TV

The 14 most important LGBT shows on TV right now

The end of every year is heavy with Best! and Worst! lists, which is silly and fun but ultimately it just means Stuff The Writer Really Liked or Loathed. Now that we’re in the swing of another year of new television, I thought we’d take a minute to think in more specific terms about LGBT visibility and ask: What are the most important shows on TV right now? You know, the ones that are still changing the minds of the people who don’t believe in marriage equality and showing the way to religious parents who reject their gay childrens’ sexualities and pushing pop culture (which pushes political legislation) firmly toward the correct side of history. Below are 14 shows we think are actually changing the world. The Rachel Maddow Show She is an androgynous lesbian who has become the go-to pundit for progressives and the must-have mixologist for late night talk show hosts. She’s a digger, an investigator, a fact-checker, a PhD at heart – and she’s the anchor of all of MSNBC’s big deal political coverage these days. The straight guys in suits at the table, they wait for her to ask them to speak. Her voice carries. Ask President Obama. Anderson Cooper 360 Anderson Cooper is maybe America’s most trusted journalist. He is the one who is on the ground when the most publicized news stories hit – he won two Emmys for his coverage of the Haitian earthquake in 2011 – but he’s also well-known for shining a light on really tough gay issues like bullying and outing. Plus he’s the guy we ring in the New Year with. It was nice when The New York Times called him “the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television,” but even nicer when he came out himself in 2012. The Fosters I never get tired of writing about how an interracial lesbian couple rakes in the ratings on a channel that was founded by notorious homophobe Pat Robertson as the Christian Broadcasting Network. The Fosters is typical ABC Family fodder: A diverse group of teenagers pull dramatic shenanigans and cry – but at the center of the show are two moms, the anchor around which everyone else revolves. The show doesn’t shy away from showing the struggles they face as gay women, but Stef and Lena are strong, resolute, and committed to each other no matter what. They’re a modern-day Brady Bunch. The Gaydy Bunch. How I Met Your Mother There was a time when it seemed like every pop culture website on the internet was asking whether or not gay actors could convincingly portray straight characters. It was ridiculous, of course, as proven over nine seasons by the country’s most famous gay man, Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the most lovable womanizer the sitcom world has ever seen. (Sorry, Joey Tribbiani.) Harris’ fame has only grown wider and wider as the show has found itself in syndication all over the world, and he uses his platform to … just be a regular guy who loves his husband and his kids. The Ellen DeGeneres Show She’s the most famous gay person in the entire world and every single day she dances her way into our living rooms and makes us fall more in love with her. Ellen has done more for queer people than any other entertainer on earth simply by virtue of being out and being awesome. Orange Is the New Black Every single one of Netflix’s 33 million subscribers has been presented with ample opportunity to watch Orange Is the New Black, one of the most diverse shows to ever be filmed. It features lesbian and bisexual women of different colors, sizes, and Kinsey scale leanings, but it’s greatest accomplishment is the graceful, honest way it presented the story of its transgender character, Sophia Burset. It’s the most three-dimensional portrayal of a transgender character I’ve ever seen, and, honestly, the LGBT community couldn’t ask for a better spokesperson than Laverne Cox, who has used her fame to de-stigmatize and educate and flat-out make us swoon.

Grey’s Anatomy Still crushing the ratings in its 10th season, Grey’s Anatomy has given more screentime to Callie and Arizona than any other network has ever given its LGBT characters, by at least a mile. They enjoy the same lovey-dovey affection as the straight couples on the show and they suffer through the Shonda Rhimes-shaped hardships the same as the straight couples too. They’re just like us, only with ten times as many lightning strikes and plane crashes. Orphan Black Not just any show could present the nature vs. nurture argument with regards to sexual orientation and make it seem like just another organic conversation between two of its main characters, but Orphan Black did it with ease in its first season. The lesbi-questioning Delphine said to Cosima: “As a scientist I know that sexuality is a spectrum, but social biases codify sexual attraction, contrary to the biological facts” before kissing her right on the mouth. Punching holes in the binary and wondering aloud about the prism of ways, both genetic and social, that people come to embrace their sexual identities. Revolutionary! Plus, Sarah’s gay foster brother Felix became the most lovable character on the show in the first season, to the clones and to the audience. Scandal The way Scandal casually mentioned that the White House Chief of Staff is a married gay man made me think the show was never going to make an issue out of the relationship, which turned out to be the opposite of true: Scandal actually anchored its romantic emotion onto Cyrus and James. While Olivia and Fitz and Mellie ripped each other apart in their tragically Greek way, Cyrus and James remained a beacon of dysfunctional-but-workable love in a really messed up city. Cyrus’ and James’ mutual betrayals of each other packed a more powerful kick to the heart than anything else the show managed to do in three seasons, and it one time showed a woman chewing off her own wrists, so that’s saying something. Glee It remains the only broadcast network show to feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters, and while it disappoints us more often than not these days, there’s no denying the role it has played in spreading the It Gets Better to an entire generation of gay teenagers. Modern Family The Emmy/Golden Globes darling has spawned half a dozen lookalike sitcoms over the years, but none of them have been able to capture the magic of Modern Family. Cam and Mitchell haven’t always been treated equally when it comes to expressing on-air physical affection, but they remain one of the most adored TV couples on one of the most watched TV shows. And Jesse Tyler Fergsuon has used the fame to lobby for marriage equality around the world. Under the Dome The most-watched show of 2013’s summer TV season featured an interracial lesbian couple that broke the audience’s heart. While it’s hard not to begrudge the loss of another lesbian character on television, Alice’s death didn’t have any apathetic or homophobic undertones. It was written for pure emotional devastation. And it played out on America’s highest rated, most notoriously conservative network. Lost Girl We always wondered what it would have been like if Buffy had been bisexual, and Lost Girl finally answered that question for us. The Canadian import aired on Syfy last summer and became one of the most DVR-ed shows of 2014. It showcases a variety of queer female characters and never makes an issue about the sexuality of any of them. It’s the only show on TV that can truly say it allows its gay couples to to get romantic on-screen the same way straight couples do. Pretty Little Liars Every year, Pretty Little Liars finds new ways to break social media records. It’s the show of the under-30 Twitter generation, and over the course of four seasons it has given us seven queer female characters, a gay bar, and a crew of lesbian and gay writers/directors/producers who are more tapped into what makes their lesbian audience tick than any show in history.

What do you think is the most important LGBT show on TV right now?

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