Disney’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ Features Lesbian ‘True Love’s Kiss’

Disney’s fairy-tale drama Once Upon a Time featured its first same-sex relationship during Sunday night’s episode, when Ruby (Meghan Ory) travels to the Underworld to track down and save Dorothy (Teri Reeves) from the villainous Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader).

The Hollywood Reporter has the episode recap:

Ruby and Dorothy end up bonding over shared family problems, and Ruby turns to Mulan for advice about her feelings. “I know we just met, but I have never felt like this about anyone before,” she tells Mulan. “Don’t make the same mistake that I did. Don’t wait until it’s too late to tell someone how you feel,” Mulan replies, but by the time Ruby goes to do so, Dorothy is gone.

Ruby tracks down Zelena in the Underworld, finds out the Wicked Witch put Dorothy under a sleeping curse, and with a little advice from her good friend Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin), she clicks some magical slippers and goes to Oz to kiss her True Love awake. They get more than just one of True Love’s kisses and presumably (hopefully?!) will live happily ever after.

“True love’s kiss has been a staple of this show since the beginning,” the show’s creators, Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis said in a statement. “This past Sunday’s episode was just another example of how in a fairy tale, as in life, love is love.”

True love's kiss! ❤️#OnceUponATime pic.twitter.com/7lIKU1X9dD

— Once Upon A Time (@OnceABC) April 18, 2016

ABC has been a trailblazer in depicting LGBT relationships onscreen. In 2015, the network’s popular family show, The Fosters, aired television’s youngest-ever homosexual kiss between two 13-year-old boys. The network is currently developing When We Rise, a miniseries chronicling the rise of the gay rights movement in the United States, with Guy Pearce and Mary-Louise Parker set to star.

Once Upon a Time‘s LGBT storyline comes as controversy has erupted over other television shows’ portrayal of LGBT characters, particularly CW’s The 100, which killed off a popular lesbian character with little warning earlier this year.

A number of other television shows have featured lesbian relationships this season, including Empire and How to Get Away with Murder. Last month, a producer of the upcoming Xena: Warrior Princess remake revealed that the character will be gay in the new series.

Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum