The Best TV Of 2025 With Lesbian, Queer Women and Trans Characters

Last month, GLAAD’s “Where We Are on TV” report delivered the grim statistic that 41% of this year’s LGBTQ+ characters wouldn’t be returning for a 2026 season, due to series cancellations or endings, limited series format, or the end of that character’s storyline. It’s not a pretty picture — cancellations, consolidations and conservative politics continue to lay waste to the once-promising LGBTQ+ television landscape we surveyed with optimism at the close of the last decade. 2025 was the year we were meant to be bouncing back from strike-related production delays, but it was ultimately a pretty mundane year for television.

In N+1 at the top of the year, Will Tavlin noted a phenomenon overtaking streaming originals in general — shows designed to be half-watched, cookie-cutter thrillers you can have on while doing something else, shows that fill the air and the screen but never make it all the way to your heart. We are seeing so much more of that and so much less of the daring, artist-driven work that defined streaming’s golden age, and that’s especially true for queer audiences. We aren’t really seeing deeply gay, proudly niche projects like Work in Progress, Twenties, Fanatasmas, Sort Of, Transparent, Somebody Somewhere orVida. That said, I’d put Kat Sadler and Lizzie Davidson’s Such Brave Girls in that category (although its second season didn’t make our list), and arguably also Mae Martin’s Wayward and Benito Skinner’s Overcompensating. Wayward is particularly notable for having a trans male lead character at a time when so much trans representation is rolling back, fast.

But listen, we had fun, didn’t we? We had The Hunting Wives! For those of us who do enjoy a psychological thriller as a treat, there are many more with queer characters than ever before. The group chat had a fresh Ultimatum season to dine out on and a season of Traitors with a genuinely heartwarming ending. We had daringly queer sci-fi like The Mighty Nein, Murderbot and Gen V. We had Beyond The Gates, the first new daytime soap to debut on a major American broadcast network since 1999, introducing a queer storyline right out of the gate. (get it?) We had reliably queer-inclusive classics like Hacks, The Last of Us andYellowjackets.

When it comes to where our list most firmly overlaps with other critics’ lists, the biggest name is Pluribus, with a lot of love for Long Story Short, Dying For Sex, Andor and Hacks — and our team also loved widely acclaimed Severance and The Pitt enough for those shows to rank despite minimal queer women and/or trans content.

So, without any further ado, here is what we adored in 2025:

Netflix, Season 5

I know this show is often the butt of jokes on the internet, and that’s all well and good, but I just rewatched Seasons 1-4 before watching the new Season 5 episodes, and this show is FUN and I enjoy it and I don’t care who knows it. And that fun is in no small part due to Robin Buckley, Hawkins’ resident lesbian goofball. She is smart, and awkward, and hilarious, and manages to be true to herself the best she can even though there’s a huge part of herself she has to hide from most of the world. Her conversation where she came out to Steve remains one of my favorite coming out conversations in TV history. And even though she somehow keeps getting left out of press images and general conversations, Robin is vital to the plot of the show, and at least some of the characters would be dead without her. Or at the very least, still trying to translate Russian broadcasts. And her queerness is also becoming vital to the plot —but I’ll refrain from going into detail in case anyone’s not caught up on Season 5 yet. —Valerie

HBO Max

Rachel Sennot’s HBO series has been famously compared to Girls, but what I like about both is not that either is capable of speaking for their generation but that they’re both full of smart, funny performers playing weird, funny characters and a lot of the lines they say are, you know, weird and smart and funny! Maia (Rachel Sennot)’s influencer/client bestie Tallulah starts casually dating hot chef Tess (Moses Ingram) a few episodes in, easing swiftly into that casual Gen Z sexual fluidity thing we’ve heard so much about. Gay actor Jordan Firstman, who rose to fame on TikTok, is always a delight — in English Teacher, and here. —Riese

CBS

American soaps don’t have the greatest track record with their queer women. General Hospital‘s depiction of Kristina’s embrace of her bisexuality went from exciting to embarrassing to downright offensive and The Young & the Restless can’t be bothered to put Tessa and Mariah on screen anymore. But in late February, Beyond the Gates joined the daytime scene and began reimagining what’s possible in the genre, including putting queer people front and center.

