It’s time for April showers but after you get out of that shower you need to get into this guide to all the television you could be enjoying on your sofa or preferred place to sit! We’ve looked deeply into this and have come to you with a plethora of television shows and movies with lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans characters streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney+, Roku and Showtime.
Top: Tiny Beautiful Things, Slip, Dead Ringers, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies Bottom: The Matildas, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Beef, Couples Therapy, Walker: Independence, Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian
New and Gay and/or Lesbian on Netflix in April 2023
Beef (Season One) – April 6
This series from A24 “follows the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving series.” Queer actress Maria Bello plays queer billionaire character Jordan.
All-American: Homecoming (Season 2) – April 11
When Simone Hicks leaves her family and friends behind in Los Angeles, she finds a chosen family at Bringston University in Atlanta. While Simone tries to balance freshman year with collegiate athletics and the realities of life at an HBCU, she leans on Nate — a non-binary, gender non-comforming diva who offers to share her space — and Keisha, a bisexual, aspiring dancer turned med student with commitment issues (natch). (Thanks to Natalie for writing this blurb for me!)
Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian (Season 1) – April 11
Legendary British lesbian actress Miriam Margolyes has just become an official citizen of Australia, and she has a lot of questions about what this means for her! In this series she will FIND OUT.
Welcome to Eden (Season 2) – April 21
This Spanish-language series returns to the rebellion that’d been sparked on Eden. There were a few queer and trans characters in the first season, including trans DJ Mayaka, lesbian Bel and the lead character, Zoa, who’s bisexual.
Prime Video’s LGBTQ+ Stuff For April 2023
Bros (2022) – April 4
This major studio gay rom-com that got so much press about people not going to see it that nobody ended up going to see it is focused on the love story between two white cis gay men, but has “a queer world that is predominantly trans and POC — even if the white cis gay men are the only ones with real characters.”
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel: Season Five Premiere – April 14
It’s the final season of one of Prime Video’s flagship properties, promising to give Midge a grand send-off complete with numerous flash-forwards and a final season story that finds her working as a writer for a late-night show while her dapper lesbian manager Susie toils away to improve her career and everybody wears cute period outfits!
Dead Ringers (Season One) – April 21
This absolutely bananas gender-swapped re-imagining of David Cronenberg’s psychosexual horror cult classic Dead Ringers (1988) stars Rachel Weisz as twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle, obstetricians who have big ideas for revolutionizing women’s health. Beverly is a lesbian and she begins dating Genevive, an actress on a popular TV show, early in the story, which makes Elliot very mad. Like the original film, the series promises “co-dependent twin doctors at the top of their professions who start to unravel under the weight of their obsession with each other and their career pursuits.” You can also look forward to a lot of blood and realistic depictions of childbirth!
Queer HBO Max Shows & Movies Streaming April 2023
Walker: Independence (Season One) – April 1
This CW Western series is set in the late 1800s and follows an affluent East Coaster whose husband is murdered while they’re journeying out West together. She eventually lands in Independence, Texas, with her new companion, loveable rogue Hoyt. Queer non-binary actor Katie Findlay plays eccentric burlesque dancer Kate Carver. According to Looper, “with the blessing of producer and showrunner Seamus Fahey, Katie infused their own queerness into Kate, giving us a glimpse at what life was like for the queer community in the 1800s.”
Tangerine (2015) – January 1
Shot entirely on an iPhone, this iconic film follows two trans sex workers, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, on Christmas Eve, as just-out-of-jail Sin-Dee tracks down the pimp/boyfriend who’s been cheating on her and Alexandra’s on a journey towards her singing performance that evening.
The Winchesters (Season One) – April 6
The first season of The CW’s Supernatural spinoff is set in the 1970s, telling the story of how John Winchester and Mary Campbell fell in love and fought monsters together while looking for their missing fathers. The characters include Mary’s friend Carlos Cervantez, who is bisexual and non-binary, and DJ Rockin’ Roxy (Bridget Reagan), who is queer.
A Black Lady Sketch Show: Season Four Premiere – April 14
Our favorite sketch show returns for its 4th season. Sadly, queer writer/performer Ashley Nicole Black isn’t returning for the fourth season because she has so many other hot jobs! Tamara Jade (The Voice season 19), Angel Laketa Moore (Atypical) and DaMya Gurley will be joining Robin Thede, Sky Townsend and Gabrielle Dennis as featured players.
#BringBackAlice: Season One Premiere – April 14
A year after her shocking disappearance, popular influencer Alicja Stec is finally found — with no memory of what happened to her. But then it turns out that another teenager disappeared without a trace on the same day as Alicja, and her brother’s certain Alicja is the key to finding her. There’s a brief moment in the trailer where Alicja is kissing a girl, but also I cannot find a trailer in English or subtitles so!
Somebody Somewhere: Season Two Premiere – April 23
After slowly building a cult following throughout its first season, Bridget Everett’s Somebody Somewhere returns with more of that portrayal of small-town Midwestern queer life for which it has been so very praised. In Season Two, Sam’s working to move beyond her grief, deepening her friendship with Joel, building a new connection to her other sister and working with a new singing teacher.
