While it’s certainly interesting to argue that LGBTQ+ people generally, and trans people specifically, are a relatively new development in human history, in fact all of us have been thriving under pressure for all of human history — and there’s so much incredible television out there to remind us of who we are and where we come from. Here’s how to immerse yourself in the past to remind yourself that even when people hated us more than they do now, we lived.
Mary & George (1610s)
While other period pieces modernize with pop music and other anachronisms — to various success — this seemingly modest series about George and May Villiers instead leans into timeless faithfuls: sex and violence. This is a delicious show that’s thrilling and gay. But it’s also smarter than a lot of similar shows that posture intelligence. It’s sharp in its portrayal of people who want POWER but don’t necessarily want to LEAD. Longtime straight gay favorite Julianne Moore and new straight gay favorite Nicholas Galitzine are both so fun to watch and the whole thing is a scrumptious dessert with just enough bite.
Our Flag Means Death (1710s)
Set amid the Golden Age of Piracy, Our Flag Means Death is a comedic series following the misadventures of “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and his dysfunctional crew as they aim to prove themselves, eventually crossing paths with and falling for infamous pirate captain Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). Widely considered one of the best queer TV shows of all time, Our Flag Means Death inspired a passionate queer fanbase and was especially beloved by the community for the character Jim Jimenez, played by non-binary queer actor Vico Ortiz. “Packed with brilliant leads and an incredible ensemble of sensitive men, strong women, and badass non-binary folks,” wrote Meg, “the show is an absolute delight, dancing between serious and silly in equal measure.”
Harlots (1760s)
sex workers presenting themselves
I declared Harlots the most accurate portrayal of indoor-market sex work ever represented onscreen in Season One — surprisingly more resonant to me as a former sex worker than any contemporary portrayals — and its extra queering in Season Two made it moreso and then some. Season One introduced us to the world’s dimensions and delivered an unexpected, delightful storyline between a sex worker and the daughter of a religious activist. Season Two went beyond with a romance between lead characters — full of lessons about power, violence, solidarity and struggle, I would opt out of Season Three, personally, but it’s up to you!
Gentleman Jack (1830s)
Anne Lister is a remarkable historical figure, enduring for her complete dedication to chronicling all of her lesbian emotional exploits in her well-preserved diaries. Lister was loud and proud, but also, writes Heather, “a complicated woman who was very invested in upholding the systems of power the working class were revolting against during her lifetime.” Gentleman Jack captured all that and also Anne’s relationship with her wife, Ann Walker, her complicated family dynamics, and her feckless infidelity. As Heather concluded: “Gentleman Jack got all that right, and it was a joy to behold.”
Dickinson (1850s)
“Alena Smith’s take on Emily Dickinson’s life feels like a bit of a balancing of the scales for the time Sue’s name was edited out of most of Emily’s poems and letters in an attempt to shove her in a closet it doesn’t seem she particularly cared for,” wrote Valerie. “Hailee Steinfeld gives a wildly charming performance, and her chemistry with Ella Hunt’s Sue is electric. The modern humor and music with the period outfits and goings-on brings so much humor and heart to the poet’s story, and it’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
Warrior (1870s)
Set turning the Tong Wars, this series focuses on martial arts prodigy Ah Sahm, who leaves China for San Francisco in search of his sister, only to end up sold to a powerful Chinatown tong. One of his first stops on this seemingly doomed journey is the brothel of the city’s most powerful madam, Ah Toy (Olivia Cheng), based on a very real person. In later seasons, Toy becomes romantically involved with Nellie Davenport, a wealthy widow with a Sonoma vineyard that offers asylum to Chinese migrants including sex workers.
Cable Girls / Las Chicas De Cable (1920s – 1930s)
Netflix’s first big non-U.S. original series hit takes place between 1929-1931, in the run-up to Spain’s 1931 Republic, with a last season time jump forward seven years, to the final months of the Spanish Civil War. It centers on four female switchboard operators who meet in the National Telephone Company in Madrid including bisexual heiress Carlota, whose romantic relationships run the gamut over the course of the program, including a polyamorous relationship and a girlfriend who eventually comes out as a trans man. (It’s difficult to discuss the queer elements of this series without giving you spoilers!) Bustle called it Netflix’s most progressive Spanish drama, “an exploration of female independence and suffrage, gender identity, sexuality, and sisterhood.”
4400 (1920s – 1990s)
The CW’s short-lived 4400, a reboot of the 2004-2007 USA series, finds 4,400 humans who “disappeared at some point within the last century” suddenly dropped into a Detroit park in the present day with no knowledge of where they are or what has happened to them. Focused almost exclusively on Black characters, one of these humans is a trans doctor plucked out of his whooping cough research and busy Harlem Renaissance social life, now enchanted by the modern era and by the language that now exists to describe people like him. Others have arrived from situations like a 1970s cult, a second-generation reverend from the 1990s and a Civil rights organizer from the late ’50s. Unlikely friendships build across very literal intergenerational divides and romantic tension simmers, particularly between a lesbian parole officer stuck at a moral crossroads and a queer Muslim IT nerd already certain of the proper path forward.
The First Lady (1930s – 1940s)
This series was a bit of a bomb but it had its moments — including a full and generous portrait of the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson) and two-decade-long lover and confidant, Lorena “Hick” Hickok (Liby Rabe).
Bomb Girls (1940s)
Stream on Prime Video or Tubi
Set in a munitions factory in World War II Canada and centered on a group of women who work together there, Bomb Girls is devoted to a moment of radical and sudden independence for women — with husbands away at war, women entered the workforce, fostered relationships with each other and were actually allowed to wear pants. Ali Liebert played Betty McRae, a closeted lesbian tomboy with a tough exterior who falls for her best friend Kate (queer actor Jodi Balfour).
A League Of Their Own (1940s)
We have honestly never loved a show more than A League of Their Own, a snapshot of that same Bomb Girls era when the war gave women new opportunities and lesbians a short, if still under-the-radar, ability to briefly be themselves. The All-American Baseball League’s history has often been straightwashed, but this adaptation told the truth, stacking the Rockford Peaches with lesbians from butch barflies Lupe (Roberta Colindrez) and Jess (Kelly McCormack) to sporty femme Greta (D’Arcy Carden) and our charming protagonist, Carson (Abbi Jacobson). Then we have Max Chapman (Chanté Adams), a Black ballplayer excluded from the AABL due to its racist bylaws, whose work at a munitions factory introduces her to members of her town’s thriving underground Black queer and trans scene. This show was perfect and its cancellation was devastating for the entire community.
Fellow Travelers (1950s – 1980s)
Fellow Travelers follows the decades-long relationship between a charismatic and ambitious State Department official Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) and a young, idealistic congressional staffer Timothy Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey). Beginning as their paths cross in 1950s D.C at the height of the Lavender Scare, their love struggles through Hawkins’ marriage and Timothy’s political activism as we push forward through the Vietnam war era and the growing HIV/AIDS criris of the 1980s. The show expands beyond its source matrial to include the story of Marcus, a Black journalist played by Jelani Alladin, and we also get a glimpse of some stalwart lesbian beards and iconic butch lesbian performer and civil rights icon Stormé Delarverie in a queer club, and a series packed with nuanced performances and characters torn between political, personal, spiritual and romantic urges. Fellow Travelers deftly avoids sentimentality, but evoked so much of it, like all the best tortured love stories do.
When We Rise (1970s— present)
Stream When We Rise on Hulu
Dustin Lance Black’s When We Rise is nothing if not ambitious, charting the LGBT rights movement from San Francisco immediately post-Stonewall all the way through 2014, and that ambition, while admirable, often flattens and weakens the multitude of stories it’s looking to tell. Go into it expecting an incomplete, imperfect story (and really terrible wigs) and what you’ll get is still worth a watch: starting in the ’70s and early ’80s including the Harvey Milk campaign and assassination as well as the beginning of HIV, continuing through the AIDS-ravaged ’90s and attempts to gain real political power through traditional means, and ending on very recent history, covering the repeal of DADT and DOMA and the legalization of same-sex marriage. The cast is remarkable, including actors like Rosie O’Donnell, Ivory Aquino, Mary Louise Parker, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Kenneth Williams, Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, David Hyde Pierce, T.R. Knight, and Debra Winger.
Daisy Jones & The Six (1970s)
Adapted from a best-selling novel of the same name, Daisy Jones is clearly a fictionalized take on the real-life drama of legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac. Following the titular band from their 1970s rise in the LA music scene to their eventual split at the height of their success, the adaptation adds a Black queer storyline that wasn’t present in the book. Carmen wrote of it that, “tucked underneath that haze is one of the best Black queer loves stories last year. Beneath everything that feels fake, is a beating heartbeat of love and Disco that gives nod to a still under-discussed, but very real, core branch of Black queer history. ”
Minx (1970s)
This woefully under-appreciated gem finds earnest young female journalist Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond), thwarted in her crusade to launch a staunchly feminist magazine, instead joining with a low-rent publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. Along the way we’ve got adorable gay photographer Richie (Oscar Montoya), sexually fluid porn star Bambi (Jessica Lowe) and some eventual experimentation from where Joyce least expected it — her married sister, Shelly (Lennon Parham). Minx is just so sexy and fun, a joy from top to bottom.
Mrs. America (1970s)
This Hulu limited series is decidedly star-studded — Sarah Paulson, Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Melanie Lynskey, Margo Martindale, Nicey Nash and Uzo Abuba, to truly name only just a few — as it takes us through the interpersonal work of political progress, including storylines where lesbians and women of color feel pushed out of the party platform and where an activist’s marriage, commodified to advance a movement goal in a debate with Phyllis Schlafley and her husband, is challenged by her recently-ignited bisexuality. (Ignited, of course, by Roberta Colindrez’s effortlessly sexy photographer Jules.)
It’s a Sin (1980s – 1990s)
Set in London between 1981, this Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, Queer as Folk) series was a critical and popular success in the UK before getting picked up by Max in the states. It follows a group of five 18-year-olds who move to London in 1981, get a place together, and embark upon their delightful gay lives in the city — only to be confronted, in pieces and then all over, with the growing HIV/AIDS crisis, which drives them apart and pulls them back together in equal measure. But be warned that it will absolutely break your heart.
Pose (1980s – 1990s)
Following a shifting chosen family of trans and queer people of color active in New York City’s ballroom scene, Pose boasted the largest cast of queer women of color ever, giving actors like MJ Rodriguez, Angelica Ross, Billy Porter, Dominique Jackson and Indya Moore the star turns they’d long deserved. Pose was real and sometimes devastating while also being strikingly joyful. “It doesn’t resort to tragedy porn and instead rather shows the full range of these characters’ lives, which include romances, evolving friendship and familial dynamics, and self-discovery,” wrote Kayla. “It’s as fun and spectacular as ball culture itself.”
correction on the bomb girls blurb: kate is played by charlotte hegele. jodi balfour plays gladys.
Uk here, glad to see appreciation for Harlots! I always felt it was shortchanged over here by being on a less major channel, glad to see some appreciation.
There’s a new-ish BBC show Dope Girls set in 1918 just after WWI ends, which I have been finding a bit of a chore to get through but there is definitely gayness!
Black Sails!! You’re missing Black Sails!! Also set during the Golden Age of Piracy, it’s full of queerness and being on the outside of civilization and what that means. It’s on Netflix! Don’t look up the show before you watch so you don’t spoil anything. Just trust me: it’s queer and it may be the best show that’s been on television, ever.
My partner, who loves OFMD, said this upon watching Black Sails: “this makes OFMD look like a cartoon.” Good way to capture how different the mood of the show is. It definitely has its comedic moments, but is at its core much more of a drama about a tragic hero and the circle of people trying to make a life as outcasts in 1715 Nassau.
Watch it! And then listen to the excellent podcast Fathoms Deep, a deep reading of each episode’s themes and characters. And then watch it again! (Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now).
Black Sails!! You’re missing Black Sails!! Also set during the Golden Age of Piracy, it’s full of queerness and being on the outside of civilization and what that means. It’s on Netflix! Don’t look up the show before you watch so you don’t spoil anything. Just trust me: it’s queer and it may be the best show that’s been on television, ever.
My partner, who loves OFMD, said this upon watching Black Sails: “this makes OFMD look like a cartoon.” Good way to capture how different the mood of the show is. It definitely has its comedic moments, but is at its core much more of a drama about a tragic hero and the circle of people trying to make a life as outcasts in 1715 Nassau.
Watch it! And then listen to the excellent podcast Fathoms Deep, a deep reading of each episode’s themes and characters. And then watch it again! (Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now).
(My other comment posted this as a reply to another comment for some reason so here it is as a normal comment… Not sure how to delete the other one).
–Fellow Travelers is heartbreakingly lovely. I hadn’t heard of the book, but was hooked on the series from the first moment. Matt Bomer’s performance reminds me of John Hamm’s Draper. Allison Williams, as his wife, is also strong.
–I’ve watched As We Rise multiple times, including when it debuted on ABC. Indeed, ambitious, telling many histories at once. Great performances. I loved seeing the earliest days of Sylvester. Lots of insight into the foot soldiers of the movement. The scenes of the White Knights Riots are deeply memorable, almost immersive. Here’s info on the real folks: https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/real-people-from-when-we-rise-43241324
— I never watched Minx, but I did listen to the great podcast about the magazine that’s its subject. https://crooked.com/podcast/wintour-of-their-discontent/
— I’d seen Carol, but I fell in love with Cate Blanchett while watching Mrs. America. Her rendering of Phyllis Schlafly is like a body snatching. And of course, I’d watch Sarah Paulson read binary code.
Pose is beyond beyond. I was a NY Lesbian Avenger working at the gay community center during the late 80s—early 90s. The vibe, tension, joy, and history told in Pose are on point.
My bad–When We Rise. Yikes!