At the center of the queer storytelling on BTG is Chelsea Hamilton, the model/influencer turned entrepreneur, who finds herself falling for Allison after they share in a threesome with Allison’s husband. Chelsea pushes for more — without the husband this time — but Allison resists and Chelsea is left heartbroken. A doctor (Madison) comes along to mend Chelsea’s broken heart and, just as they start to get serious about their relationship, Allison re-emerges and tries to reclaim Chelsea’s affections. I won’t spoil what happens but, sufficed to say, it gets a little crazy from there.

This sort of melodrama is standard fare for a soap but queer characters have rarely been at the center of it all until Beyond the Gates. The show grants Chelsea, Allison, and Madison the space to be fully rounded and messy — some more than others — in a way that soaps rarely allow queer characters to be…and I am grateful for it.

—Natalie

Netflix

The best Jewish comedy is equal parts darkness and mayhem, the kinds of jokes your boldest cousin might tell at a funeral — but like, if every single day of your life was a funeral? If the overbearing, suffocating love of your high-strung mother was the only thing saving you from dying tomorrow? (According to her) Listen; this animated series filled a Transparent-sized hole in my heart. Abbi Jacobson voices Shira, the lesbian daughter, one of three children of parents Naomi and Elliot. She battles familiar queer circumstances like having teenage crushes on girls and asking your brother to be a sperm donor as the narrative jumps across timelines, with stories arranged emotionally rather than chronologically, when everything on the surface is informed by itself as much as it is by the lingering traumas and doubts of the past. —Riese

Netflix, Season 2

The epitome of the community deserving not only gay rights but also gay wrongs, The Ultimatum Queer Love debuted its messy (by design) second season in 2025, generating, if nothing else, some spirited conversation and twelve new micro-influencers. The straights have their Bachelors and their allegedly Blind Loves, but we had our lesbians ready to get married ASAP. Its cancellation was bittersweet —nobody really loved the show, but there was something a bit fun about it, and it meant something that we had it. It meant even more that despite its clear popularity and persistent presence in Netflix’s top ten streaming programs, Netflix axed it, a move almost as suspicious as Mel and Dayna’s sex noises. —Riese

Disney+, Season 2

It had been a long time since I got excited about a Star Wars project. But after editing a review of the first season for this website, I thought hey, I think I need to check this out. And indeed, Andor blew me away, especially in its second season. As Nic Anstett astutely writes in her review of the season, it really is a timely, incredibly familiar story of fascism, war, state-sanctioned violence, government corruption, and resistance. But Andor doesn’t only excel in its more zoomed out plotting and war storytelling but in its more zoomed in moments, too. It looks at how intimate relationships and individuals are impacted by all of this in addition to society at large. It’s just such! Smart! Television! If you’ve been feeling burned out or unexcited by the Star Wars universe lately, this will reel you right back in. —Kayla

Prime Video

“Pop pop!” These words can be found coming out of the mouth of one Beauregard Lionett almost every time she uses her monk abilities to take down a foe. They can also be found tattooed on my body next to a d20 dice and a bo staff, in her honor. Needless to say, Critical Role and the Mighty Nein, specifically, are one of my favorite pieces of media of all time. The Mighty Nein animated series is based on the full-length D&D campaign from the folks at Critical Role. I won’t go too deep into the overall show lore, Valerie Anne’s already masterfully done that here. What I will say, however, is that whether or not you consider yourself a fan of D&D, you will fall in love with this complex group of adventurers. So far, I love the way the show is introducing characters and their backstories; we get to see so much of the context only alluded to by Matt (the dungeon master) or the players during the campaign. The voice acting is incredible, the depiction of magic is gorgeous, and did I mention we have multiple confirmed queer characters?? (At the time this publishes, the entire season hasn’t dropped yet, so I won’t spoil who they are.) It’s been so much fun getting to hear these actors jump back into these roles; it feels like coming home to friends. If you’ve never seen a single episode of Critical Role, the show does an amazing job of building the world around our main characters without it feeling repetitive for those of us who are low key obsessed with it. And if you are a fan, be sure to look out for Easter eggs because they are delightful! —Nic

