All 230 Dead Lesbian and Bisexual Characters On TV, And How They Died

Denise, The Walking Dead (2016)

Cause of Death: Shot in the eye with a crossbow bolt by a man while she was in the middle of a sentence

denise


Nora and Mary Louise, The Vampire Diaries (2016)

Cause of Death: Suicide. They destroyed a magic sword together to prevent Nora from being forever trapped in it, knowing that destroying the sword would kill them both. They chose death rather than having to be apart with Nora trapped in the sword.

nora-and-mary-louise-look-nice-the-vampire-diaries-s7e6


Mimi Whiteman, Empire (2016)

Cause of Death: Poisoned by her wife, who was cheating on her and wanted her to hurry up and die of cancer

mimi


Camilla, Empire (2016)

Cause of Death: Poisoned by her wife’s former business partner after poisoning her wife

camilla


Cara Thomas, Marcella (2016)

Cause of Death: Hit and then run over by a car
cara-thomas


Pamela Clayborne, Saints & Sinners (2016)

Cause of Death: Shot by an intruder who was associated with the man her husband falsely accused her of having an affair with (she was actually having an affair with a woman).

SS_Portraits_450x650_Mayor_V1


Felicity, The Catch (2016)

Cause of Death: Shot by a man she slept with after giving him information on his con artist sister, who she was also sexually involved with.

597200


Bridey, The Family (2016)

Cause of Death: Stabbed

bridey-e1457109740805


Mayfair, Blindspot (2016)

Cause of Death: Shot in the back

Blindspot - Season 1


Karen Kim, Mistresses (2016)

Cause of Death: Fell off her balcony trying to save her suicidal nanny


Root, Person of Interest (2016)

Cause of Death: Saving a man from a sniper’s bullet

root-poi


Poussey Washington, Orange is the New Black (2016)

Cause of death: Strangled by a Correctional Officer following the violent interruption of a peaceful protest of the Captain of the Correctional Officers

uhaul-poussey


Bea Smith, Wentworth (2016)

Cause of Death: Deliberately stabbed with a screwdriver in order to ensure a terrible person remained in prison. Sacrificed herself and died the tragic hero.

bea-smith


Molly Ryan, Guilt (2016)

Cause of Death: Girlfriend hired somebody to kill her rather than have to witness her being involved with somebody else.

molly-ryan-rebekah-wainwright


Roz Walters, Guilt (2016)

Cause of Death: Attacked by the roommate of her ex-lover after it was revealed that Roz had killed said ex-lover to avoid having to see her loving somebody else.

roz-walters-simona-brown-1


Sarah Harvey, Pretty Little Liars (2016)

Cause of Death: Unknown — found dead in a hotel bathtub

worst-sara


Julia, The Exorcist (2016)

Cause of Death: Car accident, directly after confessing her feelings to her friend, who was driving.

screenshot-2016-10-17-12-52-51


Helen, Masters of Sex (2016)

Cause of Death: Died in childbirth. Following her death, her parents took the baby she’d been planning to raise with her partner, Betty.
rs_560x415-140826124000-1024-sarah-silverman-ls-82614


Gina, Shut Eye (2016)

Cause of Death: Murdered off-screen

czji0amveaakzam-jpg-large


Zoë Vaughn, Scream (2016)

Cause of Death: Drowned


Susan, Van Helsing (2016)

Cause of Death: Strangled

susan-hilary-jardine


Monica Gallagher, Shameless (2016)

Cause of death: Massive cerebral hemmorrhage


Eleanor Guthrie, Black Sails (2017)

Cause of death: Stabbed to death by a Spanish solider.


Mia Rochland, Rogue (2017)

Cause of Death: Betrayed by her girlfriend, who shoots her in the back so a cop can kill her.


Bill Potts, Doctor Who (2017)

Cause of Death: Shot by a Cyberman then turned into sentient oil


Joan Ferguson, Wentworth (2017)

Cause of Death: Buried alive (hopefully)


Barbara Kean, Gotham (2017) – RESURRECTED

Cause of Death: Electrocuted, then resurrected


Jukebox, Power (2017)

Cause of Death: Gunshot


Ivy Mayfair-Richards, American Horror Story: Cult (2017)

Cause of Death: Poisoned by her wife


Renée, Slasher (2017)

Cause of Death: Run over by a snowmobile


Talvinder, Slasher (2017)

Cause of Death: Killed by her friends


Susan, Slasher (2017)

Cause of Death: Neck broken & eyes gouged out


Winter Anderson, American Horror Story: Cult (2017)

Cause of Death: Strangled by her brother for doing a thing she didn’t actually do


Bebe Babbitt, American Horror Story: Cult (2017)

Cause of Death: Shot in the back by another woman when she was about to kill the male cult leader that really needs to be killed because he is destroying lives.


Emily “A&W” Blake, Prison Break (2017)

Cause of Death: Neck broken by serial killer / rapist


Nadia Fiero, Counterpart (2018)

Cause of Death: Murdered by government agents who were going after her because her (also gay) counterpart, Baldwin, is a wanted assassin.


Karen Williams, Star (2018)

Cause of Death: Ded in a house fire after a mutual love proclamation with her girlfriend and best friend, Simone Davis. Karen was in the house at Simone’s suggestion. She was running away, and Simone offered her protection in her home.


Mason, The Arrangement (2018)

Cause of Death: On the same day that her annual lover, Deann, declares that she wants to figure out how to build a real, more-than-annual relationship with her, she dies. I’m not sure how yet because I got so upset I had to turn off the television as soon as it was confirmed that she was dead.


Kit, The Handmaid’s Tale (2018)

Cause of Death: Toxic working conditions in the colonies


Nadia, Killing Eve (2018)

Cause of Death: Murdered by her ex in prison


Anna, Killing Eve (2018)

Cause of Death: Shoots herself


Odette Johnson, The Handmaid’s Tale (2018)

Cause of Death: Killed during the war


Maureen Kukudio, Orange is the New Black (2018)

Cause of Death: Died during a prison riot, prior to which she was forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with another inmate, resulting in severe facial injuries that were infected due to inadequate medical care.


Drago, Wentworth (2018)

Cause of death: Killed in a fight club match after telling her opponent that she had killed her sister


Sarah Tan, Condor (2018)

Cause of Death: Died in the attack on the IEP’s office that killed all her colleagues.


Alisha Granderson, The Last Ship (2018)

Cause of Death: Alisha’s girlfriend turned out to be pulling a long con and soon after Alisha realized the truth, her girlfriend stabbed her in the midst of a struggle.


Bracka, The Purge (2018)

Cause of Death: Shot after entering the home of the wealthy cis straight white man she’d been paid to assassinate.

(Photo by: Patti Perret/USA Network)


Peach Salinger, You (2018)

Cause of Death: Shot by her best friend’s boyfriend who did not appreciate the competition for his attention, because he is a creepy stalker.


Lila Stanton, The Purge (2018)

Cause of Death: Stabbed by her ex-girlfriend because she was about to kill her ex-girlfriend’s husband

(Photo by: Patti Perret/USA Network)


CeCe, Grey’s Anatomy (2019)

Cause of Death: Complications due to kidney failure and congestive heart failure


Rana Habeeb, Coronation Street (2019)

Cause of Death: Roof collapse the day after her wedding


Tara, The Walking Dead (2019)

Cause of Death: Decapitated by The Whisperers

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC


Mr. Kaplan, The Blacklist (2019)

Cause of Death: Jumped off a bridge


Rose/Sin Rostro, Jane the Virgin (2019)

Cause of Death: Pushed down a building shaft by her on-again/off-again girlfriend Luisa, then impaled by a set piece and set on fire.


Arlene Branch, Claws (2019)

Cause of Death: Throat slashed by a mob boss.


Daddy, Orange is the New Black (2019)

Cause of Death: Drug overdose


Charlotte Wells, Harlots (2019)

Cause of Death: Knocked over a railing and dashed to her death


Sky Garibaldi, Grand Hotel (2019)

Cause of Death: Murdered by a co-worker to protect a secret about the rich family they both worked for.


Jade, Why Women Kill (2019)

Cause of Death: Stabbed by ex-girlfriend Taylor in self defense, shortly after Jade stabbed her ex-boyfriend, who is Taylor’s husband.


Joy Wilkes, Castle Rock (2019)

Cause of Death: Murdered by her sister


Jamilah Olsen, Black Lightning (2020)

Cause of Death: Shot to death while reporting the news.


Bel, Boca a Boca (2020)

Cause of Death: Deadly virus


Carlota Senillosa, Cable Girls (2020)

Cause of Death: Shot by National forces while attempting to distract them to protect soldiers. Assumed killed in a group with all the other Cable Girls at the series finale.


Dani, The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

Cause of Death: Claimed fully by the lady in the lake


Swanee Caps, Fargo (2020)

Cause of Death: Shot


Celia, Cursed (2020)

Cause of Death: Killed when the Abbey is burned down

celia the nun


Tina Carter, EastEnders (2020)

Cause of Death: Murdered

Tina Carter, EastEnders


Tatiana, Batwoman (2021)

Cause of Death: Stabbed to death

Tatiana from Batwoman


Nicole, Power Book III: Raising Kanan (2021)

Cause of Death: Drug overdose

Nicole from Raising Kanan looks over her shoulder.


