A Record-Breaking 9 Women of Color TV Couples Fell in Love This Summer
As the TV Team closes out our summer coverage and starts preparing for the new fall television season, we realized a trend that we absolutely couldn’t wait to tell you about!
This summer, for the first time in television history (!!), there were a record breaking nine women of color couples on TV!!! That’s just counting between May and August! It’s been a summer of love for women of color (if you include interracial relationships with white women, there have been 15 relationships total), which is already a rarity – but women of color are almost never allowed to love one another on television. This is groundbreaking. Women of color finally being given space to find beauty and strength and comfort in each other for once… well, those are the kind of love stories we can’t wait to hear more of.
😍 😍 😍
Kat Edison and Tia Clayton, The Bold Type
Where to Watch: Freeform
When The Bold Type returned for its third season, I was really worried about Kat Edison. She was going through a very rough break up with her first-ever girlfriend, Adena, and it was taking a toll on her. She was also having to figure out what it meant to be queer for the first time on her own two feet and without a partner beside her. In that process Kat discovered parts of herself that she never knew before (including political aspirations!), but most importantly she discovered new confidence in the parts of life that are messy and not Social Media perfect. That confidence became infectious for Tia, her campaign manager, who’d previously had a hard and isolating time dealing with her own queerness.
Tia looks at Kat like she is a ray of sun brought to earth. In Tia, Kat finds a grounding and patient presence instead of her go-to impulsiveness. They are in many ways opposites, but that makes them an even stronger team, together. Kat and Tia have conversations about negotiating the one-two punch of systematic racism and homophobia that I never would’ve believed The Bold Type could pull off – and they do it with relatability and grace. Also, excuse me but I just have to say this, when they have sex, it’s really hot. – Carmen
Kat Edison and Adena El-Amin, The Bold Type
Where to Watch: Freeform
I have to tell the truth, when Kat and Adena broke up last summer – I was mad at Adena El-Amin. In fact, I was so mad that when Adena returned to New York at the end of The Bold Type’s third season, I was not ready to forgive her. I was happy for Kat’s new relationship with Tia, I enjoyed the woman Kat was growing up to become, and as far as I was concerned Adena had missed the boat. It was her loss. Oh man, how wrong I was.
One minute in the hallway at Scarlet in front of the elevators, and Kat knows it right away. She tries to hold it together. She wills herself not to cry. But the second she’s alone with her friends, she can’t hold it in any longer. She still loves Adena and it hasn’t gone away. Adena’s learned more about herself in their time apart as well. She realizes now that she was blaming Kat for her own insecurities. Ultimately they don’t quite stay together this time either, but The Bold Type has sold me on this: Kadena is in it for the long haul, and that is one slow burn I cannot wait to watch unfold. – Carmen
Arlene Branch and Annalisa “Quiet Ann” Zayas, Claws
Where to Watch: TNT
During the first season of Claws, Arlene Branch steps out of her unmarked police cruiser and spots Ann Zayas setting up her perch outside the nail salon. She saunters over, in her leather jacket and aviators, and flirts by way of historic trivia. It’s a rarity for Ann to be seen — everyone around her is so ostentatious, it’s easy for them to eclipse her light — but Arlene really sees her and, I think, Ann starts to fall in love with her right at that moment.
Somewhere between having her baby snatched from her teenage arms and her time in prison, Ann had stopped believing that love was possible but when Arlene offers it, she holds on for dear life, even when she shouldn’t. Dating a cop when you and your friends are laundering money for a pill mill is probably not the best idea but the heart wants what the heart wants. They plan a life together, they plan a family together and then it all falls apart. They betray each other — Ann first, then Arlene — but their attraction is undeniable and they find their way back to each other.
This season on Claws, Arlene and Ann built the family that they always wanted. They marry quietly, in a small courthouse ceremony, they listen to the heartbeat of their unborn child and then, perhaps in the greatest display of love there is, Arlene sacrifices her career life to keep their family safe. – Natalie
Delle Seyah Kendry and Aneela, Killjoys
Where to Watch: SyFy
Delle Seyah Kendry, played by Mayko Nguyen, made her mark the moment she appeared on screen, with her snarky attitude and sultry glares, and of course our love for her was only helped by her tendency to relentlessly flirt with Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen). Of course, this set shipper hearts ablaze, even though Dutch had eyes for someone else. But, in a move not unlike Jane the Virgin’s, it seemed the Powers that Be heard the pleas for a Delle Seyah/Dutch team-up and gave Kendry the next best thing: Aneela. Also played by Hannah John-Kamen, Aneela is identical in looks to Dutch, though she’s different in just about every other way.
Race isn’t really discussed in this life-or-death space race of a universe (well, alien races are I guess…), so it doesn’t really matter to them, but it’s pretty cool for us that this dream team is comprised of two women of color. Both complex and ruthless, Aneela and Kendry were dubbed the Green Queens and could be seen as villains if you weren’t paying enough attention, but upon a closer look, you can tell their love for each other is true and their intentions are good, even when their methods leave something to be desired, or when their past comes back to haunt them. In this final season, Aneela and Delle Seyah have a child (a child that is a few weeks old but also a teenager, because sci-fi) and have a few more adventures to go on together before this final season comes to a close in a few weeks. – Valerie
Nova Bordelon and Chantal Williams, Queen Sugar
Where to Watch: OWN
When Queen Sugar announced that they were finally going to give Nova Bordelon another woman love interest, I was fully prepared for Octavia Laurent (more on her below). Not in a million years did I think we would see the return of Chantal, her girlfriend from the beginning of the series.
Anytime Chantal and Nova kiss, my heart lights on fire like clockwork. I will always love them. The thing about Chantal Williams is that she is one of the few people in Nova’s life who does not fall for her bullshit. She knows her worth, and whether it’s about community politics or matters of the heart – she is always willing to point out the ways Nova can grow to get on her level. I want Nova to be the best possible version of herself, and Chantal wants that too. She wants a relationship she can grow in, which I think is the whole point of relationships at all. But until Nova is ready to make those choices on her own, I fear they will continue to be ships passing in the night. As long as that means we still get to drop in on Chantal every once and a while… well, I’m learning to be OK with that. – Carmen
Nova Bordelon and Octavia Laurent, Queen Sugar
Where to Watch: OWN
There’s everything wrong with Octavia Laurent’s past affair with her then-student, Nova Bordelon, or her current affair with the graduate student who looks like Nova’s doppelganger. Professors who sleep with students are unfairly taking advantage of uneven power dynamics. It’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s wrong. But, still…there’s something tantalizing about how easily Nova and Octavia slide back into the romance that they once shared.
It begins, as I imagine it used to when Nova was a student, with an intellectual sparing match, but once they’re alone, emotions come to the fore. Like her family, Octavia’s hurt by her portrayal — or lack thereof — in Nova’s book, but unlike Nova’s family, Octavia offers her former student a way to make amends… on her lips, in her arms, between her sheets. This will end badly, we know it from the moment they debate who made the other scream louder, but for the moment, it gives Nova hope: someone who loved her once, hurt by her writing, could love her again. – Natalie
Yolanda (Yoli) Renna and Marisa, Grand Hotel
Where to Watch: ABC
I started Grand Hotel on a lark. I don’t know why, but I love cheesy soapy television in the summer. I think it’s all the rosé. Anyway, I fell for this show right away, but there was something about Yoli. The ugly duckling to her twin sister’s supposedly more “beautiful” swan, my heart broke for her. She was the afterthought in her own family! That’s no way to live!
Then came Marisa, who saw Yoli in a way no one else in her life could. To Marisa, Yoli was the most beautiful woman in the room every time, even when she was mopping the floors. When her family lets her down, it’s Marisa who is there to pick her up. It’s Marisa who strokes her thumb against her cheek and reminds her that she’s gorgeous, brave, and not deserving of life’s scraps. It’s Marisa who gives her the strength to come out to her family and finally forge a new relationship – as equals – with her sister.