Netflix

I don’t know whose idea it was to cast Claire Danes and Natalie Morales as ex-wives but I would like to thank them personally. This show is interesting and tense and an interesting character study on good vs evil and the moral grey area most of us actually live in. Claire Danes is amazing in this as Aggie, the traumatized lesbian/tortured writer living next to a man accused of murdering his wife, trying desperately to get her life back on track. Natalie Morales is charming as ever as Shelley, Aggie’s ex who is trying to make it as a professional artist. Their lives are intertwined in a way that gets them a little tangled as Aggie gets caught up in the whirlwind that is her new neighbor. Plus, there’s bonus Brittany Snow. A welcome sight, always. —Valerie

Hulu

Dying For Sex follows Molly (Michelle Williams), who sets out to have the horniest last five years of her life after a terminal cancer diagnosis. She’s supported on her journey by her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) and lots of queers, including characters played by Esco Jouléy, Margaret Cho, Paula Pell and Robby Hoffman. One of the most beautiful episodes of television I’ve ever seen, period, is episode seven of Dying For Sex, co-written by queer and trans comedian Sabrina Wu. Queer stereotypes are employed minimally and always as a humorous celebration, rather than in judgment. I mean, I’ve totally been to a queer, polyamorous, consent-informed sex party potluck where my ex is also in attendance. It’s a real thing. —Motti

Peacock, Season 3

At the start of every Traitors season, Alan Cumming walks around the roundtable and makes his selections: who will be traitors and who will be faithful. As a viewer, you’re in on the secret and, immediately, you’re forced to ask yourself, “who are you cheering for, the traitors or the faithful?” At the start of Season 3, my answer to that question was easy — I wanted to be on whatever side Bob the Drag Queen is on — and once I saw that they were a traitor, my allegiance was set. Plus, Bob was paired with three great reality show competitors…surely, they’d outsmart all the Faithful?

Boy, was I wrong.

Instead of watching to see how the Traitors would, one by one, pick off the faithful, I found myself tuning into see how long the Traitors would survive. Bob refused to dim their light, even as it cast further suspicion on them. His fellow traitors failed to grasp that the strategies that worked for them on Survivor and Big Brother wouldn’t work on this show. I spent the whole season watching Alan Cumming’s team of traitors implode. It still made for interesting television — chaos is always riveting — but Season 3 definitely went in an unexpected direction. —Natalie

Prime Video, Season 2

Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel was already one of the queerest animated shows I’d ever seen, so the fact that they’ve maintained that level and expanded on it in season 2 has brought me so much joy! I’m obsessed with whatever the heck is going on between Angel Dust and Husk, but of course, my heart belongs to Charlie and Vaggie, our favorite sapphic couple. They continue to be adorable partners even as their relationship is tested by external forces like Vox and his media empire spreading lies about Charlie’s true motives, for example. Season 2 gave us everything I loved about the first season: a merry band of misfits you can’t help but love, character depth and growth, humor and wit, and a soundtrack filled with everything from bops to power ballads to a love song called “Piss” (yes, you read that correctly). While the plot is a bit darker (and more meta, tbh) than the first season, Hazbin Hotel hasn’t lost one bit of its heart. —Nic

Apple TV+, Season 2

Severance keeps getting better and better — and not just because this season was the first to (subtly) confirm Devon’s queerness. Jen Tullock indeed gives a standout performance in this season, along with fellow queer actor Tramell Tillman, who surprises at every turn in his complex portrayal of Milchick. I feel this show is re-training viewers on how to watch television; instead of relying on instant gratification when it comes to setting up and solving mysteries, it’s playing the long game, allowing for uncertainty, and just really exploring its themes without over-relying on twists and excessive exposition. —Kayla

Peacock, Season 2

For most of season one of Poker Face, Charlie Cale is on the run. She pauses momentarily to work odd jobs, stumbling on and begrudgingly solving whatever murder the colorful new setting has to offer, and then moving on before anyone can catch up to her. The show revives the “howcatchem,” a hallmark of detective shows as old as Charlie’s Plymouth Barracuda. But early in the show’s second season, Charlie is freed of the burden of running, at least for a while. Suddenly, she has a say in what she does, how long she stays in one place, and if the relationships she builds are more purposeful than incidental. We get to see a version of Charlie Cale that, after a year alone on the road, longs for connection — from Bill, the megastore manager, who Charlie builds a romantic connection with while delivering Indian food, to Alex, who turns a coffee shop run-in with Charlie into an unexpected friendship. Things are personal for Charlie now and it and it shifts the stakes, both for her and the show.

