TV

2015: The Year in Lesbian/Bi TV

Hello and welcome. We are gathered here today to look back on the journey of queer* female fictional characters on television in 2015. And if you thought last year’s was a long post, get comfy, because this year, even more shows stepped up and added queer women to their roster.

*I’m going to use the word “queer” throughout this post to encompass anyone on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, including for characters whose sexuality was never specifically stated, and just as a general term, even though I know it can also be an identity of its own, mostly because it’s easier to type than LGBTQ+ and flows better in sentences.

That being said, I have to warn you: I’m POSITIVE there are some shows I missed. I tried keeping a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year, but even though I watch something like 80 active shows, even I couldn’t keep up with all the queer women popping up. Granted, some were only for an episode or two, and some representation was better than others, but times they are a changing. I think the fact that the sheer number of queer women on television has grown is a huge step in the right direction. We’re even tiptoeing the right way as far as queer women of color, as that number has been creeping up as well. Positive trans* representation has gone from like zero to three in the past few years, so television needs some desperate help there, but, at least the number still isn’t zero.

What’s great about the growing quantity of queer women on television, is now we can demand quality. We don’t have to watch a show just because it has a queer female character in order to support the show’s decision to add one. We can quit a show when it kills their only lesbian (*cough* Chicago Fire *cough*), we can shout from the rooftops in anger when a bisexual character’s history with another main character goes unmentioned for episodes at a time (*cough* Arrow *cough*), and we can hold even our favorite shows accountable for poor judgement when it makes questionable (and sometimes dangerous) choices for its queer characters (looking at you, Pretty Little Liars).

I decided to format this post the same way I formatted last year’s-imagining all the shows go to AfterEllen Academy, and sorting them the way they might appear in a yearbook. I know that some of these shows could fall into multiple categories, but breaking it down like this is just for fun so I didn’t present you just a list of a billion shows.

(I apologize in advance for any bias I show in this post, and, in case it wasn’t obvious, this list will include major spoilers for multiple shows, so proceed with caution.)

CLASS OF ’15

Let’s start with this year’s graduating class, the shows (or characters) we saw the last of this year who had enough notice to say a proper goodbye.

I’m starting with Glee because Glee is that smug valedictorian who wreaked havoc its final semester but still had the grades from earlier years to have a stupidly high GPA. At the reunion in a few years, it’ll be preening around all proud of itself, touting about how great it was, and everyone else will be like, “Yeah, okay, sure you were the best and the brightest for a while there, but you were a real prick toward the end and it kind of ruined all the good things you did.”

Saying goodbye to Glee was bittersweet for a lot of reasons. Without a doubt, Glee helped change the entire landscape of television. Over the course of its six seasons, it had characters that were bisexual, lesbian, gay, trans* and Quinn. It tackled the subjects of coming out, being bullied for your sexuality, unsupportive families, catfishing (??) and more. And even though certain things were weird or annoying (Unique disappearing off the face of the planet even though she had one of the best voices on the show, criminal underuse of Demi Lovato’s lesbian rock star character-and more importantly, her voice), by the end of the series, it had its two same-sex couples married and living happily ever after.

Brittany and Santana was one of the first times the power of fandom was truly reflected in a show. And though there were rough patches for the feisty Lebanese Latina and bisexual bicorn, they got their happy ending. The Lesbian Blogging Community was called out and we answered. With the growth of social media, the show’s actors took it upon themselves to support the ship, and the #gaysharks community never stopped tweeting their love of the duo.

Brittana took on a life of its own, it grew bigger than the show, and even now that the show is over, exists in a constant flow of fanfics, tumblr gifsets, fanvids-there’s even a BrittanaCon that happens every year. Maybe it wasn’t the very first, but it was the first time I ever witnessed fans demand something of a show, and right the show’s wrongs themselves when something didn’t go their way. It was a weird and wonderful thing.

So, even though by the end we were all begging Glee to quit before they embarrassed all of us who had supported them for so long, the show did a lot for our community in terms of representation.

While The Good Wife still trucks along show-wise, this year we said goodbye to Kalinda, after a season of watching her character go from badass bisexual to occasional character. Luckily, the actor was the one who decided to leave, not the other way around, and Kalinda strutted out the door in her power suit on her own accord instead of being brutally murdered. While this would normally mean the door was open for her to return someday, rumors of behind-the-scenes drama (made more confusing by the faked final scene between Kalinda and Alicia) seem to point to Archie Panjabi not being particularly keen to sign back on to reprise her role. And since most of her ex-lady-lovers are in shows of their own now, it looks like The Good Wife will have to get creative in order to re-up their queer female representation in coming years.

Two and a half words for this show: “F***ing bye, Felicia.” I was actually kind of pissed when this show cast the wonderful Amber Tamblyn as a lesbian on this show because it meant I’d actually have to tune in for a few episodes of the penultimate season. It pissed me off, even more, when they had a dozen or so episodes that were actually kind of great, with Tamblyn’s character Jenny being a playboy like her biological father until she fell for the very sexy Brooke (Aly Michalka) and they were adorable girlfriends, and then NADA. Jenny was all but absent for most of the final season, without much of an explanation. She was in the second and third episode, then gone until the finale. As awesome as it was to see Amber and Aly in love, nothing could get me to re-watch a single episode of this show. Good riddance to this insensitive-joke-riddled mess of a show.

