Hello and welcome to your monthly guide on brand new streaming items coming to your television sets / computer screens in January 2022, chock-full of lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans characters!
Oddly, I didn’t get any gay vibes, let alone any gay information, from the January 2022 slate being served up at Amazon Prime, Peacock, Paramount+ or Apple, so I am hoping there’ll be a surprise or else they will make it up to us in February. In the meantime; Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max still have room for the homosexuals, bisexuals and pansexuals in their hearts this month.
What’s New and Queer on Netflix for January 2022
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) – January 1
I believe we are as a community familiar with this series, in which Rooney Mara plays traumatized tough bisexual investigator Lisbeth Salander, helping Mikael Blookvist solve the 40-year-old murder of his niece.
REBƎLDE: Season One – January 5
This series is based on a Mexican telenovela by the same name which was a massive hit, spawning an actual pop group that released nine studio albums. Netflix’s REBƎLDE follows a new crew of very hot and talented teen musicians enrolled at the Elite Way School. Amongst them is Andi (Lizbeth Selene), “a rocker at heart” and “a drummer who scoffs at any rulebook, from what she wears to whom she dates in between rehearsing for Battle of the Bands.” In the trailer we see Andi making out on a couch with Emilia Alo (Giovanna Grigio), “the most popular girl at EWS.”
Hype House: Season One – January 7
Ten 20-year-old TikTokers have ben picked to live in a 25 million dollar house together and have their lives taped and now you can find out what happens when influencers make content? Together? In a nice house?!!?! And I guess have fights and stuff. Anyhow, one of the housemates, Nikita Dragun, is a trans woman.
Chosen: Season One – January 13
This “thrilling and absurd story about teenage life” centers on 17-year-old Emma, who is about to “discover an earth shattering truth about her own identity when she delves into the mystery surrounding her quiet Danish town.” The mystery is that the hole in the middle of town everybody said was a meteor is not a meteor hole, it’s a hole caused by aliens crashing their spaceship! Anyhow, Emma definitely has a lesbian romance in this series, they are kissing in the trailer I saw it with my own two eyes.
Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness: Season One – January 28
This new reality show from non-binary Queer Eye hair wizard Jonathan Van Ness will see them asking big questions like “was Sister Act realistic” and “what’s the history of scissors?” I will be tuning in thank you!
Hulu’s Lesbian & Queer Content for January 2022
Sex Appeal (2022) – January 14
This Hulu original film focuses on Avery, who is prepping for sex with her long-distance boyfriend by MASTERING her sexuality, employing her best friend as a test subject. This sounds pretty heterosexual BUT also, the following people are in this film: Margaret Cho, Fortune Feimster, Rebecca Henderson, Paris Jackson. Soooo something gay is going to happen.
9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox): Season 3 Premiere – January 4
This is Us (NBC): Season 6 Premiere – January 5
Black Bear (2020) – January 10
Bisexual actress/icon Aubrey Plaza stars in this critically acclaimed psychological meta-thriller. She plays an out-of-town guest seeking filmmaking inspiration who is shacking up with a couple in their Adirondack lakehouse. As per letterboxd, “The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously intertwined their lives will soon become.” According to at least one review, there is a lesbian in the movie! Vulture placed it at #3 on its list of Aubrey Plaza Movie Roles, Ranked by How Badly She Wants to Kill You.
Naomi (The CW): Season One Premiere (Available with Hulu Live+) – January 11
Normally I don’t include shows here that require Hulu Live (because that’s basically just every show on TV) BUT we just really wanted you to know about this one! I’ll let Natalie take it from here: Based on the 2019 comic book series of the same name, Naomi is the latest superhero offering from the CW. It’s the story of Naomi McDuffie, an effortlessly cool teenager with an obsession with all things Superman. But when her quiet hometown is upended by a Superman stunt, Naomi starts to question everything around her, including her own origin story. Naomi is the latest television offering from Ava Duvernay…and like she did with Queen Sugar, she goes beyond the source material and introduces queerness.
How I Met Your Father (Hulu): Two-Episode Premiere – January 18
This standalone sequel to How I Met Your Mother stars Hilary Duff as Sophie (and Kim Cattrall as future Sophie) and Chris Lowell as Jesse. Tien Tran plays Ellen, Jesse’s adoptive sister who is described as “more comfortable on an organic lettuce farm than a Brooklyn dive bar.” She’s recently left her small farming town for New York City after separating from her wife.
Single Drunk Female (Freeform): Series Premiere – January 21
Sofia Black D’Elia’s Samantha is a twentysomething writer who loses her media job after drunkenly assaulting her boss, is subsequently shipped off to rehab and then finds herself back home living with her Mom, played by Ally Sheedy. Rebecca Henderson plays Samantha’s sponsor, Olivia, who is in a bananas relationship with her wife, Stephanie (Madeline Wise). Trans actress Jojo Brown plays Mindy, a friend Samantha meets in AA and then works for at the local grocery store!
Grown-ish: Season 4B Premiere (Freeform) – January 28
Burden of Truth: Complete Season 4 – January 30
This Canadian legal drama is focused on big city lawyer Joanna Chang, who returned to her hometown to take on an easy case that turned out to be a much harder case. Her assistant, Luna Spence, is a queer indigenous law student. Its fourth and final season debuted last year on The CW and saw its characters dealing with a mining company reopening a dormant mine outside their town and events that eventually open up a long-buried secret for Joanna. Also, Luna has a new girlfriend! Also worth noting is what Natalie wrote about the show in her recap of episode 409: “over four seasons, the Canadian import showcased indigenous stories in a way that few other television shows have.”