But while the show’s vibe changes just slightly, the things that ground Poker Face remain the same: first, a compelling performance from Natasha Lyonne, and second, the parade of guest stars — Cynthia Erivo (x5!), Gabby Hoffman, Awkwafina, Alia Shawkat, just to name a few — who provide delightful foils for our dogged detective. —Natalie

Prime Video, Season 2

Our super-gays really went through it in this past season, trying to stay out of the supe-asylum, trying to figure out who is on their side and who is decidedly not, and trying to save their peers from being murdered in an egotist’s quest for power. Marie and Jordan also went through it as a couple, Jordan struggling to figure out how they fit in Marie’s life as she grows more and more powerful. They’re not just super-kids trying to make it through college anymore; the stakes are higher than ever and it’s up to them to save their fellow supes and humans alike. —Valerie

Prime Video

Despite having very little in common with its protagonist identity-wise, this show about a closeted gay white man who was a popular jock in high school spoke so deeply to me. But even just beyond how much it resonated with me on a personal level, it’s just a great show! It’s hilarious, but it’s also heartfelt. Its strange mix of slightly heightened reality with crushingly real emotional stakes works well, especially because it’s all backed by a stellar (and super queer!) cast. —Kayla

Disney+

From the moment that we’re first introduced to Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, I’d waited for this: our chance to finally step inside the world of this teen scientist who held her own against Shuri’s brilliance. The world that Riri invites us into is a challenging one: after causing damage in the labs at MIT, she’s forced to return home to the city where memories of her stepfather and best friend — lost in a shooting five years prior — still haunt her.

I will always relish meditations on grief and, ultimately, that’s what Ironheart‘s first season is. It is a reminder of how grief can be the great equalizer: reducing this young genius to an ordinary teenager, who tends to make bad and impulsive choices. But perhaps my favorite thing about Ironheart‘s first season is the value it places on community. It’s an interesting throughline from Ms. Marvel to Echoto Ironheart: that regardless of what superpowers or technology we bring to the table, its the power of community that will ultimately save us. —Natalie

HBO Max

Early in The Pitt‘s inaugural season, a toddler comes into the emergency room after having ingested his father’s weed gummies. The parents are fighting, both with each other and with the hospital staff for having called Child Protective Services. Troubled, Dr. Melissa “Mel” King steps away and worries that the CPS will separate the family. Don’t worry, a colleague assures her, “They’re white. Probably get off with a slap on the wrist.” Needing a minute, Mel steps out into the ambulance bay to re-center herself: she takes a breath and then proceeds to recite the chorus of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage.”

“I am a savage, classy, bougie, ratchet, sassy, moody, nasty. I am a savage,” she whispers to herself. It’s a wholly unexpected moment that you barely get to process it, before a van interrupts: dropping a gunshot victim at the ER’s doorstep and speeding off.

The scene encapsulates what The Pitt does so well. It is first and foremost, a show about the practice of medicine and how that practice is complicated by things that have nothing to do with making people healthier. It is a show about the doctors and nurses who treat us and what they have to endure, particularly in this post-COVID moment. The scene captures The Pitt‘s willingness to confront issues without equivocation; it has a message to deliver and is uninterested in mincing words. It gives you a brief glimpse into who Mel is: enough to build a connection but a far cry from what we’re used to with other medical dramas. The scene also reflects the show’s tendency to lean into these fleeting moments of humanity and humor — a lot comes courtesy of Mel — as a way to make the barrage of trauma and gore feel a little less overwhelming. For my money, it was the best show on television in 2025.

PS: It is my duty to our beloved to community to remind you: The Pitt returns on January 8th and Gigi Ghorbani Sepideh Moafi is joining the cast, as a series regular, for its second season.