Maya, American Horror Stories (2021)

Cause of Death: Killed as revenge by the girl she outed online

maya in american horror stories


Lemon, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021)

Cause of Death: Hit by a car (her friends are driving the car and they proceed to try to cover up her death while her twin sister assumes her identity)

Lemon "I know what you did last summer"


Hinata Murai, Invasion (2021)

Cause of Death: Spaceship explosion

Invasion astronaut Hinata Murai


Sissy Cooper, The Umbrella Academy (2022)

Cause of Death: Cancer

Sissy Cooper in The Umbrealla Academy


Mari Winters, Wentworth (2022)

Cause of Death: Stabbed with a kitchen knife

mari winters in jail in wentworth


Betsy Mallum, Dopesick (2022)

Cause of Death: Drug Overdose

Richard Sackler and Purdue work the system to prevent their drug from being reigned in, Bridget has a breakthrough in her mission, Betsy has hit rock-bottom while Finnix explores new avenues, and Rick & Randy ready their criminal case. Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever), and Diane Mallum (Mare Winningham), shown. (Photo by: Gene Page/Hulu)

(Photo by: Gene Page/Hulu)


Charly Burk, The Orville (2022)

Cause of Death: Sacrificed herself to stop a genocide against Kaylon even though she hated them

Charly in Orville


Helene, Killing Eve (2022)

Cause of Death: Throat slit

Helene in the bathtub


Vilanelle, Killing Eve (2022)

Cause of Death: Shot multiple times

Villanelle eats a Tangfastic


Riley, The Last Of Us (2023)

Cause of Death: Deadly virus that killed most of humanity

Riley in "The Last of Us"


Rashida, Swarm (2023)

Cause of Death: Strangled by her girlfriend, a serial killer

Kiersey Clemons as "rashida" in swarm

Pages: 1 2 3 4See entire article on one page


Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our A+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining A+ and supporting the people who make this indie queer media site possible?

Join A+!

Riese

Riese is the 40-year-old Co-Founder and CEO 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 California. Her work has appeared in nine books including "The Bigger the Better The Tighter The Sweater: 21 Funny Women on Beauty, Body Image & Other Hazards Of Being Female," 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. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3037 articles for us.

1,759 Comments

    • The Six in question was Gina, who worked as a network analyst on Pegasus until she was discovered to be a Cylon. And also was intimately involved with Cain.

      Can I say that I just about fainted when Michelle Forbes showed up on Orphan Black? She has One Of Those Voices, the kind that slays me every time.

    • That Six (Gina Inviere) was her lover. The beginning of their romance was shown on the movie “Battlestar Galactica, Razor”. That’s why, when her treason was discovered, she was so brutal allowing the constant rape and torture of that Six.

    • That Six, Gina, was in a relationship with Cain. It was in the episode about the Pegasus, the Razor. I don’t know if this was a special episode that wasn’t shown with the original television showings or not, though. Gaeta was in a relationship with both an Eight and Hoshi, but you wouldn’t know that unless you saw the webisodes.

      Anyway, the Razor is on BSG on Netflix.

    • Her and Gina were together when the colonies were nuked. When Cain realized that Gina was a Cylon and she had been sleeping with the enemy, she locked her up, let her be tortured and raped repeatedly. When Gina got free she shot and killed Cain. I think it’s more explained in Razor. If I’m not mistaken it was a movie that came out in between season 3 and 4 and explored two timelines, one from the start of the series meeting up with a few episodes from S2 I think.

    • There was an episode where it showed what happened to the Pegasus in the months following the Cylon attack, During this time there was in fact a ‘6’ on board referred to as Gina. Helena and Gina developed a relationship that is subtly shown…when it was discovered Gina was a cylon Helena locked her in a cell allowing her to be tortured and abused, probably out of spite, Gina is the traumatized ‘6’ that Gayus later helps, she subsequently gets freed during when there was a near mutiny and shoots Helena, This same ‘6’, Gina, goes onto get her hands on a nuke and destroys a civilian ship :D #battlestarnerd!!

    • Some of these are really reaching. I seem to recall a romantic relationship between Cain and the Six (who is also listed here) was implied, but that’s all it was.

      D’anna Biers, when did we see her being into girls? Or Snoop from The Wire? Or Claire Bennet? Is my memory really that rusty?

      • The relationship between Cain and Gina was not implied, it was a small plot line to be sure, but it was definitely there in Razor. Their relationship was used to explain why Cain became so ruthless, why she let her men do those horrible things to Gina and why Gina said what she did before she pulled the trigger.

        D’anna Biers/3 had a relationship with both Caprica Six and Baltar when Baltar was captive on the Basestar after New Caprica.

        • Was the relationship d’eanna had real with baltar or was it one of baltars hallucinations? Its been so long since ive seen the show so my memorys rusty but i dont recall that subplot in the series.

      • Regaring Claire Bennet, in the actual Heroes-show we never got an answer regarding whether she was bi/fluid or not. Gretchen kissed her, but when she later asked Claire whether she felt something Claire replied that she didn’t know. And within the Heroes show, the possibility of a romance between them were never brought up again, they just stayed roommates and close friends.

        In an eBook called “Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World” that are supposed to sum up the events between Heroes and Heroes Reborn for Claire, this is what the Heroes-wiki says about Claire and Gretchen: “On December 14, 2010, a picture of Gretchen and Claire at Arlington University appears on the cover of a magazine with the title “Indestructible Girl in Love Nest with Co-Ed”. Overwhelmed and humiliated, Gretchen sends Claire a text saying that she never wants to see her again. Claire sends her around 30 texts begging her to reply, but she does not. Claire finally gives up trying to contact Gretchen sometime in April 2011.”

