Black LGBT characters have been shaping nerd culture for a long time. They have led teams, saved cities, sung love songs with their fists, and made millions of kids feel seen. Some of them you grew up with. Some of them you missed because a studio buried them. This Pride Month, we are pulling ten of the best into the light, from comics to anime to games to the big screen. We will cheer the wins. We will also call out the moments when our heroes deserved way better.
Black LGBT Characters Have Always Been Here
Here is the thing people forget. We were never missing from these worlds. We were just kept in the back. A side hero here. A coded character there. A love story that got cut before it hit the screen.
That is changing, and fast. Today a Black gay teen can wear Aquaman’s crown. A Black lesbian can headline a hit show. A Black queer dad can save the planet in a Marvel movie. So before we count, let us look at how far the timeline has come.
Black LGBT Characters by the Numbers
A few real milestones that show the door cracking open, one push at a time.
1. Jackson Hyde, the Aqualad Who Took the Crown
Jackson is the son of Black Manta, one of Aquaman’s biggest villains. But Jackson chose his own path. He can bend water like it owes him rent, shape it into swords, and zap you like an eel.
In the Young Justice cartoon he is the calm leader who keeps the team together. In the comics he came out as gay and then leveled all the way up to become Aquaman himself. A Black gay kid wearing the trident is not a small win. It is the whole ocean.
2. Garnet, Love With Two Hearts
Garnet is not one person. She is two. Ruby and Sapphire fell in love, fused into Garnet, and chose to stay that way because they are stronger together. Estelle voices her, she is coded as a Black woman, and she leads the Crystal Gems on Steven Universe.
Her song “Stronger Than You” is basically a love letter thrown with a closed fist. The network did not want a queer couple on a kids show. The team fought hard and won. That fight changed cartoons for good.
3. Anissa Pierce, the Thunder That Came First
Anissa is the daughter of Black Lightning. She is also the first Black lesbian superhero on regular network TV. When she stomps, the whole block shakes. By day she studies to be a doctor. By night she brings the storm as Thunder.
Her love story with Grace was front and center, not hidden in a corner. They fought side by side and built a life together. Kids who never saw a hero like them suddenly had one with a cape and a fist full of lightning.
4. Valkyrie, the King of New Asgard
Tessa Thompson plays Valkyrie, and she made history. Valkyrie is the first openly LGBT hero in the whole Marvel movie world. She is bisexual in the comics, and Thompson played her that way on purpose.
Now she rules New Asgard as King, and she is out looking for her queen. She drinks, she fights, and she does not care one bit what men think of her. That is the energy.
5. Phastos, the Hero With a Husband
Brian Tyree Henry plays Phastos in Eternals, and he is the first gay superhero in a Marvel movie. He is a genius who can build almost anything. He is also a husband and a dad.
The movie showed his family, his home, and a real kiss on a giant screen. Marvel had dodged this moment for more than ten years. Phastos walked right through that wall and did it with love.
Putting us on the screen is not a favor. It is a mirror. And we earned the right to see ourselves as heroes.
Blerd.com6. David Alleyne, the Smartest Man in Every Room
David Alleyne goes by Prodigy. His power is wild. He can soak up any skill or fact from the people around him. Walk past a black belt and now he can fight like one. He is the kind of smart that breaks the curve.
He came out as bisexual in Young Avengers right after a kiss with Hulkling. Brains and heart in the same hero. For a Black queer reader, that combo means everything.
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Get Your Lore Con Tickets7. Baptiste, the Medic Who Switched Sides
Baptiste is a Haitian combat medic in Overwatch 2. He used to work for the bad guys. Then he saw the harm they did and walked away to heal people instead. He shoots, he flips, and he keeps the whole team alive.
Overwatch confirmed he is bisexual. In a game played by millions, that one fact lets a lot of players feel like the roster has room for them too.
Games matter more than people think. When a hero you main turns out to be queer and Black, that is not just a fun fact. It tells a kid holding a controller that the main character can look and love like them.
8. Benson, the Kid Who Just Said It
Benson is a Black teen in the Netflix show Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. When his friend likes him, he turns her down with a smile and three simple words. “I’m gay.” No big drama. No shame. Just facts.
Then he gets a sweet boyfriend named Troy, and the show treats their crush like any other crush. For young viewers, that easy, happy moment is pure gold.
9. Bill Potts, the Doctor’s Best Friend
Bill Potts rode in the TARDIS on Doctor Who as the Doctor’s first full time companion who is openly gay. She is mixed race, funny, and full of questions. She tells you she likes girls in her very first episode like it is no big deal, because it is not.
She fell for a girl named Heather, traveled across all of time and space, and became a fan favorite fast. Bill helped a lot of real people feel brave enough to come out too.
10. Bling, the Diamond We Keep Sleeping On
Roxanne Washington goes by Bling. She is the daughter of rap royalty and a mutant whose skin turns to solid diamond. She can take a hit from almost anything and shrug it off. She is also a proud Black lesbian on the X-Men’s roster.
Here is the catch. Bling is nearly as tough as Emma Frost, yet Marvel keeps her on the bench. She even says it herself in the comics. A hero this strong should be a star, not a background face. We see you, Roxy.
Where Nerd Media Still Does Black LGBT Characters Dirty
Now the hard part. We love these heroes. But the same studios that made them also keep tripping over the same wires. If we only clap, we let them off the hook.
First, the old curse called bury your gays. Writers give a queer hero a spotlight, then kill them or break them. Bill Potts got shot and turned into a Cyberman. Prodigy got killed off fast in one run. The pattern is tired.
Second, lazy art. Steven Universe gave us a beautiful queer love story in Garnet, then drew its Black coded gems with rougher, harder features than everyone else. The show also had no Black women writers while leaning on Black women characters. Good intentions still need good follow through.
Third, the bench and the cutting room. Bling has Emma Frost level power and barely gets used. Valkyrie had a scene showing her love for a woman, and the studio cut it from the movie. Visibility you have to squint to see is not real visibility.
Notice something about this list? Almost no anime. Anime gives us tons of queer stories and tons of cool fights, but Black queer leads are still close to missing. That is a gap we should name out loud, not skip past.
And yes, we have to be honest about ourselves too. Blerd has cheered some of these wins like they were huge, when a few were really just table scraps dressed up nice. Loving the culture means holding it to a higher bar.
The Fight for Black LGBT Characters Is Not Over
These ten prove the stories already work. People love them. They sell. They make kids feel real and seen. So there is no excuse to stop here.
We want more heroes, better writers, and stories owned by us. Black LGBT characters should get top billing, not the bench. This Pride Month, celebrate the wins, name the misses, and keep pushing for the day a list like this is too long to fit on one page.
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