at least make a home with another woman. This is even before she and Malini get together.
• Lords of the Sith: Moff Delian Mors holds the distinction of being the first LGBT character in the new Star Wars canon, though there were a few gay characters in some Legends stories. Her sexuality is only touched upon when it's noted that her wife was killed in a transport accident years before the events of the novel.
• A Master of Djinn: Fatma going home to find Siti in her apartment, then them kissing before having sex off page, shows that they're lovers and both queer women.
• Murder Most Unladylike: In book 8, Daisy reluctantly confesses to having a crush on Martita Torrera (Marta Pao). This later happens again with Amina El Magrahbi, although this time her feelings are returned.
• Otherside Picnic: Toriko is revealed to be a lesbian slowly. First is the revelation that she Has Two Mommies. Then there's her telling Sorawo, "I love you" after Toriko rescues her from a group of cultists. But Sorawo is Oblivious to Love, initially, and it takes her longer to realize what's blatant to the audience. Toriko has to kiss Sorawo before she finally gets it.
• Roll Over and Die: The relationship between Flum and Milkit is a slow burn, but the reader sees they are developing romantic feelings for each other throughout the series. On the flipside, Ottilie and Henrietta have a Childhood Friend Romance dynamic.
  • During the climactic fight of Episode 04, Milkit outright declares she loves Flum, but she later has to dial it back to "liking" her. Followed by Milkit kissing Flum on the cheek in the middle of Episode 05.
  • In Episode 01, when Flum first meets Milkit, she can’t help but think about how beautiful Milkit’s eye is, and she is consistently affectionate to Milkit, and she even lets Milkit sleep in the same bed as her. In Episode 05, she is surprised when Milkit kisses her on the cheek, and she is rather baffled by how she should feel about this.
  • Throughout Episode 03, it is made clear Ottilie has a strong affection for Henrietta. In Episode 04, Flum and Milkit see Ottilie messing around in Henrietta’s bedsheets.
  • At the end of Episode 04, Henrietta orders Ottilie to resign from the Royal Army partly for her own safety, and to give her freedom to oppose the Church while she will not be able to. She tells Ottilie when this is over she will kiss her and possibly go further.
• To Shape a Dragon's Breath:
  • Anequs, upon seeing the black servant Liberty for the first time, thinks of her as beautiful. She desires a relationship with her, regardless of their percieved social class differences. When they kiss the night of the Vakyrafax ball, Anequs states that she fancies Liberty directly; it still takes Liberty, who has grown up knowing how the Anglish are about "deviance," to state back that she's only been interested in women.
  • Frau Kuiper—head of the academy—and Frau Brirkenhoff—head of the staff—are in a relationship; Anequs spots them having an affectionate moment. However, due to lesbianism (or any "deviance") being socially unacceptable among the Anglish, they cannot be open about it.
• The Zodiac Series has two:
  • The first comes from Wandering Star, where Guardian Brynda Wazel tells Rho that Hysan is in love with her...and that that's the only reason Brynda hasn't hit on Rho herself.
  • The second is rather more spoilery: In Thirteen Rising, Rho learns that Ophiuchus had known that Aquarius was the master all along, having lied about it to protect them. Going by just the Flashback, you'd think they were simply friends, but...
  Rho: "Love's turned you into a murderer and a monster and the Zodiac's biggest fool."

