Cast Full of Lesbians: 15 TV Shows That Put Queer Women First
In interviews about The L Word reboot, Ilene Chaiken often mentions her assumption, at TLW’s conclusion in 2009, that the initiative she’d begun would be taken up by future showrunners and networks — that we’d enter a bold new era of lesbian-centric programming. Gay cable channels Logo and Here! had recently launched and we were full of hope. Chaiken was, as you probably have gathered, incorrect. But – there have been some shows that symbolically picked up the torch to varying degrees and that’s what we’re here to talk about today. The headline references the “Cast Full of Gays” trope, which is a much easier list to make (e.g., Queer as Folk, Looking, Noah’s Arc, Dante’s Cove, etc.) because of the patriarchy.
The criteria for this list were as follows: the program was produced and broadcast by an actual television or streaming network (rather than picked up later by one) and is not a “webseries,” it aims for realism, the lead(s) are queer and its focus is one or more lesbian, bisexual or queer women and her/their romantic, sexual and social lives. This does not include very queer shows that are primarily about supernatural situations (e.g., Lost Girl, Wynonna Earp, Sense8) or prison life (e.g., Orange is the New Black, Bad Girls, Wentworth) or the law (e.g., How to Get Away With Murder, Janet King), but shows that are about people and their relationships first and foremost. This usually means they fall into “prime-time soap” category. However, having a lesbian or bisexual lead and being realistic isn’t enough (e.g., Everything Sucks!, Gypsy, Broad City), the queer element has to be the show’s focus and the show’s essential hook without which the show would have no argument for its own existence. I didn’t include The Fosters because the kids’ stories are given equal importance / screen time to the lesbian Moms as opposed to the more clearly defined side-plot status of the straights on the other shows in this list. Even Ellen wouldn’t count because she was ostensibly straight for the first many seasons. These are shows that put lesbian and bisexual women and their social and romantic relationships with other queer women first.
Ratings System: Percentage based on score out of 30
10 points: 1 point for every 10% of the show that is focused on queer stories
10 points: The presence of lesbian/bisexual friends, with the highest score going to shows that portray queer social groups / social life
10 points: % of lead characters who are lesbian/bisexual
The L Word, Showtime, 2004 – 2009 (95%)
Watch: On Netflix or Amazon
Leads: Jennifer Schecter (lesbian), Shane McCutcheon (lesbian), Tina Kennard (bisexual), Kit Porter (straight), Alice Pieszecki (bisexual), Bette Porter (lesbian)
As Shirley Bassey sings in a remix played during that scene in Season Two when Alice and Dana “debut” as a couple at The Planet, “where do I begin?” The answer is: right here, with The L Word. This is where we begin.
South of Nowhere, The N, 2005 – 2008 (53%)
Watch: Season One on DVD, Seasons 2 & 3 are streaming on Amazon Prime
Leads: Spencer Carlin (lesbian) & Ashley Davies (bisexual)
Secondary Leads: Spencer’s brother Glen and her parents (all heterosexual), Ashley and Spencer’s friend Aiden (heterosexual).
For a moment, when both South of Nowhere and The L Word existed at the same time on the same planet, it seemed a tide was turning and our stories had suddenly become viable television products. LOL. But so many owe their lesbian awakenings to this tender teen drama about Spencer, who moves to Los Angeles from the midwest with her family, gets a new best friend Ashley, and gradually discovers that she likes girls (including Ashley, who also likes girls). It was the first series on The N to address the topic with its primary characters, was reviewed favorably, and nominated for a GLAAD Media Award all three seasons. It started out so strong, giving us one of the first-ever femme teen couples on U.S. television, then created a very unpleasant Ashley/Aiden/Spencer love triangle and then spent entirely too much time trying to make us care about the straight characters before getting cancelled. NOBODY CARES ABOUT GLEN. Fans fought hard for a webseries following up the original program though, and got it, and the lead actresses remain regular fixtures at cons and in lesbian webseries.
Sugar Rush, Channel 4 (UK), 2005 – 2006 (60%)
Watch: On DVD or YouTube
Leads: Kim (lesbian) and Sugar (bisexual).
Secondary Leads: Kim’s parents, Nathan and Stella. (Heterosexual)
“It says something about the state of diversity in UK television that, currently, the best programme about lesbian relationships is a series from 2005,” wrote Radio Times in 2017, celebrating the release of Channel 4’s Pride Collection, further noting the “near-absence of lesbian shows in the Pride Collection” that indicated “a larger deficiency in the UK television industry.”
The series follows 15-year old Kim as she fights her burning crush on her new BFF, super bad girl Sugar, and struggles with her dysfunctional family — Mom’s shagging the carpenter while her Dad’s oblivious and heart-breakingly kind, and her brother literally believes he’s from another planet. But the focus is on Kim’s sexuality, her love for and friendship with Sugar and, later, her actual lesbian girlfriend Saint. It’s based on a YA novel you shouldn’t buy because the author is a terrible person. After two seasons the program was cancelled for mysterious reasons — a channel spokeswoman said the story of the girls had run its course, rumors suggested it was being removed to make room for Big Brother 8, and producers said the cancellation was “a last minute thing” and they were saddened to learn of it.
Curl Girls (Reality), Logo, 2007 (100%)
Watch: Online at Logo through local cable provider
Curl Girls was the first lesbian reality show on a major television channel, was part of Logo’s initial effort to actually provide lesbian representation as well as the same for gay men on their brand new cable channel. Logo described the cast like this: “Vanessa, who’ll go topless for her love of shock value; Melissa and Jessica, the on again-off again, steamy couple; Michele and Erin, the surfing pros of the group; and sexy new-girl Gingi.” They competed for a trip to Hawaii, which “strained their friendship” but apparently was not enough drama to earn the show a second season.