And when Marisa needs Yoli most, because she’s terrified of what it means to be undocumented in our country right now, Yoli doesn’t think twice of being there for her, too. “We’re family now,” Yoli tells Marisa while she wipes away her tears. Sometimes there is romance (and trust me, this has a lot of romance), but sometimes there is an intimacy of shared community that can’t be found anywhere else. Yoli and Marisa have found both. – Carmen
Arthie Premkumar and Yolanda Rivas, GLOW
Where to Watch: Netflix
In Season Three, Arthie and Yolanda on Netflix’s GLOW are in a full-on relationship, which has its ups and downs as the wrestling team settles into their new home in Vegas. Arthie is still figuring out her sexuality, and there are lots of adorable baby gay moments (some that will maybe make you cry a little bit!). But they also get some hot sex scenes, including one where they literally turn wrestling moves into foreplay!!!!!!! FINALLY this implicitly VERY gay show is explicitly gay. Sometimes these characters are a little too boxed-in, but their relationship and the drama within it is one of the season’s ongoing subplots, and things end on a promising note for the lovebirds. – Kayla
Kelsey Phillips and Brooke Morgan, Dear White People
Where to Watch: Netflix
Ahh, the joy of young awkward nerds in love. Brooke and Kelsey have one thing in common – they both annoy everyone else in their friend group. Brooke, a journalism major at Dear White People’s fictional Ivy League setting, chases career ambitions above everything else. It makes her kind of hard to get along with. Kelsey, also a student at the school, has been sheltered by her class privilege, so much so that people find it difficult to relate to her. Both of them are the kind of black girls you don’t often get to see on TV – outsiders who have friends in their black peer group, but more often than not feel alone. That is, until they find each other.
Kelsey’s slow courtship of Brooke is hands down the most swoon-worthy story I watched this summer. Wait! “Swoon-worthy” is wrong. These girls are far too awkward for that. What is the word for “made me shove my face into a pillow and scream out of delight and then draw little imaginary hearts around their cute little faces with my finger tips”? Dear White People may have a checkered past when it comes to black lesbian and queer representation, but finally in Season Three – they got something right. – Carmen
Dear White People Season 3 Finally Gives Us the Nerdy Black Gay Girls We Deserve
It’s no secret that Dear White People has a checkered history with its depiction of queer black women. In both the Netflix comedy series, which premiered its third season on the streaming network earlier this month, and the original film that the series is based on, openly gay director/writer/producer Justin Simien has created a world that is incredibly smart and stylized. His depiction of being a black college student at a predominantly white university is sometimes too on the nose with its satire, but is ultimately always a fresh and loving tribute to smart ass, political, and pop culturally aware black kids in their early 20s (obviously I can relate). However, black lesbians and queer women have consistently fallen short.
In the first season, ‘90s legend Nia Long guest starred as Professor Neika Hobbs, a lesbian-identified professor of African American history who is engaged to Monique, but is having a secret affair with a male undergraduate student. That sounds awful and gets worse! Though the trend is very slowly turning, it’s still rare to see a black woman in a romantic relationship with another black woman on television. In that sense, Neika and Monique were making history. So was both disappointing and impactful that Neika spent the season hooking up with her male student on-screen without ever showing the romantic relationship between her and her (appropriately aged, NOT A STUDENT) woman fiancée. Yeah, that’s not a great start.
Nia Long in Dear White People Season One
In the show’s second season, the TV series seemingly attempted to correct these early mistakes, this time focusing on two separate lesbian plots that were much smaller, but better executed. In the first of those two plots, Lena Waithe (who also helped to produce the original Dear White People film) guest starred in a parody of VH1’s Love and Hip Hop franchise. In the second plot, a supporting character in the series, Kelsey Phillips, comes out as a lesbian to her roommate Coco. Up until her coming out scene, Kelsey had largely served as Dear White People’s comic relief thanks in part to her Hillary Banks-style valley girl vocal inflection and love for her dog, Sorbet. Her coming out scene is subtle, but it’s certainly no joke and signaled a broader future development for her character.
Now in its third season, Dear White People takes even greater swings at black queer women’s representation – further developing Kelsey into a three-dimensional character that’s independent of her roommate and one-off jokes, while also facilitating the coming out of another established character. Brooke Morgan is a media studies undergrad whose main character traits up to this point have been: being nerdy, being very annoying, being an excellent student journalist, and having lots of random hookups with men. Brooke and Kelsey start regularly crossing paths at the campus coffee house where Brooke works as the manager. Their courtship is a slow burn over the first half of the season. It’s sweet and dorky and by the third or fourth time they were on my laptop screen I was physically drawing little invisible hearts over their faces with my fingers! Squeee!!! Little black nerdy girls in baby gay love!! SO CUTE!!
I loved everything about how unexpected and awkward Brooke and Kelsey were together! I love that Kelsey, who’s been primarily known as being ditzy, rich, and sheltered starts to fall in love with a student who has to work her way through school. I love that Brooke and Kelsey both drive everyone around them absolutely bonkers, but they don’t mind each other’s most irritating traits. I love that because of Kelsey, Brooke starts to come out to herself as sexually fluid (she never gives herself a label) and that because of Brooke, the audience learns new layers about Kelsey that would have otherwise been left as broad, unexplored strokes. During their build up, everything around them just feels pink and bubbly and caffeinated. It’s a welcome romantic reprieve on a show that often leads the one-two punch of its jokes with heavy politics first.
Given Dear White People’ past, I was worried that Brooke’s sexuality was being set up for the worst of biphobic tropes. And Kelsey, who is looking for a longterm romantic relationship, is wary of being a mere college “experimentation” for Brooke, which really didn’t do much to assuage my fears. Without veering too far into spoilers, I will say that the two have surprisingly mature conversation about their specific wants and needs before taking their romantic relationship to the next level. Even though they don’t end the season together, that’s because their relationship helps Brooke grow and realize new truths about her own goals and desires, not because she’s written as some cruel or untrustworthy “evil” bisexual whom lesbians should stay away from. A door is left open for a fourth season friendship (or maybe – if I’m selfishly lucky – a romantic rekindling!) between them. Admittedly it’s a delicate tightrope to walk, but I think Dear White People ends up on the right side of that history.
Dear White People’s greatest strength has always been its willingness to dive into black interiority. By that I mean, Dear White People not only showcases that blackness is not a monolith from the outside looking in, but also within that black diversity, each character has their own unique set of motivations and worldviews. There’s quite literally no other show like it on television right now that’s willing to dig deep into black psyches. Which is why I was delighted that in its third season, the show made a deliberate point out of building out its LGBT characters. Dear White People has always had a strong, fully developed, central gay character in Lionel – the male lead of the original film and an early protagonist for the series. This year Lionel finally makes gay friends and develops a queer crew that includes – D’unte, the flamboyant grad student who becomes his mentor (Griffin Michaels, in the season breakout role. You won’t forget him!); Genifer, a trans woman student played by trans actress Quei Tann; Michael, an HIV+ student who eventually becomes Lionel’s love interest; and our very own darling Kelsey.
There’s a scene where the crew is hanging out together in Lionel’s room as Kelsey is first deciding what to flirt text to Brooke early in their relationship. I had to pause it. It’s a small thing, maybe not even noticeable if you aren’t black, and queer, and used to never seeing yourself on-screen. There were five queer black kids together, just chilling on a bed, limbs in a pile and laughter abundant. FIVE OF THEM. TOGETHER. I had chills. No matter how many times I may have lived it in my own life, I had never actually watched it before displayed in front of me. Not in a major series. Not even once. That moment? It’s a gift of recognition that I’ll cherish.
Laverne Cox also guest stars this year. Her character, Cynthia Fray, is a filmmaker visiting campus and serves as surprisingly fun Ava DuVernay/ Spike Lee hybrid. Cox is gifted as always, but I have found her guest work this year to be incredibly strong – both here and in A Black Lady Sketch Show. Including Cynthia Fray, there are a grand total of seven black LGBT characters on this season of Dear White People. That’s not to be overlooked, it makes this the largest number of any black cast this side of the black gay classic Noah’s Arc, which aired a full thirteen years ago!
On top of everything else mentioned, you can expect to find thoughtful and complicated meditations on the impact of #MeToo in black communities, along with some very funny (even if a little dated already) satire on The Handmaid’s Tale, Elisabeth Moss, Scientology, and white feminism. I’m not sure that Season Three of Dear White People is it’s strongest season, it finds itself lost and meandering for the entire first arc before settling in and ending the season on firm ground. Still, it’s positively its gayest season by a mile – and hey, that’s not nothing!
Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out: Baby Gays
One of the interesting things about doing a Classics Region this year is seeing how LGBT stories have evolved over time. I think about Spencer Carlin from South of Nowhere and how her mom reacted to finding out about Spencer’s relationship with Ashley compared to how Randall and Beth handled their daughter Tess’ revelation on This is Us. I think about the limits placed on intimacy between Emily and her girlfriends on Pretty Little Liars and I compare it to what Nomi’s allowed to do now on grown-ish or how Sabrina introduces her half-dressed girlfriend to her family on The Mick. I think of Bianca’s one time girlfriend, Zoe, on All My Children and much the ground has shifted for trans stories to now have Nia Nal — a trans character played by a trans actress — come out to James Olson on Supergirl.
There are so many stories left to tell about LGBT people…in a very real way, the honest sharing of those stories remains in its infancy….but, as I hope this edition of March Madness makes clear, we’ve come far in a short amount of time.