Live-Action TV

• Amazing Stories (2020): In "The Heat", at first Tuka and Sterling just seem to be best friends. Sterling however confesses that she loves Tuka romantically, who it turns out feels the same way.
• In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, during the episode "99," Rosa is established to be bisexual when Charles catches her talking to someone over the phone, and the voice he hears from the phone is female and calls Rosa "babe."
• Dickinson: Early in the pilot, Emily and Sue's mutual Love Confession followed with their empassioned kiss shows they have an existing intimate relationship that is then a main theme during the series.
• Class Of 07: Tegan mentions briefly that while in school she still believed she'd been attracted to guys, indicating she's into women instead.
• In Everything's Gonna Be Okay, there were hints that Matilda might not be completely straight in earlier episodes, but the ambiguity goes out the window in "Blue Death-Feigning Beetles", when Nicholas and Genevieve find her half-dressed and asleep with her arms around classmate Drea.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The Season 1 episode, "The Wolf and the Lion", doesn't give you much information about Ser Loras Tyrell and Renly Baratheon as a couple at first unless one rewatches the tourney scene where Loras offers a rose to Sansa but he looks at Renly who is sitting at the back. After a few more scenes, you get both Loras and Renly shirtless because the former is shaving the latter's chest hair while talking about the succession on the Iron Throne. Loras convinces Renly that he should be king and then he gives him oral sex.
  • The Season 4 premiere episode, "Two Swords", establishes both Prince Oberyn Martell and his paramour Ellaria Sand as bisexual where they are checking out some prostitutes in Littlefinger's brothel. Ellaria rejects one prostitute that Oberyn is interested in because she's timid. But she prefers the next one who Ellaria describes as mischievous, and then Oberyn orders Olyvar, who is in charge of the brothel, to stay and take off his clothes before he gropes him.
• In "Michael's Gambit," the Season 1 Finale of The Good Place, Eleanor offhandedly states that "Side note, I might legit be into Tahani". William Jackson Harper, Chidi's actor, would later use this line as proof that Eleanor is bisexual.
• Hit & Miss: Maia is established as a pre-op trans woman very early on via undressing to take a shower, showing that she has breasts but also a penis.
• Mac in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was an Armoured Closet Gay who became increasingly homosexual as the series went but always denied it because of his hardcore Christian values, going as far as having an Ignored Epiphany. But in the Season 12 finale, the thing that made Mac admit that he was homosexual was when he declared himself to be gay in order to claim ownership of an unscratched lottery ticket as compensation of being a victim of hate speech. Even the gang was surprised he didn't back out like last time.
• L.A.'s Finest: Syd is shown after having had casual sex with a man in the pilot episode early on. Toward the end of the pilot, she's shown to be bisexual when the same thing happens with a woman.
• In the Loki (2021) episode "Lamentis", when Sylvie asks Loki about his romantic interests, her specific wording is whether he "had any interest in other princes or princesses". Loki replies to this "a bit of both", establishing him as bisexual, which is true to his orientation in the comics and his status as a shapeshifter. Loki then says that he suspects the same is true for Sylvie, which she does not deny, confirming her own bisexuality. Loki director Kate Herron expressed great eagerness at including this detail, as it made their orientation MCU canon.
• Never Have I Ever: In Season 3 we learn Aneesa's into girls too, as she kisses Fabiola (to the latter's shock), later dating her before they amicably decide they're really Better as Friends.
• The Power (2023):
  • Early on, Roxy is revealed to be attracted by women, kissing one while they have an intimate moment. Later it's shown she also likes men, having a threesome with a man and woman.
  • Ryan reveals he has the skein to Jos, which is the result of him being intersex (as otherwise only cisgender women and girls are getting it).
• Power Rangers Dino Fury: "The Matchmaker" Javi tries to get Fern (a friend of Izzy) aside but the way he tells her makes her think that he wants to get together. Fern immediately shoots him down by stating that she's not dating guys at the moment and the end of the episode has her and Izzy going off on a date.
• Schitt's Creek: "Honeymoon" has David, who up until this point appeared to be Camp Gay, reveal he is pansexual, using wine as a metaphor to explain it to Stevie ("I like the wine and not the label").
• Star Trek: Discovery:
  • At the end of the first episode, Stamets and Hugh are seen getting ready to go to bed in the same bed, revealing that they're a gay couple.
  • In one episode, Reno is revealed to be a lesbian when she mentions having a dead wife.
  • Mirror Georgiou is established as pansexual when it's mentioned by an Orion prostitute duo (both male and female). She later confirms this and uses the term herself.
  • Adira Tal has a brief Coming-Out Story in which they tell Stamets they're not a woman and then ask to be called they/them rather than she/her from that point forward (everyone does afterward).