Exes and Ohs, Logo, 2007 – 2011 (100%)
Watch: On Amazon Prime
Leads: Jennifer (lesbian), Sam (lesbian), Kris (lesbian), Chris (lesbian).
This American/Canadian TV series, created by and starring lesbian comedian Michelle Paradise, focused on the dating life of Jennifer, a documentary filmmaker and her friends — Sam (Marnie Alton), the femme Shane of the group, animal-obsessed couple Chris (Megan Cavanagh) and Kris (Angela Featherstone) and musician Crutch (Heather Matarazzo). Based on Paradise’s short film The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide, Exes and Ohs had the general vibe of a mediocre ’90s lesbian movie. Still, many found it charming and endearing in its own way. Plus, it’s basically the only sitcom about a group of lesbian friends to ever exist AND as far as I know, the cast was mostly or entirely queer women, too.
Gimme Sugar (Reality), Logo, 2008 – 2009 (100%)
Watch: On Logo’s website through your local cable provider
Gimme Sugar was Logo’s other reality offering for women, featuring a group of five lesbian and bisexual friends who put on Truck Stop, a hot party hosted at The Abbey in Los Angeles that I used to like a lot. Logo described it like this: “Five hot young friends on the L.A. lesbian club scene bite off more than they can chew when they try to launch and promote their own club night. If they succeed, they’ll be the youngest female promoters in LA. The girls will fight, fall in love, break apart, and come back together as they struggle to make their dream come true in this hot new reality series.” Season Two split the team between Miami and LA, a move that never really justified itself. We made fun of this show and acted like it was ridiculous until we tried to throw our own party and all of us were petty in emails and then sloppy-drunk fighting with each other at the bar the night of and realized that we lived in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones.
Lip Service, BBC Three (UK), 2010 – 2012 (90%)
Watch: On Hulu
Season One Leads: Cat Mackenzie (lesbian), Frankie Alan (lesbian), Tess Roberts (lesbian), Sam Murray (lesbian), Sadie Anderson (lesbian), Jay Adams (heterosexual male), Ed McKenzie (heterosexual male)
Season Two Leads: Tess Roberts (lesbian), Sam Murray (lesbian), Sadie Anderson (lesbian), Lexy Price (lesbian), Ed McKenzie (heterosexual male)
The closest think we ever got to The L Word was Lip Service, a Glasgow-set drama following a group of lesbian friends: neurotic architect Cat; her best friend Frankie, a brooding Shane-esque photographer; frazzled struggling actress Tess; hot cop Sam (this is how we all discovered Heather Peace!) and notorious bad girl Sadie. Season Two introduced Sexy Lexy Price, a doctor who moved in with Tess, Frankie and Sadie. It was fun and hot and compelling, but the show never really set up the sense of a larger queer social web or the city’s scene in the same way The L Word did, mainstream critics hated it and the community’s reaction was, according to Heather Davidson, “mixed.” She also noted that the show aired on BBC Three, its “youth-oriented” channel. I recapped a handful of episodes, watched it faithfully, truly enjoyed it and never felt bored or upset (besides when Cat was killed) — but still none of the involved characters come to mind when I think of my favorites. But 12 episodes isn’t a lot of time to shine, either. “What Lip Service was interested in showing you was sex, and lots of it – sex involving razors, sex involving funeral homes, sex involving condiments,” Heather wrote. “Honestly, it was a trip.”
The Real L Word (Reality), Showtime, 2010 – 2012 (100%)
Watch: On Showtime or Amazon Prime
It is not a secret that I hated every moment of this hellshow but y’all loved my petulant recaps and our parody videos and that was great for traffic! Each season was its own specific beast: Season One was a series of barely-intersecting mini-documentaries following four different stories including, most prominently, a group of young friends heavy into the WeHo party scene and Whitney Mixter. Whitney, along with her on-again-off-again girlfriend Sara and her ex Romi, were the series’ only consistent cast members. Aside from that, we got some fresh young Los Angeles faces who all interacted with each other in Season Two (including a butch/femme couple trying to get pregnant) and for Season Three, the show split itself between New York and Los Angeles, while still making a lot of room for crossover. The show definitely had its value, though. A year after its cancellation, the franchise produced the honestly touching and revelatory mini-documentary The Real L Word Mississippi: Hate The Sin.
Candy Bar Girls, Channel 5 (UK), 2011 (100%)
Watch: on YouTube
This reality program set in The Candy Bar, a former lesbian hotspot in the Soho neighborhood of London, aimed to “follow the lives and loves of a group of young lesbians who work hard and party even harder,” promising “raunchy drama and unique characters.” A salacious promotional campaign generated controversy before the show even hit the air, but the show itself surprised at least one Guardian reviewer: “The show’s trailers were tongue-in-cheek soft porn, but the wink-wink, nudge-nudge vibe isn’t present in the show itself. Instead, we’re treated to a glimpse into the lives of a diverse group of women, whose only common link is their sexuality.” A marketing campaign that aimed to arouse straight men was maybe part of why the show didn’t last past its first season, but who can say! The program’s oft-highlighted draw was its inclusion of former Big Brother contestant Shabby Katchadourian.
