People die. Characters die. This is perhaps life’s most unfortunate fact: that people will die and leave the rest of us behind. It’s incredibly rare that any dramatic television series lasting over three seasons will never kill a main or recurring character, and all those deaths have driven a stake through the heart of fandom: Joyce on Buffy, Lady Sybil on Downton Abby, Charlie on Lost, Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, Jen on Dawson’s Creek, Nate on Six Feet Under — but when the person who dies is a lesbian or bisexual character, queer fandom takes it pretty hard.
The history of lesbian representation on television is rocky — in the beginning, we seemed exclusively relegated to roles that saw us getting killed/attacked or doing the killing/attacking. And until the last five or so years, lesbian and bisexual characters seemed entirely unable to date an actual woman or stay alive for more than three episodes, let alone an entire run, of a show. Gay and lesbian characters are so often murdered on television that we have our very own trope: Bury Your Gays. We comprise such a teeny-tiny fraction of characters on television to begin with that killing us off so haphazardly feels especially cruel.
Not every death listed below was wholly uncalled for. In many genres, like soap operas and shows about vampires, zombies, criminals, or games of thrones, characters are killed on the reg. That’s a different trope — Anyone Can Die. Furthermore, shows composed entirely of queer characters will inevitably kill one. But regardless, they still add to the body count weighing down our history of misrepresentation.
And, due to the recent untimely death of Lexa on The 100, this week seemed like a good one to count down everybody we have lost over the years.
This list contains every television death of an OPENLY lesbian or bisexual or queer female character on a television show. With a handful of exceptions, these are all characters who appeared for more than one episode. The exceptions were deemed exceptional because something about the characterization still fits in with the Bury Your Gays trope. Victims-of-the-week from crime procedurals (Law & Order, Cold Case, CSI, Criminal Minds or older shows) or patients-of-the-week from hospital dramas (Chicago Hope, E.R.), aren’t on this list, as that is an entirely different kind of list, but recurring characters from those shows are on this list. Nor is subtext on this list, because we’re not gonna give Xena showrunners Queer Character Credit for a character they refused to make openly queer when she was really so obviously queer. You know? [ETA: Okay, I’ve added Xena after doing further research and because if one more commenter takes up space on this thread — a thread I’m using to find more characters to add, and also to engage with thoughtful/funny readers who have opinions and feelings — to tell me that I “forgot” Xena without reading this introduction, I will become the 200th dead lesbian and the cause of death will be “Walked off a cliff with a commenter in her arms. Murder-suicide.” But Xena will be the one and only inclusion based on subtext.] Also, although I’ve done tons of research, I haven’t personally seen all of these shows, so mistakes may very well exist, and feel free to politely inform me of them in the comments, or tell me about characters I may have missed — it’s especially helpful if you can tell me the cause of death and the year.
Unsure if this needs to be said but… SPOILER ALERT.
Special thanks to the LezWatchTV Database for providing info on shows I haven’t seen or heard about directly!
Every Regular or Recurring Lesbian or Bisexual Female Character Killed On Television
Julie, Executive Suite (1976)
Cause of death: Hit by a car. Her love interest had just walked into traffic after realizing her lesbianism and Julie was chasing her.
Franky Doyle, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)
Cause of death: Shot by a police officer after escaping from prison
Sharon Gilmour, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)
Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by a corrections officer
Karen O’Malley, Casualty (1987)
Cause of death: Head Injury
Cecília, Vale Tudo (1988)
Cause of death: Car Accident
Cicely, Northern Exposure (1992)
Cause of death: Shot by a gunman employed by the town’s evil overlord who doesn’t want to let the lesbians change his town. The shot was intended for her girlfriend Roslyn, but Cicely, who was already sick, blocked the bullet and died in Roslyn’s arms, thus magically healing the town’s long-simmering feuds and leading them to re-name the town “Cicely.”
Talia Winters, Babylon 5 (1995)
Cause of death: Activated a sleeper personality that wiped out her actual personality, effectively killing her
Beth Jordache, Brookside (1995)
Cause of death: Genetic heart condition, died in prison
Susan Ross, Seinfeld (1996)
Cause of death: Toxic envelope glue
Naomi “Tracy” Richards, Band of Gold (1996)
Cause of death: Stabbed herself
Lucy, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996)
Cause of death: Caught thieving and hanged
Kathy, NYPD Blue (1997)
Cause of death: Shot by a hit man hired by her girlfriend Abby’s ex, who wanted to get rid of Kathy so she could get back together with Abby. Abby was pregnant at the time.
