Canon LGBTQ Representation (Not Main Pairing)

The two main leads are canonically aromantic asexual, and their representation is so good!  Their orientations were clearly researched well and handled with respect.  There is some aphobia that is challenged in-show.

One of the two main characters is gay. This series was created by a gay man, and it shows. Respectful and realistic representation (although it is a comedy, so some stuff is exaggerated).

Secondary lesbian romance which was healthy and cute. They don't seem to come out, but one friend (the FL) figures it out and is supportive, and there's no homophobia.

The third story has a lesbian female lead. In my opinion, the character was treated very respectfully, and there's no homophobia.

I thought the show was queerbaiting with a supporting character but no, he turns out to be actually gay at the end.  (Spoiler: He says, "I have a boyfriend.")  So that was nice.  With that hindsight, I feel his character was handled respectfully.  The writing for that character is a bit more campy than the writing for other characters, but it felt reasonable and not like a caricature.  (Honestly, I related to his character a lot.)

One ML is an openly gay man, and after going through homophobia, is totally accepted by his family and the straight ML at the end. Parts of his character were written a bit stereotypically, but I felt the film's heart was in the right place. There's also a supporting gay character who's fat, and he is handled less sensitively by the script (he's a bit more stereotypical, and the script is fatphobic toward him.)

Canon wlw (very side) character, accepted by main characters

The FL's best friend seems to be a kathoey, and I think the character was handled respectfully.  Everyone is accepting, and no bias is shown.

Canon (very side) trans character, with no transphobia!

A major supporting character is openly gay. He's a bit stereotypical but not treated with any homophobia - in fact, he asks the angel if gay people go to hell, and the angel assures him that they don't: anyone who loves goes to heaven.

One episode features a closeted lesbian who eventually comes out.  Handled pretty respectfully, with no homophobia from the FL.

Passing pansexual and aromantic rep from two different side characters, treated as normal and unremarkable. Another side character who overacts in that Japanese anime style turns out to be gay, which feels a little stereotypical since he's so over the top. He's also treated as normal, and his relationship is supported by those around him.

The main character seems to be a transfeminine person and works with other transfems at a gay bar.  The production seemed to have hired actors who all shared the same identities as their characters.  Felt pretty respectful.  There are documentary-style scenes interspersed throughout the film in which a clueless interviewer is asking these actors uninformed questions about their lives (such as will you ever go back to being a man?).  The actors' answers are centered over the insensitive questions.

Two supporting characters: The emperor, who is implied to have a male lover, and is openly acknowledged by the narration as "bisexual" and "a man who likes men more than women."  His cousin is an afab person who is introduced by text on screen as "famous for dressing like a man."  It's briefly implied that the character is in a relationship with the empress.  So both these characters are pretty much living their LGBTQ lives out in the open, and it's not really commented on.  Regarding the emperor, the lack of comment doesn't feel like tacit support, but more like everyone's agreeing to pretend it isn't happening.  In his cousin's case, I was surprised by how that character seems pretty much accepted in men's circles, and no one seems to have a problem with the character's gender presentation. (Spoiler: Neither character has a happy ending, but it's based on actual history, so.)

For a show dealing with androgyny and challenging gendered expectations, I was surprised that there was only one character who wasn't straight (and that there are no trans characters).  The gay side character's plot revolves around him having been outed in the past and still carrying trauma from it, which makes him act as the antagonist for a bit.  There is character development, and he moves on from being an antagonist to a friend of the ML.  I also wouldn't say his backstory or arc were handled insensitively, and everyone in the present who finds out he's gay is supportive.  However, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth that a show about a man "dressing like a woman" centers cishet people and uses its one gay character as the antagonist for a time.  This is a problem that is a reflective of one in real life, when famous cishet people who dress androgynously get accolades for it, while actual queer and trans people (and particularly trans women) often literally risk their lives when they dress against gendered expectations. I still enjoyed the show but wish it hadn't taken that route.