Faking It, MTV, 2014 – 2016 (43%)
Watch: Amazon Prime
Leads: Amy (lesbian) & Karma (unclear)
Secondary Leads: Shane (gay male), Liam (straight male)
The premise was as horrifying as they come but the result was often downright delightful: Amy and Karma, certifiably uncool best friends, pretend to be a lesbian couple to earn popularity points at their decidedly alternative high school in Austin. Then Amy realizes she might actually be a lesbian! Amy will always be near and dear to my heart, and recapping this program was usually a joy. By the series’ end there had been a PLETHORA of missteps but also some substantial steps towards inclusivity, eventually featuring an intersex woman, trans man and bisexual man in addition to the gay man and queer woman in the lead ensemble from the jump. Much like South of Nowhere, however, it seemed like Faking It was never fully invested to going all-in on its queer audience or its straight audience, and trying to please both rather than doubling down on one might be part of why it never found its groove and earned the ratings necessary to stay on the air. Unfortunately, Season Three had finished shooting before the team got word of its cancellation, so we never really got to close the door on Karmy.
Transparent, Amazon Prime, 2014 – 2019 (60%)
Watch: On Amazon Prime
Leads: Moira Pfefferman (bisexual trans woman), Ali Pfefferman (pansexual genderqueer), Sarah Pfefferman (bisexual), Josh Pfefferman (straight male), Shelly Pfefferman (mostly-straight female)
Transparent follows the very Jewish, very neurotic Los Angeles-based Pfeffermans headed up by Moira, a trans woman coming out and into herself in her sixties and her ex-wife, Shelly. Their daughter Sarah is a bisexual mother-of-two who leaves her husband for her ex-girlfriend before returning to her husband and joining a triad and their child Ali is a sexually fluid millennial who dates their bisexual BFF Syd (Carrie Brownstein) and their lesbian teacher (Cherry Jones) before eventually discovering their genderqueer identity. It’s also one of a handful of shows ever to portray a trans woman dating a cis woman. The show garnered massive critical acclaim and broke ground in so many ways — only to have the ship sunk by Jeffrey Tambour, who controversially was cast as the trans woman lead and eventually booted for sexual harassment. After a year off to pick up the pieces, the show’s final season, in the form of a musical special, will debut this year. Still, it’s the longest-running show on this list and although it lacks a consistent group of lesbian/bisexual friends, it dips in and out of multiple queer social groups and has the unique honor of being a show wherein the most consistent “group” of queer friends are all in the same family.
One Mississippi, Amazon Prime, 2016 – 2017 (57%)
Watch: On Amazon Prime
Kate (Stephanie Allyne) and Tig (Tig Notaro)
Lead: Tig (lesbian)
Secondary Leads: Remy (straight male), Bill (straight male), Stephanie (queer)
Tig Notaro’s little masterpiece was cancelled in what I can only perceive was a personal attack on me and my happiness. But before that dark day we got two small seasons of candor, wit, insight and biting social commentary, packaged alongside a sweet lesbian love story and an exploration of a family reeling from grief and trauma.
Take My Wife, Seeso/Starz, 2016 – 2018 (80%)
Watch: On Starz via Amazon Prime
Leads: Cameron (lesbian) and River (lesbian)
I didn’t believe Take My Wife was actually a real thing when I first heard about it — what was then perceived as a funny masculine-of-center lesbian couple, with episodes of traditional length, distributed by a legit channel with wide-audience-potential, exuding professional-level production value, filmed on a set that doesn’t look like a display copy of a condo? LOL!!! But wow, Take My Wife existed and was hilarious, full of heart and, especially in Season Two, chock-full of a diverse supporting cast of other queer folks, set in the bustling queer metropolis of Los Angeles. The show lost a Season Two platform after Seeso shuttered, but was mercifully picked up by iTunes and Starz.
Strangers, Facebook Watch, 2017 – (67%)
Watch: On Facebook Watch
Leads: Isobel (bisexual) and Cam (lesbian)
Heather Hogan boldly declared that Strangers was one of the best queer shows of 2017 when its first season debuted on Facebook’s new streaming network, and Vice declared “the best queer comedy on TV right now is on Facebook.” Heather found its second season to be EVEN BETTER than the first. “The second season premiere of Strangers debuted earlier this week and it’s already as gay as it was before,” Heather wrote. “Maybe gayer! 26 minutes, two queer BFFs, four women making out (in pairs), and a serious discussion about the fact that, look, everyone is gay now.”
Vida, Starz, 2018 – 2020 (67%)
Watch: On Starz or Amazon Prime
Leads: Emma (queer) & Lyn (straight)
Secondary Leads: Eddy (lesbian), Mari (straight), Cruz (lesbian), Johnny (straight man)
Vida is the only show on this list with a straight storyline given as much screentime as the queer ones, but I’m including it anyway because it’s one of the gayest shows ever and it gets everything right! Y’all, Vida has it all! A writer’s room dominated by POC and women, a diverse cast, a plethora of queer characters and the incredibly rare feature of showcasing a POC-centric queer social web. We spend a lot of time in a queer bar in Los Angeles’ rapidly gentrifying Boyle Heights neighborhood, surrounded by lesbians and other queer women of all shapes, sizes and gender presentations. Another advantage to staffing your writer’s room with QPOC is that you might end up with a writer who’s also primed to be part of one of the hottest lesbian sex scenes in television history.