As with yesterday, you have 48 hours to vote for your favorites in the Baby Gay region. If you’ve seen the episodes, vote accordingly. If not, check out my descriptions or links to video of those scenes (where available)…who knows, you might find a whole new show to love.
Remember: We’ll be revealing the Grown region and the International region on Wednesday and Thursday!
#1. Elena Alvarez – One Day at a Time
First and foremost: #SAVEODAAT, but also:
“Television has a habit of linking coming out with romance, as if your identity isn’t your own without someone else there to affirm it, and while that might make for great TV — who doesn’t love a love story, after all — the conflation of those two things has always struck me as a bit problematic. I didn’t expect One Day at a Time, the reboot of the 1970s Norman Lear multi-cam sitcom, to be the show challenged that convention, but it did.
When Elena comes out to her family, it’s about her. It’s not about some girl that’s waiting in the wings, equally smitten with her…it’s about Elena and this realization she’s come to about herself. Coming out is the moment we turn quiet revelations — borne, in Elena’s case, from countless hours of binge watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, staring longingly at Kristen Stewart and kissing the wrong people — into public pronouncements and One Day at a Time gives Elena the space to own that moment.
The show, guided in part by two queer writers, allows Elena’s coming out to be a season-long triumph; not a byproduct of feelings she has for someone else, but a product of her fully accepting and loving herself.
#16. Kelsey Philips – Dear White People
In season one of Dear White People, the show’s self-proclaimed lesbian character, Neika Hobbs, fell into one of our least favorite gay tropes: lesbian sleeps with a guy. On top of that, Hobbs was a professor so it became “lesbian sleeps with a guy in a gross abuse of power.” It was not good. It was so bad that I couldn’t even appreciate seeing Nia Long play a lesbian again (as she’d done in If These Walls Could Talk 2). But, thankfully, the show learned from its missteps and gifted us with Kelsey Philips in season two.
According to Carmen, “Kelsey had a tiny role in Dear White People‘s first season. She served as comic relief thanks to her Hillary Banks valley girl vocal inflection, all around ditzy personality, and her love for her dog, named Sorbet. Her waters get a bit deeper in the second season, where she plays a crucial supporting role in Coco’s stand alone episode.”
“I’m a lesbian, love. Gold star,” Kelsey announces (“Chapter IV”), affirming that this show won’t be repeating its past mistake. “I’ve been out ever since Queen Janet’s wardrobe malfunction.”
#2. Tess Pearson – This Is Us
The first person Tess Pearson comes out to is her Aunt Kate, who’s visiting from the West Coast for Thanksgiving…and because Kate can’t be there to support her niece, Kate asks her mother (Rebecca) to keep an eye on her eldest grandchild. Rebecca tries to achieve that delicate balance of being an outlet for Tess while also not forcing conversations Tess is just not ready to have. She respects Tess’ silence for the most part but advises her to not let secrets — a thing that Rebecca Pearson knows a lot about — fester.
I’ll let Carmen take it from here:
With her grandmother’s voice ringing in her ears, Tess decides to tell her parents. This Is Us is infamous for making its audience cry, and with Tess’ big coming out, they shot all the way to the stars. Her coming out is messy. She doesn’t know all the right words or how to explain her emotions eloquently. She comes downstairs in her bathrobe and blurts out all her worries at once, leaving them there like hot spilled soup on the tile floor. She doesn’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect phrasing or for everything to be just right. There’s mucus obviously coating the back of her throat, snot’s running out of her nose, her eyes are shining red with tears, her young voice wavers and cracks. But that’s okay. It’s triumphant, because you know what? She doesn’t let the anxiety that had been eating her up for weeks win.
#15. Sabrina – The Mick
Sabrina Pemberton got a girlfriend. If I’m not mistaken, Sabrina has made brief mention of being not-straight before (or maybe I’m mixing her up with the actress’s role of Tea on the US Skins) but this week she kisses a girl named Alexis full on the mouth and calls her her girlfriend.
Mick calls her a lez, which Sabrina is offended by, not because of what it stands for, but because Mick assumed if she wasn’t straight she must be a lesbian just because she has a girlfriend. And when Mick asks for a better word to describe her niece, Sabrina says my new favorite line, “Stop trying to label me, you ancient bag of sand.”
And listen, I think labels can be very useful, and use lesbian and queer myself, but I laughed out loud at the indignation in her voice, the look on everyone’s face, and the phrase “ancient bag of sand.”
#3. Tamia “Coop” Cooper – All American
When we first meet Tamia “Coop” Cooper, it’s hard to believe that she’s hiding anything. As she walks the halls of South Crenshaw High or the streets of her neighborhood, she affirms who she is in her style, her swagger and the women who catch her eye. For Coop, that’s enough — she doesn’t have to say she’s gay because it’s obvious — and whoever can’t see her for who she is, is responsible for their own blindness. But what she doesn’t realize, until she meets a girl who makes her want more, is that by not saying it aloud…by living under a version of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in her own home…Coop’s been carrying everyone else’s shame.
“Mom, look at me, please,” Coop begs, when she comes out for the very first time. “I am gay and there is no amount of prayer that’s gonna change that. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
#14. Casey – Atypical
No one says a word when Casey comes out on Atypical…not really. She and Izzie have just returned from a trip four towns over to find a 7-Eleven that serves Cotton Candy slurpees which, actually, seems like a great use of time. After their near kiss during her birthday party — the culmination of feelings that have grown between the pair throughout the season — Casey runs straight to her boyfriend, Evan, to have sex again. But even as she admits that she loves Evan, Casey draws her hand closer to Izzie.
“It’s just, sometimes a thing feels, like so right. You know?” Casey says, clearly no longer talking about her boyfriend (whose call she ignores as they sit).
Their fingers touch and, in an intense and beautiful way that I can’t fully explain, their fingers move slowly until their holding hands. No one has to say anything. They both know.
#4. Kate Messner – Everything Sucks
The first time that Kate Messner comes out to Luke on Everything Sucks, it doesn’t stick. The A/V Club shows up at the auditorium to make amends with the Theater club…and do so with a six-pack of Zima — which, can I just say, I revisited recently and doesn’t taste nearly as good as my teenage self thought — and a movie pitch for an extraterrestrial version of Romeo and Juliet. It’s enough to assuage the anger of the Theater kids and eventually, despite Kate’s reluctance, they all settle in to play spin the bottle.
Kate spins first and it lands on Emaline but Jessica immediately discounts the spin because it’s two girls. Emaline resists but Kate is quick to accept the judgment and let the next person go. Luke spins next and, of course, it lands on Kate. They step into the prop closet and make awkward small talk before sharing their first kiss. Luke thinks it was awesome but Kate absolutely does not.
“I think I’m a lesbian,” she admits. She comes out at that moment because the emotional difference between what she wants — to kiss her crush, Emaline — and what she has — this kiss with her friend — could not be more apparent.
#13. Courtney Crimsen – 13 Reasons Why
Throughout season one of 13 Reasons Why, everything Courtney Crimsen does is steeped in her own internalized homophobia. So desperate to keep her sexuality a secret, she isolated and spread rumors about Hannah Baker…and, ultimately, Courtney became reason 5 of the 13 reasons that Hannah took her own life. But in Season 2 — did we really need a season 2 of 13 Reasons Why, no we did not, but I don’t make the rules — Courtney takes responsibility for her role in alienating Hannah.
“I liked her. I was the one with the crush,” Courtney admits during her testimony, revealing the truth as her dads watch from the gallery. “It was my first kiss, see? And I felt like it was ruined. Maybe ’cause her own first kiss had been ruined, maybe because she just felt bad, but that’s the real reason she kissed me back.That’s what’s in those photos Tyler took: proof that she was a good friend. And maybe that means I was bullying her the whole time.”
#5. Willow Rosenberg – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
There’s nothing quite as tender baby gay as coming out while clutching your teddy bear, which is exactly how Willow told Buffy that there was something special going on between her and Tara, something different, something powerful — and that it was really complicating her feelings about Oz’s return. Buffy paced around for a second, saying Willow’s name over and over like a weirdo, but when Willow straight-up asked her if she was freaked out, she sat right down on her best friend’s bed, looked her in the eye, and said, “No.” Willow didn’t want to hurt anyone, never wanted to hurt anyone — well, I mean, eventually she did but that was later — and Buffy told her that somebody was going to get hurt, no matter how hard she tried; the only thing Willow could do was be honest. And she was.
#12. Toni Topaz – Riverdale
Toni Topaz had one of the most casual coming outs on a network where people just come out left and right these days. During breakfast after an evening romp with Jughead, who was trying to let her down easy, she just said, “I like girls more anyway.” It turns out it’s not that casual in her real life, though; her family has basically disowned and ostracized her for being bisexual (which, weirdly, in Riverdale still doesn’t make you as bad as the other serial-killing, cult-leading, child-murdering, mob boss parents???). Toni’s relationship to coming out to her parents forced her to be hard in some ways, but made her even more empathetic in others, which is pretty damn gay.
