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.
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Nadia on lost girl was also possessed (by the Garuda)
If you re-scroll through all of the images and imagine it’s a dating app, it helps with the trauma.
Lessons learnt: dont date men you get killed thank god im a lesbians, dont date women who has or have a relationship with men, dont hace babies, dont reject men or theyll kill you and if you are a lesbians on tv or movies youll die anyway
Saxa from Spartacus (2013). Died on the battlefield.
Danny (Carmilla). Stabbed to death.
Oh, and Uriel from Dominion was killed off-screen between season 1 and 2.
Danny was resurrected (as much as I hate to admit it) :)
Danny actually comes back as a vampire in the end of the season, on a post credit scene… I’m not sure if she fits here…
Beate (Danica Curcic) – Bron/Broen (The Bridge), Season 2 (2013)
Accidentally murdered by a poisoned needle in her girlfriend’s hospital bed.
Jesus Christ.
Pretty sure there was a murdered lesbian/ bisexual on season 3 of The Bridge as well. Its a police crime drama, not really a procedural like CSI so perhaps could be included?
yeah i mean i will definitely add any dead lesbians or bisexual characters from shows that are procedurals, just not the victim/witness/partner-of-the-weeks.
added!
Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship was confirmed by the writers, directors and actors themselves. Just because Robert Tapert and RJ Stewart (producers) never confirmed it’s irrelevant, since they were written and portrayed as eternal soulmates / lovers.
Also, when Paige Turco was in NYPD Blue, she played a lesbian whose pregnant girlfriend (Kathy, played by Lisa Darr, who also played Ellen’s TV girlfriend for a while) was shot dead in front of her. Bonus points for double trope of pregnant lesbian AND dead lesbian storylines!
Evidence, via AE (more bonus points if you tear up from Sarah Warn doing proper analysis over there): http://www.afterellen.com/tv/4322-lesbian-characters-get-promoted-on-fourth-season-of-nypd-blue/2
The only picture of her I can find is here, where Kathy and Abby are sitting with Medavoy, discussing him giving them sperm, as happens at every lesbian dinner party: http://www.afterellen.com/columns/61331-best-lesbian-week-ever-october-23-2009/9
How did I not know that Paige Turco played a lesbian cop, and also, how could I not have known that she played a lesbian in a relationship with Sherry Stringfield?
THANK YOU SALLY
P.S. – I vote we only include Xena if we get stuck on 99
So while she was not a recurring character, and was in fact Victim of the Week on a mystery show, I think Daisy Murphy from episode 1×10 of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries warrants a mention because she was the lover of recurring lesbian character Dr. Elizabeth “Mac” Macmillan. The fact that we had to have Tragic Lesbian Death, when we’ve never seen Mac with a lover who was alive, feels a lot like killing a queer character for “furthering the plot”.
On that note, join me in my campaign to GIVE MAC A GIRLFRIEND 2k16 (if we get another season of this show, which I still adore despite its lesbian-killing ways)
I love that show! I love Doc she’s my favorite. I feel like it’s too much of a procedural to include, though, as a victim? Because there’s a murder every episode.
At the risk of sounding argumentative, I think that perhaps Daisy Murphy does count…? Yes, she was “victim of the week,” but she was also the girlfriend of a main character, so it’s reasonable to assume that if she hadn’t been offed (as part of a “lesbian love triangle” of all things) then it’s reasonable to assume that she could/would/SHOULD have been an ongoing part of the show. Killing her as soon as she appeared in person was simply a way of making Mac’s queerness canon without actually having to upset any viewers at 8.30pm who might not have wanted to have to *see* her with a live woman.
The only picture I can find of her is here: http://cinemorgue.wikia.com/wiki/Maria_Coviello
It was 2012 and she got pushed into a machine in a factory by another woman, but I can’t remember why.
I am on board with GIVE MAC A GIRLFRIEND 2k16 for both Miss Fisher and Veronica Mars. I’m just putting that out there.
I came down to comment about Daisy Murphy, honestly that death was so sad. The show kept emphasizing how horrible and gruesome her death was in the machine, and then poor Dr. Mac had to look at the body… So upsetting. I know it was a “death of the week” but Mac has now had no other girlfriends, and her time with Daisy was never recorded on screen.
Code Black: Dr. Carla Niven (Malaya’s ex-girlfriend), died of cancer earlier this year shortly after giving birth
Should we really be counting shows like True Blood and AHS? I can see AHS bc the narrative changes and an actor’s character that was gay in one season may not be in the next. But in True Blood, death was so common it might as well not mean anything.
I’m glad you put in Teen Wolf tho. Especially with their track record of killing off a woman and replacing her with like 15 blond white men.
Riese did say in the opening paragraph that she acknowledges the “Anyone Can Die” trope but she wanted a list of every character.
also for ‘true blood’ specifically, a list like this would not be complete without a record of what they did to tara thorton
Thank you for including Xena on this list!
