16 Feel-Good TV Shows to Kick Off 2019 With a Little Hope
Listen, we all know queer women love a good TV show about serial killing or Satan worship or ghosts — but did you know sometimes it feels good to just feel good? And did you also know that feeling good can lower your blood pressure, reset your stress-addled mind and body, and even soothe your anxiety? It’s true! A professor at UNC Chapel Hill who studies anxiety showed test subjects various one-minute film clips and the ones who saw videos of people laughing or ocean waves gently crashing or puppies playing had quicker physical and emotional recovery times after being subjected to stressful events.
2018 was so hard for so many people for so many reasons, so I thought, hey, what about a list of feel-good TV shows you can stream right the heck now to kick off 2019 with a little hope? Here are 16 of them!
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Samin Nosrat’s four-part docuseries based on her best-selling book will have you happy crying alongside her over cheese. Also 100% guaranteed you will fall in love with her, but that’s just a bonus.
Stream on: Netflix
The Good Place
If you want to watch a show to help you believe people can change for the better and form their own families, while also laughing your forking socks off, The Good Place is for you.
Stream on: Netflix // Hulu // Amazon
Parks and Recreation
No show has ever balanced pathos and humor as brilliantly as Parks and Recreation. Season one leans into the cynicism, but once you get past that it’s nothing but earnest optimism and tomfoolery.
Stream on: Netflix // Hulu // Amazon
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
One of the most consistently hilarious shows on TV, about found family at its heart, now with 100% more bisexual Stephanie Beatriz and Rosa Diaz.
Stream on: Netflix // Hulu // Amazon
Steven Universe
It’s the sweetest and smartest thing you could possibly choose to watch. It’s not just for kids!
Great British Bake Off
You get a few seasons with Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc and Mary Berry, and then you get a few seasons with another lesbian legend, Sandi Toksvig. All of them are wonderful in their own way. You’ll fall in love with the new crew watching them fall in love with the contestants.
Stream on: Netflix
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
The gayest thing on this list, hands-down.
Stream on: Netflix
Legends of Tomorrow
It’s the era of dark and brooding superheroes, but Legend of Tomorrow bucks that trend with bright, whimsical, sometimes nonsensical weekly adventures and a whole lot of laughter and love to complement the kickassery.
The Golden Girls
Has any show ever held up as well as The Golden Girls? Probably not. It’s just as hysterical and socially resonant as it was 30 years ago.
Fresh Off the Boat
The best part of Fresh Off the Boat is getting to appreciate how good Constance Wu is at everything she does. Also Nicole’s coming out and her friendship with Eddie will make your heart smile.
Stream on: Netflix // Hulu // Amazon
black-ish
You should never deny yourself the pleasure of watching every single thing Tracee Ellis Ross decides to do.
Jane the Virgin
Not only will Jane the Virgin provide you with plenty of opportunities to guffaw and swoon; it will also give you a chance for some intensely cathartic cries. (After which it will heal your heart like a little tender rabbit, don’t worry.)
Grace and Frankie
You could pair it with 9 to 5 (which is available on HBO Go) and get a good three weeks of feminist empowerment and giggles out of your time with legends Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.
Stream on: Netflix
Superstore
One of the most underrated comedies on television is also one of the funniest, kindest, and most genuinely diverse.
Living Single
The greatest show ever made about friends making it as family in New York City, don’t @ me. You’ll sit down to watch one episode and be so instantly transported back to the ’90s you’ll emerge from a contented haze hours later.
Stream on: Hulu
Derry Girls
Please, I am begging you, just watch this show.
Stream on: Netflix
Winter 2019 TV Preview: All The Lesbian, Queer and Bisexual TV Coming Your Way
Let’s ring in the new year where we rang it out: on the couch, watching television! What we have here is all your 2019 television premiere dates for all your favorite new and returning shows.
The Fall 2018 season was pretty incredible for representation — it seemed like I had to update the TV Preview every few days with a new lesbian or bisexual character popping up. Unfortunately, most of the new shows on my radar for 2019 aren’t, as of yet, promising a whole lot of lesbian and bisexual women characters — but there sure are a lot of gay men, especially in a few supernatural and comics-inspired programs I’m keeping my eye on in case they choose to toss us a lesbian bone. Not a dead lesbian bone though, we’re past that now.
So, without any further ado except for the rest of this paragraph, let’s get into it! Shows that took less than a one-month break between their last 2018 episode and their next 2019 episode are mentioned in bold italics, but are not given full pics and descriptions.
This post will be updated as events warrant.
January
Grown-ish (Freeform) // January 2nd // Season Two
// watch the trailer //
(Freeform/Tony Rivetti)
Grown-ish is back and so is Zoey’s bisexual bestie Nomi, who will start tentatively exploring her school’s queer community mid-season. This show is really cute and fun and if you’re not watching it, I bet if you started watching it you’d be like, “Aw! This is cute and fun but also has an awareness of social issues! I’m so glad I’m doing this for myself!”
Fresh Off The Boat (ABC) // Season Five Returns January 4th
God Friended Me (CBS) // Season One Returns January 6th
Mainfest (NBC) // Season One Returns January 7th
Good Trouble (Freeform) // January 8th // NEW
// watch the trailer //
Good Trouble picks up where The Fosters left off: with Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Callie (Maia Mitchell) headed north, from their sleepy San Diego suburb to the bright lights of Los Angeles, to start their new jobs. Most exciting of all: their new building manager and de facto house mother, Alice Kwan (Sherry Cola), is a selfless and closeted-to-her-family Asian-American soft butch lesbian.
Brooklyn 99 (NBC) // January 10th // Season Six
// watch the trailer //
BROOKLYN NINE-NINE — “Honeymoon” Episode 601 — Pictured: Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz — (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)
Now on a new network, Brooklyn 99’s Season Six will include an episode focusing on the #MeToo movement, directed by Stephanie Beatriz, and will open with Jake and Amy on their honeymoon.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC) // Season 20 returns January 10th
S.W.A.T. (CBS) // Season Two Returns January 3rd
The Good Place (NBC) // Season Three Returns January 10th
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW) // Season Four Returns January 11th
Sex Education (Netflix) // January 11th // Season One
// watch the trailer //
This eight-episode British dramedy stars Gillian Anderson as a sex therapist with a socially awkward son who, with the help and urging of his classmates, starts his own “underground sex therapy clinic” at school. Otis has a black gay best friend, but as far as queer girls go all we’ve spotted so far is a girl/girl couple in the preview who are only listed as being in one episode on imdb. Still, it looks really cute!
The Flash (The CW) // Season Three Returns January 15th
This Is Us (NBC) // Season Three Returns January 15th
Schitt’s Creek (Pop) // Season Five // January 16th
// watch the trailer //
Black lesbian town councillor “Ronnie” isn’t really a main character on Schitt’s Creek and that’s really my only complaint about this smart, clever, campy Canadian sitcom everybody seems to have discovered within the past few months. Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy shine as parents of a family who suddenly lost its wealth and are forced to live in a motel in Schitt’s Creek, a town they originally purchased as a gag gift, and Daniel Levy plays David Rose, a delightfully bitter young bisexual man. Plus, queer actress Emily Hampshire!
Riverdale (The CW) // Season Three Returns January 16th
All-American (The CW) // Season One Returns January 16th
Star Trek Discovery (CBS All Access) // January 17th // Season Two
// watch the trailer //
Star Trek has the most bizarre relationship with the gays. Kirk and Spock shippers are the original TV fandom and wrote fan fiction via printed ‘zines before the internet was even born! Once the internet was born, Janeway and Seven of Voyager became the go-to queer subtext sci-fi couple for decades. Finally, in 2018, Discovery introduced the franchise’s first canonically gay couple, Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber, and then promptly murdered Culber. Through the magic of science fiction and internet outrage, Culber is returning for season two. Also joining the cast: Tig Notaro as (presumably lesbian) Chief Engineer Denise Reno, who, according to the trailer, can best be described as “Tig Notaro in space.” I can’t wait! ( – Heather )
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) // Season 15 Returns January 17th
How To Get Away With Murder (ABC) // Season Five Returns January 17th
Shameless (Showtime) // January 20th // Season 9B
// watch the trailer //
Photo: Isabella Vosmikova/SHOWTIME – Photo ID: SHAMELESS_907_2424
The back half of Shameless’s Ninth Season returns after an extended break — oddly, after all this time, the now-totally-uneven ensemble dramedy about the tough-luck Gallaghers has managed to feature a record number of queer female characters, although many have been pretty recklessly constructed. Most recently, Debbie has considered her Sapphic side through a brief fling with hot construction worker Alex, while Veronica seems to have abandoned hers in Svetlana’s absence. Honestly I can relate to abandoning things in Svetlana’s absence, I miss her with all my heart. I can’t stay away from this show regardless of its missteps. Previews suggest that Debbie appears to remain committed to smashing the patriarchy in Season 9B and also identifies as a “sexually confused Teen Mom.”
High Maintenance (HBO) // January 20th // Season Three
// watch the trailer //
Season Two of High Maintenance was one of the best shows of 2018, and casting notices for Season Three have been a delight in and of themselves — in addition to opening all roles to non-binary actors, we’ve got gay Latinx construction workers, hippies in Poughkeepsie, and characters described using clauses like “got into a Seven Sisters school back in the day but dropped out” and “the kind of woman who definitely owns some Birkenstocks and has energy crystals in her home.” Season Three will feature guest spots from Margaret Cho (spotted hanging out with other QPOC and kissing Hye Yun Park in the trailer) as well as Rosie Perez, Jemima Kirke (Girls), Annie Golden (Orange is the New Black) and Guillermo Diaz (Scandal).
Supergirl (The CW) // Season Four Returns January 20th
Charmed (The CW) // Season One Returns January 20th
Black Lightning (The CW) // Season Two Returns January 21st
The Magicians (SyFy) // January 23rd // Season Four
// watch the trailer //
Aside from Daniella Alonso’s Pirate King, most of the queer vibes in Season 3 of The Magicians were from the magical men. However, according to interviews, Margo is bisexual, so maybe we’ll see more of that this year…then again, everything got turned on its head so really it’s anything goes in Season 4. All I know for sure is that no one really reads as particularly straight on this show. ( – Valerie)
Broad City (Comedy Central) // January 24th // Season Five
// watch the promo //
Broad City‘s Season Five will, sadly, be their last. According to a recent interview in The New York Times, Abbi is going to date a woman this year, which means this show has TWO bisexual protagonists. How about that.
JACOBSON I really feel like our show has been so queer from the get-go.
GLAZER Queerer than we knew. Behind the scenes, in front of the cameras. Everyone who works with us has gotten queerer and queerer in the past six years. I swear to God.
Siren (Freeform) // January 24th // Season Two
// watch the trailer //
Season 2 of Siren promises to give us more of the throuple action from Season 1, where mermaid Ryn seems into both Maddie and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Ben. And it also promises more mermaids, so here’s hoping all mermaids are sexually fluid! It seems some of them will be working against Ryn and some will be working with her to just try to blend in and save their species, but hopefully we get some more lady-loving merladies this year. ( – Valerie)
Legacies (The CW) // Season One Returns January 24th
RENT! Live (Fox) // January 27th
// watch the trailer //
In a moment that will undoubtably make me feel elderly, RENT! Live is coming to our teevee screens this January, starring Vanessa Hudgens as Maureen and Kiersey Clemons as Joanne. This will also be a great opportunity to see if Mark is less annoying when he’s not played by a white actor!
February
Russian Doll (Netflix) // February 1st // NEW
// watch the trailer //
Rebecca Henderson as Lizzy and Greta Lee as Maxine in “Russian Doll”
I initially wrote, “f this show is somehow not even remotely gay, I will eat my hat!” and good news — I did not have to eat my hat! Rebecca Henderson (who is married to co-creator Leslye Headland) plays Lizzie, a lesbian who enjoys group sex and also one-on-one-sex and wearing overalls! Natasha Lyonne co-created and stars in the “existential adventure show” about an inescapable New York City party, created by an all-female writing team, directed by lesbian Jamie Babbitt and featuring actors including Greta Lee, Elizabeth Ashley, Rebecca Henderson, Chloë Sevigny, Dascha Polanco, Ritesh Rajan and Jocelyn Bioh.
American Housewife (ABC) // Season Three returns February 5th
One Day At a Time (Netflix) // February 8th // Season Three
[Season Two Photo]
Walking Dead (AMC) // February 10th // Season 9B
// watch the trailers //
The Walking Dead
Nadia Hilker, Danai Gurira, Norman Reedus, Ross Marquand, Josh McDermitt
This is a show about, I believe, zombies! There’s a girl named Tara in it and she’s gay, but every time she dates a girl, that girl gets killed. Am I right so far? Many moons ago, the actress who plays Tara told AMC, “I’m excited for what’s to come in Season 9. I feel like it might be such a different equation. It might not just be war. Maybe there’s something else in store. That sounds exciting to play. Maybe instead of constantly fighting for survival, there’ll be some rebuilding and normality. I don’t know, but I’m excited to see if that could possibly happen!”
Boomerang (BET) // February 12th // NEW
// watch Lena Waithe on the making of Boomerang //
Lala Milan as Tia (Photo: Jace Downs/BET)
Lena Waithe and Halle Berry are the powerhouse team behind the television sequel to the 1992 film “Boomerang,” which follows the children of the original story’s three stars. Lala Milan plays Tia, described as a “misguided performance artist with high ambitions” who “is a classically trained dancer who wants to topple the patriarchy. She’s charismatic and wildly unique. Tia is an activist at heart, but she doesn’t mind being a little ratchet every now and then” and Kimberly Hall plays her girlfriend, Rocky, described as “a lesbian with a dominant personality” who is “very protective over her girlfriend Tia and her career.” Waithe is hoping to “change the face of BET” with the reboot.
The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) // February 15th // NEW
// watch the teaser //
As far as we can tell so far, Ellen Page’s new project is unfortunately light on queer women and by “light” we mean “there aren’t any.” But, it’s not often we can see our lesbian girlfriend Ellen Page on the small screen so everybody tune in for that face.
Shadowhunters (Freeform) // February 25th // Season 3B
// watch the trailer //
Shadowhunters will conclude its third season (which aired its first ten episodes from March – May 2018) this year with ten traditional episodes and a two-part finale. Harry Shum told Elle Magazine, “We were able to wrap the show up in a beautiful, exciting way. Filming those last few episodes was truly bittersweet.” However, it’s unclear if queer character Ollie will be returning, as she’s not listed on imdb for any 2019 appearances.
Better Things (FX) // February 28th // Season Three
CR: Jessica Brooks/FX
Details are not in abundance for Pamela Adlon’s Louis-CK-Free Season Three of Better Things, which has a minor lesbian character and also one of Sam’s daughters might be a lesbian or could be non-binary or perhaps transgender, who’s to say! But we do know this: Sharon Stone (If These Walls Could Talk 2), Judy Reyes (Claws) and Janina Gavankar (The L Word) will all show up this year.
March
Station 19 (ABC) // March 7th // Season 2B
Station 19 will be back to see if the otherwordly attractive firefighters survive yet another peril and make it to yet another day. Most relevant to our interest will be finding out if Maya Bishop (who was recently promoted to Lieutenant by the Seattle FD! #20BiTeen in full effect!) decides to leave 19 for a leadership position at Station 23 instead. My gut tells me that she – no way Shondaland would want to deprive us of Maya’s kickass attitude any time soon. (- Carmen)
For the People (ABC) // March 7th // Season Two
// watch the trailer //
Season One Picture (ABC/Eric McCandless)
Think Grey’s Anatomy but with lawyers (and much, much drier). Two great reasons to watch: queer actress, Jasmin Savoy Brown, as public defender Allison Adams…she might not be gay on the show, but her relationship with her BFF, Sandra, is the gayest thing about For the People. Second, the actual queer character: Kate Littlejohn, the Paris Gellar-esque federal prosecutor, who hooked up with Anya Ooms (played by pansexual actress Caitlin Stasey) during season one. (-Natalie)
American Gods (Starz) // March 10th // Season Two
// watch the trailer //
Native American actress Devery Jacobs joins the cast as queer Two-Spirit character Sam Black Crow and Yetide Badaki returns as the pansexual Bilquis when Season Two returns to find the battle in this Neil Gaiman adaptation “moving inexorably toward crisis point as the destinies of gods and men collide.” Bliquis will be absolutely “pivotal” to season Two and although Gillian Anderson is not returning as “Media,” South Korean actress Kahyun Kim is joining the cast as “New Media.”
The Good Fight (CBS All Access ) // March 14th // Season Three
Season Two Picture
It’s worth it, the subscription, just for this fun and expertly crafted legal drama with a knockout cast that includes two primo Mommis, Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald. Listen: if you liked The Good Wife for any period of time, try this spinoff noted for its painfully resonant depiction of life under Trump in a way that somehow totally avoids being heavy-handed. Christine Baranski says Season Three will “focus a little more on the personal relationships and how living in the Trump age is affecting intimacy” and “address this big gender moment that we’re experiencing now with the #MeToo movement —how it’s affecting the workplace and the marriages and relationships and how men and women talk to each other.” Rose Leslie returns in a featured regular role as lesbian attorney Maia Rindell.
Shrill (Hulu) // March 15th // Season One
(Photo by: Allyson Riggs/Hulu)
This smart comedy series based on writer Lindy West’s memoir features Lolly Adefope as a black British lesbian hairdresser and the roommate of Annie, the show’s protagonist. You were probably going to watch this show anyhow but now you basically have to! Also John Cameron Mitchell is in it, so.
9-1-1 (Fox) // Season Two Returns March 18th
Jane the Virgin (The CW) // March 27th // Season Five
Jane The Virgin — “Chapter Seventy-Eight” — Image Number: JAV414b_0535.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Rosario Dawson as Jane Ramos and Yael Grobglas as Petra — Photo: Greg Gayne/The CW © 2018 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved.
Abby’s (NBC) // March 28th // NEW
Natalie Morales stars as Abby, an ex-military bisexual bartender who runs into trouble when her new landlord takes issue with the makeshift unlicensed bar she’s been running in her San Diego backyard.
Harlots (Hulu) // March 29th // Season Three
Veep (HBO // March 31st // Season Seven
April
Legends of Tomorrow (The CW) // April 1st // Season Four
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Legends of To-Meow-Meow” — Image Number: LGN408a_0257b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Charlie and Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) // April 5th // Season Two
Killing Eve (BBC) // April 7th // Season Two
April isn’t really winter, but this is probably all you are going to think about all winter so we’re including it. The second series will pick up right where the first left off — M15 Officer Eve stabbed Villanelle, who managed to get away. The President of AMC Entertainment Networks has declared, “Killing Eve is picking up exactly 36 heart-thumping seconds after the events of the season finale. This new season is packed with superlative performances and is as twisty, subversive, darkly funny, nerve-wracking and pleasurable as our fans could desire.”
The Bold Type (Freeform) // April 9th // Season Three
The Bold Type’s second season was a little bit all over the place, but we still hold this show in our hearts. Speaking of hearts, we can probably expect a very heartbroken Kat to return this spring. :-(
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) // April 26th // Season Two
2018’s 30 Best TV Episodes Featuring LGBTQ Women
This is it! Our final TV list of 2018! Thus far, Riese opined on the 25 best TV shows of 2018 with LGBTQ women. Our TV Team weighed in on our favorite and least favorite characters of the year. I ran down our favorite lesbian and bisexual couples. I made you a list of best feminist movies that weren’t explicitly gay. And I made you a list of best queer films.
Now it’s time to talk about the best TV episodes featuring LGBTQ women! “Best,” of course, is always subjective. There’s no objectivity in art. To accomodate a broad range of opinions, I asked our TV Team to join me in ranking each of the episodes below on a scale of one to five in the following categories: queer representation, episode quality, entertainment value, and overall show diversity. Then I did some math, and these are our rankings.
We look forward to hearing about your favorite TV episodes of 2018 in the comments!
30. Adventure Time, “The Ultimate Adventure: Come Along With Me”
The Adventure Time series finale saw Marceline and Princess Bubblegum finally kiss on screen and settle into their happily ever after.
29. BoJack Horseman, “INT. SUB”
In one of the best episodes BoJack Horseman‘s fifth season, the show reframes all the characters through the lens of a a lesbian couple — played by Issa Rae and Wanda Sykes — who happen to know everyone because of their careers as a therapist and mediator.
28. High Maintenance, “Scromple”
The melancholic “Scromple” finds Julia by The Guy’s side in the hospital, after the revelation that he’s still on her health insurance because they’re still married. The episode juxtaposes the ease of Gwen’s camaraderie with her ex-partner and the strained state of her relationship with her new partner, Gwen, who thinks she’s not herself when she’s high and who hasn’t had sex with her in three months. It’s sweet and melancholic and maybe even a game-changer.
27. Grey’s Anatomy, “All of Me”
Arizona Robbins said goodbye to Grey’s Anatomy after 224 episodes, making her the longest-running lesbian character in primetime TV history. She departed Seattle for New York City and a chance at rekindled love with Callie.
26. Madam Secretary, “Refuge”
Sara Ramirez played Kat Sandoval’s coming out episode pitch-perfectly, and in doing so Kat became one of the only bisexual butches on television.
25. All American, “All We Got”
Bre-Z has absolutely delighted as Coop in All American’s first season. In “All We Got,” the show explores her blossoming relationship with Patience and the shame both of them are hanging onto because they live with families that don’t fully accept them.
24. Riverdale, “The Hills Have Eyes”
After a whole lot of speculation and fan anticipation, Cheryl Blossom finally came out on Riverdale — and began her romance with bisexual badass Toni Topaz. Turns out Cheryl was never in denial about her sexuality; her mother had forced her not to acknowledge it.
23. Legends of Tomorrow, “Wet Hot American Bummer”
Sara and Ava tag-team as co-counselors at a summer camp to explore a missing children mystery. Along the way, Sara relives some of her youth as a now grown-up queer adult and Ava gets to experience a youth she never had.
22. The Bold Type, “Feminist Army”
Kat and Adena’s relationship took a nosedive in The Bold Type‘s second season, but before all that happened Kat came to terms with some of her own shame and fears around sex and answered Adena’s very public worry that Kat wouldn’t go down on her. They really came together (ahem) before they fell apart.
21. Wynonna Earp, “Jolene”
In “Jolene,” Wynonna Earp finally answered a question it’d been asking for a long time: Who exactly is Waverly Earp? Well, a literal angel, of course. The way she found out was by facing down a Zoie Palmer-shaped devil.
20. Everything Sucks, “Sometimes I Hear My Voice”
Like so many lesbians in the ’90s, Kate Messner found her voice listening to Tori Amos’ voice. And at her first Tori Amos concert, she saw two girls kissing for the first time and found out a whole other thing about herself.
19. Black Lightning, “Black Jesus”
I’ll just let Carmen Phillips tell you about this one: “The black lesbian superhero saved her bisexual Asian-American girlfriend. It’s the fantastical fairy tale I would have never felt brave enough to dream for myself. Not as a child, and as much as I hate to admit it out loud, not even now, as an adult. Still, here it is.”
18. The Good Place, “The Ballad of Donkey Doug”
The Good Place had been hinting at Eleanor’s bisexuality for a long time, but only in relation to Tahani. In “The Ballad of Donkey Doug,” her attraction to other women finally played out on-screen when she found herself accidentally seducing Simone inside a simulation where she was supposed to be breaking up with her on Chidi’s behalf.
17. 9-1-1, “Hen Begins”
In 9-1-1′s second season, Hen finally got her own episode! The Henrietta Wilson Origin Story! She remembers the first time she met Chimney and Athena, and all the things that led her to becoming the paramedic and firefighter she is today.
16. This Is Us, “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning”‘
Tess became one of the youngest characters to ever come out on TV on this year’s midseason finale of This Is Us. After playing a cute kid for two seasons, Eris Baker turned in a stunning performance, capturing all the complicated emotions of Tess’ decision to reveal that she’s gay.
15. Haunting of Hill House, “Touch”
Valerie Anne’s got you on this one: “Each Crain sibling gets their own episode; ‘Touch’ was child psychologist and literal empath Theo Crain’s. It flashes back and forth between her childhood, when she first learned she could sense more through touch than most people, and present-day, where she uses her touch on what her sister calls a ‘pussy parade’ to and from her bedroom.”
14. Charmed, “Pilot”
When we found out CW’s Charmed reboot would feature three Latina sisters, we were hyped. When we found out one of them would be an out-and-proud lesbian we were stunned. The reboot pilot placed Mel’s sexuality and her feminism front and center, paired perfectly with her badassery.
13. Killing Eve, “I Have a Thing About Bathrooms”
You know how every time someone mentions Killing Eve being queer, they show you that screencap of Villanelle pinning Eve against the refrigerator with her own knife at her throat? This is that episode — the one where the show started paying off on its wicked, twisty promises.
12. The Fosters, “Where The Heart Is”
It was hard to say goodbye to our all-time favorite lesbian TV mamas, but The Fosters sent Stef and Lena off with a renewed commitment to each other and their relationship and the promise of some uninterrupted evenings of marital bliss (at long last!).
11. G.L.O.W., “The Good Twin”
G.L.O.W. came through with legit queerness in its second season. In “The Good Twin” we got to see Yolanda as the Fred Astaire to Arthie’s Ginger Rogers, as both of them finally start giving in to their feelings for one another.
10. Marvel’s Runaways, “Metamorphosis”
Fans of Runaways comics were eager to see Karolina and Nico’s romance play out onscreen. In episode six, their slow burn really ignited as they got ready to go out together (but not together-together), sharing a mirror and lipstick and hairplay and such longing lesbian glances.
9. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Jake and Amy”
As if Rosa Diaz’s coming out wasn’t perfect enough, her first woman love interest was played by Gina Rodriguez (who scored the role after an intense fan campaign, led by Gina herself) in the sixth season finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I confess, Jake and Amy’s wedding made me swoon, but not as much as the intense love eyes coming off Rosa.
8. She-Ra: Princesses of Power, “Princess Prom”
“Princess Prom” took She-Ra‘s queerness from subtext to maintext; not just with Catra and Adora (see above), but with all the characters who showed up to the Princess Prom in varying gender presentations dancing unabashedly with characters of all genders. But also yes, with Catra and Adora, who spent half the episode clutching at and pinning each other against things.
7. Jane the Virgin, “Chapter Seventy-Four”
Jane Ramos awakened Petra’s bisexuality, and Petra finally gave into it, in “Chapter Seventy-Four.” Petra’s sex dream led to some real life action and one of the most romantic, in-character coming out arcs we’ve seen in a long time.
6. Claws, “Scream”
“Scream” is the perfect title for the first Ann-centric episode of Claws. She may be quiet, she muses (that is, after all, how she got her nickname), but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a voice. “Scream” explores all of her relationships, and the way people choose (or choose not) to hear her.
5. Steven Universe, “Reunited”
Steven Universe broke more ground in 2018 by putting on the first queer wedding for all-ages TV. Ruby and Sapphire said I do, but that wasn’t all — they also joined forces with all the other Gems to fight to save the Cluster. You’d be hard pressed to find a more romantic, action-packed, emotionally satisfying episode of TV in 2018.
4. The Bisexual, “Episode 4”
Episode 4 of “The Bisexual” deals with the fallout of Sadie finding out that Leila — who she thought was a lesbian — is sleeping with a man. It also examines the generational differences of sexual fluidity and features a dramatic group confrontation that’s as real as anything you ever saw on The L Word.
3. Vida, “Episode 3”
The sexiest half hour of TV in 2018? Quite possibly. And revolutionary too, as Carmen noted in her recap: “It’s about saying that [Latinx] love, our sex, our sticky sweat is valid. It’s about fighting tooth and nail for pleasure in a world that would rather us be criminalized for waking up in the morning.”
2. Pose, “Love Is the Message”
Patty and Angel’s confrontation on “Love Is the Message” is a microcosm of the fight trans people are still having in every area of their life, every day. “Everything I can’t have in this world is because of what I have down there,” Angel explains to the cis woman married to the man she’s sleeping with. “If you really want to know who I am, that is the last place you should look.” Pose makes good on that challenge, showcasing the fullness of humanity in all of its trans characters.
1. One Day at a Time, “What Happened”
There are plenty of tear-jerking scenes to choose from in the first two seasons of One Day at a Time, but one of the most moving of the entire series is Elena’s confrontation with her father, who bailed on her quinceañera and still refuses to accept that she’s gay. Elena doesn’t back down. “You taught me a valuable lesson,” she says to him. “The fact that I’m gay means a lot of people hate me without knowing anything else about me. I kind of always knew that was part of the deal; I just never expected it from my own father.” Their current timeline is juxtaposed with Elena’s birth, which happened very near September 11, and was the catalyst for Penelope reenlisting in the army. It’s heartbreaking, for sure, but it’s also supremely triumphant.
The 25 Best TV Shows Of 2018 With LGBT Women Characters
‘Tis the season for various media outlets to reveal their list of the 10-40 Best TV Shows of the year, and this year we decided to get in on that. With a caveat, of course — to us, no matter how critically acclaimed any given show is, we cannot personally crown it “the best” unless our specific interests (read: queer women) are included within it. I’m sorry that’s just who and how we are!
To prepare for this undertaking, I looked at 18 Best TV of 2018 lists across mainstream media, both high-brow and middle-brow: The Decider, The New York Times, Paste, Vulture, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The New Yorker, TV Guide, AFI, Complex, The AV Club, Verge, The AP, Variety, Slate, The Daily Beast and The Atlantic. On the list below, you’ll see in parentheses a number: that number represents the number of other Best-Of lists the show appeared on.
Last year I documented what felt like — finally— a shift wherein regular and recurring queer women characters were just as likely to show up at the forefront of prestige television as they were in our previous homes of “soapy teen dramas,” sci-fi/supernatural epics and very small parts in aforementioned prestige television. This year that trend has continued mightily. Three shows that turned up on pretty much every Best-Of list — The Good Place, Killing Eve and Pose — had queer or trans leads. Frequent inclusions on those Best-Of Lists that did not include queer women were exactly what you’d expect: The Americans, Homecoming, Atlanta, Better Call Saul, Lodge 49, Barry, Bojack Horseman (which did have one lesbian-themed episode but that didn’t feel like enough to warrant inclusion on this list, I’m sure you will @ me re: this) and Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Most baffling to us all was that Lifetime’s You showed up on SEVEN Best-Of Lists, despite being insufferable and killing its only queer woman character. It’s not on this list.
This list is not, then, our favorite shows of the year, or the shows that brought us the most joy or the best representation. We’re doing a lot of lists this year about teevee, and most of them are our Favorites, not “The Best.” This list are the shows that have regular or recurring queer women characters and that I personally believe were, objectively, the best. The opinions of other critics weighed heavily into these rankings, and only in a few cases did I pick a show that wasn’t on any other Best-Of lists.
I look forward to witnessing your disagreements and agreements in the comments! Also I know there’s 27 shows here but 25 seemed like a better headline.
28. Marvel’s Runaways Seasons One & Two (0)
“Marvel’s Runaways” Hasn’t Achieved Its Full Gay Potential Yet, but It’s Already a Thrilling Ride
The timing couldn’t be better for this lovely comic book adaptation about a group of fierce, supernaturally talented teenagers challenging the abhorrent compromises their parents made, supposedly in their best interest, for a “better world,” at the expense of, you know — human lives, wealth inequality, and our planet. Plus, Virginia Gardner literally shines as Karolina Dean, a human-alien hybrid initially hiding her superpowers and her lesbianism ’til coming out near the end of Season One. Her revelation is refreshingly well received by her crush, cynical goth Nico Minoru, in what feels like a fairly honest depiction of Generation Y’s alleged tendency towards nonchalant sexual fluidity. Season Two sees the lesbian couple trying to make it work amid pretty challenging circumstances. Despite an enormous ensemble — six children and ten parents for each — Runaways has mostly succeeded in making each of them count. At times it fumbles, having bit off more than it can chew thematically and w/r/t sheer population, but it still manages to combine the easy joy of a teen drama with the satisfying anxiety of suspenseful sci-fi. — Riese Bernard
27. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season Two (7)
Undoubtedly the most cheerful show on the list and a bona-fide critical darling, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is hawkishly agreeable, floating through its second season on unmistakable charm, its trademark breakneck quip-laden dialogue, and a generous budget devoted to picturesque sets and locations that leave no affluent late-’50s stone unturned. Then there’s Mrs. Maisel herself, a plucky heroine who occasionally does wrong but when she does, it’s always very cute, and often laugh-out-loud funny. It’s frustrating that Susie’s lesbianism remains bafflingly unspoken, especially when Mrs. Maisel’s primary flaw continues to be its chronically low stakes, like a cake inside another cake inside another cake slathered in buttercream frosting. I do love cake, though! Regardless — Susie deserves a sexuality. I hope in Season Three she finally gets it. — Riese Bernard
26. Sally4Ever Season One (2)
HBO’s “Sally4Ever” Is Hilarious, Horrifying, Tries to Make Lesbian Toeing Happen
Earning points for sheer pugnacity, Sally4Ever, described by The Guardian as “a lurid lesbian sitcom,” is a disgusting, often offensive and downright bizarre comedy about an absurdly passive middle-aged woman, Sally, who leaves her droll underachieving partner for a wildly manipulative narcissistic lesbian musician / actress she first sees on the Underground. Julie Davis’s Emma is a madcap creation only Julie Davis’s mind could’ve created. Sally4Ever is one of four reminders on this list that you can always rely on British television to wallow in discomfort and failure in a way optimistic American TV is rarely willing to do. — Riese Bernard
25. Legends of Tomorrow Seasons Three & Four (2)
How “Legends of Tomorrow” Became One of the Best Queer Shows on TV
Legends of Tomorrow is one of the weirdest shows on television. With everything from Julius Caesar on the loose in Aruba to a stuffed animal worshipped as a god of war, you truly never know what’s going to happen next. On paper, it seems like the writers play mad libs with storylines, picking random nouns and locations out of hats and running with it. The most dramatic lines of dialogue are, simply put, absurd. But in 2018 this goofy-ass show has blossomed into something truly spectacular, as bisexual badass Sara Lance became, in the words of Zari, “not just the captain of the ship, but its soul.” It was still everything we love about the show – the misfit camaraderie, the wacky storylines, the outfits, the heart – but turned up to eleven. Sara also got her first post-Arrow longterm relationship with another woman. Their love story was fraught, sweet, sexy, complicated — and oh so rewarding. Best of all, it’s still going strong. — Valerie Anne
24. Everything Sucks! Season One (1)
Everything Sucks! is a Bangin’ TV Show With a Sweet Lesbian Lead
Sure, everything sucks, but something that specifically sucks is that this show only got one tiny season to breathe. Sweet and nostalgic, Everything Sucks! made the noteworthy choice of placing a lesbian character front and center of a tender coming-of-age dramedy set in Boring, Oregon. Amid pitch-perfect references to Frutopia, “Wonderwall” and the Columbia House Music Club, we have two girls on separate journeys towards queer revelations (and each other) and in this story, the pre-teen boys in their crew aren’t the main event. Considering all that, I suppose, perhaps it’s not so surprising it got cancelled.— Riese Bernard
23. Forever Season One (3)
Maya Rudolph’s Forever is Finally Here and Quietly Queer
Every critic on earth adored Forever, partly because of the show’s unique and brilliantly executed concept, but mostly because of Maya Rudolph’s stunning and triumphant return to TV. What made Forever even rarer than those two things was the central conflict for Rudolph’s character, June, who experienced a middle-aged queer awakening at the hands of an enigmatic, furious, and sometimes even unlikable(!!) Kase, played by Catherine Keener. It does seem like maybe some vital character development for Kase was left on the cutting room floor in an effort to make sure the audience didn’t root too hard for her relationship with June — but what remained was still breathtaking and frankly revolutionary. — Heather Hogan
22. Counterpart Season One (3)
After years of lurking in the Showtime/HBO shadows, Starz has emerged over the past few years to, intentionally or not, feature queer women characters in nearly all of their original programming. And what original programming it has been! A lot of the well-deserved praise for this taut, suspenseful, dystopian spy thriller has gone to J.K. Simmons for his riveting performance as two versions of the same man, one in each of the show’s two parallel worlds. But the reason I tuned in was for one of the year’s few masculine-of-center lesbian regulars: Baldwin, a trained assassin never given the chance to develop a true emotional life or any dreams of her own, a fact laid bare when she’s forced to watch her counterpart, an accomplished classical violinist, die in an alternate dimension. She struggles with her sexual and emotional connection to a sleeper agent and an unexpected romance with a waitress, as brooding butches are wont to do, but we never struggle with our affection for this unique point of connection in a really good story.— Riese Bernard
21. Adventure Time Season 10 (1)
Princess Bubblegum and Marceline Smooch On-Screen, Live Happily Ever After in the “Adventure Time” Series Finale
Adventure Time is easily the most influential show in Cartoon Network’s history; echoes of its style and themes reverberate far beyond kids TV. And really Adventure Time never was kids TV. Yeah, it was animated and as silly as bing bong ping pong. But as it evolved, it became as philosophical weighty and psychologically curious as Battlestar Galactica. Fans of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline enjoyed growing canonical support of their favorite couple over the seasons, both on-screen and in spin-off comic books — but they’d never actually confirmed their relationship physically until the series finale when Bonnie got womped in the dome piece and almost croaked and Marceline rushed to her and caressed her and professed her love and they smooched right on the mouths. — Heather Hogan
20. The Handmaid’s Tale Season Two (4)
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season Two Gets Even Darker, Queerer, Curiouser and Curiouser
Season Two of Handmaid’s Tale was darker than Season One, which’s saying a lot. I mean we opened with a fake-out mass-hanging and before long Offred was basically slicing off a chunk of her own ear, then staring at the camera while we watched her bleed. And there would be so much more blood where that came from! But damn, the artistry of this brutal show and its magnificent cast, capable of communicating entire worlds without a single spoken line. The season’s most unspoken message, though, was this: pay attention. Look up. Don’t wait for them to come for you. Clea Duvall and Cherry Jones graced us with winning cameos and lesbian characters Moira (Samira Wiley) and Emily (Alexis Bledel) took greater prominence. So did Gilead’s persecution of lesbians in a specific dystopia designed by religious fundamentalists who are obsessed with traditional gender roles and able to rationalize their actions in the wake of a fertility crisis. It’s not a pleasant world to witness, yet it remains a seductive watch. Every moment of dark humor is hard-won, like, I suppose, freedom itself.— Riese Bernard
19. The End of the F*cking World Season One (5)
I Demand a Lesbian Cop-Show Spin-off of The End of the F*cking World
Sure, we could watch fresh-faced teen dreams fall in love in the lemon-scented hallways of suburban California high schools, or we could watch … whatever this was? A 17-year-old self-diagnosed psychopath who loves knives goes on a traveling caper with the only girl in town who’s sad, alienated and nihilistic enough to wanna run away with him. Hot on their tail are two lesbian detectives who had a thing once and definitely deserve their own show. — Riese Bernard
18. Dear White People Season Two (4)
In this current television landscape, binges come and go. A television show drops on streaming, you watch it, maybe even obsess for a spell, and then it fades to the recesses of your memory to make room for whatever trendy new show is coming next. In those dips and waves, sometimes something really special falls through the cracks. I say that because there’s a chance that you didn’t watch Dear White People last year and that’s a mistake.
The first season of Dear White People was regrettably uneven, particularly in regards to its lesbian representation, but the second season aired this year and came back stronger, more focused, and razor-sharp! It’s a stylized and poignant exploration of being a black student at a predominantly white university that is as smart (if not smarter) than almost any other comedy I watched last year. The weekend of its drop, I finished all 13 episodes in two days. The next weekend, I watched it again. I couldn’t shake how insightful it was, how bright, how one-of-a-kind. You can watch the second season with no knowledge of the first and follow along easily. As a bonus, it comes with the bittersweet gift of two smaller, but significantly better executed black lesbian plots. One of those plots stars Lena Waithe. It also features Tessa Thompson as a parodied take on a Stacey Dash’s “black republican television pundit” figure. Her character plays out over a series of cameos, but as far as I’m concerned her final scene is worth the entire season by itself. — Carmen Phillips
17. Steven Universe Season Five (2)
“Steven Universe” Makes History, Mends Hearts in a Perfect Lesbian Wedding Episode
Steven Universe continues to explore more adult themes more fully than nearly every non-animated show on TV: family, grief, depression, commitment, betrayal, duplicitousness, forgiveness, puberty, gender, gender presentation, sexuality — and it does so in a way that’s warm and engaging and funny and, most of all, hopeful. This season, Rebecca Sugar’s beloved non-binary lesbian gems, Ruby and Sapphire, broke more ground by becoming the first same-sex couple to get married on all-ages TV. Their wedding featured masc gems in dresses, femme gems in tuxes, kisses right on the mouth, and swoon-worthy proclamations of eternal love. Also, of course, ass-kicking. Steven Universe remains one of the best shows on television, full stop. — Heather Hogan
16. Black Lightning Seasons One & Two (0)
Recaps of Season One & Two of Black Lightning
The CW has delivered a very entertaining batch of fresh-faced white superheroes determined to battle off some wacky Big Bads, but Black Lightning really elevates the genre and takes notable risks. The story is rooted halfway in this world, too, spotlighting a family wrought together over love and a deep commitment to their community and social justice, while divided on how best to manifest that commitment. Annissa Pierce, aka Thunder, became network television’s first out lesbian superhero when she debuted in early 2018. “I’ve said before that bullet proof black people is my favorite superhero trope,” Carmen wrote in a Season One recap, “but there is also something so sweet about a television lesbian who can’t be shot.” We hope to see more in future episodes of her girlfriend Grace, played by Chantal Thuy. Don’t sleep on Black Lightning. Wherever it’s going, you’ll want to be on board.— Riese Bernard
15. The Bisexual Season One (2)
Hulu’s “The Bisexual” Is Here to Make Every Queer a Little Uncomfortable
This has been such a great year for queer weirdos with their fingers acutely upon their own pulses. In between impeccable L Word references and fetching fashion choices, The Bisexual is an uncompromising journey of sexual discovery, jump-started when Leila breaks up with her much older girlfriend (and business partner) Sadie. Akhvan’s world feels undeniably authentic — she points out that “it’s the only show on TV where you can watch two Middle Eastern women in a car, talking, taking up the screen with their different bodies and different ethnicities.” Fumbling and unafraid of its own potential, The Bisexual also portrays a multi-generational, diverse network of queer and often gender-non-conforming women in London’s East End in all its messy, self-reflexive glory. — Riese Bernard
13. The Good Fight Season Two (9)
The Good Fight lives in that very special sweet spot that I like to call organized chaos, almost ballet-like in its sweeping rhythm. It is very much a playground for Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo to do their impeccable work. But it also, better than any other show, captures the collective meltdown that has become a ceaseless hum in Tr*mp’s America. It’s sharp, and it’s dark, and it’s still funny and fun, with a very women-driven, diverse cast. And one of its central lawyers, Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie), also happens to be a petite lesbian mired in staggering lesbian drama, and by lesbian drama I mean her girlfriend literally testifies against her in a massive court case that Maia’s parents have her swept up in! Also, in season two we learn that Maia was in love with her tennis instructor as a closeted baby gay, and I have never felt more Seen. — Kayla Kumari
12. Harlots Season Two (0)
Harlots Season Two Is Here, Queer and Transcendent
Harlots might be the year’s most underrated show (Seriously, how does this show earn a nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes but not make it onto anybody’s Best Shows Of the Year list? I endeavor to suggest that the reason is Men). I declared Harlots the most accurate portrayal of indoor-market sex work ever represented onscreen in Season One — surprisingly more resonant to me as a former sex worker than any contemporary portrayals — and its extra queering in Season Two made it moreso and then some. If Season One was about sex work, Season Two is about the reality that what’s done to sex workers is inextricable from what’s done to all women — the lessons about power, violence, solidarity and struggle in stories about sex work are ones that the larger conversation about gender ignores at its peril. — Riese Bernard
11. High Maintenance Season Two (6)
In between High Maintenance‘s first and second season, a lot happened for husband-and-wife co-creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld — including Katja coming out as gay, thus ending their marriage. Although the split hadn’t been finalized at the time, Season One ended with the reveal that Sinclair’s “The Guy” marijuana-delivery character lived down the hallway from his ex-wife, who’d left him for another woman. Its Season Two, then, is a long time coming and imbued with a rapturous affection for contemporary queer culture. The characters calling upon “The Guy” negotiate languid lesbian sexual dynamics, LGBT-affirming churches, sexually fluid teens and anti-Trump feminist gatherings attended by well-intentioned, hysterical liberals. Particularly touching was a bittersweet episode that saw “The Guy” visited in the hospital by aforementioned now-lesbian ex-wife. But honestly, with few exceptions every story in this scene is like a nice hybrid edible that makes you giggle, relax, and occasionally feel profound.— Riese Bernard
10. Vida Season One (2)
“Vida” Review: Starz’s New Latinx Drama Is Sexy, Soulful and Super Queer
Tragically overlooked by mainstream critics, one of 2018’s most innovatory offerings sees emotionally estranged sisters, bisexual attorney Emma (Michel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera), reuniting in their home of Boyle Heights after the death of their mother who, it turns out, was in fact dating her butch lesbian “roommate,” Eddy. Showrunner Tanya Saracho’s writing team is entirely Latinx and mostly queer, and they deftly address the complications of “gente-fication” and the joys of living breathing loving community with all the nuance and authenticity it requires. But perhaps most notable for all of us here was the graphic butch/femme sex scene that opened Episode Three. “It isn’t just about the hot sex — though the sex is very hot — it’s about creating spaces where Latinx queer bodies can feel ownership,” wrote Carmen in her recap. “It’s tearing down shame. It’s about saying that our love, our sex, our sticky sweat is valid.”— Riese Bernard
9. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Seasons 4 & 5 (4)
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” Is Singing Our Song: Valencia Has a Girlfriend!
Maybe we should’ve seen it coming — after all, soon after we meet Valencia for the first time, she’s kissing Rebecca on the dance floor and lamenting the fact that everyone wants to have sex with her — but it wasn’t until Valencia met Beth that we got to see her bisexuality as something other than comedic fodder. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has always been a queer-friendly show but with Valencia and Beth, it finally put lady-loving ladies on centerstage. Valencia’s bisexuality was the pitch perfect end to a show-long character arc: she’s evolved from the vain yoga instructor who couldn’t build meaning relationships with women to loving, working and living with one.
The Golden Globe-winning series is currently in its fourth and final season and Valencia and Beth are still together, happy and, in an unusual twist for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, relatively normal (unless you count the $8000 they pay in rent for their new closet size NYC apartment). We feared that the couple’s recent relocation meant that we wouldn’t get to see as much of them but the show’s found a way to bridge the distance between West Covina and New York. Hopefully, Valencia’s recent return for “the rest of the series of holidays” means we’ll finally get that lesbian loving musical number we’ve all been craving. — Natalie Duggins
8. Jane the Virgin Season Four (4)
While Jane the Virgin has been rightly critically acclaimed since day one and praised for its revolutionary diversity, it’s always had a complicated relationship with its queer characters. Luisa started off strong but was ultimately relegated to a one-dimensional punchline before essentially disappearing, and Rose was never really fully formed. This year, though, the writers picked up on the long-running fan theory that Petra is bisexual and agreed. Unlike Luisa, Petra actually started out as a caricature and became more layered and complicated as the show went on. Her coming out journey was essentially realizing she’s into women because her chemistry with Jane Ramos spawned a sex dream into her subconscious — and then just going for it. The self-revelation, the exploration, even the way she told Jane and Rafael about it was so sweet and sexy and prickly and Petra. Jane the Virgin has gotten better every year, and the surprise of Petra and JR’s storyline was one of the reasons season four was its best ever. — Heather Hogan
7. The Haunting of Hill House Season One (4)
Netflix’s New “Haunting of Hill House” Gave Us a Lesbian Who Lives, Took Our Whole Weekend
The Haunting of Hill House had a challenge ahead of it with adapting its queer storyline; the original text had one of pop culture’s first recognizably lesbian characters, but preserving her “authentically” would mean falling far short of today’s expectations for representation, as in 2018 we look for more to signify lesbianism than “wears pants” and “is unmarried.” So Haunting gave us Theo, a lesbian character whose sexuality isn’t her whole storyline, but does tie into it; who goes through some wild and traumatizing stuff, but on a level that’s comparable with the also very wild and traumatizing stuff that her straight siblings go through. And in a show where romantic relationships are rocky at best, Theo does manage to both survive and get the girl. —Rachel Kincaid
6. Brooklyn 99 Season Five (6)
As evidenced by our very own Gay Emmys, this year was a very good year for Stephanie Beatriz and her character Rosa Diaz, who came out as bisexual — like, actually said the word! — on this season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The show itself had a good year, too, almost annoying in how persistently it outdoes itself year after year with its annual, always excellent Halloween episode. The Backstreet Boys lineup might go down as one of the greatest comedy cold opens of all time (up there with The Office’s “Fire Drill”). And even though we’re now five seasons into the series, that doesn’t mean the writers are just coasting by on humor that relies on how well we know all of these characters. It still regularly serves up new, emotional character arcs that peel back the layers to this lovable squad, as with Rosa’s personal life developments. Above all else, the show celebrates earnestness and friendship in a really lovely way that proves you don’t have to be mean or cynical to be really fucking funny. — Kayla Kumari
5. One Day at a Time Season Two (6)
“One Day at a Time” Brings Even More Heart and Humor and Gayness to Season 2
There’s an easy reason that One Day at a Time shows up on so many critics’ “End of the Year” Best Lists. It’s quite simply that damn good. One Day at a Time is the most generous, compassionate, loving family sitcom on television. It’s also not afraid to have frank, sometimes dark discussions – PTSD, depression, the fragility of age, the perils of being a young queer teen, the financial struggles of being a working class family in the 21st century. It’s all on the table.
As I wrote in my Season Two review, some of the show’s brilliance comes from leaning into its multi-cam sitcom roots. One Day at a Time uses an old school format, and they are proud of it. They leverage the intimacy and familiarity of the genre to their advantage, luring their audience into cutting edge and weighty conversations from the comfort of the Alvarez’s living room. It’s a stand-out in a class of stand-outs and I would put it against any other comedy on television. In fact, I’ll go further. The fact that One Day at a Time has now gone two years without any acting or writing Emmy nominations is one of the most shaming indictments of the white, male majority of the Television Academy that we have right now. Yes, it’s just that damn good. — Carmen Phillips
4. Pose Season One (13)
“Pose” Is Full of Trans Joy, Resistance, and Love
This show just flatly rejected the idea that the best way to tell our stories is slowly, character-by-character, putting one white cisnormative queer in one show and then another show until we somehow achieve critical mass. The problem with that has often been that that’s not how we live — we’re not out here one by one, lone queers in schools/towns/families composed entirely by normals. Enter Pose: a show written by and for trans women of color, set in an era when the only thing louder than the daily trauma of oppression and omnipresent fear of HIV/AIDS were the LOOKS, and all the beautiful ways a body can move to express itself. Pose radiates with a glittery, gorgeous aesthetic and complicated characters. Trans bodies are so often portrayed as somehow tragic or compromised, and Pose — in addition to being a story about real human lives, love, friendship, and “chosen family” — is about the triumph of the body, its ability to mean as much to the world as it does to itself. — Riese Bernard
3. G.L.O.W. Season Two (11)
G.L.O.W. Season Two Doubles the lesbians, Doubles the Fun
After a first season that bafflingly pursued outlandish homoeroticism yet was seemingly void of homosexuals, Season Two introduced a Latina lesbian fighter and pulled Arthie off the bench for a romantic awakening. G.L.O.W., based on the real-life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, was a delightful mid-summer ride that took a more decidedly feminist bent as the Gorgeous Ladies explored how to advocate for, instead of against, each other, in an industry hell-bent on exploiting women for male fortune. Still, with its electrifying outfits, ostentatious costume drama and carefully-calibrated balance of comedy and drama, it only failed at one thing: an ensemble this dynamic needs longer episodes or a longer season, or both. — Riese Bernard
2. The Good Place Season 3 (12)
The Good Place, like The Office and 30 Rock before it (although I’m, admittedly, not a 30 Rock fan), has accomplished nothing short of a complete re-imagination of what the half-hour network comedy can be. It’s got everything: prestige sci-fi level world-building, cartoonish aesthetics, highbrow esoteric wit, running gags and plenty of ‘ships. Its premise, writes Sam Anderson in The New York Times, “is absurdly high concept. It sounds less like the basis of a prime-time sitcom than an experimental puppet show conducted, without a permit, on the woodsy edge of a large public park.” And yet it works. And in Season Three, The Good Place amped up Eleanor’s bisexuality and Janet’s particular take on non-binary, and we are so pleased, because that means we can put what will undoubtedly be one of the most legendary television programs of all time on lists like this one. — Riese Bernard
1. Killing Eve Season One (17)
Killing Eve is Your New Queer Obsession
Crescendoing, relentless, all-consuming obsession fuels the narrative of Killing Eve, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s sexy, smart, distinctly feminine action thriller starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as the toxic spy-assassin duo who can’t stop thinking about each other. Watching Killing Eve feels exactly like that: seering obsession. This category was stacked with great, complex dramas, but there’s something just purely intoxicating about Killing Eve that sets it apart. Though it’s the phrase most often used to describe Eve and Villanelle’s dynamic, “cat-and-mouse” hardly covers what Oh and Comer bring to these characters or what’s even on the page. It’s never quite clear whether they want to murder each other or make out. Hunting each other, longing for each other, Eve and Villanelle might be one of the most complex queer relationships on television. But beyond that dripping subtext, it’s just a very good thriller with compelling twists and turns and sharp edges that refuse to be dulled. — Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
16 Gay Holiday TV Episodes You Can Stream Right Now!
We here at Autostraddle have been feeling mighty cozy this holigay season, how about you? And really, nothing says cozy quite like snuggling up in front of your television or laptop and getting lost in the warm, holiday feelings that swirl around you. Maybe even add a cup of hot cocoa, perhaps?
To help you get in the mood, I’ve gathered up all the gay holiday TV that I could find! 13 Christmas and three Thanksgiving episodes full of lesbians in matching two-piece pajamas, bisexuals in endearing sweaters, and a trans woman dressed up as a literal Holigay Angel. Get ready for singing carolers, snow falling, tables full of comfort food, and as many warm kisses as you can handle! These episodes aren’t ranked, because that’s not quite in the holiday spirit, now is it?
Bake a batch of cookies and enjoy.
Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas! We’ll Have a Gay Old Time!
Glee
Episodes: 2.10 “A Very Glee Christmas” // 3.09 “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” // 4.10 “Glee Actually” // 5.08 “Previously Unaired Christmas Episode”
Where to watch: Netflix, Amazon
Oh, Glee. If you’ve never watched Ryan Murphy’s magnum opus of a comedy-musical parody, here’s the thing you need to know: Glee LOVED Christmas. They loved Christmas like no show that came before, or no show that we’ll ever see again after. They loved the cheese of it, they leaned into the bright colors and childhood tales and ALL THE CHRISTMAS CAROLS.
I have such fuzzy, happy memories of this show at Christmas time! Then I went back to re-watch the episodes for this list and I’ll be honest with – when it comes to gay girls, they are NOT great! Brittany and Santana are iconic, obviously. But it turns out they weren’t together much at the holidays! In season two they hadn’t yet started dating, in season three Santana was fresh out of the closet, and by season four’s Christmas they were already broken up! Still there’s lots of good singing to be had if that’s your thing (I would recommend Amber Riley’s “All I Want For Christmas,” which includes a lot of cute Britany/Santana dancing, among other highlights).
It’s probably best to watch these episodes while you’re busy decorating your tree or baking treats. Then you can happily sing with the characters without closely following the plot, just in case. And because this glorious work of art was cut from its original episode, I will now present to you Santa Lopez singing “Santa Baby.”
The best kept secret gay sing-a-long of the holiday season.
Pretty Little Liars
Episode: 5.13 “How A Stole Christmas”
Where to watch: Netflix, Amazon
Pretty Little Liars will never make sense out of context (it barely makes sense even in context). I won’t even try. Instead I’d like to point you to The Internet’s Leading PLL Expert, our very own Heather Hogan, who said this about Emily Fields’ girlfriend Paige wearing a pair of Santa boxers just to make her smile after a long day of almost being murdered:
“Never, ever did I ever think we’d get to a place in my lifetime where a lesbian TV character would be treated with so much affection and dignity and respect that her girlfriend would fit in as seamlessly as all the boyfriends on the show. It’s sweet, yes. But it’s sexy, too. And it’s no big deal in Rosewood, and that’s a big fucking deal in the real world.”
Wynonna Earp
Episode: 3.06 “If We Make It Through December”
Where to watch: Amazon
Get ready to have so many emotions about chosen family and feeling like you’re finally good enough – even when that very wrong, but sometimes very loud, voice in your head says that you’re not! Take it from Valerie Anne: “Mama looks around at this table and tells Waverly that see? Her birth father doesn’t matter. Look at this family she’s made. They built this family their own selves and Mama couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve created in her absence.”
Plus? A CHRISTMAS LAP DANCE!
Pose
Episode: 1.03 “Giving and Receiving”
Where to watch: Amazon
If you haven’t seen Pose yet, the first thing I’m going to tell you is to see Pose. In my opinion, it’s the most important piece of queer television this year, and because it’s the holidays, I wouldn’t want you to miss out.
The next thing I’m going to tell you is that Pose’s Christmas episode is going to make you weep, but only because you are going to feel so full of love and hope, and the stubborn possibilities of what queer families make for ourselves even when the world around us tells us we can’t. This episode is triumphant when it could otherwise choose to be self-pitying or sad. That fearlessness? That’s the spirit of our people. Honor it by watching.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Episode: “Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale”
Where to watch: Netflix
I don’t know much about the Christmas episode of Sabrina because it hasn’t even aired yet! Netflix has it set to premiere on December 14th, so mark your calendars! The special is going to explore the Spellmans celebrating Winter Solstice, while Sabrina’s human friends get excited for Santa (you know, as opposed to Satan). Given how Sabrina’s first season went this fall, I’m going to assume that you can expect lots of goth glam, more than a little bit of blood, and dark hallways lit with creepy flickering candles.
Plus! Who wouldn’t want to see Susie Putnam as the cutest little gender queer elf the world has ever seen?
The Fosters
Episode: 2.11 “Christmas Past”
Where to watch: Netflix, Amazon
Christmas with the gayest Brady Brunch on television, the Adams-Foster clan! Jesús and Mariana get into a battle with their neighbor over lawn decorations, Jude and Callie try to get comfortable celebrating the holidays with their new family, and Stef gets in it with her mom about the appropriate “size” of presents to give the grandkids.
Really though, we’re here for watching the Mamas in their matching velvet pajamas on Christmas morning! They are monogrammed for crying out loud! Could anything be better? I think not.
Fresh Off the Boat
Episode: 4.10 “Do You Hear What I Hear”
Where to watch: Hulu, Amazon
This is probably my favorite Christmas episode, if only because it is so damn adorable! Teenage Nicole, newly out from the closet, hasn’t had much time to learn how to flirt with girls. She recruits her best friend Eddie, who in turn recruits his little brother and first girlfriend. Together, the foursome spend their holiday break hanging out in the new coffee chain in town (a subtle dig at the ubiquitous sprawling of Starbucks in the late ’90s that continues to this day) and helping Nicole work up the nerve to ask out the girl of her dreams. It’s funny and sweet and perfectly teenage without laying it on too thick, you know? Also, watching the young teens get hopped up on caffeine comes with some excellent sight gags!
I won’t spoil it and tell you if Nicole wins the girl at the end, but I will say that your cheeks are going to hurt from smiling and laughing. Better to prepare yourself now.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Episode: 3.10 “Amends”
Where to watch: Hulu, Amazon
I’m including this episode because it’s Buffy and by definition BUFFY IS G-A-Y. How could I not? It is for the culture.
At the same time, I feel like I should warn you upfront that in this very specific episode, our foremother Willow Rosenberg has yet to come out. In fact her major plot point involves her deciding whether the “love of her life” is going to be Xander, the boy next door best friend that she grew up with, or Oz, her first real boyfriend. This is all false because we already know that the love of Willow’s life is going to Tara, but since we haven’t actually met Tara yet, I suppose it’s not fair to hold a young Willow to such a high standard.
Doctor Who
Episode: Series Seven Christmas Special “The Snowmen”
Where to watch: Amazon
I’ve never seen an episode of Doctor Who in my entire life! I am sorry. But, here to save the day is Heather Hogan!
“From the moment they showed up in the mid-season six finale, ‘A Good Man Goes to War,’ Madame Vastra and Jenny were fan favorites. They cemented their iconic status in the 2012 Christmas special, ‘The Snowmen,’ when they arrived at the front door of a Victorian manor, covered in show, and Vastra cordially announced, ‘Good evening, I’m a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife.’ The episode finds Vastra and Jenny (and their buddy Strax) helping the Doctor investigate the origin of some monstrous and destructive sentient snowmen. Jenny shows off her ninja skills, the two of them kiss right on the mouths, and they’re also the first to meet the Doctor’s new companion, eventual Jane Austen lover (take that how you like) Clara Oswald.”
Thank you, Heather.
Orange is the New Black
Episode: 1.13 “Can’t Fix Crazy”
Where to watch: Netflix
I have a personal policy of never giving Orange is the New Black more than basic media attention, because I don’t believe in rewarding racist behavior. That said, I simply couldn’t compile this holigay list without including Samira Wiley singing “Amazing Grace” from Litchfield’s Annual Christmas Pageant. This was the moment that I fell in love with Poussey. And therefore, this moment cleared the way for Orange is the New Black to one day break my heart.
Want to skip the entire episode? No worries, I don’t blame you. I’m including the song here for that very purpose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wdtJE-7Is&frags=pl%2Cwn
Looking for more OITNB holiday cheer without actually having to watch the show? Then may I suggest Danielle Brooks and Uzo Aduba’s “Holly Jolly Melody”? You will love it.
And a Holigay Thanksgiving to You and Yours
Yes, I know that technically Thanksgiving is in our rearview mirror, but here me out about this: Coming out at Thanksgiving is a gay national pastime. In that grand tradition, some really great gay television takes place over Turkey Day. Plus, if you squint hard enough, a lot of the themes from Thanksgiving carry across the holiday season: food, family, hiding secrets, high anxieties, and finding love through it all.
Supergirl
Episode: 2.08 “Medusa”
Where to watch: Netflix, Amazon
I don’t think there is anyone who loves Alex Danvers the way that Valerie Anne loves Alex Danvers. Her writing about the DEA Agent is a joy:
“At first she denied being gay, then she thought maybe she was just gay for Maggie, but now she realizes it — and can even say the word — she’s gay. Super gay. This is her life now, and she’s discovering she’s more than just okay with it, she’s happy about it.
And man oh man can I relate to that fear that there’s no turning back. That feeling that once you say you’re gay, everything is gay, and you’re going to have to put on your gay shoes in the morning and walk your gay self around this not-usually-as-gay-as-we’d-like world. But then once you realize that you like your rainbow chucks better than those boring flats that hurt your feet, or that combat boots give you the swagger you’ve been wishing you had, or that your high heels make for a great gay catwalk strut, you find that you wouldn’t want to turn back, even if you could.”