        So apparantly, they actually did become a couple after Heroes the show ended, but don’t ask me why Gretchen got so angry over that becoming public, since Gretchen on the show most certainly wasn’t closeted.

        And then Claire is presumed dead in Heroes Reborn, although there were some theories that she wasn’t dead at all, but just that her father were lead to believe that she was. However, since Heroes Reborn is cancelled, those theories are obsolete by now.

    • This is broken down into 3 separate scenes.. (1) Cain has regular meetings with Gina Inviere (aka Six), a civilian contractor working for the Colonial Ministry of Defense. The two eventually become “romantically involved”. (2) Then Cain is deeply stung by Inviere’s betrayal, her feelings toward her erstwhile “lover” turned into hatred and scorn. (3) Cain returns to her quarters and is surprised to find Gina Inviere (Six) who escaped her cell,waiting for her. After a tense confrontation, Gina (Six) kills Cain with a shot to the head.

    • This is broken down into 3 separate scenes.. (1) Cain has regular meetings with Gina Inviere (aka Six), a civilian contractor working for the Colonial Ministry of Defense. The two eventually become “romantically involved”. (2) Then Cain is deeply stung by Inviere’s betrayal, her feelings toward her erstwhile “lover” turned into hatred and scorn. (3) Cain returns to her quarters and is surprised to find Gina Inviere (Six) who escaped her cell,waiting for her. After a tense confrontation, Gina (Six) kills Cain with a shot to the head.

      • Cain’s romance with a Six was in the Battlestar Galactica: Razor movie. It’s been explained in the comments a bunch of times already, if only people would backread before asking repeat questions….

    • I’ve been seen Delphine on all these lists but I *refuse* to believe she actually belongs. Spoiler alert kind of, since you’ve already been spoiled: the survivable gut-shot happens in the waning moments of the S3 finale and we have NOT seen a body or confirmed she’s dead. I am holding out hope Fawcett and Mason are having their giggle and actually subverting the trope and she survives.

    • My condolences–I was spoiled for that particular item before it happened too, and I HATE being spoiled for that show. (Though if you love the character I do think the episode is well-worth watching for her arc.)

  1. thank you for this. autostraddle and afterellen have been my fave go to sites for all things queer media and life….stuff. i felt so betrayed after reading afterellen’s recap to see them try to justify this bogus storyline of the 100 and then double down and have the show runner try to fix his mess on their site. you’re now my only source for queer content and i’d like you to know how much i cherish this site.

    i would also like to cheer the 100 fandom, their response has gotten a lot of notice and i hope that anybody hoping to write/ produce queer characters will have taken this message to heart. we are a fierce minority and we can fuck yo shit up

    • My feelings exactly.

      You know, that AE’s recap was a huge disappointment, but then they decide to add that piece of crap podcast?!!! I was raging mad. You say that there wasn’t any queerbaiting? That we should be happy because we still have Clarke? Are you kidding me?

      The only good thing about this, and the thing that made me happy, is that you couldn’t find a positive comment on that podcast.

      • all i remember thinking is, whose interests are you serving right now? the only queer people ive seen defend the show are people who benefit from being close to the show runner and such pandering to harm being committed against ones own community, i have no time for it

        • The response from the feminist internet in general other than autostraddle has been extremely disappointing.

          I couldn’t believe it when I read the AE article. I just felt so betrayed by it. The other day the mary sue also ran an article defending the shit show. Almost no major sites seem to get it.

    • Yeah, I feel you. Afterellen and autostraddle are my lesbian media guide and I always look up to it. But I’m pretty devastated that afterellen kinda try to justify it in a way. It sucks that I feel like they were holding back with what they truly feels. I don’t even know if this makes sense.

    • Xena is a lesbian icon, it is a show that pushed a lot of boundaries in TV… saying that their relationship was not canon is like ignoring 90% of the show. Specially with heavy maintext episodes like the Nordic trilogy or even the final that it’s like their big coming out party regardless of Xena’s death.

      Cast, writers and directors confirmed their relationship. It was a show that ended on 2001 and that did the best they could with the boundaries they had, they even had planned a big Musical Sappho episode with a kiss between Xena and Gabrielle that never saw the light…

      • Oh, yes, she IS a lesbian icon and I treasure the episodes you mentioned. And they hired Melissa Good as a writer, after all :) I honestly think, too, that TBTB did the best they could back tuen, but I would still consider it subtext, albeit on the heavy site of it. Perhaps “not canon” wasn’t worded very well (no native speaker here).

      • But you missed the ETA in the intro that explains she was added to the list after it was first posted.

        Which is why you see so many comments about Xena’s absence – the comments were from before she was on the list.

  2. Wow. And this is just the women. And just TV. I’m struck by the violent manner of death for so many of these characters. I really want to dig deeper here and compare this with the deaths of straight characters. I wonder if variables like ‘time after romantic revelation/encounter’ or ‘manner of death’ would further highlight the poor treatment of LGBT characters.

