Lost Girl was pretty decent. The main character is bi.
A couple of years short of your timeline, but Riverdale had a couple on the show.
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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I'm not sure if it represents you, but this show used to have me laughing tears:
The Simpsons is the oldest running show I know of that had a lesbian character. Patty or Selma. Always forget which is which, tho. And the thing with the episode where they came out always stuck with me more due to the fact that Marge became almost a totally different character who abhorred the idea that her sister was gay.
And also maybe Mimi from The Drew Carrey Show. She married Drew's brother, who was possibly trans (they were at the very least a transvestite/crossdresser who did drag shows). I could imagine the character would have been unambiguously trans if the show aired today, making them a lesbian couple.
When I was a teenager (early 2010s era) I was so desesperate to find some lesbian representation and visibility, and then I watched a lot of lesbian movies. Here are some movies I watched back then :
TIPPING THE VELVET - Sarah Waters (2002)
The movie that every lesbian was watching at the beginning of our century. Sarah Waters also made FINGERSMITH , which is the movie that inspired "the Handmaiden".
BOUND - The Wachowski sisters (1996)
A wonderful mafia lesbian movie.
SAVING FACE - Alice Wu (2004)
Lesbian and POC representation ! yay !
BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER - Jamie Babbit (1999)
A comedy about conversion therapy. Yes.
THE WATERMELON WOMAN - Cheryl Dunye (1996)
This one was on my watching list, but I didn't found a cracked version back then. It's lesbian & Black representation, that must be awesome to watch.
ROOM IN ROME - Julio Medem (2013)
A movie about a casual lesbian sex story : how a powerful relationship can emerge from one night stands... That was interesting but I think I was too young to fully appreciate this kind of subject.
GIGOLA - Laure Charpentier (2011)
A movie about lesbian sex work in the early 20th century Paris.
CIRCUMSTANCE - Maryam Keshavarz (2011)
Keshavarz also made the recent queer movie "The Persian version". Both are great.
I hope that could help you :)
(and also, hello everybody, this is my first post !)
THANK YOU!
You're welcome!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer... eventually. Can't really think of any other good shows that old with lasting positive representation.
Ive watched the show 3 times already, and I'm planning on watching it a fourth time soon! I'm glad there's other enjoyers out there.
Been rewatching it lately with my trans teen daughter. She's been loving it. Showed it to my wife about 5 years ago as well as she's never seen it.
Xena the Warrior Princess (1995-2001)
IIRC Saturday Night Live did a pretty funny sketch to wink and nod about it.
The Wire. Don't want to spoil it by saying which one, but a key character turns out to be a lesbian.
I hate the notion that The Wire counts as an old show! 😁
Who cares about spoilers, it's Idris Elba's character.
He is aware of the effect he has on women.
I'm Idris Elba, actor, director, producer, dj, lesbian
Isn't it made clear from nearly the beginning that this certain person is openly lesbian?
Overall, I really like how the show deals with it's LGBT characters. It's just matter of fact. Even the one little reveal of a certain secondary character is just there and gone, just a little detail on them not necessarily a defining part of their persona within the confines of the story.
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The way you phrased that means Friends counts.
Carol, Ross' lesbian ex-wife, is surprisingly important to the show. Her divorcing him because she realizes she's a lesbian is the first actual plot point established in the show about 2 minutes into the pilot, and her name is spoken before any of the six main characters' names, and even before Rachel appears on screen. Sets up years of plot lines about Ross' character, being divorced, the emotional fallout, raising a child in a broken home, and it sets up Ross and Rachel as a whole thing.
Relevant lesbian character in a show that is really good or older than 10 years. Carol from Friends.
Station 19 started in 2018, almost old enough, I thought it was really good, of you like fire fighter procedural dramas. Had strong gay, lesbian and bisexual characters. Kind of a spin off of greys anatomy.
911 Lone Star, came out in 2020, three gay men and a trans man, I don’t think there were any lesbians, also a fire fighter drama.
Greys Anatomy, 20 years old and still going, one lesbian and one bisexual main character (I’m only at season 10, can’t speak to it past that).
Madam Secretary, came out in 2014, had one lesbian character- not really a main character though.
Adding to add:
Star Trek: Discovery is not old, but has great LGBTQ representation.
Take My Wife (2016) “A show about lesbians who are married, staying actual lesbians who are married, and no one gets breast cancer!” They have since divorced. Both main characters are stand up comics irl.
