An elusive figure stalks film and TV history, with an ambiguous sexuality that’s only hinted at. Enter: The Queer Coded Character. For many years when queerness couldn’t be spelled out onscreen, recognizable signifiers, tropes and stock character types like the maiden aunt or the confirmed bachelor sent a message to in-the-know audiences.
Today, queer coding continues in the form of queerbaiting, which panders to a queer audience through teasing romance but never delivers, for fear of offending any homophobic viewers.