Ten Best Gay and Bisexual Science Fiction Characters

Early on in the first season we learn that Ianto has a nasty secret in the form of a half-Cyberman (evil cyborg) girlfriend that he’s keeping in the sub-basement of the Torchwood headquarters. Needless to say, things don’t work out so well in the most bloody sense imaginable. But unlike most male bisexual characters on television, Ianto actually acts on his same-sex desires when he undertakes a much less lethal sexual relationship with Torchwood’s studly team leader Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), including an interlude with an extraterrestrial stopwatch. And Season 2 promises even more romance with Captain Jack.

Character Rating: 7/10

Significance Rating: 5/10

Originality Rating: 7/10

6. Zorro, aka Ramon “Bunny” Wigglesworth (Zorro, The Gay Blade)

One of the most extraordinary GLBT representations in the history of film lies in the oddball action comedy Zorro, The Gay Blade. In the film, George Hamilton plays Don Diego de la Vega, whose secret identity is Zorro, as well as Diego’s twin brother, Ramon, who happens to be gay. When Diego/Zorro is sidelined by an injury incurred in battle, Ramon’s surprise visit provides an unexpected solution as he assumes the mask of Zorro and becomes a big screen gay superhero… in 1981.

Sure, Ramon is effeminate, carries a parasol, and is fresh out of the British Navy (a running gay joke in the ‘70s). But to a generation of superhero-worshipping gay kids, he was a revelation. He donned drag as a means to subterfuge, he reinvented the Zorro costume in multicolored lamé, and when the heroine leaned in for a kiss, he asked if they couldn’t just go shopping instead!

But Zorro the Gay Blade was no joke. He decimated the evil Alcalde’s men without breaking a sweat. And by the film’s end, it is Bunny’s unapologetically gay Zorro who wins the heart of the girl, saves the straight dude, and the town. In an era in which gay characters were firmly relegated to victims and psychos (or both), the gay Zorro was inspirational. And how many superhero films with a lead gay character has 20^th Century Fox – or any other studio – released in theaters since 1981?

Character Rating: 5/10

Significance Rating: 10/10

Originality Rating : 3/10

5. Northstar, aka Jean-Paul Beaubier (The Uncanny X-Men; comics)

In pre-Ellen 1992, the outing of a recognizable comic book character was enough of a big deal to make national headlines. Indeed, gay comic fans rejoiced at the outing of Northstar, Quebecois mainstay of Alpha Flight, the Canadian government’s answer to American super-team The Avengers. Ten years later Northstar took on an even higher profile as he joined the ranks of the insanely popular series The Uncanny X-Men.

Northstar’s powers aren’t the most original: he’s a speedster who can fly and sometimes emit a burst of light, but we give him points for always sporting stylish uniforms (not easy in the often fashion-impaired world of the colorful tights set), and for having a complex and well-formed character from the beginning.

In his early Alpha Flight days, Northstar was a bitter and arrogant antihero and Olympic skier. On two occasions in later years his life changed dramatically, in both cases due to circumstances involving young children in need. His surly exterior first cracked with the death of his adopted HIV-positive orphaned baby; this event led to Northstar outing himself to his teammates and the public. Many years later Northstar desperately tried to save another young child, and when the boy met with an unavoidable and tragic death, Northstar was moved to join up with the X-Men and teach at Xavier’s academy.

Although Northstar’s sexuality was avoided in the later Alpha Flight books, it’s consistently been addressed in the pages of the X-Men, where he’s encountered homophobia, mentored a young gay student, and developed a crush on Iceman. Northstar was always presented as a mutant superhero first, and a Quebecois second, and did not exhibit stereotypical gay qualities.

Character Rating: 8/10

Significance Rating: 10/10

Originality Rating: 5/10