11 queer TV shows that remind us that love is love
A pop culture guide to the LGBTQIA+ experience
Remember the time Modern Family was considered to be revolutionary because it featured a gay couple — and not just as the butt of all jokes? Get ready to feel really old, because that show debuted 11 years ago. Since then, queer TV shows have have been popping up in every genre, on every platform, encouraging us to move beyond mere caricatures.
And it’s not just Hollywood that’s become more sensitive. Even here, we’re beginning to find a generous sprinkling of LGBTQIA+ characters across the thali of popular shows.
If you watched Pataal Lok (Does the sun rise in the east? Should elaichi be outlawed from the world of biryani?), you would have noticed that the purest and most enduring sub-plots in the show was the love between Cheeni, the transgender masseuse who’s caught up in a game she doesn’t understand, and her lifelong cisgender friend. That Cheeni is played by Manipuri transgender actress Mairembam Ronaldo Singh only makes the story more compelling.
As we celebrate Pride Month and try to educate ourselves about the LGBTQIA+ experience, we’ve curated a versatile selection of queer TV shows and characters who can help be our guiding lights.
Pick from a healthy mix of the heavy and light depending on your mood — from feel-good comedies that you can watch with the whole family to complex narratives rooted in history and musicals that will improve your bathroom singer status.
These queer TV shows aren’t perfect, but they’re a good place to start.
Queer TV shows that help us understand the LGBTQIA+ experience
Modern Family Modern Family will always remain a landmark when it comes to queer TV shows for being among the first to depict a committed gay couple and their family life. It exploded into popular culture in 2009, a time when a mainstream showcase of gay partners with a family was rare. Shy, neurotic Mitch and bold, sensitive Cam (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet) gave us relatable #couplegoals and multiple parenting fails. From their adoption of Lily to their wedding that made us all tear up just a bit, Mitch and Cam carved a space for themselves in our hearts that’ll be hard to replace. Watch on Disney+ Hotstar Made In Heaven The show followed wedding planners Karan Mehra (Arjun Mathur) and Tara Khanna (Sobhita Dhulipala), focusing on all that lies beneath the surface of happy marriages. Karan is more than just a stereotypical gay best friend. He’s a multifaceted character whose queerness is a part of his identity as a working man struggling with debt, dealing with the multiple problems that come with living in New Delhi. The most moving part of the show, which many LGBTQIA+ community members could have related to, is the abuse of privacy and public outing by his landlord to the police. Charged with Section 377 he was imprisoned, abused and then thrown into the limelight. Homosexuality was only recently decriminalised, and the fear of police action and violence is one that the LGBTQIA+ community have always lived in fear of in India. Discrimination at the hand of landlords, coworkers and more is still a reality, regardless of laws. Karan’s childhood sexual explorations, struggles with self-acceptance and coming out was handled by the writers with sensitivity and grace. We get to learn more about the queer experience from secondary characters like Karan’s landlord (Vinay Pathak) who hints at being in the closet himself while married to a woman with whom he has a child. Watch on Prime Video Sex Education A highlight on our list of queer tv shows, Sex Education has earned the title one of the ‘queerest teen shows ever’, and for good reason. Unlike queer TV shows about high school culture, here, a POC gay teen is front and centre, along with androgynous characters, queer hook-ups, relationships and love triangles. Eric navigates his queerness — and fabulous flair for fashion — while living with his devoutly religious African parents. The stereotypical school bully Adam struggles with coming to terms with being bisexual. We see a gorgeous mixed-race girl struck by an awakening of her own sexual fluidity. These aspects don’t rule the characters, but are a part of their personalities sketched out in fun, touching and insightful ways. Watch on Netflix Brooklyn Nine-Nine Police procedural comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, has given us a lifetime’s worth of quotable dialogue (cooooolcooolcooolcooolcoool) and lovable characters, namely Captain Holt (Andre Braugher). He’s an accomplished gay African American man who constantly subverts gay stereotypes, whether it’s his monochrome wardrobe, his distaste for slang, or his preference for classical music over Beyonce. His character speaks of the discrimination he’s faced through the years within the police department for his sexuality and skin colour and the extra mile he’s had to go to prove himself in his career. In season five, Detective Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) comes out as bisexual, slowly sharing the news with her team, and finally, the biggest challenge, her parents. Her parents didn’t take the news very well, distancing themselves from their daughter. Bisexuality is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Here, Rosa’s character is shown to have loving committed relationships with both men and women, both different from each other but equally impactful in her character’s arc. Watch on Netflix 5/11  Photo credit: NetflixGrace and Frankie Grace and Frankie is all about the bond that two women form when their husbands come