2009: All My Children
The soap staged the first same-sex legal wedding in daytime TV history when Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel) and Reese Williams (Tamara Braun) tied the knot.
2012: The New Normal
The New Normal, starring Justin Bartha, Andrew Rannells, Georgia King, Bebe Wood, NeNe Leakes, Jayson Blair and Ellen Barkin, lasted one season on NBC. Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler's sitcom followed a gay couple and their surrogate.
2014: Good Luck Charlie
The first same-sex couple was featured on a network targeted to kids in an episode of Good Luck Charlie on Disney.
2014: Laverne Cox
The Orange Is the New Black star became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Emmy award.
2014: The Normal Heart
Ryan Murphy brought Larry Kramer's acclaimed play to screen with the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Matt Bomer and Jim Parsons in leading roles. It took home the Emmy for Outstanding TV Movie.
2014: Transparent
Amazon broke new ground with Transparent, its dramedy from Jill Soloway starring Jeffrey Tambor as a father who comes out as transgender. The show was met with rave reviews and will return for a second season.
2014: How to Get Away With Murder
ABC's new legal drama starring Viola Davis featured a racy sex scene between two men in the show's pilot, and a promise from creator Shonda Rhimes that those scenes aren't going away.
2015: Neil Patrick Harris
Eleven years after coming out in 2006, Neil Patrick Harris became the first openly gay man to host the Academy Awards.
2015: Glee
Dot-Marie Jones' Glee character, Coach Beiste, comes out as transgender. The show features a fully transgender choir.
2015: Transparent Wins Best TV Comedy Golden Globe
Amazon's Transparent made history at the 2015 Golden Globes when lead actor Jeffrey Tambor and the show itself took home awards in the Best Actor in a TV Comedy and Best TV Comedy categories, respectively.
"I want to thank the trans community," creator Jill Soloway said while accepting the award. "They are our family, they make it possible."
"Thank you for coming out," Soloway said to her "MaPa." "Maybe we're going to be able to teach the world something…"
"To love," she concluded.
2015: Doubt
Laverne Cox joined the cast of the CBS series Doubt as a transgender attorney, a first for a network series. After retooling, the show made it to air in 2017, but only lasted a season.
2015: Caitlyn Jenner
In April 2015, Bruce Jenner sat down with Diane Sawyer for a two-hour special to reveal her plans to transition to a woman. The interview was followed up with E!'s Keeping Up With the Kardashians: About Bruce two-part special that featured Kris Jenner and the kids reacting to the announcement. In June 2015, Caitlyn Jenner made her debut on Vanity Fair. Caitlyn's journey was documented in I Am Cait.
2017: Andi Mack
In October 2017, Disney Channel revealed that the second season of their hit series would feature the network's first-ever LGBTQ storyline, with main character Cyrus (played by Joshua Rush) realizing he has feelings for a male classmate. His journey of self-discovery and ultimate acceptance will play throughout the season.
2017: Star Trek: Discovery
The latest Star Trek series, CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery, introduced the franchise's first openly gay TV character, Anthony Rapp's Paul Stamets. Not only was he openly gay, but he was in a relationship with Hugh Culber, played by Wilson Cruz.
2017, 2018: Pose
In October 2017, FX announced that Ryan Murphy had made history with his upcoming series Pose, which will have the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles. The series, debuting in 2018, looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in 1980s New York: the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world. The transgender actors joining the cast are MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar and Angelica Ross. They all will be playing authentic transgender characters. The series premiered on FX June 3, 2018.
2018: Instinct
CBS made history when Instinct premiered. The hour-long drama stars Alan Cumming as an openly gay character, the first broadcast network drama to have a gay character as a lead.
"It's the first ever [network] drama on American television to have a gay character as a lead, which I think is an incredible thing but also a terrible thing at the same time," Cumming said at the Television Critics Association press tour.
2018: American Idol
ABC's revived American Idol featured its first drag queen contestant, Ada Vox aka Adam Sanders. Sanders previously auditioned for the series.
2018: Black Lightning
The CW's latest superhero series Black Lightning introduced viewers to Anissa Pierce aka Thunder. The superhero played by Nafessa Williams is a lesbian.
2018: Supergirl
Nicole Maines, a transgender woman and activist, plays Nia Nal, AKA Dreamer, the first transgender superhero on TV on The CW's Supergirl.
2018: Grey's Anatomy
ABC's long-running medical soap introduced its first out gay male surgeon, then gave viewers its first gay male relationship.
2019: Special
Ryan O'Connell created and starred in his own Netflix series. Special is semi-autobiographical and follows Ryan, a gay man with cerebral palsy.
2019: Batwoman
The CW ordered Batwoman to series starring Ruby Rose, an out actress, as the first lesbian superhero to headline their own network TV show.
2019: Are You the One?
MTV's Are You the One? is the first dating competition reality series to feature an all sexually fluid cast. The series encourages the contestants to find their perfect match, for the first time regardless of gender.
2020: The Thing About Harry
Freeform's first Valentine's Day feature in the network's history is also the first queer rom-com in TV history, telling the opposites-attract story of Sam (Jake Borelli) and Harry (Niko Terho).