Kiss the Girls That You Want to Kiss.
This Is Us
Episode: 3.08 “Six Thanksgivings”
Where to watch: Hulu, Amazon
Short of Sabrina’s Midwinter Tale – which hasn’t happened yet! – this is our most recent episode on the list, airing just a little over two weeks ago! It also happens to star the youngest member of our gay girl gang, ten-year-old Tess Pearson. Tess comes out to her Aunt Kate on the same day as getting her first period. It’s beautiful for a lot of layers and reasons, none the least of which is that she gets to remain young and ten the entire time! This Is Us resists any urge to “mature” Tess, even as adulthood pressures are pushing in all around her. Conversely, they also don’t treat the tween with kid gloves. They take her fears and nervousness seriously. That makes all the difference.
Master of None
Episode: 2.08 “Thanksgiving”
Where to watch: Netflix
WHAT CAN I EVEN SAY? “Thanksgiving” is a game changer in every sense of the word. A critical darling – this episode made Lena Waithe the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing. It’s already a cult classic in gay households, despite only airing less than two years ago. It’s masterfully written, smartly funny, and filled to the brim with Lena’s heart. It’s the most solid 30 minutes of storytelling on this list.
This time, I absolutely saved the best for last.
Which episode are you going to start with? Grab a blanket and your remote!
I’ll see you there!
Autostraddle’s Favorite and Least Favorite Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans TV Characters of 2018
This has been an unbelievable year of representation for lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women on television. Riese broke down GLAAD’s findings just a few weeks ago, but the bottom line is: there are more of us than ever before, on more kinds of shows than ever before, and there are more ways to watch us than ever before, and there are more queer people of color to watch than ever before. In fact, as Riese pointed out, “for the first time ever, LGBTQ characters of color (50%) outpace white (49%) characters! Just barely but still!” All of those things are evident in our TV Team’s annual list of our favorite and least favorite characters. There were so many really good LGBTQ characters on TV in 2018 that there were only a small handful of shows that we all watched (Jane the Virgin, Pose, One Day at a Time, The Bold Type, and Black Lightning.) For the first time ever on this list, you can actually see the personalities of our writers shining through in the things they chose to watch and how they chose to write about them because we weren’t all forced to watch and argue about visibility on the same six shows. Below are our choices; we’d love to hear yours!
None of these write-ups are the Official Position of Autostraddle on any of these shows or characters; they are the individual opinions of our TV writers.
FAVORITE
Riese, Editor-in-Chief
Nancy Birch, Harlots
Nancy Birch pinged from the jump, but in Harlots’ second season, she finally rang the bell and said out loud that she was queer, and specifically that she was in love with Margaret Wells. Maybe she always had been. Nancy — a dominatrix who’d do anything for the women she loves — sort of dresses like a low-rent pirate, and always looks vaguely hungover or that she did her makeup and then slept on it. She’s like an old-fashioned hyper-aggressive Mommi, you know? I want her to like, punish me.
Villanelle, Killing Eve
Wow, why are all of my favorite characters this year basically women I want to have aggressive sex with? I’m not sure. Anyway, Villanelle is a psychopath serial killer. You know the scene where she’s eating chicken pot pie leftovers out of the container and she’s got that long winter underwear shirt on and the shirt is on top of another shirt and her elbows are on the table and she’s eating like a medieval man? Wow, right? Anyhow, Villanelle is everything we don’t want lesbian characters to be (besides dead) (and yes, I know that some people read her as bisexual and I think that’s valid and perhaps even correct, I just read her differently and I think that’s okay don’t @ me) and yet she is so fucking weird that she won my heart. I can’t wait for season two of this very bizarre show.
Leila, The Bisexual
Ah yes, and here we have yet another slightly unstable, sexually creative, broad-shouldered woman. This show was wholly original and brutally honest and felt really fucking real. A lot of shows were like that this year — tangibly authentic because they were written by people who understood deeply the stories they were telling. Akhvan has been called “the bisexual Lena Dunham” and although it’s safe to say Lena Dunham usually sucks (although I should admit AGAIN DON’T @ ME that I did enjoy the HBO series Girls), I get the concept behind it — Leila is a little destructive and sloppy, looking for love in all the wrong places, often shooting herself in the foot. At the same time [unlike any of the girls on Girls], she is somebody I feel deep affection for. I understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, and listen, I support her journey. Plus, she is very tall and hot.
Valerie Anne, Staff Writer
Waverly Earp, Wynonna Earp
Waverly Earp continues to be such a lovely, bright spot on TV for me this year. Nicole was a strong contender for this favorite list, being a loving girlfriend, a badass sheriff and a loyal friend to the Earp girls, but the Jolene episode really cemented Waverly as the one who owns my whole soul. I’ve always identified with Waverly in some ways, and aspired to be more like her in others, so I’m obviously biased, but I think she had a really strong season. She traveled the journey of having and almost losing hope, and learning things about yourself, some that hurt and some that make you stronger. And I mean she was revealed to be a LITERAL angel. A literal queer angel born of a creature from actual heaven. She’s the light I really needed in this dark, dark year.
Sara Lance, Legends of Tomorrow
Sara Lance, and Legends as a whole, delights and surprises me week after week. It just keeps getting stronger and funnier and weirder in the best ways. And seeing Sara in a semi-domestic relationship with Ava, giving other people the same advice she needed two years ago – it’s been truly a wonder to behold. The show just keeps leaning into the queerness (in all senses of the word) and I think they’re better for it. I mean they have a blonde, bisexual, badass babe as the undisputed Captain of this band of time-traveling weirdos and even when they travel to times that hesitate to accept her, her team never falters.
Theo Crain, Haunting of Hill House
I went into Haunting of Hill House looking for spooks and maybe some feels and it delivered on both tenfold. It had all the makings of the best horror movie you’ve ever seen, but then added a layer of character development that’s otherwise hard to accomplish in only 90 minutes. I have a special place in my heart for all the Crain siblings (except Steven… fuck Steven,) but Theo Crain wrapped her be-gloved hand around my heart and hasn’t let go since. As someone who considers herself an empath in the least supernatural sense of the word, Theo’s journey really spoke to me, and it didn’t hurt that she was also queer. Plus, (spoiler alert) despite being a queer woman in a horror scenario, she survives! It’s a miracle.
Mel Vera, Charmed
The new Charmed is, well, charming me way more than I expected. I went in hesitant because I loved the original, but hopeful because I loved the actresses cast as the new sisters. The show has proven to be so much fun, with a pointed and hopeful tone reminiscent of season one of Supergirl. I love Mel because she’s out and proud and smart and bold and not afraid to speak her mind. Well, unless she’s talking to Niko, but that’s just because she loves her a lot and can’t tell her she’s a witch! You know, normal girlfriend stuff. Anyway, I love her a lot. This season took a surprising turn for Mel and Niko’s relationship, but so far the show has given me faith that they aren’t about to sweep Mel’s queerness under the rug anytime soon.
Karolina Dean, Marvel’s Runaways
Honestly I can’t tell you what it is about Karolina Dean that I love so much. There’s something about her story, her loyalty to her friends, her disillusionment in her parents, her discovering the power within her –and discovering she likes kissing girls (well, one girl in particular) — I love it all. Karolina and Nico’s first kiss and the way she smiled after, like she finally let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, it was so perfect. And their second, too! As much as I love me some angst, the EASE with which Karolina came out to herself was so inspiring and I think important for people to see; you’re not any less queer for not having struggled with it, you know? Anyway, I love this sunshiny rainbow and her goth girlfriend so much and can’t wait to see what they get up to in the new season.
Natalie, Staff Writer
Annalisa “Quiet Ann” Zayas, Claws
There’s a scene in “Scream,” the Ann-centric episode in Claws‘ second season, where Desna’s trying to figure out whether to side with the Russians or Uncle Daddy and the Dixie Mafia in their ongoing feud. She turns to her crew for advice and, eventually, lands on Ann. The voiceover comes in, revealing Ann’s thought: “You’re gonna ask me about loyalty?”
That Ann’s angry at that moment isn’t a surprise to the audience — the day’s been filled with reminders of what she lost: her child, snatched from her arms at 17; her freedom, taken away when she’s sent to prison for stabbing her cheating girlfriend; her family, lost to her when she returned from prison, changed; the love of her life and her would-be family, sacrificed so that Desna could skate on a murder charge. Ann’s rage is not a surprise. What is surprising is that, rather than letting the silence lay thick or worrying about how she’s heard, as is her wont, Quiet Ann speaks for herself, “I think you got a lot of nerve asking me about loyalty.”
It’s a fundamental shift in how Claws has treated Quiet Ann for the prior 13 episodes. It also addresses one of the show’s fundamental flaws from the first season. At the time, I lamented that, despite offering us intriguing but brief glimpses into Quiet Ann, “each and every time there’s a possibility to make this show’s butch Latina into something other than a plot device, the writers go the other way.” Thankfully, with this scene, the show’s writers’ uncorked Quiet Ann. Her genie is not going back into its bottle ever again.
Blanca and Angel Evangelista, Pose
For the longest time, I didn’t see myself on television, but still, I had that impulse to find commonality between myself and the people that I welcomed into my home. I wouldn’t get to see all of me, but I’d always find something — Dwayne Wayne’s nerdiness, Brian Krakow’s unrequited love for Angela Chase, Pacey Witter’s “black sheep” status — to ensure that I could see some part of myself in stories that looked nothing like mine. As time passed, I started to see more characters on television that looked like me and loved like me and shared my experiences… and that representation, in a word, was amazing.
It is amazing. It’s amazing that we’ve reached a point where a person can wrap themselves in a cocoon of characters that affirm who they are on a regular basis. Is this how cis white dudes feel all the time?
This year, I’ve started to wonder — to worry, honestly — if we’ve grown too attached to the need to see ourselves on-screen. There’s value in representation, always, but there’s also value in seeing and investing in the stories that aren’t your own, particularly those from other marginalized communities. It’s how we build empathy. Are we choosing to be seen over seeing others? And, if so, what implications does that have for our community?
I stepped into the world of the 1980s New York ballroom scene over the summer, not because I saw myself in the characters immediately, but because even if I didn’t, their stories were ones worth hearing. Cis folks hear trans people’s voices most often in protest: of bathroom bills, of military service bans, of cis folks’ collective silence in the face of their community’s deaths. There’s more to the trans community than that. Pose gives trans women space to be sing, act, dance, direct and write. The show is worth watching for that reason alone.
But when you dig into Pose, you find yourself investing in these characters because, whatever our differences, we share a common humanity. I saw myself in Blanca Evangelista (played exquisitely by Mj Rodriguez), the matriarch of her chosen family. A woman who, instead of being content to inherit something, someday, took a step out on a ledge, and built something of her own. She is a woman who wants to leave a legacy, to leave some proof that she was here. She is a woman who, in the face of discrimination, keeps coming back over and over again, to move us a little closer to justice. She is a woman who cares for others and works tirelessly to secure their future. She is me, in every way that counts.
If Blanca is the person I am, Angel is the person I wish I were. There’s such a certainty to her – a certainty that I keep thinking she shouldn’t have yet, she’s so young – that I envy. Angel’s been through some stuff. As Stan says, sometimes it feels as if she’s been “disinvited from the rest of the world.” Still, she’s a believer in the possibility of it all. I long for her sense of belief and, as the season progresses, find myself drawn to Angel. That’s in part because Indya Moore is magnetic, but also because I’m desperate to protect that spirit in her. A spirit I want so desperately to see in myself.
Carmen, Associate Editor
Eddy Martínez and Emma Hernandez, Vida
I thought about separating Vida protagonist Emma Hernandez from her stepmother Eddy for the purpose of this list. Certainly, the commanding performances by Mishel Prada and Ser Anzoategui each deserve their own recognition.
Prada’s Emma is tightly wound and multi-layered, an iceberg whose mass is 90% beneath the surface of its tip. It’s brave to deliver such a careful performance for a character that, quite honestly, it takes a couple of episodes to even like. That’s perhaps what is most wonderful about Emma; her love is hard won. But once you’ve opened yourself to her, there’s no turning back. She’ll consume your thoughts. I know she has consumed mine.
As Eddy, Anzoategui took the complete opposite approach. They opened their emotions wide and gaping right from the first moment we meet. Eddy’s eyes are mournful and haunting, her heart feels so visceral that you can almost see it beating on the table. She’s desperate to find any way forward after the death of her wife, she’s desperate to build a relationship with the daughters she’s left behind. Anzoategui never loses themself to Eddy’s rawness, instead choosing to shade the widow’s emotions with nuance. There’s a silent bathtub scene in Vida’s third episode that I still haven’t put down nearly six months later. It’s a testament to Anzoategui’s work.
Still, the most gripping performance I saw between a pair of actors this year was the dance created between Prada and Anzoategui together. They found honesty, even when its ugly, between their characters. They found love between all the rubble and broken hardness. For that, I’m pairing them together. (The fact that Prada also had this year’s hottest sex scene certainly doesn’t hurt.)
Blanca Evangelista, Pose
I’ve tried writing about Pose at least four times, and each time it’s ended up in the scrap pile because, really, what is there to say? Its goodness has surpassed words. Yes, watching Pose is important and culturally significant because it boasts the largest cast of trans women of color in television history. I do not want to shortchange that fact. I also wouldn’t want the historical weight of this moment to overshadow the fact that Pose is just damn good, supremely crafted television. It’s not a stretch to say that you’ll see it on a lot of critic’s year end lists, and not just the gay ones. This show is a powerhouse; it’s a force to be reckoned with.
Natalie is absolutely right: it’s important to watch television that doesn’t necessarily reflect you. I’d go as far as to argue that as a queer community, it’s our responsibility to lift up those voices of our siblings who aren’t being heard. We have to see our own humanity, because few others will grant us such grace. That said, the reason I love Blanca Evangelista (richly colored and portrayed by Mj Rodriguez) is because of how much she reminds me of myself. I wrote this summer, “Blanca Evangelista is the kind of character I’ve been waiting my whole life for. She’s an Afro-Latina, Puerto Rican, and fighting like hell to keep her queer chosen family together and make a name for herself in this world.” It’s still true. She’s the closet I’ve ever come to seeing all of me at once. And for that, she will always have my heart.
Annalisa “Quiet Ann” Zayas, Claws
Judy Reyes proved this year that it’s not the size of the role, it’s what you do with it. I’m selecting Quiet Ann for this list based on the strength of one single episode.
“Scream” was an episode of queer women’s television unlike almost any other this year. It’s a stand out in a year full of stand outs. In fact, I’d argue that even when we take a long historical eye towards the queer women’s TV canon, this episode is still going to hold its own. In less than 45 minutes, Reyes took a someone who previously had not been much more than a silent comic relief and perfunctory side character, and found the depths of her soulfulness. It’s hard to do much with a character who rarely talks, a character for whom “quiet” is literally in her name. Yet, Reyes proved that Anne isn’t quiet because she’s an afterthought. She’s quiet because she’s interior to herself. She’s thoughtful and considerate. She’s full of pain and remorse, but also stubborn hopefulness in the face of hopeless surroundings. It’s hard to bring such meditative introspection to a television dramedy that’s made a name for itself in over the top parody, but the Scrubs alum is the exact right woman for the job. She threads the needle every time.
Anissa Pierce, Black Lightning
ANISSA. MOTHER F*CKING. PIERCE. If you didn’t think I was going to include our very own black lesbian superhero on this list, you were gravely mistaken. Before she even made her debut last January, Anissa’s bonafides spoke for themselves. She’s the first lesbian superhero on the CW. She’s the first black lesbian superhero ever. She’s a bullet-proof black lesbian on the very network that, until perhaps recently, was most famously tied to the killing of one of their lesbian characters with a gunshot. She’s a bullet-proof black lesbian in a country where black people are still fighting for the very respect of our lives as we continue to be shot down as victims of police and state violence. And that was all before the first episode aired.
What followed was even better. Anissa is brave; she’s tenacious (okay, and a little impetuous); she’s smart – like nerdy book smart, she’s in medical school smart; she loves her family and fights against systemic injustices in her community. She also has relatable flaws. She puts up walls and flits between romantic loves because the very idea of commitment startles her. Did I mention she’s been gifted with some of the best fight choreography this year? And that those fights happen almost exclusively against other women badasses? Nafessa Williams has delivered an easy-to-love performance this year, and I can’t wait to keep on loving her!
Catra, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
I recently came across a tweet on my timeline where a fan described Catra’s storyline as one of the best origins for an antihero this year. And sure, maybe that sounds hyperbolic, but I think that fan was on to something. It’s easy to care for Catra right from the beginning. She has a comeback for every putdown. She’s almost effortlessly cool with her torn up black jeans and perfectly spiked hair. She’s all edge and dark, warm colors in She-Ra’s otherwise pastel rainbow colored We’re Going To Win in the End! world. Most interestingly, Catra is dangerous. She’s legitimately threatening.
I intended for She-Ra to be pleasant background noise while I completed my Saturday morning chores, but Catra demanded all of my attention. What became clear was how much Catra hurt. She deeply felt the loss of her best friend. Her funny comebacks were thinly veiled covers for the old wounds she didn’t want you to see. She self-sabotaged herself at every turn, as if she was afraid to really try. By the time I arrived at the episode dealing with the emotional abuse that Catra and She-Ra dealt with in their childhood, I was in tears. I don’t remember the last time I cried at animation not made by Pixar! Here was Catra, filled up with a lifetime’s worth of pain and just trying to bottle it before it poured over everything.
It’s hard to make an animated villain that doesn’t feel, well, broad and cartoon-sh. Catra was completely three-dimensional. Also, did you catch her in that tux at Princess Prom? Can you swoon over a cartoon character? Because I think I just did.
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Staff Writer
Sadie, The Bisexual
The second I set my eyes upon the gay art Mommi that is Sadie, I was smitten! Look, like all characters on The Bisexual, she has her flaws. She makes Leila’s own sexuality journey kind of about herself. And then she rebounds with her employee. But, would I gladly volunteer to co-parent the child she desperately wants to have? Fuck YES. Ruin me, Mommi!
Theo Crain, Haunting Of Hill House
I really, really loved Haunting Of Hill House and aside from its technical stunner of a sixth episode, the best chapter is easily the one dedicated to its resident empathic lesbian Theodora Crain. Because of her, I firmly believe that gloves should be a lesbian fashion trend. Let’s just say that an emotionally withholding, somewhat messy lesbian who tries to fuck way her problems is… something I’m very drawn to.
Jane Ramos, Jane The Virgin
Am I listing my favorite television characters or the television characters I want to date? SAME THING! Jane Ramos’ intense confidence and the way she gradually melts over Petra Solano was easily one of my favorite parts of Jane The Virgin this year.
Arthie Premkumar, GLOW
Okay, so we barely got a glimpse at Arthie’s sexuality questioning or the potentially blossoming romance between her and Yolanda last season of GLOW, but I’m so starved for queer South Asian representation that I gotta give her a shoutout. Hopefully next year on GLOW brings much more!
Emma Hernandez, Vida
She’s hot; she’s complicated; she’s a control freak; she’s an emotional disaster. So Vida’s Emma hits all the right buttons when it comes to the television characters I enjoy watching. Crying while masturbating? A goddamn icon.
Heather Hogan, Managing Editor
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Brooklyn Nine-Nine has always been one of my favorite can’t-miss shows, but in 2018 I became a full-on evangelist for it, largely because of the way it handled Rosa’s coming out storyline. First of all, because noted bisexual Stephanize Beatriz was consulted by the writers on it; and second of all, because it was just so good. It’s very rare to see a character come out as bisexual and say the word “bisexual.” It’s even rarer when it’s an established character on a broadcast network show. What made Rosa’s story great was more than just the stats. It was just so Rosa. The sheepish, but gruff, way she told Boyle she was dating a woman. The time limit she gave the squad — exactly one minute and zero seconds — to ask questions. And then her heartbreaking, heartwarming, uncompromising coming out episode with her parents. It was so funny and so real and so Rosa.
Elena Alvarez, One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time has been on for two seasons and I’ve probably watched it more than any other comedy ever, besides The Golden Girls. (And, as you’ll see by comparing my list to everyone else’s, my heart beats for comedies.) Often times sitcoms stop with the revelation of a queer character’s sexuality — but ODAAT gave Elena a season two storyline that was as sweet and awkward as any first time queer romance I’ve ever seen on TV. I scooted closer to the TV when she was trying to figure out if Syd liked her, cheered when they had their first kiss, and swooned like a cartoon character when they went to their first dance together. Plus, Elena had lots to do outside of her relationship; she grew as an individual person, too, learning more about herself, her culture, her family, and even her gender presentation.
Leila, The Bisexual
Because I am a human afflicted with humanity’s narcissism I am most drawn to TV characters whose bumbling, sweet nerdiness (see above) remind me of myself or whose sense of moral courage and heroism (see below) show me the me I want to be. What I am not drawn to is messy TV characters, especially messy queer women TV characters — but among the many revelations I had while watching Desiree Akhavan’s The Bisexual this year was that messy queer women TV characters are usually just sloppily written queer women TV characters. Akhavan’s Lelia is generous and selfish and hard and sharp and still full of wonder and boi is she messy! But that only made me love her more! She’s authentic in a way I’m not sure I’ve experienced from a mid-30s queer woman on television. And the way the show explores her bisexuality is definitely not something I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t indict anyone; it just asks a lot of questions and generously explores the answers.
She-Ra, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
I was more excited about Netflix’s She-Ra reboot than anyone I know and was also more surprised than anyone when it exceeded every one of my expectations, including the fact that it’s maybe the queerest thing I have ever seen on TV in my life. Just so casually unapologetically queer. Adora, to me, is the perfect metaphor for growing up in an oppressive, oh let’s say, conservative white evangelical Christian community and lucking your way out of it to fight on the side of the good guys (who you’d been taught were the bad guys). She’s tough and smart and destined for greatness as she chooses goodness and also she just loves horses! (And Catra.)
June, Forever
I know this show has been out for several months now, but I still don’t want to spoil anyone who hasn’t seen it. I’ll just say that if Maya Rudolph doesn’t win an Emmy for playing a middle-aged woman whose simmering desires and rage are awakened by another middle-aged women who’s even angrier than she is, I will be shocked. This is one of those rare shows that when I was watching it, I was like, “Wait, have I never seen this queer story before? I haven’t! I really haven’t!” (Also, if you still haven’t read Caity Weaver’s profile of Maya Rudolph, you really have to rectify that.)
Ruby and Sapphire, Steven Universe
That they got married on Cartoon Network and smooched right on their non-binary femme Gem lips would be enough, but it’s not just the revolutionary representation that made them so great (again) this year; it’s that they’re brilliantly written characters who grow together and apart. They’re badass and they’re adorable and when Garnet marched into the most epic battle of her life, in her wedding dress, her battlecry was the best description of a relationship I have ever heard: “I am the will of two gems to care for each other, to protect each other from any threat, no matter how vast or how cruel!” Y’all couldn’t stop her 5,750 years ago and you cannot stop her now.
LEAST FAVORITE
Riese, Editor-in-Chief
Lila Stanton,The Purge
I started watching The Purge to see AZMarie do pull-ups in a sports bra, and found myself surprisingly drawn into the show as a whole, primarily into a love triangle between Lila, Jenna and Rick. Mostly because I was certain Rick was an asshole and Jenna was going to leave him for her true love, Lila, with whom she exchanged sweet kisses by the pool at a white supremacist murder party. Lila was not like her terrible parents! She was a lesbian who loved equality for all mankind! Then, over the course of two episodes, she slipped directly into the gaping maws of the psycho lesbian trope, which led to her eventual death.
Valerie Anne, Staff Writer
Jenna Betancourt, The Purge
Like Riese, I also had high hopes for Jenna and Lila at the beginning of this show, with the sexy flashbacks and the sexier poolside kiss. I thought for sure she was going to ditch her scheming, potato-of-a-man husband before things got too insane. Alas, she chose wrong. I also quit this show before having to watch Lila be tripped up by tropes because it’s 2018 and self-care is important.
Just, everybody, Shameless
I get that V didn’t have a lot of experience with bisexual people before she started being in a throuple with Kev and Svetlana, but I feel like she was very willing to go back to IDing as straight after Svetlana left (well, after she ACTIVELY made life miserable for Svetlana) and try to chalk it up to being kinky. Also, I’m mad that after eight full seasons of wishing for Fiona to realize she was bisexual, and really thinking they were going to go there with Nessa, they made DEBBIE be the Gallagher sister in a relationship with a woman?? DEBBIE??? I love this show, but hoo boi they made me mad this year. Don’t even get me STARTED on the Gay Jesus cult. JUST DON’T. I’m going to finish out the season but if they really think they can go on without Emmy Rossum they have another thing coming.
Peach Sallinger, Hashtag You on Lifetime
Peach is on my “worst” list not because I didn’t like her, but because i didn’t like her storyline. She started off so great. Shay Mitchell delivered her strongest acting performance to date, and Peach was the only voice of reason for miles around. However, if people who read the book hadn’t already told me she was a lesbian, I wouldn’t have known until it was revealed that she was maybe a psychopath and had dozens of photos of Beck sleeping and/or half-naked that didn’t appear to be taken with consent. :deep sigh: I stopped watching after she was smashed on the head with a rock but before she was murdered, and frankly I think the new exorcism movie Shay is in will treat her better than this show did.
Natalie, Staff Writer
Nova Bordelon, Queen Sugar
This one hurts, y’all.
I wanted Nova Bordelon to be great. I wanted this character, an original creation of Ava DuVernay’s designed to add to the rich tapestry penned by Natalie Baszile, to be great. I wanted this character, imbued with the spirit and identity of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, to be great. And, most of all, I wanted this character, played by Rutina Wesley, who I’ve adored (read: thirsted over) since long before she came out as queer last year, to be great. I wanted Nova Bordelon to be great – for Rutina, for me, for the culture.
But, oh no…
Because, even though it’s 20GAYteen, and even though GLAAD gave Ava DuVernay an “Excellence in Media” award, Nova Bordelon was not great this season. Over the last two years, Queen Sugar has erased Nova’s bisexuality from her identity and it’s been so disheartening to watch. Hearing Nova cry out for freedom, echoing the very words she said to her girlfriend in Season One, to her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Remy, of all people has been like pouring salt in an open wound.
Carmen and I talked about a lot of this back in August when the latest season of Queen Sugar wrapped, so I won’t belabor the point too much, but I will say this: one of the things that made this television show great, from the outset, was its full-hearted embrace of revolutionary politics. Carmen, quite rightly, called the first season a “black feminist masterclass.” It stood firmly on the side of justice and representation and was unapologetic about it. What worries me about Queen Sugar’s bisexual erasure is that it might be symptomatic of a shift, away from the revolutionary, and more towards the respectable.
And if that’s the case — if this once revolutionary show is going to embrace respectability politics — then it has become a shell of its former self and may not be worth investing in at all anymore.
Bárbara and Mercedes, Perdona nuestros pecados
Earlier this year, when I was putting together our March Madness competition, I decided to create an International region, as a small way to acknowledge Autostraddle’s international readership. I scoured the Internet in search of 16 kisses worthy of inclusion in our contest and, in doing so, I stumbled upon Perdona nuestros pecados (Forgive Our Sins), a Chilean telenovela set in the fictional town of Villa Ruiseñor during the 1950s. The lesbian storyline on the show features Mercedes Möller, the sheltered daughter of the town’s mayor, and Bárbara Roman, the cosmopolitan but stifled wife of the town’s new police commissioner. They grabbed my attention in a way that few shows I discovered would — I’m pretty sure it was the couple’s second kiss in the church that hooked me — and I grew to love this pairing.
I’d watch the show live and glean what I could from the context and what little Spanish I know. I’d follow the hashtags on social media, discuss the show with other fans and eagerly wait for clips of the show and their translations. And, if the show had ended with its first season (which, by the way, included one of the best lesbian love scenes I’ve ever seen on TV), I would have no doubt included Bárbara and Mercedes among my picks for the Best of 2018. But apparently, even though it’s 20GAYTeen, I still cannot have nice things.
In an unprecedented move, the network decided to extend the telenovela for a second season and, for a while, it was good. With the romance between the women cemented, the story became more about the drama which was to be expected. Then the wheels came off and the writers subjected this couple to one awful trope after another and dug themselves into a hole so deep that they couldn’t really get out of it — and, in the process, diminished this once great couple.
Because we’re talking about our least favorite characters and we include pictures with our posts, it’s easy to attach our scorn to the actors but, honestly, it’s hardly ever about them (María Bello and Soledad Cruz were amazing). As with so many queer stories on television, Bárbara and Mercedes faltered because the writers got lazy. Too often, writers pen beautiful storylines about women falling in love because, even if they’re not queer women, that’s the part that they understand.After that, when it’s time to write about what a relationship between two women actually looks like, they can’t even fathom it. So, instead, they reach for tropes, either not realizing they were tropes or wrongly believing that they could succeed where so many others failed (spoiler alert: you can’t).
We need writers to do better. Be creative or, better yet, hire queer women to tell their stories. I only hope the writers behind Bárbara and Mercedes learn that lesson before the possible spin-off.
Carmen, Associate Editor
Lila Stanton, The Purge
That sure was a rollercoaster! Like Riese, I came to The Purge with very low expectations, just wanting to see AzMarie sweat a bit in a sports bra (by the way, not nearly enough of that! Thanks for nothing, show). And much like Valerie, I was a goner from the first poolside kiss. I was 100% certain that The Purge was going to end with Jenna and Lila was the quintessential horror movie “final girls,” raising the sword of justice and holding each other in their arms as daybreak rose on another day. They were going to be the Lesbian Avengers! The complete set up was there! Instead Jenna decided to raise her baby with a potato sack and Lila got a complete and total personality transplant! Why? I have no idea! I assume because without turning her into a psycho trope at the last minute, her death wouldn’t have made any sense! So the writers forgot all their character development, Lila turned into some caricature from The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and then she died. Good times, folks. Good times.
Nova Bordelon, Queen Sugar
Natalie said all that needed be said upthread. The only thing I have to add are my tears.
Do you want the salted water from my very body Queen Sugar? Take it. You’ve already taken everything else.
Heather Hogan, Managing Editor
Peach Sallinger, You
This was the weirdest year because almost no one on our TV team could think of any characters we hated. Even when we started digging down into, like, “Okay, but who was just written poorly?” I don’t know if that’s because there was so much excellent queer TV, none of us watched what was subpar; or if most things really were just good this year. Either way, that’s an excellent problem to have and my answer to this question is Peach Sallinger. It’s not because she was a lesbian psycho; I don’t mind that trope anymore and, frankly, it was refreshing to see Shay Mitchell play just a hardcore bitch. But like Valerie said, she was so underwritten it was hard to tell if she really was going to be a lesbian at all and then she got walloped in the skull with a rock almost as soon as we found out. Honestly, even if she’d lived, it wouldn’t have been worth the investment because every goddamn minute of this show was voiced-over by Dan Fucking Humphrey.
The 16 Best Lesbian and Bisexual TV Couples of 2018
When Riese wrote about GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report this year, she mentioned that she created and has been maintaining a comprehensive database of LGBTQ TV characters, so she wasn’t too surprised to read that GLAAD’s findings were mostly positive, and that they now have stats to back-up something we’ve been saying forever: “showrunners are listening to GLAAD, they’re listening to fans, and they’re increasingly aware of how specifically passionate queer women are about our stories.”
That’s more obvious on this list — and what’s not included in on this list — than maybe any of the other year-end lists we’re compiling this year. In the intro for the best lesbian and bisexual movies of 2018, I noted how weird it was to be able to create a queer women’s pop culture list and leave things off of it — because, finally, we had enough good content to set some parameters for inclusion. Well, here I am making a list of best lesbian and bisexual TV couples of 2018 and the same thing is true! There’ve definitely been enough queer women pairings to fill out lists like these the last few years, but it would have been unheard of until very recently to leave off any two women whose mouths had touched each others’. But here I am, doing just that! I counted 60 TV shows that featured women smooching this year. 16 shows made this list.