It is with a heavy heart that I hand a graduation cap and gown to Rookie Blue. Arguably I could have put this down in the “expelled” category, as it was cancelled after season six ended, but the way the season ended felt very much like a series finale, so while they could have easily picked up and gone on had they gotten renewed, it didn’t feel like the plug was pulled mid-sentence. I’ll admit that I have an extra special place in my heart for Rookie Blue, partly because all the shows I recap do, but also because Charlotte Sullivan was my first and still one of my best interviews. She cared so much about getting Gail’s storyline right, about having Gail’s sexuality be an integral part of her without it being A Thing. We knew that would be put to the test when the end of Season 5 also saw the end of Gail’s relationship with Holly, especially since Gail’s Season 6 arc began with a heavy focus on her trying to adopt a child.

But Gail’s sexuality didn’t get ignored, nor was it a big deal-I think the show found a good balance. Plus, by the end, Gail went head-to-head with Frankie, a woman who could match her snark in kind, and eventually ended up mouth-to-mouth (and then some). Though an eighth season would have held the promise of Gail torturing some poor new Rookie and possibly having more women standing in their underwear in her kitchen the morning after some shenanigans, at least she went out on top. (Pun intended.)

After a whopping 14 seasons, where it really ran the gamut as far as LGBTQ+ storylines, Degrassi: TNG aired its final episode this year. From Paige and Alex to Imogen and Fiona to the newest duo, Zoe and Grace, hardly a season has passed without some lady-loving to get us through the (very dramatic) school year. Even though Zoe and Grace didn’t lock lips until the movie-length finale of the most recent season, you haven’t seen the last of them. Degrassi is really only crossing the stage at graduation; from now on, it’s being homeschooled (aka released as a Netflix series), and re-enrolling in AfterEllen Academy under a new name. Degrassi: Next Class will almost definitely give us something to talk about in 2016.

Like Rookie Blue, technically Defiance was canceled, but the season three finale felt so much like a series finale, I honestly don’t know how they could have gone on if they did get picked up for a fourth season. I really loved Defiance the first two seasons, and the last season had promise when they opened with a massacre of like half of the ensemble cast (meaning maybe the ones who were left would get to be fleshed out more) but the once-fierce and unstoppable Stahma Tarr was watered down, all but simpering after her loser husband, Doc Yewll’s hallucinated dead wife was nowhere to be found, nor was a new love interest for her, and even Amanda’s Braid of Justice seemed more like just a ponytail in disguise. Plus, Kenya stayed dead. It was a show with a lot of promise that lost its way, so maybe it’s for the best it “graduated” this year.

Y’all, the queer women survived this one. The one show I would have probably given a pass to if they had axed everyone because everyone dies actually let Alana, Margot and their baby run off together in the end, as close to a happily ever after as anyone was going to get on a show about Hannibal Lecter. Not to mention, the actress who played Margot, Katharine Isabelle, also played Gail’s final fling, Frankie Anderson, in Rookie Blue.

This is another show that could have fallen under the “expelled” category because of its cancelation, but that also ended in a way that felt final. Brenna Carver was a character ABC Family (soon to be called Freeform, in case you hadn’t heard) desperately needed: A bisexual teenager who was sure of her sexuality and who spoke out against the stereotypes the label is too often tacked with. Over the course of its two seasons, Brenna had meaningful relationships with Kieran, Greer, Margot, and Finn (though lezbehonest, #Grenna was endgame) and even in the episodes she wasn’t dating anyone, her bisexuality was always mentioned. Brenna went to an LGBTQIA+ support group, where she didn’t find much support at all and had conversations that (unfortunately) happen in real life within our community but I have never seen happen on a show not specifically aimed at us (like The L Word). She even bookslapped a biphobe right in the face! It was great.

Greer had just returned to us in the last few episodes, seeming ready to rekindle her romance with Brenna. A third season might have seen “present tense” turn to “future tense” but alas. Apparently Freeform, a word the channel made up, is going to be aimed at Becomers from now on, another word they made up, and since technically the show was focused around 20-something April Carver and not Brenna, the show didn’t fit the new not-so-free-after-all form.

RISING SENIORS

This list is short this year, but these are shows we know for sure will be airing its final episodes in 2016, so we’re preparing to say goodbye.

Technically Lost Girl is over in Canada, but since the second half of the fifth season won’t air on SyFy until 2016, we’re holding this one back. Mostly because I’m in denial and I’m not ready to say goodbye. Over the years, Lost Girl has brought us a slew of queer characters, from bisexual succubus Bo to her lesbian human on-again-off-again lover Lauren to sexually fluid characters like Tamsin the Valkyrie, The Morrigan, and various guest fae. I’m not usually down for love triangles, or pentagons, or any geometric shape involving people fighting for the attention of one person. But on this show it was a little different, Bo having to choose between men and women alike while their pros and cons never had anything to do with their gender.

This was the first show I ever watched where I was suddenly shipping everyone with everyone. I want them all to live together in Bo’s Loft as a polyamorous family. Though, with the number of apocalypses (apocalypsi?) they face, who knows how many of Bo’s love interests will even be alive by show’s end; maybe the End of Days will make her choice for her. Only time will tell.

