Celebrations are in high gear all across the country in honor of Pride Month, and soap opera fans were given an extra opportunity for merrymaking in June: All My Children's Bianca Montgomery was voted into the top 20 most important LGBTQ TV characters of all time.
Decider polled over 40 LGBTQ television professionals and critics to narrow down a list of 50 of the most influential LGBTQ characters in history. Some notable soap-related characters made the list, including Dynasty's Stephen Carrington (Al Corley/Jack Coleman) at 44 and Soap's Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal) at 12. But number 19 -- AMC's Bianca (Eden Riegel) -- was the inclusion that got most soap fans buzzing.
Bianca's coming out scenes with her mother, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), and her same-sex wedding to Reese (Tamara Braun), were landmark television moments for both the LGBTQ community and TV history as a whole.
"Bianca Montgomery's importance to gay TV characters went beyond the milestones," Decider tweeted, to which Riegel tweeted back, "Couldn't be prouder to be #19!"
Bianca Montgomery's importance to gay TV characters went beyond the milestones: https://t.co/2mxn4qC8kD cc: @edenriegel pic.twitter.com/t2dLreg21y
- Decider (@decider) June 16, 2017
For the list of all 50 influential LGBTQ television characters, click here.
What do you think about Bianca being named one of the top 20 LGBTQ TV characters of all time? Are there other soap characters that you feel should have made the list? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
