Pride Month
Organizations and Resources That
Support the LGBTQ+ Community
Every June, members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies celebrate Pride Month. While many honor Pride by attending parades throughout the world, others may choose to celebrate by learning more about the movement and the rich history behind it.
Use the links below for a sampling of resources to get started.
This is an evolving list that will be updated periodically. If you have suggestions you would like to see included on the list, please email DEI@essex.com.
| Books |
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“A Boy’s Own Story” by Edmund White The 1982 book by Edmund White, which begins with the first sexual encounter of a 15-year-old boy, is based on his own experiences coming to terms with his gay identity as a youth in the Midwestern United States. White would later write two additional novels, The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1997), which follow his gay protagonist into young adulthood. Together, they form a poignant trilogy that chronicles a gay life in the latter half of the 20th century. |
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“A Single Man” by Christopher Isherwood A quietly devastating exploration of love, loneliness, and the often-crushing weight of adult responsibilities, 1962's A Single Man might just be one of Isherwood's most beloved works. The short novel tracks the experiences of an aging college professor in Los Angeles. Wracked with depression over the loss of his partner in a car accident, George matter-of-factly plots his suicide. But, as Isherwood demonstrates, life gets in the way. After crashing into others who are suffering as much as he is, George has a change of heart. But a last-minute twist changes everything. |
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“City of Night” by John Rechy City of Night, a 1963 novel by John Rechy, is a seminal piece of fiction that follows the life of a gay hustler in New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Through stream-of-consciousness narration, the reader gets a glimpse of queer life in mid-century America, with a long and fascinating cast of characters that includes drag performers, S&M practitioners, and sex workers. The book has inspired music from the Doors as well as a film by Gus Van Sant, My Own Private Idaho. |
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“Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann German writer Thomas Mann crafted this novella based on his own experience in Venice, where he caught sight of a handsome young man who captivated him, body and soul. Is Aschenbach, the 50-something protagonist, just fixated on beautiful objects, where human beings and centuries-old buildings are of equal lure? Or is it something more lustful and disturbing? It's difficult, in 2018, to divorce the rich subject of sexual desire from the fact that it revolves around a 14-year-old boy. But the novella's legacy endures, and it serves as an important artifact of secret desire at the turn of the 20th century. |
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“Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin In a novel that has resonated with the queer community since it was first published decades ago, a young man finds himself caught between desire and morality in 1950s expat Paris. While much has changed since Baldwin wrote it, many aspects of life, love and heartbreak remain the same. |
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“Maurice” by E.M. Forster This sexy novel was written in 1913, but not published until after Forster's death in 1971. The title character meets and falls for Clive while at school — though Clive eventually leaves his lover and gets married to a woman. But then, Maurice falls in love with another man. You'll have to read it to find out if everyone lives happily ever after. |
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“On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual” by Merle Miller Considered one of the earliest gay memoirs, this book was originally published as an essay in response to a homophobic essay in Harper's Magazine. It's exactly what the title describes: a seminal book that reaffirms the importance of coming out. This oldie but a goodie should be required reading for anyone who is or loves someone who identifies as LGBTQ. |
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“Orlando” by Virginia Woolf Orlando, which Virginia Woolf wrote in tribute to friend and lover Vita Sackbville-West, is a study in gender fluidity across time and space. The eponymous protagonist begins as a passionate young nobleman in Elizabethan England, finding favor with the Queen’s court. By the close, three centuries have passes and he will have transformed into a thirty-six-year-old woman in the year 1928. Orlando’s journey is also an internal one – he is an impulsive poet who learns patience in matters of the heart and a woman who knows what it is to be a man. |
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“Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown Many queer female writers see Rita Mae Brown's 1973 coming-of-age book as an iconic work of LGBT literature. Molly Bolt is the adoptive daughter of a poor Southern couple who makes her own way across America, finding love of all stripes in between. It's a true, slightly steamy celebration of being true to yourself, whoever that may be. |
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“Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story” by Jacob Tobia As a kid, Jacob was called "sissy" for being creative, sassy, and obsessed with glitter. But as they got older, they began to identify with different, more neutral words like "gay," "transgender" and "nonbinary." This story of gender revolution calls out the stereotypes that were probably rampant in many of our childhoods in a book that will make you laugh and cry, maybe even at the same time. |
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“Stone Butch Blues” by Leslie Feinberg Well ahead of its time, Leslie Feinberg’s 1993 Stone Butch Blues, about Jess Goldberg, a butch working-class lesbian, took massive strides in breaking down the gender binary. A story that is both hopeful in Jess’s determination to forge an identity and heartrending in its depiction of violence against her for her daring to be herself, Stone Butch Blues endures as essential to the queer canon. |