#6. Nicole – Fresh Off The Boat
Nicole picks up Eddie in her Saturn on her way home from the movies. Her friends ditched her to hang out with their boyfriends, which she doesn’t understand on two levels: 1) Boys, blech. 2) They’d made plans to see Jodie Foster in Contact, okay? That means that Ellen’s “The Puppy Episode” happened just a few months ago in Nicole’s world and Ellen herself just became the most famous lesbian in the world and lesbian lesbian lesbian is in the air everywhere. Trust me, I was exactly Nicole’s age at exactly this moment in time.
Nicole invites Eddie to hang out some more, one-on-one, which makes him think she’s into him, which bamboozles him and he ends up blurting out over dinner (free chips and salsa) that he likes her but that he’s got already got a lady in his life. At the same time she blurts out that she’s into girls. It freaks him out a little and that freaks her out a lot; she’d never said it out loud before. By the end of their car ride home, he’s come around and starts pelting her with questions like best friends do.
#11. Genesis Pérez – Mi Familia Perfecta
After her brother tells Genesis that Megan, her new friend and teammate, is gay, Genesis can, seemingly, think of nothing else. She watches Megan get dressed after practice and when she’s caught, she covers asks Megan directly about her brother’s suspicions. Megan confirms her brother’s suspicions but assures Genesis that they can still be friends. Besides, Megan says, Genesis isn’t even her type and it’s that revelation that yields a flash of disappointment on Genesis’ face. In the weeks that follow, the affection that Genesis feels for Megan becomes even more apparent and, eventually, her best friend, Marisol volunteers to listen if she ever wants to talk about what’s going on with Megan…and it leads to Genesis finally coming out.
As I noted when I reviewed this show over the summer, Spanish-language television is woefully behind in terms of LGBT representation. GLAAD found that of the 698 characters on the networks’ scripted primetime series, only 19 were LGBT characters and, of those, just 6 were women. So while, at times, Genesis’ coming out story and her romance with Megan felt like , they were a definite step forward for inclusion.
#7. Cheryl Blossom – Riverdale
Later, Cheryl and Toni find themselves alone at the movies, and Cheryl lets her in a little more. They agree to watch Love, Simon together and get milkshakes after. For as in-your-face as the Love, Simon product placement is, it’s smart of the writers to actually have the movie play such a significant role in this narrative. Cheryl relates to the film’s protagonist and how repressing his sexuality has suffocated him. She entirely opens herself up to Toni and tells her that she used to love someone. Toni thinks she’s talking about Jason at first, but she isn’t. She’s talking about Heather, her best friend in middle school who she loved. When Cheryl’s mother thought they were getting too close, she called Cheryl a deviant and forced Cheryl and Heather apart.
Cheryl has always struggled with healthy relationship dynamics and boundaries. It’s easy to see where that stems from: Her parents straight up hate her, and her father killed her twin brother/best friend. Penelope Blossom’s hatred toward her daughter has always been a little confusing in how extreme it is. But Riverdale finally contextualizes that animosity as homophobia. Cheryl’s parents never saw her as the rightful heir to their maple kingdom because she’s queer. Penelope hated Cheryl long before Jason died, and by calling her a deviant, she planted the seed of internalized homophobia that has wrecked Cheryl’s perception of herself and ability to let herself really feel what she feels.
#10. Nia Nal – Supergirl
Nia Nal is looking for a caffeine fix when she walks into a local pizzeria and spots her friend, Brainy. When a hack exposures Brainy’s original form, the pizza guy recognizes Brainy for the alien that he is and threatens him. Nia steps in and deescalates the situation but her ire has been raised. She returns to work at CatCo and…well, I’ll let Valerie explain what happens next:
She seeks out James and instead of asking this time, she tells him that she thinks he needs to write a statement as the Editor in Chief. He says he has to wait for the right moment, that he can’t editorialize right out of the gate. Nia disagrees; she thinks this isn’t the time to be careful or PC, this is the time to stand up for what it’s right. This is James’s chance to fight for justice even though he can’t be Guardian anymore.
James asks why she’s so passionate about this, and Nia tells him that she’s a transgender woman and that she knows what these aliens are going through. She knows what it’s like to be attacked and denied because of who she is. She stood up to Brainy’s attacker and made a difference, but James has an opportunity to do the same on a much larger scale.
James explains that he has to time it so that he can “reach across the aisle” to ensure the other side will listen instead of pushing them away without them giving him a chance to explain. He wants to stay balanced, and Nia thinks the time for balance is long gone. James thanks her for sharing her truth with him, and it’s clear Nia gave him a lot to think about.
#8. Catherine Meyer – VEEP
From Heather’s meditation on Clea Duvall’s BGE recap:
Veep‘s First Daughter, Catherine Meyer, has been lurking in the background all season long — literally. Selina’s long-suffering only child is crafting a documentary, and every time the camera pans out or around, there she is: standing in the corner shooting video of her mom’s cabinet meetings, Oval Office interactions, narcissistic meltdowns, and swearing symphonies. Selina always seems to forget that Catherine exists, and then shoos her away when she realizes they’re standing right beside each other. She didn’t even remember to call Catherine into the hospital room before she pulled her grandma’s life support earlier this season!
So it’s no surprise that during last week’s “C**tgate,” Catherine announced that she’d fallen in love with someone else who lives in the shadows. What is surprising is that the someone is a White House staffer, and woman. But not just any woman: Catherine has fallen in love with Marjorie (played by Clea DuVall), Selina’s personal Secret Service detail who was chosen for the job because everyone thinks she looks like the president. It’s so deliciously bizarre and awkward; it’s so very Veep.
#9. Nomi Segal – grown-ish
Nomi’s dreaded coming out to her parents since the first episode of grown-ish. Initially, she resists telling them because she doesn’t want to be a disappointment to them. She doesn’t want her parents to look at her differently…she just wants to be their daughter…and she worries about how telling her parents she’s bisexual would change that. Plus, Nomi’s reliant on her parents for financial support — they pay her overpriced tuition and for the lavish apartment she shares with Ana and Zoey. No, she concludes, she can’t tell her parents about her sexuality. Not yet.
But then a strange thing happens on the way to her gender studies class: Nomi gets a mentor who points out the way her parents’ disappointment and, by extension, her unwillingness to come out, have left her with such a capricious view about relationships and women. No matter how much she tries to avoid it, she’s already carrying her parents’ disappointment.
The revelation plus a deep dive into queer culture and a impromptu make-out session with her aforementioned mentor, is enough to convince Nomi to finally comeout to her parents.
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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
Boob(s On Your) Tube: You Should Catch Up on “Santa Clarita Diet” and “Dear White People” This Weekend
Hello and welcome back to Boob(s On Your) Tube! This is one of those weird times of year where we’re kind of between TV seasons, but don’t you worry, we’ve got your Brooklyn Nine-Nine information all ready to go. This week Natalie ran down all the TV cancellations and upfronts. Valerie Anne recapped a couple of frustrating episodes of Supergirl. Carmen recapped that gloriously sexy episode of Vida and wrote a goodbye love letter to our girl Dr. Arizona Robbins. Here’s what else!
Siren 110: “Aftermath”
Written by Valerie Anne
So, Season 1 of Siren has come and gone. And if I may be frank, I don’t believe it reached it’s queer potential. It had some interesting things to say about the dangers of what happens when men feel like they own or “deserve” a woman, or are owed something. The very first story about mermaids interacting with humans in this lore involves a man being jealous his wife returned to the sea after he got rid of their half-human, half-mermaid baby. His jealousy and anger lead to him slaughtering all the mermaids he could find. The mad scientist who kept Ryn’s sister captive for weeks saved her life and then all but demanded another song from her, being like, “But I saved her,” as if that meant she had to do whatever he wanted now. Luckily, he was the only one who felt this way, and was sent away. He was so distraught he walked right into the sea, a classic symptom of the siren’s song.