Hulu’s April 2023 Shows for Girls, Gays and Theys
Tiny Beautiful Things (Limited Series) – April 7
Kathryn Hahn plays Claire, the advice columnist behind Dear Sugar, in this adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling book that finds Claire’s entire life falling apart just as she’s hired to help people work through the pieces of their own. Tanzyn Crawford plays Rae, her biracial queer teenage daughter, described like so: “uncomfortable in her own skin and often emotionally torn between her parents, Rae shows artistic leanings, though she’s an introvert of few words, just starting to develop her own opinions and making sense of who she is in the world.” Also, Desiree Akhavan is amongst the directors on this project that was created and written by queer producer Liz Tigelaar, who also was showrunner for my beloved Little Fires Everywhere.
Single Drunk Female: Season Two Premiere (Freeform) – April 13
One of the only shows to portray sobriety and recovery in a way that is not actively harmful is back! The protagonist is queer, but appears to be just dating men this season. But her sponsor (played by Rebecca Henderson0 remains a lesbian, and trans actor Jojo Brown plays Mindy, her “delightfully acerbic sobriety sister and manager at the grocery store.”
Paramount+‘s Gay Stuff For April 2023
Broad City (Seasons 1-5) – April 5th
The legendary Abbi and Ilana, who are both pretty queer, are landing in their entirety upon Paramount+, which is nice for us, what a treat!
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies: Season One Premiere – April 6
Set in 1954, four years prior to the official Grease movie timeline, four “fed-up and misfit students band together to bring out the moral panic that will change Rydell High forever and become the founding mothers of the first high school clique known as the Pink Ladies.” There is definitely some sapphic kissing in the trailer, and non-binary actor Ari Notartomaso plays gender non-conforming character Cynthia who, in the trailer, is seen as one of the T-Birds, one of the Pink Ladies, and also in a scene where she’s about to kiss a girl wearing a gay hat.
Showtime Queer April 2023 Streaming Content
Couple’s Therapy: Season 3B – April 28
Queen Mother Dr. Orna Guralnik returns for the second half of the third season of Couple’s Therapy, where she’ll be working with four new couples “wrestling with the confines of long-term relationships” and challenging heteronormative structures of what a successful relationship looks like. Amongst them are Nadine and Christine, a couple desperately trying to adjust to one partner’s desire to transition into polyamory.
The Roku Channel’s Bisexual Content for April 2023
Slip: Season One – April 21
Mae (Zoe Lister-Jones) feels dull in her relationship, cheats on her partner, and wakes up the next day in an entirely new life where nobody remembers the reality she lived in before. The life-hopping continues, each jump inspired by Mae having an orgasm. And of course, Mae dates a lot throughout this journey into alternate universes — men and women both! Shelli saw Slip at SXSW and said “It’s clever as hell, gets pretty damn queer, and the way she has to “activate” her time travel is hilarious.”
Disney+ LGBTQ+ Content for April 2023
The Owl House: Final Special Episode – April 8
We will say goodbye to this beloved queer-inclusive animated series with this final episode of their three-episode third season. It will follow Luz’s journey to save the boiling isles from the evil Emperor Belos & the unpredictable Collector.
Matildas: The World At Our Feet – April 26
Football Australia has partnered with Disney+ to make this six-part docuseries about the journey of their national women’s football team, the CommBank Matildas, as they prepare for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Obviously gay team captain Sam Kerr, recently named the most influential woman in Australian sport, will be central to the docuseries.
Have you guys covered La Flor Mas Bella yet? So good!
Dead Ringers may kill me. Lol. Can’t wait for it. Grease too. Slip sounds different, may give that one a look too.
Not quite gay but Shelli loved it a lot (and yes it is fantastic as she puts in her reviews.) but Rye Lane is now available to watch on Hulu!
I just saw a trailer for the Grease show this morning, and as a die hard Grease 2 devotee, I feel like I have to watch it.
I cannot WAIT for Dead Ringers. Watched the movie with a couple friends a month ago and really enjoyed it. I never have a problem with gender swapped roles in reboots, even if it doesn’t *add a new layer*, but I think it’s especially a good choice in this adaptation because having two women inventing/developing/researching for women’s bodies and reproduction will be a lot different!
The second season of From (on Epix) starts April 23rd. It’s got a few prominent queer lady characters in the ensemble, and it’s just a good show in general. I don’t know if you’ve covered it here before (“From” is a difficult title to search!), but the premise is: “In a nightmarish town in middle America that traps everyone who enters, unwilling residents strive to stay alive and search for a way out, but they are plagued by the terrifying nocturnal creatures from the surrounding forest, and secrets hidden in the town itself.” It’s pretty dark and quite smart (for example, they pretty quickly bring up and rule out the usual tropes, like the town being purgatory).
OK, I’ll watch Dead Ringers. But if either Weisz spits in anyone’s mouth, I’m out.
Not in to musical, Riese? Schmigadoon! is here for the second season with Ariana DeBose
Season 3 episode 4 of Ted Lasso introduces “Jack” played by Jodi Balfour. Such obvious sparks fly between her and Keely played by Juno Temple. Fingers crossed a wlw storyline is on the horizon.
nice…