    • Especially since Lexa was strikingly similar to Tara – they’d both JUST had sex for the first time/first time after a break with their love interest and were hit by a bullet meant for someone else.

    • Agreed–the violence is really striking. It might be about general media violence growing along with the inclusion of bi and lesbian characters in recent years, but I think it’s mostly about cultural misogyny; TV loves to dramatize over-the-top violence against women.

      I also would love to see the timing of romantic encounters and other factors (like whether the death was primarily about the character who died, or about its effect on another queer female character, or about its effect on a straight man) charted!

  3. I was kind of hoping you’d do this, lest I had to research it all for myself and drive myself into misery, as I kind of want to build a memorial to them and then tour it round TV station headquarters like “Do you realise what the fuck you are adding to by doing this” I’ve been thinking about it since Lexa got Maclayed.
    So thanks for doing the hard work again Autostraddle.

  4. I will never, ever, ever forgive True Blood for killing Tara off BEFORE THE OPENING CREDITS of their final season and not even letting Pam mourn her death!!!

    The systematic de-gaying of that show (Tara + Killing off Queen Sophie, Naan, Nora, having Pam spend her last season searching for Eric- leaving her progeny unprotected and ultimately leading to her aforementioned untimely death) alwaaaaays bothered me.

    But, tied to their unceremonious abuse of the “bury your gays” trope, I’ll never forgive True Blood to the erosion of Lafayette over the years. Turning this wonderfully strong, vulnerable, dark and complicated, black, femme black gay man who was unlike anything seen on tv and reducing him to a sassy “gay bestie” stereotype for Sookie was heartbreaking and unwatchable.

    Lafayette and Tara were best friends and cousins and each other’s port in a storm during their abusive childhoods and complicated adulthoods. Lafayette was out for as long as we knew him, but when Tara came out at the start of season 4 and Lafayette was their to love her, accept her, and yes- tease her just a little bit- man, it was beauty.

    Given that there is a small amount of queer representation on tv, want to imagine how much smaller queer of color representation is? Want to imagine how much smaller black queer representation is?? Want to imagine how much smaller healthy depictions of black queer kinship is???????

    In a land of vampires, Tara and Lafayette were f*uckkng unicorns. What True Blood did to them was a sin.

    (Sorry, this article took me back to my rage place. Ignore me, Carry on!!)

    • Seconded. “True Blood” really did turn to shit in the last couple of series, particularly in its treatment of of queer characters/characters of colour. That final season was unwatchable.

      That said, I was startled when, after watching first series, I attempted to read the (terrible) books. I found that both Tara and Lafayette are teeny, tiny bit parts, with Lafayette basically consisting of one line of sass, a description of his nail varnish, and getting killed off by the end of book one. So in a sense, I suppose we were lucky the show runners were marginally more progressive than the author!

      I’m also glad Tosh got a look in on this list. Her death is always overshadowed by the horrible mess “Torchwood” made of killing off Ianto, the second he was in a functioning relationship. That’s another show I will never forgive.

    • I watched season 1 of true blood and loved it for the dynamic characters. I’ve been thinking about watching the rest of it, but the fact that they kill Tara really fucks me up. I don’t know if I can watch it after that…

  5. Also, thinking about Tara Thorton, Maya St Germain, and Shana Costumeshop, along with the black lesbian from “Under the Dome”, which I never watched– are there any black queer women who make it to being alive at the end of the show (or at least the end of their show arc)???

    I’m not being snarky, I’m honestly curious. I’m racking my brain and can’t think of any. Right now it feels like if you are black woman who enjoys sex with women, you’ve got a 100% death sentence…

  6. So out of 65 deaths listed here, gunshot wounds seem to be the leading cause of death among LBT women (17 total; 18 if you include Tara’s human death; 18,5 if you include Sara Lance who was shot with arrows, 19 if you include Cristina from Tierra de Lobos, who died trying to avoid being shot). Gun control people. It’s a thing.

    The second leading cause of dead is car related (3 of them intentional, 3 accidental), stab wounds take the 3rd place (5, including Nan Flanagan’s staking) and 4th leading cause of death is being bludgeoned.

    Unrealistically, no lesbian died because of over-processing or U-Hauling incidents. I call bullshit.

    • YEP YEP! They both had reoccurring arcs, which should qualify them for this list. And they were over 50/60 years old, late in life lesbians, which is rarity.

      And I was just about to congratulate Shonda on, despite her other faults, never falling into the “bury your gays” trope. :(

      • I never made the connection at the time with Private Practice but looking at it now, holy shit. And trying to think if Shondaland has done this in any other place….I have a sick feeling that Oliver might get killed off on HTGAWM but I feel like Callie and Arizona will always remain living. That was the strangest few sentences I have ever written.