Even more interestingly/awesomely, there are at least a dozen fan favorite lesbian and bisexual TV characters this year who aren’t on this particular list because they had excellent queer storylines that didn’t include being in a relationship. (Don’t worry, our annual list of Best/Worst TV characters is coming next week!)
The couples on this list had to include: a non-guest queer character who had noticeable character development; sex/affection/screentime that was equivalent to the sex/affection/screentime given to straight characters of the same status (main character, recurring character, etc.); and the majority of our TV Team had to agree on their inclusion. And here they are!
Jane and Petra, Jane the Virgin
Jane the Virgin fans had been reading Petra as bisexual for a few seasons, and while the show didn’t match her up with Jane Villanueva, they sure did give her a whole other Jane to fall for! Petra’s coming out storyline was so real and so sweet and so funny and so sexy and — best of all — it ended with her getting the girl (at least for a minute!).
Nico and Karolina, Marvel’s Runaways
Nico and Karlina’s relationship is special because both characters have their own storylines, and their own relationships to their queerness, so they’re just as dynamic and fun to watch when they’re apart as they are together. Their relationship had been highly anticipated by fans of The Runaways comic books, so it was really rewarding to see the usually-gay-reluctant Marvel actually go there on-screen, and do it so well.
Stef and Lena, The Fosters
Stef and Lena will go down in history as one of the all-time great lesbian relationships on TV. It was sad to say goodbye to them in their final season, but easily worth the tears for the five years of laughter and love and late-night swims and pancake breakfasts they gave us. In the end, they renewed their commitment to be home with each other, always, right where they belong.
Syd and Elena, One Day at a Time
Elena’s season one coming out storyline was perfect and profound. And so was her first love storyline in season two. Syd, Elena’s nonbinary queer pal, went from being her activist buddy to her partner over the course of the season. They shared their first kiss together, their first school dance together, and their first Doctor/TARDIS cosplay together. A romance for the ages.
Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, Adventure Time
After the slowest slow burn in the history of slow burns, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum finally kissed on-screen in the Adventure Time series finale (fittingly, as Ooo was literally burning to the ground around them). Marceline stopped hinting that her affection for Bonnibel had never gone away and said it right out loud. Did they live happily ever after? Well, time is an illusion. But they did live, and together!
Sara and Ava, Legends of Tomorrow
We loved Sara with Nyssa. And it was always fun to watch Sara romp through time and make good girls go gay. But watching the strength and vulnerability it took for her to fall in love with Ava and fight for their relationship peeled back even more layers of her character. They make each other so happy, and that makes us happy. These two have suffered enough! Let them live and love!
Kate and Emaline, Everything Sucks
Riese and I were both kind of stunned by how much we loved Everything Sucks and how bummed we were that Netflix cancelled it. Kate’s storyline spoke to both of our gay-but-unaware ’90s teen lesbian souls, in large part because Kate’s relationship with Emaline just felt so real. Lots of people agreed with us. Lots and lots and lots of people. In a shocker, these two won our March Madness Best Kiss competition! You’ll always be our little Wonderwall, Kate Messner.
Emma and Cruz, Vida
When Autostraddle Associate Editor Carmen Phillips recapped the season finale of Vida, she wrote, “Over the course of Vida’s first season, there have been quite a few moments where I had to pause the television slack jawed in disbelief and mutter to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to see this on TV.'” And about their beautiful, blossoming relationship: “Listen, Emma never falls asleep at a hook up’s house. But with Cruz everything is safe, you know? It’s warm and gentle and soft. Emma’s built her whole world into sharp edges. Cruz brings out parts that she long thought she buried. And despite herself, she craves it.” And so did we!
Mel and Niko, Charmed
The news that trickled in about the CW’s Charmed reboot over the course of this year surprised us in so many ways. That the main characters would all be Latinx, that one of them was going to be an out-and-proud lesbian, that she would have a girlfriend from the get-go. None of those facts prepared me for the biggest surprise of all: that I was going to fall in love with Mel and then Mel and Niko immediately, and that it was going to break my heart when Mel had to save her girlfriend by setting her free.
Ruby and Sapphire, Steven Universe
Ruby and Sapphire have not stopped breaking ground since they showed up, individually, on our teeves. This year, they just went right on ahead and got married and kissed right on their cartoon mouths on primetime TV on Cartoon Network. Plus: masc Gems in dresses, femme Gems in tuxes, throwbacks to Ruby and Sapphire’s other most romantic moments. There were an awful lot of awful things we could have be thinking of, but for just one day we only thought about love.
Waverly and Nicole, Wynonna Earp
We go now to our official WayHaught correspondent, Autostraddle Staff Writer Valerie Anne: In their third season together, Waverly and Nicole are a fully established couple with their own separate relationships with each of the other characters, their own roles in this wacky shitshow, the new Sheriff and a literal angel. We got to see a little more of a domestic side to them this year, having Big Gay Dinners and Nicole meeting Mama Earp, but they still had their fun (see: the Christmas episode) and there was never a moment of doubt that they’re head over heels in love. Plus, they may or may not have gotten engaged before Waverly got sucked into the Garden of Eden/Evil and Nicole went missing.
Kat and Adena, The Bold Type
Kat and Adena went all this season, and while it didn’t end happily ever after, it was an excellent growing experience for Kat’s character — as a person who’d never been in a serious relationship and as a newly out queer lady. Plus theirs continued to be the most resonant relationship on the whole show.
Grace and Anissa, Black Lightning
It’s wild to think that all of the first season of Black Lightning and half of the second season happened in 2018! And it’s a good thing, too, because if it’d just been season one, these two superheroes would never have made our list. Grace disappeared! Luckily, in season two, she returned to our screens and to Anissa’s loving arms. Their story is groundbreaking in so many ways, and so tender and so angsty and so sexy. We can’t get enough.
Toni and Cheryl, Riverdale
Cheryl is another character who got a girlfriend because fans were reading her as queer and the actress who plays her (Madelaine Petsch) pushed for it. I believed in Toni and Cheryl from the second their paths crossed before that inexplicable drag race in season two. And look at them now! Toni broke Cheryl out of conversion therapy! Cheryl joined the Serpents! Just two Slytherin babes from opposite sides of the tracks, constantly saving each other from getting axe-murdered.
Violet and Amelia, Harlots
Violet Cross and Amelia Scanwell’s love story is so star-crossed it makes my heart hurt just thinking about it — but it’s so wonderful, too. On paper, they have nothing in common, and their connection happened so slowly and subtly in season one it was hard to tell if it was really a thing or if I was just Seeing Gay People (again). But it did happen! And in season two, they got to explore their fraught connection further. If you haven’t read Riese’s review of season two, do that now, and I will quote it anyway: “Basically, what I’m telling you is that stories about sex workers are not niche, they are transcendent and universal, and often the truest and most enduring stories about Western Civilization ever told.”
Yolanda and Arthie, G.L.O.W.
We were all so annoyed that the first season of G.L.O.W. was so dang gay without being gay. In season two, though, we got the real deal with Yolanda and Arthie. Yolanda knew she was gay and said it right away, and over and over until everyone was forced to get comfortable with it. Arthie didn’t have any queer feelings at all, until she shocked herself when she started feeling things for Yolanda. They wrestled each other, danced around their feelings, and finally kissed (on national TV!).
TV’s Favorite Fictional Writers, Ranked From Worthless to Wondrous
The first “rule” of writing is “write what you know,” which is why so many TV writers create TV characters who are also writers. The layer on top of that is TV criticism, which is writers writing about writers writing TV shows about writers. It’s navel-gazing at its absolute inception point and I’m here today to engage in it — because every few months our TV Team finds ourselves in the middle of a tirade about a fictional writer that leads us down a rabbit hole of all the fictional writers we have loved and hated in our lives. We have a lot of opinions about this topic, which makes us think y’all might also have a lot of opinions about it. Below are 33 of TV’s most popular fictional writers, ranked from worthless to wondrous.
The feelings in this post are my own; they do not reflect the opinions of the entire TV Team.
33. Ezra Fitz, Pretty Little Liars
Claim to fame: Ostinato, a true crime novel he wrote about a murdered teenager he had stalked, which he researched by stalking her grieving friends, who were also his students, one of whom he seduced. Also: Then and Now, a true crime novel about his murdered fiancée (who came back to life after he had a different fiancée, who happened to be that former student he stalked and seduced, and who also basically wrote this entire book).
32. Dan Humphrey, Gossip Girl
Claim to fame: He wrote Inside, a roman à clef about going to private high school on the Upper East Side. Main character: Dylan Hunter. Also: Between one million and ten trillion texts from Gossip Girl and a poem called “Sluts” about his girlfriend that he published in The New Yorker.
31. Dawson Leery, Dawson’s Creek
Claim to fame: No less than 100 terrible screenplays, ultimately the showrunner of a TV show called The Creek.
30. Rory Gilmore, Gilmore Girls
Claim to fame: Went on Obama’s presidential campaign trail, came home and promptly began falling asleep when talking to sources, sleeping with sources, calling editors on the phone to pitch bad stories, going into interviews with zero story ideas, trying to turn the Stars Hollow Gazette into the paper of record for the entire northeastern United States.
29. Jane Sloane, The Bold Type
Claim to fame: Rarely conceives a good story pitch, yet too good to write every story ever assigned to her. Wrote three entire semi-popular articles at Scarlet magazine, invited to sit on a prestigious panel of successful writers, immediately felt so stifled that she left her childhood dream job to work at a startup from which she was promptly fired, lived in her failure for a time, per Jacquline’s righteous instructions.
28. Zoe Barnes, House of Cards
Claim to fame: An upstart reporter on The Herald‘s metro beat who became Frank Underwood’s media mouthpiece which led her to the job of White Hose Correspondent which ultimately led to her being hurled in front of a train by Frank.
27. Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Claim to fame: William the Bloody got his name from his bloody awful poetry, and then he murdered about ten billion people, and then he got a soul. His poetry was still terrible, though. To wit: “My soul is wrapped in harsh repose, midnight descends in raven-colored clothes. But soft, behold! A sunlight beam butting a swath of glimmering gleam. My heart expands, ’tis grown a bulge in it, Inspired by your beauty. Effulgent.”
26. Nick Miller, New Girl
Claim to fame: Z is for Zombie, a novel that misspelled the word “rhythm” three dozen times and a follow-up novel called The Pepperwood Chronicles about a New Orleans detective fighting “the alligator within.”
25. Kara Danvers, Supergirl
Claim to fame: Got fired from her newspaper reporting job for going rogue and publishing an article using herself as a source, which is called “writing an essay,” despite being told directly that she needed sources (which she already should have known), and despite the fact that multiple sources were available to her.
24. Chidi, The Good Place
Claim to fame: An ethics manuscript that took Michael — who can read all of human literature in one hour — two weeks to finish.
23. Stacy Merkin, The L Word
Claim to fame: Wrote a New Yorker article Jenny Schecter loved, then wrote a “piece of shit article” about Jenny Schecter in a “little magazine called Curve,” replete with “sloppy syntax and grammar.” (For a more favorable review just type in Publisher’s Weekly dot com Jennifer Schecter.)
22. Jenny Schecter, The L Word
Claim to fame: Masterpieces Lez Girls the novel and Lez Girls the movie.
21. Hannah Horvath, Girls
Claim to fame: Freelance article on trying cocaine for the first time, e-book of essays that never came to fruition, advertorials writer at GQ, Iowa Writers’ Workshop (where she received critiques such as “too Fifty Shades of Grey“), published in New York Times Modern Love column, finalist in Moth’s Story SLAM, teacher of “the internet” to students at a small liberal arts college, aspiring voice of her generation.
20. Tina Belcher, Bob’s Burgers
Claim to fame: Erotic fan fiction writer (definitely in her journal, also presumably on Tumblr).
19. Devon, I Love Dick
Claim to fame: An aspiring playwright who explores “the self-abjection that a woman goes through in order to unleash her desire” and “swaggers around in some kind of shadow polarity of Kevin Bacon.” Also Riese’s favorite TV character of 2017.
18. Alice Pieszecki, The L Word
Claim to fame: The Chart and at least one freelance article on vaginal rejuvenation.
17. Jughead, Riverdale
Claim to fame: Writer for various school newspapers who is also working on a true crime novel about Riverdale that features literary gems such as “Guilt, innocence. Good, evil. Life, death. As the shadows around Riverdale deepened, the lines that separated these polar opposites blurred and distorted. ‘I’m guilty,’ Cheryl said in biology class. But of what?”
16. Diane Nguyen, BoJack Horseman
Claim to fame: Ghost writer of BoJack Horseman’s tell-all biography, One Trick Pony, and the writer of the biography Secretariat: a Life. Also a ghostwriter of celebrity tweets.
15. Richard Castle, Castle
Claim to fame: Author of 41 best-selling crime novels.
14. Sabrina, Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Claim to fame: Her magical typewriter liked her creative writing assignments so much it brought them to life! She also wrote a variety of exposés for the school newspaper.
13. Dr. Watson, Sherlock
Claim to fame: Sherlock didn’t write his own stories; Watson did.
12. Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City
Claim to fame: A magazine column about sex and dating that she turned into several successful memoirs.
11. Suzanne Warren, Orange Is the New Black
Claim to fame: The Time Hump Chronicles, an erotic novel that took Litchfield by storm and spawned its own fandom and fan fiction. It’s not just sex, it’s love. It’s two people connecting, with four other people, and aliens.
10. Gabrielle, Xena: Warrior Princess
Claim to fame: A self-trained bard, she wrote her and Xena’s adventures down on scrolls, which her decedents used to make a TV show. Notable gay scribbles: “I sing of the wrath of Callisto, the pain of Gabrielle and the courage of Xena, and the inevitable mystery of a friendship as immortal as the gods.”
9. Jessica Huang, Fresh Off the Boat
Claim to fame: Her debut novel, A Case of a Knife to the Brain, didn’t sell as well as expected (owing to being released the same day as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, of course), but Plaintiff Stephen King says, “Jessica Huang is scarier than any character I could ever write myself.”
8. Lois Lane, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Claim to fame: She’s the award-winning ace reporter of Metropolis’ leading newspaper, The Daily Planet.
7. Liz Lemon, 30 Rock
Claim to fame: Writing and showrunning multiple seasons of The Girlie Show and TGS with Tracy Jordan, which earned her at least one Emmy.
6. Peggy Olson, Mad Men
Claim to fame: The real-life Peggy Olson was the first woman to rule Madison Avenue. And so was fictional Peggy Olson, who went from secretary to copywriter to copy chief at some of the most successful ad agencies in the world, through raw talent and a relentless work ethic and sheer force of will.
5. River Song, Doctor Who
Claim to fame: Melody Malone: Private Detective in Old New York Town, a noir novel that was actually a memoir which she published from the future to help her mom, her dad, and her husband not destabilize their nearly catastrophic time paradox even further. Also, centuries worth of spoiler-filled journals.
4. Jane Gloriana Villanueva, Jane the Virgin
Claim to fame: Snow Falling, a best-selling debut romance novel that received such praise as “BRILLIANT. MOVING. MASTERFUL. I laughed, I sobbed, I even danced. The best novel of the century,” from Rogelio De La Vega.
3. Khadijah James, Living Single
Claim to fame: The always-hustling editor-in-chief of her own indie magazine, Flavor. She wrote, she managed, she accounted, she did it all and paid other women to do it alongside her.
2. Jessica Fletcher, Murder She Wrote
Claim to fame: 43 mystery novels, total. Among them: The Corpse Danced at Midnight, A Faded Rose Beside Her, Dirge for a Dead Dachshund, and Ashes, Ashes, Fall Down Dead. And she didn’t even start writing until after she was retired!
1. HG Wells, Warehouse 13
Claim to fame: Just some of the greatest works of literature in all of human history: The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Love Song of Myka Ophelia Bering.
27 X-Files Monsters of the Week, Ranked by Gayness
We’ve discussed the arguably gay women of The X-Files, and obviously Dana Scully at length. But it’s time to answer a different pressing question: how gay are the monsters of the week*?
*Although a monster-of-the-week episode comprises anything that isn’t germane to the overarching alien mythology plot, we are today focusing on actual monsters. For the purposes of this list, things that are not monsters: evil humans, humans with special powers, humans who have undergone some terrible transformation to give them powers like werewolves or vampires, aliens, religious entities like angels or the actual literal devil, possessed or reincarnated people. Ghosts count though, and also demons and computers.
27. Vele Demon, “Terms of Endearment”
He lies to, cheats on and manipulates multiple women while attempting to control their reproductive choices and losing it when he can’t. He’s literally just a regular dude who happens to also be a demon.
26. Slug cult leader, “Roadrunner”
We can all agree that this gross sentient slug parasite that has gained a cult following willing to trap innocent passersby for it is a lot! Lot going on here. This sentient slug does not respect bodily autonomy and is also very gross.
25. Golem, “Kaddish”
The golem’s mission in this case is pretty admirable, avenging antisemitism after being tragically separated from his love by death, but it isn’t gay.
24. Greg Pincus/Shapeshifting soul-sucking monster, “Folie a Deux”
Greg Pincus’s reign of terror and psychological torture is, for good reason, deeply linked to corporate America and his outer shell as an amiable straight white man as a cover for his inner shell as an enormous insect monster that somehow turns people into zombies. Not gay!
23. Ghosts, “Elegy”
These seem like very nice girls! They’re not gay, though, even a little bit.
22. Silicon based parasite, “Firewalker”
If this were a silicone-based parasite there would be a joke in here about the girl you dated in college who gave you your first strap-on and moved into your dorm room after two weeks, but alas.
21. Tachistoscopic images, “Wetwired”
This episode was super messed up! I refuse to believe that anyone gay would do this to Dana Scully.
20. Flukeman, “The Host”
Hard to say what this one is into other than hanging out in sewers, being gross and creepy. Tough to read. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are sort of middle-of-the-road mildly gay.
19. Parasitic Ice Worms, “Ice”
Points out the gate for the baseline of bitterness and staying power that it takes to survive in subterranean ice for millions of years, as staying in inhospitable and miserable situations for an unnecessarily long time just to make a point is part of gay culture, but unfortunately any gay resemblance stops there.
18. Poltergeists, “Excelsis Dei”
These guys are just dicks, honestly! We do not want them in the draft.
17. Jersey Devil, “Jersey Devil”
Lesbians are always talking about wanting to go live in the forest with their wife and leave human society behind, but also who doesn’t want that at this point, it’s arguably a universal human experience.
16. Forest people, “Detour”
See: Jersey Devil entry, although the forest people in Detour rank slightly higher because of their anti-colonialist critique.
15. Marcus Aurelius Belt possessed by a Martian entity, “Space”
There’s something admirable about the weird Martian space ghost’s commitment — hanging out in space all alone for eternity, but also following its target back to Earth? Do straight people have that kind of dedication to a task? Not convinced they do.
14. Wood mites, “Darkness Falls”
They’re very efficient and have clearly read The Monkey Wrench Gang; they will also absolutely break up with you for not taking the composting system in the apartment seriously.
13. Central Operating System in the Eurisko Corporation’s headquarters, “Ghost in the Machine”
The inevitable upshot of so many depictions of computers and artificially intelligent entities as female personalities that their male creators are half in love/lust with is that it’s impossible not to see violent AIs gone rogue as striking back and getting revenge on their creepy inventors. Skynet was like the digital Amy Dunne, when you think about it.
12. Betty, “Never Again”
The thing about Betty, the haunted talking tattoo with a lot of internalized misogyny, is that she really hates other women. BUT once in a blue moon that tendency betrays a sort of doth-protesting-too-much, like how Regina George pings kind of gay sometimes. Also she was voiced by Jodie Foster, which means she registers as gay against your will on a cellular level.
11. Mysterious fear entity, “X-Cops”
The level of deeply intuitive emotional manipulation required for a monster who kills you by turning into your worst fear is harrowing!
10. Sea Monster, “Agua Mala”
Sea monsters have vengeful gay energy in general, because of Ursula and the larger tradition of misandrist female sea monsters, like sirens, Scylla, Gorgons, the list goes on. This particular sea monster also tries to strangle Mulder to death, which is relatable.
9. Human bat, “Patience”
A human-bat hybrid with “cold hearted human vengeance” that will kill anyone with the scent of its target on them. This bat is a Scorpio.
8. Chinga, “Chinga”
She’s from New England with a prickly attitude and a poor disposition towards men, which, same!
7. Big Blue, “Quagmire”
Much like Nessie, Big Blue feels very gay in the degree to which people refuse to believe she exists while simultaneously monetizing her story.
6. Hallucinogenic Mushroom Organism, “Field Trip”
A mindless monster that entraps you by spinning you fantasies of your fears and hopes while slowly eating you alive; insert joke about your ex-girlfriend here!
5. Succubus, “Avatar”
An elderly hag who may or may not be real and ruins your life and haunts your sleep but also wants to protect you, and is inextricably linked to horrible trauma. Love her! She means well.
4. Medusa, “Medusa”
This glowing parasitic organism lives in the Boston subway system and just wants to be left alone, will painfully kill any man who tries to disturb that mission, which is also true of many Boston-area lesbians who live on the red line.
3. Jenn the Jinn, “Je Souhaite”
She’s so competent, and so tired, and it’s been ten thousand years and men keep asking her for stupid things! Like, such incredibly stupid things. She just wants to be left alone to drink her coffee in peace!
2. Maitreya, “First-Person Shooter”
The backstory of Maitreya’s creation — a female game designer wanted an outlet from her frustrating male-dominated workplace, and so she did a full body scan of a super hot stripper and used her as the basis for a female gunslinger in her own game — is something an actual queer woman is almost certainly doing at this exact moment somewhere in Seattle.
1. Lyda, “The Ghosts Who Stole Christmas”
Aside from the technicality of her character having a husband, Maurice, Lily Tomlin, an actual lesbian, has brought such strong mischievious lesbian energy to this role that she comes across as far more notably gay than the canonical living lesbians written into “all things.” The level of delight this chill ghost takes in pranking the strange female FBI agent who has barged into the house she’s haunting is… not heterosexual. Also for your consideration, this exchange.
Lyda: Oh, you poor child. You must have an awful small life. Spending your Christmas Eve with him… Running around chasing things you don’t even believe in.
Scully: Don’t come any closer.
Lyda: (coming closer) I can see it in your face… The fear… The conflicted yearnings… A subconscious desire to find fulfillment through another. Intimacy through co-dependency.
Scully: What?
17 Bisexual Women TV Characters Who Thwarted Tropes and Won Your Hearts
We originally published this list with ten characters on Bi+ Week in 2017, but we’ve made some additions and think you might enjoy reading it again!
It’s a tricky business being a bisexual woman on teevee. There are so many lazy cliches and tropes writers are constantly forcing you to trip over, and oftentimes those hackneyed storylines perpetuate harmful stereotypes that actually harm bi women in real life. But sometimes, on a rare harvest moon when the mermaids sing and the unicorns take flight, we’re treated to really authentic, layered, swoon-worthy portrayals of bisexual women on our favorite shows. These are the best of them.
A note: Labels are hard, in real life and in fiction. Language isn’t science; it’s constantly evolving and everyone comes to the label table with different experiences. Some of these characters have used the word bisexual to describe themselves. Some of them have not labeled their sexuality in any way, but their storylines seem to indicate that they’re bisexual. We really just want to celebrate some really rad fictional characters who have found themselves attracted to other fictional characters of various genders.
Okay? Okay! Happy #BiWeek!
Kalinda Sharma, The Good Wife
by heather
Kalinda’s sexuality was a surprise! The Good Wife‘s writers never dangled the hope that she’d be bisexual in any interviews and CBS certainly didn’t tease it in any press releases. Then one night, out of the blue, she kissed a woman! (Supposedly; it happened behind a garage door and we only saw their feet.) But then she kissed more women and had sex with some of them and fell in love with at least one of them. She also had a very significant relationship with a man throughout the course of the show. None of it ever felt forced or like a ratings stunt. Kalinda was Kalinda. She never cared what anyone thought of her or felt compelled to explain herself. Her sexuality just made sense. She is also one of the very few South Asian queer characters in TV history, which, as Kayla Upadhyaya noted in our Best QTPOC TV and Movie Characters Roundtable, is a really big deal. Having someone as talented as Archie Panjabi — who was nominated for multiple Emmys during her time on The Good Wife — portraying such a complicated character was just icing on the cake.
Syd Feldman, Transparent
by riese
Transparent is a stand-out for its progressive portrayal of sexuality and gender on so many fronts and dancing on the outside of the dysfunctional Pferfferman clan was Syd Feldman, played by Carrie Brownstein. We know Syd is Ali’s best friend and then suddenly there she is sleeping with Josh (who is the worst) and then she’s in class with Ali, saying she slept with the female professor! And also she has a crush on Ali who she’s had a crush on since 8th grade. The ensuing arc feels real if also sad in that it ended in a Syd/Ali breakup (but anybody who was an angsty teen in the ’90s like me was probably just honored to witness any moments of Gaby Hoffman / Carrie Brownstein romance), but I think Syd deserves better. The bad thing about her character is that I guess she had to leave the show to find it.
Brenna Carver, Chasing Life
by heather
Brenna Carver is one of the few characters on this list who used the word “bisexual” every chance she got. She dated guys and liked them a lot, she dated girls and liked them a lot too. And when people tried label her as something else, she had no problem correcting them. She also spent a lot of time clearing up misconceptions about bi people. “I’m not attracted to everyone I walk by,” she snapped at a lesbian in her Gay-Straight Alliance who hinted that bi girls are indecisive cheating machines. “I’m not changing my mind; I’m attracted to the person for who they are, not the gender!” Brenna’s grandma got it, and she shipped Brenna and Greer hardcore.
Waverly Earp, Wynonna Earp
by heather
No one was more surprised than Waverly Earp when she fell for a literal hot cop in season one of Wynonna Earp. She’d been dating Champ, Purgatory’s rodeo jock for a while, when Nicole swaggered into town. She only fought her feelings for a minute; when she fell, she fell. One of the major questions the series has explored over the first two seasons is: Who is Waverly Earp? It’s something Waverly herself doesn’t really know; she’s constantly struggling to figure it out. But never once has her sexuality factored into her confusion. She knows who she loves. She knows why. She also makes out with her girlfriend with the lights on, a special gift on television, even in 2017.
Editor’s note: You’ll see some passionate comments about Waverly’s sexuality in the comments of this post from 2017; since then, at ClexaCon 2018, Dominique Provost-Chalkley labeled Waverly as bisexual.
Annalise Keating, How to Get Away With Murder
by heather
I have written why Annalise Keating is one of the best bisexual character on TV so many times I don’t know what else to say! Annalise has loved some terrible men and some good men. And she’s loved at least one woman who makes her light up from the inside. Annalise is just unlike any other woman we’ve ever seen on TV. She’s brilliant and driven and broken and messy and glorious and in charge and out of control and holding the entire world together through the sheer power of her will. And she’s played by VIOLA DAVIS, one of the greatest actors on the face of the earth. I’m just going to quote Natalie’s feelings from the Best QTPOC TV and Movie Characters Roundtable: “It’s hard to divorce my love for Annalise Keating from the woman that plays her because so much of what makes me feel seen is that she’s portrayed by someone that looks like Viola Davis. Annalise Keating is a dark-skinned black woman, who isn’t a size zero and whose natural hair hides beneath impeccable wigs. Hollywood has a very narrow definition of what a beautiful black woman ought to look like —*cough* Halle Berry *cough* — and Viola Davis upends all of that.”
Delphine Cormier, Orphan Black
by heather
Delphine was very nearly all the bad bi tropes. She seemed duplicitous, conniving, unable to make up her mind, she even died! But it turns out she was really just Severus Snape, minus the casual torture of young witches and wizards and their pet frogs. By which I mean: She started out working for the bad guys, became a double-agent because of the woman she loved, and every single decision she made after that was to keep Cosima (and her sestras) safe. Also, she gave one of the best speeches about sexuality I’ve ever heard: “I have never thought about bisexuality. I mean, for myself, you know? But as a scientist, I know that sexuality is a spectrum. But, you know, social biases, they codifiy attraction. It’s contrary to the biological facts… you know?” Cosima did know. They immediately had sex and then ice cream.
Paige Michalchuck, Degrassi: The Next Generation
by riese
In 2005 and 2006, I was grappling with questions around my own sexual orientation while working doggedly on a non-fiction/memoir hybrid about bisexuality — which involved a lot of “research” and by “research” I mean “watching every bi storyline I could get my hands on.” Paige was the first bisexual character in the Degrassi franchise, and although as a character I find her insufferable (particularly for how she shamed Alex for working at a strip club), at the time of its airing, Paige’s portrayal was pretty revolutionary. Many passionate television watchers go bananas watching characters do cartwheels and circle dances all around the word “bisexual,” and Paige’s storyline starts out being an extended exercise in that particular art. She might be falling for Alex… but she’s not gay! She says this a lot, “I’m not gay!” “I can’t be gay!” Her brother is gay, you see, and she doesn’t think her parents can handle two gay kids. Guest Star Kevin Smith tells her to stop getting hung up on gender and just follow her heart, and she does, taking the plunge to openly date Alex. When she and Alex break up (they’re not a great match, let’s be real), her best friend Hazel laments, “I just got used to you being a lesbian,” and Paige reminds her that it’s not about her and also “I’m free to date whoever I want, boy or girl.” The Palex Storyline, Round One, leads to a pair of revelations: Pagie realizes she’s into boys and girls, Alex realizes she’s a lesbian. The two girls reunite a year later but Paige, having recently flunked out of college and thus disappointed her parents, is resistant to do anything that might ruffle their feathers: “Look you’re cool with being a lesbian, but I don’t know what I am.” Alex, “The word is bisexual, Paige, and it’s just a label. Who cares?” Paige gives it a think and soon enough it turns out that Paige in fact does not care. She wants to give it another go with Alex. Although Paige does fall into the “dates four boys and one girl” trope, it’s worth noting that she does date a girl twice, it just happens to be the same one. Back then, that didn’t happen much — the lesbian storyline served its purpose, then vanished into the ether. Degrassi gets points for not letting it go there, and for using the word “bisexual,” too.
Callie Torres, Grey’s Anatomy
by heather
Callie Torres is the longest running bisexual character in the history of television and she is played by real life bisexual Latina superhero Sara Ramirez. Over the course of her eleven seasons on Grey’s Anatomy, she was married to a man and a woman, both of whom she loved deeply. She never shied away from calling herself bisexual, whether as confrontation or as comfort. Callie’s journey to figuring out she was bisexual and ultimately falling in love with Arizona Robbins happened right on the heels of California’s Proposition 8 in 2008, one of the most devastating blows to the marriage equality movement in modern history. Her storyline happened at a crucial moment on one of the most-watched and most talked about shows in the country on broadcast network television. There’s really no way to overstate her impact. But she’s more than just what she accomplished. Callie was a joy to watch on TV. Smart and savvy and silly and relentlessly loyal to the people she loved. Perhaps one day the goddesses will smile upon us and she will return to Seattle Grace Mercy West and the open arms of her ex-wife.
Kat Sandoval, Madam Secretary
by heather
Sara Ramriez set our hearts on fire when she released the first promo shot of Kat Sandoval from Madam Secretary. We hardly every get to see butch women on TV, and especially not bisexual butches, and especially not women of color. It was already revolutionary. It didn’t stop with style, though; Kat’s coming out — which coincided with a really important storyline about LGBTQ+ human rights violations — was breathtaking. “I shivered,” Carmen wrote about the episode. “I have never heard a television character — male, female, or non binary — use ‘queer’ in the way I use it in my daily life.”