Sondra Westwood, Pacific Drive (1997)
Cause of death: Murdered by a serial killer
Jadzia Dax, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998)
Cause of death: Blasted by an alien-possessed alien
Sonia Besirky, Lindenstraße (1998)
Cause of death: Drug overdose from medication given to her by her ex-lover’s husband
Leila and Rafaela, Torre de Babel (1998)
Cause of death: Explosion in a shopping mall
Susanne Teubner, Hinter Gittern (1999)
Cause of death: Shot during a bank robbery (she was a customer)
Shaz Wiley, Bad Girls (2000)
Cause of death: Bomb, died in resulting fire
Laura Hall, Shortland Street (2000)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Diamond, Dark Angel (2001)
Cause of death: Used as a lab rat for research that killed her
Xena, Xena the Warrior Princess (2001)
Cause of death: Beheaded
Beate “Bea” Hansen, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of death: Injuries from an explosion
Jule Neumann, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of death: Suicide
Frankie Stone, All My Children (2001)
Cause of death: Murder Mystery!
Bridgit, 24 (2001)
Cause of death: Shot by a man in front of her girlfriend
Tara Maclay, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002)
Cause of death: Shot in the heart by a stray bullet
Kelly Hurst, Family Affairs (2002)
Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by her lover’s husband
Megan Hartnoll, At Home With The Braithwaites (2003)
Cause of death: Electrocuted in the bathtub
Juliet Becker, The Bill (2003)
Cause of death: Stabbed
Tina Greer, Smallville (2003)
Cause of death: Impaled through the chest on a large piece of wood during a fight with a male character
Sandy Lopez, E.R. (2004)
Cause of death: Injuries sustained from fighting a fire in an abandoned warehouse
Al Mackenzie, Bad Girls (2004)
Cause of death: Poisoned
Hanna Novak, Verbotene Liebe (2004)
Cause of death: Stroke, died in her girlfriend’s arms
Ines Führbringer, Hinter Gittern (2004)
Cause of death: Throat slit, died in girlfriend’s arms
Thelma Bates, Hex (2004)
Cause of death: Murdered by a demon
Flora, Deadwood (2004)
Cause of death: Beaten by a man who then forced a woman to shoot her with his gun
Brenda Castillo, Charmed (2004)
Cause of death: Stabbed with a cursed blade by a man, causing her to rapidly age and then die
Tosha, The Wire (2004)
Cause of death: Shot during a heist gone wrong
Marissa Cooper, The O.C. (2005)
Cause of death: Car crash after being driven off the road by her drunk ex-boyfriend
Servilla, Rome (2005)
Cause of death: Stabs herself in front of her rival house, inhabited by the mother of her lover
Dusty, Queer As Folk (2005)
Cause of death: At a benefit at a gay club when a bomb went off
Dana Fairbanks, The L Word (2006)
Cause of death: Breast cancer
Helena Cain, Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Cause of death: Shot by her ex-lady-lover
Manuela Wellmann, Hinter Gittern (2006)
Cause of death: Stabbed, died in girlfriend’s arms
Maya Robertson, Hex (2006)
Cause of death: Hit by a car
Natalie, Bad Girls (2006)
Cause of death: Bludgeoned to death with a brick
Gina Inviere/#6, Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Cause of death: Set off a nuclear weapon
Eve Jacobson/Zoe McAllister, Home & Away (2006)
Cause of death: Inside a building when it was blown up
Van, Dante’s Cove (2006)
Cause of Death: Killed by the Shadows
Angie Morton, Stritctly Confidential (2006)
Cause of death: Suicide. Jumped off a building.
Pages: 1 2 3 4See entire article on one page
Zora from The Shannara Chronicles – Eretria’s ex, had her throat slashed (the circumstances were really unclear to me in the show, perhaps someone could elaborate??)