The Bisexual, Channel 4 (UK), 2018
Watch: On Hulu
Lead: Leila (bisexual)
Secondary leads: Gabe (straight male), Deniz (lesbian), Sadie (lesbian)
Like Vida, The Bisexual sets itself apart by featuring a diverse group of lesbian friends in addition to focusing on the queer protagonist’s narrative and, like Vida, The Bisexual feels entirely authentic. “Akhavan has done something truly brilliant here,” wrote Heather Hogan in her review. “She’s created a show for an audience that understands the joke “Bette is a Shane trying to be a Dana” and then centers it on a character who’s meant to make everyone who gets that joke a little uncomfortable.” Will we ever get more of this show, which Akhavan struggled mightily to get on the air at all? I hope so, but if history is any indication… probably not. :-(
Read a F*cking Book: 20 Best Young Adult Novels For Queer Girls
by riese with malaika, laneia, laura, cara, whitney and rachel
NPR recently polled its readers for their favorite teen novels of all time and published the results in their Top 100 Choices for Best Teen Novels. Unsurprisingly, very few queer books made it onto the final list, so we all smashed our heads into each other’s heads and came up with our own list of 20 awesome queer young adult novels.
There’s plenty of neat lesbian YA books that we don’t talk about here but have talked about in other posts, such as Dare Truth or Promise, Kissing Kate, Hello Groin and Crush. We tried to get a reasonable variety of topics and styles on this list while not venturing outside the Young Adult section, which disqualified adult books about young queermos, such as Rubyfruit Jungle (which opens when the narrator is very young), Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Punk Like Me and Name All The Animals (which is actually a memoir and therefore disqualified for two reasons!).
The following list contains book suggestions and descriptions from Whitney, Malaika, Laura, Laneia, Rachel, Cara, Carolyn, Sarah Gabrielle and Vanessa. What are your favorites?
20 Supreme Queer Young Adult Novels For Growing Girls
20. Shockproof Sydney Skate, by Marijane Meaker (1973)
The gay lady in this underrated YA novel is actually the protagonist’s Mom, but it’s a fascinating look at her world through the eyes of her son, Sydney, chock-full of punchy dialogue, wry observations and classic pop culture references, shot through with a smart, fast-paced plot. Sydney decoded his agent mother’s power-lesbian-girlfriend gossip at age eight but has never told her that he knows she’s gay. Then he falls in love with Alison Gray, his Mom’s newest client… who subsequently falls for his Mom. Hijinks ensue.+
19. Letters in the Attic, by Bonnie Shimko (2002)
Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls and Betty DeGeneres blurbed this Lambda-Award-Winning young adult novel (and crossover success), which takes place in the early 1960’s and follows 12-year-old Lizzy McMann, a teenager forced to move from Arizona to upstate new York with her “unstable” mother when her father leaves them for a hatcheck girl. There, she falls for an eighth grader “who looks like Natalie Wood and smokes,” meets her grandparents for the first time, and experiences fun things like “puberty.” Emily Saliers notes: “Letters is a biting and compassionate look at the vulnerabilty of coming of age and the triumph of coming into own’s own.”
18. Girl Walking Backwards, by Bett Williams (1998)
Skye lives in Southern California with a psuedo-New Age enthusiast for a mother and a giant crush on Jessica, “a troubled gothic punk girl who cuts herself regularly with sharp objects,” who Skye catches fucking her boyfriend in the bathroom at a rave. Following that unwelcome encounter, Skye switches up her life, acquiring a new pagan best friend and an athletic love interest. This book has been described as “a post-Catcher in the Rye roman à clef.”
17. Sugar Rush, by Julie Burchill (2004)
If you missed the short-lived television series based on this sweet YA novel, then perhaps you would enjoy the book! This book won’t make you smarter, but it’s a fun and crass read centered on fifteen-year-old British teenager Kim, who is horrified when she has to leave her posh school for the “infamous Ravendene Comprehensive” in Brighton. There’s lots of drugs and sex and other risky behavior but mostly there’s Sugar, the Queen of the Ravers, who Kim promptly falls in love with and the two of them proceed to get in lots of trouble. (Sidenote: the author, Julie Burchill, is apparently quite infamous for many unpleasant reasons, which I was unaware of until reading the Wikipedia entry about her today!)
16. Hard Love & Love and Lies, by Ellen Wittlinger (2001 + 2009)
Hard Love is the story of Gio, a straight ‘zine writer head-over-heels in love with a lesbian named Marisol. Love and Lies picks up where Hard Love left off, but this time Marisol is the narrator, who moves in with her high school best friend after high school, intending to take a year off before college in order to write a novel and fall in love. Then she falls in love with her writing instructor, Olivia Frost, and there’s a lot of drama and she begins losing sight of her goals and you’ll just have to read it!
15. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, (1999)
There aren’t any actual lesbians in this book but this book is a lesbian favorite for its carefully rendered and earnestly honest portrayal of what it’s like to be a teenager always on the outside of things, searching for serenity or sanity or comfort with the right people, the right party and the right sexual partner. Charlie’s best friend, Sam, is the kind of straight girl that gay girls can’t help but fall for, and his other best friend Patrick is gay. It was one of the American Library Association’s ten most frequently challenged books of 2009, for its “treatment of drugs, homosexuality, sex and suicide,” and the movie version will come out this year. Soon
14. The Difference Between You and Me, by Madeline George (2012)
Jesse is the singular member of The National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos and she wears big fisherman’s boots and Emily is on student council, has a boyfriend, and prefers flats. Yes, what we have here is your classic weirdo-and-popular-girl-bond-via-shared-secret-Sapphism plot-line (see also: Deliver Me From Evie), which is hands down my favorite. Jesse is a strong, inspirational character, one of many rewarding aspects of reading this book.