You’re welcome! <3
All My Children had Frankie Stone, who was murdered by one of her aunt’s henchmen. There’s also Marissa who was killed when JR shot into a crowd.
Yup, they’re in there!
I’m just going to point out that Lucy Lawless in on the list 3 times…not complaining though.
I think it’d be pretty interesting to see how many of these characters were 1) written by men and 2) killed by male characters.
Let’s see how much they really hate us for being unavailable to them.
Exactly! Seeing this list is sort of hilarious. Internalized misogyny and homophobia at it’s most rampant. These showrunners will literally go to their grave saying it was necessary to the story and that they love their gay and bi characters, like HOW ARE YOU SO BLIND?
Dusty from Queer as Folk was 1 of 4 killed in the Babylon bombing in season 5. Some of the male cast were injured in the bombing but this queer lady was the only character killed.
added!
So what?? Sorry, it’s absolutely ridiculous. It was a gay club that exploded. Of course gay people died. More than that – gay men also died, you can see them lying dead when Brian walks around searching for Justin. It was an important event that changed the narrative and affected all characters, not just something aimed to kill a lesbian character.
Destiny, also of Hemlock Grove, is bisexual and died in s3 of Hemlock Grove. (She fell on a glass table and then her neck was snapped)
Also Nurse Delia Bubsy on Call the midwife.
Oops you beat me to it!
Insufficiently dead (yet)
she’s not dead though i thought
No? Delia is very much alive.
Not dead and currently living happily with her girlfriend :)
Does Delia count? http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/10/after-shocking-call-the-midwife-finale-fans-ask-why-is-bbc-killing-off-lesbian-love-affairs-5095753/
Nope, she got her memory back and resumed lesbianing with Patsy
:o I must catch up
How i’m i still alive. It seems to be i should have been stabbed, shot, bludgeoned, beaten and set on fire by now.
This is horrible.. AND THE DAMN NUMBER KEEPS INCREASING! I wonder what percentage this is of all lesbian, bi and pan women on TV..?
Deputy Jenna Nickerson in Supernatural– her soul was consumed, and then her body slammed into the ceiling, officially killing her. She was on the first two episodes of season 11. (2015) Funny how they introduced a queer girl character just to kill her!
They did the same back in season two when they introduced Lily, one of the potential demon blood kids like Sam. Her only real line was a throwaway about how she’d accidentally killed her girlfriend. She died five minutes later so it was a twofor.
added!
A) Thank you. This is important.
B) Delphine is not dead.
C) Kathy from NYPD Blue wasn’t pregnant actually – her girlfriend Abby was. Still tragic.
D) Lesbians who get happy endings list plz?
Someone is compiling a list, so feel free to add to it: http://100percentshipper.tumblr.com/post/140482816861/queer-female-ship-reference-list
Hmm.. okay an earlier commenter said that she was pregnant?
Legit impossible to read all of these comments (how do you do it?!?!) … but for sure her girlfriend Abby was pregnant. My wife and I just watched the episode the other day. Abby does go on to have the baby (so at least there’s that), but then her character is just kind of forgotten about. Sigh.
Good for you for updating this list continuously!
Not sure about one of your Shortland st ones…? Laura Hill is the name of the actress who played a character called Toni Warner who I don’t recall being queer and her character didn’t die until 2008.
I think the actual name is Laura Hall and she was played by Larissa Matheson who isn’t well known so pics ae hard to come by but I think this is one:
http://nzlads.tripod.com/images/Laura.JPG
Keep up the good (if rather depressing) work on the list!
Laura Hill played Toni Thompson (married name, Toni Warner) and as far as I know there was never any queerness. Certainly her relationships listed on wiki is straight and although I didn’t follow too closely I was in NZ for most of her time on TV and would have jumped on anything gay. Must check out Laura Hall. Worse was Jay who betrayed her wife WITH A MAN another tired overdone trope. Would love to see how many canon lesbians betray their female lover with a man. Verbotene Liebe jumps to mind there…
this is the link the commenter told me about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shortland_Street_characters_(1999)#Laura_Hall
Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica sort of dies… she becomes the devil because of her desire for Madoka (this is in the movie. In the show ending only Madoka dies/becomes a deity).
Thanks for the work on this list.
Sadly I can add two more from German tv, the same show no less (it was our version of “Bad Girls”).
_______________
Susanne Teubner, Hinter Gittern (2000)
Cause of Death: shot off-screen during a bank robbery
http://i0.web.de/image/162/30618162,pd=2/gittern-cheryl-shepard.jpg
____
Beate “Bea” Hansen, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of Death: died of her injuries after an explosion
http://www.sonia-farke.de/ImagesHinterGittern/wb10.jpg
thank you!
A question. How about a miniseries in which every episode is about an individual, particular case?
I’m asking because in Argentina we had one called “Mujeres Asesinas”. Each episode was based in real life cases and, as the name implies, it was centered on women as the perpetrators of the crime. 5 episodes of that show ended up with a dead lesbian or a dead bisexual.
