All 235 Dead Lesbian and Bisexual Characters On TV, And How They Died

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.

geraldine-brooks


Franky Doyle, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)

Cause of death: Shot by a police officer after escaping from prison

franky-doyle


Sharon Gilmour, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)

Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by a corrections officer

Sharon


Karen O’Malley, Casualty (1987)

Cause of death: Head Injury

karen


Cecília, Vale Tudo (1988)

Cause of death: Car Accident

lala_deheinzelin_cristina_prochaska_lesbica_vale_tudo_novelas


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.”

3-23_roslyn-cicely041


Talia Winters, Babylon 5 (1995)

Cause of death: Activated a sleeper personality that wiped out her actual personality, effectively killing her

Talia_Winters


Beth Jordache, Brookside (1995)

Cause of death: Genetic heart condition, died in prison

beth


Susan Ross, Seinfeld (1996)

Cause of death: Toxic envelope glue

SeinfeldSusan


Naomi “Tracy” Richards, Band of Gold (1996)

Cause of death: Stabbed herself

samantha


Lucy, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996)

Cause of death: Caught thieving and hanged

lucy-diver


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.

lisa-darr


Sondra Westwood, Pacific Drive (1997)

Cause of death: Murdered by a serial killer

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Jadzia Dax, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998)

Cause of death: Blasted by an alien-possessed alien

jadzia-dax


Sonia Besirky, Lindenstraße (1998)

Cause of death: Drug overdose from medication given to her by her ex-lover’s husband

sonia-berisky


Leila and Rafaela, Torre de Babel (1998)

Cause of death: Explosion in a shopping mall

babel


Susanne Teubner, Hinter Gittern (1999)

Cause of death: Shot during a bank robbery (she was a customer)

susanne


Shaz Wiley, Bad Girls (2000)

Cause of death: Bomb, died in resulting fire

Shaz_


Laura Hall, Shortland Street (2000)

Cause of death: Heart attack

shortland


Diamond, Dark Angel (2001)

Cause of death: Used as a lab rat for research that killed her

2001-dark_angel_shorties_in_love_08


Xena, Xena the Warrior Princess (2001)

Cause of death: Beheaded

xena


Beate “Bea” Hansen, Hinter Gittern (2001)

Cause of death: Injuries from an explosion

Walter (Katy Karrenbauer, li.) und Bea (Sonia Farke) haben sich bei Jutta ein paar Tage in Freiheit erpresst.


Jule Neumann, Hinter Gittern (2001)

Cause of death: Suicide

Anke-Rahm


Frankie Stone, All My Children (2001)

Cause of death: Murder Mystery!

frankie-stone


Bridgit, 24 (2001)

Cause of death: Shot by a man in front of her girlfriend

Bridgit


Tara Maclay, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002)

Cause of death: Shot in the heart by a stray bullet

tara


Kelly Hurst, Family Affairs (2002)

Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by her lover’s husband

kelly


Megan Hartnoll, At Home With The Braithwaites (2003)

Cause of death: Electrocuted in the bathtub

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Juliet Becker, The Bill (2003)

Cause of death: Stabbed

becker41


Tina Greer, Smallville (2003)

Cause of death: Impaled through the chest on a large piece of wood during a fight with a male character

Tina


Sandy Lopez, E.R. (2004)

Cause of death: Injuries sustained from fighting a fire in an abandoned warehouse

sandy-lopez


Al Mackenzie, Bad Girls (2004)

Cause of death: Poisoned

al


Hanna Novak, Verbotene Liebe (2004)

Cause of death: Stroke, died in her girlfriend’s arms

hanna


Ines Führbringer, Hinter Gittern (2004)

Cause of death: Throat slit, died in girlfriend’s arms

Ines-Fuhrbringer


Thelma Bates, Hex (2004)

Cause of death: Murdered by a demon

hex


Flora, Deadwood (2004)

Cause of death: Beaten by a man who then forced a woman to shoot her with his gun

kristin-bell-deadwood


Brenda Castillo, Charmed (2004)

Cause of death: Stabbed with a cursed blade by a man, causing her to rapidly age and then die

Brenda_Castillo


Tosha, The Wire (2004)

Cause of death: Shot during a heist gone wrong

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Marissa Cooper, The O.C. (2005)

Cause of death: Car crash after being driven off the road by her drunk ex-boyfriend

marissa


Servilla, Rome (2005)

