*Note: This list originally ran

on August 24th, 2007

It's a part of growing up gay, that moment you look back at your pop culture memories and start to see the characters in a new context, picking up signals you weren't equipped to notice before. Here are a few of our favorite (and gayest) cartoon characters.

The Smurfs

From: The Smurfs

True, the Smurfs were all gaga over Smurfette, but those little blue men couldn't have lived without any kind of romance before she arrived, it's hard not to ask the same questions about Smurf village that have been asked about Paradise Island.

Dr. Benton Quest and Race Bannon

From: Johnny Quest cartoons

The quintet that Johnny Quest traveled with certainly has felt like the kind of improvised family that's so familiar to gays and the way that Race and Benton took care of each other certainly suggested an affection based in more than just having survived plenty of dangerous adventures. We got confirmation of those suspicions, however, when the relationship took a turn for the worse and Dr. Quest has to hire Harvey Birdman to represent him in a custody battle over Johnny and Hadji.

Rio Pacheco

From: Jem and the Holograms

Sure, Rio was the lead character's boyfriend but he had a few warning signs. He might have complained, but a relationship with someone busy splitting her time between running a business empire and public appearances as a hologram-powered pop star made for good closet cover. More telling was his detesting of secrets and lies -- project much Rio? I don't think Jerrica needed to worry so much about how he'd feel about her secret identity as Jem.

Waylon Smithers

From: The Simpsons

A list like this wouldn't be complete with the character living in the most transparent closet in cartoondom. While it looks likely that The Simpsons will never completely out Smithers, we've seen what he'll do on his computer with Montgomery Burns' voice and image, we've seen that he lives in the Springfield's gay neighborhood and we heard his voice come from one of the floats at Springfield's gay pride parade.

Fred Jones

From: Scooby Doo cartoons

The first signal is that fancy retro-style of Fred's dress (I can just hear John Waters cry out "A neckerchief! On a teenage jock!") but there's also the complete lack of chemistry between Fred and Daphne. As soon as they're allowed to age ten years, we're going to see those two comparing boyfriend griefs.

Snagglepuss

From: Hanna Barbera cartoons

Snagglepus, gay? Heavens to murgatriod how could anyone think such a thing?

Pleakley

From: Lilo and Stitch

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On a cartoon that's all about non-traditional families like Lilo and Stitch someone's bound to set off the gaydar and, between his cross-dressing and his eagerness to make a couple out of himself and Jumba, Pleakley does that in spades. He even corralled a female friend into a sham marriage engagement to end his families wedding pressures.

Marvin the Martian

From: Warner Bros cartoons

Those finely-tuned plans and complex inventions that Marvin puts together just reeks of repressed sexual energy being channeled into other hobbies. I suspect if Marvin would just break down and invite Mitchell the Martian out to dinner and the local production of Starmites, he wouldn't care so much about the earth blocking his view.

Mac and Tosh

From: Warner Bros. cartoons

There's something about these two ultra-polite little gophers that totally sets off the gaydar. Maybe it was they way they made etiquette and manners their primary concern, maybe its they way they'd exclaim "It's lovely, aren't they? Lovely! Lovely!" or maybe it was just that they were happy to spend so much time holding each other while outwitting a predator.

Any cartoon characters we've left out here that ping your gaydar?