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“The City and the Pillar” by Gore Vidal The City and the Pillar shocked America when it was released in 1948. The queer coming-of-age novel about Jim Willard and his search for love was the first novel from a respected writer (Gore Vidal) to speak directly and sympathetically about the gay experience in an era when homosexuality was still very much taboo. The book is remembered today for this legacy as well as for various themes — Hollywood’s glass closet, being gay in the military, the poisonous effects of homophobia on society — that still reverberate today. |
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“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker Walker's masterpiece about the love between women isn't just an LGBT classic, it's a must-read book in just about every way. Made into a major motion picture, this National Book and Pulitzer Prize-winner follows the story of two sisters living very different lives and the unbreakable bond between them, even through impossible circumstances. |
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“The Line of Beauty” by Alan Hollinghurst The book follows Nick Guest, a gay graduate student unofficially adopted by the family of a schoolmate. Nick gets a sneak peek at the aristocracy, while indulging in no shortage of sex and party favors; the fun comes to a crashing halt as AIDS enters the fray. Amid all the human drama, there's an amusing and memorable cameo from the Iron Lady. "Captures a vitally important era in lovely prose" is how Night Drop's Marshall Thornton describes Hollinghurst's most acclaimed book. |
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“The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde The only novel by the great Oscar Wilde may not be overtly gay, but there’s plenty of gay subtext there for the careful reader – about as much gay subtext as a popular author could get away with in 1891. Dorian’s friends Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton express intense admiration for his beauty, and passages that show Basil’s feelings for Dorian as more clearly homoerotic were excised by an editor, according to Nicholas Frankel, who edited an edition presenting Wilde’s original text in 2011. Even the text as originally published has references to Dorian’s corruption of not only young women but young men. |
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“The Price of Salt” by Patricia Highsmith An encounter Patricia Highsmith had with a New Jersey socialite while working at a shopgirl at a department store became the seed for 1952’s The Price of Salt. The result, which Highsmith’s publisher forced her to publish under the pseudonym Claire Morgan at a time when a bold depiction of desire between women that eschewed the requisite tragic ending for those who transgressed could have tanked her career, would become that rare example of a lesbian-themed novel with what would prove to be a radically hopeful ending. |
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“Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality” by Sarah McBride The title of this one says it all. McBride became the first transgender person to ever speak in front of a national political convention at the age of 26, but that doesn't mean her transition has been easy. This book weaves her personal journey with the steps the country has taken toward trans acceptance in a memoir that's both deeply individual and a primer on national civil rights. |
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“Zami: A New Spelling of My Name” by Audre Lorde This 1982 autobiography by the iconic queer black poet Audre Lorde is an experience of intersectionality, in a genre of intersections. Lorde classified it as biomythography, which combines history, biography, and myth. A fierce love letter to the strength women have given her throughout her upbringing, the book explores her challenges growing up blind in 1930s Harlem, fighting for dignity in the heat of Jim Crow, and finding a voice in the New York City lesbian bar scene. While books like The Price of Salt show lesbians walking away from motherhood, Zami celebrates the beauty of when mothers stay through the harshest of challenges. |
| Charities & Non-Profits |
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Bisexual Resource Center The Bisexual Resource Center is an organization dedicated to providing support for bisexual, pansexual and other queer individuals, and raising public awareness about bisexual and queer rights. |
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Black Aids Institute The Black Aids Institution works to promote awareness to prevent HIV and AIDS in African American communities. |
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CenterLink CenterLink works to provide centers and spaces for LGBTQIA+ individuals that nurture healthy, safe and thriving communities. |
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Family Equality Council The Family Equality Council is an organization that works to advance both legal and experienced equality for queer and non-traditional families. LGBTQIA+ families raise their kids, plan for the future and experience the world just like any other family. The Family Equality Council seeks to provide a safer world for them to do so. |
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FIERCE Based in New York and dedicated to uplifting LGBTQIA+ youth of color, FIERCE is a membership-based organization focused on youth-led campaigns, leadership programs and cultural development. |
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Gender Diversity Gender Diversity supports awareness, understanding and education about children with various gender identities. They provide family support and community building to meet the needs of kids across the gender spectrum. |
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GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is an organization dedicated to LGBTQIA+ representation in media. Their mission is centered around cultural change and conversations about queer identities. |
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GLSEN GLSEN (pronounced "glisten") is the leading national education organization that works to transform K-12 schools into safe and affirming environments and ensure that LGBTQ students are able to learn and grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment. 8 out of 10 LGBT students are still harassed at school each year because of who they are, but GLSEN is working to change that through researching and developing evidence-based solutions, and providing resources for educators to use in their school communities. |
