In last year’s TV Year in Review, I touched on the idea that pop culture and politics are locked in mutualistic relationship, and that fact is more obvious than ever in 2013. This year, same-sex marriage became legal in England, Wales, France, Brazil, Uruguay, and New Zealand. Six U.S. states began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The first openly lesbian US senator assumed office. And the United States Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and invalidated California’s Proposition 8, in two of the most significant pro-LGBT cases in American legislative history.
While that was going on, American TV networks introduced 35 new lesbian and bisexual characters and outed an additional five queer female characters. Add that to the already established line-up and we saw over 70 fictional gay ladies – the most ever! – on our TVs in 2013. Just to put that into perspective: When I started writing for AfterEllen in 2008, there wasn’t a single leading lesbian or bisexual character on primetime broadcast television.
But we didn’t just succeed in the world of make-believe. 2013 also saw a record number of real-life queer women on TV. From political pundits to talk show hosts to sketch show stars to reality TV participants to lesbian/bi actresses to professional athletes, gay gals made their presence known across genres and networks and viewing mediums. NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Orange Is the New Black – No show embodies the forward progress of LGBT TV quite like Netflix’s original series Orange Is the New Black, which landed on our laptops this summer. Because the show was created for an on-demand streaming video site, it was able to bypass all the Standards and Practices rigamarole that beleaguers network TV shows with queer characters. Sex, for example, was directed, filmed, and edited for lesbian couples the same way it was directed, filmed, and edited for straight couples. No cutaways, no closed-mouth kissing followed by hair-braiding. OITNB‘s sex scenes were real and raw and resonant with the gay ladies in the audience. The show also introduced seven lesbian and bisexual characters and one transgender character of varying body types and skin colors and ethnicities. The only show to ever air a pilot with that many gay ladies was The L Word, a full decade ago, and that show was white, white, white.
The Fosters – When ABC Family announced its plan to team-up with Jennifer Lopez to produce a two-mama drama, we held our breaths and hoped against hope that we’d finally get to see two loving, stable, sexy, complicated, relatable gay moms on our TVs. The Coach and Mrs. Coach of lesbian couples, if you will. But in our wildest dreams, we never imagined that’s really what would happen. But it did! Teri Polo and Sherri Saum have chemistry for days, and the authenticity they lend to Stef and Lena Adams-Foster is sometimes overwhelming to watch. They canoodle, they tease, they bicker, they miscommunicate, they laugh, they try their hardest to keep their gaggle of kids from exploding in a cacophony of insecure teenage hormones. And they also got married in the season one finale!
Orphan Black – One of this year’s critical darlings was BBC America’s first foray into scripted TV: the Canadian-based sci-fi series Orphan Black, in which Tatiana Maslany plays half a dozen clones (with different looks, personalities, accents, body language, and backgrounds) with stunning finesse. One of the three main clones is Cosima Neihaus, whose sexual identity the show’s creators called “bisexual” (if you had to codify it), but maybe she’s ready to self-identify as gay.” Midway through season one, Cosima falls hard for Delphine Cormier, and while Delphine has never been with another woman before, she isn’t dissuaded from reciprocating Cosima’s feelings. And not in that fauxmosexual “hope my boyfriend don’t mind it” kind of way. No, Delphine’s feelings are way more sexy science than all that: “As a scientist I know that sexuality is a spectrum, but social biases codify sexual attraction, contrary to the biological facts,” she tells Cosima right before shagging her. That’s the beauty of science fiction: The degrees of separation from real life are pronounced enough that it allows us to have discussions about nature vs. nurture (Born This Way vs. Freewill) and smashing the binary of sexual orientation.
Under the Dome – CBS’ adaptation of Stephen King‘s bestselling novel was the summer’s biggest hit. The pilot was the most watched drama premiere on any TV network since 1992! Like The Fosters, Under the Dome featured a pair of lesbian moms. Unlike The Fosters, Under the Dome didn’t close out its season with those moms dancing around to “Same Love” in their wedding dresses, holding hands with their children. Instead, it gave us the death of one-half of the gay mom tag-team. While it’s hard not to give into fits of hysteria and despair when TV shows kill off their lesbian characters, 2013 did provide us with ample opportunity to reevaluate our feelings about the trope. Alice’s death, rather than being based in homophobia or indifference, provided an emotional anchor for the audience as they grappled with the harsh reality of the Circle of Life inside the Dome.
