This June, we celebrate Pride Month, the annual commemoration of the LGBTQ+ community as society strives to become more inclusive towards queer people. And with greater inclusivity comes greater representation in the media we consume. More LGBTQ+ characters are being featured in mainstream movies and shows, but depending on the target audience, their roles can range from minimal to pivotal. The question of representation becomes even more sensitive in animation: should cartoons, with children as their target audience, feature more LGBTQ+ representation?

Some popular cartoons, like Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and Disney’s The Owl House, have answered that question with a resounding yes. With prominent queer characters like Marceline the Vampire Queen and Luz Noceda, these shows have not hesitated to introduce LGBTQ+ representation to their target audiences. The children who watch these shows will likely grow to accept their LGBTQ+ peers more and understand their own identities better. On the other hand, some shows have taken a subtler approach to queer representation, like HBO Max’s Infinity Train.

Set on an endlessly long train where people must resolve their personal issues to leave, Infinity Train is an anthology series, with each of its four seasons focusing on a different set of characters. This format allows for a more diverse range of stories to be told, and the show takes advantage of that by making sure each main character is completely different from the last. None of the characters in the show are explicitly established as queer — but many viewers have noticed that the show still manages to explore those issues in its own way.

For instance, the show’s second season focuses on the character of MT, a “mirror version” of another character. MT came from the mirror realm, where she had to mimic her prime counterpart’s every move despite wanting to live a life of her own. Once she escapes from the mirror world, she becomes free to be her own person, changing her appearance and giving herself a different name. Some viewers have chosen to see MT’s story as an allegory for the experience of non-binary and trans people, who must break free from societal expectations of what they should be to come to terms with their own identity.

The show’s creator, Owen Dennis, has consistently refused to confirm or deny his characters’ gender identities, choosing to leave the show to audience interpretation. When asked about the possibility of MT being trans or non-binary, he said in a since-deleted tweet, “the question becomes, do you try to say the word and risk the show […] not [being] allowed in certain countries, or do you not use the word but still tell the story with metaphor, and everyone who needs to see it and hear it will be able to access it?”

Such a philosophy regarding LGBTQ+ representation applies not only to MT’s case but also to the main characters in the show’s fourth and final season. Min-Gi Park and Ryan Akagi are two best friends who were inseparable as children but grew apart as teenagers. The two end up in the train having to confront their broken relationship by overcoming their lack of communication and understanding each other’s challenges. Some viewers have taken their story as that of two boys with romantic feelings for each other who had to learn to be honest with their feelings first. Dennis never directly acknowledges the characters’ sexualities within or outside the show, but there are certain ambiguities sprinkled throughout the season’s ten episodes that lead to such inferences from viewers. Min-Gi and Ryan may very well have been intended to be gay, but because of possible censorship or studio interference, they couldn’t be explicitly established as such.

Even in an ideal world where censorship would not be a problem, the stories of characters like MT, Min-Gi, and Ryan would still be useful. In the same way we use fables and fairytales to teach children important lessons about real life in an easier, more accessible way, animated shows can tell stories about the queer experience without depicting it directly. There certainly could be more overt LGBTQ+ representation in animated shows for children, but not every show needs explicitly queer characters to foster acceptance and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community. Metaphor and allegory have always been powerful storytelling tools to represent the oppressed, different, and overlooked, so just as we could use more direct representation a la Adventure Time, it would help to have more shows like Infinity Train, too.