Word Of Gay / Live-Action TV

• Though it was rarely played with on the show, Xena: Warrior Princess stars Xena and Gabrielle were at one point common law married according to creator Rob Tapert, however his opinion flip-flops. Lucy Lawless has stated clearly in interviews that Xena was bisexual and that Xena and Gabrielle were indeed a romantic couple at the end of the series. Many lesbian fans have also noted that there were a large number of lesbian in-jokes throughout the series...
• Alicia Vega, minor (dead) Stargate Atlantis character, and a male supporting character (they will not say who). The series was originally supposed to hint at Vega's sexuality on-screen, and the relevant scenes were even filmed and can be found on the DVD, but most of her scenes were deleted from her introductory episode for pacing reasons, getting rid of not just the hints at her sexuality, but most of her characterization in general.
• Popular creator Ryan Murphy said that his plans for the third season would have included Sam realizing she was gay. Of course, looking at what else he's done, this is no surprise to anyone.
• In 2020, Laura Marano, who played Ally Dawson in Austin & Ally, joked to a fan on Twitter that Austin Moon is bisexual and used to date Dez at some point, and that her character Ally is an LGBTQ ally (claiming that it was "literally in her name"), despite her becoming a couple with Austin in the series. Of course, this was only a joke, so this fact isn't officially confirmed.
• Gaeta and Hoshi Battlestar Galactica. They were only outed in second-hand webisodes shot after the series. Ron Moore has also said that all the Cylons were bisexual, although only the female ones showed it on-screen.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • Robert Hewitt Wolfe has stated that he wrote Garak to be attracted to Bashir, and according to Andrew Robinson, Garak's bisexual, and he played him with an (obvious, really) unrequited attraction to Bashir.
  • For Bashir's part, Alexander Siddig has on his Zoom club suggested that he felt that Bashir was attracted to people regardless of gender.
  • Terry Farrell implied on Twitter, that Jadzia Dax was pansexual, saying that she liked anyone she found interesting.
  • Some of the show creators had said they originally intended to make Geordi gay on Next Generation but backed down from it. This may explain why he consistently had little luck with women; some of the earlier Expanded Universe novels are also dripping with Ho Yay (in A Call to Darkness, when Geordi is ordered off duty to relax, he heads to the holodeck and activates his program of Ancient Greece, and spends a lot of time walking around holding Homer's hand and talking in a rather intimate fashion).
  • When Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek: TOS) was asked about the Ho Yay between Kirk and Spock, he admitted "there is certainly some of that." And then there's the infamous, "We certainly believe the affection was sufficient for [a physical relationship] if that were the particular style of the 23rd century," which most slashers are convinced settles the matter altogether. There's also an analysis of the infamous footnote in the novelization of the first movie that suggests that you could, in fact, go either way on this. In an inversion, George Takei (who is gay) specifically said that Hikaru Sulu is not, in response to many fans who assumed that because Takei was, that necessarily his character was also. Sulu also canonically has a wife and daughter, though the former has never been introduced. In Star Trek Beyond, Sulu is depicted as gay, but others, including Takei himself, derided the decision, thinking it would have been better to create a completely new gay character.^note  Takei said that he didn't like Sulu being gay because Gene Roddenberry had specifically told him the character was straight, and he thought that making Sulu gay was going against Roddenberry's vision. Simon Pegg eventually did an Author's Saving Throw and explained the Kelvin Universe Sulu has a different sexuality from the Prime Universe Sulu.