Bo Dennis, Lost Girl
by riese
Lost Girl was the first time I saw a storyline in which a female protagonist was torn between a male and a female love interest and their gender was never summoned as a factor in her decision or situation. Nor did it seem that the writers were inherently biased towards the male love interest, as most stories I’d seen until then had been. There’s no coming out narrative, nobody has an issue with her bisexuality or relationships, her feelings for women are never seen as “less than” her relationships with men. Her sexual orientation was actually seen, more or less, as the norm, rather than the exception. I think this is part of why queers are so drawn to sci-fi narratives; because we can make our own worlds there, worlds without compulsory heterosexuality or traditional gender roles. It actually seemed like all the fae were bisexual. It was a magical world where nobody assumes anything about your sexual orientation just from looking at you. Girls kissed other girls so often that I stopped even noticing it!
Ashlie Davies, South of Nowhere
by heather
There were no characters like Ashley Davies when she arrived on the scene in 2005. Sure, we had two seasons of The L Word under our belts, but that was premium cable and, frankly, a cast of characters many (if not most) lesbians couldn’t relate to. Spencer and Ashley, though? They seemed universal. There’d been a handful of bi teens on TV before, but usually it was just a main character exploring her feelings for a woman for ratings for a few episodes, and then never mentioning it again. Not Ashley! She had significant relationships with guys and gals, and her angst-free openness about her sexuality was a welcome relief for both the audience and Spencer.
Sameen Shaw, Person of Interest
by heather
Shaw was the center of what was, in my opinion, one of the greatest episodes of queer TV ever, in Person of Interest‘s “6,741.” What makes her character so remarkable is she came on as a guest, with no plans to make her Root’s love interest, but their chemistry was so good the writers leaned into and then just gave themselves over to it. On CBS of all places! Shaw also isn’t like most of the other characters on this list. She’s not a squeaky clean good guy. In fact, she’s kind of a sociopath. Not in a way that’s damming, though; in a way that was so compelling even — to quote Natalie — the straights could see.
Sara Lance, Legends of Tomorrow
by heather
Sara Lance died and usually that would have been that, but it was not and how lucky we are! She came back to life, joined up with the Legends of Tomorrow team, and is now the captain of the entire group of heroes and the center of the show! She’s a badass with a lot of trauma and an enormous heart, which she used to great effect in season three: falling in love with Ava and fighting for her like she fights to save the world. It was always fun to watch Sara seduce her way through time and space, but it was also really rewarding to watch her settle down, despite all the odds.
Ilana Wexler, Broad City
by heather
Broad City has never made a big deal about Ilana’s sexuality, which is a big deal. She’s openly attracted to both men and women and desperately in love with her best friend, in an on-and-off relationship with a man we actually like, and openly non-monogamous. Riese loves Broad City and she loved Ilana and she will probably never forgive the people who didn’t vote for her in our Gay Emmys. “I love how nonchalant the show is about Ilana’s sexuality,” Riese wrote after her most recent queer hookup. “She’s just out to have a good time, yannow?”
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
by heather
Speaking of the Gay Emmys, Stephanie Beatriz swept them — and rightly so! When Beatriz came out in real life, the shows writers came to her to help craft a coming out story for Rosa, and she did. For starters, she said the word “bisexual” to describe herself, right out loud on network TV, which hardly ever happens. And then she explained it in the simplest terms: “I was in seventh grade. I was watching Saved by the Bell and I thought, Zack Morris: hot. And then I thought, Lisa Turtle: also hot.” Her coming out to her friends was easy as anything, but things didn’t go well with her parents, who refused to even entertain the idea at first and then settled on accepting it because she’d “probably end up with a man anyway.” Her heart broke at their deliberate obtuseness, but her friends rallied around her and Captain Holt pep talked her in one of the sweetest scenes of the entire series. Even better: The show’s not done telling her story yet!
Petra Solano, Jane the Virgin
by heather
Fans of Jane the Virgin had been shipping Petra and Jane for years, and one day the writers decided, “Why not?” Not Jane-Jane, but Jane Ramos, Petra’s lawyer — played scorchingly hot by Rosario Dawson. Petra’s bisexual awakening was actually one of the easiest things in her life. No one was axe-murdered. No one was poisoned. No No one was body-swapped, kidnapped, or framed for a felony they didn’t commit. There was simply some chemistry, a sex dream, and then she went for it. Petra’s coming out was also as casual as can be. “We had sex,” she told Jane and Rafael about JR, after they mistakenly thought she had a crush on Jane. And that was that.
Kat Edison, The Bold Type
by heather
Kat came out in season one after some serious hand-wringing and one very intense SoulCycle class, but once she realized she’s bisexual, she never looked back. She made the huge gesture for Adena, leading an episode modeled after one of the most romantic movies of all time. And even though their relationship didn’t work out, she made a serious commitment (which she’d never been willing to do before), and hooked up with plenty of other girls in the process. Natalie and Kayla and Carmen talked about The Bold Type‘s struggle to get Kat’s identity as a woman of color right, which is always an important thing to add to any conversation about Kat. The show seems to be listening, though, and growing. Just like our beloved social media manager at Scarlet magazine. Her queer storyline was the romantic emotional anchor of season two, which was a revolutionary thing.
MAKE IT GAY, YOU COWARDS: 20 TV Shows That Just Need to Lean Into the Truth
This year’s inaugural Gay Emmys were fun, huh? There were so many gay shows we had OUR OWN EMMYS to honor them! In fact, there were so many shows that we couldn’t even fit them all into our Emmys! We left like three-quarters of the gay TV shows behind! It felt so good to see that reality before our eyes. Did it satiate us? Friends, no! It only made us hungrier! These last few weeks, we’ve been prowling around our TV Team Slack channel feeding each other’s incandescent bewilderment that all shows aren’t gay. And so of course we made a list. Here are 20 TV shows that always make us yell MAKE IT GAY, YOU COWARDS at our televisions and at each other.
The Good Place
Heather: Listen, Eleanor Shellstrop is bisexual and that’s canon and I’m not going to argue about it. HOWEVER, enough tip-toeing around her feelings for Tahani. Let’s see that attraction and affection play out ON OUR TEEVEES. The Good Place is one of my can’t-miss shows and I’m going to watch it forever. I love Eleanor and I love Chidi but I just do not buy them together. (And I am not immune to the charms of straight couple will-they/won’t-they storylines, okay? Pam and Jim are one of my all-time favorite TV couples.) Anything can happen on this show. Anything. Maya Rudolph is God. Stop forcing what’s not there, Michael Schur. You’ve done it before, do it again: Make it gay!
Valerie Anne: COSIGNED IN PERMANENT INK.
Carmen: X3.
Doctor Who
Heather: Obviously the Doctor is canonically queer. Her wife is/was River Song. Now I want to see them interact with each other while the Doctor is a woman. I’m not just saying this because Alex Kingston is one of the great loves of my life (along with Viola Davis and Stacy); I’m saying it because it adds a very fascinating dynamic to an already established story and all these dillhole straight white men have already said they won’t watch Jodie Whittaker in the TARDIS so why not just go all in, you know? “You and me. Time and space. Watch us run.” GIVE IT TO ME.
Insecure
Carmen: This is my hill, and I am willing to die on it. IT MAKES NO SENSE THAT NONE OF THE BLACK GIRLS ON INSECURE ARE GAY. I’m only a year younger than Issa Rae. I’ve known many crews of young, black “woke millennial” homegirls who saw each other through turbulent times. Do you what was true about every one of those crews? Especially in cities like LA? At least one of them was queer. It doesn’t have to be Issa (though that is a mighty lesbian wardrobe that she’s always wearing, full of graphic tees and sweatshirts and cute natural hairstyles), it doesn’t even have to be Molly, the up-and-coming lawyer. But I am putting my foot down, there’s no way that Kelli – the body positive, sex positive, hilarious, accountant – isn’t sexually fluid.
I should point out that after two years of pretending that black queer women didn’t exist at all, the currently airing season of Insecure finally paid passing homage to the women of #BlackGaySlay. Issa had a black lesbian couple in the back of her Lyft once, and she commented how cute they were. While the crew partied at Beychella, Kelli made a quip that she’d hook up with a woman because “Janelle Monae made it OK.” Which only furthers my point! She’s the one! It’s time to stop being a coward Issa, and go there already.
The Flash
Valerie Anne: The Flash is the only show in the CWDCTV universe who hasn’t given us a recurring queer lady at all over the entire course of the series so far. Arrow had Sara and Nyssa (though now has none), Supergirl has Alex, Black Lightning has Anissa, Legends is the gayest show on the CW. But the closest thing The Flash has is the relationship between Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost which is just confusing. Actually that’s not true, the closest they came was when the villain of last season took a new body that happened to be a woman and still slow-danced with his wife who he was drugging, which is worse than confusing, it’s downright awful. Give me a lesbian speedster, a bisexual meta, anything. Here, look, after a quick Google search I’ve decided that they should add Andrea Martinez aka The Comet, a canonically queer DC Comics character. And she can date Caitlin and/or Killer Frost. Boom. Solved it.
Superstore
Natalie: Superstore is the best show on television you’re probably not watching. I love it so much. It shines a light on blue collar Americans — you know, like Roseanne, but without the tokenism or the repugnant racism — and tackles the issues in a beautifully subversive and hilarious way. How could this already great show get even better? Give the people what they want, Justin Spitzer: make Dina gay!
I get why they didn’t make the character gay to start with: having this blunt, aggressive, power-hungry, arrogant, mean female character be a lesbian would’ve been a bit too stereotypical for this socially conscious show (a la Kerry Weaver on ER). But, with the fourth season of Superstore just around the corner (you’ve still got time to catch up on Netflix!), I think both the show and the character are in a place where they can take that stereotype and turn it on its head. What if lesbianing was the one thing that Dina Fox couldn’t conquer effortlessly? What if developing feelings for a woman turned Dina into the emotional mess that she’s always criticizing Amy for being? There’s so much comedy gold that could be mined, Superstore… all you gotta do is make her gay.
The Gifted
Valerie Anne: It should be illegal to have Amy Acker, who played lesbian icon Root on Person of Interest, on a TV show and not have a single lady for her to flirt with. Or even baby gays for her to support knowingly. Also it’s been said many, many times, but learning you have powers/the entire X-Men deal is such a strong allegory for queerness that it’s a damn shame they don’t have a single lesbian lurking around the mutant safehouse.
Murphy Brown Reboot
Carmen: I was approximately between two and ten years old when the original Murphy Brown aired, so my memories of it are fuzzy. Here’s the biggest highlight: Murphy Brown was at its core about feminism and the realities women face in the workplace. If the promos for the reboot are to be believed, that much hasn’t changed.
When people say a television show is about feminism, in my brain I hear l-e-s-b-i-a-n.
So.
Heather: Mmm hmm.
Westworld
Riese: At the beginning of this season Erin mentioned the “three timelines” from last season and I was like WOW this show never makes any sense to me, yet I keep watching it! Even more confusing than the three timelines? The lack of lesbian action. There’s some, sure. Like, THE TINIEST AMOUNT POSSIBLE. But not nearly enough!
Blindspot
Valerie Anne: HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME PATTERSON IS STRAIGHT, FAM?! I don’t believe it. I won’t! Maybe I’ve been watching too much Critical Role, but in my humble and gay opinion, Ashley Johnson has queer vibes pouring off her and it feels rude for the show to not be leaning into that (the way it seems the video game The Last of Us is doing with the character she voices). There was definitely also a point I thought Zapata was going to fall for a lady but alas. Ever since Blindspot buried their gays so hard in early seasons, they’ve done nothing to make up for it. I don’t want to quit the show (have you SEEN JAIMIE ALEXANDER), but I need a lesbian to hook me, if you know what I mean.
Natalie: I agree with you wholeheartedly on this very important subject, Valerie — I mean, Patterson thought about getting a cat, despite the fact that she’s allergic, and if that doesn’t scream gay, I don’t know what does. You’re right, after the killing off two lesbians and shipping the other one off to Paraguay or something, Blindspot owes us this. That said, let’s be clear about something: Natasha “Tasha” Zapata is a bisexual goddess who is so clearly in love with her best friend who she (mistakenly) believes is straight. The writers need to just go ahead and make that canon.
(Also Tasha totally had a crush on Kalinda Sharma Nas Kamala but, c’mon, it’s Archie Panjabi… who wouldn’t?)
Last season, Patterson’s dad stopped by the FBI labs and everyone’s shocked to learn that Patterson’s dad is Bill Nye the Science Guy. Know who’s not shocked, though? Tasha Zapata, because she’s already done her due diligence and met her future girlfriend’s parents. And when Bill Nye discovers that Patterson and Tasha are fighting, her urges his daughter to make amends and in doing so, parallels their relationship and his marriage. Even Bill Nye knows!
It’s ironic that a show called Blindspot wouldn’t be able to recognize that the true love story isn’t between Tasha and Reade (stop trying to make me like them together, I will not!), but between Tasha and Patterson. It’s only because Patterson rejected her last season — she was mad that Tasha kept secrets about her torturous ex which, I mean: VALID — that Tasha even went to Reade. He’s the rebound. Blindspot writers, why can’t you see that?!
Single Parents
Riese: This show hasn’t started yet, so I haven’t seen it yet, but it is absolute blasphemy that a show about single parents does not feature ANY lesbian Moms.
Carmen: ESPECIALLY one that stars Leighton Meester in that blue blazer and those chucks on her feet.
Heather: Serena’s out now. You’re turn, Waldorf.
Big Little Lies
Riese: The only logical endgame here is: two beautiful women drink white wine. Cut to a shot of the beach. Cut back to a shot of the two women, except now they’re having sex.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Natalie: Sometimes when you unwittingly end up shipping non-canon couples and you talk about it publicly, people (read: the straights) start to look at you strangely. It’s not their fault really, they haven’t spent a lifetime mining subtext for some inkling of representation so, of course, they don’t get it. But, if you bring up the fact that Olivia Margaret Benson of SVU should be gay and that she and the love of her life Alexandra Cabot should be building a family together, even the straights are like, “you right.”
EVEN THE STRAIGHTS CAN SEE IT!
Last year they brought Stephanie March back to SVU for a very special episode and Alex and Olivia didn’t even end up making out! I mean, what was even the point?! You’re 20 seasons into SVU‘s run, NBC, there’s no reason that in 20GAYTEEN, Olivia Benson should still be denying what even the straights can see: SHE’S GAY.
So, so very gay.
Agents of SHIELD
Valerie Anne: Similar to why at least one of the mutants in The Gifted should be gay, same goes for inhumans on SHIELD. I know my dream ship of Skimmons will never sail, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope that Daisy is bisexual. I mean the name she originally chose for herself was Skye. So gay. She hasn’t had a love interest in a minute, maybe some superpowered babe can drop by next season and quake things up for her. (Get it? Quake? I’ll be here all week.)
The Rookie
Natalie: I’m not holding out much hope for the new fall season — I haven’t seen a single trailer that surprised me with any lady loving characters that I didn’t already know about — but if I have to pick the new show most likely to have a lesbian or bisexual character, I’m going to go with ABC’s The Rookie.
Now, to be sure, there’s not much in the trailer that suggests that lesbianism might be happening on the show, but “lesbian cop” is a well worn television trope for a reason. The cast boasts four main women. We know one gets involved with Nathan Fillion’s character, so she’s out, leaving: Afton Williamson, Alyssa Diaz and Mercedes Mason. The short pixie cut has me leaning in Williamson’s direction, but something about Alyssa Diaz’s swagger in her uniform has me thinking that she might be ABC’s newest queer character.
Midnight, Texas
Valerie Anne: Everyone knows all witches are queer and I’m not sure why Midnight, Texas refuses to admit it. I guess what I’m realizing is, when there is a supernatural element to a show, I cannot accept that there are no lesbians as far as the eye can see. How are you going to have angels and demons and witches and psychics and vampires and not ONE SINGLE QUEER PERSON. This town is full of outcasts and misfits, and I feel like we fit the bill, especially in a place like Texas. I really enjoyed the first season of this show but I want to REALLY LOVE it this season. So you know what to do, show.
This Is Us
Carmen: The Pearsons are an idyllic, if weepy, modern American family. They love each other across race and class differences. They share meals, and fight, and harbor old secrets for decades that they always eventually forgive each other for. They’re custom designed in the liberal Hollywood TV making factory to have you cry into a box of kleenex every week. Granted, Randall’s birth father (masterfully portrayed by Ron Cephas Jones in a historic Emmy winning performance) was bisexual, but he left us nearly two years ago!
As the Pearson family keeps expanding, it’s time for one of the women to come out of the closet. Are you trying to tell me that this is somehow the only big messy family in America without a gay cousin or aunt? I mean, doesn’t Beth Pearson come from a tribe of sisters? And a cousin who’s also like her sister? You want me to believe that zero of them are gay? C’mon!
One of the major mysteries of the new season involves a fast forward, which means we will get to know currently angsty pre-teen Tess as adult social worker Tess. An empathetic social worker with a cute wardrobe who specializes in foster care and child adoption? Sounds like she is the one we’ve been waiting for.
Supergirl
Heather: Look, I know Supergirl‘s already gay. Alex Danvers is one of my all-time favorite lesbians. I know what she had with Maggie was so special, and it was a goddamn delight and gloriously heartbreaking watching their story. I know Alex is getting a new girlfriend this season, and I am excited. BUT I have been watching Katie McGrath have queer chemistry with every woman (and inanimate object she brushed up against) since Merlin. When she came to Supergirl, I incorrectly told Valerie not to lean in too hard to the subtext in her recaps. I just thought, you know, I didn’t want another Faberry/Brittana war on our hands. Now I just have this build up of ANGSTY GAYNESS trapped inside me and have had to ask Valerie to murder me because of it in Slack more than once.
Valerie Anne: “KARA DANVERS, YOU ARE MY HERO,” SHE SAID, TO THE WOMAN WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE IS JUST HER GAL PAL.
Outlander
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya: Especially because it is on Starz, which has been really great on the Make It Gay front lately (see: Vida and Black Sails), it is incredibly frustrating that in three whole seasons of historical/sci-fi/fantasy/romance series Outlander there has been nary a lesbian. EVEN THOUGH CLAIRE AND GEILLIS HAVE JUST AS MUCH CHEMISTRY AS CLAIRE AND JAMIE, A HILL (IN THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND) THAT I AM WILLING TO DIE ON. Sure, it’s based on an incredibly hetero book series, but the show has already taken some liberties by deviating from it’s source material, so is it really so much to ask for a lesbian or two or a hint of bisexuality for Claire who lbr already exudes Big Bi Energy?
Sesame Street
Riese: Sorry, I had to.
Okay now you tell us your MAKE IT GAY, YOU COWARDS television shows.
Fall 2018 Queer TV Preview: All the Lesbian and Bisexual Women Characters to Anxiously Anticipate
Unless otherwise indicated, summaries were written by Riese. This preview will be indexed in our top menu bar so you can check in throughout the season as we get more info about upcoming shows.
As time continues its relentless march towards our ultimate ruin, we find ourselves once again facing the approach of “Autumn,” a season known for its flattering foliage and a slate of new and returning television programs who offer us the chance to retreat from the slings and arrows of everyday life into the soothing embrace of a fictional story.
This definitely isn’t the most impressive slate of new shows we’ve ever seen, but the vast majority of new queer characters are women of color, which is pretty rad!
September
The Purge (USA) // September 4th // NEW
THE PURGE — “What Is America?” Episode 101 — Pictured: (l-r) Amanda Warren as Jane, AzMarie Livingston as Bracka — (Photo by: Patti Perret/USA Network)
The pilot of The Purge features a flashback to a boy / girl / girl threesome between three lead characters, which means we’ve got at least two sexually fluid ladies on the radar. There’s also some heavy girl-on-girl action between those two women, Jenna and Lila, in in the post-pilot season-ahead trailer. Furthermore, lesbian actress/model AZMarie looks REAL GAY in this show but it’s unclear if her character is gonna be explicitly gay (currently, it seems most likely that her character won’t be developed at all) — regardless, I wanted to mark this occasion just in case. AZ Marie plays an assassin hired by Jane, who the showrunner describes as the story’s most relatable character. Jane is a black finance professional whose career advancement is held back by racism and sexism. She takes the Purge as an opportunity to eliminate what’s between her and the glass ceiling, only to feel immediately conflicted and terrible about it due to, you know, morals.
Mayans M.C. (FX) // September 4th // NEW
watch the “Mayans M.C.” trailer
MAYANS M.C. — Pictured: JD Pardo as EZ Reyes. CR: James Minchin/FX
After a year-long delay, Mayans M.C., the Kurt Sutter and Elgin James helmed spin-off of Sons of Anarchy, finally makes its way onto FX’s fall schedule. Like SOA, Mayans is heavy on motorcycles, drugs, violence and machismo, but its inaugural season will also feature a recurring lesbian couple. Alexandra Barreto — who played Jesus and Mariana’s birth mother, Ana, on The Fosters — will play Antonia Pena, the mayor of Santo Padre, a small town near the California and Mexico border. While her wife tries to navigate the mindfields between the MCs, the Mexican cartels and the community, Katrina Pena (Efrat Dor) will keep on a brave face and manage the couple’s young family. – Natalie
Wentworth Season Six (Netflix) // Wednesday, September 5th
Wentworth has already aired in Australia, and I’ve done very good at avoiding spoilers, so don’t ruin it for me! The pre-season info available indicates that Franky has escaped successfully, and is on the run but also reunites with Bridget Westfall. There are some new characters: Rita, an Indigenous woman and an affiliate of the Conquerer biker gang (played by an Indigenous actress!); Ruby; a black hot-headed charismatic boxer; Marie, a criminal matriarch who heads up a sex-trafficking and prostitution industry, and her loyal conduit, Drago. Due to being listed as romantic links to another Wentworth lesbian character, it seems both Marie and Ruby are lesbian or bisexual or sexually fluid in some way.
Cable Girls Season Three (Netflix) // Friday, September 7th
watch ‘the cable girls’ teaser
Season Three will take a time-jump to 1930 so we can enjoy some fantastic flapper costumes, as well as the ongoing situation between Carlota Rodríguez de Senillosa, a bisexual married woman, Carlota’s husband Miguel, and their partner Sara Millán, a bisexual trans person who fell in love with Carlota.
You (Lifetime) // Sunday, September 9th // NEW
watch “you” trailer here // read heather’s review here
Penn Badgley stars as Joe Goldberg, who “exploit’s today’s technology to win the heart of Beck amid the growing suspicions of her best friend Peach.” Peach, played by Shay Mitchell, is spotted kissing Beck in the trailer. In the novel upon which the series is based, Peach is a wealthy closeted lesbian who fits neatly into the Predatory Lesbian stereotype as well as a few other unfortunate tropes, which is… concerning. But we’ll see! Trans actress Hari Nef will play Blythe, “a talented and competitive peer in Beck’s MFA program.”
The Last Ship Season 5 (TNT) // Sunday, September 9th
Image from previous season
Season Five of this drama, which focuses on the crew of a naval ship who survived a virus that wiped out most of the global population, returns for its final season which will involve Lieutenant Alisha Granderson, a lesbian. If the past is any promise for the present, it’s unlikely she’ll get any romantic storylines. But there will be um, lots of ships and explosions and patriotism.
Shameless Season Nine (Showtime) // Sunday, September 9th
watch the shameless season 9 trailer
Shameless’s first seven episodes will air from September 9th – October 21st, and the back half (for an extended 14-season order), will pick up in January 20th. However, I regret to inform you that our girlfriend Svetlana will not be returning. Shameless pretty reliably has queer women characters in it every season even if they’re rarely front-and-center — and this year it looks like Debbie’s gonna be the one hit with the queer bug, getting involved with a black tradeswoman who’s taken to passing as male in order to get paid fairly for her work.
The Deuce Season Two (HBO) // Sunday, September 9th
Big news: my girlfriend Devon from I Love Dick, aka Roberta Colindrez, will be playing “Irene,” a lesbian, although it’s unclear how many episodes she’ll be around for. (h/t to LezWatchTV) Queer sex workers Melissa and Barbara are set to return for Season Two of this HBO series, which tracks a transformative time in the sex industry in New York City. Maggie Gyllenhall stars. James Franco is, unfortunately, also involved. Several casting calls for The Deuce have been for transgender women, including one for a “1970s fabulous transgender woman for a disco club scene.”
American Horror Story: Apocalypse (FX) // Wednesday, September 12th
American Horror Story: Apocalypse, set in October 2019, includes a cross-over between its two most lady-gay-deficient seasons, Coven and Murder House, and many returning actors are reprising their Coven roles, including Emma Roberts and Gabourey Sidibe. Connie Britton and Dylan McDermont will reprise their Murder House roles, as will Jessica Lange (but just for one episode). Sarah Paulson will be playing her Murder House and Coven characters and a new character named Venable, who likes old-fashioned power suits and might be involved romantically with her butch pal Miriam, played by Kathy Bates.You can read more about what to expect here.
Ingobernable Season Two (Netflix) // Friday, September 14th
watch the season two trailer here
María Urquiza had her entire life snatched away from her in Season One of Ingobernable: her father, the President of Mexico, is dead and her mother, implicated in the murder, is forced to run. She can’t rely on Daniela Hurtado, the woman she’s been having an affair with, because she’s working to prosecute her mother, so instead she self-medicates with pills. And then (!!) she goes and gets herself and Daniela kidnapped!
Season One ended with María being held hostage in the United States while Daniela… well, let’s just hope that she was rescued along with María’s mother and won’t be another dead lesbian to add to the list. – Natalie
The First (Hulu) // Friday, September 14th // NEW
This series, that follows an effort to send the first crewed mission to Mars, features Lisa Gay Hamilton as an astronaut working underneath Sean Penn’s character. She confronts a lot of racism, sexism and homophobia at NASA. Her wife, Nancy, is played by Tracie Thoms, who designs wood furniture and are, according to Carmen, “very loving, domestic black lesbians who enjoy snuggly sweaters and dinner parties.”
Bojack Horseman, Season Five (Netflix) // Friday, September 14th
Wanda Sykes and Issa Rae turn up in the seventh episode of Bojack Horseman’s fifth season… playing lesbians! Issa plays a therapist who appears in several episodes.
American Vandal, Season Two (Netflix) // Monday, September 14th
The second season of this brilliant mockumentary series covers an investigation of a mass poisoning and several other feces-related incidents at a private Catholic high school. One of the students under suspicion, Jenna, is a pretty lesbian from a rich family who yearns to be understood for who she is and not the family she’s from.
9-1-1 Season Two (Fox) // Sunday and Monday, September 23rd and 24th
9-1-1 will return for its second season with an EARTH-SHATTERING PREMIERE guaranteed to play into all of my worst fears about our tender futures on this strange planet — an EARTHQUAKE IN LOS ANGELES episode! Previews suggest that this event will, like the entirety of the show thus far, continue with its depiction of Los Angeles as a city with NO TRAFFIC. Aisha Hinds returns as Hen, a lesbian firefighter/paramedic who’s working to rebuild her marriage after some unfortunate decisions. Jennifer Love Hewitt will replace your wife Connie Britton, who was only under contract for one season.
Star Season Three (Fox) // Wednesday, September 26th
Image from Season Two
Star comes back to us after one heck of a Season Two cliffhanger which pitted 90s R&B star Brandy against Queen Latifah in a guns out brawl. Neither of those characters are gay (even though Queen Latifah’s always gay even when she’s not), so let’s check in on bisexual teenager Simone. She’s still heartbroken over the death of her girlfriend last year, and subsequent arrest of her husband by ICE outside of the funeral for her dead mentor (I told you, this show is a lot). Trans actress Amiyah Scott continues to deliver one of the finest performances in primetime soaps. You really should check out this show for her performance alone! – Carmen
American Housewife Season Three (ABC) // Wednesday, September 26th
Image from Season Two
Carly Hughes returns as Angela, Katie Otto’s lesbian neighbor who displayed a knack for seducing local Mommis in Season Two.
Grey’s Anatomy Season 15 (ABC) // Thursday, September 27th
Image from Season 14
Last season we lost television’s longest-running lesbian character, Arizona Robbins. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not fully prepared to enter a Post-Arizona/Post-Callie/Post-Calzona Grey’s Anatomy World. Luckily for everyone, Intern Hellmouth is here to ease our transition. What do we know about Hellmouth – other than she has the world’s greatest nickname? For starters, I’m pretty sure she’s a regular Autostraddle reader, because she loves herself a Mommi. Last year, her crush on Meredith Grey provided much needed comic relief. Let’s see what kind of romps she gets into this time around! – Carmen
The Good Place Season Three (NBC) // Thursday, September 27th
Image from Season One
The four leads of The Good Place have been given another shot to earn a rightful spot in heaven, via being good people on earth. Kirby Howell-Baptise, who played Elena in Killing Eve, will play Simone, a recurring role as a neuroscientist helping Chidi figure out if there’s something wrong with his brain. Mike O’Malley (aka Kurt’s Dad) has been cast as the doorman, who literally guards the door connecting the afterlife to Earth.
How To Get Away With Murder Season Five (ABC) // Thursday, September 27th
Image from Season Four
Last we saw Tegan Price, she was signing onto an anonymous immunity deal that sent Laurel’s dad to prison. We feared it would be the last we saw of her and that we’d have to forever lament never getting the Annalise/Tegan hook-up we deserved. But Tegan will be back for season 5, this time as a series regular. Bring on the courtroom and bedroom meetings between Shonday’s two queer women of color! – Natalie
S.W.A.T. Season Two (CBS) // Thursday, September 27th
Chris Alonso will return as a bisexual S.W.A.T. team member on this surprisingly addictive show that also starts Shemar Moore, a man even a lesbian (or at least one lesbian I know of) (me) enjoys to look at and think about. For a law enforcement procedural, S.W.A.T. maintains a pretty progressive social justice bent, overseen by Black Executive Producer Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, whose other credits include Southland, Friday Night Lights and The Get Down.
October
Station 19 Season Two (ABC) // Thursday, October 4th
Image from Season One
It’s not unusual for a Shondaland show to end a season with a massive cliffhanger. At this point, we’ve just come to expect it. Still, Station 19 took it to a whole other level in their inaugural season finale. Sent out to battle an inferno in a downtown skyscraper, the entire crew of Station 19 found themselves in peril, including bisexual badass Maya Bishop. Simply put, everyone could be dead.
Fingers crossed that Maya emerges from the flames, though, because we haven’t learned nearly enough about this former Olympian turned firefighter for whom “lots and lots of sex functions” as self-care. – Natalie
Will & Grace Season Ten (NBC) // Thursday, October 4th
Comedian Chelsea Handler has been cast as a power lesbian for the tenth season of Will & Grace. Her character, Donna Zimmer, is a client of Grace’s who begins dating Grace’s sister, Janet. Janet, played by Mary McCormack, first appeared on the show in March, and was touted as her “screwed up” sister Janet who “used to live in a van and sell jewelry. In the original seasons of Will and Grace, Janet was played by Geena Davis.
Fresh Off the Boat Season Five (ABC) // Friday, October 5th
Newly syndicated Fresh Off the Boat returns for its fifth season but in a new Friday night timeslot. While we’ll surely get to see Jessica Huang sipping some free drinks at the local lesbian bar this season, it’s still TBD how often we’ll see Nicole this season as the actress, Luna Blaise, is starring in a new show on NBC. Nicole’s story was one of our favorites last year so – fingers crossed – that she’ll find our way back to FOTB. – Natalie
Madam Secretary Season Five (CBS) // Sunday, October 7th
Image from Season Four
With Madam Secretary’s Elizabeth McCord (Téa Leoni) prepping for potential presidential run this season, there’s going to be lots of work to go around for Sara Ramirez’s Kat Sandoval. Natalie’s current theory is that Kat’s going to become her campaign manager, and I am so here for it. Let’s be real, I’m so here for Kat as long as she shows up every week with that haircut and those perfectly tailored suits. It was enough pull me through me last season, and it will be enough for me until the end of time. It almost goes without saying, but the fact that she comes packed with Sara Ramirez’s talent doesn’t hurt much either! – Carmen
The Walking Dead Season Nine (AMC) // Monday, October 8th
Nobody on our team wanted to write about this show or knows anything about it, but maybe you do! Tell us!