13. The House You Pass Along the Way, by Jaqueline Woodson (2004)
14-year-old Evangeline Ian Canan, better known as “Stagerlee,” and her family have never really fit in. Stagerlee is the middle of five children to a black father and a white mother. Her father’s family disowned them when their son married a white woman, but they come back into Stagerlee’s life when his father’s sister dies and his other sister sends her adopted daughter, Trout, to live with the Canans for the summer. Stagerlee, coming to terms with sexuality and crush on her friend Hazel, finds a surprise comrade in Trout, who it turns out is — surprise! — also a baby lez!
12. Boyfriends With Girlfriends, by Alex Sanchez (2011)
Four friends are at the center of uber-successful Lambda-Award-winning author Alex Sanchez’s recent novel, Boyfriends With Girlfriends: out gay boy Lance, the allegedly heterosexual Allie, bisexual guy Sergio and Kimiko, a semi-closeted lesbian. The foursome struggle to define their identities, discover their sexuality and find their place in the world — and with each other. Sanchez is known for his books about gay boys, but this one serves up a mixed-gender group of friends that many queer girls can relate to and features an Asian-American lesbian teenage girl, which is nice!
11. Born Confused, by Tanuja Desai Hidier (2002)
The title of Born Confused is important ’cause it’s a play on ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi. The book’s protagonist, Dimple Lala (who has the best name ever), is a straight high school student who disdains her immigrant parents’ traditions and also thinks she’s a little too curvy and a little too brown and a little too boring compared to her Gwen Stefani-esque best friend. But then her formerly-nerdy-turned- beautiful, queer and smartsmartsmart cousin from NYU opens her eyes to just how cool her family is. Her cousin is what makes this book so magical — more teenagers need lesbian fairy godmothers. Also, this lesbian fairy godmother is friends with a stunning(ly beautiful and intelligent) trans woman! Even though Dimple is straight, there’s something undeniably queer about her coming-of-age. (-laura)
10. Pages For You, by Sylvia Brownrigg (2001)
You know how it will end from the first page, so you’re free just to enjoy the bright melancholy and poetic, honest descriptions of emotions and moments. If you’ve fallen in love (hard), tried to smoke cigarettes to look mysterious (and failed), or dreamed of finally realizing your lesbian powers on a leaf-strewn campus far away from home — you will like this book.
9. Empress of the World, by Sara Ryan (2001)
The ‘pretend college/summer camp’ atmosphere of this book allows for some unique experiences that we couldn’t have had otherwise. Sara Ryan doesn’t focus solely on the queer girls’ storyline — we’re introduced to the personal conflicts of each member of the clique: Katrina, the “manic computer chick,” Issac the “nice-guy-despite-himself, Kevin “the inarticulate composer,” and Battle “the beautiful blond dancer.” As you can imagine, Battle becomes the apple of Nicola’s eye. Empress is a sweet, funny depiction of sexual fluidity and friendship.
8. Down to the Bone, by Mayra Lazara Dole (2008)
Cuban-American Miami teenager Laura Amores gets kicked out of Catholic school and subsequently her home when a nun confiscates a love letter to Laura from another girl and reads it out loud in class. Shortly thereafter Laura’s girlfriend, under pressure from her family, accepts a marriage proposal from a dude. Laura’s gotta make a whole new life for herself, starting from square one.
7. Deliver Us From Evie, by M.E. Kerr (1994)
I remember reading this one when it came out and feeling captivated by titular character Evie, the 18-year-old tomboy from a family of farmers whose affair with the Patsy the banker’s daughter is the catalyst for the tightly-packed story’s unwinding. The whole story takes place in Missouri and is told through the point-of-view of her high school junior brother, Parr. It’s a deftly crafted book by a master of the genre, and was enormously controversial at the time.
6. Awkward, Definition, and Potential, by Ariel Schrag (1997, 1999 & 2000)
Awkward, Potential, and Definition chronicle graphic novelist’s Ariel Schrag’s high school existence. She would put each book together in the summer following the school year, and would then distribute them zine-style once classes started. It’s really interesting to see how Schrag’s style and art grows with her. In Awkward, written after her freshmen year, the drawings are little more than stick figures, but charming nonetheless. The contrast between the complicated anxiety that is freshman year and the simplicity of her drawings makes Awkward feel, well, awkward, which is perfect, since it’s hard to describe your first year of high school with any other word.
In Potential and Definition, the drawings have filled out, grown into themselves. Ariel, too, is growing up. She begins to realize that she is, in fact, attracted to girls. She explores her sexuality, and does not shy away from writing and drawing sex. You get the feeling that everything is so new and exciting she wants to put it all on paper so she never forgets . The books are set to a backdrop of 90s pop culture – Schrag idolized L7, Gwen Stefani, and Juliette Lewis. Reading the trilogy is like peeking into a really smart, quirky friend’s diary, or looking at a great queer tumblr. She teaches you a ton about music while giving you a front row seat to all the complex emotions that come with being queer, young, and interesting. After high school, Schrag would go on to write for the The L Word and was even mentioned in Le Tigre’s “Hot Topic.” (-malaika)
5. The Miseducation of Cameron Post, by emily m. danforth (2012)
This critically acclaimed novel, the first from emily m. danforth, takes place in rural Montana in the 90’s and centers on the titular Cameron Post, whose first thought when her parents die suddenly in a car crash is that she’s relieved she won’t have to tell them she had been kissing a girl only hours earlier.