        • I tend to give Shonda a liiiiittle more leeway because it feels like she at least kills off straight and queer characters at roughly the same pace, overall (what even? you know you’re talking about soap operas when…)

          That said, Private Practice is my least favorite Shonda show (except for Off the Map) – it felt so obnoxiously straight sometimes and often Political Issue of the week which was kinda cool and kind of annoying.

          Also, I always wanted Addison to be a lesbian. I loved Kate Walsh so much and she got so watered down on PP as opposed to Grey’s where she was this great mix of ice queen and person I’d want to be besties with and also make-out with.

          • The one thing I did really love about PP was Amy…she will forever be my favourite Shonda character and I really, really wish with all my heart that she will discover she is bisexual

    • Really feel this comment. I was so thrilled and honestly shocked by the lesbian couple making it out alive on that show. The lesbians so rarely survive, let alone a couple!

      As for explaining S3, I wish I could. It took me three watches of the first half of S3 before I felt like I was following anything and I’m still not sure I actually understand it. Good luck!

  7. For Hex, you’ve mish-mashed both of the murdered lesbians – the picture and cause of death is for Thelma Bates, who dies in the first episode.

    Maya Robertson is hit by a vehicle and killed later on in the series.

  8. Also, in Brookside there was another lesbian death: Shelley started out as a perfectly reasonable character that started going out with Lindsay Corkhill (one of the main characters). Shelley duly went batshit crazy, tried to instigate a weird love triangle with Lindsay’s mum, then started a fire in which she died.

    I will attempt to find evidence of this beyond my own infallible lesbian death memory.

    • I am starting to suspect that my lesbian death memory may be fallible after all, because I can’t find any evidence that Shelley actually died! (she deffo had a total personality transplant to psycho-dom though).

      I may have to re-evaluate everything about my own cognitive functions, and life itself.

        • Thank you Riese, that provides me with some comfort, as I feared I was to become the first lesbian to die from futile googling.

          I finally tracked down Shelley’s last appearance, and she left in a taxi, not a hearse. I am going to embark on a long period of personal reflection over this mistake.

          Some mitigating circumstances: it was 15 years ago, Brookside had a lot of fires, and I had a lot of alcohol.

  9. Oh no, now I know that Charlie in Home & Away died. I only watched the Joey & Charlie parts until Joey ran away after Charlie cheated on her with a guy (if I remember correctly). My headcanon of course was that they found each other again and were happy ever after. Damn it.

    • yeah I had no idea…unless I actually do remember 0_0…the thing with home and away is once you get reminded of one thing it all comes flooding back

      really it was joey “running off on a boat” that “killed” the lesbian storyline (or the attempt at one) if I recall charlie never actually seemed all that into the whole thing (or if she was she was really really angsty about it) I’m actually surprised they didn’t kill Joey since that would have been more in line with the running theme here

      Charlie died well and truly after her “lesbian phase” was buried..its a shame because Charlie was the one and only home and away character I actually liked

      • Now I remember the “running off on a boat” too, what a sad scene. At least Joey didn’t die, you’re right. The pulled a “lesbian disappears in the parking lot” (stems from Erica leaving Grey’s Anatomy I think).
        In my opinion Charlie was just really angsty about being with a woman and in the end her fear killed the relationship. Somehow I liked their storyline anyway (up until the cheating), it was kinda sweet and touching.

        • joey was also really cute :/

          I think they canned it because of the controversy at the time? I mean you can’t really expect much from something like Home and Away but from what I remember it was a bit of a “how not to write a gay story-line”

          like characters making joeys gayness “a thing” and Charlie being so angsty over it it was almost as if it wasn’t fully consensual. That said though it would be interesting to watch again with the perspective I have now as opposed to how I felt at the time (I would have been in highschool and very homophobic/closeted)

  10. If Xena doesn’t get included on the list then Isabelle Hartley and Victoria Hand shouldn’t be on the list. At least Xena had subtext. Despite them being queer in the comics, they were not openly queer in Agents of SHIELD.

  11. Pedantic infighting about whether or not Xena was a canonical lesbian is like having a slap fight about whether or not a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable while locusts swarm around and try to destroy all the produce. WE’RE FIGHTING THE LOCUSTS.

  12. ALSO thank you so much for putting this together. A friend and I were talking about LGBT FANS DESERVE BETTER and they were all “but it’s getting better…!” and nope nope NOPE it’s just getting worse.

      • I feel like the point might be that their sexuality gets them killed, and the emphasis with Lucy on the show is definitely on her feelings for Mina. They didn’t have to make her bisexual, but they did, and she was killed.

  13. 76? Oh lawd give me strength not to try to write Killed Off Queer Ladies cover of an annoying stage musical song that’s a con man’s pitch to swindle a town.

    I came here to say Charlie is not just a Dead Lesbian she’s also an example of what I call Murdocking. Killing off a perfectly sweet nice character that happens to be in the life of white male hero character simply to up the Angst-o-Meter, not to develop the story.
    He’s not deep in the man pain and you worry the actual plot is just too slow for our tiny minds? Kill someone nice. He’ll be sad, we’ll sad it’s all good now.