Cause of death: Stabs herself in front of her rival house, inhabited by the mother of her lover

Serviliaprofile


Dusty, Queer As Folk (2005)

Cause of death: At a benefit at a gay club when a bomb went off

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Dana Fairbanks, The L Word (2006)

Cause of death: Breast cancer

dana


Helena Cain, Battlestar Galactica (2006)

Cause of death: Shot by her ex-lady-lover

helena


Manuela Wellmann, Hinter Gittern (2006)

Cause of death: Stabbed, died in girlfriend’s arms

Manu7


Maya Robertson, Hex (2006)

Cause of death: Hit by a car

Maya_Robertson


Natalie, Bad Girls (2006)

Cause of death: Bludgeoned to death with a brick

natalie


Gina Inviere/#6, Battlestar Galactica (2006)

Cause of death: Set off a nuclear weapon

gina


Eve Jacobson/Zoe McAllister, Home & Away (2006)

Cause of death: Inside a building when it was blown up

zoe


Van, Dante’s Cove (2006)

Cause of Death: Killed by the Shadows
3-nadine-heimann


Angie Morton, Stritctly Confidential (2006)

Cause of death: Suicide. Jumped off a building.

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3159 articles for us.

1,715 Comments

  1. Ruby knowby from ash vs the evil dead. In fact I think I’m their wiki she’s marked as having died twice.

    This also marks the 5th time that Lucy Lawless had died and appears on this list. Someone should tell her next time she represents to get it in her contract that her character survives the show

  2. Please take a second look at the circumstances of Kira’s death on The Magicians.

    Julia refused to kill her, as I recall. Kira’s counselor did, as a mercy killing.

    Also, it was ambiguous whether Kira was gay.

  3. [SPOILER ALERT]

    French TV show “Les Combattantes” (2022): Marguerite de Lancastel, shot on a battlefield during WWI while working as an ambulance driver and trying to rescue her wounded son.

    • [SPOILER ALERT] Of course, this is more of an “Anyone Can Die” trope, but she is the only main female character to die (the show is about four women during WWI), and the very next scene features a very straight plotline that – obviously – ends well. Sooo…

  4. CLEXA death is infuriating because it goes to show how debased sold out producers crew writers & directors have become.
    All knew plenty well about Fridging and Bury your gays tropes.
    So what do they do?
    Mix both in one slap in the face of fandom just to say:
    “See? we are in charge here.
    We re the ones calling the shots.
    Its not your call.
    We are Gods in our Olympus.
    Only White House Gods can challenge us.”
    Newsflash morons.
    Heroes can kill Gods.
    Luv & Thunder proved even mortal worshipers can become Gor Butchers.
    Your not even Gorrs let alone Gods.
    Even if u were.
    Remember what Wonder Diana did to Ares?
    Remember what Kratos did to Olympians?
    Remember what Winchester Bros did to Chuck?
    U definitively should watch competition shows to dim your hubris.
    Not to worry.
    Fandome came along in droves to remind u of wise saying:
    Hubris precedes the fall from Grace.
    Since u white relics of medieval times seem to appreciate old biblical values your supposed to heed to those sayings.
    Theyre wise cautionary tales much like sweet Jesus Paraboles.
    Then again i guess u powers that be are not much into New Testament save from Revelations & Rapture maybe.
    U re more like Old Testament & Judges type.
    Just remember that.
    If Rapture became reality fans complaininh bout your cruel misdeeds would be taken to Heavens and U re the ones who would be left behind to face the consequences of scorched hell on Earth of yer own making.
    Meditate on that before yer forced to be left dining on Ashes, literally.

  5. To the stars 2019, Maggie. She was in a relationship with the hairdresser, but… not sure she was killed. The ending isn’t clear is she dead or not ;)

  6. Is Peach from You open? She did kiss Becky and they were going to Paris before she was killed by Joe. But Becky didnt want, I guess…

  7. ***Spoilers for The Confessions of Frannie Langton***

    Frannie Langton, The Confessions of Frannie Langton (2022): Hanged
    Madame Marguerite Benham, The Confessions of Frannie Langton (2022): Opium Overdose

  8. Forgot one: Shirley MacLaine’s character in 1960’s movie she co-starred in with Audrey Hepburn, “The Children’s Hour.” She committed suicide by gun after confessing her love to Audrey H. character.

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