Defiance – Like Orphan Black, Syfy’s original series Defiance surprised and delighted us in 2013. The future-dystopian show didn’t boast any self-identified gay characters when it premiered, and it seemed like the spotlight romance would take place between the lady mayor and the manly sheriff, but as the season progressed, the real relationship exploration happened between the lady mayor’s brothel-owning sister and the manly sheriff’s arch-nemesis’ wife. Stahma Tarr, a cunning, duplicitous woman trapped for thousands of years in one of the most oppressively patriarchal alien society’s in any known galaxy, found herself falling in lust (and probably even a little in love) with human apocalypse-survivor Kenya Rosewater. Sadly, their love story ended in murder. Of course, it’s science fiction, so no one really dies; who knows how Kenya will be resurrected from the grave when the second season gets underway in 2014?
New shows, new characters – Plenty of other new shows offered up supporting or recurring lesbian/bisexual characters this year. Lucy is desperately (but kind of secretly) in love with her best friend Mina on NBC’s Dracula. Betty is a prostitute who sleeps with men but is actually in love with a woman on Showtime’s critically acclaimed Masters of Sex. Julie and Laurie are two ladies in love on the US remake of the French vampire drama The Returned (Les Revenants). Kate Moennig is back with that swager, this time as Lena on Showtime’s Ray Donovan. FX’s cop drama, The Bridge, gave us a kick-ass Latina lesbian in the character of Adriana Perez. And Mistresses introduced two lesbian recurring characters and a straight main character whose bicuriousty lasted for nearly a full season.
Old shows, new characters – A few long-running series introduced new lesbian/bi characters in 2013, either by creating new roles or having existing characters come out of the closet. The most publicized among these was Amber Tamblyn‘s addition to the cast of Two and a Half Men. She joined the sitcom as a guest star to play the deceased Charlie’s long lost lesbian daughter, and while I’m still not exactly sure how we feel about the show as a whole, I’ll admit to being pretty happy that Tambyln was bumped up to a series regular after only a few episodes. NBC’s Canadian police drama Rookie Blue introduced Holly, a lesbian forensic pathologist for whom Gail fell really hard (really fast!). The Killing made the refreshing addition of a young, androgynous lesbian to its cast this year. Not so refreshing: Poor Bullet was murdered before the season was complete. Once Upon a Time finally allowed Mulan to come out of the closet as she revealed (to the audience, at least) her love for Aurora. And Hell on Wheels gave us a badass lesbian reporter named Louise.
Promising futures – Super Fun Night has been hinting at letting Marika come out of the closet all season. She even attended the equivalent of a Xena:Warrior Princess convention that ended with her playing late-night football with Xena herself. And Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gave a one-episode guest arc to one of Marvel comics’ most iconic lesbian characters, Agent Victoria Hand, even though the show hasn’t mentioned her sexuality (yet).
Grey’s Anatomy – You’d think after 10 seasons, Shonda Rhimes would have run out of ways to entertain us, but nope. 2013’s run of Grey’s Anatomy proved that she’s never going to give out of tricks. In addition to adding drama to Callie and Arizona’s relationship by having Callie chop off Arizona’s leg after a plane crash, Rhimes also shepherded in one of the most realistic portrayals of PTSD to ever land on our TVs. Arizona struggled to forgive her wife, to come to grips with her new physical and emotional reality, and to be the mom her daughter needed. Callie, meanwhile, tried to find the balance between abiding patience and tough love. Their relationship met challenges on every level, especially sexually, which made it even more shocking to watch Arizona give into her lusty feelings for Hilarie Burton‘s lesbian guest character, Dr. Lauren. But Calzona’s year wasn’t all bleak and adulterous; they finally reconnected with a lot of kissing (and only a little talking) during the recent midseason finale.
Glee – It has always a “best of times, worst of times” situation with Glee, and 2013 fell into the same old patterns. In one breath, the show mocked The Lesbian Blogger Community for over-caring and in the next breath, the show name-checked AfterEllen while parading Sanatana’s fake girlfriend around in a cheerleading uniform. The writers gave us a poignant, moving goodbye to Brittany S. Pierce, a true unicorn of bisexuality on network TV, only to retcon her character as a fickle penis-addict who couldn’t remain faithful to her girlfriend. Demi Lovato was cast as Santana’s new New York girlfriend, but her sizzling chemistry with Naya Rivera (and the insane majesty of their combined singing voices) has been wasted almost beyond measure. We mostly only see them sitting on couches in the background, not even holding hands. And no one can forget Quinn Fabray’s foray into lesbian hook-ups, or the way she went back for seconds with Santana. With a season and a half left to go, we’ve got to wonder if Glee‘s creative team is ever going to figure out how to treat its LGBT characters equally.
