2025 has been quite the year [derogatory]. News alert after news alert. The Epstein files are a hoax — oh wait, the Epstein files have been released. You scroll your timeline only to find new reasons to be upset. It’s been hard to find reasons to celebrate — especially as a queer person.
But, we are here to talk about the queer pop-culture moments worth celebrating this year. GLAAD reported this year there was an increase of LGBTQ character on TV in 2025 — a good thing! But, also, a lot of said LGBTQ characters were on limited series or shows that have been canceled — a bad thing!
So, hold my finger, Ariana — we’re going to go through the positive queer pop-culture moments of 2025 (in no particular order).
Stranger Things: Will Byers saves the day
Noah Schnapp’s Will Byers has spent a lot of time across the five seasons of Stranger Things fainting or being kidnapped. He was a main part of the original friend group, but with the show’s ever expanding cast, Will felt like an afterthought these last few seasons. In season 4, he came out to his brother in a sweet scene — but this season, not only did he come out to all 500 members of the ensemble cast, but he was allowed to finally go full Dark Phoenix (but without the evil). He stops every Demogorgon mid-attack from killing his friends and Vecna’s their asses. A gay teen getting superpowered and being allowed to save the day is something I would’ve loved seeing as a closeted kid.
Adults: Paul Baker and Anton get married
FX’s Adults was one of the best comedies this year. It’s like Friends meets Seinfeld meets Broad City in the best way possible. It revolves around a group of friends that live together in a house in Queens. Owen Thiele’s Anton and Jack Innanen’s Paul Baker were the two queer characters in the show that got their own episode where they become parental figures to Lilah Guaragna’s very bratty girl, who was in town to get an abortion. The episode feels like it’s played for jokes—as does the scene where the two almost kiss, but no, it’s leading up to their surprise wedding and makeout in the season finale. The show is a comedy but this romance isn’t played for jokes. It’s really sweet and has me excited for Season 2.
White Lotus: Brother on brother action
Sam Nivola’s Lochlan Ratliff and Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon Ratliff went from homoerotic incest to full on incest — but White Lotus never quite villainized them for it? The show did a good job of making you feel bad for Lochlan—his brother was his hero but the hero worship went to next levels with how much of a pleaser he was (his words, not mine). Saxon freaked out after but by the end, we felt like they’d be okay? Not since Game of Thrones has an incest plotline gotten so much attention. Not to cosign incest but the brothers did have great chemistry—and Lochlan felt like such a tragic queer character who, thankfully, didn’t actually die in the end (although he did maybe a little).
Wayward: Mae Martin saves the day
Mae Martin not only created this very queer show, but also starred in it as traumatized cop Alex Dempsey. In fact, most of the main characters were queer and we got a really great best friendship between a bi teen Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) and her straight best friend Abby (Sydney Topliffe). Alex is allowed to be flawed and insecure—we love a flawed, realistic queer character. The show never leaned into homophobic tropes, while still allowing these queer characters to be in real trouble.
Ironheart: Shea Couleé as a fabulous hacker
Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams was first seen in 2022’s Wakanda Forever and was, unfortunately, mostly forgotten about until her show, Ironheart, dropped — which also seemed mostly forgotten about by Disney itself. Riri is a charming, smart, and stubborn main character who, for a brief moment, teams up with a team of hackers. The hackers are lead by Anthony Ramos’ Parker Robbins who is hiding a hell-ish secret. But that team of hackers is a great ensemble cast which happened to have RuPaul’s Drag Race breakout star Shea Couleé as master hacker Slug. Unfortunate name aside, Couleé’s character is allowed to be unapologetically queer with a full beat, brightly colored clothing, and the best nails in a Marvel series. She was a minor character but stole every scene—and it was just nice to see a character like this allowed to not be a hero but not be a full on villain either. Let’s hope we get more of these types of characters moving forward.
Yellowjackets: Shauna’s rise to full-on villain
Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse have portrayed Shauna in Yellowjackets since the show first premiered. Shauna has been a flawed character form the start—but we were rooting for her and the rest of the survivors because they’d been through so much already. Lynskey’s adult Shauna seemed numb yet not fuckwithable while Nélisse’s young Shauna seemed like the sidekick who was fucked with a lot—that was until this most recent season. Her rise to full-on villain was gradual yet impressive. The audience was lead to believe she was the hero of the show, but we have now learned she’s the actual villain. She’s Walter White for gays, girls, and theys. Her rise felt Trump-ian in nature—folks following her out of fear, bowing to her as to avoid any punishment. But the finale showed the young teens rallying against her while the adult survivors finally realized she was indeed the villain. Hopefully next season is all about both versions of Shauna being taken down. Shauna has joined the ranks of ultimate TV villains who make you hiss like a cat when you see her on screen.
