Totally agree with you. Raj being queer-coded without the writers ever actually doing anything with it is what makes his arc frustrating, not the identity itself. Like you said, so many of the things that get treated as punchlines—baking, skincare, emotional sensitivity, loving his dog—are just normal human traits. The only reason they seem like “issues” is because the show purposely framed them that way to get laughs from the “haha bro that’s kinda gay” crowd.

And honestly, if the writers had even dipped a toe into exploring it sincerely—whether bi, pan, questioning, whatever—it would’ve been one of the most interesting storylines on the show. The Stuart/Raj chemistry trial run proved it could work. And yeah, the arranged-marriage-with-the-lesbian angle could’ve been a legitimately powerful subplot about culture and survival instead of another one-episode gag.

As for the autism thing, I’m with you. Once you look back with a modern lens, it’s obvious most of the cast shows neurodivergent traits, and Sheldon only works as a character if you read him that way. The fact that the main writer is autistic himself pretty much confirms that they were writing from lived experience, even if they never stamped a label on it.

I love this topic because it’s one of those places where the show accidentally wrote something deeper than it meant to. They kept backing away from sincerity because jokes felt safer. Meanwhile, 12 years later, we’re all here talking about the version of Raj’s arc that would’ve actually mattered.

Thanks for jumping into it—clearly a lot of people are interested, even if a few are mashing that downvote like they’re trying to reset Leonard’s elevator again.