  • Q. Both Ronald D. Moore, one of the writers for the show, and John de Lancie, the actor who played Q, thought he was in love with Picard. Of course, because Q is an Energy Being, he doesn't actually have a natural physical form governed by flesh and bone, or even gender for that matter, making Q more of a gender-neutral being rather than a strict "he". In one instance, when observing how weak and sentimental Picard's romance with his girlfriend Vash had made him act, Q lampshades that he probably would have done better to have appeared to Picard as a female when they first met in order to take advantage of him. Additionally the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Q and the Grey", shows Q ready to "mate" with Captain Janeway, and it is also revealed that Q has a girlfriend (another Q, of course) who disapproves of Q's advances on Janeway. However, both the lady Q and "our" Q make it a point that their relationship is not physical, because the Q are above sex as flesh and bone mortals know it (Energy Being creatures wouldn't mate with bodies after all). And gender, for that matter; it's stated that the apparent form of each Q is a matter of "lower" species and their perceptions, implying that Q's "girlfriend" is rendered as a girl to act as symbolism for a jealous lover. Amusingly, in a radio program where Q meets Spock the issue of Q's sexuality is brought up when Spock is perplexed by the alien's quirky and campy personality traits, in which Spock implies through his dialogue that Q might be gay. Q notes off hand, in response to Spock asking him if he's "coming out", that he's bi-special: a person who is attracted to more than one species; in his particular case that would be an attraction to humans (Picard and/or Janeway) and other Qs (the aforementioned Q girlfriend).
  • Star Trek: Discovery: Gray Tal has been stated by production members to be a trans man, but this was not stated onscreen in Season 3. In the Season 4 episode "Anomaly" he talks about his experience transitioning, and in "Stormy Weather" he mentions choosing his name.
• Neverwhere:
  • In discussing the Dumbledore issue on his online journal, author Neil Gaiman once mentioned in passing that the series "has two gay characters who are Out, as far as the book is concerned, and one major character who is gay but it isn't mentioned, simply because that character was one of many people in that book who don't have any sexual or romantic entanglements during the story." He hasn't actually named the characters, but an educated guess would suggest Hunter and Lady Serpentine as the two outed characters. (The hinted romance between them is something that both of them look back on fondly.) The one whose sexuality doesn't affect the story is any fanfic writer's guess but is likely the Marquis De Carabas, largely because he bears a striking character resemblance to the Cluracan from Gaiman's The Sandman, who is also gay. And because he's flamboyantly fabulous.
  • Gaiman said in the commentary that the angel, Islington was supposed to be neither male nor female but they couldn't find an actor or actress androgynous enough to pull this off. The novelization specified they were neither male nor female.
• Doctor Who:
  • The writer of "Survival" complained that her intended lesbian subtext between Ace and Karra was lost in the broadcast version (though some fans will aver that the subtext is still visible if you look). By that point, several stories (including "The Curse of Fenric", written by the character's creator) had explicitly depicted Ace showing romantic interest in male characters, making this more "word of bi".
  • Ricky and Jake in "The Age of Steel", as revealed by Russell T Davies in Doctor Who Confidential. The deleted scene showing this is included in the DVD box set.
  • Davies revealed in 2020 that he planned a scene for "Journey's End" where we catch up with Nyssa and Tegan, who are now in a lesbian relationship.
  • Steven Moffat has said that River is bi. For years, her attraction to women was never mentioned in-universe; even by the time of her intended final appearance all the fandom had was Word of God. This being Doctor Who though, she eventually came back at an earlier point in her timeline, and finally talked about having had female partners.
  • The sexuality of the Doctor is still a topic of much debate, with the two main interpretations being that she's either bisexual/pansexual or asexual. Evidence for both views can be found in-universe, with Doctors from the Eighth onward happily kissing their companions regardless of gender while generally staying away from more intimate entanglements. Steven Moffat finally took it upon himself to say on twitter that the Doctor doesn't understand the human concepts of gay and straight on a personal level. Since the character's development is ongoing to the point of being pretty much eternal, this discourse eventually did make its way into the series with the Doctor explaining that his entire species is genderfluid and has wildly different ideas of male/female dynamics than humans do.
  • Zigzagged with Clara Oswald in her final series. Twice it is hinted that Clara has had an off-screen romance with Jane Austen, both times explicit enough to state that Clara is bisexual, but these are spoken as throwaway lines. In interviews, actress Jenna Coleman has been the one to say if Clara is bisexual but also hangs onto the fact that it is also up to audience interpretation.
  • According to Ian Briggs, writer of "The Curse of Fenric", Judson and Millington's bitter relationship was not simply a friendship turned sour, but one that had turned into a love affair and then gone wrong. Judson in particular was loosely based on Alan Turing.