—Natalie

HBO Max, Season 5

The Harley Quinn animated series does Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s relationship so well so consistently and I’m happy that’s still the case five seasons in. On this often-wacky, bright and colorful show, we get to see the duo settle into routines, be lazy in bed together, be sexy in bed together, be co-workers in crime (or crimestopping, depending on the day/situation), and work to grow their relationship. This year, we saw them move to the big city together, learned more about Ivy’s backstory, met Lois Lane (Natalie Morales) and Lena Luthor (Aisha Tyler), and so much more, TOGETHER, without any cheating or breaking up or dying. It’s a nice, refreshing change of pace to have such a long-standing and strong sapphic couple on TV, and I can’t wait to see what season six brings. —Valerie

Netflix

This cult thriller surprised me in a lot of ways, especially in just how effective it is in its storytelling about the horrors of the “troubled teen” industry and, ultimately, conversion therapy without actually being explicitly about conversion therapy. In fact, it isn’t queerness or transness that’s penalized at the harsh school for “wayward” teens but rather any sense of agency or perceived deviance. I also expected Mae Martin and Toni Colette to be the primary draws here, and while Martin’s performance as the openly transmasc protagonist is compelling and Colette is straight up BRILLIANT, it really is the young and less famous actors playing the teens who make this series stand out. —Kayla

Netflix

What if the homoerotic friendships we usually settle for in mainstream psychological thrillers decided to go the distance and become full-blown sexual relationships? Well, the creators of the Hunting Wives set out to answer this question and the result was delightful: an eminently watchable, over-the-top, fully realized viewing experience with the panache of a soapy beach read and the electricity of ’90s hotel room soft core pornography. Brittany Snow shines as Sophie whose husband just moved their family from liberal Boston to NRA territory, Texas. She’s immediately drawn to Margo (Malin Ackerman) and her cadre of local MILFs who like shooting guns, drinking, and having inappropriate relationships. Also there is a murder. During such a dark time, The Hunting Wives delivered a binge-ready, absolutely bonkers journey, earning itself an immediate place in our hearts. —Riese

HBO Max, Season Four

I declared this season of Hacks the best season of the series, and I stand by it. It’s just doing everything it does best — the writing, direction, editing, and performances all coming together to paint a stunning portrait of how hard it is to be a writer and artist in our current reality, even for those at the top. It sometimes feels like Ava and Deborah are traveling on a circle with each other, constantly moving between the categories of adversaries and allies, but it speaks to just how well this show is written that it never feels truly repetitive but rather realistic for how these complex relationships function. —Kayla

HBO Max, Season Two

Just when you thought it couldn’t get gayer than the season one Left Behind episode about Ellie’s first love Riley that broke all our hearts (and of course, the Bill and Frank episode), this season of The Last of Us gave us the one and only Dina, who brings out a shier, softer side of Ellie. Watching their journey – both their literal journey to Seattle and their emotional journey – throughout the season was so wonderful, and Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced absolutely knocked it out of the park. They are so incredibly talented and the story was tense and heartbreaking and sexy and funny and just really fun and emotional to watch, and it all takes place in the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, which only adds more stress to the situation. This season also brought us a new enemy for Ellie in Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever, who also brings out a different side of Ellie, though in a very different way than Dina. I can’t wait to watch these characters continue their journeys next season. —Valerie

Showtime, Season Three

I feel like I will always remember how it felt to watch the very end of the sixth episode of Yellowjackets’ third season and then its subsequent bonkers seventh episode. Saying the series raised the stakes in the back half of this season is an understatement; it rocket launched the stakes into space, revealing that what happened in the wilderness was even wilder than we could have ever imagined. This season also raised the stakes in terms of its queerness, introducing a delicious queer villain arc for Shauna Shipman. I know the ending was brutal for many, but I also feel like the season telegraphed everything that would happen so that it wasn’t a big shock but did make a huge emotional impact. —Kayla

Apple TV+

Well, it’s no secret I can’t stop talking and writing about this series. I took one look at the pilot and said oh, I will be recapping this. There’s just so much to say! A lot of my recaps have focused on the parallels between the story and the proliferation of AI, but what I like most about Pluribus is that it feels like it can be about many things at once. Despite its science-fiction premise, it feels intensely similar to what it’s like to move through the world right now, especially as an artist and creative person. Like Severance, it similarly is a show best viewed patiently. —Kayla