The best LGBTQ TV shows to stream during Pride Month and beyond

With all the LGBTQ TV shows around right now, it can be hard to pick a favorite. Luckily, we don't have to, as we plan on binging our way through every single one. After a long history of being hidden, overlooked or ignored altogether, the TV world is finally making space for and celebrating the beautiful love stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary people. 

While O.G. sitcom Will & Grace is often credited for revolutionizing gay representation on the small screen, the world has thankfully come a long way, allowing more diverse portrayals of the LGBTQ+ community to be aired in myriad series. From game-changers like Pose (one of the best things on TV!) and Euphoria, which provides authentic storytelling centering on transgender leads, to long-time favorites like The L Word and Orange Is The New Black, the list is growing fast.

Here are a few of our go-to titles when we need some real, stereotype-free LGBTQ+ presence on our TV screens, for Pride Month and beyond!

LGBT TV shows to watch during Pride Month and beyond:

Euphoria

• Where to watch: Max

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that Euphoria is the moment. Led by a stellar cast including Zendaya (who plays Rue) and Hunter Schafer (Jules), the HBO teen drama is one of the most successful TV shows in recent years thanks to its unapologetic approach to tackling difficult coming-of-age storylines, from drug addiction and assault to sexuality and identity. Rue and Jules' relationship is an innocent and beautiful portrayal of same-sex teenage love, whilst also providing a refreshingly effortless portrayal of trans life through Jules' experiences. 

Pose

• Where to watch: FX, Netflix

Set in the 1980s, Pose is a dance musical that explores the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York through the lens of a community of LGBTQ youth. The show features five transgender actresses as series regulars, the most for any prime-time TV series in history. It is also written and produced by members of the LGBTQ community, including co-creators Steven Canals and Ryan Murphy, executive producer Nina Jacobson, and trans screenwriters and directors Janet Mock and Silas Howard.

Sex Education

• Where to watch: Netflix

No matter what your specific sexuality or gender, the birds and the bees are always a weird and wonderful business, a fact that this Netflix teen dramedy totally, ahem, nails. The high school show does a great job representing youthful experiences, but especially—and refreshingly—those of queer teens of color, including the ebullient Eric Effiong (played by Ncuti Gatwa), Ola Nyman (Patricia Allison) and Rahim Harrak (Sami Outalbali). 

Schitt's Creek

• Where to watch: Hulu

Over the course of six seasons, what started out as yet another TV show about "rich people behaving badly" (hello, Succession and The White Lotus) became a lovable, comedic ode to inclusivity, acceptance and, yes, queerness. The relationship between pansexual David Rose (Dan Levy) and his partner Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid) was one of TV's sweetest love stories, punctuated by one of the most movingly romantic performances of a Tina Turner song that we've ever heard. Simply the best, indeed. 

Yellowjackets

• Where to watch: Showtime, Paramount+

Yes, queer drama will follow you even when you're stranded in the remote Canadian woods. Thankfully, the burgeoning relationship between Taissa Turner (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Van Palmer (Liv Hewson) is one of the rare bright spots in the exceedingly bleak Showtime series, which follows a high school girls' soccer team who must withstand cannibalism and cultish behavior in the wilderness after surviving a plane crash. On top of that, the show's LGBTQ bonafides get a big boost from a cast that includes '90s queer icons Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci. 

XO, Kitty

• Where to watch: Netflix

One of the newest entries into TV's queer history, XO, Kitty is Netflix's spinoff of the beloved To All The Boys film franchise, following Lara Jean Covey's younger sister Kitty  (Anna Cathcart) as she navigates Korean boarding school, teen romance and her own sexuality. The plucky teen finds herself in the middle of a multi-gender love triangle with Dae (Minyeong Choi) and Dae's girlfriend, Yuri (Gia Kim), whom Kitty realizes she's also developing feelings for. The show smartly doesn't confine young Kitty to a label, with Cathcart telling Variety: "It’s a process. That’s part of what makes it beautiful. She’s never apologizing for how she’s feeling, she’s never apologizing for who she is or what she’s going through, which is something we were all very aware of."

Betty

• Where to watch: Max

Betty may have been canceled after just one season but what a season it was. Not because anything major happened (because it didn't), but because it simply showed a group of laid-back queer people living their lives and existing in the typically male-dominated skater world. We loved to see it!