Nancy Garden, author of Annie on My Mind, raves: “This novel is a joy—one of the best and most honest portraits of a young lesbian I’ve read in years. Cameron Post is a bright, brash, funny main character who leaps off the page and into your heart! This is a story that keeps you reading way into the night—an absorbing, suspenseful, and important book.”
4. Keeping You A Secret, By Julie Ann Peters, 2005
This is the kind of book you can basically eat in one day, like a cupcake! There are some extreme “suspending my disbelief” moments but it’s sweet with lots of feelings. Julie Ann Peters totally rules the queer YA section, sidenote — definitely worth checking out is the National Book Award finalist Luna, the story of a transgender teenager beginning her transition, as well as favorites like Rage: A Love Story and Far From Xanadu.
3. The Rose of No Man’s Land, by Michelle Tea (2006)
Described as “a furious love story between two weirdo girls, brimming with snarky observations and soulful wonderings on the dazzle-flash emptiness of contemporary culture,” Michelle Tea’s YA turn is the story of a 14-year-old teenager who, after getting fired form her job at the Square One mall, “finds herself linked up with a chain-smoking, physically stunted mall rat named Rose.”
2. Ash, by Malinda Lo (2009)
We kind of all freaked out about this when we first heard about it, and our feelings haven’t changed. You guys, it’s a lesbian YA retelling of Cinderella. Yeah, I know. I wish I could be a 13-year-old queer growing up right now, because I would be so fucking pumped to read this book, it would change my life for real. Fuck princes, the protagonist Ash has a “dangerous flirtation” with the fairy Sidhean and courts Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, who I am assuming is hot. Lo’s writing is darkly compelling and completely beautiful, exactly right for a modern fairytale. This is definitely, definitely worth reading no matter your age – Lo is a fantastic writer who won’t disappoint. (-rachel)
1. Annie on My Mind, by Nancy Garden (1982)
Everybody has their own story about Annie. Here’s Cara‘s:
“I stole Annie On my Mind from my local library in middle school because I was embarrassed to check it out. I hid it under my bed for years and forgot about it, and then I found it again when I was moving to college, after Accepting Myself and Coming Out and Having My First Relationship etc. I snuck it back in to the library so that some other young queer could steal it and that’s seriously one of the moments in my life that still seems the most symbolic and gratifying and cyclical to me. What I’m trying to say is, I love that YA queer books exists and I love that we all read the same ones, even if not all of our names are on the checkout card.”
10 Badass Yet Toxic Best Friends: TV & Film’s Hottest Troublemakers
“So I started hanging out with Rayanne Graff. Just for fun. Just cause it seemed like if I didn’t, I would die or something. Things were getting to me. Just how people are.”
– Angela Chase, My So-Called Life, Pilot
You know the type — the Bad Girls who corrupt the Good Girls. The Bad Girls who inspire the Good Girls’ Mothers to say “I don’t want you hanging out with that girl.” The best friends who “save” girls who perceive themselves to be “stuck” or “boring” by jump-starting those good girls’ little lives into free-fall.
Cigarettes are smoked, lipsticks are shoplifted, and, more often than not, lesbian kisses are exchanged. Maybe it’s because it’s hard not to fall in love with somebody who makes you feel such giant feelings, no matter what those feelings are.
I always wanted one of my own, ’cause I was a good kid who got good grades, didn’t drink or do drugs, worked a part-time job and always made it home before my fascist curfew. I wanted Rayanne Graff to tell me that my hair was holding me back, and then do something about it. Like the girls on this list, I think.
Top 10 Sidekicks Who Will Probably Get You Into Trouble, Look Good Doing It
10. Alex Nuñez (Deanna Casaluce), Degrassi: The Next Generation
Known in school as a bully and a troublemaker, Alex’s signature quote is “I don’t play well with others.” Her attitude got flipped on its head when Alex’s heart flip-flopped for Paige. But Alex was always really dark, like way darker than killing a baby harp seal.
9. Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), Friday Night Lights
Julie’s Mom: “Honey, I don’t like your tone, I don’t like your sarcasm, and I really don’t understand what you see in hanging out with this [Tyra Collette] girl.”
Eventually Tyra became proof that even the Baddest Bad Influence could turn her shit around with a helping hand from Tami Taylor.
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8. Sugar (Lenora Crichlow), Sugar Rush
Even harder than having a badass best friend is having a badass best friend you want to bone. This was the case for poor Kim with respect to her fuckup friend Sugar who was always stealing things, drinking, and having casual sex (with men). Kim does get the girl-on-girl action she wants from Sugar, eventually, but Sugar can’t seem to do anything besides manipulate. The best part is that Sugar actually lands in prison and gets out early by fucking a female prison guard.
7. Edie (Mena Suvari), Six Feet Under
Claire was never a good girl, that’s for sure, but Claire gets so intoxicated by Edie and their Deep Talks About Art and hallucinogenic drugs that she actually sleeps with Edie even though Claire’s not gay and Edie is. Then Edie says, “The world’s not your own private fucking chemistry set. Just stay away from me!”, which should be printed on a sticker and distributed to straight best friends all over the world. (I love Claire though, don’t get me wrong.)
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6. Ashley Davies (Mandy Musgrave), South of Nowhere
Ashley: “I know I’m not the one you want her to be with, but I’m the one she chose.”
Spencer’s Mom: “We’ll see who she chooses. I guess the battle lines are drawn.”
Ashley: “Guess they are.”
