Is Western Animation Ready For Gay Characters?

I just think that if gay characters are handled as well as they were in The Simpsons episode Homer's Phobia, I see no problem with this.
 
To be honest, in children's animation...I'd have to say there's a high unlikely chance that we'll see a non-stereotypical gay character - by that I mean non-flamboyant person, they're just regular people who happen to be gay. In most shows I have seen with gay characters, the shows goes out of its way to show you that "OMG Guy X is gayzors!" by make the gay stereotype his personality.

But to be fair, I think most kids wouldn't really care about if So-and-So is gay, straight, asexual, bisexual, etc. Not to say they don't understand or wouldn't be willing to learn about other sexual orientations and be accepting of them, they wanna watch a show and be entertained.

I think that maybe in another generation we'll start seeing them. :)

Actually, I believe Archie is releasing a comic with a new gay character.
 
With Cartoon Network pushing more and more PG rated shows with mildy stronger content, it shouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that at some point they'd add a gay character to one of their shows.
 
Keep in mind that we're talking about the same Cartoon Network in which Jonesy wasn't even allowed to say the word "gay" in an episode of 6Teen.

That won't happen unless said character isn't portrayed as being flamboyantly gay and also if said character's sexual desires aren't ever discussed. Any gay character on a kid oriented show would have to just be "a boy who doesn't like girls" or "a girl who doesn't like boys". A kids' show with an openly gay character would immediately be branded "That gay cartoon" by the PTA and parents' outrage would force the show off of the air in less than a month. As liberal as some of us are, this country's kid vid media just isn't ready for that yet.
 
I know tv tropes like to point out that the Phineas & Ferb character of Baljeet may be gay, judging by his interaction with Buford. And according to Craig Bartlett, Mr. Simmons from Hey Arnold was gay. So we have already witnessed gay characters in western animation, just not a character coming completely out of the closet and saying it on screen. Then again it's hard to find a gay character in live action or animation who is not portrayed as the stereotypical flaming homosexual either.

(Not animation, but this time around I think Degrassi is doing a great job of writing for their two gay characters, Riley and Zane.)
 
Thing is the adult animation shows are all comedies and the only gay characters in them are stereotypes. So the only chance to see a gay character that isn't a stereotype would be in one of the more serious kids cartoons, which isn't going to happen due to them being kids shows.
 
I wouldn't call Greg and Terry on American Dad stereotypes. At least not anymore. Anytime those two got a focus episode over the last two or three seasons, it's actually developed them into more well rounded characters.
 
What's wrong with a show portraying real life and showing there're more diverse people out in the world? If kids see a gay character, who isn't a stereotype, that's "cool and awesome" maybe they'll grow up thinking it's not something weird and scary and learn that just because someone is different than them it doesn't make them bad.

It could also provide positive role models for kids figuring out their own sexuality and have them see they're not alone in what they're going through and it's something natural.

I also can't think of a recent female character that is just "put in there" who doesn't have relevance to the plot or the main character. The only ones I can think of are from the 80s.
 
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