Black Lightning Season Two (The CW) // Tuesday, October 9th
Image from Season One
Already one of the year’s most impressive and captivating debuts, Season Two of Black Lightning cannot come soon enough. We barely saw Anissa Pierce’s love interest Grace Choi in Season One, but she will be back for Season Two — and Anissa’s getting another love interest, too. Earlier this summer it was reported that the show was casting for “Zoe B,” a “twentysomething young woman with social media savvy and filled with confidence and edge.” Nafessa Williams promises that in the upcoming season, one of Anissa’s central challenges will be “maintaining a love life. She needs to understand there has to be a balance between her love life, her career, and her work as a superhero in the community.” Our resident Black Lightning recapper Carmen couldn’t agree more!
All-American (The CW) // Wednesday, October 10th // NEW
watch all-american trailer here
Lesbian rapper Bre-Z (Empire) returns to the small screen in this fish-out-of-water football drama based on the life of NFL player Spencer Paysinger, produced by, of course, Greg Berlanti, about a young player recruited out of Crenshaw to play for Beverly Hills High. He’s forced by his coach Taye Diggs to have a positive attitude about all the rich white kids being asshole bullies bent on sabotaging his opportunity! Wheee! Bre-Z plays Tiana “Coop” Cooper, his Black masc lesbian buddy who’s got a homophobic Mom and a crush on a gay girl from church. That alone is reason to turn out, AND WE WILL.
Riverdale Season Three (The CW) // Wednesday, October 10th
Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa recently informed us all on twitter that #Choni fans have a lot to look forward to, sharing the above pic from Episode 303 showing Cheryl and Toni looking hot and definitely together. Toni’s gonna be a series regular and Cheryl will indeed remain a Serpent. In addition to the bizarre cult ritual type situation featured in the last frame of this creepy teaser at San Diego Comic-Con, Season Three promises a “parents flashback episode” in which the parents will be played by the actors who play their children on the show. Other tidbits: two new characters, an oddball teenage girl with dark secrets and a “new age health guru” grown-up, were cast for Season Three, Penelope Ann Miller will play the district attorney going after Archie, and lesbian Jughead’s mother will be coming to town. Also, there will be ANOTHER MUSICAL EPISODE.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season Four (The CW) // Friday, October 12th
When Valencia and Beth got together last season, it was subtle. We saw how it began — with a meeting to kick-off Valencia’s party planning business — and then we fast forwarded to them being firmly ensconced in a love bubble. And while there’s something refreshing about seeing a character discover their sexuality and having it not be a big deal, it was weird that something this monumental would happen on this show and it didn’t become a big production. After all, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s bread and butter is the big production; subtlety is not its strong suit.
Hopefully when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns for its extended fourth and final season, we’ll see more of Beth and Valencia. With a possible prison sentence for Rebecca Bunch looming, the show doesn’t need to pop that love bubble just yet; instead, maybe just invite the rest of us in. – Natalie
Light as a Feather (Hulu) // Friday, October 12th // NEW
Brianne Tju plays lesbian character Alex Portnoy in this new horror thriller about five teenage girls dealing with the supernatural fallout, including a lot of death, stemming from an innocent game of “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.” Tju previously played a queer woman in the go90 series “Love Daily,” also produced by Awesomeness TV.
The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix) // Friday, October 12th // NEW
The latest adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel is creepy, brilliant, artistic and best of all — has a lesbian who lives!
Camping (HBO) // Sunday, October 14th // NEW
Girls’ Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are the producers behind Camping, which stars Jennifer Garner ass Kathryn and Doctor Who as her husband, Walt, for whom Kathryn is throwing a “Back to Nature” 45th Birthday Party weekend in the woods that doesn’t go as planned. Bridget Everett will play “Harry,” the “tough-talking, nature-loving queen of the campsite who came out as a lesbian at age 3,” according to TVLine. “Her passion for her wife Nan is only beaten by her passion for all other women and an assortment of guns.”
Charmed (The CW) // Sunday, October 14th // NEW
After the death of their mother at the hands of an unknown demonic force, Mel and Maggie Vera discover they have an older half-sister and also MAGICAL POWERS. Welcome to the much-contested, racially diverse, queer-inclusive edition of Charmed, everybody! Mel, played by Melonie Diaz, is a strong-willed feminist getting her Master’s in Women’s Studies and engaging in an off-again on-again thing with Niko Hamada, a smart and determined police detective played by Ellen Tamaki. You may remember that Carmen got her hands on an press screener for the pilot. She’s already a fan.
Supergirl Season Four (The CW) // Sunday, October 14th
Glad they let Alex keep Chyler’s gay haircut. Image from SDCC Season 4 Promo.
Season Four will see lesbian supersister Alex Danvers begin her new role as head of the DEO, hopefully putting her relentless quest to be a single mom on hold. Kara’s ex-boyfriend is potentially truly, really, finally gone, meaning maybe we’ll see the old Kara we know and love again. And, most excitedly, Nicole Maines will be joining the team as transgender superhero Nia Nal, who worked with Cat Grant and will be mentored by the long-lost reporter side of Kara Danvers. —Valerie Anne
Arrow Season Seven (The CW) // Monday, October 15th
Image from Season Six
It’s truly unclear how straight or not straight the next season of Arrow will be. They say Roy Harper will be back as a regular, and last we saw him he went off on an adventure with lesbian assassin Nyssa al Ghul, and bisexual badass Sara Lance pops up now and then, but I think the queer-lady content will be pretty low without the appearance of a new character. —Valerie Anne
Loudermilk (Audience) Season Two // Tuesday, October 16
Image from Season One
Sam Loudermilk, an alcoholic in recovery who counsels other addicts, took young bisexual addict Claire under his wing in Season One, and she’ll be back along with this show itself for another Season!
Legends of Tomorrow Season Four (The CW) // Monday, October 22nd
Image from Season 4 sDCC Promo
Season Three of Legends of Tomorrow saw Sara really embracing her role as Captain, and embracingn the idea of having a steady girlfriend when she went toe-to-toe with Time Bureau agent Ava Sharpe. Jes Macallan was upped to series regular for Season Four, so while Beebo only knows if AvaLance is endgame, we know we’ll have at least two queer women at the helm of this season. Also, despite her character Amaya deciding to leave the Legends at the end of the last season, out queer actress Maisie Richardson-Sellers will be back as a brand new character. —Valerie Anne
Legacies (The CW) // Thursday, October 25th // NEW
The latest addition to the Vampire Diaries & Originals universe of Mystic Falls is Legacies, set at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. “What’s most compelling about the romance on Legacies is how the new series takes a fresh and honest look at how many teens approach sexual identity,” writes an IGN review. “The new spinoff takes place somewhere in the near future (the timeline on Vampire Diaries and Originals got a little murky towards the end, but it landed somewhere 4-9 years from now) and the sociopolitical attitudes are refreshingly progressive: The teenagers at the school are all sexually fluid and don’t feel the need to label themselves.” At ComicCon, Valerie confirmed that the cast includes at least two women who date other women.
Ray Donovan Season Six (Showtime) // Sunday, October 28th
Kate Moennig will return to play Lena in Season Six, which takes place in New York City.
November
Sally4Ever // Thursday November 1st // HBO // NEW
This British seven-part comedy series sees Sally, a meek office worker, getting swept off her feet by a manipulative, charismatic woman named Emma, leading her to dump her insufferable fiancée David for what will be a very wild and destructive ride ahead.
The Bisexual (Hulu) // Friday November 16th // Hulu // NEW
Desiree Akhvan, the incredible creator of Appropriate Behavior and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, stars in, directs and co-writes The Bisexual, “a six-part dramedy which offers a raw, funny, unapologetic take on bisexuality and the comic misconceptions surrounding it.” The plot begins with Leila (Akhvan) going on a “break” from her relationship with her girlfriend/business partner Sadie, who she still has to work with every day. She starts sleeping with men, while struggling to come out as bisexual to Sadie and her queer friends. Gabe, her new roommate, becomes her unlikely wingman in her journey. “Skewering stereotypes and unpacking them,” writes the press release, “The Bisexual explores the differences between dating men and women from the perspective of someone who finds herself – for the first time – doing both whilst examining the funny, painful, complexities of realizing that the one you love, and the life you need, may be two very different things.”
December
Arrowverse Crossover Event (The CW) // December 9th, 10th & 11th
This year’s crossover will only happen on Arrow, Flash, and Supergirl, instead of all four shows in the franchise (though that doesn’t mean Sara Lance won’t show up), but the big pull is that it will be the first time we see Ruby Rose as Batwoman, joining Anissa Pierce, Sara Lance, and Alex Danvers in the slow-but-sure queer women takeover of the CW DC universe. —Valerie Anne
Marvel’s Runaways Season Two (Hulu) // Friday, December 21st
Image from Season One
The second season of Marvel’s Runaways will premiere on Freeform, with the entire season dropping all at once on Hulu just before Christmas. We’ll surely talk more about this as the exciting date approaches!
The Top 12 Lesbian and Bisexual TV Fever Dreams
TV dream sequences are always tricky, and especially so when it comes to lesbian and bisexual characters, because more often that not dreams are used as a way to stage a little bit of fan service that can simply be hand-waved away when the sleeping character wakes up. Networks sometimes even use those dream sequences as queer-bait to lure is into their heterosexual traps! The best TV dream sequences reveal something about a character’s subconscious that we didn’t know, or that we suspected but hadn’t seen confirmed; they divulge a character’s deep secrets to the audience, or to the character herself, and then allow her a chance to act on the truths her sleeping mind pummeled her with. Also, usually the sex is really good.
Below are 12 of the best lesbian and bisexual TV dream sequences.
Petra and JR — Jane the Virgin episode 410: “Chapter Seventy-Four”
Petra knew something was going on with her and Jane Ramos, but she couldn’t quite admit to herself exactly what that something was — until she dreamed JR at her door, leaning against the frame, talking about getting her off and also getting her off. Petra is shocked and delighted when she wakes up from making out with JR, and immediately finds a way to act on her latent lady-loving leanings.
Ellen — Ellen episode 422: “The Puppy Episode Part 2”
The second part of the most famous coming out episode in TV history opens with a dream of Ellen in the supermarket. Laura Dern’s walking by holding cantaloupes to her chest talking about “melons are on sale!” and k.d. lang is there winking and there’s a clerk with an alternative lifestyle haircut and a bowtie offering Ellen granola samples and the woman on the PA announces there’s a lesbian on aisle five. Ellen recounts the dream to her therapist, Oprah, and asks if she thinks she should read anything into it. It’s the first time Ellen says out loud what’s going on inside her head and heart (later, of course, she accidentally yells it into a microphone at the airport).
Willow and Tara — Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 422: “Restless”
“Restless” is a fan-favorite episode of Buffy, especially among queer fans. Willow’s specific dream opens with her painting one of Sappho’s poems on Tara’s naked back while she muses that it’s okay they haven’t found a name for their cat yet; she’s not fully grown. The rest of the dream forces Willow to confront her fears about coming out and her worries that she hasn’t changed at all since high school and that Oz and Tara would be better off without her, even possibly better with each other. It’s heartbreaking and illuminating and oh so real.
Bette and Shane and Tina and Helena — The L Word episode 502: “Look Out, Here They Come”
You could argue that the entirety of The L Word season five is someone‘s fever dream. (Maybe mine?) There’s a lot of metacommentary and winking and nodding at the audience. One of the best and weirdest and funniest fan service moments of the whole show happens when the Lez Girls producer starts dreaming up couple combos and pitching them to Tina and Jenny. How about Bette and Shane? How about Bette and Helena? How about Tina and Shane? That one sends Jenny over the edge. It’s not a sleeping dream, but it’s definitely a collective fandom dream, and that’s good enough for me.
Mona and Alison — Pretty Little Liars episode 513: “How the ‘A’ Stole Christmas”
With a defter showrunning hand and less chasing after Twitter trends, Pretty Little Liars could have been one of the most consistently satisfying dreamscape shows on TV. Its very best episodes were fully Lynchian, which makes sense: Alison DiLaurentis is very much Laura Palmer’s offspring. One of the show’s most fun dream sequences happened after Mona’s death and before her resurrection, when she returned to Rosewood to haunt Alison as an omniscient Christmas ghost. There was always something antagonistically queer about their relationship, and Ali always seemed both threatened and delighted by the way Mona was the only person who could outsmart her. Mona guides Ali through her past and through her future, teaching her and chiding her and looking like the most beautiful unhinged snow witch the whole entire time.
Marceline and Princess Bubblegum — Adventure Time episode 711, “Take Her Back”
Near the end of Stakes, Marceline’s very own mini-series, she almost dies, and in those moments while Princess Bubblegum is holding her and begging her to wake up, she dreams something as honest as the first song she sang on the show: She and Bonnibell have grown up and old and they’re together. Together-together. That last thing Marcy says in the mini-series is that she wants what she saw in the dream. To be with PB, forever.
Amy and Karma — Faking It episode 210: “Busted”
This is the most queer-baity dream sequence I can ever remember and it made queer fandom want to set this show on fire. But! I am a forever Karmy shipper and I can’t help it. I love this dream! In the season two midseason finale Amy goes camping with Reagan and it seems like she has finally gotten over Karma and is ready to be with someone who wants to really be with her and also who knows she’s gay. Reagan crawls on top of her and they start having sex and when Amy opens her eyes it’s Karma on top of her. They do their “whoa” “I know” thing and then Amy blinks and she’s in bed with Liam but really it’s Karma in bed with Liam and maybe she was the one dreaming the thing? Or maybe she and Amy were dreaming the same gay dream?! No one ever really knew what the heck was going on here, even the world’s most famous Faking It recapper, Riese Bernard.
Root and Shaw — Person of Interest episode 504: “6,741”
“6,741” is generally regarded by mainstream critics as one of the best dream sequence episodes of TV ever, and it’s generally regarded by lesbian critics as one of the best queer episodes of TV ever. It’s very, very good. After leaning into the subtext over the years, “6,741” finally went there with Root and Shaw. They slept together and caressed each other’s faces and Root even called Shaw “baby”(!!!!!!). At the end of the episode it turns out Shaw is dreaming the whole thing, in captivity, and has in fact dreamed nearly this same thing — Root saving her, Root loving her, Root fighting with and for her — over six thousand times! It’s heartbreaking and harrowing and so romantic it makes me want to hurl myself off a cliff into the ocean!
Sestras — Orphan Black episode 301: “The Weight of This Combination”
Orphan Black‘s third season opens with Helena trapped in a box with a talking scorpion, but we don’t know that at first because we’re seeing inside her mind where her sestras are throwing her a surprisingly sweet baby shower: Felix is grilling ox liver and Cosima is maybe Frida Kahlo and Alison has cooked a million cupcakes and the sun is shining and everyone loves her and her babies are going to be okay. There’s nothing explicitly queer about this, besides the fact that Cosima’s in it, but I’m counting it because it’s an exemplary dream sequence that opens up a character to the audience in a new way and I’ll never get over that all these women are Tatiana Maslany. Never!
Jenny and Madame Vastra and River Song — Doctor Who episode 713: “The Name of the Doctor”
You put River Song, Madame Vastra, and Jenny in a room together and it’s going to make every list I ever make. Best people sitting at a table. Best people drinking champagne. Best people getting attacked by monsters. Best people being people. (And one lizard women from the dawn of time.) In “The Name of the Doctor,” the three of them plus Strax plus Clara enter the dreamscape to discuss some troubling news about the Doctor’s ultimate demise, and while they’re in there Jenny gets attacked and killed. Vastra flips out and might as well have punched through my chest and pulled my heart out of my body for how badly her pain hurt me! Through the sheer force of Vastra’s will and rage, Jenny is resurrected! And, of course, my beloved bisexual semi-Time Lord, River Song, saves the whole entire day (as usual).
Bo — Lost Girl episode 203: “Scream a Little Dream”
We knew a little bit about Bo after season one of Lost Girl, but we didn’t really know her. “Scream a Little Dream” takes us inside her mind and shows us her deepest, darkest fears. That she’ll outlive everyone she loves. That they’re better off without her. That she’ll never really be part of a found family. That they’re only tolerating her. That she’ll never experience real, lasting love. It’s like a series of Dementor attacks that just won’t quit. (Actually, that’s almost exactly what it is: a Dark Fae is feeding off of her nightmares to stay alive.) She finally beats it back with the help of a Light Fae, but not before revealing how very human she is to herself and to the audience.
Kat and Leila — The Bold Type episode 205: “Stride of Pride”
I’m going to call this “best” because: 1) It completely faked me out! I thought Kat was cheating with Adena’s friend! And 2) There’s this thing that broadcast network TV shows have often done with bisexual characters which is give them one woman love interest, and when that woman leaves, their bisexuality is never mentioned or explored ever again. The number of times Riese and I rolled our eyeballs out of our head being forced to put Angela from Bones on a list of queer characters is in the hundreds. Kat being interested in other women (and men, as she showed in season one) is good progress! This dream was ultimately the catalyst that led to Adena and Kat exploring the things that ended their relationship, and that’s a sad business, but drama is inevitable on television and at some point every youth has to deal with the fact that dream sex isn’t cheating.
What are some of your favorite lesbian and bisexual TV fever dreams?
Come on, Grab Your Friends and Relive Adventure Time’s 14 Queerest Episodes
On September 3rd, Cartoon Network will say goodbye to Adventure Time. The show is ending its ten-season run quietly, despite spawning legions of fans and board games and video games and merch and cosplayers and YouTube covers and comic con panels over the last eight years. That doesn’t mean the cult following isn’t sad about it: Rebecca Sugar brought the entire cast and the entire room to tears at San Diego Comic-Con when she performed the song she wrote for the series finale (and okay fine it brought me to tears when I watched it this morning!). It’d be easy here in 2018, when Steven Universe has pushed queer representation farther than any all-ages show in history, to write off Adventure Time‘s mostly subtextual gayness as a relic, but I think that’d be a mistake. Adventure Time made great strides for gay fans, especially in the comic books where homophobic overseas TV markets weren’t a production concern. And in the end, the show canonized its subtext. So before we bid Ooo adieu, let’s look back and celebrate Adventure Time‘s queerest moments.
“Go With Me” (Episode 220 // March 2011)
Rebecca Sugar one time described Adventure Time in a way that perfectly describes how Marcy and PB’s relationship was portrayed on the show: “Sublime art is unframeable: It’s an image or idea that implies that there’s a bigger image or idea that you can’t see: You’re only getting to look at a fraction of it, and in that way it’s both beautiful and scary, because it’s reminding you that there’s more that you don’t have access to.” Not only does that sentiment come in to play much later in the the Stakes mini-series; it’s exactly how we meet these two gal pals re-meeting each other for the first time. Marceline’s helping Finn ask Bubblegum out on a date. When PB sees her outside the castle window, she scowls and Marceline waves and calls her “Bonnibel.” Such caustic, sassy familiarity! They have a history and it’s fraught and this is where we find out about it! (Also: Marceline is the first — and only — character to call PB her by her first name. Sometimes she even shortens it to “Bonnie.”)
“What Was Missing” (Episode 310 // September 2011)
“What Was Missing” is the episode that really launched this ship, and how could it not? Finn and Jake and Marceline and PB are trying to open a door by singing true songs at it. Marceline starts strumming her axe-bass and talking about drinking the blood from someone’s pretty pink face, and when Bubblegum criticizes her for it, she launches into “I’m Just Your Problem.” Sorry I’m not made of sugar / Am I not sweet enough for you? / Is that why you always avoid me? / That must be such an inconvenience to you. She silences everyone, but that truth door sure does open right up for her angry, heartbroken lyrics.
Marceline and the Scream Queens (June 2013)
This six-part comic book mini-series is when things with Bubbline make the leap from subtext to maintext. PB joins Marceline on the road with her paranormal rock band. Rumors of PB’s relationship with another band member make Marceline nuts and she ends up fighting with her ex-girlfriend about them, and that’s just the beginning of their push-pull candy-dance around each other, trading barbs and compliments and blushes in equal measure. PB saves the band and the day because she really believes in Marceline, and that forces Marceline to believe in herself.
“Sky Witch” (Episode 529 // July 2013)
And here’s where that maintext finally lands on television! In one of the most romantic TV episodes of any show ever, Princess Bubblegum wakes up in a t-shirt Marceline gave her, buries her face in it, inhales the scent of it, and pops a pullover on top of it to wear it around underneath her princess clothes all day. Marcy ends up coaxing her away on a quest to steal her beloved childhood bear, Hambo, back from the Sky Witch, who won’t give him up because her power is fueled by sentimental value, and this bear survived the actual apocalypse. And so PB gives her Marceline’s t-shirt as a trade. “Sentimental freshness,” the Sea Witch cackles, throwing the sleeve of the shirt into her cauldron. “The psychic resonance of Hambo is nothing compared to this baby!”
“Varmints” (Episode 702 // November 2015)
“Varmints” takes a literal deep dive into Bonnie and Marcy’s relationship, sending them into the Rock Candy Mines where they used to hang out before Bonnie got too busy ruling her kingdom. There’s even some gay graffiti down there that they made together. They’re in the mines because PB in in self-proclaimed exile and trying to grow a pumpkin patch but the varmints keep sabotaging her. “I’m crazy tired, Marceline; I think I have been for a long time,” PB says when they get back to her cabin. Marcy promises to watch for varmints while PB naps, just for 15 minutes, which she does with her head on Marcy’s shoulder.
Stakes Mini-Series (Episodes 706 – 713 // November 2015)
In Marceline’s very own eight-episode mini-series she decides she wants to cure her vampirism, so of course she goes to PB for help. She doesn’t count on the beasts she’s going to unleash when she becomes mortal again, or how it’s going to force her to confront her depression and trauma and romantic feelings for her best friend. PB saves her over and over, with science and with fighting and with affection. During their demon-destroying adventures Marceline gets a weird feeling in her stomach that she knows isn’t fear. It’s love. And so, after Finn declares his love to PB because of a delicious sandwich, Marceline sneaks in a declaration too. She fever dreams them growing old together, Bonnibell kissing her on her forehead in a rocking chair. She has to take on her vampire form again, in the end, and says: “Being mortal was good, but at the same time, it was terrifying. Now I’m a vampire with fresh mortal memories and, I dunno, more empathy or something. More grown-up. Bonnie, thank you for helping me grow up. Now I guess we get to hang out together forever.” Bonnie, she blushes!
“Marcy & Hunson” (Episode 907 // December 2017)
Marceline’s daddy issues and undercut (both gay!) are back in this season nine episode that brings her songs about Princess Bubblegum full circle. At a concert that includes Finn and Jake and her dad, she sings her first real love song. Slow dance with you / I just wanna slow dance with you / I know all the other boys are tough and smooth / And I got the blues / I wanna slow dance with you.
If the series finale is gay, you know I’ll be back to talk about it! In the meantime, what are your favorite queer moments from Adventure Time‘s ten season run?
TV Team Roundtable: Our Favorite Lesbian and Bisexual Girls Behaving Badly
feature image by sarah sarwar
Lesbian and bisexual bad girls, we love ’em — but we’ve actually been on quite a journey to get here! For most of TV history, lesbian and bisexual representation has been a wasteland. And when queer women characters started showing up on TV and in movies, they were almost always portrayed as psychopaths or deviants. This was undoubtedly a leftover from the storytelling tropes set forth by the Hays Code and the Comics Code Authority, both of which banned LGBTQ characters unless they were portrayed as villains (or punished for acting on their gay feelings). And so, for a very long time, the push among activists was for positive representation on-screen. Good women — perfect women, in fact — living lives above reproach. It was important, but it also got pretty boring. In recent years, however, we have seen more and more “bad girls” springing up in the queer TV canon. Not bad people; just, you know, complicated characters who make dubious decisions sometimes and also don’t mind being bitchy when the moment calls for it.
To celebrate our Bad Behavior Issue, our TV team has put together a list of our favorite lesbian and bisexual girls behaving badly.
Santana Lopez, Glee
Heather: When someone one day writes the history book on lesbian and bisexual TV characters, at least one entire chapter should be dedicated to Santana Lopez.
Riese: If I’m not the one who actually writes that book, I hope somebody looks me up to write that chapter! Look I’ve already got a very good start.
Heather: She changed SO MANY THINGS in SO MANY WAYS. One of those things is that she was a queer Latinx mouthpiece for the audience, which is revolutionary because straight white people are always the mouthpieces of the audience (or the entry-points for audiences who watch any shows or movies about queer people or people of color because of this gross as hell idea that the straight white experience is the universal one. ANYWAY). The point is, Santana was always a jerk and it was always amazing, but at some point Glee took a turn and allowed her to verbally wail on all the pathetic men on the show on behalf of the audience — and we loved it! She was correct and geez we just wanted to see a fictional character eviscerate Will Schuester the way we personally wanted to eviscerate Will Schuester. (Or punch Finn Hudson.) Santana started out as Regina George and became bitchy Robin Hood. I really, really believe she’s the most important lesbian TV character in history after Ellen.
Valerie Anne: Santana Lopez keeps it real and she’s hilarious. Heather said all the smart things about her, so I’m just going to add that I loved her evolution overall. Her character started out as a one-liner-dropping sidekick meant to make Quinn look good and she grew so much over the years. And I loved that when she came out, it wasn’t like she was magically cured of her insult-slinging ways; she was still fully Santana in every way… just gayer.
Riese: “The only straight I am is STRAIGHT-UP BITCH.” Iconic!
Carmen: Riese! That was going to be my opening line! You beat me to it!
“The only straight I am is STRAIGHT-UP BITCH” is one of the most empowering lines ever uttered by a queer woman on television. Come at me in the comments! I’m willing to go to war over this. Santana bristled, but she loved. She really loved. She loved without being forced to be soft. That’s not something that we often see in “bitchy” television characters, especially in those written by men. (The fact that Santana Lopez was allowed to have such complexity and a consistent character core over six seasons is quite frankly, amazing, considering Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s difficulty writing the women on Glee. #GleeHatesGirls, amirite?)
I’m so glad we’re opening with Santana. She was the first person who came to my mind when we were assigned this roundtable. Here’s why: Santana was allowed to feel rage. Real rage. When she was in the closet, she took all the hate she was feeling about herself and she spewed it out. Maybe that sounds off-putting in retrospect, but let me tell you – it was cathartic. Kurt, Glee’s other resident gay, was a sympathetic queer character. He had a bit of a snarky sense of humor, but when he got bullied, he cried, and the audience cried with him. When he came out, his father loved him and hugged him and then we got to cry some more. His storyline was hopeful and optimistic. I don’t want to take anything away from Kurt or his importance in television history. But here’s the thing about Santana, she was the bully. She wasn’t a saintly gay. She found it hard to love herself, so in turn she made it hard to love her. She told her abuela that she had to come out because every day felt like a war. She was tired of fighting with herself. I wept. I knew that pain. So many of us do. We know what it feels like to tear yourself in two from the inside out, to put up armor and hope that no one would notice. My armor was a smile, Santana’s was an insult. And bless her for it.
Petra Solano, Jane the Virgin
Heather: Like so many characters on this list, Petra started out as a one-dimensional foil but became something so much greater. What I especially love about her is that that she realized she’s bisexual — which was so sweet and so hilarious and so her — but coming out didn’t make her lose her edge. Yeah, she’s in love with another woman. And yeah, those feelings are making her heart go berserk. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to stop scheming or that she’s not going to murder someone if she needs to! I also love how she cuts right through people with the sweetest fucking smile.
Villanelle, Killing Eve
Carmen: You know those viral internet memes of puppies who get in the trash, or chew up the couch, or some other awful act – but then their owner has them hold up a sign that says “I’m sorry” and your heart just melts? Because who can stay mad at a cute puppy with their cute puppy eyes and big puppy smile? That’s exactly how I feel about Villanelle. She murders and she mayhems, but every time she looks back at the camera with her eyes and I just want to give her a hug instead! “Awwww! Who’s a good assassin? You’re a good assassin! Yes, you are! Yes, you are! Mommy loves you!”
Valerie Anne: Villanelle is now my go-to example of how a show can take a trope and flip it on its head. On paper, you might think Killing Eve fell prey to the “crazy bisexual” trope, but there’s a fine line between, “This person has a psychological disorder as evidenced by this sexual deviance” and “this assassin happens to be bisexual.” It’s not shown as deviance or something that indicates she’s dangerous; in fact, it seems to be what’s keeping her from killing for the first time maybe ever. Also she’s just great. Funny and charming and surprising. I love her almost as much as Eve does.
Riese: Villanelle is the long-haired butch lesbian assassin of my dreams. She makes eating shepherd’s pie out of a tupperware container look sexy! Sure, she’s evil and kills people, but isn’t it nice we’ve finally gotten enough TV representation that we can enjoy a complicated, strong, smart, conniving female character like Villanelle without worrying that she’s the only representation we’ve got?
Alex Nuñez, Degrassi
Riese: Much like Ashley Davies, who we discuss later in this roundtable, Alex is my physical type and the type of “bad girl” I fantasized about frequently as a pre-teen and teenager. But because it is Degrassi, and because Degrassi goes there, Alex’s “badness” isn’t as straightforward as it seems. A great deal of it is how she’s learned to cope in a world where the deck is stacked inevitably against her and frequently veers on collapse. And as much as I loved her storyline with Paige, it didn’t seem like Paige had any hope of truly understanding where Alex came from or what she was dealing with, as was made plain when Alex started working at the strip club and Paige couldn’t handle it.
Natalie: One of the hallmarks of lesbian or bisexual characters on television during a certain era is that they couldn’t be bad — even on a show with a storytelling history as progressive as Degrassi, writers felt like they were taking enough of a gamble by having a gay character at all; they didn’t want to push the envelope too much. As a result, in the rare instance that you had a lesbian or bisexual character on television, they were usually perfect and sexless.
I mention that here because when Alex Nuñez (Deanna Casaluce) comes to Degrassi, she’s a legit bad girl. She steals stuff with her then-boyfriend, Jay; she gets into multiple fights at school; she threatens to out Marco to the entire school; and she helps Jay and Spinner prank Rick Murray, a decision that had some awful unintended consequences. She’s a bad girl in the truest sense.
But the moment she starts developing feelings for another girl? The moment the writers start to lay the groundwork for an “enemies becoming friends becoming more” storyline between Alex and Paige? The bad girl we’d known for two seasons disappears. You couldn’t be a lesbian on TV and be bad — not circa 2005 — so they femmed Alex up and put her on the straight and narrow, so to speak. She graduates, she sets career goals, she goes back to school to boost her grades for University, she joins the lacrosse team… she is perfect.
When they tried to rewrite her as a bad girl again in Season Seven — which was both terribly written and implausible, given how her character had developed — it fell flat and the character was written off the show after that.
(And, yes, I was salty when Drake’s recent Degrassi reunion video, “I’m Upset,” didn’t include an Alex cameo… but I guess bringing back a character that once moonlighted as a stripper hit a little too close to home for Adonis’ daddy.)
