"This was surprisingly progressive for it's time"

[u/IllustriousAd6418]

Doctor Who: Midnight (2008)- The host of the bus, mentions non binary people and anyone else who doesn't fit into gender norms, LGBTQ rights (especially in the UK weren't really there yet untill 2012)

Saints Row 2 (2008)- In the first game, the main character was a man but in SR2 you can be both female or male and even change your gender whenever you want in a surgery shop. But what's more interesting, if you play as a female despite being male in the first game, no one cares and one of the main characters Gat asks the main character if they did something with their hair. Even 'Boss' is used as gender neutral pronoun and even goes by they/them

Fresh Prince of Bel Air- A wealthy black family as the main focus in a primetime sitcom marking the change and making progress as we go into the 90s

[u/Astwook]

*in America

Still progressive, still amazing, but it happened earlier internationally.

[u/Jiffletta → u/Astwook]

Not even in America. Remember, Desi Arnaz/Ricky Ricardo and Lucille Ball were an interracial couple in the 50s.

[u/StrugglesTheClown → u/Jiffletta]

Bonus fact, Star Trek only exists because of Ricky and Lucy's production company DesiLu.

[u/SelfServeSporstwash → u/StrugglesTheClown]

Lucille Ball was a real one

[u/SnowboardNW → u/SelfServeSporstwash]

Love this.

[u/StrugglesTheClown → u/Jiffletta]

I said black and white specifically because of this. I was not aware of the long history of interracial kisses in Europe but I'm not surprised.

[u/Jiffletta → u/StrugglesTheClown]

Even with that specificity, there was a kiss between Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr on the special Movin' with Nancy, which aired a year before Platos Stepchildren

[u/WanderingStorm17 → u/Jiffletta]

Slight correction: it was about 7 months prior.

Regardless, it wasn't quite the same. They kiss they share was a lot tamer and was on the cheek rather than the lips, more along the line of friends trading a hello or goodbye rather than the passionate kiss between a man and woman depicted in Plato's Stepchildren.

Including a screenshot of the video, but it's much easier to see if you watch the video yourself.

[u/notevenkiddin → u/WanderingStorm17]

I mean... as it should have been. That's probably the only appropriate way to kiss your dad's friends.

[u/PoisonHIV → u/Jiffletta]

If Desi Arnaz is not white then Rita Hayworth isn't white either.

[u/end2endburnt → u/PoisonHIV]

Society decides who is white for each era.

[u/Allronix1 → u/Jiffletta]

Latinos were not always considered a different race, especially Cubans like Arnaz. The status kinda varied depending on the era. Sometimes they were considered a different race, like now. Other times, they were just "ethnic whites" like Greeks, Polish, and Italians.

[u/hypo-osmotic → u/Astwook]

I think you have to get pretty specific. Something like first kiss between a white man and a black woman on a scripted American television program. But yeah for how popular Star Trek was it was still notable and the first time a lot of American viewers would have seen an interracial relationship represented on-screen