But what could have been a really beautiful woman-man-mermaid throuple kind of fell apart. Ryn loves both Ben and Maddie, but Ben got TOO obsessed with the mermaid because of her siren song and the throuple became unbalanced and toppled over. Maddie even said that they used to make their decisions together, including about Ryn, and she loved that, but then Ben started to go off on his own and she was feeling like she was being shut out. In the last minutes of the finale, Ryn says she’s not good for Ben, but that, “Ben is love. Maddie is love, too.” Then she gives Ben a final kiss and her classic, “Bye bye.” Maddie never got another kiss, but the show was renewed for an extended second season, so they have at least 16 more episodes to sort this out. And Ryn says she’s not good for Ben, but Maddie has always been able to keep her head straight (well, not straight) about Ryn so maybe Ryn and Maddie will get together for a while, as both women are currently taking a break from Ben. Ben found out he was related to the man who sired a slew of part-mermaids, including Helen, and Maddie got a call from her estranged mother in the finale, so maybe she’s more tied into this myth than she knows, too. Overall, I found the lore interesting and even though it didn’t reach its queer potential, the potential is still there, and since it somehow survived the over-fishing of network TV during renewal season, they still have time to reach it.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine 522: “Jake & Amy”
Written by Valerie Anne
In what was ALMOST the series finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (but is thankfully only the season finale, since NBC saved it from Fox’s cruel cancellation), the glorious Gina Rodriguez graced our screens. Rosa and Terry were out on a mission on their own, and Terry was talking about how Rosa should get back out there and find her soulmate (being careful to use gender-neutral language, which Rosa teased him about sounding like he Googled “how to talk to your bisexual friend” which was great because a) he definitely did exactly that b) she said “bisexual” out loud again c) it was very funny.) Rosa is protesting when their Lyft rolls up and the driver is Gina Freaking Rodriguez and Terry’s face does a VERY EXCITED thing which is also coincidentally what my face was doing.
Rosa tries to get Terry to drop it but then they have to call her again because they left Amy’s veil in her car. This time when Gina appears, she gets out of the car in rom-com slow motion and Rosa’s eyes practically bug out of her head cartoon style. Also coincidentally what my face was doing. Based on how fun the very small amount of flirting they got to do in this episode was, I really hope they can snag Gina for a few episodes in the new season on NBC, because I think those two would make a really fun pairing.
Boobs Tube Special Edition: Mini-Catch Up on Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet and Dear White People (Just In Time For Your Holiday Weekend Streaming Needs)
Written by Carmen
Happy Friday, y’all! And if you are reading this from the United States, Happy Memorial Day Weekend! The long weekend that’s the (un)official kick off to summer! YAAAAAY! What are you going to do with your extra free time? Is your answer, “I’d like to binge something on Netflix?” If so, then I’m here to have your back!
In the last two months, Netflix released new seasons of their original series Santa Clarita Diet and Dear White People. Though very different in tone, both shows specialize in dark, mostly off-ball, and often very smart humor. They also both featured out queer women of color actresses actually playing queer women of color on television! It’s like a unicorn getting it’s rainbow wings! I’m going to give you a relatively spoiler light round up of both shows so you can make an informed binging decision for your weekend. If you’ve already seen the show, please chat away in the comments. If you haven’t, happy streaming!
First up is Santa Clarita Diet. The most important thing to know is that Drew Barrymore is a zombie. She’s also a suburban housewife, and she’s trying to keep the whole zombie thing a secret. In the first season, her neighbor Dan — who happened to be the town Deputy — almost figured out her secret, so he had to die. Now in the second season, the dead Deputy’s wife is dating his old partner, Deputy Anne!
Deputy Anne is played by out queer actress Natalie Morales. She’s investigating the whereabouts of Deputy Dan after he stopped showing up to work (on the count of he died last season, but she doesn’t know that yet). Lisa, her girlfriend and Dan’s widow, is super sex positive and very vocal about it. They are both sort of very funny side characters to the main plot, and Anne in particular becomes more essential to the core storyline as the season progresses and her investigation picks up!
Ok, Dear White People. You probably already know, but Dear White People had some real struggles with its lesbian representation in the first season. That said, I still found it to be a stylized and smart — if at times very uneven — exploration of being a black student at a predominantly white college or university. Thankfully, the second season only grows stronger from the first. And it comes bearing the bittersweet gifts of having two smaller, but also better executed, black lesbian plots.
One such plot comes from Kelsey Phillips, the roommate of Coco, one of the central protagonists. Kelsey had a tiny role in Dear White People’s first season. She served as comic relief thanks to her Hillary Banks valley girl vocal inflection, all around ditzy personality, and her love for her dog, named Sorbet. Her waters get a bit deeper in the second season, where she plays a crucial supporting role in Coco’s stand alone episode. Part of that role involves her coming out as a lesbian. Welcome to the team, Kelsey!
The second plot comes at the hand of out lesbian actress Lena Waithe (who really needs no introduction at this point). Dear White People enjoys parodying black popular culture through the eyes of the students on campus. In the first season, Shonda Rhime’s Scandal got the brunt of the lampooning, and this year the show sets it sights on VH1’s Love and Hip Hop franchise. Lena Waithe stars in the “show within a show” as rapper P. Ninny — who is very obviously a butch lesbian, even though she hilariously swears she is not. That is, until she can’t hide it anymore. The mini arc plays out over a variety of episodes and Lena Waithe’s charisma leaps off the screen, as always.
Also potentially relevant to your interests: Dear White People has a series of Tessa Thompson cameos that as far as I’m concerned are worth the entire binge by itself. And has a sweet baby gay love story for the young black male protagonist, Lionel.
Quick Hits
Critical Role Campaign 2, Episode 19: “The Gentleman’s Path”
I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet but as soon as I got back from camp I watched last week’s and even though they TECHNICALLY haven’t said the literal words yet, I feel more confident than ever that Beau and Yasha are gay for each other. I don’t know if either of them ID as lesbians or bisexuals or what but all I know is they have a thing for each other and they both have very low charisma stats. Travis called their watch together “youth trip flirting” because it was so awkward and Ashley said, “We’ve gotta start somewhere,” implying (to me) that they’re in this for the long haul. Also Marisha-as-Beau called Yasha “so fuckin’ hot” and I love her/them for it. — Valerie Anne
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Riese is streaming this Amazon six-part mini series adaptation of the cult classic 1975 movie as we speak! I don’t know much, but I am very excited! Here’s Riese’s live dispatch from her streaming session, “This show is beautiful. I love it.” Whew!! If you want to stream ahead, use this weekend to get on it! Riese says that she’ll have something written up for you next week! AND RIESE WRITING ABOUT POP CULTURE IS ALWAYS A TREAT!! (The caps are all mine. Sorry! Told you I was excited.) — Carmen
Spring/Summer 2018 TV Preview: All the Lesbian and Bisexual and Trans Women TV Characters Your Heart Requires
The time has come to talk about spring and summer teevee! Okay, the time has kind of passed to talk about spring teevee, but not by too much — all of these shows that started in spring are still airing! It’s been a pretty okay year for LGBTQ women on television so far. Very few deaths, historically speaking, and a decent amount of kissing and some critically acclaimed series filled out with queer women. Summer is always an exciting time for us because it’s when the genre shows rain down in full force and we’ve always had the most representation in sci-fi and fantasy. This spring and summer, though, there’s plenty of non-supernatural dramas too. Below is every show we know about that has a premiere date. We’ll keep this list updated as new premiere dates are announced, and you can bookmark this page or reference it from the Arts & Entertainment Menu at the top of your Autostraddle Website Page.
April 2018 Queer TV Show Premieres
It’s true, these shows have already begun — but they weren’t in our winter preview, and we want to make sure they’re on your radar!
Star, Wednesday March 29th (Fox) – Season Two
Star’s a soap opera about low income, teen girls of color reaching for the music superstar dreams. It has had an impressive slate of black QTPOC representation in front of and behind the camera — including Amiyah Scott as Cotton Brown, becoming the first trans actress to play a trans woman in a regular network TV role, and out actor Miss Lawrence as Miss Bruce. It also stars Queen Latifah and is produced by out gay producer Lee Daniels. One of the show’s lead protagonists is Simone Davis, a biracial, bisexual teen who’s in and out of foster care. She’s got an unbreakable spirit and determination to go after her goals. It wouldn’t be fair not to warn you that (SPOILER ALERT) Star buried one of its gays last winter. I still find the musical soap enjoyable, but it’s something to keep in mind. — Carmen
Siren, Thursday March 29th (Freeform) – Season One
A murder mermaid temporarily shed her tail and popped onto land for a while, learning the way humans do things and then tossing them aside to do what she wants. And sometimes that thing includes kissing a girl. The girl has a boyfriend but the boyfriend is into the mermaid too so we might have our first-ever man-woman-mermaid throuple situation heading our way on Freeform in this ten-episode series. — Valerie Anne
Famous in Love, Wednesday April 4th (Freeform) – Season Two
Bisexual actress Alexis is the star of her own reality television show this season, which means regularly negotiating the temptation to ruin the lives of everybody she knows and cares about in order to amass fame and the veneer of success! What an inspirational character for us all. — Riese
Imposters, Thursday April 5th (Bravo) – Season Two
The Bumblers, including our fave, Jules Langmore, are riding high after exacting revenge on the ex that betrayed them all but things quickly go sour and the trio are forced to regroup in Mexico. Season Two promises to delve more into Jules’ backstory, including introducing us to her sister, Poppy (Rachel Skarsten). — Natalie
Killing Eve, Sunday April 8th (BBC America) – Season One
Sandra Oh has finally booked the post-Grey’s Anatomy leading role she deserves, playing Eve, a spy tracking down a notorious bisexual assassin named Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Their obsession with each other is laced with sexual attraction. And even though it’s a spy thriller, Phoebe Waller-Bridge infuses this dark world with bits of unexpected humor that Oh and Comer bring out masterfully. Killing Eve is the sexy, queer spy thriller I’ve long craved. — Kayla (warning: due to the genre of this show, steady yourself for some gays to get buried.)