And speaking of stand up comics starting semi autobiographical sitcoms, One Mississippi (2015) is very good. 💖 Tig Notaro.
Speaking of Tig, the Handsome podcast with Fortune Fiemster and Mae Martin is great.
Speaking of Mae, Feel Good is not old, and we’ll not make you feel good, but it’s a semi autobiographical drama series about a bisexual comedian.
Watching Star Trek: Discovery is a waste of time though
All tv is a waste of time, that’s kind of the point. But congrats on your super hot take.
Discovery is a waste of time in the sense that it's not entertaining.
The ending wasn’t great, I’ll give you that. But people who can’t scroll past the word discovery without shitting on it nearly always have let’s say, more demographically related reasons for their opinions. 😣
I notice you contributed nothing to this conversation. Did you come here specifically looking for DISCO to share your enlightening opinions?
I also could not get into discovery. But I came here to recommend DS9.
If you are interested in learning about queer representation on TV there's a great YouTube channel from Matt Baume who talks about the history of it. He also wrote a book about it: Hi Honey I'm Homo
If you haven't looking into it there was a surprisingly a lot of good representation in the 70s. This all dropped off in the 80s because of Reagan.
This all dropped off in the 80s because of Reagan.
This can be said about so many things…
Babylon 5 has two women start a relationship... sort of.
They set up a frienship that was supposed to turn into a romantic relationship, but one of them left the show, cutting that subplot short. They still try to work it in, as the last couple episodes before the character exit heavily imply they are romantically/sexually involved, but nothing is explicitly confirmed until the next season when the remaining character briefly opens up about having loved the now absent character.
It's not much, but it's still pretty big for the early to mid 90s.
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6 feet under has one of the main characters who is living a gay marital life.
Xena
The Legend of Korra.
I wouldn't call it 'LGBT focused,' but it paved the way for LGBTQ in all of western animation. It's not too anime in spite of its style, and the lead character is bi. And awesome, and hilarious:
It's a bit much to call the longing gaze at the end of the last episode of season 4 evidence that Korra is bi. The comics confirm it, but the show itself doesn't. And wow, legend of Korra is over 10 years old? I must be old
It's more than a gaze. One of them invites the other to go somewhere with them, they agree, interlock hands and go on their way.
I believe it was originally supposed to be a kiss that ended the show, but they didn’t get their way.
It’s a bit much to call the longing gaze at the end of the last episode of season 4 evidence that Korra is bi.
Yeah. The showrunners had to push hard just to get that though; its kinda a piece of history (alongside Steven Universe) that allowed stuff like Hazbin, Harley Quinn or She-Ra to even exist.
And at least there was some chemistry.
And wow, legend of Korra is over 10 years old? I must be old
Yeah...
Sailor Moon, but not in the American or German versions. I think in America they were cousins and all the romance cut out and in Germany one was turned into a guy.
- The L Word is older than 10 years 😭
- Lip Service is a kind of L Word from Scotland
- Sugar Rush is a British teen drama centered around a Lesbian character
- True Blood has a lesbian character and 2 bi characters
- Queer as folk is considered a landmark in queer Television
Also, shout out to https://lezwatchtv.com/
Isn't there a confection baking show called Sugar Rush
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Unfortunately most lesbian/bisexual women in older TV shows weren't about representation, but more geared towards either the male fantasy, or to make jokes off of/out of them.
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Once Upon A Time has a pretty well-done lesbian relationship in the seventh season. Season five had a lesbian romance episode, but the characters involved were then never mentioned again. Season seven did a better job, with the lesbian characters being recurring characters throughout the season
Roseanne had a lesbian couple in it. Roseanne's boss at the diner was also gay, but I don't remember if they ever introduced his partner.
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not one I've seen myself yet but Wynonna Earp has been recommended to me. It hasn't quite hit the 10 year mark though it started airing in 2016
It’s a wild and ridiculous show. Lots of fun to watch. It’s one of those rare shows that’s led almost entirely by women, and has incredibly raunchy humor.
I will always treasure the episode where the someone is explaining how their life was ruined by finding their prom date having sex with someone else during the party, and Wynonna realizing the someone else was with her.
Skins UK attempted to deal with every topic they could get their hands on, including lesbianism (and homophobia iirc), with the drama turned up to 11.
I don't know how it holds up today, but back then as a dramatic teen myself I loved it.
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