• Ted Lasso:
  • The episode "Do the Right-est Thing" establishes Colin as Ambiguously Gay when his immediate reaction to being told about Bantr, an In-Universe dating app, is to compare it to the gay hookup app Grindr. It's upgraded to a full confirmation a season later when we see Colin waking up after a night with his partner Michael in "4-5-1".
  • Keeley makes several references to finding Rebecca attractive, but her bisexuality isn't confirmed until the episode "Signs" when she kisses and (presumably) sleeps with Jack.
• 13 Reasons Why: The new Dean of Discipline Hansen Foundry introduced in season 4 is initially seen as a hard-ass Dean Bitterman by Clay and his friends. In the "Prom" episode, he congratulates Alex and Charlie for winning co-Prom Kings; he also attends prom with his husband, saying that two Prom Kings would not have happened in his day. No one else knew that Foundry was gay, and the characters' views soften on him, especially when Justin dies of AIDS-related illnesses and Foundry remarks that he has seen a lot of his friends die of the disease when he was growing up.
• Roswell, New Mexico:
  • Alex is established as gay early on when he and Michael kiss, then have sex offscreen.
  • Michael meanwhile is then established as bisexual when he has sex with Maria later. He confirms this to Max later.
  • Isobel is established as bisexual when it turns out that she loved Rosa, while she's married to Noah. She later dates two women too.
• ER: After an entire episode that seems to be building up to Carter and fellow intern Maggie Doyle ending up in bed together, she takes him to a shooting range, then suddenly shrieks and hides from her jealous ex-girlfriend. Carter is cool with it and Doyle ends up as his low-key Gay Best Friend.
• Sara is confirmed to be bisexual on Arrow when Ollie sees famed assassin Nyssa al Ghul meeting with her and kissing her, although the series would go on to establish that her bisexuality was already known to her family.
  • In the spinoff Legends of Tomorrow, several characters including a nurse in the 1950's, Queen Guinevere of Camelot, and Sara's eventual wife Ava reveal themselves as being queer in Sara's presence, with Caity Lotz playing each moment as if Sara's gaydar just pinged off the charts.
• The Umbrella Academy (2019): Season 3's "The World's Biggest Ball of Twine" has Viktor cut his hair short before arriving at a meeting between his siblings. When Diego addresses Viktor by his deadname, he is corrected as Viktor reintroduces himself with: "It's Viktor. It's who I've always been." He comes out as a trans man through this.
• The Order: Lilith is attracted to Randall in the first season and kisses him. The second season reveals she's attracted to Nicole. While at first it's left ambiguous if Nicole caused this by magical hypnotism, it's later confirmed not to be the case and Lilith has genuine feelings for her.
• Pandora:
  • Jax is established as being bisexual when she runs into her ex-girlfriend while in the present having a boyfriend.
  • Atria's bisexuality is shown through having a threesome with a man and woman.
• Andor: In "Narkina 5" after many heavy hints in the prior episodes, it's now made explicit that Cinta is lovers with Vel. They refer to "us" and love for each other in a clear romantic way.
• Willow:
  • The pilot "The Gales" showed Kit and Jade were more than just friends with the former kissing the latter passionately before leaving.
  • When the strange storm approaches the Immemorial City, Boorman asks both Jade and Graydon if they want to make out before the end.
• The Tunnel: Elise is shown to be bisexual when, after only being with men before, she begins to feel a connection to Eryka in Season 2. They kiss and have sex after this, but their connection doesn't pan out as Eryka is with the bad guys. In Season 3 Elise also tells Karl when she lost her virginity as a teenager, listing it twice with both a boy and a girl.
• The Last of Us (2023): Within the show (obviously it's no surprise if someone's familiar with the game) Ellie kissing Riley, her female best friend, in "Left Behind" shows she's attracted to girls.^note Although this was foreshadowed based on Ellie's reaction to Tess asking her if she had a boyfriend waiting for her back in the second episode. Riley is also fine with the kiss, implying she's had the same feelings.
• Line of Duty: Series 6 Episode 1 has Joanne Davidson introduced, a high-ranking detective who's implicated as corrupt by constable Farida Jatri. However, it turns out she's been secretly involved with Davidson, revealed when the latter to her house, gathering the rest of her things and moving out, making the viewer wonder whether this accusation is motivated by rage about their relationship breaking down.
• Gotham Knights (2023): Harper mentions that she's bisexual to Dent and Ford while they're interrogating her, explaining one reason she ran away with her brother Cullen was because her dad disliked this. Cullen is identified as a trans boy too in the next scene.
• Vida:
  • Emma and Lyn learn their mother Vidalia (after she's died) was into women when it turns out that she'd been married to another woman, which neither knew about until then.
  • Emma then reveals she's into women (or AFAB folks, since Sam's nonbinary it transpires) herself by hooking up with one, then reveals this to Lyn, who's surprised by the fact.