Lost Girl – Not even on its best day could The L Word have competed with Lost Girl‘s nuanced portrayal of the spectrum of queer sexuality, in large part because the Canadian sci-fi drama treats the entire thing as a non-issue. Bo Dennis, the most well-rounded kick-ass female leading character to land on our TVs since Buffy Summers, is unapologetically bisexual. And even though she is a literal succubus, she never falls into those tired bisexual cliches. In 2013, she made an honest, full-hearted effort to maintain a stable, healthy relationship with Dr. Lauren Lewis. In the end, it wasn’t a lack of loyalty or love (or dicks) that caused the rift between them; it was one of those common relationship misunderstandings that happen sometimes when one partner is tasked with the job of saving the world. This year also saw the addition of three more queer characters – Rachel Skarsten‘s Tamisn, Ali Liebert‘s Crystal, and Mia Kirshner‘s Clio – to Lost Girl‘s already swoon-worthy line-up.
Pretty Little Liars – The only show that comes close to competing with Lost Girl in terms of representing the full prism of queer female sexuality is Pretty Little Liars, a fact that never fails to delight me because it airs on the formerly Pat Robertson-owned ABC Family network. 2013 saw Paige and Emily going through typical teenage relationship struggles: What do you do when college might tear you 3,000 miles apart? How can you empower your girlfriend to follow her athletic dreams after she suffers an injury from jumping in front of a car being driven by someone wearing a mask of her dead ex-girlfriend’s face? What’s the best way to conquer your jealousy when your girlfriend’s Habitat for Humanity mentor writes erotic poetry for her disguised as a recommendation letter? How do you not end up with mushy squash at the high school hoedown after murdering a red-coated student with a pitchfork in the back of a hay truck? When’s the best time to cuddle if your girlfriend is always portal-hopping to a dimension where towns are desaturated and people worship Ravens? This year also saw the addition of a lesbian relationship between longtime Liar nemesis Jenna Marshall and web series creeper Shana Costumeshop and a guest appearance by Rumer Willis as the aforementioned erotic lesbian poet.
Bomb Girls – Another Canadian import that continued to woo in 2013 was the WWII period drama Bomb Girls. This year our intrepid Victory Munitions Head Girl, Betty McRae, took a break from swooning over her (apparently?) straight best friend to strike up a romance with traveling bond girl Theresa. The pair enjoyed covert movie theater cuddles, (secretly not-so) innocuous waltzing down at the pub, and some long-awaited love-making for Betty. They also ate a whole crop of metaphorical strawberries in the wee morning hours while sharing their secrets and hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, Global TV didn’t renew the series for a third season, but they did come through on their promise to film a TV movie, which will be released next year.
Chicago Fire – After scaring us out of our wits by nearly killing lesbian paramedic Leslie Shay at the end of season one (and teasing the idea that she was going to sleep with her male BFF to make a baby), the show roped us back in for season two by dangling a love interest named Devon right in front of our faces and then having her break Shay’s heart right after her U-Haul proposal. (She gave her a key!)
Degrassi – 2013 was a tough year for LGBT fans of Degrassi. Fiona and Imogen, the show’s longterm lesbian couple, said their goodbyes when Fiona graduated from high school and decided to take a fashion internship in Europe. They were together 6 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days, according to Imogen. (Hashtag sad face.) And transgender student Adam was killed in during a texting-and-driving PSA in the middle of season 13.
True Blood, The Good Wife – On the surface, The Good Wife and True Blood don’t seem to have much in common. One is a broadcast network lawyer drama and the other is a premium cable vampire series. But this year they land in the same category of: dropping the ball with their lesbian/bi characters. Kalinda Sharma has long been the critical favorite of The Good Wife, and 2013 saw a complete sabotage of her once fierce, complex bisexual private detective. Her story arc was reviled not only by gay ladies but by reviewers from dozens of mainstream media outlets. And to add insult to injury, her much-touted lady love interest was cut from early episodes of season five. As for True Blood, what was once a promising, blossoming love story between Tara and Pam was dropped completely this year. In fact, Tara didn’t see any significant screentime past episode two and Pam’s obsession with Eric destroyed any chance they had to enjoy the same kind of sexy goodtimes as the straight couples on the show.
