We live in a world where finding enjoyable queer narratives in the media we consume is becoming easier and easier. Books and independent productions used to be the holy grail of LGBTQ+ audiences, but with studios and streamers now pledging to invest in representation as well as realizing just how profitable gay stories can be, they’ve become increasingly mainstream and accessible.
Queer audiences these days no longer have to rely on questionable channels, collectible items, and lengthy dodgy downloads to find the new season of Queer as Folk or The L Word, they simply need to open their preferred streaming platform to come across the gay pick of the week. This revolution is excellent in many ways, but a closer look at which queer content, exactly, is being prioritized reveals the long way still to go for adequately representing women, people of color, and gender non-conforming people within the LGBTQ+ community.
While content featuring (usually white) gay men grows exponentially, television shows with queer women front and center are constantly cut short. Just last week, fans had to mourn yet another one of these fallen fighters, as Prime Video’s A League of Their Own got the axe, despite having previously been renewed for a second season.
In an attempt to spotlight content that reflects as many members of the community as possible, the criteria for this list consist of shows that are ongoing or concluded, or films with LGBTQ+ main characters that are streaming originals released in recent years. Canceled efforts were not included, so as to spare readers from the heartbreak of getting attached to characters whose arcs they will never see through.
Do Revenge, Netflix
The teen movie is currently having a much-welcomed renaissance thanks in no small part to this snappy, colorful, and revengeful Netflix black comedy starring Riverdale‘s Camila Mendes and Stranger Things‘ Maya Hawke. The former plays the self-made popular girl Drea, who meets Eleanor, played by the latter, at a summer tennis camp. Their interests align more than they would have expected as they decide to help each other get revenge on their respective enemies.
Despite a plot so convoluted it becomes distracting, Do Revenge has fantastic bite, brilliant performances, and plenty of gayness to go around. In a lot of ways, the 2022 film set the standard for the genre in this new decade.
Heartstopper, Netflix
If you’re a young queer teen just coming across Heartstopper, the show will undoubtedly become a great influence on your life and journey as you explore your sexuality. But for many, this Netflix romantic dramedy has brought on the kind of wholesome thoughtful queer representation that was lacking for generations.
Charlie, Nick, Elle, Tao, Darcy, Tara, and Isaac are the friend group we all wish we’d had in high school, and although the show doesn’t exactly paint a world without LGBT-phobia, it does make an effort to create a slightly more optimistic, safer version of our own. Sometimes realism and violence aren’t what we need from the queer media we consume, but a place of understanding where we can feel seen and secure. Heartstopper gives us that.
The Sex Lives of College Girls, Max
The great thing about the current age of television is that, if there is a show about a friend group, one of its members will be gay. In The Sex Lives of College Girls, created by Mindy Kaling, we get the typical highs and lows of girlhood as the core characters experience their first taste of independence in the same vein as young adult shows like Greek or Gossip Girl. However, this time around, we actually get more than just your token gay character, who barely gets screen time.
In this Max original, the stand-out character is easily Reneé Rapp’s Leighton Murray, as she explores and comes to terms with her sexuality, eventually feeling comfortable enough to start telling people that she’s a lesbian. Sadly, Rapp has chosen to leave the show to focus on her musical career, so after two seasons, and a third on the way, there’s no telling, for sure, how its LGBT+ storylines will fare once its main lesbian lead is no longer a part of the equation.
Nimona, Netflix
Like many queer lives and stories, Nimona had to fight tooth and nail just to exist. After its original animation studio was shut down by Disney, Nimona was drifting in the creative ether until Netflix finally rescued it. That resolution was probably for the best seeing as the streamer allowed the film, adapted from ND Stevenson’s beloved graphic novel, to be as gay as it wanted to be.
Nimona’s character is in itself an allegory for the trans-non-binary experience. She’s a shapeshifter who’s shunned and persecuted throughout, but who never relents in her fight to be free, and to be herself. The brilliantly animated and fearless movie also features two men in a relationship in the characters of Nimona’s partner in crime, Ballister Boldheart, and his boyfriend, Ambrosius Goldenloin.
Harley Quinn, Max
For decades, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s chemistry and destined romance amounted to not much more than subtext and frustration. Despite some progress made in the comics beforehand, the real change came with Max’s Harley Quinn animated series, which finally gave the two most famous female rogues of the DC Universe a romantic storyline worthy of their feisty reputations.
The dark comedy of this relentlessly funny show is the perfect ground for the two’s relationship to grow and flourish into what has become one of the most solid romantic partnerships in the comic book world. More importantly, the show gives Harley a chance to become her own character, whose growth is always supported by her girlfriend. A positively adorable queer love story at the center of a delightfully chaotic and daring comic book show.
Sex Education, Netflix
Sex Education is easily one of the best shows of this century and definitely among Netflix’s crown jewels. Led by an ensemble of brilliant actors, think of this show as a more explicit and sexual version of Heartstopper, but without the rancid exploitative vibes of Euphoria. Yes, high school shows nowadays do tend to include as many moving parts of the LGBTQ+ spectrum as possible, but only some succeed at making these characters feel whole and worthy of our time. Sex Education is definitely one of those.
