Heartbreak High: All the queer characters we can’t help but love
Heartbreak High is taking the world by storm. Based on the 1990s Australian teen drama of the same name, the 2022 version got a much needed Gen Z makeover. It premiered on Netflix on September 14 and the internet has been buzzing with talk of this show and its characters ever since. Unlike its predecessor, this version of Heartbreak High has an abundance of queer characters thrown into the mix that satisfies our rainbow requirements for viewing.
And fam, we aren’t just watching, we’re loving this show. There are many great things to say about the queer characters and queer representation included in this masterpiece. Queerness in this show is completely normalized. The queer kids are mixed in with the straight kids and they’re all friends. No one teases any of the queer kids because of their sexuality, and all the slurs that generations prior used “in the name of fun” are absent from this show.
Being queer in the world of Heartbreak High is as normal and as accepted as heterosexuality, and the intense breath of fresh air that this creates within the show knocked us off of our feet.
Today, we’re shining a spotlight on the queer characters in the 2022 version of Heartbreak High and celebrating the diversity of the show’s queer representation. And yes, they appear in order of preference, from most fave to least palatable.
Quinnie
We are massive Quinnie (Chloe Hayden) stans in this house. Chloe Hayden, the actress that brings this fabulous character to life, is autistic in real life, and her character of Quinnie is too! Quinnie is also queer, so Hayden gets two thumbs up for representing the margins with her performance here.
Here is what we love about Quinnie: she is a no nonsense, self-aware, and socially conscious human that loves fiercely and knows how to advocate for herself in a world that seems to want to silence her.
Quinnie is acutely aware of her autism and how it impacts her on a daily basis. However, Quinnie doesn’t allow this to be a hindrance in her life and she surrounds herself with people that understand how she operates.
So many depictions of autism on television revert to the extremes. Autistic characters are often represented as low functioning people that have a really hard time getting by in daily life. And while Quinnie’s autism is apparent in her routines and nuances, it doesn’t define her, and it’s not the most interesting thing about her.
The most interesting thing about her is how well she knows herself and how much she is determined to protect herself and put herself first. This, however, is not done in a way that is to the detriment of others around her. She is kind, she loves deeply, and she always stands up for what is right – even when it’s the hard thing to do.
Ca$h
By far our second favorite of all the queer characters, and overall faves on Heartbreak High, we just want to put Ca$h (Will McDonald) in our pocket and protect, protect, protect. During season 1 of this show, Ca$h is going through it. He comes from a shady past and we learn pretty quickly that the only reason he isn’t in juvie is because his grandma guaranteed the courts that he would live with her and keep his nose clean.
Except he isn’t really holding up his end of the bargain. He’s Hartley High’s local drug dealer and he is definitely not staying away from folks that are likely to lead him down the path of trouble.
However it’s pretty clear he isn’t super invested in this lifestyle and just can’t seem to figure out how to shake these fools and this reputation that plagues him daily.
Must protect, protect, protect.
It was a bit of a surprise, however an incredibly welcomed one, to learn that Ca$h was among this show’s queer characters. He is gay, but doesn’t really fit the archetype that television land has lead us to believe is gay over the years. This is the great thing about this show: it’s breaking through the stereotypes and shattering expectations all around.
Albeit gay, Ca$h currently he lives so deep in the closet that he’s probably chatting it up with friends in Narnia. Ca$h is very careful (at least at first) who he lets his gay out around.
He likes Darren (James Majoos) a looooooot, who is definitely not occupying any closeted spaces or any measuarable radius around a closet, which makes things complicated for Ca$h. But, that’s not all.
Like Quinnie, Ca$h is doubling up on his representation points because it would appear that Ca$h is also somewhere on the asexual spectrum. We talked about the asexual representation present in this character in more detail here, but essentially, it appears that as of right now, Ca$h doesn’t even know that he is asexual.
It causes much conflict as his relationship with Darren unfolds. Darren connects sex and the desire for sex to their personal self esteem, and when Ca$h tries to explain to Darren that sex is complicated for him, Darren flips out.
The way Ca$h explains his desires and the vocabulary he engages with makes it very apparent that he doesn’t even know what asexuality is, but that he clearly understands that something is different about him. He wants Darren – a lot – but he definitely doesn’t want sex with Darren, or anyone else for that matter.
The inclusion of an ace character among the queer characters in this show was such a refreshing, welcome addition. Asexuality is so misunderstood by many folks, including LGBTQ people, so the education that will likely follow the introduction of this arc is so important.
Despite the drug-dealing bad boy attitude, Ca$h is nothing but a liddol teddy bear that needs some good old tender loving care. He has had a rough life and he is just doing what he knows to survive. However, he does the right thing in a very wrong situation when his thug life friends won’t, he helps Harper (Asher Yasbincek) get out of a very dangerous mess, and he loves his grandmother with a purity that is nothing but awwwwwwwww-worthy.
We’re hoping to see more of this incredibly layered character in season 2.