HBO Max LGBTQ+ Content For January 2022
Search Party: Season 5 Premiere – January 7
Grace Kuhlenschmidt and Michelle Badillo are gonna be in Season 5 of Search Party so I feel like there has to be something LGBT going on in the final season of this show that ranked #22 on our Best LGBT-Inclusive TV Shows of 2021.
Euphoria: Season 2 Premiere – January 9
The long-awaited Season Two of Euphoria is finally here! In July, Zendaya told Teen Vogue that the season is “gonna be hard and it’s gonna be devastating sometimes, but I think Rue really deserves all of that care when it comes to her character, because I think she represents a lot for so many people. And I hope to make those people proud with our depictions of Rue [and] where all the characters go. I think this season’s not going to be easy, though. It’s not going to be a fun watch, I don’t think. Sometimes.” Other cast members have described Season 2 as jaw-dropping and “insane,” so we’ll see!
Peacemaker: Season 1 Premiere – January 13th
The Suicide Squad’s Peacemaker is getting his very own spin-off series! Last year, Peacemaker put out a casting call for a recurring guest role described as a “Black Female, late 20s-early 30s, gay” character “reluctantly dealing with her new wife’s government job and the secrecy it requires.” Elizabeth Faith Ludlow — who appeared in HBO Max’s Equal and Netflix’s Another Life — snagged the role, so we’re just waiting to see which character she’s married to! Danielle Brooks is playing new not-from-the-comics character Leota Adebayo, and Jennifer Holland is Emilia Harcourt.
Somebody Somewhere: Season 1 Premiere – January 16th
A thing I learned this week is that Bridget Everett is not a lesbian? This is confusing to me but anyhow, this show is based on her life and she plays Sam, a singer who returns to her Kansas hometown to care for her sister and then her sister dies and THEN WHAT!?! I’m assuming there’ll be a lot of queer stuff in this because at one point she’s at a showcase hosted by Murray Hill and everybody in the room is gay.
That’s all folks! Does anybody know if The Gilded Age is going to be gay and if not, why not? Lemme know in the comments!
Seems like everything good ended in December.
Think I’ll check out Naomi.
Just watched the Sex appeal trailer and nothing gay is happening there. It’s all bj jokes on the way to her discovering she’s in love with her guy best friend. I hope Naomi that was included here because it “introduces queerness” actually has a queer character. I appreciate this monthly update but if half the things included don’t really have gay characters it’s just a list of projects you want us to support.
Omg wait you HAVE to write about hbo’s 12 Dates of Christmas season 2 queer love situation!
OMG YES!!! Seconding this! Soooo many feelings
I WILL INVESTIGATE
Just watched the trailer for Single Drunk Female and it looks like the lead character might be gay as well? Excited to check it out either way.
Just wondering why “And Just Like That” on HBO isn’t mentioned given queer actors and storylines with Cynthia Nixon and Sara Ramirez? Also a tween child comes out as non-binary and there’s a real discussion around it with their parents and teachers. I am in the age demographic for AJLT and am going through some similar issues as Miranda (sadly, minus her scads of money) and felt so seen watching her character in the most recent episode— it also has an incredibly hot sex scene that gives me hope and dreams for a better life and believing that the best really could be yet to come. The show is far from perfect but I give it a million bonus points for treating 50+ women like our stories matter and our lives are still evolving.
It was in the December roundup.
The original hit was Rebelde Way from Argentina, and yes there was an actual pop group that traveled around the world. Then the rights were bought from different countries including Mexico
Netflix limited series “Anxious People” has a lesbian couple
Thank you for that realization that Queer males are still and probably forever will get nothing but scrapes after the lesbo and hetero crap. People ask me why I have so much disdain against our queer female counterparts. There just as ostracized and discriminated as you. If only that were actually the true but sadly lesbian/queer cis females have been less prosecuted and more accepted then gay/queer cis males. You see the evidence in media, entertainment, and even in real life. You even have proof with just this article for not one single show on this article mentioned gay male representation. Every single program listed on this story only mentions lesbian and bisexual women. I can not tell you the pain, anger, and betrayal I feel from not only my own species but my own kind.I am so fed up of waiting for us to get even a smidge of the camera time lesbos and heteros get. I am so tired of waiting for society to finally be desensitized from homo crap. Also i am so sick of lesbians being also refereed to as gay im tired of it. Pick one and discard the other. For centuries queer women have been given more respect then queer males will ever receive and why is this? Because hetero male pricks love to see lesbo crap. So why is there more lesbo then homo on TV. Because hetero males dominate the entertainment industry as well everything else. Especially a white hetero male. our human race has catered to them for a millennia. When do gay/queer men finally get just a glimps of spotlight? It is 2022 and we still have to wait while lesbians get all the scenes.
I am beyond loathed with rage. This has made me so hateful over my sexuality as a gay man. It has made me resentful of our queer women. As well has given me the pure unadulterated venom i have over humanity.
Hi. With all respect to your views, this site is not the best place to be comparing lesbian and gay representation or looking for gay representation. As per the website, “Autostraddle is…the internet’s most popular, and oldest independently-owned, website for lesbian culture that’s inclusive of trans and nonbinary people and all queer women.” You will have a hard time finding gay representation in a site dedicated mostly to queer women.
Hear, hear! Thumbs up.
mods… uh? this comment seems not to have found its proper home
I’ll just say really quick that if a person like yourself is so bent out of shape about the way entertainment discriminates against gay men (which I agree that they do.) then do something about it, create something you want to see because that’s literally what most people are doing while the latter complains about what they should be seeing. Take notes and be great!
Riese, again, I have to visit this article to keep up with the program, besides the helpful ladies who are so kind to keep me up-to-date with the television releases. Thank you darraling. Looking forward to the movielist every month. Love always,
Fero
NOT equality … % of gay shows > than exist in any country, that will turn ppl against US