I know that this doesn’t actually comply with “these are all characters who appeared for more than one episode”, but each episode was an open/closed case. The show wasn’t a crime procedural either, because it was centered in the killer and her victim/victims; the only place where the miniseries was developed as a crime procedural was in the US (Killer Women, ABC, 2014).
Just to clarify, because it looks worst than Ilene Chaiken and Sally Wainwright put together, they were 5 deaths in the course of 4 seasons and 78 episodes.
i mean the real question is; does that fit in with the trope? and i would say no. even if it technically wasn’t a procedural, there was a victim-of-the-week, so that wouldn’t be included here, no.
Thank Jebus. Mujeres Asesinas was messing with my stats. Now I can say that all the lesbians couples in my country had happy endings.
Sorry! But I was thinking the same thing, about queer lady characters in Argentina and, while I wasn’t able to find many I was happy that at least they survived.
But then I remembered El Tiempo No Para, the character played by Lucrecia Blanco (Florencia), who was having an affair with the character of Julieta Cardinali was ‘accidentaly’ murdered by the main group, while falling from a balcony after trying to blackmail them. She was a recurring character and main antagonist.
It would be interesting to know, how much LGBT female characters were around in these shows during this time (from 1976 – 2016). That would make it easier to see what part of a shows LGBT cast was killed. If it was most of all of them, that would make even more of an impression.
To this list you can add:
Amar en Tiempos Revueltos: Teresa Garcia
Cause of Death: died in hospital from her burns from the fire
Amar en Tiempos Revueltos: Ana Rivas
Cause of Death: burned to death in a hotel with her son (born of a rape by ex husband)
Happened off screen after the couple had departed for their happily ever after and they killed them off to advance the love plot of Teresa’s ex-husband and his new woman. Sigh.
Coronation Street: Maddie Heath
Cause of Death: Fire explosion
Sorry forgot to add: Amar en Tiempos… happened in 2014 and Coro st. happened in 2015
maggie heath has always been on the list, and i added ana & teresa this morning!
Is there also a “Grieving Lesbian” trope?
Cause a lot of these deaths came with the extra emotional punch of a bitterly grieving partner.
Speaking of: Costia. The queer girl who was already dead before we even met her.
Costia never even had the dignity of an onscreen appearance and they beheaded her anyway. So sad and ironic and sick to think now that that moment serves doubly as Lexa’s coming out and as the point at which we all should have started suspecting treatment of queer women on the 100…
I have a few to add that sort of count:
Irene Adler on Sherlock was shown killed, later revealed to be alive, but hasn’t return to the show.
Thirteen on House was given a terminal disease, and left the job/show to live out her last days with her girlfriend.
Vampire Willow from the Buffy wishverse was only in 2 eps from memory, but given that she was more obvious with her sexuality than our willow at the time it felt like kill your gay doppelgangers.
13 from House M.D. was diagnosed with Huntingtons Chorea, so even though we don’t see her die on screen we know she was given a death sentence.
In an episode of Law and Order: SVU, a woman named Ann Jackson comes home to find her partner being raped by a home invader. The attacker beats brutally beats Ann until she is in a coma. A later episode reveals that she did not survive.
we’re not including one-episode victims from procedurals, it’s in the intro
Also!! Salome Agrippa in True Blood. She died at the end of season 5. She wasn’t a full on regular but she was in basically all of season 5. She was staked by Bill in a fight to become the most powerful vampire.
This list is appalling. It shouldn’t be this long. Especially when a list this long is basically the entire list of lesbian/bisexual women on TV.
Was Salome queer? I know she died but I don’t remember any lesbian proclivities outside of the assumption that all vampires are bisexual. (True Blood is one of the shows on this list I’ve actually seen from start to finish, but my memory is fuzzy)
Thanks for adding Xena! One thing, you spelled the name wrong of Tamsin of Lost Girl. I’d like to mention two more Lucy Lawless characters (and nominate her for “winning” the most Dead Lesbians/Bi women): D’Anna Biers (#3) from Battlestar Galactica-had an affair with #6, died a couple of times, was “boxed”, & ended up dying on earth (2009); Countess Marburg from Salem (stabbed by John Alden Jr.),plus the other two witches Tituba (pecked to death by crows) & Mary Sibley (blood loss to revive John Alden)-they all had lesbian sex as part of their magic rituals (2015).
http://zap2it.com/2015/06/salem-season-2-finale-death-toll-mary-sibley-countess-marburg-tituba/
i think there’s a difference between having lesbian sex as part of your magic rituals and actually being a lesbian character? i want to be really specific about who we include here or it dilutes the value of the list. Tituba was a queer character, absolutely, but I’m not so sure about the others.
Well, I have a little, tiny question about “having lesbian sex as part of your magic rituals”.
Where can you find that religion? Asking for a friend, of course.
Magical applicator does not lesbian (bi or pan) sexuality make in my opinion, but trust me pestles are very unforgiving and best “applied” after some warming up. Sometimes literally as in the pestle it self not just the receiving orifice.