I have a confession: I didn’t watch Person of Interest until a few months ago. You guys, I didn’t know. I didn’t know. It also took me a long time to finish season one; I genuinely didn’t get what all the yelling was about. But then I met Root. And then Shaw. And holy hell were they the most flirtatious, badass, sexy, smart, slightly sociopathic, kinda insane, beautiful assassins I’ve ever seen. They way they LOOK at each other! I’ve never seen anything like it on a procedural drama, especially not between two women. Unlike the Rizzoli and Isles joke-flirting and gay panic, Root shamelessly flirts with Shaw and Shaw looks at her like she’s never felt feelings so intensely in all her life. For a while there it looked like we lost Shaw, but she’ll be back for what is almost definitely the final season, which will be 13 episodes long. I say almost definitely because the creators have said they’re approaching it as if it’s the final season because they assume it will be, but they don’t have 100% confirmation.

Either way, Root and Shaw will be back to make us swoon for at least that long. (Also, extra spoiler alert, at NYCC this year, Sarah Shahi joked about having bruises from filming scenes with Amy Acker that had nothing to do with fighting…wanky.) Theirs will be a loss keenly felt, but maybe The Machine will pull through in the end and save the show. And by The Machine I mean Netflix.

TOP OF THE CLASS

I picked 10 shows that I believe are setting standards, breaking molds, and going above and beyond having a Very Special Gay Episode. They either have a high number of queer women, or well-developed queer women as main characters and haven’t yet totally ruined every single queer woman they’ve ever had on the show.

With the polarizing addition of Ruby Rose as a new love interest for Piper, and the coupling of Poussey and Soso, just when you thought this show couldn’t get any gayer, it did. Sophia got harassed something awful, which was hard to watch, but she spoke up for herself and shouted things people need to hear-like how guards in women’s prisons that house trans women should have sensitivity training, for one. A large part of her storyline this season was about her son and the general difficulties of parenting from prison. Suzanne moved past her obsession with Piper and found a love of erotic science fiction writing, and through that found a new potential love interest in persistent fan Maureen.

One of the great things about Orange is the New Black being so queer is that everyone is obsessed with it. I wasn’t out when The L Word was on, but I feel like finding out someone liked The L Word was a good way to tell if they were on the spectrum or not. But I have people of all ages and sexualities coming up to me to discuss this show. It’s broken those boundaries down, and even though it’s still afraid of the word “bisexual” for some reason, it displays a wide range of women, in all shapes, colors and sizes, of different backgrounds and sexualities, and how there are so many things that make us all complicated creatures.

So whether you still hold out hope for “Pipex” or if you’re hoping Nicky will come out of max and bond with Alex over being the closest ones to sane in the joint, or if all you care about is Big Boo, there’s sure to be plenty more complex, queer storylines in our future.

Orphan Black doesn’t have the quantity of queer women that Orange is the New Black does (though, to be fair, OITNB basically has more queer women than OB has characters in total) but what they lack in quantity they make up for in quality. Out scientist clone Cosima is at the core of the story, with meaningful, complicated relationships with both monitor-turned-science-girlfriend Delphine and newcomer Shay. Delphine was shot at the end of the most recent season, but a) no one in sci-fi is dead until you see the body (and sometimes not even then) and b) even if she did die, it wouldn’t qualify as being stuffed in the refrigerator, because she didn’t die to move a plot forward, especially not that of a man. The plot was moving ahead just fine at warp speed, and everything Delphine did in Season 3-everything, the good the bad and the…just kidding nothing done by someone with unicorn hair could be ugly-was done for Cosima and her sestras.

Though this show kicks up the dramatics every year, Stef and Lena remain at the heart of this show, navigating their own marriage while wrangling their brood. This season featured guest lesbians in the form of the principal who fell a little in love with Lena and their friend who tried to date said principal. And I know we’re only supposed to talk about women in this post but JUDICORN. Jude and his boyfriend Conner are just too cute to not mention here. *Head in hands.*

Callie and Arizona called it quits, but they’re working on their friendship while playing the field. Callie dated a crazyperson that Arizona also dated named Heather, Arizona dragged the Chief (okay, I know he’s not chief anymore but that’s what I call him OKAY?!) to a lesbian bar to be her wingman, and most recently, Callie started dating who she would later find out was one of the doctors who treated Derek on the day he died. While technically if anyone had listened to her, she would have been the one to save him, she blames herself for his death, and when she transfers to Mercy West Seattle Grace Grey Sloan Memorial for the Tragically Inclined, so does everyone else.

It might be the most polarizing show ever to grace our community, but one thing that is the honest truth is that it’s telling a story no one else is currently telling. This year had Amy and Karma fighting, making up, and even kind of fake dating again, all while Amy claims to be totally over Karma (but who are we kidding, she’s head over heels). Amy’s ex Reagan is now long gone, and Lauren continues to learn how to handle people who have no idea what being intersex means while being the tiniest tyrant in all the land.

The show that centers around trans* woman Maura as she comes out to her family. This season is even more queer than last, with longtime couple Sarah and Tammy being joined by Ali and Syd and even Maura and Shelley. I don’t want to get as explicitly spoilery as I have for some other shows because the series just dropped a few weeks ago, and with entire seasons of internet shows being released at the same time, the line between acceptable and unacceptable spoilers is blurry to me. At any rate, Transparent keeps winning awards, so it must be doing something right.