Recurring gays and guest stars – There was plenty to celebrate on the gay guest/recurrig character front. Jess and Monica were back on this season of Shameless. Madame Vastra, the reptile from the dawn of time, and her wife Jenny enjoyed a good bit of screentime – including an episode devoted almost entirely to them and their companion Strax – on Doctor Who. HG Wells returned for one a handful of episodes during Warehouse 13‘s fourth season, including one episode that revolved almost entirely around her complicated relationship with Myka. New Girl let us spend some more time with Sadie, Jess’ gynecoligist (“vagenius”) best friend, who decided to have a baby with her wife this season. And Felicia Day‘s lesbian super nerd made a triumphant return to Supernatural where she revealed she’d been doing some hunting on her own and ended up frolicking off down the (actual) Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy.
Like last year, 2013 was a banner year for real-life gay ladies.
Political punditry allowed us to spend more time with the whole world’s favorite liberal lady, Rachel Maddow, who continued to woo and wow on late night talks shows as a mixologist while continuing to be the golden girl of MSNBC’s primetime line-up. Jane Velez-Mitchell entered her fifth year of hosting her eponymous show on HLN, as well as making frequent guest appearances on CNN and E!. Sally Kohn continued to try to add some actual fairness and balance to Fox News’ political commentary. Today Show weekend anchor Jenna Wolfe came out and announced that she and her partner, NBC News Foreign Correspondent Stephanie Gosk, were expecting their first child. And Suze Orman continued her award-winning stint as the country’s best money manager on CNN’s The Suze Orman Show.
And just this week Good Morning America host/ESPN’s best ever sports commentator Robin Roberts revealed in a Facebook post that she had a girlfriend (she’s been with Amber Laign for ten years). Now you can wake up with an out morning news anchor every day of the week!
On the talk show front, Ellen DeGeneres continued to dominate the daytime TV airwaves. The Ellen DeGeneres Show received two Emmy award wins (out of four nominations) and was renewed through 2017, which will carry it into its 14th season. Sara Gilbert continued to enchant on CBS’ The Talk. Fortune Feimster never failed to make us guffaw on Chelsea Lately. And our own Bridget McManus joined The Queen Latifah Show much to the delight of everyone in the studio and viewing audiences.
The landscape of reality TV was markedly different for gay women in 2013 as we’d already bid goodbye to the women of The Real L Word last year. But there was plenty to celebrate. Jillian Michaels continued to advise contestants on The Biggest Loser; Tabatha Coffey continued to whip salon owners into shape on Tabatha Takes Over; Michelle Chamuel rocked her time on The Voice and almost took home the trophy for the fourth season. Monifah and Terez got engaged on R&B Divas; and Generation Cyro followed lesbian Breeanna as she sought the sperm donor her own lesbian moms used to conceive her.
And, of course, no lesbian lady TV review would be complete without a mention of Kate McKinnon who absolutely owned Saturday Night Live this year, even doing her Ellen impersonation with Ellen herself. THE BREAKDOWN When you factor in lesbian/bi characters from international shows – Last Tango in Halifax, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Tierra de Lobos, Verbotene Liebe, and Wentworth – you get a grand total over over 100 (one hundred!) lesbian/bi characters on TVs around the world in 2013, over three-quarters of which matriculated in North America. I’ve mentioned this before but it bares repeating that when The L Word ended its run in 2009, we exchanged a lot of editorial emails here at AfterEllen about what the heck we were going to write about. Without the ladies of Showtime’s WeHo there was an absolute dearth of gay ladies on TV. So the fact that there are 100 (one hundred!) to choose from four years later is mind-boggling in the very best way.
Of course it’s not all high-fives and scissoring. The overwhelming majority of LGBT characters on television are thin and white, and most of them do not enjoy the kind of physical relationships as straight characters. And while there are more LGBT characters than ever, we are still wildly underrepresented. But the diversity of viewing mediums and genres over which the current crop of gay characters is spread is really encouraging. Visibility seems to be growing exponentially.
Next year, in addition to the lesbian/bi characters that survived 2013 (which was most of them), we’re getting another lesbian mom show. The CW has picked up the Canadian dramady Seed, which features an interracial lesbian couple that befriends the bartending, sperm-donating main character. The Disney Channel will feature its first ever gay characters when a lesbian couple comes to town on Good Luck Charlie. Netflix Emmy contender House of Cards will feature a lesbian pairing. The upcoming Starz pirate drama Black Sails boasts a couple of gay ladies. Global will release its Bomb Girls movie. And hopefully we’ll be hearing more about the sitcom team-up between Ellen DeGeneres and Liz Feldman.
If the last few years of sweeping social change are any indication, 2o14 is going to be another great year for gay woman, politically and pop culturally.
