Soap featured Jodie Dallas, one of television's earliest openly gay characters. While some humor around his identity might be viewed differently today, the show depicted him with complexity and agency. His family's eventual acceptance and his pursuit of love and family life contributed to a net positive portrayal, offering groundbreaking visibility and challenging stereotypes for its era.

Soap featured Jodie Dallas, a gay character who explored gender identity and considered gender confirmation surgery, a groundbreaking storyline for its time. However, the resolution of his arc conflated gender identity with sexual orientation. Additionally, another trans character, Alice, was often depicted stereotypically, resulting in a portrayal that was neither strongly affirming nor degrading.

The series portrays a Catholic priest, Father Tim Flotsky, engaging in an affair with a married woman, Jessica Tate. This depiction satirizes hypocrisy within religious institutions and among its adherents, presenting a religious figure as failing to uphold his vows without significant counterbalancing positive portrayals from the narrative.