• According to the audio commentary for The Sarah Jane Adventures' story "Death of the Doctor" (included on the special edition DVD of Doctor Who serial "The Green Death"), Luke Smith would've been revealed to be gay had the series continued. A decade later, in the 2020 minisode "Farewell, Sarah Jane", this was finally made officially canon.
• In Torchwood, Word of God states that all of the original regular characters were bisexual. All of them showed evidence of this apart from Gwen. She did once have a same-sex encounter, but that was under the influence of an alien, and as such she is (currently) Word of Bi.
• According to Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller one of the characters on the show was gay. He later revealed that it was The Coroner who always let them in to see the body, and he has a crush on Emerson.
• In Jonathan Creek, Maddie's publisher Barry was gay, at least according to David Renwick. However, since his entire purpose in the story was to be someone Maddie could rant about Jonathan to, it never got mentioned. (There was one scene in Season Two in which Maddie would say "Who wants to go out with a mindless copulating machine who just wants to get at you with his seed drill?" and they would both get rather thoughtful, but it got cut for time). There is a probable hint at this in the series 1 episode The Reconstituted Corpse where Maddy is talking to Barry on the phone and finishes the call by saying "Love to Jason".
• Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, creators of The Fast Show, have stated that the popular characters Ted & Ralph are both gay; Ralph is GAY gay, Ted is a more repressed gay.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic Mike from Spaced was confirmed to be gay in the DVD commentary. Considering the Ho Yay -laden advances he makes toward best friend Tim, everyone seems to be perfectly fine with it.
• In Babylon 5:
  • Another Neil Gaiman example: he has confirmed that the romantic subtext many fans saw between Lochley and the ghost of Zoe, her friend during her "junkie teenage hooker" period, in "Day of the Dead" was intentional.
  • JMS has confirmed Talia and Ivanova were sleeping together in the early seasons; it was meant to be more overt but they couldn't get it past the executives.
• Gus and Max in Breaking Bad. Their relationship is open for interpretation, but creator Vince Gilligan has stated that he thinks they were lovers, which was eventually confirmed by Better Call Saul showrunner Peter Gould in a podcast interview.
  • Whether Jimmy McGill is bisexual or just If It's You, It's Okay is up for debate, but both "Marco" and "Waterworks" Insider Podcasts confirmed that he and Marco were together at some point.
• In Heroes there's Zach. The problem was Thomas Dekker was still in the closet at the time and felt kind of like the show was outing him which led to him leaving the show.
• In Chris Lilley's Angry Boys, Gran lives with her very tall co-worker Penny. The Special Edition DVD and Blu-Ray sets for the show include more than two hours of Gran extras that easily remedy the series' ambiguity about their relationship. In one such scene, Gran mentions that she "read(s) in bed at night and keeps Penny awake."
• Rawls in The Wire was hinted to be gay several times (most overtly when he's briefly seen in the background during a scene set in a gay bar, looking off-duty and very comfortable) but David Simon explicitly confirmed it in an interview.
• The writers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have confirmed that they intended to portray Victoria Hand and Isabelle Hartley as ex-lovers, like their comic book counterparts, until they realised the Unfortunate Implications associated with introducing just two LGBT characters into a two-dozen-strong cast and then killing them both off almost immediately, and without them ever actually appearing in the same episode, let alone the same scene. The fandom has generally treated this as confirmed Word Of Gay all the same.
• Prime Suspect: In March 2015, Helen Mirren was asked what Jane Tennison would be doing now. Mirren replied, "She's a lesbian, living with a very attractive female partner."
• In the commentary for the Angel episode "A Hole in the World", Joss Whedon confirms that Angel and Spike had at least one sexual encounter with each other back in the days of the Whirlwind. ("Do you think they never? Come on.") Technically more "Word of One Night Stand", but still confirmed.
• The Wachowskis declared that all of the main characters from Sense8 are pansexual.