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Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign is a legal lobbying group dedicated to LGBTQIA+ rights and laws. It is the largest lobbying group representing the queer community, and they conduct legal action for the rights and protection of LGBTQIA+ people. |
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ILGA The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association is a global organization that works with international policies and campaigns for LGBTQIA+ rights worldwide. |
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It Gets Better Project The It Gets Better Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting, empowering, and connecting LGBTQ youth across the globe. In 2010, Dan Savage and his partner, Terry Miller, started a global movement with these three words. It began as a widespread social media campaign to provide hope, encouragement, and community to LGBTQ youth, and has now evolved into a major platform, reaching millions of young people each year. Their ultimate goal remains the same: showing LGBTQ youth that although growing up isn’t easy, no one has to do it alone. |
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Lambda Legal Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is an organization that upholds LGBTQIA+ and HIV/AIDS rights through education and public policy work. |
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National Black Justice Coalition As an initiative to uplift black queer people, the National Black Justice Coalition aims to influence public policy, build stronger families and strive for authentic and meaningful representation. |
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National Center for Transgender Equality The National Center for Transgender Equality is the nation’s leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people. They work at the local, state, and federal level to advance transgender equality. Their services also include resources for trans people on navigating legal issues such as changing the name and gender on their identification documents and an About Transgender People resource hub, where family members and other allies can go to find information to learn about and support the transgender people in their lives. |
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PFLAG PFLAG is the first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, their parents and families, and allies. With over 400 chapters and 200,000 members and supporters crossing multiple generations of families in major urban centers, small cities, and rural areas across America, PFLAG is committed to creating a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected, valued, and affirmed. |
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The Trans Justice Funding Project The Trans Justice Funding Project provides grants and funding to grassroots groups working toward trans justice and prosperity. |
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The Transgender Law Center The Transgender Law Center specifically works to fight for legal rights and laws for transgender people. |
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The Trevor Project The Trevor Project focuses primarily on LGBTQIA+ youth and mental health, providing a hotline and other prevention efforts to help young queer people. They seek to provide a safe place for queer youth to heal and find support. |
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Trans Lifeline Trans Lifeline supports transgender individuals experiencing crises. It is a hotline for the trans community, by the trans community, to uplift individuals and offer support by providing a safe space. |
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Trans Women of Color Collective An education and awareness organization, the Trans Women of Color Collective works to uplift and raise awareness for their lived experiences. They are devoted to healing and justice, tackling various issues specific to their community. |
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Trans Youth Equality Foundation The Trans Youth Equality Foundation seeks to provide support, resources and advocacy for transgender and gender non-conforming kids and their families and support systems. |
| Documentaries |
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The Queen (1968) In 1967, New York City is host to the Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant. This documentary from Frank Simon takes a look behind the scenes, transporting the viewer into rehearsals and dressing rooms as the drag queen subculture prepares for this big national beauty contest. Jack/Sabrina is the master/mistress of ceremonies, and his protégé, Richard/Miss Harlow, is in the competition. But, as the pageant approaches, the glamorous contestants veer from camaraderie to tension. Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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Before Stonewall (1984) The riots that followed the arrests at New York City's Stonewall Inn in 1969 are widely considered to be a major development in the history of gay and lesbian rights in America. This documentary investigates national cultural perceptions of homosexuality before the event, looking back on previous decades, particularly in regard to conflicts with police and censorship. In addition to interviews with activists and scholars, the film includes the reflections of renowned writer Allen Ginsberg. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) Operating from his camera store in San Francisco's Castro district, charismatic Harvey Milk is defeated three times before being elected to the city's Board of Supervisors, making him California's first openly gay public official. On the job he meets fellow supervisor Dan White, a homophobic ex-fireman with whom Milk develops a troubled working relationship. White grows increasingly disgruntled, resigns from his position and subsequently assassinates both Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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Paris Is Burning (1990) This documentary focuses on drag queens living in New York City and their "house" culture, which provides a sense of community and support for the flamboyant and often socially shunned performers. Groups from each house compete in elaborate balls that take cues from the world of fashion. Also touching on issues of racism and poverty, the film features interviews with a number of renowned drag queens, including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey. Available on: Apple TV |
