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Are there any queer Space Marine Legion in Warhammer 30k or 40k?

12.06.2025 11:07

Are there any queer Space Marine Legion in Warhammer 30k or 40k?

Games Workshop used these originally-queer “transgressive” motifs for Slaanesh and the Emperor’s Children. Without ever explicitly saying so, EC background coyly alluded to them being sexually transgressive in a “you do the math” sort of way. They were very up front about the noise/music aspect, the sadism, masochism and narcotics aspect… but the “other forbidden pleasures” that the Emperor’s Children indulged in were always left unspoken with a wink and a shrug.

Of course, you have the Dark Angels and Lion el’Johnson, named directly for the poem about hiding secret homosexuality by the poet Lionel Johnson. The First Legion is not secretly queer - their secret is The Fallen - but the original connection is what it is.

Back in the late 80’s when 40k was born, gay/queer/trans was still widely and popularly seen in most Western societies as “transgressive.” A quick and easy way for other scenes to clearly convey their own transgressiveness was to ape and caricature the fashion associated with certain gay and BDSM cultures: tight studded leathers, spikes, straps, chains, dog collars, that kind of thing. That is why punk and heavy metal used aspects of that look.

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You also have the Emperor’s Children.

Space Marine background lore is consistently clear that Astartes are asexual - they neither reproduce sexually, nor do they feel a sex drive. The lore is deliberately unclear whether they even still have a penis, and there is no reason to think that they retain their useless testes. In one of the novels, an Eldar refers to them as “geld warriors.”

The process of turning a pre-pubescent boy into a Space Marine essentially turns them into biological war robots.

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That said…

…Games Workshop has laced subtle connections and allusions (some of them very dated and derogatory) to LGBTQ culture into Space Marine lore.

TL/DR: No, there are officially no queer Space Marine Legions. There are also no heterosexual Space Marine legions.

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