The secondary couple is a gay man and the "straight" man who falls for him. It was written MOSTLY respectfully.  Someone really needed to tell the "straight" guy that bisexuality exists, because he kept going on and on about how he didn't know what he was, because he still liked women and wasn't gay but liked a man.  There's also a lesbian secondary character, but her main plot involved her past with a lesbophobic bully.  (She does get closure, but I still didn't like that the bulk of her story was spent on lesbophobic trauma.)  Besides the bully and a few other characters, mostly everyone (including the main characters) was accepting of the queer characters.  (It did feel kind of homophobic that the marriage agency they all work at apparently doesn't serve any same-gender couples, even though all the employees were either queer or queer-friendly. Same-gender marriage is legal in Taiwan, so I don't get why no same-gender couples were shown among the agency's many success stories and current clients.)

There is a gay secondary couple with an open ending.  There are also multiple kathoey supporting characters.  I felt that overall the show was respectful to all these characters (yes, the kathoeys were catty and obsessed with boys and makeup, but the cishet FL was every bit of those things as well, so it balanced out). Homophobia is touched on (coming from parents), but the main characters are all mostly supportive of their gay and gender nonconforming friends.  It was a disappointment that the show didn't give a firm happy ending to the gay couple like it did with the straight couple. Also, real-life BL actor pair MaxTul show up as themselves on an actor tour and do some queerbaiting fanservice, which sends the kathoey and straight girl high schoolers into a frenzy.

Canon side side gay male character who is (mostly?) accepted by all the main characters. (Adding this note months later so I can't remember for sure.)

This is categorized as a romantic film but I wouldn't consider it so, as (spoiler) even though one ML confesses to the other, the only response he gets is that the other man doesn't hate him and wants to continue being in his life. He doesn't get a rejection, but he doesn't get an acceptance either. No homophobia from outside influences, as the ML doesn't seem to be out, and his sexuality receives little development compared to his disability.

A short film in which the main character is gender nonconforming. They never label their gender or sexuality, but instead angst over feeling "abnormal." There's very little outside influence condemning them for this (it is unclear whether anyone actually realizes the main character's gender).

Bisexual SML who flirts with everything that moves.  The multiple straight men he flirts with are uncomfortable getting hit on by a guy, but there's only a little bit of outright homophobia.  The FL he's ultimately pursuing doesn't have any comment/reaction about his sexuality.

A canon lesbian going through a messy phase after a breakup. This includes having on-screen sex with a man to see what all the fuss is about (she hates it). The only queer Asian title I've ever seen that addresses respectability politics within the LGBTQ community.

Canon self-identified lesbian character is in love with the FL and part of the main love square. She gets rejected but is told, "It is an honor to be loved by you."  She eventually falls in love with a man who is okay with her being queer, but remains attracted to women as well.  (Does Chinese not have the word for "bisexual"?)

Canon trans woman side character. I'm writing this months after watching it, but I think the rep was positive/neutral.

The FL's best friend is a tomboy lesbian who has a crush on the FL.  They talk this through, and the FL apologizes for not being able to return her friend's feelings.  They agree to remain friends.  I dropped after six episodes, but there was very little lesbophobia toward this character in the episodes I watched.

One of the women at the pregnancy center where the FL is staying is revealed to be in a lesbian relationship and having a baby through sperm donation. When this is revealed, the FL simply says that the relationship has "our blessings." I think the woman was decently written and not stereotypical. (But when it comes time to cut the umbilical cord, they say "the father" is supposed to cut the cord, so the butch in the relationship does it, even though she's literally the one who just gave birth. But breaking stereotypes for having the butch be the one to undergo artificial insemination!) 

On the other hand, there's a brief supporting gay character who is the most stereotypical white gay guy to ever work in a wedding boutique, but at least there's no homophobia?

There's a gay (or kathoey?) best friend and a few other similar characters floating around.  They're written pretty stereotypically feminine/catty, but mostly treated positively or neutrally by the other characters.