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Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1992) This documentary about lesbians in Canada alternates between fiction and non-fiction. Along with interviews of real women who discuss coming to terms with their sexuality during the '40s, '50s and '60s, there are dramatized scenes based on the "Beebo Brinker Chronicles," a series of hard-boiled lesbian pulp novels by Ann Bannon published during the '50s. Meanwhile, the interviewed women talk about Vancouver and Toronto's gay scenes of the time, which were their own pulp-worthy underworlds. Available on: Amazon Prime Video |
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Outrage (2009) Oscar-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick directs this shocking and passionate indictment of the clandestine hypocrisy of many closeted homosexuals in Washington, D.C. The individuals under scrutiny here are policymakers who have widely disparaged and worked to bring down the LGBT population, while hiding their own sexual identities. Shedding light on these realities, Dick also goes on to discuss the media's role in encouraging a neutral and at times closeted sexual orientation from politicians. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu, Pluto TV, Sling TV |
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We Were Here (2010) During the 1970s, San Francisco became a safe haven for the gay and lesbian community, providing a place where one could live openly, away from discrimination. But, after almost a decade of celebration, the city was hit by a wave of shock and grief when it became ground zero of the AIDS epidemic, with hundreds of gay men falling victim to the disease. Director David Weissman explores the incredible story of love and loss through the eyes of five men and women who experienced it firsthand. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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The New Black (2013) A documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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State of Pride (2019) Fifty years after the Stonewall uprising, Oscar®-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and host Raymond Braun travel to three diverse communities – Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama – for an unflinching look at LGBTQ Pride, from the perspective of a younger generation for whom it still has personal urgency. Available on: YouTube |
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Disclosure (2020) Disclosure examines the history of transgender visibility from the earliest days of cinema to TV’s current scripted dramas -- and how that has evolved over decades. The documentary features interviews with Executive Producer Laverne Cox as well as Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, Chaz Bono and more as they share their own experiences of seeing themselves represented (or misrepresented) onscreen in everything from Dog Day Afternoon to The Crying Game, and shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word and Pose. Available on: Netflix |
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Pride (2021) A six-episode limited docuseries that shines a spotlight on some of the most celebrated LGBTQ milestones and trailblazers, along with lesser-known pivotal moments and activists going back to the 1950s. In addition to chronicling the struggles the LGBTQ community has faced, the docuseries also showcases the joy and love found in queer spaces. Available on: FX, Hulu |
| Films |
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Desert Hearts (1985) A romantic drama film set in Reno, Nevada in 1959, it tells the story of a university professor awaiting a divorce who finds her true self through a relationship with another, more self-confident woman. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO MAX |
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My Own Private Idaho (1991) An adventure drama following two friends, Mike Waters and Scott Favor, as they embark on a journey of personal discovery that takes them from Portland, Oregon to Mike's hometown in Idaho, and then to Rome in search of Mike's mother. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) A road comedy film following two drag queens and a transgender woman as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named "Priscilla", along the way encountering various groups and individuals. The film's title references the slang term "queen" for a drag queen or female impersonator. Available on: Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube |
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Bound (1996) A neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by the Wachowskis in their feature film directorial debut. Violet, who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar, enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con Corky, and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of Mafia money. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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The Birdcage (1996) Armand Goldman is the openly gay owner of a drag club in South Beach called The Birdcage; his life partner Albert, an effeminate and flamboyant man, plays Starina, the star attraction of the club. They live together in an apartment above The Birdcage with Agador, their flamboyant Guatemalan housekeeper who aspires to be in Albert's drag show. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Peacock, Paramount+, YouTube, Google Play |
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Boys Don’t Cry (1999) A biographical film dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, an American trans man who attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska but falls victim to a brutal hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu |
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Angels in America (2003) Set in 1985, the film revolves around six New Yorkers whose lives intersect. At its core, it is the fantastical story of Prior Walter, a gay man living with AIDS who is visited by an angel. The film explores a wide variety of themes, including Reagan era politics, the spreading AIDS epidemic, and a rapidly changing social and political climate. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
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Brokeback Mountain (2005) A 2005 American Neo-Western romantic drama film that depicts the complex emotional and sexual relationship between two American male cowboys named Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the American West from 1963 to 1983. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, Apple TV, Peacock, YouTube, Google Play |
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Milk (2008) A biographical film based on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Peacock, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu |
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The Normal Heart (2014) The film depicts the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play |
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Carol (2015) A romantic drama period film set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu |
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Call Me by Your Name (2017) A coming-of-age romantic drama set in 1983 in northern Italy, chronicles the romantic relationship between a 17-year-old, Elio Perlman, and Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate-student assistant to Elio's father, an archaeology professor. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Starz |
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God’s Own Country (2017) A romantic drama following a young sheep farmer in Yorkshire whose life is transformed by a male Romanian migrant worker. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube |
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A Fantastic Woman (2017) A drama set in Santiago, Chile features Marina, a transgender woman who works as a waitress and moonlights as a nightclub singer, who is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu |
| Television |
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Will & Grace (1998-2006, 2017-2020) Set in New York City, the show focuses on the friendship between best friends Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and Grace Adler, a straight interior designer. Will & Grace has been one of the most successful television series with gay principal characters. Since the final episode of the 1998–2006 run aired, the sitcom has been credited with helping and improving public opinion of the LGBT community, with then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden commenting that the show "probably did more to educate the American public" on LGBT issues "than almost anything anybody has ever done so far". Available on: Hulu, NBC, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Six Feet Under (2001-2005) The show follows Nate Fisher; whose funeral director father dies and bequeaths ownership of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home to Nate and his other son David. The Fisher clan also includes widow Ruth Fisher and daughter Claire Fisher. Other regulars include mortician and family friend Federico Diaz, Nate's on-again/off-again girlfriend Brenda Chenowith, and David's long-term boyfriend Keith Charles. The show has been nominated for and won Outstanding Drama Series at the GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. Available on: Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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The L Word (2004-2009) A drama that follows an ensemble cast of friends who live in West Hollywood, California; it featured American television's first ensemble cast depicting lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Available on: Hulu, Showtime, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-) The series follows "The Gang", a group of five misfit friends: twins Dennis and Deandra "(Sweet) Dee" Reynolds, their friends Charlie Kelly and Ronald "Mac" McDonald, and Frank Reynolds, Dennis' and Dee's legal father. The Gang runs the fictional Paddy's Pub, an unsuccessful Irish bar in South Philadelphia. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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The Fosters (2013-2018) An American family drama series follows the lives of the members of the Foster family led by lesbian couple Stef, a police officer, and Lena, a school vice principal, who raise one biological and four adopted teenagers in San Diego, California. The first season of The Fosters garnered particular acclaim for its portrayal of LGBT themes and earned two GLAAD Media Awards. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Freeform |
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Orange Is the New Black (2013-2019) The series begins revolving around Piper Chapman, a woman in her thirties living in New York City who is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary, a minimum-security women's federal prison in upstate New York. Chapman, along with the other inmates, attempt to grapple with prison's numerous, inherent struggles. The show has been nominated for and won Outstanding Comedy Series at the GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Looking (2014-2015) The show follows the experiences of three openly gay close friends living and loving in modern-day San Francisco. Looking was praised for its writing, direction, the performances of the ensemble and its fresh take on an LGBT-centric narrative. Available on: Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Transparent (2014-2019) The story revolves around a Los Angeles family and their lives following the discovery that their parent is a trans woman named Maura. The show has been nominated for and won Outstanding Comedy Series at the GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. Available on: Amazon Prime Video |