Supergirl, Monday April 16th (The CW) – Season Three
Supergirl took a hiatus to sort some stuff out and I’m really hoping that means great things for the back half of this season. Our resident lesbian, Alex, is still getting over her ex-girlfriend Maggie, so I doubt she’ll have any kind of lady love until Season Four, but hopefully the show continues to focus on her relationship with Kara, and remember that the show actually is about Supergirl, not her boring ex-boyfriend. Also if Alex wanted to go on a few bad Tinder dates just for giggles I’d be fine with that, too. — Valerie Anne
Westworld, Sunday April 22nd (HBO) – Season Two
When asked about exploring Dolores’s sexuality, Evan Rachel Wood said her character is “not either a man or a woman” and, furthermore, “All I can say is, yes, there’s going to be something. I wasn’t disappointed. I was like, ‘Yay,’ but that’s all I can say.” It is very difficult to describe Westworld at all in a little paragraph in a teevee preview — because LOL I barely understand what’s going on half the time. Still it’s some of the most exciting television on television these days, even if all the queer stuff has been either deeply buried/implied or very surface level. — Riese
Into the Badlands, Sunday April 22nd (AMC) – Season Two
Season Two came back both with and without a bang. That is to say, Tilda isn’t sporting her classic bang look anymore, but it’s because she needs her hair slicked back — the better to murder men with, my dear. It looks like she’ll be slaying enemies alongside her girl Odessa this season while she works out her mommy issues. We’ll also meet a new character who really upped the murder game; she has potential to really shake things up. — Valerie
The 100, Tuesday April 24th (The CW) – Season Five
I’ll be honest: It doesn’t matter how we do or do not write about this show, someone will get mad at us because we did or did not write about this show. So, here are the facts: The 100 still boasts a badaass bisexual leading character. The 100 also unrepentantly murdered a lesbian character that set off a chain reaction of activism that changed the landscape of queer TV forever. Whatever your relationship is to this show, it’s valid. We’re not telling you what to believe. What we’re telling you is that The 100, unlike Lexa, continues to exist.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Wednesday April 25th (Hulu) – Season Two
This show remains hella dark and chock-full of queer women — one of whom (Moira, played by Samira Wiley) has escaped to Canada where she’s dealing with Gilead-inspired trauma and another (Emily, played by Alexis Bledel) who has been sent to The Colonies to dig up nuclear waste until she dies! You can read my review of it here. — Riese
May 2018 Queer TV Show Premieres
Dear White People, Friday May 4th (Netflix) – Season Two
The black queer women supporting characters of Dear White People’s first season were super underwhelming, which personally hurts me because one of them was played by Nia Long — one of my oldest childhood crushes. Dear White People‘s based on the cult classic satire indie film of the same name about being a black student in a predominantly white university. The original film was produced by Lena Waithe and brought to screen by out gay writer/director/producer Justin Simien. Simien also helms the Netflix series and, according to the trailer, we can at least expect a Lena Waithe cameo in the second season! In her brief clip, she says “black lesbians” real slow and felt so good to my ears, I rewound it three times. — Carmen
Vida, Sunday May 6th (Starz) – Season One
I am so excited for you all to fall in love with Vida! Vida is about two Chicana sisters returning to their old neighborhood in East LA after their mother’s death. One of the sisters is queer. Both sisters are surprised to find out that, upon her death, their mother was married to a woman. Out non-binary actor Ser Anzoategui plays the butch lesbian widow. The show’s produced by an out queer Chicana, Tanya Saracho, and has a predominately queer Latinx writers room. It’s sooo, soo good y’all. It’s on Starz, which I know is not a cable channel that’s easily accessible for everyone, but I promise you that it’s going to be worth the effort to seek out! We’re going to be talking more about Vida in the upcoming weeks and helping you all find ways to support it — because we want you to have nice things!! And this is a really nice thing. — Carmen
Sweetbitter, Sunday May 6th (Starz) – Season One
Sweetbitter is the story of Tess, a 22-year-old who flees her old life for a new one in Manhattan where she immediately snags a job at an exclusive restaurant. Set in 2006, Tess serves an upscale clientele, hangs at an industry dive bar, learns a lot about food and wine and, mostly, learns a lot about people. One of her new friends is Ari, played by Eden Epstein, described as “a backwaiter by day and an adventurous lesbian and DJ by night.” The book was pretty good (although I was partial to it, having also been a young New York aspirant in 2006 and having waited tables in the city), perhaps the series will be even better! — Riese
13 Reasons Why, Friday May 18th (Netflix) – Season Two
I found Season One to be really f*cked up on just about every level including basic storytelling, and allegedly creators are taking this feedback into account with Season Two, which will shift its focus from Hannah’s suicide to a sexual assault trial. According to Netflix, “Liberty High prepares to go on trial, but someone will stop at nothing to keep the truth surrounding Hannah’s death concealed. A series of ominous Polaroids lead Clay and his classmates to uncover a sickening secret and a conspiracy to cover it up.” Furthermore, “Jessica’s recovery will also be explored as Yorkey looks to examine what it’s like to go from being a victim of sexual assault to being a survivor of sex assault.” Lesbian character Courtney Crimson will continue her role and sexually fluid Hannah will remain front-and-center.
Picnic at Hanging Rock, Friday May 25th (Amazon Prime) – Season One
The classic 1975 novel about three schoolgirls who vanish from Appleyard College for Young ladies on Valentine’s Day 1900 has been adapted before — Peter Weir’s 1975 film “certainly picked up on the erotic subtext” of the story, but the new Foxtel series “takes the sexual undercurrents rippling among the residents of Appleyard College and the local townsfolk and makes them a tad more obvious.” Somehow, a wooden dildo is involved. Regardless, we’re in. — Riese
Queen Sugar, Tuesday May 29th (OWN) – Season Three
Details are scant about what to expect from season three of Queen Sugar but with a focus on the “journey of fatherhood,” we anticipate Nova Bordelon exploring her unresolved issues with her late father, Ernest. We’re also keeping hope alive that 20gayteen brings Nova a girlfriend. — Natalie
June 2018 Queer TV Show Premieres
Humans, Tuesday June 5th (AMC) – Season 3
Here’s what we know about Season Three of Humans: “One year after the dawn of consciousness, a decimated and oppressed Synth population fights to survive in a world that hates and fears them. In a divided Britain, Synths and Humans struggle to broker an uneasy peace, but when fractures within the Synth community itself start to appear, all hope of stability is threatened.” Pansexual synth Niska will be back, but her girlfriend Astrid isn’t showing up on IMDB as part of Season Three. I hope she finds somebody else to be queer with. — Riese
Pose, Sunday June 3rd (FX) – Season One
There has never been a show like Ryan Murphy’s Pose on TV. Ever. It boasts 50+ LGBTQ characters and the largest number of trans series regulars in American TV history. MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar and Angelica Ross are all playing trans characters, and Janet Mock and Our Lady J are producing and have both been in in the writers room. You’re about to learn a whole lot about ’80s ball culture! — Heather
The Fosters, Monday June 4th (Freeform) – Finale Event
After five seasons, the Adams Fosters clan are ready to say their final goodbye. The three episode finale mini series takes place roughly four years in the future from the main body of the show. All of the Adams Fosters children have graduated from either high school or college and the entire family is coming together to celebrate Brandon’s wedding. I don’t care about Brandon Adams Foster, ever, and the trailer for the finale does little to assuage my worries. However, The Fosters really stuck the landing of their final season. They brought back heart to their storytelling and refocused their central energy on Stef and Lena. It’s enough that to have regained my trust going into summer. — Carmen
Younger, Tuesday June 5th (TV Land) – Season 5
This is a good show and I don’t care if you believe me! Yes, there’s a straight love triangle at the center. And no, resident lesbian Maggie doesn’t get as much screentime as she should. But each season gets better and better at developing her character and bringing her into the fold and the real story here is women and their careers and their friendships. The last time we saw Maggie, she was in Ireland bedding the mother of the bride of her best friend Liza’s ex-boyfriend. She also has an on-again/off-again thing with Hilary Duff’s pansexual best friend, Lauren. — Heather
Sense8, Friday June 8th (Netflix) – Finale
AHEM: “Personal lives are pushed aside as the cluster, their sidekicks, and some unexpected allies band together for a rescue mission and BPO take-down in order to protect the future of all Sensates.” — Riese
Claws, Sunday June 10th (TNT) – Season Two
Quiet Ann and the ladies of Nail Artisans of Manatee County are back using their salon to launder money for the mob, only this time, it’s for a female-led Russian mafia. As the ladies are asked to do more, they realize their own capability — they’re criminals and they are good at it — and start to think that, maybe, it’s time they became their own bosses. — Natalie
The Bold Type, Tuesday June 12th (Freeform) – Season Two
This show ended up being one of summer’s sweetest treats last year, and I can’t wait for more romance between bisexual social media maven Kat Edison and lesbian artist and activist Adena El Amin — including, apparently, a big meet-the-parents moment. I am ready to laugh, cry, and yearn for all of Jacqueline Carlyle’s power wardrobe. — Kayla
G.L.O.W., Friday June 29th (Netflix) – Season Two
When G.L.O.W. returns for its second season we will FINALLY get what we craved throughout its homoerotic first season: Yolanda, a lesbian wrestler played by Shakira Barrera. — Riese
July 2018 Queer TV Show Premieres
Heathers, Tuesday July 10th (Paramount) -Season One
UPDATE 6/5: THIS SHOW HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY FOREVER CANCELLED AND WILL NEVER AIR
The initial debut of this program was critically panned, and consequently withdrawn allegedly on account of the Parkland shooting. If they haven’t changed anything about the show since their first go-around, we’ll probably hate it.
