Best Younger Portrayal

OK, we’ll admit, it’s an odd way to phrase a category. But some of the actors that play gay teenagers on our favorite shows are gay, some are straight, and some we just don’t know. And at their age, we think it’s perfectly OK for them to keep it to themselves. What matters here is that we’ve got brave young actors bringing positive role models to the screen for gay kids everywhere to see.

It’s important to be able to look at the larger world and see yourself reflected, especially if you’re not growing up in the big city. Ten years ago if you were talking about a gay teenager on television, you were talking about a gay bashing storyline or a coming out episode done very much as an Afterschool Special.

Today, we’re lucky enough to have enough portrayals of gay teens to have created a award whole category.

Chris Colfer (Glee)

We first met Chris’s Kurt on Glee as he was being tossed into the dumpster by the football team – but not before begging to take off Marc Jacob’s Spring Collection. We have our concerns that Kurt may end up being a bit of a stereotype, but it’s a show one could argue is less about stereotypes than it is archetypes – a modern, musical version of The Breakfast Club.

We’ve got a whole season to figure out why out Glee scribe and creator Ryan Murphy was so taken with Colfer during the auditions, that he added Kurt’s character to the cast just to have the witty young actor be a part of the show.

Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara)

As Marshall, the often put-upon son of Toni Collette’s title character in Showtime’s United States of Tara, Keir Gilchrist brings his character to life in a way viewers weren’t expecting. In a show everyone expected to be dominated by Tara’s alters, Marshall managed to become the show's breakout character everyone raved about. Whether it was Marshall’s love of old movies, his cooking skills, his ability to kick some butt while defending his sister, or his ability to take care of his family when his mother couldn’t, Marshall proved to be one of the most interesting gay characters on television of any age.

And let's not forget Marshall also braved a Hell House, had his first kiss, and his first heartbreak, before finally snapping from bending over backward to help his family cope with their issues.

Mark Indelicato (Ugly Betty)

Justin spent most of last year, though we did see him audition for the performing arts high school. That also gave him his first awkward crush, which the show didn’t explore very deeply. But isn’t the first crush often something that’s more often than not mostly meaningful glances and sweet nothings whispered inside your own head, than something right out on the table?

Justin, as played by Indelicato, is unapologetically Justin, singing show tunes in the subway to his dad, giving his mom fashion advice, and seeming to contain every single drop of style the Suarez family has.

Argiris Karras (Degrassi: The Next Generation)

While this Canadian high school dramedy has almost always set the bar for how to portray a gay teenager (Marco, played by out Adamo Ruggiero, set the bar high), they may be outdoing themselves with Riley, the football player questioning his sexuality. We’ve seen him kiss his straight best friend, date girls, lust after his summer camp crush, give in to his passion in the woods, and abuse steroids trying to prove his masculinity.

What so unique here is, that on the rare occasion that a movie or television show has given a gay football star, it’s almost always been as the “gay twist” at the end of the episode, or worse, the punch line. Degrassi breaks yet more ground by letting us watch Riley struggle against what he sees as the conflict between how everyone else sees him, and how he thinks society views homosexuals.

Connor Paulo (Gossip Girl)

Playing Eric van der Woodsen on the teen smash Gossip Girl, we often lament the fact that Connor isn’t given a lot to do on the show. Nonetheless, over the years, he’s made good use of the screen time that he has been given. He played a teen recovering from a suicide attempt, provided a calm, sane voice to his mother and his sister concerning their tumultuous love lives, bonded and humanized bad boy Chuck Bass. He even owned being outed by Georgina Sparks.

This year his big accomplishment, with the help of his boyfriend, was hacking Gossip Girl herself. Granted, what his impetuous sister decided to do with that access, caused GG to go nuclear with all her secrets, but that was actually the basis for the high school to college transition.