It’s A Sin
Russell T. Davies’ much-lauded miniseries is about the AIDS epidemic in London, but it’s also about the most powerful force in the world: queer friend groups and found family. Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Colin (Callum Scott Howells), Roscoe (Omari Douglas), Jill (Lydia West), and Ash (Nathaniel) are as delightful and messy as any group of college friends you’ve ever seen. They easily switch gears between throwing wild parties, hustling for work, and debating current events over the breakfast table–although in this case, current events include the deadly looming presence of AIDS. It’s A Sin exists as a masterful artistic reminder that before they died, the people impacted by HIV/AIDS lived, and did so fully and without reservations.
Watch it on: HBO Max
Never Have I Ever
Netflix has a small army of teen series with one queer lead, to the point that it feels as if characters’ sexualities are often determined by an algorithm. Luckily, Mindy Kaling’s latest series escapes that box-checking mentality with a story about a group of geeky, diverse teen girls who are all going through a lot. Selfish, grieving Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) is the show’s protagonist, but her friend, Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez), is quietly struggling with coming out. Never Have I Ever is meant for teens, but it never treats Fabiola’s worries about her family’s acceptance as anything less than warranted. With a second season about to debut, the character only has room to grow.
Watch it on: Netflix
The Other Two
The Other Two is the funniest show you probably aren’t watching, but with its move to HBO Max, you can easily catch up on the first season before the second starts. The series follows the two adult siblings of a Justin Bieber-like overnight success as they deal with the perks and pitfalls of being tangentially famous. When Chase (Case Walker) releases the song “My Brother’s Gay and That’s Okay!” brother Cary (Drew Tarver) finds himself going from uncool to iconic in the eyes of the gay community. Stay tuned for an equally clever episode in which Chase tries to wheedle his way into a group of influential “Instagays.”
Watch it on: HBO Max
The Owl House
As someone who grew up on a steady diet of friends-to-crushes Disney Channel sitcoms, it’s exciting to see that the familiar plot has widened to include same-sex friends falling for one another. Animated fantasy series The Owl House has broken a long tradition of Disney’s lackluster queer representation, which typically includes single lines of dialogue from throwaway characters. Series creator Dana Terrace, herself bisexual, intended to put queer kids in the show from the start, but says she received some initial pushback. When the show about a girl named Luz (Sarah-Nicole Robles) who finds a portal to a magical realm finally confirms its lead as queer–though, of course, not in so many words–during a prom episode, it’s a sweet and innocuous scene that’s perfect for an all-ages audience.
Watch it on: Disney+
Pose
Perhaps the single most diverse series of all time, Pose is a celebration of everything and everyone who TV–and dominant culture in general–pushed to the side for decades. The series, which ended in June, follows the New York ballroom culture scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s, in which queer youth carved out their own safe space and sense of community through drag and performance. The cast is chock-full of talented Black and Afro-Latinx trans performers whose careers should only explode from here, among them Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, and Indya Moore. As Pray Tell, the ballroom emcee and the group’s mentor figure, HIV+ actor Billy Porter made history by winning an Emmy and showing the Red Carpet who’s boss again and again across the series’ three-season run.
Watch it on: FX and Netflix
P-Valley
P-Valley is an addictive, soapy drama with a titillating premise, which makes it a perfectly unexpected setting in which to thoughtfully smash down barriers around the topics of gender and sexuality. Yet that’s exactly what the series does with Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan), a Black non-binary strip club owner who presents herself with both gorgeous wigs and a gorgeous beard. Uncle Clifford is a character whose existence forces viewers to re-examine their gendered expectations, but she’s also a fully-rounded character. As the business leader is pushed to the brink by financial threats, the series isn’t afraid to make her morally complex, either.
Watch it on: Starz
Sex Education
Netflix’s Sex Education is an invaluable resource for young people, and a damn good series to boot. By virtue of its protagonist Otis’ (Asa Butterfield) status as the son of a sex therapist and researcher (Gillian Anderson), it’s also the rare series that never assumes its characters default to straight. Otis’ best friend, Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), is wonderfully flamboyant, but we also see him come to terms with his role as the gay, femme son of a Ghanaian-Nigerian family who holds religion in high regard. Meanwhile, bad boy Adam (Connor Swindells), popular mean kid Anwar (Chaneil Kular), eccentric Lily (Tanya Reynolds), and chill newcomer Ola (Patricia Allison) all either identify along the LGBT+ spectrum or explore their feelings for same-sex crushes by the end of the show’s second season.
Watch it on: Netflix
Special
There should be more than one show about physically disabled queer characters out there, but if someone has to pave the way for this avenue of representation, we’re lucky to have Ryan O’Connell. The creator, writer, and star of Netflix’s Special mines from his life as a gay man with cerebral palsy to create a series that, while perhaps more short and sweet than expected with only two brief seasons, is still loads of fun. When the show hits its groove in the second season, it’s the type of gay rom-com whose enjoyable drama you could get lost in forever.
Watch it on: Netflix
Tuca & Bertie
One of my favorite developments within the landscape of LGBT+ representation is also one that barely existed when I last made this list three years ago: the portrayal of non-heteronormative sexuality without exposition or explanation. Tuca and Bertie, a delightful animated series about anthropomorphized bird friends, does this beautifully. Tuca (Tiffany Haddish), is bisexual, but as the series’ most confident and on-the-go character, there’s no pause to explain this. Whenever Tuca dates or thinks about dating, there’s always a mix of genders within her potential pool of partners. It’s a lovely take on sexuality that for many people is truer to life than most any other.
Watch it on: Netflix (season one) and Adult Swim (season two)
What We Do In The Shadows
What We Do In The Shadows is one of the best shows on television for a lot of reasons, from its weird humor to its complex mythology to its screamingly funny performances. The best thing about it, though, may be that every character in the series about vampire roommates is casually pansexual. These things that go bump in the night aren’t restricted by modern labels, but their culture of hedonism and melodrama allows for plenty of comedic scenarios that mirror common experiences in the queer community. Lazlo (Matt Berry) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), especially, leave a positive and hilarious impression as a couple whose ferocious love for one another is only as strong as their uninhibited lust for everyone else.
Watch it on: FX and Hulu
