In other works, queerness is explored more symbolically, through an exploration of a forbidden love that may not explicitly resemble a relationship we think of as queer. The men of Athos, a planet featured in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Ethan of Athos, see same-sex couples as natural because women are banned from their planet similarly, the women of Wonder Woman’s Themyscira live and love and couple off quite happily without men.

Sometimes this representation comes in the form of alien cultures where our version of “queer” is the “normal” default. Science fiction has long been a way for writers and artists to create queer characters and explore queer themes, even in eras when the open discussion of queerness was considered far too taboo. Steven Universe’s queerness isn’t just about the show’s superficial trappings, it’s baked into a core message: fight for love against all odds. Given that the show is aimed towards a young audience, it’s a pleasant surprise to see how visibly queer the show is, forefronting its non-traditional characters rather than relegating them to the sidelines or to “very special episodes.” And while moment’s like Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding earn Steven Universe the loudest applause, the show’s queer sensibilities extend far beyond its willingness to build an episode around a queer wedding, or to let women wear tuxedos while men don makeup and dresses. Steven Universe has long been hailed as one of the queerest shows - and certainly the queerest animated show - on American television. In the arc’s final episode, “Reunited,” the two commemorated their millenia-old relationship with a wedding.

Over the course of the show’s latest five-episode arc, titled “Heart of the Crystal Gems,” viewers saw Ruby and Sapphire split up and consider life apart from one another, then reunite with a dramatic proposal involving Ruby riding in on horseback. “There’s an awful lot of awful things we could be thinking of, but for just one day let’s only think about love,” croons Steven Universe, the protagonist of the Cartoon Network show of the same name, as he and his family gear up for the much anticipated nuptials of his aunts, Ruby and Sapphire.

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