Deborah Margaret Gallagher, more popularly known as Debbie Gallagher, is one of the main characters of the American comedy-drama TV series “Shameless”. The series, which aired on Showtime for 10 years (2011 – 2021), is an adaptation of a British series of the same name. The series revolves around the poor and dysfunctional family of a neglected single father of six, Frank Gallagher. He was always drunk, high, or looking for trouble, while his children learned to tend to themselves. The show depicts the effect of alcohol and drug addiction on American working-class families.
View this post on Instagram
Debbie Gallagher, played by actress Emma Kenney, is one of Frank’s six children. She’s the strong-willed youngest daughter of the family who got pregnant at the age of 15. Debbie is sweet, smart, and quite mature for her age. She actually cared for her father — who describes her as being “sent from the gods” — when no one else did. However, as Debbie’s character gets older, she becomes immature, immoral, self-centered, egotistical, perverted, and delusional. In short, she had become just like her father.
Fans had been drawn to Debbie’s complicated and problematic character. They were also curious about the Gallagher’s middle child’s sexuality. So, is Debbie Gallagher gay? Let’s find out.
VOTE: What is Debbie Gallagher’s Sexuality?
Debbie Gallagher’s Boyfriend
Debbie had a few relationships with men all throughout the series.
She dated Derek Delgado, played by actor Luca Oriel, whom she met during her boxing lessons. Derek got her pregnant and that’s how she became a mother at the age of 15, to Fiona’s horror — the feisty, street-smart eldest Gallagher sibling, who raises her younger siblings on her own due to their parents’ irresponsibility, and eventually becomes the children’s legal guardian.
Derek is the father of Frances “Franny” Gallagher, Debbie’s daughter.
Before he met Derek, Debbie also dated Matty Baker, played by actor James Allen McCune. Matty was actually Debbie’s first boyfriend. She met him at the arcade. They exchanged numbers and later met at his house. She first told him she was 20, and later confessed that she was only 13 when he found that she was lying about her age.
In the latter part of the series, Debbie was in a relationship with Tom O’Leary, played by Michael Legge, a kind-hearted officer.
So why do fans still think she’s gay when she was in several heterosexual relationships?
Debbie Gallagher’s Sexuality
Debbie is smart and more mature for her age. In fact, in Season 1, when she was only 11 years old, she was able to explain to her younger brother, Carl, how lesbian sex works.
In the first 8 seasons of “Shameless”, Debbie thought she was only attracted to men. It was only in Season 9 that she started getting bi-curious.
She even asked her brother, Ian — who is openly gay and in an on-and-off relationship with his boyfriend, Mickey — how he knew he was gay.
But it was only in Season 10 that Debbie really started to explore her sexuality. She started dating Sandy Milkovich, who was played by actress Elise Eberle. Debbie also declares during Ian and Mickey’s wedding that she is a lesbian. She also starts a business under the name “Hot Lesbian Convict,” which shows how she has come to embrace her newfound sexuality.
Sandy also makes Debbie a profile on @hotlesbianconvict which says:
Wrongly convicted lesbian welder. If she wasn’t gay, would it have happened? If she hadn’t been a lesbian, would anyone have cared?”
In the series finale, Debbie starts a somewhat relationship with another woman, Heidi, who is an ex-con. Heidi invites Debbie and her daughter, Franny, to join her in Texas.
All throughout the series, Debbie has had three real boyfriends and three real girlfriends. By the end of the show, Debbie Gallagher has come to terms with who she really is and now often calls herself a lesbian.
Is Debbie Gallagher Gay?
Although Debbie dated a few men throughout the series and even got pregnant at the age of 15, she was actually not straight. In the first 8 seasons of the series, Debbie thought she was only attracted to men. However, in the later part of the show, she became curious and started exploring her sexuality by getting into a homosexual relationship. At the end of the series, Debbie has come to terms with her sexuality. She came out as a lesbian and was actually quick to embrace it.