Actually, Charlie Bradbury (Supernatural) was not only stabbed, but by a neo-nazi, who dumped her body in a bathtub.They Kill her off for shock effect AND they did it in the most tasteless way ever!
Awww man that I think that maybe upgrades her death from a simple case of Murdocking to actual Fridging by tasteless shock value points.
This list completely missed Xena of Xena: Warrior Princess (Dies at the hands of an army, attempting to save 30,000 souls).
I know a lot of people claim she and Gabrielle were lesbians, but that completely overlooks the MANY men both women loved throughout the whole series.
They were both very much bisexual characters. They weren’t faking their love for those men, and they weren’t faking their love for each other. Xena was bisexual, Gabrielle was bisexual. At the end of the series, Xena dies.
From the introductory paragraphs:
It wasn’t just her relationship with Gabrielle which they fully confirmed only after show has ended, but with other women too. Her most influental relationships were with women. Xena said Akemi broke her heart, Xena’s whole life changed after she watched M’Lila die and Lao Ma taught her love. So Xena belong to lesbians or bi.
Ana and Teresa from Amar en Tiempos Revueltos (2014) The couple had left the show together and happy in 2012 and they killed them offscreen in a fire just to give Hector, Teresa’s ex-husband who was still on the show, a plot.
Did they kill both of them? I thought only Ana and their son had died. That was really messed up.
all i can find online is that they faked their death so they could stay together? was that something that happened earlier and then they died in a fire later? (i would’ve just gone by that you said in your comment but b/c of zookie’s i wanted to double-check i had all the info right, and now i’m confused!)
Don’t know if anyone has commented this before but from what I could see “Lost and Delirious” was not on the list. Pauli Oster (played by Piper Perabo) committed suicide (jumped off the school’s roof) because her girlfriend didn’t want anyone to know they were together (they had broken up because of that and Pauli was unsuccessful in winning her back).
IT’S A MOVIE
THS IS A LIST OF TV SHOWS
jesus fucking christ
Shut up! We don’t know Delphine is dead yet! *ugly sobbing*
More dead lesbians:
Ivy, “Poison Ivy” (Drew Barrimore) 1992
Pushed off a balcony by her lover’s daughter and lover
Chloe, “Chloe” (Amanda Seyfried) 2009
Pushed out a window by her lover
this is just a list of characters who have died on TV, not in movies
thank you hailey
Plus (Warning Spoiler) in the case of Chloe there is sum suggestion that the character only existed in the imagination of her Julian Moore’s character, so it’s kind of iffy.
THOSE ARE BOTH MOVIES
THIS IS A LIST OF TV SHOWS
IT’S IN THE HEADLINE
if movies were on this list it would have 200 entries
Heck the number of vampires with lesbian tendencies who die in movies would probably be an impressive sum alone!
Laura Hall from Shortland Street in 2000
Died of a heart attack soon after her lover left her, became pregnant to, and ran away with her ex-boyfriend.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shortland_Street_characters_(1999)#Laura_Hall
Thank you, added!
Just a quick note. The picture you have there is the actress Laura Hill who plays Toni Warner who is straight.
Dr Lauren Hall (played by Larissa Matheson) is the one you’re after. :)
i fixed it!
For some reason I thought Laura killed herself, but nope, just a regular old heart attack. Times were also pretty bleak when she was alive, according to Wikipedia:
‘Caroline started to date Alan Dubrovsky (Malcolm Murray) and the two soon got engaged. However Caroline soon realized she was in love with bridesmaid Laura (Larissa Matheson) and dumped Al for Laura. The two dated for several months until Caroline fell back into the arms of Greg, who impregnated her and drove her off into the sunset.’
O_0
This was really fucking heartbreaking. :(
Here’s a twist: a man who is attempting to murder his bisexual ex-girlfriend dies instead; bisexual ex-girlfriend walks off into the sunset (alive) with her (living) girlfriend.
Which is almost the plot of “Bound”
Leslie Shay was my first lesbian TV death. I cried. I never cry at TV/Movies/Books but tears of rage ran down my face that night.
I have another one: Naomi “Tracy” Richards (played by Samantha Morton) in the UK show Band of Gold(1996) .
She stabbed herself to death and was found by her gf (played by none other than Lena Headey). Their story was a big part of season 2.
