Link to the n*de dudes
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:
In 2019, Noah gets a queer code when ADA Stone (Philip Winchester, left, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) decides that he needs a "father figure,' and teaches him to play baseball.
Although Noah mentions his ballet lessons and competitive dance team 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 kid and 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 homophobic/biphobic 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, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), 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.





















