"The Truth About Us On Television..."

From "Modern Family's" Mitch and Cam (top), to "Brooklyn Nine-Nine's" Captain Holt (lower left) and "Orange Is the New Black's" Sophia, these small-screen stars are among the best gay characters on TV.

The 5 Best Gay Characters On TV

Jozen Cummings
June 3, 2014


The gay character on a television show has come a long way since 1997, when Ellen DeGeneres used her sitcom, “Ellen,” to come out — one of several watershed LGBT pride moments in pop culture.

Today, gay characters have evolved into something more fully formed, no longer relying on their sexuality alone to be compelling.

In honor of National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride month (which was proclaimed by President Obama on May 29 but began on June 1), here are some of the LGBT characters you should be watching right now — not just because they’re LGBT, but because they do everything a good character should do for a television show: They make you want to watch.

‘Orange Is the New Black’

Actress: Laverne Cox

Character: Sophia Burset

By the time we were done binge-watching the first season of this dark comedy about life in a women’s prison, there was a list of characters we could all get behind. But none was more well-liked than Laverne Cox’s Sophia.

The real-life transgender actress plays an inmate who shields her own difficult relationship with her son on the outside by giving her fellow inmates in-house makeovers — and helping them cope with their own problems.

‘Scandal’

Actor: Jeff Perry

Character: Cyrus Beene

It’s too bad Cyrus’ husband James (Dan Bucatinsky) was killed on this past season of “Scandal,” because it meant the end of one of the most dysfunctional and entertaining relationships on television. Perry plays a White House chief of staff who is so mean and cutthroat, we actually weren’t surprised he was the reason his husband was killed.

Very few people on TV can accomplish what Cyrus manages to do: Be the man we love to hate one week, and the man we hate to love the next.

‘Modern Family’

Actor: Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Character: Mitchell Pritchett

The magic of the Mitchell Pritchett character is in his vulnerability. He’s a successful lawyer who has made his family proud, but still struggles to feel accepted by his family — namely his father, Jay (Ed O’Neill) — for being gay.

The insecurity is valid (Jay is never gun-shy about making a quip), but Ferguson has a way of making Mitchell seem less gay and more socially awkward, which is why his struggle to blend in is so convincing.

‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’

Actor: Andre Braugher

Character: Capt. Ray Holt

A big issue with many gay characters on comedy shows is how their flamboyance is often used as a source of comedy. Ray Holt is funny because Braugher plays him as the most uptight, stoic character on television.
In “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” first season, less than 10 smiles from Holt would be a generous guess, but that serious face of his surely made for more than 10 real LOL moments.

‘Modern Family’

Actor: Eric Stonestreet

Character: Cameron Tucker

Cam is what we could commonly call “Mitchell’s better half.” But Stonestreet, as the husband to Ferguson’s character, is equally good. Where Mitchell is guilty of caring too much about what other people think, Cam is guilty of not considering what other people may think.

He’s equally controlling when he’s coaching the high school football team or directing the high school drama club.

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It's a very surprising and refreshing development to see so many positive GLBT representations on television. I'm very much reminded of what it felt like to be a young black child in the 1970s and '80s when the proliferation of black characters and programs reflecting the black experience reached its zenith.  I can remember that suddenly, you didn't feel so much like "the 'lesser thans' of society" and you began to think of yourself like you and your life were part of whatever it is that we call "normal." 

Television characters like George Jefferson, and Roger Thomas allowed me to see possibilities for my life that I'd never before imagined, and in that same way, today's GLBT characters are doing the same thing for a generation of GLBT youth watching today.  

For myself, I can well remember when watching "Will & Grace" was a "secret pleasure" of mine in a day when I never dreamed I'd ever be able to face the truth of my own heart.  But as it turned out, seeing people like myself portrayed on television was important to helping me gain the courage to live my life truthfully.  And now, a new generation of GLBT people can see themselves in the characters we follow on television and thereby know that their being different is okay, it's just a part what it means to be normal.

"Fear Eats the Soul"