I've never seen any of the 586 episodes of Law and Order: SVU (1999-) , because who cares about the Crime of the Week? So I had no idea that it was so soap-opera like. It took a lot of plot arcs to for Noah Porter-Benson (Ryan Buggle) to get around to coming out as the youngest LGBTQ character on tv. And a lot of trauma:
Bon in 2013, after Mom Elle is raped by sex trafficker Johnny Drake.
She keeps the baby while working for pimp Little Tino, but when she overdoses, he sells little Noah to a child pornographer couple.
After detective Olivia (Mariska Hartigay) arrests them and rescues Noah, he is placed in several abusive foster homes.
Mom Elle turns up and tries to get custody, but she is murdered.
Olivia decides to foster Noah, but when she pulls him out of the way of a speeding car, he is bruised, and CPS thinks that she is abusive.
He is kidnapped, nearly kidnapped, and hospitalized with life threatening diseases (twice).
His biological father shows up for a custody battle, and is murdered. I'm looking at you, Olivia.
Finally, a queer code: In 2019, ADA Stone (Philip Winchester, left) decides that Noah needs a "father figure,' and teaches him to play baseball.
After a few episodes, he gets tired of baseball and says that he would rather take ballet lessons. This was Ryan's idea. He tells Dance Magazine: "Dancing is my favorite thing, so I wrote a script over the summer and gave it to the writers, and they were happy to do it."
Although Noah mentions his ballet lessons and his competitive dance team on occasion, and has a plotline where Olivia hangs up on him when he announces that he got the lead in The Nutcracker (not because she disapproves), it's mostly back to trauma, diseases, an unspecified "family emergency," vaping, and getting to know Olivia's estranged brother Simon (Michael Weston), who dies of an overdose. How many parental figures have died on you, buddy?
On January 11, 2022, Olivia finds Noah in his friend Hudson's house, wearing a dog collar, eating dog food, and barking on command. At first he claims that it was just kids being kids, but then he admits that Hudson was making fun of a nonbinary friend, using homophobic slurs. So he defended them, and told Hudson that he was bi: "There's no shame in being true to yourself." The bully didn't respond well.
Although Noah mentions his ballet lessons and his competitive dance team on occasion, and has a plotline where Olivia hangs up on him when he announces that he got the lead in The Nutcracker (not because she disapproves), it's mostly back to trauma, diseases, an unspecified "family emergency," vaping, and getting to know Olivia's estranged brother Simon (Michael Weston), who dies of an overdose. How many parental figures have died on you, buddy?
On January 11, 2022, Olivia finds Noah in his friend Hudson's house, wearing a dog collar, eating dog food, and barking on command. At first he claims that it was just kids being kids, but then he admits that Hudson was making fun of a nonbinary friend, using homophobic slurs. So he defended them, and told Hudson that he was bi: "There's no shame in being true to yourself." The bully didn't respond well.
Olivia praises him for standing up to Hudson.
He explains: "Well, it's my truth. I just haven't told anybody before."
Olivia: "Well, thank you for telling me." And they go on with their day. (Yes, she comes down on the bully.)
The episode received nearly universal praise (excluding the usual homophobes), and got Ryan a dozen interviews in everything from Cliche Magazine to The Today Show. He was twelve years old, but Noah was nine, thus becoming the youngest self-identified LGBTQ character on televsion.. The runner up is Jude on The Fosters, who says that he is "not into labels" at age twelve, and "gay" at age thirteen.
As far as I can tell, Noah's bi identity never comes up again. He bonds with his half-brother Connor (real-life buddy Tre Ryder), gets a potential father figure in Olivia's ex Stabler (Christopher Meloni, left, who played Lee Tergersen's boyfriend in Oz), and continues to suffer from soap opera traumas. But there's always the future; Ryan hints that there are some "exciting plotlines ahead" for his character.
Ryan Buggle is now sixteen years old, with biceps. I'm going to check the usual: any (other) LGBT roles? Gay or bi in real life?
More after the break