Harlots, Wednesday July 11th (Hulu) – Season Two
We return to my favorite show ever about sex workers to find the city’s top madams in an even more dramatic feud than they were in Season One —Violet’s future in peril, her religious fundamentalist gal pal doing what she can to save her, and a new judge determined to rid his city of what he perceives to be “vice.” Liv Tyler joins the cast as Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam, a wealthy woman with zero personal freedom who has mad sexual tension with Charlotte Wells. — Riese
UnREAL, Monday July 16th (Hulu) – Season 4
Traci Thoms returns as Fiona, a power lesbian television executive, in the very uneven final season of this “Bachelor” send-up. Your favorite lesbian, Faith, does a one-episode guest spot as a therapist brought in to mediate a conflict between several contestants.
Wynonna Earp, Friday July 20th (SyFy) – Season 3
Season 2 was full of goo, babies, time warps, demons, and so many ladies kissing. It answered a lot of questions, and asked a whole lot more. Season 3 promises more mystery (Mama Earp?!), drama (a cult?!!), and, of course, quality queer content. At a recent panel, when asked about the gayness of Season Three, Emily Andras said, “What’s the straightest show you can think of? I feel like Season 3 makes Season 2 look like that straight show.” Yee haw. — Valerie Anne
Killjoys, Friday July 20th (SyFy) – Season 4
With Lost Girl’s Michelle Lovretta behind the wheel, it wasn’t really a surprise, but definitely a welcome turn when the main big bad of Season 3 ended up in a relationship with another running antagonist. Aneela and Delle Seyah are a unique pairing, to be sure, but they’ve made it clear that they’d risk just about anything for each other. Their fates were inextricably linked with Dutch, Johnny and D’av’s in the Season 3 finale, so I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of these murder girlfriends. — Valerie Anne
Orange is the New Black, Friday July 27th (Neflix) – Season 6
Season 6 of OITNB promises, somehow, that it will get even darker than previous seasons as inmates are shipped out of Litchfield following the riot and sent to other prisons. We follow the women who end up in Max, where they try to negotiate a new set of prison gangs, divided by block, and an investigation into what happened during the riot that puts Taystee in a precarious legal position. Adrienne Moore, who plays Black Cindy, told The Hollywood Reporter, “Toward the end of season five, there were some people that were agreeing to stick together, and there were some people that were looking out for themselves. We’ll see the repercussions of those decisions in this next season.”
August 2018 Queer TV Show Premieres
Insatiable, Friday August 10th (Netflix) – Season One
The coming out story of this pretty much universally panned series is apparently its only redeeming factor!
The House of Flowers, Friday August 10th (Netflix) – Season One
A Spanish-language comedy-drama program about a dysfunctional high-class Mexican family that owns a prestigious flower shop. Juan Pablo Medina plays María José, a transgender woman who has a child with her ex-wife, Paulina, who is still carrying a torch for María.
The Sinner, August 15th (USA) – Season 2
This anthology series returns with a new case and a mostly new cast for Season 2, including Natalie Paul as Heather Novak, a black lesbian detective put on the case of a boy who murders his parents for very unclear reasons in very strange circumstances.
Mr. Mercedes, Wednesday August 22nd (Audience) – Season 2
Breeda Wool will be returning as techie lesbian Lou Linklatter, according to Den of Geek. As the first season drew from Stephen King’s book of the same name, Season Two will be drawing from a few follow-up novels. — Riese
Summer 2017 Gay TV Preview: Some Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Characters For Ya
Summer used to be a lackluster season for television, but that was before we were gifted with ten thousand channels, streaming services and otherwise-notable methods of viewing television programs. Now, summer is full of popsicles, climate change, and solid television programs, including many with queer women characters. Not as many as there could be, but quite a few!
Here’s our list of every show we’re aware of that premieres/d between April 23rd and August 31st that contains lesbian, bisexual or queer female characters. Let us know if we missed anything!
Sundays
Mary Kills People // Season One // Lifetime (April 23rd)
This Canadian import is a female-driven production about an ER doctor with a popular side business as a practitioner of assisted suicide. Mary’s daughter, Jess, is in a romantic situation with Naomi, the daughter of Mary’s ex-husband’s current girlfriend.
American Gods // Season One // Starz (April 30th)
Based on the best-selling Neil Gaiman novel that I for some reason cannot seem to get through, American Gods tells the story of Shadow, a convict given early release from prison following the death of his wife who is immediately enlisted by a strange man named Wednesday to assist him on a cross-country road trip that turns out to be the project of gathering all the old gods to confront the New Gods. Nigerian actress Yetide Badaki plays Bilquis, an Old Goddess of Love, who feeds herself by having sex with both men and women, except that “having sex” means swallowing them with her vagina! Also look out for two Muslim gay male characters and appearances by Gillian Anderson and Kristen Chenoweth. (Read 25 fun facts about American Gods at Black Nerd Problems.)
Twin Peaks // Season One // Showtime (May 21st)
David Lynch will not tell us anything about this reboot, but it seems David Duchovony will be returning for at least one episode as the transgender detective he played in the original. Also, Laura Palmer is kind of bisexual, right? Laura Dern stars and look out for appearances from Stephanie Allyne, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ashley Judd, Amanda Seyfried, Alicia Witt, Naomi Watts, Charlene Yi and Madeline Zima.
Claws // Season One // TNT (June 11th)
Y’all I could NOT be more excited for this one. Claws, a dark comedy starring the always-delightful Niecy Nash, follows a group of five Florida nail-salon employees who end up part of a pill-mill money laundering scheme. Judy Reyes plays Quiet Anne, a former party girl and mother-of-two, who Reyes describes as “a lesbian [and very tough] as I created her. This was a wonderful opportunity to go against anything else I had played.”
Game of Thrones // Season Seven // HBO (July 16th)
Heather’s girlfriend Stacy is confident that Yara Greyjoy and Daenerys are going to make out this season.
Mondays
Still Star-Crossed // Season One // ABC (May 29th)
This new Shondaland series is listed as an LGBT-themed program on Wikipedia, but we have no idea why! After two hours of research we had to give up and trust the goddesses will reveal everything to us in due time. This adaptation of Melinda Taub’s YA novel is set in Verona diectly after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and charts the Montague/Capulet drama that ensues. Obviously our money is on the Nurse as the gay character, but it’s bound to be damn good television regardless.
Stitchers // Season Three // Freeform (June 5th)
Camille Engelson is a bisexual computer scientist involved in a relationship with Linus, a male main character. Her bisexuality has not been explored past a mention, but I was told to include this show in this preview so here we all are together looking at that nice photograph.
Tuesdays
Queen Sugar // Season Two // OWN (June 20th)
The talent behind this show, which features Rutina Wesley as bisexual journalist Nova Bordelon, remains just as impressive as the talent in front of it. The Ava DuVernay project is bringing legendary Black lesbian filmmaker Cheryl Dunye and Mosquita Y Mari writer/director Aurora Guerrero onto their Season Two all-female directing team. Also we have somebody on board to write about it for Boobs Tube, bless us all.