Video Games

• The ending of Celeste's DLC reveals that Madeline is trans via a few things in her room: rainbow and trans pride flags, a childhood photo of her looking more masculine-presenting, and a pill bottle that's suggested to be estrogen.
• Cyberpunk 2077:
  • Judy Alvarez's sexuality is revealed when she off-handedly mentions that she used to be in love with her co-worker and new boss, Maiko Maeda. Reading the emails on Maiko's terminal reveals that she and Judy actually used to be a couple in the past.
  • Kerry Eurodyne is revealed to be attracted to men when we see him in Johnny Silverhand's memories, where he's about to get a blowjob from a male Samurai fan in an alley. Kerry is actually bisexual, which you can tell when you visit his mansion much later in the game, and you can see bras strewn around his house and an email from his ex-wife on his laptop.
    • Speaking of Johnny, there's multiple hints throughout the game that he's not quite straight, either. The clearest example is a conversation you can trigger if you go to Dicky Twister, a gay strip club:
      Johnny: Huh, last time I was here I was with Kerry. This Latino hunk gave us a lapdance. Cheeks so smooth I could almost see my own reflection.
      V: I thought you prefer girls.
      Johnny: Mostly. Now and then I've swung both ways. The more the merrier.
  • Claire comes out to V as trans during her sidequest, when she tells V that she and her deceased husband were friends before her transition and that he brought her daffodils after her surgery to celebrate new beginnings.
• Bridget from Guilty Gear was originally portrayed as a boy crossdressing as a girl due to a superstition from her hometown that twins of the same gender are considered an ill omen. This didn't bother her too much at first until her reappearance in -STRIVE-, where her story arc shows her grappling with a gender identity crisis now that she has done away with the superstition. After receiving a pep talk from both Goldlewis and Ky, Bridget finally gets to courage to stand up and declare herself a girl.
• Ikenfell features a Cast Full of Gay, with some needing no explanation (for example Petronella and Ima are nonbinary and openly use they/them and Ze/Zir pronouns respectively; Gilda openly comments on how attractive she find other girls). That said, this trope still comes up a few times:
  • The only confirmation Rook (who's masc presenting and uses he/him pronouns) is nonbinary is a flashback where he asks Safina not to call him dude.
  • Ibn Oxley and Bax are shown to be close but aren't confirmed as a couple until Bax makes a Love Confession and gives Ibn a Cooldown Hug after the Final Boss fight.
  • The epilogue also confirms that Petronella is aroace, and Maritte and Pertisia are in a relationship. Gilda is also implied to be dating Rook (implying she might be bi or pan, as all her previous attraction was directed towards binary girls).
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist:
  • For Tangent, this moment can come as early as considering her as a childhood friend and reading the mention of her having undergone genome treatment to make her body conform to her gender. If that part gets skipped due to only considering other children, a piece of her random dialog during her late childhood has her comment that her puberty seems to be going a little differently from that of people who were born with a female set of hormones.
  • As Seeq is non-binary, the player knows as soon as the first time their pronouns appear in dialog.
  • If you ask Nomi-Nomi about their gender when you first meet them, they'll say that they're just glad that the Strato colony has "not-boy, not-girl people" like Seeq, revealing that they're nonbinary like them.
• The Last of Us:
  • Paranoid Crazy Survivalist Bill talks about his partner without using pronouns and it isn't revealed until the group stumbles upon his male partner's corpse.
  • Ellie gets one in the Downloadable Content story expansion with her friend Riley; the game subtly teases a possible romantic connection between the two girls in the midst of them hanging out and having fun. But then Ellie plants a kiss on Riley's lips and Riley doesn't mind at all. In the sequel to the game, Ellie is an out lesbian.
