News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media

Queer as Folk

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Story lines about lesbian mothers almost always lead to broken relationships.
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Thea Gill of "Dante's Cove" on suffering, life in L.A. and Canadian food.

Who Thought THAT Was a Good Idea? Worst Lesbian TV Moments

It's all about bad lesbian TV in this week's Who Thought THAT Was a Good Idea?, as Lori and I count down some of the worst lesbian story-line decisions on American television — starting with Serena Southerlyn's coming-out on the way out of Law & Order, and ending with ... well, you'll just have to watch and find out for yourself.

Give us your thoughts on the worst lesbian moments in American TV history in the comments — and if you missed it, check out our favorite lesbian moments in last Friday's episode of She Made Me Watch This! … continue reading

 

The British "Queer As Folk": It’s not just for the boys

To celebrate its 25th birthday, the U.K.’s Channel 4 has been re-screening some of its landmark programs on the digital spin-off channel More4. Among them is the original British Queer As Folk, first aired in 1999: a ten-episode serial that spawned the much more substantial American series. I remembered enjoying the British version the first time around: less because of its gay themes, in fact, than because of the sheer talent of its screenwriter, Russell T. Davies, who has gone on to become something of a power player in U.K. television. I remembered the writing as strong, the characters as entertaining. But it was the gay male characters who had stuck in my memory. I’d forgotten about the lesbians.

That might not seem surprising to viewers of the American series, which was criticized for consistently sidelining its two lesbian characters, Lindsay Peterson (Thea Gill) and Melanie Marcus (Michelle Clunie), and saddling them with boring, sexist or stereotypical storylines. … continue reading

Watching the British series for the second time around, however, I found it was the lesbian representation that really caught my attention.

 
Queer female characters disappoint on the sci-fi show.

The highs and lows of 2005's representation of queer women on TV.

QAF's lesbian couple may have little life outside of motherhood in the show's final season.

British TV has come a long way in its portrayal of lesbians and bisexual women.
Clunie talks about how Melanie has evolved over the last three seasons on "Queer as Folk".
Lesbian characters on TV are frequently confined to storylines that revolve around motherhood.

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AfterEllen.com NYC Meet-Up on May 18th

We're having a get-together on May 18th in NYC for our readers, with some of our staff and vloggers, and the cast/creators of 3Way. Go here for details.

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