While honoring Ellen DeGeneres, McKinnon said, “In 1997, when Ellen’s sitcom was at the height of its popularity, I was in my mother’s basement lifting weights in front of the mirror and thinking, ‘Am I…gay?’ And I was.” McKinnon continued, “And I still am. But that’s a very scary thing to suddenly know about yourself…And the only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV.” But Ellen isn’t the only show that addresses and/or celebrates the sexuality spectrum. This Pride, you will likely be celebrating in the streets. But might we also suggest taking time to tune into these shows that feature LGBTQIA+ people or stories? There are plenty of series with LGBTQIA+ characters, storylines and relationships. They don’t always take front and center at entertainment awards shows or even get out of “niche” territory and into the mainstream, but we’ve come to realize just how important it is when you’re queer and you see yourself on screen for the first time. So, celebrate Pride with these 40 LGTBQ+ TV shows.
Gentleman Jack
If you like a queer period drama, this one is for you. Set in 1832 Yorkshire, England, this show tells the story of Anne Lister (Suranne Jones) and is inspired by the real-life landowner and industrialist and her life as a butch-presenting gay woman when it was nowhere near acceptable to be either.
One Day at a Time
Seasons 1-3 on Netflix; Season 4 on PopTV (with cable login),YouTube TV, fuboTV orHulu with Live TV This is the reboot of the popular Norman Lear 1970s series, which ran for nine seasons. This time, the story follows a Cuban family, and the teen daughter is a queer badass who goes to protests with her friends for fun. The show touches on the Trump presidency, racism, xenophobia and the rest of what makes living today really hard—but it keeps you laughing, too. And it’s also fun to watch Rita Moreno bust out her impeccable acting chops.
Queer Eye
Seasons 1-4 and Queer Eye: We’re in Japanon Netflix; Season 5 coming June 5 In early 2018, Netflix debuted its new take on the popular early aughts Bravo show by introducing us to Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Karamo Brown and Bobby Berk. These five gay guys make it their mission to help people who need just a little boost so they can live their best, most fabulous lives. All of the stories are heartwarming and beautiful, but some will bring the waterworks more than others.
The Politician
Season 1 on Netflix Ben Platt plays privileged teen Payton Hobart, who has known since he was a kid that he wanted to be president of the United States. Payton’s girlfriend, Astrid Sloan (Lucy Boynton) is already on board as his first lady. There are plenty of House of Cards elements about this show, but Payton also owns his fluid sexuality, which is pretty cool. The fact that other characters on this show are queer or transgender is not a big deal—they just are. And that should be the future of TV.
Glee
Seasons 1-6 on Netflix Ryan Murphy’s show about a bunch of lost high-schoolers who are passionate about music and musical theater has united outsiders all over the world. If you felt a little different in high school—or still do—this show will put a smile on your face. This show is queer, heartfelt and full of mashups you never knew could exist.
The L Word
This show started in 2004 and it was a huge breakthrough for queer TV. Over six seasons, we follow the lives of the queer women of L.A., their heartbreak, their romance, their one-night stands, their growing families and their losses. There’s also a theme song you’ll never forget.
The L Word: Generation Q
Ten years later, we pick up on the stories of some of the original cast and meet some new friends, too. Generation Q is an updated version of The L Word, where a diverse cast leads the show and many of the issues fans had with the original series have disappeared.
The Bold Type
Freeform’s series about young, ambitious women in the magazine industry also does a great job with queer representation (can we get a shoutout for writers who feature POC queer couples?!).
Orange is the New Black
Seasons 1-7 on Netflix This series is based on the autobiographical novel Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prisonby Piper Kerman. It follows the story of Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), whose history with her ex-girlfriend, drug dealer Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), is front and center as she does time in a minimum-security prison in Litchfield, New York. The story quickly branches out to being about so much more than Piper, and soon you’ll get sucked into the compelling individual narratives of the many women of Litchfield. Lea DeLaria (Carrie “Big Boo” Black), Laverne Cox (Sophia Burset) and Samira Wiley (Poussey Washington) are just a few LGBTQ+ actors who add to the representation of this very queer show.
Glow
Seasons 1-3 on Netflix Alison Brie stars as Ruth Wilder, an aspiring actress in 1985 who moved to L.A. to make her dreams come true but has hardly made any progress. She finds herself in the cast of an experimental show called, GLOW, which stands for “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.” Season 3 in particular goes into the queer space in a way this show was meant to since day one. Hallelujah!
She-Ra: Princess of Power
Seasons 1-5 on Netflix She-Ra, the Princess of Power, a.k.a Adora, is the leader of a rebellion to free the land of Etheria from the Horde. This spinoff of the 1985 original series is writer Noelle Stevenson’s queer, inclusive take on the world.
