When it comes to LGBTQ+ representation in media, the array of shows that actually do a good job is not that big. Now, make it a double minority and add women in there. Women that are a part of the LGBTQ+ community are even less well-represented, specially due to the sexualization of the woman’s body. With that in mind, we’ve decided to make a list with 8 shows that represent this group pretty well.
- Brooklyn 99
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The comedy takes place on the 99th precinct of the NYPD and shows the relationships between Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), Sergeant Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) and detectives Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), Michael Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Norm Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller).
The show got canceled after five seasons by Fox, but got picked up by NBC for its sixth season, and now got renewed for its seventh. “Brooklyn 99” has had many scares throughout its journey, but they made it through every obstacle and continue to thrive. And one of the reasons for this is their use of comedy to talk about important topics, such as the Me Too movement (“He Said, She Said’, directed by Stephanie Beatriz), racism (“Moo Moo”) and sexuality/coming out (“Game Night”).
It’s the ninth episode of season 5 when Rosa comes out to Charles as bisexual, it’s the tenth when she comes out to the whole squad, who was accepting and didn’t really question anything, and to her parents, who took it a little harder. And it’s in season six that Rosa introduces the squad – and the viewers – to her girlfriend, Jocelyn Pryce (Cameron Esposito). It’s pretty easy to say that after the coming out part, something that definitely needed to be talked about, Rosa’s sexuality wasn’t a massive topic of conversation, which completely normalizes it, without taking the importance of the matter.
- The Haunting of Hill House
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In “The Haunting of Hill House”, the Crain family bought this old mansion called Hill House with the intention of renovating it and selling it again. Everything goes horribly wrong, of course, because the house is haunted and the Crains have to leave one night when Olivia (Carla Gugino), the mother, dies under mysterious circumstances. The show goes back and forth between past and present to show all the traumas the kids (now grown-ups) had to live with. It will give you lots of feelings, so beware.
One of these kids is Theodora, or Theo, played by Kate Siegel and Mckenna Grace. Theo, a lesbian and an empath, which means she feels people’s emotions when she touches them (which is why she’s always wearing gloves), and a child psychologist. She hates all these feelings and finds it hard to open herself enough for a relationship. But none of that struggle comes from her sexuality and nothing is left to subtext, which is very refreshing. She likes girls and that’s it, her traumas have other sources. Theo is also one of the most lovable characters and her journey of accepting her psychic powers and trying to connect with people is definitely one we can get behind!
- One Day At A Time
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Before getting cancelled by Netflix, “One Day At A Time”, the reboot of a show from 1975 with the same name, showed three generations of a cuban-american family, that lives in the same house, and their neighbor, Schneider (Todd Grinnell), who became a part of the family. Lydia Riera (Rita Moreno) is the grandmother, or “abuelita”, extremely catholic and quite old-school; Penélope Alvarez (Justina Machado) is a single mother, nurse practitioner, and former veteran; Elena (Isabella Gomez) and Alex (Marcel Ruiz) Alvarez are the kids.
Towards the end of season one, Elena comes out and continues her life as a teenage activist, but focusing more on LGBTQ+ causes. The show makes it so the viewers see the different types of reactions someone can get when coming out, her “close” family reacts quite well, but she gets rejected by her father. It also shows the relationship she has with her syd-nificant other, Syd (Sheridan Pierce), who is non-binary, and goes by they/them.
- The 100
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Almost 100 years after a nuclear apocalypse wiped out all life on Earth, humanity now lives in a space station orbiting the planet. Threatened by overpopulation, they send a craft with 100 young delinquents to Earth in an attempt to find out if the planet can still support life. Now they have to find a way to survive the hostile environment. Things get a bit more complicated when they find out there are still people living on the surface, the Grounders.
Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), one of the one hundred young people sent to Earth, takes a position of leadership early on the show. She’s rational, smart and inspires people, all qualities that make her such a good leader for her people. On the show’s second season she also came out as bisexual when she started a relationship with Grounder leader, Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey). That makes her CW’s first openly bisexual lead character.
- Jane The Virgin
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Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez) has to figure out her life after she was accidentally artificially inseminated, and in between telling the news to her boyfriend Michael Cordero (Brett Dier), and her family, she also needs to welcome the biological father, Rafael Solano (Justin Baldoni), into her life, and that includes his family as well. Following the route of most telenovelas (latin american soap operas), “Jane the Virgin” is, clearly, filled with drama and romance, and in almost every episode, these two aspects are combined.
The show that started in 2014 is now on its last season, and, other than, obviously, having a cast filled with latinxs, it has had, ever since the first episode, LGBTQ+ representation on it. It has shown, from the beginning, Rafael’s sister, Luisa (Yara Martinez), and her relationships with other women, and, mid-season four, Petra (Yael Grobglas), as she comes to terms with being bisexual.
- Sense8
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Eight strangers from different parts of the world find out they are connected through a psychic link forming this thing called a cluster of sensates. That means they share knowledge, thoughts and emotions. Now, Capheus (Toby Onwumere), Sun (Doona Bae), Nomi (Jamie Clayton), Kala (Tina Desai), Riley (Tuppence Middleton), Wolfgang (Max Riemelt), Lito (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) and Will (Brian J. Smith) have to go through their personal journeys and stop the Biologic Preservation Organization (BPO) and a man called Whispers (Terrence Mann) from destroying all sensate clusters.
Nomi, one of the sensates, is a lesbian transgender woman and a hacktivist. She’s intelligent, very empathetic and stops at nothing to help her friends. Nomi also talks a lot about acceptance and being proud of who you are and she’s in a very loving relationship with her wife Amanita (Freema Agyeman), a pansexual woman. Seriously, they’re one of the best couples in television, always supporting each other no matter what.
- Adventure Time
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“Adventure Time” is a Cartoon Network animation that tells the adventures of Finn, The Human, and his best friend Jake, The Dog in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Finn is a hero and Jake has a special ability, he can change his body into any shape or size and together they protect Ooo and its inhabitants. It’s pretty crazy, there’s a kingdom made entirely of candy, the Candy Kingdom, ruled by Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch).
Princess Bubblegum, or PB, is a good ruler, she always puts her people first. And she’s a scientist. Marceline (voiced by Olivia Olson), the Vampire Queen, is a thousands of years old half-human, half-demon vampire. She’s also a musician and she’s always playing bass and singing songs. For the longest time, it was theorized that PB and Marceline had been in a relationship in the past. They actually start off apparently hating each other and, in the longest slow burn ever (10 seasons), they actually make up. And, when the last episode aired, all theories were confirmed, because they actually kissed!
- The Fosters
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The base of this show – that premiered in 2013 and ended in 2018 – is a same-sex relationship, Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena (Sherri Saum) are a couple that created a family of their own. Their family consists of Stef’s biological son, Brandon (David Lambert), from her previous marriage, the adopted twins Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Jesus (Noah Centineo), and the children they decide to foster, Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Jude (Hayden Byerly).
With that being said, “The Fosters” treats same-sex couples in a way that shows how normal they are, the way Lena and Stef treat their kids, and each other, is the same as – if not better than – any heterosexual couple out there. The show has ended, but it has a spin-off called “Good Trouble”, that started this year, and accompanies Mariana and Callie as they begin their lives as young adults, and their moms have made an appearance already.