I was late to the Jane the Virgin game, but oh am I here now. This year, Luisa and Rose are still part of the mix, but we’ve also welcomed Juicy Jordan now and then. Before the winter break, Luisa admits to still keeping in touch with Rose, meaning the two of them might have more playtime in 2016 (fingers crossed!).

I normally wouldn’t put a “foreign exchange student” of AfterEllen Academy in the Top 10 percent of this year’s class, but you guys, it’s a damn crime that this show isn’t aired in the US. I wish there was an Australian version of BBC America, because the world needs Franky Doyle. Especially this season! I didn’t think anything could replace Franky/Erica in my heart…but then along came Bridget. She was everything Franky needed and more. I thought for sure Franky was doomed to die behind bars, but not only did she get EXACTLY what she wanted, but it looks like she might even be back next season! The first two seasons of this Aussie version of Orange is the New Black (but darker-WAY darker) are on Netflix, and hopefully, this season will be there soon.

I…don’t know where to begin. While Emily Fields, lesbian woman of color, continues to be at the forefront of this show alongside her friends, the queer representation on this show went from most! best! ever! to “Uhh, is anyone driving this thing?” in no time flat. Ignoring Emily’s inexplicable attraction to wet blanket (or more like wet towel I guess) Sara Harvey, and the complete lack of Paige or Jenna or anyone they may or may not be dating these days, Pretty Little Liars messed up with Cece Drake. They messed up bad. They wrote Charlotte Drake to be Jason DiLaurentis’s twin who was hidden away in an insane asylum at a young age because they thought she was going to kill Ali but really she was just trying to help parent, being so young and already knowing grown-ups don’t take responsibility for anything in Rosewood.

In Radley Sanitarium is where Charlotte came out, and when she was able to sneak away, she introduced herself to her unwitting siblings as Cece. All this would be all well and good if Cece hadn’t then seduced her brother and tortured her sister. In 2015, the number of trans* women murdered is at an all-time high. This is partially because of misconceptions that trans* people are predators, manipulative, or mentally unstable-basically, all the things Cece Drake proved to be. Not to mention, knowing the Liars’ tormenter was a trans* woman the writers still had lines like, “Him. Her. It. Bitch.” It was a huge issue that was surprising coming from a show that had been so queer positive in the past.

I think, like Glee, Pretty Little Liars helped shape what today’s television looked like. I think it was insanely important. I think it’s like it opened this big door for media but then was slower going through it than its peers it showed the way to. I think it needs to take a look at its choices and make better ones.

I normally would have saved a long-loved show like Pretty Little Liars for last, but I wanted instead to contrast the difference between Cece Drake and Sense8′s trans* character, Nomi. Nomi being trans* wasn’t super relevant to the story at hand. She was a trans* lesbian whose mother misgendered her far too often, but mostly she was a sensate who had to work with her girlfriend, Amanita (a queer woman of color at that!), to solve the mystery of the sensates. Also, Nomi is played by real life trans* woman, Jamie Clayton, aka my 2015 #1 Favorite New Crush.

NEW STUDENTS

This year boasted a few new students-some are brand new shows entirely, some are new queer women on older shows- either way, we’re here to welcome them with open arms and hope they don’t make the mistakes of some of their predecessors.

While this criminally insane (in a good way) drama had queer male characters from the get-go, this year they took us all by surprise when Famke Janssen swooped in and started kissing Viola Davis RIGHT ON THE MOUTH. Thus, it was revealed that Annalise Keating is bisexual. And I don’t know about you, but I punched the air victoriously when I found out that the most intense lawyer/professor/murder-cover-upper on television plays for our team. The end of Season 2a left everyone in a sticky situation, but based on the fact that the flashbacks tied Famke’s character Eve to what seems like it will be the main mystery of 2b, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of these two locking lips.

This long-running show somehow has managed to not have an officially canon main lesbian character on it for its first six seasons, despite the fact that pretty much every female vampire in history has been depicted as being at least a little queer. Mary-Louise and Nora were full-on vampire girlfriends for over a century, who enjoyed doing everything together from the standard kissing stuff to the extra-special massacre stuff. By the end of the mid-season finale, they were technically broken up, but Mary-Louise got kidnapped and Nora murdered someone to save her, so it’s still possible some tear-the-house-down makeup sex is in their future.

Based on the ’90s slasher movie franchise of the same name, Scream was a fun little MTV teen drama that aired this summer. (Well, serial killer in a small town kind of fun. Not like let’s hold hands and sing songs fun.) One of the main characters (and, therefore, main suspects) is self-described bi-curious Audrey, whose viral video of her making out with a girl kicked off the entire series. (Audrey is played by Bex Taylor-Klaus, who also played queer as Bullet in The Killing, and questionably queer as Sara Lance’s sidekick Sin on Arrow.) Audrey was one of the lucky few who survived season one (though her kissing buddy wasn’t so lucky) so we haven’t seen the last of her.

Amidst the chaos, manipulation, and all-around horrible things going on in this show about the morality and ethics (or, often, lack thereof) in reality television is hidden a beautiful shiny gold nugget of a love story between two women. In arguably one of the best episodes of the season, Faith, a contestant on this bachelor-like reality show, realizes/admits that she’s in love with her long-time best friend from back in their small, religious, Mississippi town. Faith tries to convince Adam, the eligible bachelor, that she’d be the perfect fake wife since neither of them want this, not really, and though she gets to the final three, she gets booted by the end. But goodbye is rarely goodbye on this show, so jury’s out on whether we’ll see her in Season 2 next year, or if she’ll be off living happily ever after with Amy.