Darren
Darren is an enigma. Incredibly complex, very confident, and incredibly in touch with who they are, Darren is definitely one of the shiniest queer characters in Heartbreak High. Darren is an out non-binary individual that dates boys. Like so many other kids in Australia, Darren is the product of an inter-racial relationship, which adds another layer to their complexity that has been absent from Australian television for so long.
We love Darren, however Darren has some lessons to learn. We love that Darren is fiercely protective of Quinnie. We also love that Darren is unapologetic about their identity and is not bowing down to anyone when it comes to navigating life as a non-binary human. We love that Darren takes a chance on Amerie (Ayesha Madon) in her time of need, despite the fact that Amerie has never really given Darren the time of day.
We think that Darren could use a good therapist to help them work through some of their more nuanced internal struggles. Darren’s attachment of sex to thier self worth warrants some examination. What has happened in Darren’s life that makes them feel like they need to connect their power and their self-esteem to how many people want to have sex with them?
Darren’s interactions with Ca$h regarding sex raised several red flags. While we hated the things that Darren said to Ca$h about his relationship with sex (Ca$h baby, there is nothing wrong with you, even though Darren clearly said there was), we mostly felt sorry for Darren because those comments were undeniably rooted in issues that Darren has with themself.
Like Ca$h, we’re pretty sure that Darren doesn’t really know what asexuality is, or at least has never encountered it before. We’re hoping in season 2 (please Netflix, renew this show) the writers spend some time with these two characters educating them both (and audiences) on the nuances of what the ace spectrum entails so that they can attempt to move forward in a more harmonious way.
Are Darren and Ca$h endgame? We’re not really sure. We do, however, hope that this isn’t the end of their journey together because Ca$h aint about that life. There is so much these two can still learn from each other, and we’re really hoping we get to see it.
Darren has the potential to be a real leader as they charge their way through life. We’re hoping that someone steps up and challenges them to do the necessary work on themself that will allow this natural progression to occur.
Darren is fabulous, Darren is beautiful, Darren is important. This show wouldn’t be what it is without this dynamic, incredible queer character.
Sasha
While we’re sure that Sasha (Gemma Chua-Tran) starts out in Heartbreak High as someone with good intentions, we do find her in the last position of our fave queer characters in this show.
This is mostly related to the way she conducts herself in her relationship with Quinnie. We loved that Sasha and Quinnie are so into each other. And we loved that Sasha wasn’t put off by the stigma of Quinnie’s autism. However, it isn’t long before Sasha allows said stigma to dictate her behaviors and the way she treats Quinnie as her girlfriend.
If you’ve got eyes, you’ll see that Quinnie is well adept at taking care of herself and understanding her limitations regarding her autism well. She doesn’t need anyone, especially someone who is supposed to love her, to mother her or make decisions about her wellbeing for her.
Sasha quickly falls into this role, and not in a great way. She intercepts potential moments of fun for Quinnie, and then ruins other moments of fun that Quinnie has organized for herself because she makes choices for Quinnie without consulting Quinnie herself.
And she isn’t really very humble about it either.
What we do love about this queer character though, is that Sasha reminds us a lot of what it’s like to be a teenager. The things she does are very adolescent and her decisions and actions are reflective of this. So in this regard, Sasha is exactly the kind of character that she should be.
Queer characters with question marks
There is a scene that takes place in the series that involves three characters that, prior to this scene, were assumed to be heterosexual. Harper, Dusty (Josh Heuston), and Malakai (Thomas Weatherall) find themselves engaged in a sneaky threesome. While we’re not entirely sure how the dynamics of this activity played out in real-time, we do know that Dusty and Malakai at least exchange kisses.
While viewers are not privy to any thoughts Dusty has on the potential slip into the land of homosexuality, Malakai does embark on a journey that questions everything he has ever known about himself.
Prior to this moment, at least that we are aware of, Malakai never actually considered that he might be into boys. As the show comes to a close, Malakai is still crushing hard on Amerie – who is female – and doesn’t seem to land in any definitive place regarding his queer crisis. However, we’re sure this is intentional as this show embodies the very idea that labels aren’t necessarily important to these kids. Whether this will be brought up again in future seasons remains to be seen, but this scene was important for solidifying that sexuality shouldn’t impose as much importance as prior generations have given it.
The message that was clearly imposed on viewers with this scene is that people should be able to sleep with whoever they want, love whoever they want, be whoever they want without slapping a restrictive and prohibitive label on everything.
To many that came before these brave Gen Z souls, labels matter a great deal. They were and still are important for queer history and the stuggles the community has gone through over time. There are many within the queer community that latch onto their labels for dear life, because this was how many survived and got through the mess. However, Heartbreak High is doing an incredible job of representing the nuanced differences of this brave Gen Z cohort that is currently bursting onto our screens with their stories everywhere.
Gen Z is here, they are fluid and queer, and they’re pulling up their bootstraps and doing things their own way right now.
We’re here for it all and can’t wait to see what this show brings us in the future.
Heartbreak High is available to stream on Netflix now. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