Heartstopper

• Where to watch: Netflix

Based on the Alice Oseman graphic novel, this coming-of-age charmer follows a spirited band of British teens: the openly gay Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and his crush, rugby player Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), as well as the growing romance between Charlie's BFFs, a bright trans girl named Elle Argent (Yasmin Finney) and her cis boyfriend Tao Xu (William Gao). The Netflix series sensitively chronicles the specificity of the young characters' stories, while hitting those classic growing-pains themes that are universal to all of us. 

Elite

• Where to watch: Netflix

Often described as the Spanish version of Gossip Girl, Elite on Netflix is a scandalous teen drama that provides everything you'd want from a show about a group of rich private-school kids who act like they're 30 when they're all 16. The show tackles plenty of complex storylines, including the relationship between teen lovers Ander (played by Arón Piper) and Omar (Omar Ayuso), who comes from a strict Muslim family. The show explores sexuality and queerness through multiple characters throughout its five seasons. 

Gentleman Jack

• Where to watch: BBC

You can't go wrong with a show about the "first modern lesbian", especially when it's based on a true story. The British period drama is one of our all-time favorite queer shows, mainly because it avoids all the typical cliches and stereotypes about lesbian love by following the very detailed, four-million-words coded diary that the the19th-century woman it was inspired by left behind. She was the very same woman who made history in Britain for having the first lesbian wedding with her partner. 

The Fosters

• Where to watch: Freeform, Hulu

The Fosters, which gave us the spin-off Good Trouble, sees lesbian couple Stef (a dedicated police officer) in a relationship with Lena as they build a close-knit family of adopted kids that they raise and guide through the many hardships in their lives. Airing for five seasons before its cancellation in 2018, the show is a loving portrayal of same-sex marriage and a strong family unit.

Killing Eve

• Where to watch: BBC, Hulu

Killing Eve had us all in a chokehold when it first aired back in 2018, right until it wrapped up its fourth season earlier this year. The drama follows the cat-and-mouse chase between MI5 officer Eve (Sandra Oh) and incredibly smart assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). The two quickly grow obsessed with one another and it doesn't take long before their love-have relationship turns into pure love because, let's face it, they're meant for each other! 

Orange Is the New Black

• Where to watch: Netflix

There was no way we'd forget the Netflix series that paved the way for what the streamer is today. Starring Natasha Lyonne, Laverne Co, Samira Wiley and Uzo Aduba in its large ensemble cast, Orange Is The New Black gave us an insight into life inside a women's prisons like no television show had ever done before, including multiple love bisexual and lesbian love stories, notably the on-again-off-again saga between Piper (Taylor Schilling) and Alex (Laura Prepon).

The L Word/The L Word Generation Q

• Where to watch: Hulu

The L Word was one of the first TV shows to make space for and represent gay love stories centered around women. The show, which began airing back in 2004 followed the lives and loves of a group of lesbians and bisexuals in Los Angeles. After wrapping up in 2009, the seminal series was rebooted ten years later in 2019 with The L Word: Generation Q, where the original group reunited, with some new additions, too. 

Genera+ion

• Where to watch: Max

Genera+ion debuted on HBO Max last year with its first season, following a group of high school students exploring modern sexuality and testing deeply entrenched beliefs about life, love and the nature of family in their conservative community. Everything about it gives Gen-Z, so prepared to be hooked! 

Twenties

• Where to watch: BET

Twenties is a semi-autobiographical series created by Lena Waithe, providing the Black queer representation we so often miss on TV shows.  It follows Hattie, an aspiring screenwriter and queer Black woman in her twenties, and her two straight best friends, Marie and Nia, as they navigate life in Los Angeles, from careers to friendship and love. Oh, and rapper Big Sean (Ariana Grande's ex) is in the cast, too! 

Will & Grace

• Where to watch: Hulu

Ah, Will & Grace. A true classic! The sitcom first premiered in 1998 and ran for eight whole seasons before it wrapped up. It follows best friends Will, a meticulous corporate lawyer who happens to be gay, and Grace, a neurotic interior decorator, who share a New York apartment after Grace leaves her fiancé at the altar. Along with their friends Karen (a hilarious socialite)  and Jack( a free-spirited actor), the foursome pretty much live their best lives. The beloved series had a revival from 2017 through 2020, with its eleventh and final season ending in October 2019.