John Stamos’s new sitcom is a goofy tale of a middle-aged playboy who finds out he has a son and grandson and tries to balance his flying solo lifestyle with his newfound family life. When I first heard there was going to be a lesbian character on this show, I was torn. On one hand, a queer woman of color on a sitcom! Hooray! On the other hand, his assistant is a lesbian because he sleeps with 20-somethings and would undoubtedly end up sleeping with his assistant if she were straight…ugh. However, they executed better than I could have imagined, and Annelise is a classic side-kick style character in this jaunty comedy. She’s not dating anyone, currently, but she jokes about picking up girls etc enough that even if you missed her intro in episode one, you’d know she was a lesbian character. I look forward to seeing where they go with her.

I’m putting this in New Students even though I think technically Scream Queens fast-tracked through AEA and graduated the same year it started. That is to say, I think it was created as a 13-episode series with no intention of continuing it. But knowing Ryan Murphy, this will take the route of American Horror Story, and there will just be a new Scream Queens next year, with a new group of people to get terrorized by a new serial killer. This season featured androgynous queer Asian character (unfortunately but unsurprisingly nicknamed Predatory Lez) Sam, who got it in episode 5, and “sort-of gay” (her words) Chanel #3, who had a thing for Sam and also hooked up with a nurse. This whole show was full of classic Ryan Murphy caricatures and stereotypes, so I don’t even know how to talk about these characters seriously. At any rate, it wasn’t the worst representation of the year, so I guess there’s that.

This new procedural drama centers around smooth-talking medical examiner they call Rosewood, who works in his lab with his sister Pippy and her fiance Tara (who goes by TMI, partially because those are her initials, but also possibly because queer Taras on television don’t have a very high survival rate, historically). Pippy and TMI mostly exist to run tests for the crimes Rosewood is trying to solve, but when they do have storylines of their own, they’re full of heart and Real Talk and really moving speeches. And we’re only 10 episodes into the 22-episode first season. While Pippy, being a queer woman of color and the sister of the main character, is of course in danger on a dramatic serial, I’m hoping these two are in it for the long haul.

When I first found out there was going to be a new TV Land sitcom starring Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff, I was confused to say the least, but obviously in. In it, Sutton’s character Liza, balances between her real life as a 40-year-old divorcee living with her lesbian best friend, Maggie (played by Debi Mazar), and her life as a pretend 20-something starting out her career at a publishing company. Maggie acts as a grounding confidante for Liza, and though Liza pretends she’s just some old lesbian she found on Craigslist, Maggie often comes out with Liza and her new, young friends. One of whom, Lauren, invites her to her “Hot Mitzvah” birthday party and ends up having a Molly-fueled make-out session with. But it wasn’t just the drugs talking, and based on the previews for Season 2, it looks like Maggie and Lauren will be doing some…exploration in 2016.

I’ll tell you why being able to at The 100 to this list makes me so happy: Clarke Griffin of the Sky People is one of the best female teenagers on television right now. (In my totally biased and unqualified opinion.) She’s a leader, she wears her heart on her sleeve but will fight tooth and nail to protect it and everyone she holds close to it, she’s strong, but she’s not infallible. And, as her kiss with/feelings for Commander Lexa of the Grounders proves, she’s bisexual. Plus, since the show is set in a post-apocalyptic world, there is way too much to worry about to need anyone to come out or question their feelings just because of the gender of the recipient. The only question is whether there’s a place for love in a time of war and if Lexa, who lost a woman she loved once before, could ever let herself be completely vulnerable again.

Last we saw these two, Lexa had betrayed Clarke to save her own people, so it’s possible she won’t be welcomed back in Season 3 with open arms. Only time will tell.

THE STUDENT BODY

Here we have an incomplete list of shows with recurring queer female characters that didn’t quite make it into the Top 10, aren’t brand new, and haven’t epically failed us (yet, at least). Also, these lists are getting way too long to give super-detailed descriptions of every show with more than one queer woman on it-an excellent problem to have.

Max and Eleanor are still at odds, separately trying to rise to the top in Nassau, but this season lady pirate Anne Bonny warmed Max’s bed instead. And while I believe it was a power play on Max’s part to keep Anne and Jack on her side, either way, it was kind of great. But Eleanor has been taken hostage so we’ll see if Season 3 will have Max ruling the island with Anne and Jack by her side, or if she will use her new power to save her one true love.

This show just back from the principal’s office and I’ll tell you why. In early 2015, after the tragic death of Sara Lance, the show did good by her and had her ex-girlfriend Nyssa al Ghul teaming up with and occasionally terrorizing Team Arrow in a quest to get Justice for Sara. But in these past few months, after Sara has been resurrected, they have shared the screen exactly one time, in the moments after Sara emerged from the Lazarus Pit, and haven’t had a single conversation. Nyssa was mysteriously absent during Sara’s recovery and wasn’t so much as mentioned before Sara announced she was leaving (for Legends of Tomorrow).

However, it was just announced that Sara will be getting a new female love interest (played by none other than Betty McRae herself), so while I wish Nyssara was endgame, at least the Powers that Be in the Flash/Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow universe haven’t forgotten than the vigilante formerly known as the Canary (and soon to be known as the White Canary) is bisexual.