As the title suggests, this incredibly relevant Netflix series approaches sex in an unabashed but entirely real way. While it doesn’t shy away from featuring sex scenes between all kinds of characters of all gender identities and sexual orientations, it doesn’t do it gratuitously or in an overly staged pornographic manner. Instead, Sex Education is an eye-opening, funny, and heartfelt show about puberty and sexuality — in every form.
Crush, Hulu
Sammi Cohen’s Crush follows the trend of friendly queer media made with plenty of TLC. Rowan Blanchard and Auli’i Cravalho are Paige and AJ, two outsiders brought together — even if indirectly — by their passion for art. Their love story develops slowly, growing from uninterested in each other to friends, to something more.
The stakes are never incredibly high, and the emotions aren’t exactly scintillating. Nevertheless, Hulu’s Crush is a heartwarming and pretty funny addition to the growing list of queer coming-of-age romance stories where neither of the characters has to experience anything super traumatic in order to come into themselves. In this film, the most important thing is figuring out how you’re going to have your first kiss, and also get into college, and that’s the sort of regular problems we’ve always wished were our only concerns.
Dickinson, Apple TV Plus
If you’re looking for desperate love and a tragic love story, Apple TV Plus’ Dickinson has got you covered. This interpretation of Emily Dickinson’s teenage and young adult years is as daring and creative as its muse, and through carefully crafted episodes the show grows not just its protagonist but the collection of incredible supporting characters around her. The most important of which is Sue Gilbert, known to have been something more than a friend to the real Emily Dickinson. In the series created by Alena Smith, there is no ambiguity.
Emily, played by Hailee Steinfeld, and Sue, played by Ella Hunt, are easily one of the best queer female couples in media in the last few years. Their devotion runs deep, but, as expected from a show set in the 19th century, it is constantly put to the test. The show is as timeless as Dickinson’s work as it explores issues of sexuality, gender, and the good ol’ existential crisis of growing older.
Our Flag Means Death, Max
A lot of what is being made today is slowly healing wounds left by what we used to watch while growing up queer in the 2000s or before. In a sense, Our Flag Means Death — a comedy about pirates in the 18th century — would have been the least gay concept ever if it had been made in the past, so it’s understanding that fans were instantly readying themselves for the gay subtext of its two leads to never actually turn into anything else.
In a surprising turn of events for all of us victims of queerbaiting, the Max original series actually followed through on the romantic tension between Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, played by Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi, respectively. And if that wasn’t good enough news, the rest of the bandits are just as if not gayer in this fabulous pirate rom-com.
The Haunting of Bly Manor, Netflix
The horror genre is almost synonymous with queer. It deals with the world that’s hidden in the shadows, the monsters created almost solely in people’s imaginations, and its characters’ deep phobias and paranoia. It’s an inherently psychological genre that is paradoxically welcoming to marginal identities.
Still, The Haunting of Bly Manor is more of a romance than it is horror. The relationship between Dani, played by Victoria Pedretti, and Jamie, played by Amelia Eve, puts the most beautiful love poems to shame and it is the central plot of this haunted mansion story. Queer narratives are, thankfully, everywhere these days, but there’s an added satisfaction in seeing them bloom in a show that’s as wonderfully written and constructed as this Mike Flanagan Netflix original.
Anything’s Possible, Prime Video
Billy Porter is the beating heart of the FX show Pose about ball culture in New York, which, despite being one of the greatest LGBTQ+ shows (and otherwise) of all time, couldn’t find a place on this list for not being a streaming original. Luckily, the jack of all trades is also a film director, and his 2022 debut Anything’s Possible is the joyful, insightful trans teen romcom we’ve always needed.
Eva Reign plays Kelsa, a high school senior with a YouTube channel, who falls for her art classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali). The story is the same as ever, but the obstacles these lovebirds have to face are specific to the trans experience, and shine a light on what it is like to date if you don’t fit society’s gender norms. Ultimately, Anything’s Possible is sweet and unafraid, and while it is a romance movie, the true love story is between Kelsa and her future.
Red, White & Royal Blue, Prime Video
High school romcoms are great, but sometimes it’s fun to add a little extra spice to the gay punchbowl we’re all trying to take a sip from. As widespread as queer love stories have become, it’s true that their settings can be quite repetitive and limited to the constricting walls of an educational institution. In Prime Video’s Red, White & Royal Blue, however, the premise goes a little further, opening the floor up to all kinds of genuinely entertaining possibilities.
Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine are Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry, the son of the United States president, and the grandson of the King of England, respectively. They don’t get along at all, but a dramatic diplomatic mishap (they fight and fall into a wedding cake), forces them to make up for the sake of healthy international relations. Okay, maybe they take that a little bit too literally.