The Fosters // Season 5 // Freeform (July 11th)
What will happen in Season Five of The Fosters! I guess we’ll find out on July 11th!
The Bold Type // Season One // Freeform (July 11th)
Hey remember Karma from Faking It? She got a new job, working at Scarlet Magazine, in this show inspired by Cosmpolitan and its former editor-in-chief Joanna Coles. Nikohl Boosheri plays recurring character Adena El-Amin, a Muslim lesbian feminist photographer who becomes close friends with Scarlet’s social media director.
Wednesday
The Handmaid’s Tale // Season One // Hulu (April 26th)
Is this the year’s best new television program? It just might be! This chilling dystopian feminist drama has given us the gift of Samira Wiley playing a feisty lesbian angel again and has turned Ofglen, a straight character in the book, into a lesbian played by Rory Gilmore. But be warned that the terror is very real, the queer persecution is visceral and terrifying, and it will almost certainly give you nightmares.
Younger // Season 3 // TV Land (June 28th)
Younger is a pretty fun, pretty feminist show that has, on occasion, written some radical storylines for its lesbian character, Maggie. She’s TVLand’s first original queer character. Your grandparents could fall asleep watching Everybody Loves Raymond at 9:30 and wake up watching Maggie organizing a lesbian orgy at 10:00, just for one example. On the downside, Maggie often gets lost in the shuffle. She’s Liza’s roommate and best friend, the keeper of her secret (that Liza’s not really in her 20s), and so she doesn’t fit into the larger storylines that circle around the publishing company where Liza and the rest of the main characters work. But there’s a lot to love about this show anyway. It’s about women and their relationships with each other and their careers, and a dumb boring straight love triangle that Sutton Foster somehow makes less annoying than it sounds.
Friday
Wynonna Earp // Season 2 // Syfy (June 9th)
Your favorite snarky, sexy, reluctant gunslinger will be back soon to fight more demons (literally and figuratively). Joined of course by her sister, Waverly, and Waverly’s bulletproof-vest-sporting girlfriend, Nicole Haught. And a mysterious (but certainly queer?) location called Pussy Willows.
Saturday
Orphan Black // Season 5 // BBC America (June 10th)
“We came to love each other, joined together, and vowed to protect each other,” the clones announce in the intense Season Five trailer. Then, Sarah: “And now we fight.” BBC has released synopses of the first several episodes, which include Cosima reuniting with Delphine.
Streaming
Dear White People // Season One // Netflix (April 28th)
This smart, funny, politically conscious program based on the critically acclaimed film is must-see TV… if only its queer female characters were as good as the rest of it. Nia Long plays Neika, a lesbian-identified professor engaged to her girlfriend Monique and also having an affair with a male student. Cool!
Sense8 // Season Two // Netflix (May 5th)
Sense8, produced by the Wachowski sisters, has a trans woman played by a trans woman in a lesbian relationship with a Black woman, which is pretty f*cking great. Of the differences between Seasons One and Two, Jamie Clayton told NewNowNext, “The biggest difference the fans are gonna see is that it’s a lot bigger. There’s 16 cities, a lot of new characters. You’ll meet other Sense8s. For us that meant it took longer to shoot, and involved a lot more traveling. But you get find out the origins of BPO [the Biologic Preservation Organization] and what they’re doing. Now that the eight of us know what’s going on more, Season 2 really takes off with a bang.” Season Two also sees the entire cast in Brazil for Sao Paolo pride.
Master of None // Season Two // Netflix (May 12th)
Season Two of Aziz Ansari’s semiautobiographical dramedy sees its protagonist living in Italy and living the dream of learning how to make pasta. There was not a lot of kickass black lesbian character Denise, played by Lena Waithe, in the trailer, but we’re holding out hope!
Orange is the New Black // Season Five // Netflix (June 9th)
Season Four fucked up and broke our hearts. Season Five will take place in the immediate aftermath of that fucked up moment when the prisoners rise up against Litchfield’s conditions.
G.L.O.W. // Season One // Netflix (June 23rd)
This ensemble comedy from Jenji Kohan has so many women in it that if one of them isn’t at least bisexual I’m quitting my job. G.L.O.W. is based on the real story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, a pro wrestling troupe founded in the mid-80s that toured and had a self-titled show that ran until 1990. The story is focused on Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress who takes her last shot at stardom by joining G.L.O.W. At least one man on one message board on one website on this internet has said, “Expect lots of lesbians and make outs.”
Also
Broad City – August TBD
Broad City debuts this August on Comedy Central, although I’m not sure when. But Ilana will remain bisexually oriented, I’m sure of that.
Nia Long’s Lesbian Character in “Dear White People” Sure Was Underwhelming
Two weeks ago, Netflix gifted us a series based on the acclaimed 2014 film Dear White People, and what’s more, they gave us the incredible gift of seeing Nia Long play a lesbian professor. Those are significant gifts, to be sure, but unfortunately the show overall, as well as its handling of Nia Long’s character specifically, often misses the mark despite its best intentions.
In case you missed it, Dear White People was a film chronicling a group of Black students’ experience at Winchester University, the ninth Ivy League university. They deal with what every student of color at a predominantly white institution (PWI) deals with — racist macro and microaggressions. The show expands off of the movie’s main conflict — a blackface party hosted by the school’s satire magazine Pastiche — and gives us background on each of the characters.
And in Chapter III, we get the best addition ever. Nia Long plays Neika Hobbs in my dream job as an African-American studies professor and a beautiful self-proclaimed lesbian. She’s engaged to a beautiful Black femme with short blonde hair, she can’t be a politician because she says she needs to tell people to “go fuck themselves at least four times a week”, and she doesn’t want to get married because she wants to, “enjoy our love pure and untouched by the heteronormative culture, the way God intended.” Amen and me too.
But then something weird happens. She hooks up with a student! With a guy student! Did we have to do that? Haven’t we been fighting against this ridiculous trope for decades? Plus, hooking up with a student makes her seem predatory, and not in the hot kind of way she seems predatory when she slaps her girlfriend’s ass and says “let’s go baby,” when it’s time to leave. This is a gross misuse of power, and honestly it’s my least favorite thing about her. Friends, I wish they hadn’t written that part in. I wish Neika Hobbs was just happy and partnered and didn’t sneak off with men under 21. Plus, we don’t get a lot of black queer female characters on television, period, and when we do get them, we almost never see them in a serious relationship with another black queer woman. The Wire and Queen Sugar are two of a very small number of mainstream television shows where a black woman dated another black woman for more than one episode. It was encouraging to see Dear White People show a black lesbian couple, but the majority of Neika Hobbs’ screen-time was dedicated to her affair with Troy. And why, if she is attracted to both men and women, did they choose to have her identify as a lesbian instead of as bisexual or queer?
I think the writing of this storyline is indicative of what Dear White People is overall. It’s a show that is literally co-opting activism and activist culture. And I get it, activism is in right now. My social media feeds are filled with friends, celebs, and politicians who are taking pictures of themselves and their signs at a different protest every weekend. And I am not here to say don’t protest — please, protest, because we live in a garbage world right now, and we need to change it.
However, watching the show just felt like watching someone who knew how to use buzz words correctly. Like, the writers knew what they were talking about, but it felt rehearsed. I mean, the main character is a very light-skinned, mixed-race straight black woman. She has not one, but two dark-skinned sidekicks. Other than Nia Long’s character, there are no queer women students all season long. With a few slight variations, Sam is a 2017 version of the “tragic mulatto” stereotype: never fully able to be understood by anyone because of her “unique” positionality. And so when I think about the show as a whole, it makes sense to me that the writers thought it would be okay to write a lesbian professor who preys on a male student.
I wanted to like Dear White People. I really, really, really did. It has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes! But as a black person who attended a PWI for undergrad and attends a different PWI right now, it felt contrived. My friends and I don’t say “woke” to each other because we are woke. Because we have to be. We already know town halls are staged, we already know the administration is always looking for one of us docile enough to be in conversation with so that they can say they tried. We know.
So next season (because I do want a next season) I want more queer women who aren’t abusing their power or cheating on their partners. I want their sexuality on screen, too. Neika has full-on sex with a guy, but we never see her be affectionate with her own fiance. I want the writers to work on finding language that feels natural and doesn’t make it seem like they’ve been lurking on DeRay’s twitter.
Would I suggest this show? That depends. If you’re white, or even non-black, yes totally 100%. If you’re Black and want to see a dramatic reenactment of your undergrad experience, with a few great one-liners thrown in, then sure. If nothing else, Nia Long slapping another woman’s booty will be enough to get you through the season.