As with Scream Queens, I’m always tempted to send Ryan Murphy’s shows to the principal’s office right away, but I think that’s my personal bias shining through again, so I’ll keep it in gen pop for now. For better or worse, Lady Gaga plays the very sexual bisexual Countess, with a past polyamorous relationship with a male/female couple as well as a relationship with Angela Bassett‘s character. The Countess helped a trans* woman, Liz Taylor, find herself and gave her a job as a bartender in her hotel, where she is one of the only never-dead humans among vampiric creatures and ghosts galore. She’s occasionally met with insensitive or highly insulting comments (most recently from the hotel’s maid) but recently reconnected with her son, who accepts why she left and wants to get to know her.

This Showtime show continues to have plenty of LGBTQ+ characters in its chaotic web of drama, including hooker-with-a-heart-of-sarcasm Svetlana and her girlfriend Nika, married lesbian couple Lisa and Lisa are buying out the block, Monica, the bisexual and bipolar missing matriarch of the Gallagher clan, and Dichen Lachman playing Angela, a character doing recon while shamelessly (no pun intended) flirting with Fiona.

Masters of Sex had lesbian couple Betty and Helen on a quest for a baby in a time where lesbians just didn’t do that. Code Black features lesbian doctor (and woman of color) with a girlfriend who has appeared in exactly one episode so far, and a pregnant ex-girlfriend played by Shiri Appleby.

The Walking Dead‘s Tara is miraculously still alive despite her name and the nature of the show, and as of the mid-series finale, had a still-alive love interest. On Manhattan, lesbian character Abby’s secret is out and Neve Campbell‘s character might use it as leverage in this ’40s-era world where being gay is not widely accepted. Sexuality is as fluid as magic between Mary and Tituba (and witches in general) on Salem.

In the cartoon world, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen of Adventure Time have been confirmed to have dated in the past, but technically it hasn’t been explicitly stated on the show (yet). Steven Universe revealed a lesbian couple, Ruby and Sapphire (who make up gem superhero Garnet)-the first main characters to be gay on Cartoon Network, though not their first entirely. The Simpsons is another cartoon (though this one aimed at adults) that features Marge’s lesbian sister Patty Bouvier, and various women she’s dating/interested in. Also-for-adults-only Archer features Pam, the openly bisexual head of HR.

Lesbian Lieutenant Alisha Granderson survived to tell another tale on The Last Ship. Kate Moennig is still gaying it up as Lena on Ray Donovan. On Finding Carter, Carter’s friend from her old life, Madison, comes to town and briefly dates Carter’s friend from her new life, Bird. Switched At Birth‘s recurring lesbian character, Natalie, showed up for a handful of episodes this year.

Carol and Helen had a rocky go of it on Episodes, queer woman of color M-Chuck has played the field but might settle down soon on Survivor’s Remorse, and bisexual Brit Dutch on The Strain chose Nikki over Fet but Nikki didn’t choose her back (but considering there are vampires afoot I guess we should just be glad they both survived).

HOMESCHOOLED

The homeschooled section of this post has grown from some really great web series to a combination of shows that live on various platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Here are some (but definitely not all) of the internet-based shows with queer women in the mix.

This woman-fronted, Netflix original series centers around a retired superhero who just wants to keep the world safe from a man who tormented her in the past and is now on a rampage. Even though Jessica and her best friend Trish are totally shippable because of how much they genuinely care about each other (and how they’re both so badass in their own ways), there are a few canon queers on the show. Jessica often seeks assignments and assistance from power lesbian attorney, Jeri Hogarth, who has filed for divorce from her wife, Wendy, because of her affair with her much-younger secretary, Pam.

Another woman-fronted series, this one on YouTube, features many queer characters, including but not limited to the title vamp, Carmilla, who is in love with the leader of the Silas University mission to save the world, Laura. Also of note, Danny, who is also undoubtedly in love with Laura and would do anything (and I mean anything) for her, and genderqueer Laf.

Yet another queer-inclusive Netflix series, this show features Denise, a woman of color who acts as a best friend to the main character, played by show’s creator Aziz Ansari. She’s no-nonsense and every time one of the men cluelessly say something dumb, wrong, or offensive about her queerness-or queerness in general-she tells it like it is.

Hulu has a whole slew of original shows with queer content. The Mindy Project got canceled by FOX but picked up by Hulu, and in the meantime dropped Dr. Jean Fishman but eventually introduced lesbian character Collette, played by Fortune Feimster. The main character on Casual hooks up with bisexual, polyamorous woman played by Eliza Coupe. Hulu also is the home of East Los High, which features more-than-friends, Camila and Jocelyn.

Other web series of note include Anyone But Me: The Lost Scenes, Entangled with You, Plus One, Maybelle, The Chanticleer, Last Life, and Hashtag. And with sites like Tello creating new LGBTQ+ content all the time, this list is neverending.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS

This is another section too vast-it would be impossible to round up all of the queer media from around the world. Some shows in other sections could also fit here-shows made in England, Australia, and Canada, mostly-but there are plenty more out there.

We have a handful of queer ladies on Emmerdale (though I think things are a bit of a mess over there), and Esther on Hollyoaks. Sophie got another girlfriend on Coronation Street but sadly lost her in a fire, so will likely stay single for a while.