Queer as Folk
This 2000-2005 series follows the lives and loves of a group of friends in Pittsburgh. Based on the British TV show of the same name, this was Showtime’s take on this working-class queer community.
Jane the Virgin
This CW show, which introduced the world to Gina Rodriguez, took on the telenovela format to tell the story of Jane Villanueva, a writer from Miami who gets accidentally artificially inseminated and thrown into an unbelievably dramatic situation. Stay tuned for twisted plotlines and Petra Solano’s romantic storylines.
Lip Service
This show is basically The L Word set in Glasgow, Scotland, so the accents are so much more interesting. There’s also a very attractive lesbian-cop, which depending on your type, is a total plus.
The Real L Word
This is the reality-show take on The L Word. The series, which ran from 2010-2012, follows the real lives of queer people in L.A. and New York City as they juggle family, friends, successful careers and more.
Dead to Me
Seasons 1-2 on Netflix Jen’s husband died after a hit-and-run, and mysteriously, a woman named Judy (Linda Cardellini) shows up at her door. Soon, Jen (Christina Applegate) finds Judy has become a fixture in her life—and she comes with more than a few secrets. Hold out for a big queer storyline in Season 2: It’s worth it.
One Mississippi
This dark comedy was inspired and co-created by Tig Notaro, a gay comedian who is maybe most well-known for her topless standup routine following her double-mastectomy. This series is based on Notaro’s real Mississippi hometown, her family and the grief she felt after the loss of her mother. If you’re looking for a laugh and a reason to cry, this is it.
Schitt’s Creek
The Rose family has never known anything but a life full of privilege and the finest things. When video store magnate Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) is defrauded by his business manager, he along with his wife, Moira (Catherine O’Hara); their daughter, Alexis (Annie Murphy); and their son, David (Dan Levy) find themselves completely broke. Their only option is to move to a town called Schitt’s Creek, which Johnny once bought as a joke birthday present for David. It turns out, life in Schitt’s Creek isn’t so bad, and (just a tiny spoiler here), David, who’s pansexual, meets Patrick (Noah Reid), thus kicking off one of the greatest love stories in the history of TV, complete with an epic Tina Turner cover.
Will & Grace
Original series and reboot on NBC.com; original series and reboot on Hulu After neurotic interior designer Grace Adler (Debra Messing) leaves her fiancé at the altar, she moves in with her gay best friend Will Truman (Eric McCormack). Throw in spoiled socialite Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and flamboyantly gay actor Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes), and you’ve got the makings of a hit (which also happened to be groundbreaking for American TV).
Grace and Frankie
All seasons on Netflix Grace Hanson (Jane Fonda) and Frankie Bergstein (Lily Tomlin) find out that their husbands, Robert (Martin Sheen) and Sol (Sam Waterston) who are long-time law partners, have also been longtime lovers. Sol and Robert end their marriages and start their lives together, which means Grace and Frankie have to start over, too. They end up living at the families’ shared beach house and getting their own fresh start. The show is a milestone for LGBTQ+ American seniors, because of Robert and Sol, but with Frankie’s confirmed bisexuality in Season five (2019), we get a queer bonus.
Madam Secretary
Seasons 1-6 on CBS.com and Netflix When Sara Ramirez joined the cast of this CBS political drama as Kat Sandoval, the show definitely got a bit of a queer makeover. “Ramirez’s presence on the show seems to be signaling a larger change in primetime television that has historically lacked diversity,” Go magazine wrote at the time.
Gypsy
Season 1 available on Netflix This Naomi Watts-led series about a New York City therapist who gets too involved in her patients’ lives only lasted one season. But it does feature a gripping, queer storyline that’s worth the watch.
The Good Wife
The Good Wifehas been praised for its “radical post-queerness” and for “never allowing its characters or the actors that played them to be bound by labels.” When the show came on the air in 2009, it introduced Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), the first queer South Asian character in TV history.
Orphan Black
Since it’s premiere in 2013, Orphan Black has been pretty openly queer, and the showrunners don’t care who has a problem with it. Tatiana Maslany, who plays all of the female clones on the sci-fi clone thriller series, told Entertainment Weekly that the format of the show lends itself to sexual and gender fluidity among the characters. “We sort of embrace the idea of every human having the potential to be anything, and I think that opens the door for all kinds of dialogue about sexuality and about gender,” she said.
Grey’s Anatomy
Seasons 1-16 on Netflix This show has its queer moments, but the most notable is the relationship between Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw). Their time on the show as a couple was significant enough to land them on some “best moments” lists, so if you aren’t a Grey’s fan, this could turn you.