  • In The Last of Us Part II, Lev is revealed to be transgender when the Seraphites hunting him stumble upon him and yells out his deadname. Earlier he mentions to Abby that part of the reason why he and his sister left the Seraphites is that he "shaved [his] head". Only male Seraphites have clean-shaven heads.
• League of Legends:
  • In Pride Month of 2021, Leona and Diana starred in a short story called "Rise With Me", firmly establishing the two as a canonically sapphic pairing and depicting them sharing their First Kiss together. This was complimented by an emote of the two locking hands to form a heart.
  • When Nami joined Legends of Runeterra as a champion, two follower cards were released with her simultaneously, Tama, the Marai Songstress, Loto, the Abyssal Defender. Their relation to Nami unveils that she is both bi and polyamorous, establishing that the three of them are a mutual polycule.
  • Months after Leona and Diana's confirmation, Arcane released and featured an explicitly romantic dynamic between Vi and Caitlyn, two other champs that had been teased years before. Caitlyn's ASU that released soon after also added several lines alluding to their relationship.
  • After years of Homoerotic Subtext and internal conflicts among Riot management, Twisted Fate and Graves received pretty blatant confirmation of being a male-loving-male couple as the two headline 2022's batch of Pride cosmetics. One of the items is an emote that bares a direct reference to Brokeback Mountain, a gay romantic drama about two cowboys. The start of Pride Month also saw the release of the short story "The Boys and Bombolini", which explicitly confirms in text that they're in a gay, romantic partnership.
    “I knew they’d end up with each other. Graves always had the worst taste in men, and Fate is the worst man I’ve ever met. It all makes sense!”
  • K'Sante debuted in 2022, and unlike previous examples was very quickly established as gay with his introduction video, which establishes his romance and falling-out with another man — a hunter named Tope — with their relationship informing a major story beat in K'Sante's backstory.
• The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories uses a Bait-and-Switch. It teases J.J and Emily as a lesbian couple, but the actual twist is that J.J is a trans girl. There's a slow ramp-up of hints, but it becomes completely unambiguous when a flashback shows her being outed at college, leading to an Attempted Suicide and the reveal that the game's a Dying Dream.
• From Overwatch:
  • Tracer is revealed to be lesbian during the Christmas Episode comic "Reflections", where after a day of holiday heroics, she returns to her apartment, revealing she lives with a girlfriend named Emily, with the two sharing a kiss together before joining with Winston for dinner.
  • The short story "Bastet" reveals in conversation that Jack Morrison/"Soldier: 76" was in a gay relationship with a man named Vincent, though his commitment to his military work led to them falling out of contact. He reveals in the present day to still keep a photo of them together (which also happened to be present in the aforementioned "Reflections" comic, albeit without context of their relationship), harboring wistful nostalgia for the one that got away.
• Persona 2:
  • If you pick the bad choices before Caracol, in a later cutscene Yukino, who is crushing pretty hard on her male boss, is revealed to be bisexual. Her Shadow kisses Anna and then they both jump off the bridge.
  • While there were subtle hints shown earlier, the cutscene after you complete the Taurus Temple reveals that Jun is gay and Tatsuya is bisexual. Tatsuya is asked to pick which of his friends he's interested in, and Jun is the Gay Option. If you choose that, Lisa is stunned and feels quite awkward to find out he swings that way. This has an effect in gameplay, as Jun and Tatsuya get a joint contact, and the Tatsuya/Lisa joint contact is lost for the rest of the game. No, the two options do not function the same way.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: During one of Ciri's playable flashbacks, she can respond to a question about if she's attracted to the stable boy who befriended/saved her, by confirming she prefers women. Ciri is bisexual, as per the original books, and though the player has the option here of what to say, later Geralt does ask her about a barmaid she had chemistry with and it's spelled out they're Amicable Exes.