Other non-American series of note: The Fall, Les Revenants, Lily Fever, Call the Midwife, The Rich Man’s Daughter, Saving Hope, Las Trampas del Deseo, Transit Girls, RED, and Cuffs.

Make sure to let us know in the comments what international gems you’ve uncovered-the more queer characters around the world, the better!

TRUANT

This list is gracefully short this year, but it includes shows that have queer characters that are MIA, whether their absence has been explained or not.

This season of Doctor Who started out with a kiss between Madame Vastra and Jenny, but they were absent in every single episode of 2015. Clara was revealed as bisexual this season, through giggly comments about her…exploits with Jane Austen, but based on the way the season went, I highly doubt we’ll ever get any on-screen goodness out of that tidbit. River Song is also bisexual, but unfortunately often far more often than not.

Despite supposedly getting renewed for a third season, no episodes of The Comeback aired this year, meaning lesbian producer Jane was MIA in 2015.

Janet King technically didn’t air any episodes in 2015, but has supposedly begun filming a new season for its lesbian title character.

Clipped claimed their character Charmaine was queer-as did the out actress who played her-but if you never read that on the internet before watching the show, you would never know it. It’s like the show enrolled in AfterEllen Academy but never showed up.

SENT TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE

This is a new category from last year, created for shows that have queer characters but have no idea what to do with them. They haven’t been expelled just yet, but if they don’t check themselves before they wreck themselves, they’ll be booted from AfterEllen Academy by this time next year.

This show was honestly very close to the chopping block before they announced the return of their long-absent lesbian character, Mulan. The first half of the season did indeed see the return of the warrior, but if the second half doesn’t hold the well-developed LGBT storyline we were promised, it’s out the door for these guys. Not even SwanQueen could save them then.

The first half of 2015 had 2 Broke Girls as part of the AfterEllen Academy student body for the first time, with lesbian restaurant manager Joedth, played by Sandra Bernhard, at the end of Season 5. But her and her addict girlfriend are long gone in Season 6, and in a recent episode rife with borderline offensive (and occasionally regular offensive) gay jokes (also the occasional hilarious joke the show is usually known for) and a sweeps-esque kiss between Max and Caroline, this show might be done here.

I was really banking on Jane figuring out she was queer (and so was Jaime Alexander) and maybe that is still in our future, but in one single episode of this brand new show, Blindspot gave us two lesbians, then violently took one away. However, the reason this show is only getting a slap on the wrist is because a) it’s super brand new b) its lesbian character is a woman of color and HBIC, and a main character who is sure to be around longer than her partner, who didn’t survive the flashbacks.

I was all ready to expel Gotham after unceremoniously abandoning lesbian police detective Renee Montoya. I really didn’t think it could get much worse than having Barbara forget about her on-again-off-again lover. Little did I know Gotham would dive head-first into the “crazy bisexual” trope AND the “bisexual love triangle” trope at the same time. Listen, I love a crazy chick as much as the next gal, and I love me a omnisexual lady villain, but with a track record like Gotham’s, it’s no surprise this wasn’t handled well at all.

Murder in the First has another power lesbian lawyer, Jamie, who was an underused character this season, and is possibly not returning at all next season. Game of Thrones featured bisexual paramour Ellaria, but a certain main character who shared her bed with another woman in the books doesn’t seem on the trajectory to be doing the same on screen. Penny Dreadful killed off their trans* character, Angelique, and was only not expelled for it because pretty much everyone dies on that show. House of Cards killed one-half of its already-severed lesbian couple, and Empire has apparently already gone L Word Season 7 in its insanity (lesbians sleeping with men, gay men sleeping with women, bisexual “twists,” etc.)

EXPELLED

These are the shows that have been expelled from AfterEllen University. Most of them are expelled because they got canceled unexpectedly, but featured a queer female character, but some are because they axed their queer character, whether it was literally or figuratively.

This Ellen-produced sitcom starred Elisha Cuthbert as a lesbian living with her male best friend and having his baby while also navigating the dating world. The concept was…weird. The execution was…also weird. But honestly, by the sixth episode, it finally felt like it was starting to figure out what it wanted to be and was actually pretty funny. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, and NBC pulled the plug.

This quaint little show had long-time character Crickett come out and start a relationship with Jaysene. Though their screentime was limited, by the end of what ended up being the final season, the two were planning to move in together to start their happily ever after.

This fast-moving drama was about a doctor who got caught up in some sticky situations and the nurse he recruited to help him along the way. Nurse Gretchen Polk happened to also be a lesbian, but that was only relevant when she was home with her girlfriend and their cat, Measles. Every episode had a similar plot (namely, the doc going “Gretchen, no!” and her responding, “Gretchen, yes!”) but I was really falling for good ol’ Gretch. (Probably because of Jessica Szohr‘s eyes and voice.) Unfortunately, one season is all that will exist of this show.

Fan favorite Charlie, played by human favorite Felicia Day, got hella murdered this year, despite not being on the show enough to begin with, despite being a lesbian, despite being a woman. She was technically beaten and left in a bathtub, but she might as well have been shoved in a refrigerator for the way she was disrespected and killed only to advance the plot of the male characters.

Parenthood got sent off, taking queer daughter Haddie with it. Dominion got double expelled: Queer archangel Uriel died AND the show got canceled. We’ll never know what came of Kay and Hailey on Marry Me, or of the bisexual Zara on Weird Loners, as both of those shows are no more.