Two characters. The first is handled poorly imo. The ML is estranged by his parent, who abandoned him as a child. This parent shows up in only one episode and appears to have abandoned the ML to transition to living life as a woman. (The ML either doesn't understand or acknowledge that his parent is likely trans - his only comment on the matter is later, "My pops likes men." But the only time we see this character, she's wearing a dress, makeup, and a long-haired wig, all just to eat at a restaurant by herself. So this appears to be part of her daily life and not for performance.) The ML confronts her about being a terrible parent, but there's no resolution - and there's no clear distinction in the drama that the parent is bad because she abandoned her son and not also because she's trans.

The second character is handled a lot better, if pedantically. A supporting ML comes out as gay to his grandmother and is supported by the ML. The grandma offers her grandson conversion therapy, but he explains that there's nothing wrong with him that needs fixing. The grandma cries a lot but apologizes for always pressuring him to give her grandchildren, and their story ends on a hopeful note that the grandma is coming around to accepting her grandson.

Two supporting gay characters. One is stereotypical and used only for humor. The other is less stereotypical and respected by the ML, but weirdly says mildly homophobic things and refers to himself as the wife and his boyfriend as the husband in their relationship. The FL is not homophobic when she meets this character.  The ML is a bit homophobic.

(Dropped after one episode) Stereotypical tootsie character with some jokes at her expense but barely any overt transphobia from those around her.

There are two gay characters who are mostly supported by everyone they come out to, but it just felt to me like they were very much written by a straight person. When one is coming out, his explanation that he feels important to share is that...his past girlfriends said he couldn't perform well in bed and that gave him a complex and made him stop being interested in women? And then he became interested in men?  The other gay guy says being gay is abnormal but he couldn't change if he wanted to (later it seems like he might be working through that internalized homophobia, but he never has a line refuting this statement).

Canon gay side character with unrequited love for the ML (his best friend).  He keeps his orientation a secret, but the FL finds out and is accepting.  (But she's also the type to write very fetishy gay fanfic about her fav boy band.) The ML eventually finds out too and struggles with how to remain close to his best friend while being sensitive to his feelings (they never, ever talk about it).

Canon gay (very side) character. (Editing this note years later to say I don't think he had a happy ending and he dealt with homophobia.)

The FL's female best friend tells the FL that she's in love with her. The FL reacts with disgust and never speaks to her again. The best friend ends up marrying the ML and comes out to him when she asks him for a divorce. He's more supportive.

Pros: An actual trans female actress playing a trans FL, and she has close friends who support her gender identity. Cons: She faces transphobia from other (straight and gay) people, including the gay ML, who misgenders her and calls her a liar when he sees her naked. Also, I don't know if this is a cultural thing, but the film (and she herself sometimes) acts like trans women are a subset of gay men. I didn't think the film handled her gender identity that respectfully in parts, but some of these lines were said by the trans actress herself, so I don't know how to comment.

There's also a canon gay ML who has supportive friends but gets disowned by his parents for being gay pretty early in the film. He keeps trying to convince his parents that he's actually straight instead (until he gives up near the end and comes out).  He's also sometimes attracted to the FL (without knowing she's trans) but keeps insisting he's gay.  The film acts like he actually is gay because she's not a "real woman," but I was like, honey, if you like her, you're bi.

The lesbian FL's crush on her female classmate plays out as obsession, stalking, and sexual harassment. Her behavior is treated as cute and funny instead of inappropriate.

Two canon characters: A self-identified gay man and a male student who admits to having a crush on another boy. Their queerness is largely played for laughs, and both sexually harass straight men. (The gay man is also constantly sexually harassed by his ex-girlfriend for laughs.) The story presents them both as characters to be fond of. In a rare moment of seriousness about queerness, the FL lead assures the male student there's nothing wrong with him when he says he's weird for liking a boy. On the other hand, the self-identified gay man is "cured" of his hatred for women by having a friendship with the FL, and subsequently says he'll "think about" getting back together with his ex-girlfriend.