Visual Novels

• Havenfall Is for Lovers: Eva is confirmed as trans in Antonio's fourth season, when the heroine is talking her through the various pride flags and she is delighted to learn there is 'one for her', and Antonio buys her a trans flag badge.

Web Animation

• In Among Us Logic, Mr. Cheese was introduced as an associate of The Gentleman, and most of their early appearances together are filled with Ho Yay. However, they are officially confirmed to be a couple in the Jailbreak video. When Gnome (who was revealed to have killed her boyfriend Engineer) points out that he "killed his boyfriend a bunch of times", we cut to a montage of moments from previous episodes where he killed The Gentleman. While Mr. Cheese denies killing the Gentleman, he does not counter her calling him his boyfriend.
• RWBY:
  • In Volume 5, Ilia Amitola tells Blake that she used to have a crush on her, but Blake was too busy pining for Adam to notice. However, the point of their relationship, and the antagonism between them in Volumes 4-5 has nothing to do with Ilia's romantic feelings. The issue is how her grief over the deaths of her parents is being exploited by the villains, and how Blake's platonic faith in her old friend helps bring her back from the edge.
  • While discussing with Weiss whether they should protect Atlas or Mantle, May Marigold says her activism in Mantle caused her Atlesian parents to disown her as a son. In response, May made it clear their daughter was disowning them in turn. Although she is the show's first transgender character introduced on screen, the point of the scene is about how people choose to protect either Mantle or Atlas, and the fact that the scale of catastrophe facing the two cities is too great for either city to handle alone.
  • In Confessions Within Cumulonimbus Clouds Blake and Yang are separated by the Ever After's weather. Being a Rule of Symbolism magical realm it drops them into a storm battered broken bridge that has them on opposite sides of the only piece of solid land around. To get each other the two have to admit what they haven't said about one another, finally culminating with their mutual declarations of love and their First Kiss as a couple, ending years of teases and cementing that their attraction. Despite this the rest of the episode centers around other parts of the plot that their relationship doesn't directly effect, lamp shaded by Yang's first words after being "What did we miss?".
• Helluva Boss: At first, Moxxie's bisexuality was hinted at in what seems like throwaway jokes, like him wanting to have sex with Michael Crawford, only really being confirmed through Word of Gay. Enter "Exes and Oohs" and we learn that Moxxie dated a male shark demon named Chaz. He also explicitly clarifies to his father that he's bisexual and not gay.

Webcomics

• Goblins: The goblins and Minmax encounter a magical pillar that shows images of what you lust after. For Fumbles it doesn't change, implying that he is asexual, and for Big Ears it shows a muscular male goblin, revealing that he is gay.
• NEXT!! Sound Of The Future: It's established in the first chapter that Lucky is a trans man when another character accidently refers to him as "she" before immediately correcting herself to "he", which also conveys that his transition was fairly recent.
• Thinking Too Much to Think Positively: A somewhat unusual example as this is from an autobiographical comic based on the author's own experiences. Xan being referred to as female by her partner, RF, in "They Said, She Said" helps her come to terms with being a trans woman. At the time of publication she was non-binary but beginning to get more accustomed to being referred to as female. Xan being a trans woman then sticks for the rest of the comic.
  RF: Hey everyone, this is my girlfriend Xan! Isn't she cute?
  [Xan blushes sweetly and literally glows with the trans pride colours.]
  RF: Yeah, I think you're good.

Web Videos

• In episode 114 of Critical Role, some of the other members of The Mighty Nein adventurers tease Cleric (and cook) Caduceus Clay that the female butcher they just visited for supplies was taken with him, and he should return her favors. Clay surprises them by admitting he just isn't interested in sex or romance, revealing that he's aroace.