It’s a rule of television that anybody who uses Manic Panic in earnest and wears more than three bracelets at a time is probably gonna make you skip school sometimes. This is another case of the badass best friend turning into The Girlfriend which is extra-special for the Mom that hated her even before the gay shit came up.
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5. Gia (Marla Sokoloff), Full House
Gia: “Mr. Tanner, my mom would NEVER let me have a party without adult supervision… [Mr.Tanner walks out] …which is why I didn’t tell her.”
You know when you look back on your life and think “that’s when I shoulda known I might be gay,” that’s how I feel about my lifelong imaginary affair with Malra Sokoloff, who played Stephanie Tanner’s best friend, Gia, in Full House. Sokoloff went on to corrupt multiple other youths on programs like Party of Five, Seventh Heaven and Boy Meets World. Gia peer-pressures the hell out of Stephanie during their two-season homoreotic best friendship, luring Steph to the darkside of Makeout Parties, joyriding and smoking and eventually gets into a car accident with two guys they met at the mall.
4. Evie (Nikki Reed), Thirteen
Tracy’s Mom: “Tracy was playing with Barbies before she met Evie!”
Getting one’s tongue pierced is the ultimate symbol of teenage rebellion. Then there’s drugs, drinking, threesomes, feelings, fights with Mom and so forth. Then you put all that together and you have yourself a movie.
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3. Effy (Kaya Scodelario), Skins
Effy: “Pandora, why are we friends? Do you ever wonder?”
Pandora: “Well, that’s super easy. You’re my pal because you’re the coolest ever, and I’m yours because I’ll totally do anything you say and none of your boyfriends ever want to surf me cos I’m useless.”
Effy: “That’s it?”
Pandora: “Yeah.”
Skins could be described as a show about self-destructive kids and the normal kids transformed into self-destructive kids by the self-destructive kids. But in Season Two, Effy didn’t even have to talk to get her and her friends into trouble.
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2. Legs (Angelina Jolie), Foxfire
Remember that time Legs walked into your school even though she didn’t even go there, and then empowered this whole group of shat-upon misfits into creating a homoerotic fire-cult? That was awesome.
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1. Rayanne Graff (AJ Langer), My So-Called Life
Angela’s Mom: “All right, I admit it. I don’t like her. I don’t think that she’s the right friend for you.”
Rayanne defines this trope, and she’s alluring because she acts like she doesn’t care, ever. So for people who care a lot, like Angela Chase, someone so Devil-May-Care is just fascinating. Because you never know what could happen next. She might even break your heart!
Who was your favorite bad influence?
Want Lesbian TV? Try the BBC.
GIRLS ON THE BBC: The BBC released its Spring/Winter 2010 Drama Highlights yesterday, and it seems that the country currently bringing you Skins is about to bring you even more hot girls making out! We told you about Lip Service, “a bold new drama about the sex lives and love affairs of twenty-something lesbians living in contemporary Glasgow,” a few months ago but were unawares that said program would appear in the BBC Winter/Spring 2010 trailer I was watching. Lip Service gets about three seconds of the trailer, but during those three seconds, I thought I saw Shane again…
Hello you remind me of a girl that I once knew. Ruta Gedmintas (The Tudors, Spooks) plays Frankie, “an irreverent and provocative photographer who avoids commitment at all turns.”
Tangent: 25% of you will know what I’m talking about when I ask you if you remember how you felt the first time you had a feeling about Shane. The other 75% of you are either rolling your eyes and preparing to unleash a screed about her bony ass or groaning “Why are you still taking about The L Word if you hated it so much?” (Answer: ’cause it’s funny to keep talking about it! It’s our running gag! Like the chicken dance on Arrested Development, but less funny!) All I’m saying is before I even realized there was a lesbian show in the BBC’s Winter/Spring 2010 trailer, this girl did a gesture like she’d just accidentally broken someone’s heart and my heart skipped a tiny beat! What surprise/obvs I felt seeing that this girl was from a new lesbian show!
Sidenote: More lesbians! Obvs there were two ladies in period outfits making out in that trailer, I did not overlook that, though I’m not sure what show that’s from. Anyone? BBC is also producing Lindsay Lohan In India, in which Lindsay Lohan “travels across India to meet the people involved in child trafficking.”
Our girl on set
Anyhoo, back to Lip Service. Creator Harriet Braun who also wrote Mistresses (which had a hot lesbo storyline too), said, “I loved The L Word but it’s high time we saw some contemporary British lesbians, with all the bad weather, trips to the pub and repressed emotions that go with that. It will be as funny as it is pathos filled, because in my experience that’s how life is.”
The cast also includes Laura Fraser as Cat (“Frankie’s former lover, who may not be as immune to Frankie’s charms as she professes to be”), Fiona Button as Tess (“Cat’s best friend and flatmate who has an uncanny knack of attracting all the wrong sorts of women”) and Roxanne McKee as Lou.
According to The Daily Record, “[Lip Service] is going to make Glasgow look amazing. It’s set in the Merchant City and it makes the city look as cool as New York. But it’s not gratuitous. It’s not going to show lesbians in a bad light. It’s not all about bed-hopping sex antics.”
UK’s Throng isn’t as pumped: “it sounds dreadful doesn’t it? If it wasn’t for the promise of some nude women, I don’t think many would even think about tuning in. I can’t even tell you if it will contain nude women. As it’s on BBC Three, I think it’s fair to assume that this will be like Sugar Rush, only with fisting.”