Daddy, Orange is the New Black
Riese: I’M ONLY HUMAN
Carmen: I know I shouldn’t love Daddy. She was a high-end pimp on the outside, who used her sexuality to recruit women who otherwise perhaps wouldn’t have been interested into sex work. She uses those same skills on the inside, recruiting “Daddy’s Girls” as drug dealers to fellow inmates. Objectively speaking, that is pretty loathsome. At the same time, in her own way, she protects her girls. She has this twisted code of honor that just makes my heart thud in my chest. To paraphrase Riese from our OINTB season six review, sometimes you just need a nice butch to take care of you, you know? Daddy wants to be that butch. And listen, despite myself, I want her be.
Pam Swynford De Beaufort, True Blood
Riese: The Mommi of Bitchy Vampires, be still my heart. “I’m so over Sookie and her precious fairy vagina,” she crowed, and the world nodded along with her. Of course, she finally melted her icy heart just a tad to make room for Tara, which was one of those ships you could only dream of sailing. Women like Pam are alluring because they have strong opinions and speak them with confidence, regardless of the consequences. For somebody like me, who is obsessed with whether or not everybody likes me!, that’s so alluring and liberating.
Ashley Davies, South of Nowhere
Riese: Ashley is everything I dreamed of as a teenager when I dreamed of bad girls, which I did a lot. I wrote a lot of novels and short stories back then about shy but beautiful girls with wild best friends who whisked them away into a world of danger and edginess — with the exception of all my All Over Me inspired works, these girls always looked a lot like Ashley Davies. Effortlessly roll-out-of-bed beautiful, dark hair, olive skin, glossy lips.They had childhood trauma and absent parents and had done drugs and kissed boys, maybe even had sex with boys, but their real true love was me. This is how most of my friendships were, I guess, including the one with the first girl I ever kissed.
By the time I realized I was gay in my early/mid twenties I’d become the bad girl I always dreamed of being seduced by. Or maybe it’s not really “somehow,” maybe it was deliberate, that way we transform from wanting a thing to wanting to be that thing. Still, back then, in high school? If Ashley Davies had convinced me to skip school and reconsider my sexuality I would’ve swooned. I would’ve panicked about skipping school but I think it would’ve been worth it.
Valerie Anne: Ever since I saw South of Nowhere, all I’ve wanted was for a girl to invite me to ditch our responsibilities and go on a roadtrip to anywhere and eat gas station donuts while we get lost but don’t care. I’ve always wanted a girl who was a little better at breaking the rules than me who could take me on an adventure. And I know it’s because it’s the show that helped me finally come out to myself and accept my queerness, and as a full-grown adult I know that a rule-breaker would probably stress me out in the long run, part of me is still looking for the Ashley to my Spencer.
Annalise Keating, How To Get Away With Murder
Carmen: It’s not that Annalise is bad. It’s really not. I wanted to include her in this roundtable because she’s not written to be likable. She’s sympathetic, yes. You understand the tough decisions that she makes, for sure. And to be clear, I more than like Annalise. I love her. But, it’s refreshing to have a female protagonist, and a black one at that, not be written with my love of her in mind. Most women on television apologize for existing. They smile and they wear bright colors. Annalise’s depression is messy, not unlike Tony Soprano. Life has her by the ropes a lot, it’s hardened her, not unlike Walter White. She has all the makings of a “pained white guy anti-hero” trope, except she’s not a straight white guy – and that makes all the difference.
Annalise Keating openly struggles with her alcoholism, she doesn’t always make the best sex choices, and as Natalie is going to elaborate below, she doesn’t always love herself enough to set up healthy boundaries and cut out the toxic people in her life. Her girlfriend loved her brighter than the sun, and Annalise was so tortured by the idea that she didn’t deserve such a love that she ran from it. That kind of “bad behavior” is honest. It’s relatable and real. That’s why I wanted her on this list.
Natalie: Given how much time HTGAWM devotes to having people tell Annalise Keating how terrible she is, it’s understandable that so many are under the impression that she’s an awful person. Every single week we have to endure one sanctimonious person after another telling Annalise how terrible she is and how everything that’s bad that’s happened to them is her fault… so, if you walk away from that believing that Annalise is bad, I could hardly blame you.
You would, however, be very, very wrong.
Annalise Keating is not bad. Almost all of her problems stem from the fact that she won’t cut the toxic people in her life. The people around her are murderers and emotional abusers and Annalise absorbs all their hatred because, on some level, she feels like she deserves it. She lost her child, because of them; she lost her house, because of them; she lost her freedom, because of them; she nearly lost her livelihood, because of them; and she almost lost her life, because of them. Nearly every bad thing that’s happened to her since this show debuted, it’s all because of them.
Everyone around her is unequivocally terrible but Annalise Keating? Her only fault is that she won’t leave them behind.
Sorry (#notsorry), y’all know I have a lot of feelings about this.
Sameen Shaw, Person of Interest
Valerie Anne: Shaw is an assassin and she’s stone-faced and snarky and has firewalls up that would have lasted centuries if Root hadn’t hacked her way through them. But when it came down to it, she sacrificed herself for her team, and protected them through simulation after simulation. She’s a badass who loves one (1) dog and one (1) human-turned-machine and I love her.
Riese: Much like Villanelle, Shaw has that Spike thing going on where she’s bad to the bone until that one special somebody comes along and finds a little crack in her armored heart. Who doesn’t want to be that somebody? Especially when that somebody is partially as sexy as she is BECAUSE SHE’S SO F*CKING SMART!?
Delle Seyah, Killjoys
Valerie Anne: When Delle Seyah first popped up on Killjoys, I thought she would be on a few episodes at best, a fun foil for Dutch to hate-flirt with, a reminder of everything Dutch could have been if she had stayed on her path. But she became a true and proper villain, and toward the end of Season Three entered a relationship with someone that shared Dutch’s face but few of Dutch’s values. It was just… perfect. And this season it seems like she’s going to be forced to continue to work WITH Dutch and her team instead of against her, and little makes me happier than a villain-turned-reluctant-hero.
Marceline the Vampire Queen, Adventure Time
Heather: Marceline is my favorite Adventure Time character (and Adventure Time is one of my all-time favorite shows), which is a little bit odd because I’m usually not into brooding vampires. (Maybe that’s because brooding vampires are usually men?) Marceline is more than just her angst, though. And she’s more than just her occasional mean-spiritedness. Adventure Time digs into her past to explore her childhood trauma, her fears, her abandonment, and then it zooms to her today and allows her to express what is actually a whole lot of anxiety and legitimate, clinical depression. She grows so much over the course of this show, finally even allowing herself to let go and love Bonnibell. She’s still kind of a jerk. She’ll always be kind of a jerk. But she’s a sweetheart, too.
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Heather: It is so rare to find a character like Rosa Diaz on TV — a curmudgeonly queer Latina who is also, in many ways, the heart of her squad. She’s got all the hardass things: the motorcycle, the leather jacket, the scowl, the swagger, the machetes. She’s also got a gooey caramel center. The juxtaposition is what makes her so great. Adopting a puppy and immediately threatening to kill herself and everyone else if anything ever happens to it. Offering to mercy kill her best friends. Going to war in the great Nora Ephron vs. Nancy Meyers showdown she started. Plus anyone who is real enough to say, “I don’t like small talk; let’s drink in silence” will always be a hero to me.
Nikki Wade, Bad Girls
Heather: I’m going to write more about Nikki Wade in my Bad Behavior Issue piece about Bad Girls but I’m adding her here because she’s the very first TV character that I found myself rooting for — and hard — who didn’t follow rules and who also hated men. I’d never let myself toy with the idea that misandry was okay because my whole life I’d been hearing pastors and Sunday School teachers talk about man-hating feminism as satan’s recruiting ground. I met Nikki almost as I was walking out of the doors of a Baptist church for the last time and she was in jail for murdering a man who tried to rape her girlfriend and she was not fucking sorry. She changed my life.
Delphine Cormier, Orphan Black
Heather: I checked out of the “is Delphine good or bad” debate pretty early on in Orphan Black because two things were obvious about her after the season one finale: 1) She was Slytherin Head Girl, and 2) She loved Cosima more than anything in the world. Everything after that was just a horrifying joy to watch because I never doubted Delphine’s loyalty, never doubted Cophine’s endgame. I just sat back and watched her do her machinations and smash her thumb into Rachel’s empty eyesocket and maneuver around all those biology wackos on that fantasy island with her brilliant, cunning mind. Also, sometimes, I just felt like Felix when she came wheeling up in her luxury sedan with her straight hair in the season three premiere, whipping off her sunglasses (even though it was overcast and not even sunny at all outside!). He just looked over his shoulder, not shocked to see her, and said, “God, she looks good.” (Her evil straight hair was my favorite.)
Valerie Anne: Delphine made some bad, bad choices for all the right reasons throughout the course of Orphan Black. She hurt Cosima over and over all in the name of helping her, and it got to the point where even I started to wonder whose side she was on. But like Heather said, one thing was always true: Delphine loved Cosima, and Cosima made it clear that loving her was loving her sisters. So she made the right choices in the end.
HG Wells, Warehouse 13
Heather: I had a hard time deciding between HG Wells and Stahma Tarr for this list. Both legit psychos in their own ways, both played by Jaime Murray, but in the end I went with the one who didn’t murder her girlfriend. Helena’s brain and heart kind of snapped when her daughter was murdered and everything after that was about getting revenge — even of it meant taking out her pain and rage on the whole of humanity. She was going to destroy the entire planet! But you know who she couldn’t pull the trigger on? Myka Bering. Wells and Bering. Bering and Wells. Over and over again, Helena sacrificed herself so that Myka could live, because Myka made he believe some humans could be good (really, really good). And also because she was in love with her. Don’t get me wrong; HG still did plenty of dubious, illegal, ethically murky things, but at least she didn’t try to blow up the continent after that one time.
Gail Peck, Rookie Blue
Valerie Anne: I hesitated about putting Gail Peck in here because she’s a hard outer shell with a soft, gooey center, but then Heather added Rosa Diaz and said I could think of it like “jerks with a heart of gold” and I knew Gail fit here. You see, if you asked Gail, she’d tell you she was a cold-hearted bitch who hated people. She’s literally said that on the show, “I hate people.” She stands still as a scarecrow when her coworkers throw their arms around her, and her coworkers wince when she slings insults their way. One of my favorite things about Gail Peck is that she could be 1000% snark, practically growling at whoever she was partnered with for the day, but then she would encounter a little kid and be the sweetest, gentlest soul. It was proof she wasn’t bad, not really. She just had a very low tolerance for bullshit and pleasantries, and I can respect that.
Violet Cross, Harlots
Riese: Talk about an intense Good Girl / Bad Girl matchup — Violet, a Harlot in 18th century England, manages to win the heart of Amelia, the daughter of a religious zealot who has devoted herself to preaching against the vocation of women like Violet. In Season Two, she keeps her pride against all odds and when an old white man who she knows is a patron of sex workers talks shit about sex workers, she spills hot soup on his crotch! That’s my kind of girl.
Cheryl Blossom, Riverdale
Kayla: Is there anything that says “bad girl” more than accessorizing with a gothic candelabra? I say NAY! Cheryl Blossom enters Riverdale as the resident pom-pom-clad mean girl but then proves to be something else altogether: a fire-starting, bow-wielding vigilante who has a homicidal father and a violently homophobic and controlling mother and who is really tender and sensitive and HURTING underneath that armor of matte red lipstick and perfect hair. She literally burns her own house to the ground and cuts off her mother’s oxygen supply in order to let her know she’s in charge now. And you’re rooting for her the whole time. She’s “bad” because that’s what people have told her she is her whole life.
Carmen: When Santana Lopez left our screens, I wasn’t sure if another high school bad girl could ever walk back into my heart. Then came blood drawn lips and fire engine hair. A new generation of high school HBIC in a too tight cheerleader uniform. Cheryl’s her own kind of dark avenger, willing to use her family’s influence and power for good instead of evil. For as much as she helps others, Cheryl’s still a bit of an outsider. Betty and Veronica come in a pair, same with Archie and Jughead. Who is going to make time for Cheryl? That kind of loneliness is palpable, no matter how hard she tries to hide it behind the perfectly selected couture. Cheryl Blossom isn’t who you think she is when you first lay eyes on her – a rich princess with piles of money, but no feelings or emotion. Cheryl is all emotion. It pours out, overflowing from beneath her icy mask. That’s what makes her great.
Jenny Schecter, The L Word
Carmen: Because really, if you look deep in your heart, who else could we possibly end this roundtable with?
Jenny Schecter, the bad girl who started it all. 
TV Team Roundtable: Seeing Our Baby Gay Selves in Our Favorite Baby TV Gays
Nearly every queer person we know has a story about how a fictional character helped them realize they’re not straight, which makes sense, of course; stories are how humans have been figuring out who they are and what they’re doing for the whole history of humankind. In this TV Team roundtable, we’re talking about the LGBTQ characters who helped us realize we’re queer, and some of our all time favorite baby gays. We want to hear your answers in the comments!
Heather: Do you remember the first queer character you saw on TV? Funnily enough, for me, it was Ellen. I watched “The Puppy Episode” in real time when I was a sophomore in high school. What I remember about it is my dad being kind of uncomfortable and my sister being so vocally supportive of Ellen – I should have known then that she knew I’m gay.
Carmen: Mine was also Ellen! “The Puppy Episode” aired at the end of my 5th grade. I remember feeling like it was such a massive big deal, even though I couldn’t get all the jokes at the time. It felt like my world stopped, and I didn’t know why! Ellen just meant so much to me. I admired her authenticity and willingness to be herself, even though I didn’t know yet that I was gay. She moved me in my gut. I also did a 6th grade research project on Ellen and “homosexuality in pop culture,” which made me, ummmm, very different from my midwestern classmates. And in case you were wondering if I always was who I am now, the answer is yes.
Riese: For me, it must have been Ricky Vasquez on My So-Called Life because I watched that in 8th grade. I’d seen gay characters in movies prior to that, most notably Philadelphia, and also in theater. I don’t remember being shocked or even affected in any way by Ricky’s sexual orientation. His character was so authentic and heart-rending and full. He was also very cool! I think I watched it and thought “I want a gay best friend!” (Although I will mention that Ricky specifically identified as bisexual, although near the end of the season things happened that I think made him realize he was gay? IF ONLY WE’D GOTTEN MORE SEASONS.) He was portrayed very lovingly, too. He was funny and interesting — but also, because of his sexuality, he was also often lonely, and eventually ended up homeless. So I guess my second gay character would’ve been Ricky’s English teacher who took him in after all that. I didn’t really think very much about women being gay back then, because they were basically invisible in the media and even the news, but gay men were very visible in the early ‘90s. DADT (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) was a hot topic and I feel like HIV/AIDS was something we thought about nearly every day at that point.
Natalie: So, my first queer character actually predates Ellen and Ricky – Matt Fielding on the Aaron Spelling primetime soap Melrose Place. Like every other teenage girl during that era, I was obsessed with Beverly Hills: 90210 — thank you, Luke Perry — so after that show went off on Wednesday nights, I stayed glued to my television for Melrose.
Matt was pretty much what you’d expect from a ’90s era gay: totally admirable and completely sexless. Even then, I remembered being jarred by how everyone else that lived in this fictional West Hollywood complex got to be totally hedonistic, except the black girl and the gay man. Matt didn’t get to do much, but a lot of stuff happened to him — I lost count of how many gay bashings he suffered — which, I suppose, was their way of making a gay man sympathetic to the masses back then.
Riese: Oh that reminds me — I bet my first lesbian would’ve been Allison Lash, in 1995, on Beverly Hills 90210. (I mean I was watching Ellen before that, but she hadn’t come out yet.) You know, the lesbian character who developed an intense crush on Kelly Taylor after they survived a fire together. That was when I learned that lesbians were psychotic stalkers!
Valerie Anne: I guess technically Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Willow was mine, with Tara hot on her heels, but I don’t think they officially explicitly came out in a way I understood at 12? So they overlapped with Bianca Montgomery from All My Children in such a way that she feels like my first. I very vividly remember where I was sitting when she came out to her mom and Erica lost her whole damn mind. I remember asking my mom why Erica was being so ridiculous and my mom saying something factual and emotionless like, “Some people don’t like gay people, so they get upset when their kids come out to them” which gave me zero clue about how she herself felt about such things. I started high school a year later so I was no longer home on Wednesday afternoons to watch the rest of her tumultuous life play out, which I think was probably for the best.
Kayla: The first gay TV characters I met were Susan and Carol on Friends. I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that this answer is off-brand, but sadly, it is incredibly on-brand. Carol is a Mommi if I’ve ever seen one and probably the root of my unshakeable attraction to women who look like they’d play the evil stepmother in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie. Because Jane Sibbett indeed played the evil stepmother in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie. Anyways! Susan and Carol weren’t just the first gay TV characters I’d met, they were also the first gay people I’d “met” at all because there were no out gay people in my life at the time! And Friends treated them as a punchline, so you know, that was great for my whole internalized homophobia sitch.
Riese: OH RIGHT CAROL AND SUSAN ON FRIENDS. My second and third lesbians.
Heather: Okay who was the TV character that helped you realize you’re queer? Not What do you remember about your journey with them? Did you see them and know right then you’re queer? Did you realize you’re queer along with them? Is it something you accepted in your own mind right away, or did you try to ignore it? I don’t think I’ve actually ever written this before but the exact moment all of the stuff I’d been blocking from my mind or trying to ignore or pretending didn’t exist was the moment in the opening credits of The L Word pilot when Bette rolls over in bed and wraps her arm around Tina. I was just like, “Ah. Right. Oh well!”
Riese: I mean – Shane on The L Word. I was in my early twenties at that point. I’d always been… I guess you could say… promiscuous? But to me that had always gone hand in hand with proving my self-worth through my ability to hook up with hot guys. Shane was empowered by her sexual desire and prowess in a way that I’d never seen in a story that didn’t also involve men. It opened up a whole world of possibilities. Most of them, honestly, were not super-great, w/r/t how to treat women, but you know. YOUTH!
Valerie Anne: I have a lot of characters that sent up little red flags, but I was great at ignoring them until I started college and discovered The L Word. I was helpless to Carmen de la Pica Morales and examined the length of my ring finger in horror, taking to the internet and Asking Jeeves if I was gay. But, I convinced myself (with the help of some shitty-in-hindsight friends) that it was just a phase and I’d get over it. It wasn’t until the year after college, after I started grad school, that I was binge-watching South of Nowhere that I fully and officially came out to myself and stopped trying to run from it. It was that scene on the beach, when Spencer asks Ashley how she knows she’s gay, and admits she’s feeling confused and interested in girls. She goes, “I don’t wanna be different I just, I wanna be normal. Ya know, like everybody else who knows who they are, what they want, and who they love.” And Ashley said, “Stop worrying about it. Look, whatever people consider to be normal, it never is.”
Also, Alex Danvers had one of the best coming out speeches, in my opinion, because I think it mirrored my own the most – older, had never really had any intimate romantic relationships, knew on some level the people I love would be okay with it but somehow couldn’t grapple with it myself for a long time until finally I did and I felt like it was smothering me, etc. I felt like a baby gay having my feelings validated all over again, even though I am… not young and have been out for eons now.
Kayla: Santana Lopez undoubtedly helped me realize I was queer, but I definitely still tried to ignore it for a long time after. Something I say about myself a lot is that I was “out in the tags” before I was out in the world — referring to a good ol’ place called Tumblr dot com. Tumblr was the first space I had to express queer desire, but I was so closeted that I didn’t even necessarily acknowledge it in the text of posts themselves but buried it IN THE TAGS. I would literally reblog a photoset of Santana Lopez and tag it with things like “#boobs” and “#gay o’clock” and all my friends were like hmm Kayla do you have something to say and I was like NO WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! Anyway, that started to creep into my real life, too, and I literally wrote AN ENTIRE ZINE ABOUT SANTANA’S COMING OUT ARC for a project for one credit in a pop culture class I took freshman year of college. I felt connected to her on a deep level — she is the only girl I’ve written an entire zine about — but wasn’t ready to really engage with it.
Carmen: Callie Torres. 100% Callie Torres. There is absolutely no version of my “coming out story” that doesn’t involve her character. Our coming outs sort of overlapped each other? I had a messy, on-again/off-again, relationship with my queerness in college. When Callie kissed Erica Hahn for the first time during my senior year I mostly ignored it. It was a blip on my radar. The next fall Erica walked into The Parking Lot of No Return and my heart shattered. At that point there was no more pushing down my feelings. Callie was ready to face with her emotions head on and so was I. Every heartbreak, every nervous flutter, every awkward stumbling language – we walked that journey together. (And like Kayla, I spent a lot of time on the Calzona and Callie Torres Tumblr tags). During my coming out process, I probably watched reruns of Callie and Erica and Callie and Arizona a thousand times. I re-watched Callie’s first date with Erica before my very first gay date! Callie held my hand at a time when it felt like there was no one else. Those seasons of Grey’s Anatomy were my port in the storm.
Heather: Did any queer characters help you come out to people other than yourself? I suppose this isn’t a surprise to anyone who has ever read anything I’ve written, but my coming out to my close friends and family was pretty smooth, except all of them begged me not to tell my grandparents. And so I didn’t, for a long long long time. It was eating me up inside to the point where I was dreaming about it multiple times a week and sliding into a terrible anxiety-filled depression — and then Paige McCullers happened. I know Paige is complicated and a lot of people hate her and Emison shippers want to tie me to some train tracks, but Paige McCullers was me as a teenager and she meant everything to me when I met her. She reclaimed my youth! The night I came out to my grandparents, I drove to their house at like 1:00 am with my sister and sat in their driveway and watched Paige come out like ten times on YouTube — “If I say it out loud, if I say, ‘I’m gay,’ the whole world is gonna change.” — and then I went in and came out in the middle of the night and was finally whole again.
Valerie Anne: Once in college I was talking on AIM to this girl in my Spanish class and we ended up talking about TV and The L Word came up. We talked in code using L Word characters, she told me she was bi without saying the words by talking about Alice, I told her I was mostly confused, but probably definitely into girls without having to explain it by saying I was somewhere between Jenny and Dana, etc. Later she told me she had never been that indirect about coming out to people, but I appreciated her going along with my need to talk about it with some distance to it.
Also, I had come out to my parents about three months before the Pretty Little Liars episode where Paige has her “If I say it out loud” speech. I watched it with my parents and didn’t breathe the whole time so I think probably they learned something about me from that too.
Natalie: I’ve talked a little bit before about Bianca Montgomery from All My Children and how much of a game changer it was for me — not just in terms of seeing a version of myself reflected on-screen, but also as a barometer for how my family would react to my coming out.
It gave my parents the opportunity to see a character they cared about — everyone who watched All My Children adored Bianca — and embrace her sexuality, long before I’d be courageous enough to do it myself. It gave them a chance to see Erica Kane react to her daughter’s revelation and to see how the pain of a mother’s rejection impacts a child. I’d watch episodes of the show, sitting across from my mother, hoping that she was making note of what not to do. Ultimately, I knew we were good when my mom pretty much became a BAM shipper.
Carmen: I’ve shared this Heather and Riese at different points before, but Santana Lopez came out to her Abuela the same exact week that Paige gave her “If I say it out loud…” speech and I had such strong feelings about those overlapping developments that it brought me to Autostraddle for the very first time! Santana was tired of feeling at war with herself, and I was too. I wept watching Paige. I had never heard someone explain the fear that I had bubbling inside of me so perfectly! I couldn’t form the words “I’m gay” when it mattered most and neither could she and somehow that made it perfect. At that point, I had been out to all of my friends and in my daily life in New York for years, but I still hadn’t found the words to tell my mother. I was afraid that saying it out loud to her, everything about our relationship would change. And that fucking terrified me! I was a swirling, spiraling mess of emotions. That Christmas, roughly a month after Paige’s and Santana’s big coming outs, I finally found the courage.
Heather: Okay, I know it’s not really possible to be objective about something so close to our hearts, but what are some of your favorite coming out storylines for baby gays? Why? Mine are Paige and Emily Fitch, always and forever.
Riese: It’s hard to say because a LOT of queer storylines take place in high school, but the characters are played by actors who are so old that it’s hard to think of them as baby gays! I want to say Santana on Glee, which I’ve talked about before, as really relating to her experience of being pretty promiscuous with boys, but having that NOT turn out to be indicative of her sexual orientation in any way. And you know — she got the girl. I loved Nicole’s coming out storyline on Fresh off the Boat, and how even though it was set in the ‘90s, they didn’t turn it into a story of banishment.
Valerie Anne: Do y’all think the “baby” in “baby gay” always refer to age in human years? Or does it refer to amount of time a person is out? Was Alex Danvers a baby gay in Season Two of Supergirl, since she was just coming out, even though she was in her late 20s?
Natalie: Good question.
Carmen: I think she is! I feel like Alex Danvers is a classic capital letter Baby Gay. Another good example for me (obviously! Because I spoke about this earlier!) would be Season Four/early Season Five Callie Torres. Both of those characters are late in life adults who are decidedly baby gays, no? Granted when we first came up with this roundtable idea, my first thought for “favorite baby gays” was Paige McCullers and Santana Lopez. I suppose that speaks to your point about age.
Valerie Anne: Well, they too were baby gays! They just happened to be literal babies and baby gays at the same time. Like Riese said, it’s more common in TV for characters to come out as babies (read: teens). Even though most of my friends came out later. Mostly I just want more excuses to talk about Alex Danvers.
Riese: OH, I thought baby gay was high school. Like they had to be teenagers. Which was also weird because Naya Rivera is 25.
Heather: I meant young people, but should we open it up to anybody realizing they’re gay?
Riese: It feels to me like that may open it up to almost every character ever, since sometimes it feels like every queer character gets a coming out arc. I don’t know! I think we would have to be very careful and focused on characters like Alex Danvers who are for sure just realizing who they are. But, also I am insufferable during Scattergories about THE RULES.
Valerie Anne: I agree that the scope is much larger if we include new gays vs teen gays.
Riese: Yeah. But also, some questions for this roundtable I’ve struggled to answer because I didn’t come out to myself til my early twenties.
Valerie Anne: Same. As I get older I find that my favorite coming out stories are the ones that don’t happen. That said, Paige’s coming out will always be burned in my brain, and also Emily’s coming out to Hanna. And Hanna’s response always healed old wounds for me: “You were Emily dating Ben, now you’re Emily dating Maya. We love Emily.”
Natalie: I know it’s not in our wheelhouse but one of my favorites of all time is Justin Suarez from Ugly Betty. It gets overshadowed a lot by Glee, but I thought Ugly Betty did those storylines so much better. Justin’s family saw him for who he was and embraced him fully — they tried to throw him a celebratory coming out party before he’d even come out — and it was so heartwarming. I also loved that he had an adult gay mentor in Marc St. James because we rarely get to see that on television.
Also, as I mentioned in our “Best of 2017″ list last year, I thought Elena’s coming out story on One Day at a Time was one of the best I’d ever seen. I loved that the story was all about Elena affirming herself because she realized who she was, rather than it being about a love interest.
Carmen: Yes! On both counts! Oh man, I love Justin’s coming out on Ugly Betty! I agree that Kurt got all the shine, but I felt like Justin’s coming out arc was damn near perfection. It deserved a lot more attention than it ultimately received.
Heather: Who are some of the best baby gay characters?
Riese: Kate on Everything Sucks! What a little button! Santana on Glee, obviously. Other faves: Elena on One Day at a Time, Alex on Degrassi, Spencer and Ashley on South of Nowhere, Amy on Faking It, Haley Clark on Halt and Catch Fire, Cheryl on Riverdale, Nico & Karolina on Marvel’s Runaways
Valerie Anne: What would you guys do if I said Tea from US Skins? KIDDING, kidding, don’t fire me. Instead of repeating everything Riese said like we’re playing “I’m going on a picnic,” since I agree, I’m just going to add to her list: Brenna and Greer from Chasing Life, Tilda and Odessa from Into the Badlands. And I never watched Once and Again, so I can’t really talk to the show as a whole or even really the characters, but once I watched a YouTube compilation called something like “Every Katie and Jessie scene ever” and it was better than a lot of lesbian movies I’ve seen.
Carmen: Santana Lopez. Yes, I know that she’s already on the list. But, hear me out – she deserves her own line. She would want it that way.
Heather: What are some must-have storytelling elements or character traits for baby gay storylines?
Valerie Anne: First, re: coming out stories, I want to see a distinct before/after. I want to see them become more sure of themselves after they come out, even if it didn’t go well. For characters that are past that point but are still wee, I want everything the heterosexual teenage romances have. I want the butterflies in your tummy, the “do they like me or do they LIKE like me?” or “is this trip to the movies a date or are we just friends?” I want the first kisses and fights that are blown way out of proportion because everything feels like the end of the world when you’re 15. The coming out and the sneaking around and the being outed stories are all important because they’re real, but I want to see teenage gaybies getting to go through everything I missed out on because I was trying to hard (and failing miserably) to fit the heteronormative narrative that was all I’d known at the time.
Natalie: One of the things I remember reading from some of Heather’s Skins coverage was how Bryan Elsley and Jaime Brittain had a group of teenage consultants to really help them develop their young characters. And while I’m not sure every show needs to go that far, there does need to be some effort made to bring that authenticity into the writers’ room. There’s universality to the experience of growing up gay — you can see that in ’90s centered television like Fresh Off The Boat or Everything Sucks! — but there’s also something very unique about this moment that needs to be captured.
Carmen: I’m going back to our earlier conversation about “adult baby gays”,because I want to see more of those storylines done well on television! Valerie already mentioned this, but a lot of gays don’t come out in high school. Looking at this roundtable, it’s clear that most of us didn’t! I think one of the reasons Alex Danvers resonated with so many people was that she was a late 20something and was already established in her career when her world turned upside down. Coming out happens at any age! I think it’s perhaps easier for writers to think of those storylines as tied to the “coming of age” tropes that high school shows already do so well, and I get that. But, I’d also challenge writers and showrunners to think outside of that box. Major life changes don’t stop when you turn 18 – or even 21. Life continues. It bends, and curves, and snaps in ways that you don’t see coming. It can be just as scary to come out when you have an entire adult life on the line.
Heather: I have this theory that queer people come of age over and over because we don’t do it all in one fell swoop like straight people do when they’re teenagers. As a person who is out and professionally queer, what storylines or characters excite you most for Kids These Days?
Riese: It’s cool to see queer Muslim teenage characters on Ackley Bridge and Degrassi: Next Class — of course neither of those shows are set in the U.S., but I’m excited for Kids These Days outside of the U.S.! I loved how Nico hadn’t expressed any interest in women throughout Marvel’s Runaways, but was open to it immediately when Karolina confessed her feelings — I love when that happens because it shows that it doesn’t have to be a huge deal sometimes, you just sort of … end up with a girl! Elena’s storyline on One Day at a Time is clearly a stand-out here, but I imagine Carmen is going to talk about that!
Carmen: Hello! I am here to answer Riese’s call and talk about One Day at a Time! I have no shadow of a doubt that if I’d seen geeky, empathetic, politically active Elena Alvarez (in her Catholic school uniform!) come out and fall in love, everything for me would have played out differently as a teenager. I’ve actually tried to imagine it more than once, and every time I skip a breath. She sort of breaks my heart? Because I didn’t have her when I was a 16 year old Puerto Rican in a Catholic school uniform who was so confused about the daydreams she was having about the girl who sat across from her in AP US History. At the same time, Elena makes me feel so bright about our future! Every aspect of her storyline, from the writing to Isabella Gomez’s performance, is lovingly crafted and pitch perfect. Elena Alvarez is changing lives.
Valerie Anne: I think I’m most excited about the sheer quantity of storylines? Even when I first started writing about queer TV for the internet, I watched every single show with a queer character on it that was airing at the time, and then some. It wasn’t that hard to keep up, and that sucked because it meant I was suffering through mediocre shows to get the crumbs of a queer storyline. Now there’s so much! There are queer storylines in all genres, not just sci-fi. There are gays on every channel, not just Showtime. Baby gays pop up on shows my parents watch all the time now! So I’m excited that maybe it won’t take as long for kids to stumble across folks who look/act/love/are gay to either affirm or awaken the baby gay inside.
