A DEDICATION

Actually I cant shut up about this. In 2012, people did not even think about putting gay representation in popular media. Gay representation wasn’t considered profitable yet. Gay marriage would not be legalized for another three years. The Legend of Korra, a show that fought to the death to have their main lead hold hands with another woman, just released their first episode earlier that spring. Steven Universe, a show well known for its gay representation, including having the first gay proposal + marriage on a kids cartoon tv show, would begin a year later in 2013, but wouldn’t show their gay representation hand until 2015 with the episode Jail Break. The Adventure Zone, a podcast currently well known for it LGBTQ+ representation, wouldn’t begin until 2014, and didn’t show their hand until 2015. In my young queer experience, representation was covert, secretive, only implied or dead. 

I think it’s really important Cecil Baldwin credit for this. I’m not saying Fink and Cranor and later Dylan Marron have nothing to do with it, because of course they do. But Cecil being gay was not something the writers intended. Because initially, Carlos was not intended to be a love interest for Cecil. He was just meant to be a character that showed up occasionally to be a tongue-in-cheek goof on scientist characters in shows like Fringe or the X-Files. But Cecil Baldwin made the decision to make his character utterly in love with Carlos, because he was gay, and wanted his character to be as well.