Even though, as far as I can tell, Les Revenants is still going strong in France, the US attempt at the same show, The Returned, also featuring queer characters, was canceled after only one season. We said goodbye to lesbian park ranger Connie on Brickleberry, and the only lesbian left in Chester’s Mill on Under the Dome due to the cancelation of both shows. Allegiance and its bisexual character, Michelle, were very short-lived, as were Canada’s Strange Empire and its queer couple, Rebecca and Morgan.

For shows that are still on but essentially dead to us, we have Fargo, who killed their underused lesbian character. The Bold and the Beautiful added a trans* woman which would have been revolutionary for daytime soaps, but it continually misgenders her and has her own family refusing to acknowledge her by her real name. Joss on Mistresses continues to deny her bisexuality, writing Alex off as a phase, and if that wasn’t enough, Karen entered into a wild threesome relationship where she only slept with the woman of the throuple in order to get to the man.

So as I’ve mentioned before, as the sheer quantity of LGBTQ+ female characters increases, the louder we have to be about which shows are giving us the quality representation we want, need, and deserve, and which shows are decidedly not.

THE FACULTY

Every year, the number of out actresses and television personality grows and grows. In fact, a good number of the queer characters we’ve already discussed are also played by queer characters-and the number of queer producers and writers who help create these characters is growing, too. We have Ellen Degeneres still killin’ it on her talk show, Kate McKinnon (who is still the best part of SNL right now), Rosie O’Donnell popping up everywhere from The Fosters to Empire.

Caitlyn Jenner was the talk of the town all year as she opened up about being trans* and living her truth while being very much exposed due to her involvement in the tabloid-frequenting Kardashian clan. Miley Cyrus made a splash when she openly identified as genderqueer and pansexual. Cara Delevingne came out as bisexual, and Johnny Depp‘s daughter Lily-Rose Depp is sexually fluid. Internet sensation Ingrid Nilsen came out as gay on her YouTube channel (and later started dating already-out My Drunk Kitchen star Hannah Hart), and Holland Taylor admitted to being in a long-time relationship with a woman (who seems to be generally assumed/accepted to be Sarah Paulson).

The list goes on and on and on as we propel into a future where it’s becoming more and more of a non-issue to be famous and out (at least in some parts of the world). A lot of celebrities still come out without a label, whether it’s because they genuinely don’t feel tied to a label or because they’re afraid what being tied to one will do to their careers being anyone’s guess, but more and more celebrities come out without a drum roll, casually mentioning their same-sex relationships, saying that they were out to the people who mattered. And while coming out in the write-an-expose-and-declare-it-to-the-world-officially is not as common or as necessary anymore, public figures being open about their sexuality and about how it’s not the most interesting or important thing about them is really important for LGBTQ+ visibility and for the path to acceptance.

Also in the “real world” (so to speak), we have queer-themed reality shows like I am Jazz and I am Cait, and we’ve also had an upswing in the number of queer women on reality shows (contestants and performers) like Face Off (out contestant Nora was the winner this year!), Bad Girls Club, Top Chef, Survivor, Big Brother, The Real World and The Voice.

I’m still waiting for a lesbian version of The Bachelorette (that isn’t anything like Tila Tequila…) but it’s important to have representation in the form of real people in real (well, real-ish) situations, showing that cooking, singing, dancing, and running around the world for money has nothing to do with your sexuality.

GUEST SPEAKERS

This is another section that will just be a highlights reel, because crime-of-the-week shows are starting to realize that adding queer characters to the mix helps spice up age-old stories, and sitcoms are realizing that you don’t have to have a queer character be the butt of every joke to have a hilarious queer character.

Ashley Tisdale‘s lesbian character briefly reappeared on Young & Hungry this year, a role she said she would possibly consider reprising in season two, Black-ish had Raven-Symoné guest star as Dre’s lesbian sister, and Scandal had a subplot about an elderly lesbian named Rose. Elizabeth Banks‘ lesbian character Sal made a short but chaotic return on Modern Family, Jessica likes to frequent a lesbian bar in Fresh off the Boat, and there was a lesbian wedding on The Following.

Bridget Regan’s character Dottie kissed our own Agent Carter right on the lips, but sadly it was just to knock her out with poisonous lipstick. (Though Hayley Atwell has implied that Peggy could potentially be bisexual.) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had a strange I-want-to-wear-your-skin kind of girl-on-girl kissing action, and You’re the Worst had a similar attempted kiss. Lastly, there was one episode of The Librarians where the adorable Cassandra turned into a fairytale “prince” (or at least, had the charms of one) and had women swooning over her the whole time, and has had other subtle hints here and there that Cassandra might not be entirely straight.

And that, my friends, is all she wrote. Well, all *I* wrote. As I mentioned, with the rapidly growing rate of queer characters on television, there is undoubtedly a few I missed-so tell me everything! Who are they, what show are they on, why do you love them? I’m always adopting new shows I don’t have time for, and would love if you would educate me.

We’re still holding spots at AfterEllen Academy for shows like Supergirl, and if Agent Carter ever wants to join for real instead of just visiting, it would be more than welcome. And we already have some applicants for next term, for example, New Girl recently cast Megan Fox as a new roommate for the gang that is also Cece’s ex-girlfriend.

I hope your 2015 was half as good as the year in television, and may 2016 be even better.

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