Courtesy/ABC

June is pride month so the LGBTQ community is showing their solidarity in events and festivals around the country in major cities, and around the world.

In honor of reflecting back on how far we have come on television with its representation of gay characters (and there is still much further we need to go), the Decider polled over 40 LGBTQ television professionals and critics and asked them to rank their top LGBTQ television characters of all time.  After the votes were tallied, 50 characters were named.

Within the major list contained some soapy characters including: #12 Billy Crystal’s Jodie Dallas on the ABC sudsy sitcom, Soap, #17 Jussie Smollett’s Jamal Lyon on the primetime soap, Empire, and at #44 Al Corley and Jack Coleman’s Stephen Carrington of the original ABC version of the sudsy, Dynasty.

However, most notable to daytime drama audiences was the inclusion in the top 20. and at #19 to be exact, of Eden Riegel’s exquisite performance of the character of Bianca Montgomery on ABC’s All My Children.  Bianca’s coming out scenes to her mother, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), her struggles to be accepted by her mother, her struggles in the romance department with the her women in her life, her same-sex wedding to Reese (Tamara Braun), while always maintaining to be the moral center of Pine Valley. even though she was an LGBTQ character. were all important moments in television history.

Riegel, talked about the important of the coming out scenes, and how key Bianca’s story was to legendary AMC creator, Agnes Nixon  in the recently posted Agnes Nixon Daytime Emmy Tribute Extended Version released and produced last week by On-Air On-Soaps Michael Fairman.  You can watch what Eden shared here.

Courtesy/IMDB

Decider’s Twitter account upon naming Bianca to the Top 20 tweeted: “Bianca Montgomery’s importance to gay TV characters went beyond the milestones”.  Eden Riegel tweeted back: “Couldn’t be prouder to be #19! #PrideMonth2017”

So, what do you think of Bianca Montgomery being named to the Top 20 Most Important LGBTQ TV Characters Of All-Time?  Excited to learn she was high up on the list?

Check out the entire top 50 here.  Then, let us know if you think any other gay characters should have been on the list from the world of daytime drama? Comment below!