Look, everyone wants Captain America to be happy and laid. Ever since Chris Evans called Cap a virgin, a lot of people have scoffingly offered their chosen ship and character dynamics are proof positive that the Sentinel of Liberty gets his boyshorts ripped off.
This of course applying strictly to the MCU.
So I wanted to spend some time talking about one of the few canonically homosexual characters, one of the first homosexual characters openly acknowledged by Marvel starting in 1985, generated within the Captain America title.
That would of course be Steve Rogers’ best friend since childhood, his one time sidekick who he seemed to be constantly saving, the man who calls him Stevie, saved him from bullies as a child, and who he jumps to the aid of no matter what hiatus has taken place in their friendship.

Obviously, it’s Arnie Roth.

When MCU revised the history of Bucky Barnes, in a lot of ways they injected Bucky into Arnie’s role, lending to why it’s so easy to assume more of Buck and Cap’s relationship within the film franchise.  Arnie is canonically gay but also merging the two characters makes for a much longer and more intense narrative between Buck and Cap as it fuses two vital relationships in Steve’s life.

Bucky and Steve have always had a long standing history of coming under scrutiny as a couple. When Ed Brubaker revised Bucky’s origin story, it cast Bucky into the protector role for Steve Rogers. It also aged Buck up significantly so as to avoid what the Comics Code had once deemed inappropriate bonding between a man and young boy. By fusing his loyal sidekick with his gay best friend, the MCU kinda set themselves up for #givecaptainamericaaboyfriend

Arnie is important. He is an often forgotten character worth noting because he was representation for LGBTQ+ characters, shown struggling with internalized homophobia, in a long term committed relationship. And his character was introduced in 1985. 
In the days where AIDS was still occasionally referred to as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) (both terms coined in 1982). HIV was not a term used until 1986.
Not only that, but Arnie is anti-stereotype to the time. He is neither sexually promiscuous, a drug user, nor over sexualized.
He’s just some dude.

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Arnie may be bumbling, old, but he’s an everyman. In many ways he’s starkly un-Bucky. Most importantly Arnie provides a concrete example of a homosexual character who is subtle. The fact that he is gay is never the point. And Steve doesn’t berate the point, either.

These storylines set a monumental precedent for LGBTQ+ characters in comic books. Arnie is treated very delicately given the time in which his character was developed.

When his sexuality is forced to the forefront, it’s often a heartbreaking narrative on homophobia.

But most importantly, Cap reacts to homophobia, canonically, like this: