People die. Characters die. This is perhaps life’s most unfortunate fact: that people will die and leave the rest of us behind. It’s incredibly rare that any dramatic television series lasting over three seasons will never kill a main or recurring character, and all those deaths have driven a stake through the heart of fandom: Joyce on Buffy, Lady Sybil on Downton Abby, Charlie on Lost, Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, Jen on Dawson’s Creek, Nate on Six Feet Under — but when the person who dies is a lesbian or bisexual character, queer fandom takes it pretty hard.
The history of lesbian representation on television is rocky — in the beginning, we seemed exclusively relegated to roles that saw us getting killed/attacked or doing the killing/attacking. And until the last five or so years, lesbian and bisexual characters seemed entirely unable to date an actual woman or stay alive for more than three episodes, let alone an entire run, of a show. Gay and lesbian characters are so often murdered on television that we have our very own trope: Bury Your Gays. We comprise such a teeny-tiny fraction of characters on television to begin with that killing us off so haphazardly feels especially cruel.
Not every death listed below was wholly uncalled for. In many genres, like soap operas and shows about vampires, zombies, criminals, or games of thrones, characters are killed on the reg. That’s a different trope — Anyone Can Die. Furthermore, shows composed entirely of queer characters will inevitably kill one. But regardless, they still add to the body count weighing down our history of misrepresentation.
And, due to the recent untimely death of Lexa on The 100, this week seemed like a good one to count down everybody we have lost over the years.
This list contains every television death of an OPENLY lesbian or bisexual or queer female character on a television show. With a handful of exceptions, these are all characters who appeared for more than one episode. The exceptions were deemed exceptional because something about the characterization still fits in with the Bury Your Gays trope. Victims-of-the-week from crime procedurals (Law & Order, Cold Case, CSI, Criminal Minds or older shows) or patients-of-the-week from hospital dramas (Chicago Hope, E.R.), aren’t on this list, as that is an entirely different kind of list, but recurring characters from those shows are on this list. Nor is subtext on this list, because we’re not gonna give Xena showrunners Queer Character Credit for a character they refused to make openly queer when she was really so obviously queer. You know? [ETA: Okay, I’ve added Xena after doing further research and because if one more commenter takes up space on this thread — a thread I’m using to find more characters to add, and also to engage with thoughtful/funny readers who have opinions and feelings — to tell me that I “forgot” Xena without reading this introduction, I will become the 200th dead lesbian and the cause of death will be “Walked off a cliff with a commenter in her arms. Murder-suicide.” But Xena will be the one and only inclusion based on subtext.] Also, although I’ve done tons of research, I haven’t personally seen all of these shows, so mistakes may very well exist, and feel free to politely inform me of them in the comments, or tell me about characters I may have missed — it’s especially helpful if you can tell me the cause of death and the year.
Unsure if this needs to be said but… SPOILER ALERT.
Special thanks to the LezWatchTV Database for providing info on shows I haven’t seen or heard about directly!
Every Regular or Recurring Lesbian or Bisexual Female Character Killed On Television
Julie, Executive Suite (1976)
Cause of death: Hit by a car. Her love interest had just walked into traffic after realizing her lesbianism and Julie was chasing her.
Franky Doyle, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)
Cause of death: Shot by a police officer after escaping from prison
Sharon Gilmour, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)
Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by a corrections officer
Karen O’Malley, Casualty (1987)
Cause of death: Head Injury
Cecília, Vale Tudo (1988)
Cause of death: Car Accident
Cicely, Northern Exposure (1992)
Cause of death: Shot by a gunman employed by the town’s evil overlord who doesn’t want to let the lesbians change his town. The shot was intended for her girlfriend Roslyn, but Cicely, who was already sick, blocked the bullet and died in Roslyn’s arms, thus magically healing the town’s long-simmering feuds and leading them to re-name the town “Cicely.”
Talia Winters, Babylon 5 (1995)
Cause of death: Activated a sleeper personality that wiped out her actual personality, effectively killing her
Beth Jordache, Brookside (1995)
Cause of death: Genetic heart condition, died in prison
Susan Ross, Seinfeld (1996)
Cause of death: Toxic envelope glue
Naomi “Tracy” Richards, Band of Gold (1996)
Cause of death: Stabbed herself
Lucy, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996)
Cause of death: Caught thieving and hanged
Kathy, NYPD Blue (1997)
Cause of death: Shot by a hit man hired by her girlfriend Abby’s ex, who wanted to get rid of Kathy so she could get back together with Abby. Abby was pregnant at the time.
Sondra Westwood, Pacific Drive (1997)
Cause of death: Murdered by a serial killer
Jadzia Dax, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998)
Cause of death: Blasted by an alien-possessed alien
Sonia Besirky, Lindenstraße (1998)
Cause of death: Drug overdose from medication given to her by her ex-lover’s husband
Leila and Rafaela, Torre de Babel (1998)
Cause of death: Explosion in a shopping mall
Susanne Teubner, Hinter Gittern (1999)
Cause of death: Shot during a bank robbery (she was a customer)
Shaz Wiley, Bad Girls (2000)
Cause of death: Bomb, died in resulting fire
Laura Hall, Shortland Street (2000)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Diamond, Dark Angel (2001)
Cause of death: Used as a lab rat for research that killed her
Xena, Xena the Warrior Princess (2001)
Cause of death: Beheaded
Beate “Bea” Hansen, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of death: Injuries from an explosion
Jule Neumann, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of death: Suicide
Frankie Stone, All My Children (2001)
Cause of death: Murder Mystery!
Bridgit, 24 (2001)
Cause of death: Shot by a man in front of her girlfriend
Tara Maclay, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002)
Cause of death: Shot in the heart by a stray bullet
Kelly Hurst, Family Affairs (2002)
Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by her lover’s husband
Megan Hartnoll, At Home With The Braithwaites (2003)
Cause of death: Electrocuted in the bathtub
Juliet Becker, The Bill (2003)
Cause of death: Stabbed
Tina Greer, Smallville (2003)
Cause of death: Impaled through the chest on a large piece of wood during a fight with a male character
Sandy Lopez, E.R. (2004)
Cause of death: Injuries sustained from fighting a fire in an abandoned warehouse
Al Mackenzie, Bad Girls (2004)
Cause of death: Poisoned
Hanna Novak, Verbotene Liebe (2004)
Cause of death: Stroke, died in her girlfriend’s arms
Ines Führbringer, Hinter Gittern (2004)
Cause of death: Throat slit, died in girlfriend’s arms
Thelma Bates, Hex (2004)
Cause of death: Murdered by a demon
Flora, Deadwood (2004)
Cause of death: Beaten by a man who then forced a woman to shoot her with his gun
Brenda Castillo, Charmed (2004)
Cause of death: Stabbed with a cursed blade by a man, causing her to rapidly age and then die
Tosha, The Wire (2004)
Cause of death: Shot during a heist gone wrong
Marissa Cooper, The O.C. (2005)
Cause of death: Car crash after being driven off the road by her drunk ex-boyfriend
Servilla, Rome (2005)
Cause of death: Stabs herself in front of her rival house, inhabited by the mother of her lover
Dusty, Queer As Folk (2005)
Cause of death: At a benefit at a gay club when a bomb went off
Dana Fairbanks, The L Word (2006)
Cause of death: Breast cancer
Helena Cain, Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Cause of death: Shot by her ex-lady-lover
Manuela Wellmann, Hinter Gittern (2006)
Cause of death: Stabbed, died in girlfriend’s arms
Maya Robertson, Hex (2006)
Cause of death: Hit by a car
Natalie, Bad Girls (2006)
Cause of death: Bludgeoned to death with a brick
Gina Inviere/#6, Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Cause of death: Set off a nuclear weapon
Eve Jacobson/Zoe McAllister, Home & Away (2006)
Cause of death: Inside a building when it was blown up
Van, Dante’s Cove (2006)
Cause of Death: Killed by the Shadows
Angie Morton, Stritctly Confidential (2006)
Cause of death: Suicide. Jumped off a building.
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You can remove Bill Potts from Doctor Who from the list – not only does she never actually die (she’s turned into a Cyberman/cyborg sure, but she entirely retains her sense of self), but less than an episode passes before her space girlfriend saves her from even being a cyborg.
She’s due to show up in the next episode too.
Disagree. She was shot incredibly graphically by this show’s standards for a companion, had a number of scenes showing how physically ruined her body was… she managed to get a “sentient water/oil” whatever afterlife with her (imo) creepy crush Heather & a “virtual” temporary reunion with the Doctor, but she was
Still. Killed. In a really upsetting and literally dehumanising way that is out of the norm for companions on this show.
I absolutely think that she was the “I’ve got another year to run this show, people think I’m so sexist/racist, okay let’s pull out all the minority stops on this one-series character before finishing her off. Then she can have a static constrained afterlife.” The end he gives for all the women who get too confident, but Bill’s death was so much nastier, so much more graphic, than his white women he involved romantically with the Doctor.
Bill’s tragic end was also alluded to in a recent episode by the Doctor in a rage as something so awful, so terrible, it was motivating her to do something awful and terrible herself to avoid it happening to anyone else again.
Man, I’m glad I stopped watching Black Sails after another lesbian character was gangraped… :/
So about Kira from The Magicians, the woman that she trains and who eventually kills her isn’t white, the actress that plays her is 100% Native American. Just wanted to clear that up.
Eleanor Guthrie from Black Sails.
Stabbed to death by a Spanish Soldier.
She should on the list
Elise Wassermann on The Tunnel (2017), killed when she explodes a bomb collar put on her to make her male cop-partner sad. Wikipedia’s less sarcastic summary.
UGHHHH I hated this ending so much!! The tunnel falls victim to yet another terrible trope for its gay characters ( https://www.queerty.com/horrible-trope-gay-monster-vanished-tunnel-brought-back-20171118 )
Just what I always wanted in an ending, for a badass heroic bisexual woman to die so that the whiny problematic Karl can have a meaningful ending to his arc…..
Just a correction: Bill Potts was actually killed by the blue alien Jorj in Doctor Who, and later converted into a Mondasian Cyberman – it was the Doctor who was shot by a Cyberman
Nora West-Allen (XS): Erased from existence
Raya Van Zandt (Spin): Murder by her girlfriend, Joslyn Jackam (Weather Witch)
What about Ellaria Sand on Game of Thrones?
Is Isolde from Netflix’s Ragnarok the first to get knocked off in 2020? She manages to come out and then get killed disturbingly promptly, all in the first episode… 😶😶😶
I want to profoundly and most sincerely thank you on creating this list and keeping it refresshed and updated throughout the years. Thank you! Now thanks to you I will spare myself of all the heartbreak I already encountered many times trying to follow our brave lgbt characters who always for some reason end uo dead…
there can be a book written also about all the obstacles our beloved characters go through durong their existence in the shows and movies before they are killed off, like Hollywood and the rest of the world wants to send the message “It is ok for ys to give you the lesbian abd bi characters to attract the audience, but our message is it is not ok to be lgbt!” And it pisses me off. Also it is ok to film straight sex but when it comes to gay sex scenes, lets keep it as modest as possible and rare… So many messages thrown our way that from their point of view its not ok we exist. Makes me mad!
Once more many thanks your way and know that your effort is appreciated!
Ya bitch because you want representation.
Then ya bitch about the representation.
Not every lesbian is courageous/brave.
Some of them just get stabbed in the neck and dumped in the river. 🤷♂️
Yorkie and Kelly Booth from the episode San Junipero of the Black Mirror series.
Tabitha Galavan (a bisexual character) from Gotham was killed in the last season of the show in 2019.
Christina Braithwhite, Lovecraft Country (2020)
Cause of Death: Crashed under rumble and choked to death with a robotic arm.
SPOILERS
Sorry but does this list include Sarah Ngyuen from Yellowknife season 2? aired in 2019
Just a little comment to add Abby Morgan to the list. She’s a bisexual character in Dawson’s Creek who dies tragically falling into the water and drowning.
Clara from Charité, a German show, died from illness in 2017, I think.
Jenny from Doctor Who was a lesbian who died. She was stabbed(?) by the Whisper Men
SPOILERS FOR “THE WORLD TO COME (2021)”
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Tallie, The world to come (2021)
Cause of Death: Presumably killed by her husband.
Yorkie and Kelly Booth from the episode San Junipero of the Black Mirror series.
My GOD they have killed us in every possible way
In June of this year, Sissy Cooper from The Umbrella Academy died of cancer in a flashback.
river song from doctor who was also confirmed to have had a wife and died using her memory space to reset a computer
Fear Street (2021) – Sarah Fier was accused of being a witch and hung
thats soo good man
2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (2010)
Also there is such a scene
World to come, Tallie murderd by her husband 2020
She didn’t identyfy (tis was 1800), but she was in a (sex) relationship with Abi.
Very sad, but nice movie.
Is it really so that no queer woman has died yet in 2021? Oh, no maybe I’ve jinxed it now?
Alright, two more for 2019:
Daniel Lyons – Years and Years
Drowned after falling out of an overcrowded dinghy while trying to smuggle his partner back into the UK
Edith Lyons – Years and Years
Fatal radiation poisoning, then had her memory uploaded to water
gotta add dr. sarah gunning from midnight mass (2021)
This is like a recommendation AND a warning for wlw films and series
This list gets longer each time I check :/ Betsy from Dopesick (2021) could go on this list, her death really got me.. on another note though, Rana from coronation street was actually killed just before her wedding, and Joan from Wentworth was later found alive!
:( villanelle from killing eve (2022). i feel crushed
Guess we gotta update this for Killing Eve :((
Toshiko Sato, Torchwood (2008)
She was not gay. In fact, she was in love with Owen Harper.
Torchwood did kill off a gay character – Ianto Jones, who was Jack Harkness’ love interest.
Fernanda from Killing Eve was also murdered.
Lenny and Salmon from Legion.