Come to think of it. This relationship is probably one of the very first f/f relationship on tv, even before Tara & Willow. Although it was not a very healthy one and both characters were damaged and violent, there was also something sweet in their connexion; they were each other’s saving grace (before the tragic demise of one of them at least).
Good shout – I loved their storyline in season 2 (although I have a feeling that maybe Samantha Morton’s character slit her wrists in bed rather than a stabbing per se?), because the whole of Band of Gold was really a rough ride for everyone. I seem to recall that in season 3 there was a significant storyline with a trans woman of colour, who also ended up dead, and my mum was really upset because the character was so sweet. That’s for a whole other list though…
Also, thank you for using the spelling variant “connexion,” it made me briefly feel like we were in a 19th century novel.
Thank you, thank you. It was an amazing show.
It took my all this time to find them, but I can’t believe my Band of Gold’s VHS still works after 20 years. Convertion to DVD begins.
About Lucretia – it’s Spartacus: Vengeance and it wasn’t Lucretia’s baby, it was Ilithyia’s. Saxa from Spartacus (Vengeance and War of the Damned) should also be on here (stabbed with sword in battle by unknown killer).
Does Servilia from ‘Rome’ counts? She did have relationship with the woman and died….
I have an idea for another list and another twitter campaign: #WaysNotToKillLesbians (or #WaysNotToKillLexa, or #WaysNotToBuryYourGays).
There is a big discussion right now about how many lesbian and bisexual characters die (often unnecessarily), and how exactly they are killed off.
I think it would be great if there was also a big discussion, or a list, or a campaign, suggesting all the ways we can think of in which those characters can be written off, if necessary, or involved in some serious dramatic plot development WITHOUT KILLING THEM OFF.
We could list actual examples of characters who were removed from shows, temporarily or permanently (when the actor had to leave, for example) without dying. When David Duchovny took a break from “X-files”, did the creators kill Fox Mulder? No, they introduced the abducted-by-aliens storyline. When “Star Trek: TNG” removed Wesley Crusher, they also did not kill him, they made him start an exciting journey to another part of the Universe. But, yeah, those are straight male characters. Some secretly or openly lesbian/bisexual shows have also managed to remove some female (bi, gay or otherwise) characters without killing them. When “Xena” wrote off Eve, it was via her insisting that she should go on a spiritual quest, and go alone in order to find herself. When “The L-word” removed Carmen from the series, they didn’t kill her, they simply made her move after the break-up.
I don’t watch “The 100”, so I don’t know how this particular character could be written off without dying. Some of the creators insist that it could not. So, it would be great if someone made an article, or a twitter campaign listing all the ways it could be done, which would not only prove them wrong, but also create a pool of ideas that other showrunners could use for their future characters (unfortunately, I am not on Twitter for personal reasons, but I’ll just leave this idea here in case anyone else likes it).
So, go #WaysNotToKillGays!
P.S. Unless, of course, such campaign or list already exist, and I just don’t know about it.
P.P.S. Thank you, Riese, for the article. It really made me think and even comment, which is rare.
Erica Hahn wasn’t killed she just walked off in the parking lot of no returns !
For a show that kills so many of its characters its pretty fucking amazing that Greys Anatomy hasn’t killed a single lesbian / bisexual woman ! woooh
Not to say that they haven’t tried pretty damn hard (see: Callie and Arizona). Then again, just being on the show actively triples your risk of dying in a random and unusual way, so it’s more of a “how high can we make the body count before people complain?” trope than a “bury the gay” trope.
Leila and Rafaela “Torre de Babel” (1998) Brazilian telenovela. They both got killed in a explosion of a mall.
Xena wasn’t queerbaiting. The only thing Xena/Gabrielle didn’t do was sleep together on screen.
Absolutely correct in my opinion. The producers of the show were threatened by cancellation if they portrayed X and G as lovers. They took a brave stance and super-subtexted the show!
I have never been so affected by a pointless and heartless tv show “death” as X:WP and the decision to thereby leave G abandoned by her not returning to yet one more death. I still refuse to watch the last two eps of that series because X:WP is not dead and she and G are together “for all eternity” just as the entire series depicted as a main premise in the show.