Peacemaker: Vigilante dancing in briefs, being doused with champagne
Folks often forget how queer Peacemaker is! Our titular character, played by John Cena, is an out bisexual who killed his Nazi father at the end of Season 1, after his father called him the f-slur. He and his kinda-sorta best friend Vigilante (played by Freddie Stroma) even had a threesome early on in that first season. But this season, we got Peacemaker having an orgy, where he was getting love form men and women alike. But the big queer moment was when the absolutely gorgeous Vigilante, while getting drunk with his friends, strips down to his briefs and dances around while Danielle Brooks’ Adebayo and Steve Agee’s Economos poured champagne all over his ridiculously tight body. A moment worth rewatching for sure.
Jonathan Bailey’s rise to stardom
Not only was Bailey named People Magazine’s first ever out Sexiest Man Alive cover model, but he also became the highest grossing actor of the year with Wicked: For Good and Jurassic World Rebirth. The man is hot both in looks and career-wise, which is a pretty big deal for an out person in this Hell-ish year.
Anna Camp coming out
From Pitch Perfect to True Blood, Camp has starred in many things that have a large queer fan base—and earlier this year she came out in a tiktok, revealing she was dating a woman. She will next be seen in Scream 7, another franchise with a large queer fanbase. Let’s hope Ghostface doesn’t get her—or, if he does, that she gets one of the franchise’s typical iconic, over the top death scenes.
The Beast in Me: Lesbian v Serial Killer
In this series, Claire Danes plays Aggie Wiggs—a recently divorced lesbian author who gets a new neighbor, possible serial killer Niles Jarvis (Matthew Rhys). Aggie is allowed to be kind of a selfish dick, who knowingly enters into a friendship with her neighbor who may or may not have killed his ex-wife. The show is a great game of cat and mouse ... until it’s not and it goes full on bananas when Aggie is set up for the murder of a local teen. Aside from Jarvis saying he should have more “d*ke friends”, homophobia is mostly left out of the plot. Niles seems to genuinely like Aggie—that is, until he doesn’t.
The Hunting Wives: Sapphic Everything
Brittany Snow’s Sophie O’Neil and Malin Akerman’s Margo Banks have wild Sapphic chemistry from the moment they first meet in this show. Margo casually undresses in front of Sophie, with a cool confidence that would make most folks blush or melt (or both). The show keeps upping the Sapphic tension until it goes full on queer, with the women entering into a sexual relationship. The show is a wild ride of twists and turns that would put any soap opera to shame.
Vivian Wilson joins Hasan Piker’s livestream
Self-proclaimed “cunty nepo baby” Vivian Jenna Wilson, went on Hasan Piker’s stream to talk about growing up with Elon Musk as her father, transitioning, gaming, Kpop, her Teen Vogue interview, and more. She lived up to the cunty title and even had some great chemistry with Hasan (who, while he identifies as straight, has a big queer following himself).
The Traitors: Bob the Drag Queen vs Dylan Efron
Drag Race icon Bob the Drag Queen was a contestant on season 3 of The Traitors, alongside Zac Efron’s brother Dylan. Dylan mentioned growing up with an actor, to which Bob replied, “Not a good one.” It became a viral moment on social—even if you didn’t watch the show you probably saw the clip. The two have since said they both knew it was all part of the show and squashed any possible beef.
Pluribus: Carol Sturka
OUT named her “the flawed lesbian hero America deserves” and it’s an apt title. Rhea Seehorn’s Carol Sturka is an author who was a depressed grump even before the show’s apocalypse began. She’s allowed to be a dick—even if she is right. Her fellow survivors don’t like her and a certain corner of the audience doesn’t either. But she’s extremely relatable in an era where folks just accept bad things like AI bots and misinformation, while she refuses to.
Cole Escola wins a Tony
Cole become the first nonbinary person to win a Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! started as a small off-Broadway show, but quickly became the play to see on Broadway. Escola has been a standout in smaller roles on shows like Difficult People, The Other Two, Search Party, and Big Mouth—so it’s nice to see them finally get the recognition they deserve.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model
The magazine made history when it chose Lauren Chan as the cover model, making her the first ever out lesbian to grace the magazine’s swimsuit cover. Sapphics stay winning!
Heated Rivalry: The butts and the romance
You’re either still in love with this show or incredibly tired of hearing about it—but here we are. The fifth episode was a series high—it had a beautiful private coming out scene, a serious injury on the ice, a beautiful public coming out scene, an admission of love, and a promise of a cottage getaway. But the show itself was a moment. The first two episodes were released at the same time and set the tone for what we thought the show would be—great hockey butts and some of the hottest gay smut I’ve seen on-screen outside of porn. But then it sneaked in with the actual heartfelt romance between our beloved main characters Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and even our beloved side character of Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip the barista (Robbie G.K.). The show dealt with coming out stories in such a sweet way. And, also, we can’t forget to mention the chemistry the actors had just on the press tour alone.
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