out as having been in a same-sex relationship for years. The betrayal of their hidden relationship is depicted with humour, and kindness towards the two protagonists (Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin) and their outrage, but speaks of the reality of many homosexual men who have lived their lives in the closet and married to women. For many older LGBTQIA+ individuals, coming out was not something they considered a possibility until very recently, often upending their current lives and relationships. Sol and Robert in the show are shown to start a life together as an older couple, something we’ve never really seen before in mainstream television. There is *spoiler alert* eventually, a reconciliation between the four as the former partners embrace the new dynamics of their relationships, even support their ex-husbands in their marriage and life together. Watch on Netflix Four More Shots Please! The show about four modern Indian female friends, gave India a strong queer female lead in Umang Singh, played by Bani J. Umang’s character shows the hard decision many queer folk in smaller towns have to make to leave their homes behind to live as their authentic selves. When Umang finally comes out to her family, the rejection she’s faced with is a punch to the gut. In Mumbai, she finds her support system in her friends. They are her chosen family, a concept many queer individuals know all too well after facing rejection from their loved ones because of their sexual orientation. She is still open about her bisexuality, exploring relationships and casual sex with men and women alike. The depiction of it isn’t made to be titillating, there’s a tenderness to it, especially in her relationship with Samara Kapoor (Lisa Ray), a celebrity trying to figure out her own sexual preferences. Watch on Prime Video I Am Not Okay with This There’s a lot going on in this comedy-drama for protagonist Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis). The death of a parent, friction with her now-single mother, puberty hormones, budding sexuality and secret crush on her female best friend, Dina. Oh, and sudden superpowers. It’s all just about a teen girl exploring her sexuality in an American high school. Sydney struggles with whether she should open up to Dina about these new feelings at the risk of ruining their friendship. She’s jealous of Dina’s boyfriend, the openness with which they can express their relationship and a lot of her frustration comes out with the superpowers she’s developed. Watch on Netflix The L Word: Generation Q” The L Word broke onto the scene in 2004 as a drama TV show purely depicting the lives of a group of queer women. Their trials and tribulations, passing romances, daily conflicts, parenting and weddings. Kind of like Sex and the City, but with only lesbians and bisexual women. It had its faults, sure, but it also filled the void that existed when it came to lesbian representation on screen and remains a mainstay in any conversation about LGBTQ TV shows. Now rebooted as The L Word: Generation Q, the show has expanded to include more trans and POC voices. It has retained some from the original group of friends and added new faces for a more inclusive look on LGBTQ lives in Los Angeles. Watch on Disney+ Hotstar Glee Starting in 2009 as a musical drama revolving around a high school club, Glee made wave for its catchy tunes and depictions of queer love, sexuality and relationships. In the first season, Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), a flamboyant gay teen, struggles with his sexuality, coming out to friends and family and deals with his attraction to the straight co-captain of the Glee club, Finn Hudson. They show the bullying he faces at the hands of his classmates, one of them being a closeted gay man himself. This was a time when there was an increasing number of cases involving violent bullying that led to deaths and suicide of gay teens in the US. Kurt Hummel does find love in Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss), and the couple gave everyone serious relationship goals by the end of the show. The show also showcases queer women and love through the characters of cheerleaders Santana Lopez and Britanny Pierce. The show tries to cover its bases of queer representation, with a number of faults along the way but their hearts seem to have been in the right place. Streaming online on Netflix AJ and the Queen Picture a 6’3″, 59-year-old drag queen in flaming red wigs going on a performing tour through America’s bible belt, accompanied by a pint-sized gangster who hates dresses. You couldn’t have imagined that premise after shooting a kilo of sugar straight from the packet. This stands out in our list of queer TV shows for being an unconventional love story, not between romantic partners, but between two lost souls who find themselves parenting each other through the unexpected curveballs life lobs at them. Come for RuPaul’s immaculate drag, and you’ll find yourself settling in despite the cheesy one-liners. Streaming online on Netflix. Hollywood We’ll watch anything that Ryan Murphy makes, but his latest production answers the most painful question of all: What if? In this veneered world set in Hollywood’s Golden Age, we get to witness history being rewritten. What would happen if powerful people used their white privilege to challenge segregation? What might have been if queer people din’t have to lurk in the shadows? What if your chances of finding love didn’t come with an expiry date? And what if women were put in charge? We definitely want to find out. Streaming online on Netflix. |
