Gay characters in pokemon

Pokémon Needs More LGBT Characters

Pokémon is a timeless classic. Its content appeals to all demographics, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or sexuality. For the most part, it succeeds in representing the minority groups; race, women and cultures outside the mainstream. However, the LGBTQ+ community is yet to have its fair distribute of relatable characters, which has left the decision to assign sexualities to fan speculation.

In Pokemon X & Y, released in , a trainer called Nova states that she is in the "beauty" class but mentions that she was once in the "blackbelt" category, which is reserved for men only. Such on-the-nose dialogue seems to approve that Nova potentially transitioned and could identify as transgender.

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Meanwhile, subtle hints regarding clothing, mannerisms and backstories have given traction to famous fan theories, some of which have been widely accepted as "canon" by fans who choose to read between the lines. Here are some sexualities and identities commonly ascribed to Pokémon c

LGBTQ+ Representation in the Pokemon Anime

Title image by @TogeReturna

Welp

This is a thing I am doing.

Hello, my name is Kaito, I’m a blogger who’s written a great many posts on the Pokemon anime, ranging from reviews to analysis, etc. I care about this series a good deal and so I wanted to tackle one of the areas where I believe it can be vastly improved: Representation, specifically that of LGBTQ+ people.

I’ve been seeing a good deal of discussion on the interwebs about this very topic and it tends to get wildly out of hand very rapidly, so I wanted to try and make a full discussion post on it where I give what I feel would be the optimal way to have the Diverse rep that this series really needs.

Its not a crime or anything, but overall the Pokemon anime has had practically NO examples of solid Diverse representation throughout its entire + episode run, and I and many other people feel its about time that should convert, so here we are.

This is more of an aside, but since I’m aware a good number of the people who might read this upload are younger folk who aren’t full

Pokémon as a franchise has been around for more than 25 years, and in that occasion we've seen hundreds of characters introduced across the games, anime, manga, movies, and even the trading card game. While there are plenty of no-name carbon copy trainers and NPCs scattered throughout Pokémon, the characters that are part of the story tend to be wildly varied, with no two major characters existence all that alike.

You've got the eclectic cowboy gym commander Clay from the Unova region, the flamboyant gym leader-turned-champion Wallace, the Twitch streamer gym head Iono, and so many more. What's largely lacking among these major characters, though, is LGBT+ representation.

In recent years, The Pokémon Firm has made some efforts to be a little more LGBT-friendly – the decision to grant either gender player character in Scarlet and Violet wear any clothes, accessories, and hairstyles is a welcome relocate – but actual canon LGBT+ characters are few and far between.

It might surprise you to learn, though, that there are actually a few canon LGBT+ Pokém

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Are The Most Queer Pokemon Games Yet

Progress for Pokemon has never been a straight path. While the series' latest installment was riddled with bugs and glitches, it also gave fans new mechanics, fresh Pokemon, and some much-needed quality-of-life improvements. As welcomed as these changes were, its biggest and most unexpected improvements may be its queer representation.

Pokemon has never shied away from using its designs and story to send a powerful underlying message. For example, the Ghost-type regional variant of Corsola introduced in Gen 8 was a stark warning about the impacts of climate change on our environment. Paldea has an equally powerful statement on the importance of queer identity and gender representation.

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In proof, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet may be the queerest Pokemon game we’ve seen yet, which says a lot for a franchise that gave us queer icons like Sylveon and Team Rocket. While previous games gave subtle endorsements, Paldea takes pride in its queerness through its rej