Western Animation

• In the Arthur episode "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone", Arthur's teacher Mr. Ratburn announces he is going to get married, but Arthur and his friends are not happy with that idea, so they try to sabotage the wedding, thinking that a woman named Patty who has started following Mr. Ratburn around is going to be his wife. At the end of the episode, the kids are surprised to see Mr. Ratburn marrying a man instead, the first instance of the show making it clear that he's gay.
• In Bojack Horseman, Todd has mixed feelings after finding out that Bojack slept with his ex-girlfriend Emily. In the Season 4 finale, he suggests to Emily that he "might be nothing" with regards to his sexual orientation, establishing himself as asexual.
• Craig of the Creek: In the episode "Fire & Ice", Kelsey starts to realize that she likes Stacks more than a friend and Stacks feel the same way. At the end of the episode, they hold hands.
• Throughout the run of Gravity Falls, Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland share plenty of Ho Yay moments together, with the former reacting in distress when he sees the latter frozen by Bill Cypher. However, it's only in the series finale when they declare that they "are mad with power... and love", confirming that the duo are more than just really close friends.
• The Hollow: Adam's orientation is hinted at in Season 1, after he & Mira kiss, where he tells her he's not interested in her that way. It's then hinted at again in the first episode of Season 2 with a rainbow pride flag in his bedroom, and then in the next episode Adam flat out states to Kai that he's gay.
• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: After nearly five seasons of their relationship deepening, Yaz admits to Ben that while she has liked boys in the past, Yaz says she is attracted to Sammy, showing herself as bisexual.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: We find out Benson's sexual orientation at the end of "Ratland" when Kipo states that she likes him. Benson stumbles a bit before outright revealing that he's gay.
• The Loud House:
  • In "Study Muffin", Luna describes Lincoln's substitute, Ms. DiMartino, as "smokin' [hot]", implying she is queer. "L is for Love" confirms Luna's queerness; the audience is led to believe that her crush, Sam, is a boy, only for said boy (Sully) to walk past the locker Luna put a note in and for a girl to open the locker instead.
  • Leni's friend, Miguel, is confirmed to be gay in "Food Courting", which reveals he has a crush on another boy, Gavin.
• Middlemost Post: Russell (who, despite her name, is a girl) revealed in "To Narwhal, with Love" to be a lesbian when she falls in love with Winifred, a female narwhal. Winifred's owner's father is against their relationship, not because they're both girls, but because Russell is not rich.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Big Mac Question", Lyra and Bon Bon are seen proposing to each other in the background, revealing that they're lesbians.
• The Owl House:
  • Luz is revealed to be bisexual in "Lost in Language" after Emira winks and calls her "cutie", causing her to blush (her attraction to men had already been established in "Witches Before Wizards" when she spent most of the episode fawning over Nevareth).
  • In "Enchanting Grom Fright", Amity is revealed to be a lesbian when it's shown that her worst fear is being rejected by her crush Luz.
  • The March 2022 charity livestream features a Voiceover Letter from Lilith where she is implied to be aromantic after admitting to Hooty that she's never had any interest in romance.
  • In "Thanks to Them", Masha is shown to be non-binary, as their nameplate specifies that they go by they/them pronouns and their fingernails are painted in the colors of the non-binary pride flag.
• Rugrats (2021): Betty is portrayed as a Butch Lesbian in this series, and this is established in the first episode when she says she has an ex-girlfriend.
• South Park: An odd case regarding Tweek and Craig, who were shipped by the entire town in "Tweek x Craig" despite their claims of not being gay. They decide to start fake dating and the episode has them reconcile and hang out together, but it's still unclear if it's for them or the town. However, it becomes unambiguous in "Put it Down" when not only does Cartman refer to Tweek as Craig's boyfriend, but Craig refers to Tweek as "babe" even outside of school. This confirms that the two are actually gay.
• Tuca & Bertie: Tuca is revealed to be bisexual in "Bird Mechanics" when she is shown to see both male and female characters as prospective dates on the Sex Bus.

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