In the UK soap Doctors there’s been two deaths. Freya died in a fire and a recurring love interest Catriona killed herself after being attacked in a hate crime.
added!
Cecília and Laís – “Vale Tudo” 1988 Brazilian telenovela. Cecília dies in a car accident. I think it was the first lesbian couple of Brazilian TV and, of course, killed.
There’s also a german telenovela called ‘Unter uns’ with a bisexual police woman – who of course died (in 2012) because she was accidentally mistaken and was hit with a metal bar.
welp…guess I won’t be getting around to reading the expanse series
which is a shame because its always a pleasant surprise to see a character is actually bi/lesbian
Obviously you know what you can handle but I still really recommend reading it. There are a lot of queer characters in the books and while some do die (the books have a pretty hefty death count at some points) many/most don’t so none of the deaths have felt at all ‘bury your gays’ to me.
Not to get you upset, but don’t dismiss the entire series because of Julie Mao. There are other lesbian characters in about book 4. and I’m not done with book four yet, but they canonically have a child together and the only reason they’ve separated so far is so that their infant daughter can go to earth before it becomes to late for her to be able to be there.
Julie isnt even gay in the books, or pan, they dont discuss her sexuality at all. Her dating profile was created to lure a very specific clientele for her own opa reasons.
There is a happy lesbian couple in book 3 who have a child together and neither die. Their love isnt tarnished or lessened and their love keeps the main character alive and motivated in her darkest times.
In book four there are many gay characters that are married and yes some die but a fuck ton of people die in book 4, literally everyone is fucked in that book.
I think the expanse does a great job of portraying homosexuality as it is, a fucking normal aspect of life that doesnt deter from how badass a character can be. Having an lgbt heroine who kinda saves the day in book 3 was so refreshing.Dont discredit the expanse!!!!
I actually think the way you’ve disregarded Xena is pretty ignorant. The showrunners were not to blame for the subtext; they were forced to keep it at that level because the studio explicitly gave them a “no gay” warning. In fact, if anything, the showrunners and the cast should be praised for putting as much subtext in as they did – basically going against the studio and running the risk of being cancelled because of it. And when they did get cancelled? They went all-out. They pushed it as far as they could. It wasn’t subtext anymore.
Xena meant just as much as any of the characters listed above – if not more so in a lot of cases – to many people. I’m wondering now if you even watched the show, or know anything about it: otherwise, you would already know everything I’ve just said.
Equally, it’s irresponsible for you to say queerbaiting isn’t included in the list – the reason you dismissed Xena, which I do not believe was queerbaiting – and then include Lexa. Lexa’s relationship with Clarke was most definitely queerbaiting because fans were more or less promised everything would be okay; that the couple would thrive, that the show would be different. Obviously that wasn’t the case.
I think you aim to make a good and valid point with this article, but boy have you done it poorly with these examples. Dismissing Xena – an icon that still matters to many people and that many people do not see as queerbaiting, and also putting invalid blame on the showrunners – and including Lexa – an example that was both queerbaiting and a fault of the showrunners. Very irresponsible and unfair. If anything, it just makes you look biased.
I think you’re missing the definition of queerbaiting used here. All the characters I recognised on the list were 100% confirmed lesbian or bisexual. While I won’t deny knowing little about Xena (Young Hercules was my jam after all), I imagine that the view in this case was similar to Destiel, the show runners keep playing it and dangling it in front of viewers to keep them watching. Where as the Alex’s scenario was more like…randomly killing off Booth or Brennan from Bones, or …I can’t actually think of another straight couple off the ti
I accidentally hit done while writing my above reply because I’m working on my phone. Sorry! So as I was saying, I’m actually having a hard time thinking of straight couples off the top of my head. But yeah, my point is, queerbaiting is open to interpretation, see: Destiel, where as the people listed were confirmed to be in relationships and their outcome doesn’t depend on the promises of the writers and producers.
i don’t know why y’all think that the meaner and more condescending and disrespectful to me you are about not including Xena, the more likely I am to include it. you could’ve made your point a lot more kindly.
I’m going to add her because of research I did last night to change my mind after reading literally the TWO commenters on this entire thread who have managed to talk about Xena without being total jerks, but seriously. “Biased”? Against what? Warrior Princesses?
