It meant so much to get to see two hyper-independent and closed-off characters in Rosa Diaz and Raymond Holt, whose personalities and affect have been heavily informed by their queerness and repercussions for it, get to bond and be a little vulnerable together over identity. I’m so excited for the future of bisexual Rosa Diaz, who will not die on our televisions!!! -Rachel, Autostraddle’s Favorite and Least Favorite Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans Women TV Characters of 2017
Tig Notaro is a masculine-of-center middle-aged lesbian, which is something we never get to see on TV for starters, and we get to see her navigate falling in love and actually getting the girl. The series is so heartbreaking and it’s so sweet and it filled me with so much hope, which was a real feat for any piece of art in 2017. -Heather, Autostraddle’s Favorite and Least Favorite Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans Women TV Characters of 2017
This year has felt at times like wading through the deepest blue, like yes, I know, I know, like even joy and love and incredible bursts of good fortune were shot on a soundstage splayed against some type of thrumming, pitted navy blue. And in the wings, that threat of paunchy orange skin, its gaping mouth always open, fake teeth bared.
Life is tough all over, is a thing my Mom used to whip out as a hyperbolic response to our childhood protestations over small injustices like being asked to clean our rooms or eat an apple instead of a cookie. But that line came up again and again for me this year as an ultimate truth, not hyperbolic at all. This team has been through it — messy heartbreaks and breakups including actual divorces, the deaths of humans and beloved animals, frightening surgeries, health scares, crushing mental breakdowns. Then, over all of it: the daily tragicomedy of our current President and This F*cking Country. The terror of being ruled by a man who condones racism, sexual assault, anti-immigrant racism, sexism, anti-Semitisim and lies constantly, committed to oppressing the most oppressed above all else. Then, also. also. also.: white supremacists with tiki torches, devastating wildfires, floods and storms, incomprehensibly deadly shootings, and a finale in which a certain number of predatory men are being outed for what they are and how they have harmed us. A year of figuring out what it means to resist, a year of humility and panic, a year that seemed impossible until it turned out that it was in fact entirely possible, because here it is and here we still are. A year that brought tragedy in spades but reminded us of what and why and who we love, too.
When Elena comes out to her family, it’s about her. It’s not about some girl that’s waiting in the wings, equally smitten with her — though, in Season Two, that should totally happen because she’s adorable — it’s about Elena and this realization she’s come to about herself. Coming out is the moment we turn quiet revelations — borne, in Elena’s case, from countless hours of binge watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, staring longingly at Kristen Stewart and kissing the wrong people — into public pronouncements and One Day at a Time gives Elena the space to own that moment. -Natalie,
Autostraddle’s Favorite and Least Favorite Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans Women TV Characters of 2017
:sings in the style of Whitney Houston: IIImPOSSible things are happening every day.