    No, no it is not because we see you and your lazy writing. We see it.

      • No.
        Fridging is for love interests and people very close to the hero and requires a certain degree of brutality and intent by the villainous forces in the hero’s life. Also leads to much angsted revenge plot

        Murdocking is friends, associated, periphery and for angst that just adds to man pain and no plot. Even a dumb over done revenge plot.

          • Charlie from Supernatural

            Cause of the character Matt Murdock.

            Because people nice or sweet in his periphery get killed off or something to make him sad an awful lot.
            Plenty of fridging too, but dude is constantly being given the sads by stuff happening to people around him.

      • **FUCKED UP WARNING**
        ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

        It was Alexandra DeWitt girlfriend of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. She was killed by the villain Major Force and her body forcibly crammed into the fridge of their shared domicile for Kyle to find.

        It was just one example in a trend at the time of brutalising female secondary characters for shock value, sexual exploitation and to create a revenge plot for a male primary character.
        In couple cases exploitatively brutalising a female main character for an “emotional impactful and brave” arc that would be forgotten and not touch upon ever again.

    • I totally agree. I’m so pissed at the show for sacrificing Charlie on the altar of Dean’s angst.

      Also, I really thought they would not kill her as she’s the only recurring female character the fans didn’t hate. Her lesbianism being a big reason. She did not pose a threat to the Winchester brothers threesome playing out in their minds.

      So mad at TPTB for killing my Charlie!

  14. Man, this is painful to see. Also I’ve been watching Hemlock Grove (only finished the first season so far) and in the first episode a girl gets killed by a beast and near the end there’s this woman(forgot her name) who died after being skinned alive, both were lesbians I believe.

  15. Man, this is painful to see. Also I’ve been watching Hemlock Grove (only finished the first season so far) and in the first episode a girl gets killed by a beast and near the end there’s this woman(forgot her name) who died after being skinned alive, both were lesbians.

  16. It’s distressing to see how many got killed by jealous men.

    On another note, they’ve had gay people on Home & Away!? This would be awesome news if I hadn’t found out whilst reading one of them died!

  17. …is it bad to say I don’t believe Delphine Cormier is dead? The showrunner teased in a Comiccon about someone being able to survive being shot through their liver if they got medical attention…

      • Showrunner interview:

        Variety: “Can you definitively confirm that Delphine is dead, or is there still hope?

        Fawcett: I would love to say yes or no, but this is “Orphan Black” and I don’t want to say one way or the other … We wanted to leave it in a hanging cliffhanger, so is she dead? Is she alive? I want the audience asking those questions.”

  18. Would be worth it to mention Nadia Petrova from The Vampire Diaries (2014, death by werewolf venom) as it is an other prominent CW show and was shown having sex with an other woman and a man early in the season. Earlier on there was also Isobel Flemming (2011) played by Mia Kirshner more subtly hinted as bi (she was shown having compelled a male and female stripper, the latter of which was shown with bite marks on her thighs) and she committed suicide by exposing herself to sunlight.

      • from what i’ve heard she only had sex with rebekah in order to rob her? is there any other evidence of her queerness? sorry to be a stickler! it’s just that the value of the list dilutes if we include everybody who has kissed a girl even if they aren’t considered a queer/bi/lez character by the showrunners.

        • Well one could argue she was sleeping with both Matt and Rebekah for it, but in that case she wouldn’t have needed to interact with Rebekah at all in the capacity she did. The scene focused on Rebekah and Nadia as opposed to focusing on Matt. I’m not sure it dilutes the list – it only underlines the point of how narrow and limited our representation is, and how most of the time it ends in shock/tragedy (when it doesn’t go with the whole ‘bi girl redeems herself by getting with a guy’ route). I also feel personally it’s quite relevant given the CW’s particular body count in this mess.

      • HAHAHA the first gif oh my god… the smugness and the way she checks her out. Thanks for finding those I couldn’t remember the exact episodes featuring Isobel’s gay… Nadia’s is obviously fresher in my mind. They have the petrova fire (and gay). Also is it me or does Mia Kirshner have a really specific niche/typecast? She’s basically typecast as the queer girl who dies.

  19. I REMEMBERED ANOTHER ONE !

    In At Home with the Braithwaites, Megan, the married woman who lived next door had an affair with Virginia, eldest daughter of the main family and generally excellent TV lesbian. I seem to recall they had a Bollywood-themed wedding ceremony (before gay marriage was legal) before spiralling into gin-soaked post-nuptial hell and eventual breakup. Shortly aftwards Megan is accidentally electrocuted in the bath when some appliance (maybe a TV?) falls in the water!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Home_with_the_Braithwaites#Megan_Hartnoll

  20. Lillian was a recurring character in the Canadian show Murdoch Mysteries and was shot dead early this season by the husband of her ex-lover.

    Dixie’s recurring lover Karen died after a head injury in the UK show Casualty.

    This list is nowhere complete and there’s plenty of characters missing.