Natalie: I keep thinking that, one day, I’ll age out of watching baby gay storylines, but ultimately, I think part of me will always be invested in seeing these stories being told. The future of baby gay storytelling, I hope, is writer’s layering identities and really telling intersectional stories. The writers at One Day at a Time and Ackley Bridge have done really well with that (while also being funny!) and I’d love to see them become the standard for the genre.
Heather: Since I’m the oldest person here and yet the only one who still watches animated teeve, let me name Steven Universe. I think it’s is some of the best queer representation on TV ever, and the fact that kids get to watch it blows my mind and fills me with so much hope. If I’m being real with you, I think Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship reminds me more of mine and Stacy’s relationship than any queer couple on TV I’ve ever seen. In the last episode, the wedding one, Ruby says, “I used to think I wasn’t much good, just one of me on my own. But when we’re together, it feels like it’s okay to just be me. I just want to be me, with you, forever.” And Sapphire says, “You changed my life, and then I changed your life, and now, we change our lives.” And when they faced down their arch-nemesis together as Garnet, she said, “I am the will of two gems to care for each other, to protect each other from any threat, no matter how vast or how cruel!” And I was like, “Yep. That is my love, my love, my love — exactly.”
It’s funny, bookending this roundtable like that. I was too scared, as a teen, to see myself in Ellen; and now I am almost 40 and I have finally found my relationship mirror in a cartoon.
The Top 30 Dykes on Bikes on TV and in Movies
Bicycles on TV mean independence, coming of age, letting go, transformation! Motorcycles on TV mean bad bois! So it’s no surprise that lesbian and bisexual TV characters are on bikes all the time. I was recently watching Kiersey Clemons and Sasha Lane’s glorious coming-of-age indie comedy, Hearts Beat Loud, tears raining down my face during their bicycle scene, and a whole reel of other dykes on bikes on TV and in movies started playing in my mind. And now I have made that imaginary slideshow into a list, just for you.
As always, this list was compiled by me and Riese Bernard and Carmen Phillips and Valerie Anne and Natalie and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya.
Paige McCullers, Pretty Little Liars
Paige got up to all kinds of shenanigans on her bicycle, most notably riding it to Emily’s house in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunderstorm to apologize for taking out her internalized homophobia on Emily and also unexpectedly kissing her — and then she got back on it and pedaled off into the lightning, soaked in rain and shame and a little hope too, my precious chaotic baby gay lamb. Also notable: Paige lost a bike race to Emily on purpose near the end of the show, a sweeping gesture to show she wanted to stay and make things work with her first love. (They did not work.)
Naomi Campbell and Emily Fitch, Skins
Skins works really hard to make sure you don’t miss the symbolism of Naomi and Emily taking off on bikes together; for example, the song that’s playing when they’re on their way to the lake to skinny dip and scissor is called “Jump In.” They also ride a bike in the follow-up season, an upgraded moped, because their relationship is upgraded. There are zero bikes in Skins Fire, which is frankly just further proof that bollocky wankshite doesn’t exist.
Therese Belivet, Carol
Therese on or near a bicycle is a perfect thing because it’s when her misandry is at its all-time highest. In the first few minutes of Carol, she lets Richard pedal her to work while refusing to discuss his damn boat tickets, and then later when he’s pushing his bike beside her she just flat out asks him if he’s gay because she’s gay.
Team Dana, The L Word
“Lifecycle” is one of the best episodes of the fifth season of The L Word, which is the second best season of The L Word, and the only one besides season one that is not physically painful. (Most of the time.) In this episode, everyone wears Team Dana jerseys and rides a thousand miles for breast cancer and all their secrets and lies and cheating come out around the campfire. Also Bette tells Tina she likes her butt in her cycling shorts.
Kate Messner, Everything Sucks
Nothing says “lil’ ’90s lesbian” like a ten-speed Schwinn, so it makes perfect sense this was Kate’s choice of transportation for scooting around Boring, Oregon in her flannel shirts and Tori Amos tees.
Sam and Rose, Hearts Beat Loud
Kiersey Clemons is on this list not once, not twice, but three times. Most recently she was finding her way on a bike as Sam in Hearts Beat Loud. I don’t want to spoil this scene for you — it’s climactic! — but let’s just say she reclaims her trauma with the help of her girlfriend doing an activity usually written as father/daughter bonding in a very father/daughter movie. It queers the trope!
Chase, Easy
Oh hey again, Kiersey! In a season one episode of Netflix’s drama, Easy — titled “Vegan Cinderella” — Chase falls for a girl and gives herself a crash course in lesbian things like cycling in Chicago and not eating meat. The results are mixed. She doesn’t get killed by a car, which is lucky because she doesn’t know how to wear a helmet and swerves all over the place while texting in the dark. But she also can’t keep up the charade. My favorite part of the episode is when she scuffs up her new bike helmet on purpose, right outside the bike shop where she bought it, to make it looks like she’s owned a bike for more than 30 seconds.
Diggy, Dope
As Diggy in Dope, Kiersey pedals around Inglewood with her best friends Jib and Malcom between band practice and trying to get girls to like them back. They spend so much time on their BMXs in this movie, always moving, trying to figure out who they are and how far they can go.
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Rosa loves her motorcycle more than most things, and it sure does love her back. Look at them together! She’s a hardass, but that doesn’t stop her from using her bike rush to the aid of her friends, including zipping Terry to the hospital when his wife is in labor. (Steph Beatriz really does ride a motorcycle; she started taking lessons in 2014.)
Quinn Fabray, Glee
And then she had sex with Santana Lopez. Twice.
Alex Danvers, Supergirl
When your sister can fly, you’ve gotta have an almost-as-cool way to get around!
Root and Shaw, Person of Interest
Sometimes you and your girlfriend are tracking the same bad guy and she shows up on her motorcycle outside the place you were having a shoot-out and just happens to have an extra helmet waiting for you so you can hop on the back of her bike and ride to safety. Sometimes.
Villanelle, Killing Eve
I cannot watch Killing Eve due to my aversion to blood and, um, killing. However, Killing Eve expert Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya tells me this is when Villanelle first shows up in Tuscany to kill Eve and she leans against her bike and eats an apple with a paring knife while a song called “When a Woman Is Around” by a band called Unloved plays in the background — and I guess that’s when everyone knew she was gay for Sandra Oh! (Villanelle, I mean. Everyone already knew Kayla was gay for Sandra Oh.)
Alice Pieszecki and Shane McCutcheon, The L Word
When Alice can’t join Dana on her corporate float at Pride in season two, she and Shane hop on the back of Harley-Davidsons with some legit Dykes on Bikes instead. Alice tells the corporate float gatekeeper to write that on her clipboard and then takes her rainbow romper to the front of the parade.
Laura and Aubrey, Casual
In the second season of Casual, Laura and Aubrey finally come to grips with their feelings for each other after — what else! — a bike ride. They kiss on right on the mouths after looking out over the city and contemplating the ephemeral nature of love and the fact that they stole those bicycles.
Tasha Williams, The L Word
Tasha rode her bike in the opening credits of The L Word and she also rode it around the military base before she quit the army to protest DADT. Alice didn’t deserve Tasha or her bike, but they sure do look good together on it.
Kat Edison, The Bold Type
Kat realizes she’s a grown-up queer person who wants to actually try to be in a grown-up queer relationship when she’s in a SoulCycle class and the instructor is yelling about upping the torque and downing the torque and mostly just letting go and not being afraid to chase what you want most in this cruel, hard world. Kat gets off her bike and runs (literally runs!) straight to Adena’s apartment to kiss her in the streetlight/moonlight and promise she wants to try.
Nomi and Amanita, Sense8
Amanita’s motorcycle gets a lot of play in Sense8. She rides it in the Pride parade with Nomi, but she also uses it to chase down an agent who resurfaces and goes after her girlfriend. It’s sexy and functional.
Ilana and Abbi, Broad City
Ilana has a lot of mishaps with her bike, but it has produced two fan favorite moments on the Broad City. 1) Her song “I Bike” and its follow-up hit “I Tweet.” 2) The image of her true love Abbi standing on the back of it as they ride through Manhattan after a day of madcap adventure that almost has Ilana ditching her boy pal on an important day (because she only wants to hang out with her true love Abbi).
Emily Fields, Pretty Little Liars
I think of Paige as Pretty Little Liars‘ main cyclist, but Emily Fields was always using bicycles to seduce women! She also very often pushed her bike beside her on the sidewalk in downtown Rosewood, especially when Spencer was around, which I assume was a power move to try to seem gayer than her best friend. (It didn’t work.)
Did we miss anyone? Hit is up with your favorite dykes on bikes in the comments!
The 16 Best Faces Kate McKinnon and Ellen DeGeneres Made While Being Held Hostage in a Car by Jerry Seinfeld
If you’re unfamiliar with the viral internet sensation Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, here’s the basic deal: Jerry Seinfeld — one of the world’s richest comedians, of Seinfeld fame — takes a fellow comedian of his choice for a spin in a vintage car. Then, they get coffee. And that’s it! That’s the whole show!
It’s a bit like Inside the Actors Studio? But, with Jerry asking whatever is on Jerry’s mind. What’s on the mind of a wealthy, cis, straight man is the LAST THING I CARE ABOUT in 2018, and guess what? Jerry Seinfeld is no exception to that rule! Any survivor of the ‘90s can tell you, Seinfeld famously built his comedic empire on a whole lot of “nothing.” Apathy is the name of his game, but man, rich men being apathetic in 2018 is a pain.
After nine seasons at Crackle, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee got a fancy Netflix facelift. Part of that facelift includes LESBIANNNNNS!
New episodes dropped this month. One has Jerry having iced tea with the head of the lesbian mafia, the one! the only! Ellen DeGeneres! Another leaves him zipping around New York with everyone’s favorite girlfriend — who also happens to do a killer Hillary Clinton impression on karaoke night — Kate McKinnon! They both look about as excited to be in a car with Jerry Seinfeld as I would be!
Here are the best faces Ellen and Kate made while being trapped in a car with this guy. This dialogue is 100% real.
Jerry: Your talk show… you couldn’t have imagined that it would be as successful as it’s been.
Ellen:
Jerry: Wow. Nobody would believe that you really talk like this.
Kate:
Jerry: What would you like your appeal to be? What would you like people to think when they see you?
Ellen: That I’m a good person. That I’m a nice person.
Jerry: No one’s paying to see a nice person.
Kate: Are you here? Should I, like, come to the car?
Jerry: I would appreciate it if you were not so suggestive in the white-hot radioactive sexual misconduct rodeo world we now live in.
Ellen: When I lost my sitcom, I didn’t work for three years solid until I got the talk show.
Jerry: So when you say you “weren’t working,” what were you doing?
Ellen:
Jerry: The thing that really intrigued me about you is that you went to Columbia.
Kate: I did mostly puppetry.
Jerry: What do you think about a ventriloquist dummy that’s a paraplegic?
Kate:
Ellen: The world is such a scary place right now, in so many ways. It just overwhelms me with dread. Do you ever like, go to those places?
Jerry: No.
Ellen: You don’t?
Jerry: No. My attitude is that each generation kinda gets this thing dumped in your lap to deal with.
Ellen: When I talk to your kids, I’ll ask them what they think.
Jerry: I don’t really care what they think.
Ellen: That’s… my point.
Kate: Parallel parking on the right side of the road? God, you’re a man. You’re a real man.
Jerry: I know that you don’t like men, but even if you did…
Ellen:
Jerry: What did you do when men were attracted to you? How did you handle that?
Kate:
Kate: I wore a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants pajama bottoms, clogs, and a hand-me-down hooded sweatshirt. I gave myself my own haircuts. And that’s when I looked the best!
Jerry: But you wanted girls to like you.
Kate: That’s fine for them! That’s the secret.
Jerry: That’s the most attractive aspect of this lifestyle that I did not know about.
[Jerry Seinfeld’s philosophy on how celebrities should treat fans]
Jerry: What do you owe? Your show was free. You gave these people a show for free. I don’t understand. What is this “owe”? Quite frankly, I gave you something. If anything, now you owe me something!
Kate:
Jerry: [I kid you fucking not, he makes a joke about domestic violence.]
Ellen:
And finally… I present to you: “When Your Host is a Wanker and You Get Him Back, A Play in Two Parts.”
[Ellen steals Jerry’s car keys]
[Jerry visibly panics]
Ellen: It was to teach you a lesson! I could’ve let that go for longer.
Jerry: If you had any balls, which you don’t.
Ellen: … I should’ve let it go really, really long.
Jerry: I don’t think that was going anywhere funny.
If you want to partake for yourself, the new season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (called “2018: Freshly Brewed”) is on Netflix right now. Ellen’s episode is #3, “You Said It Wasn’t Funny.” She talks about her first stand up, being the first woman comedian invited to sit at the desk with Johnny Carson, and re-discovering joy after her girlfriend died in a car accident (which is something I previously didn’t know about her!). Kate’s is episode #10, “Brain in a Jar.” She gets in deep about physics, environmental science, and the Coriolis Effect (that’s what makes your toilet flush backwards!). She also impersonates Jessica Lange in American Horry Story and mimes a dog taking a poop on the sidewalk.
Until then, tag yourself in the comments! I’m Ellen laughing my ass off at Jerry not finding his keys.
18 2018 LGBTQ Women of Color TV Characters Crushing It
This post was written by Carmen, Natalie, and Kayla.
2018!! I don’t know if you’ve felt it yet, but we certainly have. This is the year where lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women of color are taking over your television screens. Not just in terms of volume (though it does feel like more of us are getting our time on screen), but in terms of quality and depth and agency.
With cable shows like Vida and Pose burning up the summer with lesbian, queer, and trans women of color protagonists, along winter favs like Black Lightning’s black lesbian superhero Anissa Pierce and One Day at a Time’s always perfect Latina lesbian teenager Elena Alvarez keeping us warm through the cold months – it’s time we stand up and pay attention.
Carmen, Natalie, and Kayla have been talking about this trend a lot recently. So, when Heather suggested we put together a list of our favorite queer and trans women of color crushing 2018, we jumped at the chance!
Hope you enjoy!
Eddy Martínez, Vida
Written by Natalie
Where to watch: STARZ, STARZ Add-on on Hulu or Amazon Prime
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 102, “Episode 2“; 103, “Episode 3”
It may be hard to imagine, between how season one of Vida begins for Eddy — with the death of her wife — and how it ends — with her laid, battered and bruised, in a hospital bed — that she would be among the list of characters crushing it in 2018. But, what lies between how it began and how it ended is evidence of a love so deeply felt that even death could not diminish it. Eddy devotes her entire self to ensuring that the dreams she once had with Vida all come true: she is remodeling their bar, reuniting their family and, slowly, making things right with Emma.
A love more powerful than death? Yeah, Eddy is definitely crushing it.
Blanca Evangelista, Pose
Written by Carmen
Where to watch: FX, Amazon Prime, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 101, “Pilot”; 106, “Love is the Message“
First thing: If you are not yet watching F/X’s Pose then you absolutely should be. It’s produced by Janet Mock (and Ryan Murphy), it has trans women (Janet Mock and Our Lady J) in the writers room, it has trans women directing episodes (Oh look! Janet, again!), and it boasts the largest cast of trans women ever on television. This is what we are talking about when we say that representation matters.
It’s more than just a number’s game. Blanca Evangelista is the kind of character I’ve been waiting my whole life for. She’s an Afro-Latina, Puerto Rican, and fighting like hell to keep her queer chosen family together and make a name for herself in this world. MJ Rodriguez is a breakout star and now that she has your attention, she’s damn sure running with it. I dare you to watch her and try and take your eyes away. You can’t. It’s impossible.
Adena El-Amin, The Bold Type
Written by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Where to watch: Freeform, Amazon Prime, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 201, “Feminist Army”; 202, “Rose Colored Glasses”; 203, “The Scarlet Letter”
Adena has always been one of the most compelling characters on The Bold Type, even when the show sometimes struggles to figure out where to place her in an episode. She’s confident, talented, and not afraid to push back on others, even challenging her girlfriend’s parents a bit when they try to minimize the power of labels. She has always been proud of being a Muslim lesbian, and she’ll never stop telling people who she is. Her conversation with Kat at the beginning of season two is groundbreaking in its depiction of the complicated, intimate, sometimes uncomfortable conversations that two sexual partners should have in order to have more fulfilling sex lives and relationships. The fact that it happens between two femmes of color makes it all the more special.
Jane Ramos, Jane The Virgin
Written by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Where to watch: The CW, Netflix
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 412, “Chapter 76”; 414, “Chapter 78”; 415, “Chapter 79”; 416, “Chapter 80”
We all felt it. That small shift in the universe when Jane Ramos a.k.a. JR showed up in Petra Solano’s life. The chemistry was undeniable, Rosario Dawson oozing with a sensuality that somehow seemed explicitly queer right off the bat. JR may have made some mistakes—namely, succumbing to blackmail and losing her license to practice law in the process—but the way her attraction and feelings for Petra develop is so pure and tingly, full of the kind of bright but believable romance that this show does so dang well.
Anissa Pierce, Black Lightning
Written by Natalie
Where to watch: The CW, Netflix
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 102, “LaWanda: The Book of Hope“; 105, “And Then the Devil Brought the Plague: The Book of Green Light”
So this feels a little literal, no? I mean, from the moment she grabs the rim of the porcelain sink in her bathroom, only to have it break off in her hands, Anissa Pierce is, quite literally, crushing it. She repeats this feat throughout the season, donning the Thunder suit, crushing the enemies of truth and justice, with enviable swagger. In a world that insists on reminding us of how vulnerable we are, here comes Thunder, a bulletproof black lesbian, to remind us the bounds of black girl magic may well be limitless.
That said, I wouldn’t mind if Black Lightning found more time in season two to let Anissa Pierce crush it outside her Thunder suit.
Emma Hernandez, Vida
Written by Carmen
Where to watch: STARZ, STARZ Add-on on Hulu or Amazon Prime
Episode(s) where they crushed it: All of Them! But also, 103, “Episode 3”; 104, “Episode 4“
Emma Hernandez, Vida’s central protagonist had quite the arc in just six episodes. She was forced to move home to help deal with her mother’s death. Her mother, who ostracized Emma as a teenager because of her homosexuality, turned out to be gay herself and secretly married to a woman that Emma now must share her inheritance with. That’s… ummm… a lot of baggage. She also has to save her family from financial ruin, figure out how keep their business out of the hands of greedy developers, and – SURPRISE! – keep herself together when her old ex-girlfriend somehow becomes her very new love interest all over again. Somehow, Emma finds a way to balance all of those complexities with grit and power you can’t turn your eyes away from.
Also, she starred in the best, most raw queer women’s sex scene ever filmed for television. Ever. EVER. Yeah, I’d call that crushing it.
Annalisa “Quiet Ann” Zayas, Claws
Written by Natalie
Where to watch: TNT, Amazon Prime, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 204, “Scream”
The Dalai Lama once said, “don’t ever mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance or my kindness for weakness. Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” Few characters embody that as well as Quiet Ann Zayas. Slowly but surely, Claws continues to peel back the layers of Ann to reveal Ann, the young mother, forced to give up her child at 17, and Ann, the college-educated polyglot who was once married to a male professor, and Ann, the unapologetic dyke who gave up the love of her life to protect the family she’d chosen. Ann might not be saying much, but there’s strength in her silence and we’d all do well to pay attention.
Angel Evangelista, Pose
Written by Natalie
Where to watch: FX, Amazon Prime, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 103, “Giving and Receiving”; 106, “Love Is the Message”
Soon after Pose first premiered, Ryan Murphy sent out a since-deleted tweet bemoaning that, as Angel climbed into the car with a john, the audience seemed frightened for her. He wouldn’t do that to one of his characters, he assured us, seemingly ignoring that for years, depictions of sex featuring trans women on television — especially trans women who are sex workers — have been tied to danger. Pose, and especially Angel Evangelista, are rewriting everything we’ve been programmed to believe about trans women and sexuality, and it is glorious.
There is no greater example of Angel absolutely crushing it than in Pose‘s most recent episode, where she stands unapologetically in her truth, as she’s confronted by her ex-boyfriend’s wife. She is unbothered and unbossed and encourages us to be the same.
Arthie Premkumar, Glow
Written by Kayla
Where to watch: Netflix
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 208, “The Good Twin”; 210, “Every Potato Has A Receipt”
Arthie and new girl on the GLOW squad Yolanda Rivas become roommates during season two and, well, crushing-on-a-roommate is a queer tale as old as time. Arthie is still in the very early stages of her coming out journey, but even their idiot director Sam can see the hearts in her eyes for Yolanda. They share a dreamy dance in one episode (and we all know how I feel about the concept of two women ballroom dancing together), and Arthie even shows up at the strip club to support her gal pal and appears to be having the time of her little baby queer life there. It’s still incredible rare to see South Asian queer women on television, and I’m beyond excited by the prospect of Arthie’s sexuality journey (Spoiler alert: They kiss in the season finale!) being explored more next season.
Kat Edison, The Bold Type
Written by Carmen
Where to watch: Freeform, Amazon Prime, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 201, “Feminist Army”; 205, “Stride of Pride”; 206, “The Domino Effect”
Do you know who has been really growing as a person lately? The Bold Type’s Kat Edison. She’s just been sprouting all over the place, like the new buds on a spring tree. She went down on a woman for the first time. She’s confronted her own internalized bias and blind spots about race. She’s introduced her girlfriend to her parents. She’s held her friends accountable about their privilege, even when that meant having the tough convos. I just feel so proud of her, you know? And sure, growth is not always pretty. It’s often downright messy, I think Kat is learning that the hard way right now. But hey, even at her messiest she’s making out with hot girls on the dance floor. There are worst places to be.
(I love #Kadena, ok! And I believe they will make it through this rough patch! Please don’t fight me!)
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn 99
Written by Carmen
Where to watch: FOX, Hulu
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 522, “Jake & Amy”
The legend of Rosa Diaz will be spoken of in hushed, reverent tones throughout queer women’s television folklore for years to come. First, Stephanie Beatriz came out as bisexual. Then, just 18 months later, so did the character she plays on TV. And if that wasn’t enough, somehow in 2018 Stephanie Beatriz threaded the needle just right so GINA FREAKING RODRIGUEZ could play her potential new love interest!! How did she work such bruja magic? Honestly, I don’t know and I don’t care. In the Brooklyn 99 season finale, Rodriguez’s character hopped out of that Lyft she was driving and into our hearts.
Anyone who can pull such a hottie deserves to be on this list. Four for you Rosa Diaz, you go Rosa Diaz.
Hen Wilson, 9-1-1
Written by Natalie
Where to watch: Hulu, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 108, “Karma’s a Bitch”; 109, “Trapped”
In her TV retrospective last year, Riese pointed out that only 16 of the 204 lesbian, bisexual and queer female characters, were masculine-of-center so adding a dapper butch like Hen Wilson to a diminishing MOC roster is a welcome treat (especially when she looks like Aisha Hinds).
On 9-1-1, Hen is allowed to do what straight women on primetime television have been allowed to do for years: crush it in their professional lives — Hen literally saves a homeless man from being crushed by a trash compactor in one episode — while being all kinds of messy in their personal lives. Thankfully, by the end of the season, Hen’s come to her senses and made her wife and son her priority.
Kat Sandoval, Madam Secretary
Written by Carmen
Where to watch: CBS, Amazon Prime, iTunes
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 414, “Refuge”
Kat! Kat, Kat, Kat. She’s brilliant, passionate, and her swag can be seen from outer-fucking-space! I could write a thousand love letters to Sara Ramirez’s most recent television turn as policy advisor Kat Sandoval (and thankfully because of my job at Autostraddle, I have), but perhaps no moment on network television has thus far better exemplified a queer woman of color “crushing it” in 2018 than Kat coming out as bi and queer to her work colleague Jay:
“I [used to have] long hair. I wore dresses and heels. And, sometimes it felt like me? And sometimes it felt like a costume that I had to wear in order to survive – to gain access. Now I don’t have to fit in to play the game. Now I make my own rules. And number one is being my authentic self.”
CRUSHED IT.
Yolanda Rivas, Glow
Written by Kayla
Where to watch: Netflix
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 202, “Candy Of The Year”; 208, “The Good Twin,” 210, “Every Potato Has A Receipt”
The most glaring issue with GLOW’s first season is its lack of lesbians. Season two adds out wrestler Yolanda, who, when Alison Brie’s Ruth asks her if she likes girls, matter-of-factly replies “I LOVE girls.” She’s super out and super confident, quickly becoming a part of the tight-knit GLOW sisterhood.
Elena Alvarez, One Day At A Time
Written by Natalie
Where to watch: Netflix
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 113, “Quinces”; 208, “What Happened”
Television likes to tell certain stories about queer teens — either everything is awful or everything is great — but the truth of that lived experience often falls somewhere in between. Few characters have reflected that reality better than Elena Alvarez. Her first crush has a boyfriend but she awkwardly falls into a loving relationship, nonetheless. Elena knows who she is and even who she wants to be with but she doesn’t have everything figured out. She stumbles trying to make her relationship work.
“I’m moving on with my life. I’m gonna be fine,” Elena tells her unsupportive father during ODAAT‘s second season. “I’m just really bummed out for you. You’re gonna miss stuff and that sucks, ’cause I’m pretty great.”
We know, Elena, we know.
Toni Topaz, Riverdale
Written by Kayla
Where to watch: The CW, Netflix, Amazon Prime
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 214, “The Hills Have Eyes”; 215, “There Will Be Blood”; 217, “The Noose Tightens,” 222, “Brave New World”
Toni’s relationship with Cheryl Blossom was one of the most exciting developments of Riverdale’s last season, but I think it’s important to note that Toni also very much stands on her own as a character. Her loyalty to the serpents and her convictions in her beliefs are strongly felt in all of her actions. She calls out the whitewashing of the town’s history and takes a stand. She’s also fun and flirty and a supportive force for Cheryl, who doesn’t have many people in her life she can trust. She also literally executes a conversion therapy camp rescue mission like a goddamn Bisexual Batman. I’m thrilled that Vanessa Morgan has been upped to regular status for season three.
Cruz (I’m Too Sexy for a Last Name), Vida
Written by Kayla
Where to watch: STARZ, STARZ Add-on on Hulu or Amazon Prime
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 102, “Episode 2“; 104, “Episode 4“; 106, “Episode 6”
Cruz might not be the biggest player on Vida, but her presence is electric from the start. She bursts back into Emma’s life like a flash flood when she appears in the pilot, and even though very little is said, it’s clear right away that these two women mean something to each other. The sexual tension persists, finally boiling over when Emma ends up partying with Cruz and her crew of hot qpoc at a bar one night. Cruz challenges Emma, but she also sees her. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of her in season two.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Lena Adams Foster, The Fosters
Written by Carmen
Where to watch: Freeform, Netflix
Episode(s) where they crushed it: 513, “Line in the Sand”; 518, “Just Say Yes” ; 522, “Where the Heart Is”
2018 has thus far been banging for queer women of color on television. I would go so far as to call it a landmark. A breakthrough, even! But, there was a time when our waters were much more choppy. There was a biracial black lesbian on TV who had to hold it down almost entirely by herself. That lesbian was Lena Adams-Foster.
This year The Fosters gave her a happy ending fit for a social justice queen – gorgeous as ever, Lena’s out there making her mark in the world, skinny dipping with her hot wife in the Caribbean and running for California State Assembly.
So, this one’s for you, Lena! Thank you for your effortless boho style, your giving heart, your generous spirit. You crushed it for five long years. We will never forget you.
10 Lesbian and Bisexual Comedy Specials to Watch After “Nanette”
Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette has taken the internet by storm, and rightly so — it’s a transformative, searing work of comedic genius. But Gadsby’s not the first queer woman to critique our society through the lens of her gender and sexuality in a stand-up special. Lesbian and bisexual and non-binary comedians have been using their unique perspectives to provide scathing, riotous commentary on everything from politics to pop culture for decades. Below are ten comedy specials you can view after Nanette, to laugh and maybe cry and mostly appreciate how far we’ve come.
Cameron Esposito, Rape Jokes (2018)
Esposito’s Rape Jokes was universally adored when it landed a few months ago. The Daily Beast called it the first great stand-up set of the #MeToo era. The A.V. Club says it offers humor and empathy at a time when they’re most needed. Mother Jones says she turns the lowest form of comedy into something groundbreaking.
Sabrina Jalees, The Comedy Line-Up (2018)
The Comedy Line-Up is Netflix’s way of showcasing up-and-coming comedic talent in 15-minute segments, instead of risking the money on full-hour specials. It’s like stand-up speed-dating. Queer comic Sabrina Jalees — best known before this for her 14-episode run on Canada’s Got Talent — delights the audience in episode six, talking about coming out to her Pakistani family, and sharing her thoughts on feminism and sexuality.
Gina Yashere, The Standups (2018)
The Standups is The Comedy Line-Up, upgraded to half-hour sets. Yashere, a favorite from the recently released season two, did a special on Seso before it shuttered, and used that material plus some new stuff for this longer special. She told Vulture it’s the first special she’s done that she didn’t have to produce herself. Last year Yashere told BBC4 Radio that growing up, lesbians on TV were always white women, and she wants to be part of changing that. (You might also know here from her stint as the British Correspondent on The Daily Show.)
Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher, Back to Back (2017)
Butcher and Esposito are the first queer married couple to go on tour and share a stage together; they traveled around in a bus and sold out venues around the country last summer during their Back to Back tour. You can’t watch it, but you can listen to it. Esposito described the show to me as “A shift away from a stand-up tour to a new environment, an experience. In this moment, especially, there’s a feeling of needing a place to go that’s supportive and affirming. There’s a need to know that when you’re going into a space, the ideas that are going to be presented, even if you don’t agree with all of them, they’re not going to psychologically harm you.”
Margaret Cho, PsyCHO (2015)
In Cho’s most recent stand-up special, she tackled racism, terrorism, and her own bisexuality. She also made headlines by stripping down on stage and explaining that she uses tattoos to reclaim the territory of her body that was, for years, afflicted with abuse. She even wonders aloud at one point if this is the show that is finally going to get her “canned.” (Spoiler alert: It did not.)
Tig Notaro, Boyish Girl Interrupted (2015) + Happy to Be Here (2018)
Boyish Girl Interrupted is Tig Notaro’s first comedy special after she became a household name with her “Good Evening. Hello. I Have Cancer.” routine from 2012. Boyish Girl Interrupted was nominated for both an Emmy and a Grammy. She followed that up with this year’s Happy to Be Here, which Slate called “a too-rare encounter with lesbian joy.”
Wanda Sykes, I’ma Be Me (2009)
I’ma Be Me was Sykes’ first stand-up special after coming out as a lesbian in the wake of Proposition 8 passing and gay marriage becoming illegal in California in 2008. She’d never joked about being gay in front of an audience that big before. “It’s harder being gay than it is being black. I didn’t have to come out to my parents as black,” is probably her most famous joke from the special, but the whole thing is rife with commentary on her sexuality and gender, and its was her most skewering set about racism up until that point.
Ellen DeGeneres, The Beginning (2000) + Here and Now (2003)
These days Ellen DeGeneres isn’t regarded as much of a boundary pusher in the world of comedy, especially compared to her queer peers — but look, it’s freaking Ellen DeGeneres. She changed literally everything. The Beginning and Here and Now are probably her biggest and best specials, and she’s got another one coming to Netflix this year. Her first stand-up special in 15 years. It’ll be interesting to see how she reconciles her America’s Lesbian Sweetheart persona with the realities of a Trump presidency. Here’s hoping she burns it down!