Riese, you are a treasure. This is an excellent reply.
thank you <3
In defense of the Xena fans, the part where you wrote, “…we’re not gonna give Xena showrunners Queer Character Credit for a character they refused to make openly queer…” (before the ETA) felt very dismissive of a character and show that meant a great deal to a lot of queer women and paved the way for more openly queer female characters. I, personally felt a little combative after reading it, so I think that’s why a lot of the comments came off as asshole-ish. (I was ok with Xena being left off because while I accept her queerness as canon, I do not accept her death. Xena ALWAYS finds a way back from death.)
That being said, the fact that you chose to listen to your audience even when they were expressing themselves in a more hostile manner shows that you really do care about this subject matter, and you have a lot of class. I really appreciate you making this whole list to begin with and continuing to expand it. Thank you.
Y’know I almost never comment, but I have to say that it’s pretty obvious that Riese worked her butt off to create this list. I mean the least y’all could do is, um, say thank you?? Instead we get a smackdown about who’s on the list and who’s not – which totally misses the point!
For those of you who managed to miss yet another brilliant metaphor from the brain of Heather Hogan, above, the whole point here is that lesbians and bi women are more visible than ever – but the characters who represent us on the teevee are still getting killed off at ridiculous rates! All the time! In horrible violent ways, no less! Yippee! Instead of showing that we’re, y’know, normal people who deserve to do the same things as everybody else, including the radical act of continuing to breath.
The wider world seems to have few fucks to give as to whether we’re represented fairly in the media. Can we at least show some kindness to one another and aim our guns instead at the people who so sorely deserve it??
AMEN
Also Denna from Legend of the Seeker, shot with an arrow.
Could you make a list of lesbian characters who lived until the end of the show – shows not entirely composed of queers characters ?
But this is the thing. There are just very few because they all died before or the show is still airing.
Blindspot 2016 – Mayfair’s lover, suicide
(Vikings or Black Sails? Sorry, I haven’t watched those.)
what was her name?
The character’s name was Sofia Varma, played by Sarita Choudhury. But she was only present in one single episode and it was a flashback (Persecute Envoys, 2015).
gotcha, won’t include her then. thanks!
Something tells me that while Sofia (Mayfair’s lover) doesn’t qualify, Mayfair’s gonna be killed off fairly soon. Probably by the Project Daylight spooks, because drama.
Then again, she’s kind of a double-whammy token minority, so *shrugs*
Speaking for Black Sails, so far we have 1 lesbian and 2 bisexual female characters that are still alive. For now.
Paulie from Lost & Delirious – commited suicide
i swear to fucking g-d you guys
THIS IS A LIST OF TV SHOWS NOT MOVIES
not only that, but four other commenters with low reading comprehension skills on this very thread — the thread you had to scroll through to leave your own pointless comment, have already, for some ungodly reason, told me about Paulie from Lost & Delirious
Word of advice to anyone who frequents comment sections: If the number of previous comments are already in the hundreds, you might want to skim through whats come before to see if someone already made the point you have in mind (or in this case just reread the title!).
As a side note (and this is going to sound way bizarre) when I so Lost and Delirious I couldn’t help but wonder if Paulie just faked everybody out into thinking she going to jump since a) Why would everyone be looking up at that damn bird someone was now dead or injured right in-front of you b) when I played the DVD in slow-mo it looked like someone was still on the roof while the bird was taking off. Yeah I know it was probably an animal trainer and my alternate interpretation is probably bonus, but wouldn’t that have made for a much better ending!?
LOST AND DELIIROUS CONSPIRACY THEORY
I have another conspiracy theory with all the comments about that movie.
You said this in another I-can’t-read-shit comment: “also does anybody want to hear me talk about how much i hate lost & delirious”. Well, I think that some people REALLY want to hear that and they’re trying to trick you to do it.
i want to make a pancake dinner for this theory
Also Rachael Murray from Scream who was brutally murdered by a serial killer
she’s on the list
Adele from the Lizzie Borden Chronicles. I’m not sure if she was confirmed lesbian or bisexual (she was a prostitute, unsure if she was into the men she was pimped out to) but she and Lizzie kissed in one of her first scenes in the show. She then witness Lizzie killing a guy who tried to rape her (Adele), was locked in a wooden coffin by Lizzie, released by Lizzie, and later had her throat slit by Lizzie while staging a murder scene so it looked like her former pimp had slit her throat while she shot her former pimp.
on the list!