  21. Wow, that’s a long list.

    Since last week’s The 100, I have been thinking about queer female characters that died on German TV shows. I came up with these:

    – Sonia Besirsky, Lindenstraße (1998): drug overdose, probably killed by the husband of her former lover

    – Hanna Novak, Verbotene Liebe (2004): dies from a stroke in the arms of her girlfriend Carla von Lahnstein

    – Franzi Reuter, Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (2008): dies in a gas explosion

    At the moment, there are barely any queer female characters on German TV shows, but at least there haven’t been any casualties lately.

  22. Seeing Agents Hand and Hartley from SHIELD on this list is bitterly ironic, cause the showrunners specifically said that one of the reasons they erased both character’s queer sexualities from the show is because they didn’t want to become known as the show with two dead lesbians. Yeah, fuck that show.

    I’m also wondering how many of these characters were killed because the actresses who portrayed them got better jobs and the showrunners basically went “welp!” (Lip Service, The 100, etc)

  23. Given that more than half of the entries on this list were in last five years, could be reasonably argued that lesbian and bisexual characters aren’t necessary dying with greater frequency, but than we just have more openly gay and bisexual character on TV in general. While it still possible that percentage wise they may be more likely than (presumably) strait to be treated as expendable, it stand to reason that the more of you truly exist in fiction-the more of you are bound to die in fiction too.
    So maybe in morbid way…this could be consider a partial sign of progress over time? That doesn’t give writers on automatic out for killing a popular charter of course or even a poorly written killing of an unpopular character. It’s just hard to say now if gay and bi characters are still more likely to bit a bad end than strait ones. Especially since the growth of networks have made the number of reoccurring characters so much larger, even while most of them are still written as straight.

    • As you seem confident enough to cast aspersions on the shared experience of a group of 200+ commenters that say the exact opposite, you shouldn’t have any problems providing 90+ examples of living/happy queer women in TV. Annnnd Go:

      • I’m not prejudging the experience of anyone else. At not point did I mention any other commentators. All I did was offer a speculative question as to what these figures might tell us about how much visibility has gotten better or worse over time. Although I do notice there should been a question mark at the end my first sentence, so maybe there is some confusion there.

          • Also, I’m not actually trying to be aggressive. If you really do know better than most here, a list showing proof of your theory would be very much welcomed right now.

            So if you can provide a list, please do.

          • I honestly don’t what I wrote that led you to think I want to be consider “the only voice of reason and logic,” I’m not so delusional that I would consider myself the final voice on anything. I have no theory. It was all speculation about things good and bad.

            There are far more gay and bi character on TV now than there were ten twenty etc. years ago. Along with a long of other groups are still marginalized and stereotyped. In shows where a lot of characters are bound to die anyone (crime and horror) in-particular, there are bound to be more cases where at least some of these characters are gay.

            I never said that number of gay and bi character dying WEREN’T disproportionally high. I said maybe percentage wide they gotten higher or maybe they’ve gotten lower and admitted it’s hard to tell. That’s why I said that the…”growth of networks have made the number of reoccurring characters so much larger, even while most of them are still written as straight.”

        • FYI I agree that there should be more stories with gay/bi/trans characters in leading roles living to the end of a series and more same-sex couples with happy endings. However, as Riese pointed out not ever death listed here can be considered wholly on called for. The most offensive about the Bury the Gays trope is that the gay characters are treated as “expendable,” with deaths occurring for gratuitous reasons. I’d be very interest to know how many of these characters (if any) could be said to have died heroically.

          • Again with the extraneous explanations. We know all of this already.

            I am past the point of caring why they die, I just care that they keep dying.

    • I actually wouldn’t necessarily say that lesbian and bisexual and queer characters are dying at a greater frequency than they have been in the past. I think the ratio of lgbtq characters killed to lgbtq characters that exist has remained the same over time… and that ratio has always been way too damn high! it’s uncanny.

      • I suppose this question could apply to change or lack of change for in the portrayal of characters who make up any minority – but do you think this is mainly due to linger prejudice or simple laziness?

    • To be fair to Mike, this occurred to me (a lesbian who is thoroughly frustrated on a personal level by All The Dead WLW) too – not a working theory or an opposition, just a pondering. I wondered whether the % of WLW character dying had remained the same but the number increased because there’s more of us on telly. I wondered whether the % might even have gone DOWN but there’d been a real terms increase because of improved representation. I also wondered if, with the increased representation, the % might even have gone UP due to the fact that yes, writers are inserting more WLW, but then they haven’t a clue what to DO with them, particularly once they’re happily loved-up, and they’re actually now even more disproportionately likely to kill them.

      All of these things occurred to me. Mike could’ve phrased his comment more carefully given his position as a dude in lezspace, but reading over it I don’t think he meant to be a voice of authority. He was just struck by a thought that I know I’ve been wondering about, on and off, since this article was published. I don’t have any answers either but I don’t think the question is offensive in and of itself…

      (PS: I am usually the one crucifying mansplainers; I stg)