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One Mississippi (2015-2017) The series is inspired by events in comic Tog Notaro’s life. Los Angeles radio host Tig Bavaro returns to Bay St. Lucille, Mississippi, after receiving news that her mother, Caroline, will be taken off life support following an unexpected fall. Recovering from both a double mastectomy and a C. difficile infection, Tig moves in temporarily alongside her brother Remy and her stepfather, Bill. While caring for family affairs after Caroline's death, Tig learns about her mother's past as it was lived, rather than as Tig first remembered it, and in doing so rediscovers life in Bay St. Lucille. Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) A romantic musical comedy-drama series following a lawyer who moves from New York City to West Covina, California to pursue her ex from high-school camp. The show has been nominated for multiple GLAAD Media Awards and has included several queer characters during it’s run including bisexual characters Darryl Whitefeather and Valencia Perez. Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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The Magicians (2015-2020) Quentin Coldwater enrolls at Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy to be trained as a magician, where he discovers that the magical world from his favorite childhood book is real and poses a danger to humanity. Meanwhile, the life of his childhood friend Julia is derailed when she is denied entry, and she searches for magic elsewhere outside of the school. The show features many queer characters including fan-favorite Eliot. Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Empire (2015-2020) The series centers on the fictional hip hop music and entertainment company Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders' family as they fight for control of it. The series has been nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020) The series follows the formerly wealthy Rose family's trials and tribulations. After Rose's business manager embezzles the family business, Rose Video, the family loses its fortune and relocates to Schitt's Creek, a small town they once purchased as a joke. Now living in a motel, Johnny Rose and Moira Rose —along with their adult children, David and Alexis —must adjust to life without money and with each other. The show has been nominated for and won Outstanding Comedy Series at the GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. Available on: Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Billions (2016-) The series tells the story of hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod, as he accumulates wealth and power in the world of high finance. Axelrod's aggressive tactics to secure high returns frequently cross over into the illegal—acts that United States Attorney Chuck Rhoades attempts to prosecute. A large ensemble secondary cast supports the series' story arcs. Billions is considered the first American TV series to have a non-binary character, Taylor Mason. As such it was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series in the 29th, 30th, 31st GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. Available on: Hulu, Showtime, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Legends of Tomorrow (2016-) The series, based on the characters of DC Comics, is a spin-off featuring characters introduced in Arrow and The Flash along with new characters, set in the Arrowverse, the same fictional universe. It is the fourth series in the Arrowverse, after Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. The series includes many queer characters including Sara, Constantine, and Ava. Available on: Hulu, Netflix, The CW, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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One Day at a Time (2017-2020) The show revolves around a Cuban-American family living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park, focusing on a single mother who is an Army veteran dealing with PTSD, her kids and her Cuban mother. The re-imagination of the original CBS sitcom tackles issues like mental illness, immigration, sexism, homophobia, gender identity, and racism that Latin people living in the United States face. Available on: Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ |
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Pose (2018 – 2021) is an American drama television series about New York City's African-American and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming drag ball culture scene in the 1980s and, in the second season, early 1990s. Featured characters are dancers and models who compete for trophies and recognition in this underground culture, and who support one another in a network of chosen families known as Houses. Available on: Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Killing Eve (2018-2022) A British black comedy-drama spy thriller series follows Eve Polastri, a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing psychopathic assassin Villanelle. As the chase progresses, the two develop a mutual obsession. Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Gentleman Jack (2019-) Set in the year 1832 in Yorkshire, it follows landowner and industrialist Anne Lister. The series is based on the collected diaries of Lister, which contain over four million words and are written largely in secret code, documenting a lifetime of lesbian relationships. Available on: Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Special (2019-2021) A semi-autobiographical comedy series based on Ryan O’Connell’s memoir. He plays Ryan, a gay man with cerebral palsy who decides to do away with his identity as an accident victim and go after the life that he wants. After years of dead-end internships, blogging in his pajamas and mainly communicating through text, Ryan figures out how to take his life from bleak to chic as he gets ready to start limping toward adulthood. Available on: Netflix |
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Betty (2020-) A teen comedy series focused on a group of diverse young women’s efforts to stand out in New York's predominantly male world of skateboarding. When they’re not smoking weed or performing flips and tricks on their skateboards, the series sees the characters delve into societal issues such as race, gender, class and sexual assault. The beauty of Betty is how these serious conversations aren’t sensationalized for television. It’s an authentic portrayal of the struggles faced by young women in 2020. Available on: Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV |
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Feel Good (2020-2021) The series follows recovering addict and comedian Mae, who is trying to control the addictive behaviors and intense romanticism with George, a repressed English woman, that permeate every facet of her life. Available on: Netflix |
November 12, 2021