A supporting character is gay and secretly in love with the ML.  There are a few scenes with them getting accidentally too close together and him gay panicking, which the show treats as funny.  The bright spot is when he finally confesses to the ML, the ML is accepting when rejecting him and says, "I don't know what to say.  Sorry?  No, thank you."  The downer is most of his arc is pairing him with a straight woman.  When the woman confesses to him, he comes out to her.  She isn't homophobic but asks him if he can be her "idol," and then she continually objectifies and obsesses over him.  In the end, he asks her if they "can be together" while making it clear he can never fall for a woman, and she agrees.  For a show in which all the other main and supporting characters got a happy ending, it really sucked to see the only gay character get shafted into a straight relationship as his "happy ending."

Canon gay character written in the most fetish-y way possible experiences homophobia and domestic assault. Also his arc requires a tw for attempted suicide.

A straight man is placed in a male harem where there's a lot of gay activity going on (some of these men are actually queer, while others explain they only engage in gay sex because of their lack of access to women). Unfortunately, a lot of this gay activity is not consensual, and the ML even has to fight off a gang rape. Most of the characters who willingly engage in gay acts are manipulative, power-hungry, and treat the (innocent) ML as their enemy. I wasn't overly bothered by this, because I've seen enough historical harem stories where women fight each other for power that it felt par for the course (though granted, these women never try to rape each other). There is also one queer character who is a supporter of the ML, but he has almost no screen time. Additionally, the ML goes on his own journey of condemning homosexuality when he first learns about it to later sort of accepting it as a weird thing he doesn't get. It was growth, but I'd have liked that character arc to be developed a little more.

I only made it three episodes into this before I dropped it, but in that time it's established that there's a gay side character in love with the ML. He stalks and sexually harasses the ML in a way that's supposed to be comedic.  The writing around this character was very, "Haha homosexuality is so gross/weird that it's funny," while also trying to be a little bit "so what if people are gay?" The gay character also gets humiliated in front of his crush. On the positive side, this character has a fully supportive friend.

There's about two scenes showing a very side male character stalk the SML by sniffing and stealing his clothes.

Very minor side canon gay couple--but there's gay-bashing and they get blackmailed for being gay, so be warned.

There's a side gay/kathoey character who's only used for laughs.  (I was fast forwarding a lot, but I think they also got assaulted and it was treated as funny.)  The show is also pretty homophobic.  A straight ML questions his orientation because he's attracted to a woman who's in disguise as a man, and he goes to a psychologist for conversion therapy.  When he does start seeing her after he knows she's a woman, his parents try to break them up because they think she's a man.

ML's parent comes out as a trans woman in the first three minutes of the first episode, causing the ML's mother (wife of the trans woman) to hospitalized from shock. She extracts a promise from her son that he will never be like that and instead be a "real man."  It's all treated as funny.  Transphobia is present whenever the ML's parent is brought up (she herself never shows up again in the first five episodes, after which I dropped the series).

The villain is a gay man who is romantically obsessed with the ML. The gay villain stalks and repeatedly attempts to kill the ML because the ML won't love him back.

I dropped at EP 9 and the only LGBTQ person to show up in that time was a gay male side character who was a sex trafficker.  Also, his gayness was used for laughs.

I was just having a extremely not good time with this, mainly due to the SML's plot.  The SML is attracted to the ML and SFL, who are twins, and whom he thinks are the same person (a guy).  He struggles with his sexuality, consults with a PhD student in the psychology of sexuality, and is told the only sexualities are gay and straight (no bisexuality).  He tries to do some conversion therapy to be straight before coming out as gay and being received with tons of homophobia.  The comments let me know that, once he realizes the twins are two different people, the drama treats him as if he was straight all along and just in love with the SFL.

A male side character attempts to use his position of power to sexually assault a male subordinate.

A main villain is an effeminate bisexual (he says he likes both men and women).  He kidnaps and sexually assaults the FL.  Also, the ML literally gags when the villain says he likes men.

Canon side gay character. Y'all.  I could not with this one. So this poor gay kid gets bullied and beat up at school, then commits suicide, then the straight ML "reincarnates" into this poor guy's body and uses his body to pursue a happy ending with the FL.

There is a side gay character who expresses sexual interest in the ML when the ML is a literal child and the character is an adult.  He pursues the ML throughout the series into the ML's adulthood.