The magazine "Entertainment Weekly" published a kind of timeline on the subject: gay teenage characters in US TV series. The publication notes that, two decades ago, there were no gay teenagers on North American TV. The year 1992 broke the barrier and brought Billy Douglas (then newcomer Ryan Phillippe) to the series "One Life to Live".
From then on, the doors opened and a gallery of gay teens began that bears fruit to this day – with the renowned, award-winning and incensed Kurt (Chris Colfer) from "Glee".
It is interesting to note how the first ones on the list appeared little by little in the 90s, until the explosion of the 2000s – the second half of the list starts in 2009, leading to the most recent example of the genre: the boy Ian (photo), who has an affair with a married man, her boss at the town grocery store, in the series "Shameless".
The first gay teen kiss on American TV, in fact, was in the series "Dawson's Creek", in 1999, with the character Jack (Kerr Smith, who came to Brazil at the time to promote a film).
It's worth remembering: the list stuck to teenage gay characters. That's why icons like Jack and Will, from "Will and Grace", among others, were left out.
Check out the evolution of these characters, according to the magazine:
1. Billy Douglas (Ryan Phillippe) in "One Life to Live" (1992)
2. Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz) in "My So-Called Life" (1994)
3. Jack (Kerr Smith) in "Dawson's Creek" (1999)
4. Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (2000)
5. Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood) in "Once and Again" (2002)
6. Marco del Rossi (Adamo Ruggiero) in "Degrassi" (2003)
7. Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) in "Desperate Housewives" (2005)
8. Ashley (Mandy Musgrave) and Spencer (Gabrielle Christian) in "South of Nowhere" (2005)
9. Marisa Cooper (Mischa Barton) in "The OC" (2005)
10. Kenny (Rami Malek) in "The War at Home" (2007)
11. Calvin (Paul James) in "Greek" (2007)
12. Eric (Connor Paolo) in "Gossip Girl" (2008)
13. Marshall Gregson (Keir Gilchrist) in "United States of Tara" (2009)
14. Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) in "Glee" (2009)
15. Griffin (Brando Eaton) in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (2009)
16. Gretchen (Madeline Zima) in "Heroes" (2009)
17. Justin (Mark Indelicato) in "Ugly Betty" (2010)
18. Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) in "90210" (2010)
19. Alistair (Harvey Guillen) in "Huge" (2010)
20. Emily (Shay Mitchell) in "Pretty Little Liars" (2010)
21. Jesse (Dane DeHaan) in "Treatment" (2010)
22. Blane (Darren Criss) in "Glee" (2010)
23. Teddy (Trevor Donovan) in "90210" (2010)
24. Tea (Sofia Black DElia) in "Skins" (2010)
25. Ian (Cameron Monaghan) in "Shameless" (2010)