• Richard Carpenter, creator of Robin of Sherwood, stated in a DVD interview that original Merry Men Tom the Fletcher and Dickon were a gay couple.
• After nine years, Sarah Hyland stated her Modern Family character Haley is bi.
• Power Rangers:
  • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder showrunner Jackie Marchand revealed roughly thirty minutes into this interview that Hayley Ziktor was a lesbian, and there were plans to subtly reveal this in the finale. However, the scene never aired and the fan base didn't learn this until 2014, a full decade after Dino Thunder had concluded.
  • From Power Rangers Dino Charge, Michael Taber confirmed that he played Riley as gay and with a crush on fellow ranger Chase.
  • From Power Rangers Ninja Steel, Caleb Bendit revealed that he played Monty as gay and being in love with Victor and was told to "tone it down".
• Inverted with Sesame Street. There have been a massive amount of speculation and jokes concerning the relationship between Bert and Ernie that has flared up from time to time because they lived together and sleeping in the same bed room despite having separate beds. A former writer for the show claimed on September 18, 2018, that he based his characterisation of Bert and Ernie on himself and his partner, which some interpreted as saying they are indeed a gay couple. However, Sesame Workshop released an official statement saying that they are just friends. Frank Oz, the man who co-created Bert and Ernie, stated on Twitter that Bert and Ernie are not gay, but added that he understood why that sort of representation was important. In February 2019, Brown Johnson, Executive VP of Sesame Workshop gave a Shrug of God, stating: "People can think whatever they want. You want to think they're gay? OK. You want to think they're not gay? They're not gay."
• Robert Sheehan said in an interview that his character Klaus from The Umbrella Academy is pansexual and doesn't identify as male.
• Hugh Laurie is happy to call House and Wilson a couple, has said that House could be with Cuddy, Cameron or Wilson, and has complained about the concept of "bromance" before.
• Chandler from Friends was originally going to be gay, though they scrapped it when Matthew Perry was cast. Even afterward it's very obvious, especially in the early seasons, that they kept this idea on the table in case they decided to have Chandler come out. It is quite remarkable that Chandler and Monica would become such a stable couple. In any case, Chandler being Mistaken for Gay is a running gag throughout the show.
• Both the creators and Alan Alda of M*A*S*H talked about Hawkeye intentionally being "flamboyant" and having roots in the burlesque scene that Alda grew up with because the more Republican original version of Hawkeye couldn't hold a show.
• Roswell, New Mexico: According to showrunner Caryna Adly MacKenzie, Jenna's sister Charlie (who's played by trans actress Jamie Clayton) is also transgender in her mind (the role was specifically written for her). However, it was never said onscreen when Charlie appeared, since Clayton convinced her it was better to just have trans performers be normalized by playing roles without these always being also trans or having explicit focus on their genders.
• Wednesday: Johnna Dias-Watson revealed that Divina and Yoko are in a relationship, with a Deleted Scene revealing at the Rave'N with the two dancing together to a romantic song.
• In 2023, Wizards of Waverly Place showrunner Peter Murrieta confirmed that Alex Russo is bisexual and had a relationship with Stevie, but Disney would not allow them to do the storyline.
• David Chase confirmed on the Talking Sopranos podcast that Phil Leotardo from The Sopranos is an Armored Closet Gay. Hence, he was so angry when his son-in-law Vito turned out to be gay.
• Willow (2022): Wendy Mericle, writer of "The Battle of the Slaughtered Lamb" confirmed that her intention behind the woodswomen Hubert and Anne was that they are indeed a couple (in fact, married), as it had been implied. Almost no one in the fandom had thought otherwise about them.
• Supernatural: While he was a bit wishy-washy at first on social media about the infamous Destiel scene in "Despair", Misha Collins has now confirmed multiple times both that Castiel's confession is a "homosexual declaration of love", and that Cas, for all intents and purposes, is gay. Because of his various heterosexual flings throughout the series, however, it can be seen more as Word Of Queer/Not Straight, and it's somewhat debatable as to whether his past relationships with women were genuine or merely an attempt to suppress his feelings for Dean.

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