According to a source at the Daily Star: “There’s a lot of lesbian sex and girl-on-girl stuff. It’s definitely one of the must-see shows of 2010.”
There’s a Lip Service trailer on the BBC website I can’t watch in America, which hurts, so I went to my dear friend EurOut and found indeed they’ve somehow unearthed a scene.
BOYS ON LOGO: Logo has greenlit four new series including a spin-off of RuPaul’s Drag Race called “RuPaul’s Drag U,” which will see everyday women competing in tasks to become a diva, under the instructions of a team of drag queens and will debut in July. Other series include “The Arrangement,” which will pit talented floral designers against each other, “The Robert Verdi Show” Starring Robert Verdi which we are 95% sure is about Robert Verdi who is apparently a “larger-than-life” (THAT’S REALLY BIG) celebrity-stylist-turned-entrepreneur, and eight-part doc “Kept” which will look into the lives of privileged real gay homemakers in New York, who live life only to be ‘kept’ by their partners. Winners keepers kids! We’ll maybe secretly like that.
In news related to our favorite ladies Julie Goldman, Kate McKinnon, Nicol Paone and Michelle Paradise, Logo has also ordered new episodes of some of BBC series Beautiful People, lesbian drama Exes & Ohs, documentary series Real Momentum and more of The Big Gay Sketch Show!
UGLY BETTY: Michael Urie who plays fashionista Marc in Ugly Betty has played gay many times (most recently in the Off Broadway play, The Tempermentals), but he never officially announced his sexual orientation, until now:
“I’ve never been in. I’ve never said I was straight, and I’m not saying I’m gay now. I never lie, and I’ve never shied away from the topic. I’ve certainly chosen through my work to do things that promote the rights of LGBTQ people. I’ve been in a relationship for a while now, and if you just met the two of us together we’d be ‘gay.’ But that somehow means anything that happened before [we met] didn’t count—and I don’t feel that way. I know that some people feel that way. They were with women, but it always felt wrong. But it didn’t for me. It felt right at the time. It didn’t work out, but it also didn’t work out with other men—many times. That’s why ‘gay’ never seemed right.” (@advocate)
LADY GAGA: Gaga is hosting the Hands Up for Marriage Equality benefit this Saturday, January 16th in Atlantic City.
KRISTIN CHENOWITH: Autofave Kristin Chenowith & Kerry Washington are ready to make out for an upcoming Dusty Springfield biopic: You see, back in April, Chenoweth told E!, “I want Kerry Washington to play my girlfriend, Dusty had a relationship with an African-American woman and she was supposedly very attractive. Kerry is a great actress and I think we’d be amazing together.” NOW, in a new interview with E!, Washington recalled running into Chenoweth in Los Angeles after reading the interview: “I was like, ‘I would love to be your lesbian lover!’” Washington said. “It’s very exciting. I feel like I’ve been waiting to make out with her forever.” (@eonline)
OPRAH: DVR Alert! Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert and Rosie O’Donnell will all be on Oprah within the next week! Check ye local listings (or Autostraddle the day after).
CASEY JOHNSON: Before she died, Casey Johnson candidly talks about personal failures in her final interview: “It’s been a total nightmare for me. I really have tried to be a success…and it’s all gone nowhere. I’m a mess over it.” She also spoke of her jealously of longtime friend Paris Hilton, telling Star: “She’s my best friend, and I love her. But I hate that she has everything and everything has gone her way.” (@starmagazine)
TILA TEQUILA: Tila Tequila is opening up about her 1 month relationship with Casey: “Lesbians tend to move very fast. They call us U-haul lesbians and that’s what we did. She U-hauled herself into my house the next day,” says Tequila. “She brought all her dogs. Racks of clothes. I have two bedrooms and she filled up the entire bedroom and guest bedroom with all her shoes and clothes. I came home and the bathroom is filled with all her stuff. Makeup, picture frames of her daughter Ava everywhere. I was like this is hilarious. I said I feel like we’d been married five years.” After presenting Tequila with the 17-carat diamond, the Casey reportedly said, “‘Will you please wear this? I want you to be my wife.’ “ Tequila recalls. “We started laughing and crying.” (@people) She also describes visions of Casey in her dreams. (@extratv)
OUTRAGE: Isn’t it strange that GLAAD nominated every movie and TV show with gay characters, appeal and punchlines EXCEPT the phenomenal documentary, Outrage?
No Limits (For Real!): British Import Sugar Rush Comes to America
It’s like a Queer, British My So-Called Life …
Autostraddle isn’t exactly the go-to spot for glowing reviews of lesbian teevee. But today I come to you with Change We Can Believe In — on Friday February 6th (today!), critically and commercially acclaimed Channel 4 British series Sugar Rush debuts stateside on the here! network [catch the preview here — and I believe other eps are also available online]. Based on controversial journalist Julie Burchill‘s novel by the same name, the series follows 15-year old Kim as she fights her burning crush on her new BFF, super-bad girl Sugar, and struggles with her dysfunctional family — Mom’s shagging the carpenter while her Dad’s oblivious and heart-breakingly kind, and her brother literally believes he’s from another planet and therefore wears an astronaut helmet 24/7 and does strange things with blue paint.
At Season One’s start, the family has just moved to gay-friendly sunny Brighton from London hoping for more “family time” and by season’s end all aspirations of togetherness have dissolved into Hot Mess and Kim has confirmed that she’s really, really gay and even met a girl … just as Sugar gets into some serious trouble …
And here’s the thing — this show is really, really fucking good. (more…)