If you count “dead, then resurrected” then you missed Helena Wells in Warehouse 13. Sacrificed self saving the rest of the team, then time was rewound to before her death during the season premiere.
Sara Lance is only included because when she died, she was dead, as far as the fans knew. And she came back — but on a different show, much later. H.G. Wells was never actually REMOVED from the show, she was back in the next season. Also I feel like her character is pretty classic queerbaiting, which was unacceptable for 2013.
This list is also known as the list of TV shows I’ll never watch [again].
Tosh from Torchwood was the death that hit me the hardest. That’s one of the reasons I stopped watching. Honestly, I’m kind of glad the queer characters on shows like Agents of SHIELD weren’t major characters or very visibly queer; at least I didn’t get attached.
As for The 100, I was really excited about the show and just days before they killed off Lexa, I was saying to my friend how I wanted to start watching it this summer. Not anymore.
Destiny Rumancek should be on this list – hit her head on a glass coffee table after confronting Roman Godfrey. – Hemlock Grove 2015
Why should she be on this list – she is either bisexual or pansexual – it is never fully stated in the show – but she had an encounter with a man and a woman in season one, and an encounter with Clementine. Along with a long list of other people off screen.
she has sex with clementine right?
i’d consider that proof of being bi.
yes she was definitely bi and is on the list!
I thought of another one while defrosting the freezer!
In Scott and Bailey there was a recurring character in one season called Helen Bartlett (played by Nicola Walker from Last Tango in Halifax) who was a lesbian that was plausibly fucked up by her parents murdering loads of people when she was a kid. Things all get a bit much, and she ends up hijacking the chief cop’s car (containing chief cop), before committing suicide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_%26_Bailey
http://www.afterellen.com/general-news/106745-scott-and-bailey-recap-31-lady-detectives-plus-lesbians
Also, I think that makes her Sally Wainwright’s 3rd dead bi/lesbian – she’s outdoing Ilene Chaiken!
A+ introduction to comments :D
Could have been better if I’d said “I found another one while defrosting the freezer.”
These pesky dead TV lesbians, they get everywhere.
You’re memory of dead tv lesbians is highly impressive. I commend you.
Just because of the “…another one while defrosting the freezer!” Sally deserves comment award.
It was hilarious, priceless and the perfect combination of words.
Lucy and Alice were also killed in American Horror Story, freak show(2014), murdered by Chester.
added! guess that happened after I stopped watching the show
When I have tried to explain to my straight friends why it can be so gut-wrenching to watch someone like Lexa die on-screen, I can tell that even though they try to understand and be sympathetic, they just cannot understand why watching these characters die all of the time can be so hurtful.
Because it’s true! Characters die on TV all of the time. But the reality is, so few shows have any LGBT representation at all. When they do decide to throw us a bone and add a few LGBT characters, to have these characters so often be among the first to die, or to have deaths that are so unceremonious and barely mourned or remembered, you just begin to feel numb.
Yes, straight characters are killed off on TV all of the time, but when that happens, it literally never means that there are no other straight characters or straight couples left on the show. There are always a plethora, so while one character may die, there is no shortage of straight protagonists or straight love interests that straight people can identify with, even in some small way. In so many of these shows, when the LGBT character dies, LGBT representation on the entire show dies with them. Or, worse yet, if a LGBT character’s love interest dies, the show often moves on and pretends that “phase” never even happened, more or less acting like the surviving protagonist was straight all along!
I’ve thought a lot about this since Lexa’s death, and most of the time I don’t know how to put into words why so many LGBT viewers feel so betrayed without sounding petty. None of these deaths on their own are that devastating, but knowing that the few characters or relationships that we can finally see a piece of ourselves in are rarely safe (unlike the inner circle of straight main characters who often survive until every possible story arc of theirs has been explored), it’s easy start to feel like these TV networks don’t prioritize LGBT representation in a meaningful way.
Nadia on Lost Girl was also possessed by the garuda ugh