Pretty Little Liars
The Freeform (formerly ABC Family) show based on the Sara Shepard book series follows the story of Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery and Emily Fields after their friend and the leader of their group, Alison DiLaurentis, mysteriously dies. Most of the series is about how the girls keep getting haunted and tortured by someone called “A,” but Emily comes out pretty early into the series. And it only gets better from there, as far as the queer plotlines go.
Forever
This is Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen’s eight-episode dramedy about a couple who seemingly fell into a relationship but have no real spark. When Rudolph’s character, June, meets Kase (Catherine Keener), a lot more flannel shows up on this show, and June and Oscar’s marriage gets a little less heterosexual. The show was canceled after one season, but if you like all of these people (who doesn’t?), put it on your list.
Jessica Jones
Seasons 1-3 on Netflix This Marvel superhero series only lasted three seasons, but it broke ground when it introduced its titular character as a superhero with “nuanced” sexuality.“ Jessica Jones’s queer relationship scenes are clearly integral to the internal lives of major characters, and are not played for laughs or for shock value,” Vulture wrote in 2015. “They’re sad, sweet, and subtle.”
Euphoria
This HBO series starring Zendaya follows the lives of modern teens as they deal with sex, drugs, friendships and trauma. And, as them.us says, “it’s fair to say that the show does offer some real, raw insight into what it means to be a teenager in 2019, especially in an age when gender and sexuality labels mean less than ever before.”
Steven Universe
Series creator and showrunner Rebecca Sugar was sure to make her fantasy/sci-fi series as LGBTQ+-inclusive as possible by creating queer and nonbinary characters as well as a same-sex proposal and wedding. The Cartoon Network series, which just wrapped Season 5 (Steven Universe Future) earlier this year, took the network, and animated storytelling, into a new, queer zone.
Sense8
Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix Although it’s been called out for other problems, this Netflix sci-fi series successfully accomplished transgender storytelling like no other series before it had. And the representation it brought to the screen matters.
Danger & Eggs
This cartoon kid series follows the story of D.D. Danger (Aidy Bryant) and her talking-egg friend, Phillip (Eric Knobel). The show, which only lasted one season, aimed to represent the queer community and themes in ways its LGBTQIA+ audience would appreciate. “We wanted to show innocent LGBTQ friendships, before the age of romantic connections,” writer-producer Shadi Petosky told Logo. “We didn’t want to do metaphors, so we tried to find traits LGBTQ kids, allies, or families would see in themselves.”
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Seasons 1-7 on Hulu If you haven’t had at least one friend, ex or friend of an ex tell you to watch Buffy for the queer plot, it will happen. In this series, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) plays the best friend of vampire slayer Buffy. She’s a bookish witch who ends up falling in love with another witch named Tara, and let’s just say these two have inspired more than just a few “best of” lists about their relationship.
Transparent
This series from Jill Soloway is about a family grappling with their parent’s coming out as transgender. Meanwhile, they all learn about each other—and themselves (sexuality and gender exploration definitely included).
Anyone But Me
The web series follows 16-year-old Vivian McMillan (Rachael Hip-Flores), who has to move from Manhattan to Westchester after her dad, an New York City firefighter, has health problems. When she moves, Vivian also has to leave her girlfriend, Aster.
Looking
This was HBO’s apparent attempt to recreate Girls, but, this time, about gay men living in San Fransisco. The show stars Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett, Lauren Weedman and more.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
This reimagining of the Australian classic about a group of girls who go missing during a Valentine’s Day excursion reads as queer to whoever is looking (and you don’t have to look hard).
Killing Eve
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator of Fleabag, created this series about an intelligence investigator named Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) who is tasked with capturing an assassin called Villanelle. Villanelle also happens to be a psychopath, and their cat-and-mouse game survives and thrives on sexual tension.
Never Have I Ever
Season 1 on Netflix This series, created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, is about an Indian-American girl named Devi, who is dealing with the recent death of her father and just general teen hardships. We also meet Devi’s best friends, one of whom, Fabiola, is coming to terms with her sexuality (and her first big crush).
Wynona Earp
Seasons 1-3 on SyFy and Netflix This Canadian, supernatural western television series features a main character who is openly bisexual. This plot point helped Dominique Provost-Chalkley, who plays the titular role, accept her own identity. “Through this incredible, enlightening journey of playing a queer character and meeting the fans that are drawn to her, I guess I’ve reevaluated how I am to face this part of me,” she wrote at the time. Looking for LGBTQ movies? We got ’em!
