Some would also argue that one of the protagonists, Bob Belcher, is a bisexual parent.
This included a trans female sex worker named Marshmallow, The show would later have other LGBTQ characters like a lesbian limousine driver named Nat Kinkle, whose ex-girlfriend runs an animal sanctuary, and a gay character, Dalton Crespin, who had a boyfriend for a short period of time. In the March 2011 episode of Bob's Burgers, a FOX show, titled "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" various LGBTQ characters would appear. Davis would later become the "butt of many transmisogynistic and transphobic "jokes."" This argument was repeated by other critics in later years.
In May 2010, FOX's Family Guy, introduced Ida Davis, a trans woman, in the episode "Quagmire's Dad." However, she would be criticized for repeating tropes often associated with LGBTQ+ characters. He would be an openly gay secret agent, and a former Olympic medalist in skiing. In February 2010, Ray Gillette first appeared in the episode "Honeypot" of Archer.
The 2010s saw various animated series targeted primarily to adults on FXX, Fox, Comedy Central, Netflix, Adult Swim, and other platforms.
In May 2019, Ashley Fetters and Natalie Escobar argued, in The Atlantic that the episode of Arthur where two male characters got married "marks a poignant moment in children's TV history," and that it feels "unremarkable." They said this is the case because you can "count on your fingers the number of kids’ shows that have depicted gay characters," including Adventure Time, Steven Universe, The Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, Clarence, and The Loud House. In 20, GLAAD said that Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, had increased LGBTQ representation in "daytime kids and family television." In 2018, GLAAD noted that while Netflix was featuring more LGBTQ+ people of color, including CW Seed launching two shows with "queer heroes" and how Bojack Horseman expanding the story of Todd, the "only asexual character on streaming originals" as they described it. From 2017 to 2019, Insider noted that according to their database of LGBTQ characters in children's animations, there was a "more than 200% spike in queer and gender-minority characters in children's animated TV shows." While GLAAD and others were praising the growth in the number of LGBTQ+ characters in broadcast, primetime television, some reported that LGBTQ+ characters in animated television were somewhat rare. In 2017, GLAAD praised the increase of LGBTQ+ characters on streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu. In 2016, GLAAD reported that the highest number of LGBTQ characters they had recorded yet appeared in the 2016–2017 television season. In 2014, GLAAD would comment that "children's programming has been slow to reflect the diversity its audience is experiencing in its daily life." In 2015, GLAAD expanded their analysis to include LGBTQ+ characters on stream services like Amazon and Netflix for the first time.
In 2010, animation and popular culture scholar Jo Johnson argued that the medium of animation itself is being used to "represent prime-time sexuality and gender in a more progressive way than a live-action show." She went onto say that progress made by animated shows has allowed audiences to laugh with, rather than at, queer characters. 2.6.2 YouTube and independent animations.