9 Great, Oft-Overlooked LGBTQ Shows to Watch for Pride Month

June is Pride Month, and though this year's festivities will look a lot different than previous years due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are other ways to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Our suggestion, given that we're TV Guide? Since you can't get out and surround yourself with like minds at a Pride parade, there's no shame in surrounding yourself with some good queer-friendly television.

We've compiled a list of nine shows involving the LGBTQ community that are heartfelt, humorous, real, and educational, representing almost every slices of queerness. But we didn't include obvious picks like Queer Eye, Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, or The L Word -- you've either seen them already or know where to find them -- instead emphasizing shows that may have slipped under your radar or are worthy recent releases. 

Looking for more recommendations of what to watch next? We have a ton of them! And if you're looking for more hand-picked recommendations based on shows you love, we have those too.

Vida

Watch it on: Starz

Set in East L.A.'s vibrant Latinx community, Vida follows the story of two sisters trying to heal a fractured family after losing their mother. Emma (Mishel Prada) and Lyn's (Melissa Barrera) mourning is complicated by their mother's secrets, mainly the emergence of a domestic partner they never knew about. Confronted by their mother's closeted queer sexuality, the sisters come to see themselves, their rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, and their connection to the Latinx community in a new light. Filled with moving emotional arcs and sensuous queer sex scenes that defy the cis male gaze, Vida is vital viewing. – Krutika Mallikarjuna

Visible: Out on Television

Watch it on: Apple TV+

Apple TV+'s expansive and carefully paced history of LGBTQ+ people on TV deserves kudos for its thoughtful, authoritative, and exhausting summation. Even if it weren't packed with the most well-known queer people on TV, Visible: Out on Television does an excellent job of tracking how gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary people have been depicted on television from its earliest days -- including the frantic, hyper-paranoid news reports of the 1950s declaring queer people a menacing threat. It's practically a college course, methodically chronicling representation throughout the decades through archival footage, news reports and the like, but its abundant first-person testimonials from practically every living queer TV star you can think of (plus allies like Oprah, Billy Crystal and more) make Visible: Out on Television an invaluable educational tool for everyone who watches. –Malcolm Venable

Looking

Watch it on: HBO Max

Looking was HBO's answer to Showtime's Queer as Folk and pulled Jonathan Groff off Broadway and into the TV limelight (no, Glee doesn't count because that was basically Broadway on TV). The dramedy centered on Patrick (Groff) and his queer friends as they tried to figure out life and love in San Francisco. The series only lasted two seasons and a movie -- making it a pretty quick binge -- but we love how messy Patrick and his friends get in such a short period of time while simultaneously shining a light on issues like dating someone who is HIV+ and body shaming within the queer community. It's just a fun time, and you can prepare to fight with people about being Team Richie or Team Kevin. – Megan Vick

Work in Progress

Watch it on: Showtime

"I am not delusional, I am pathetic," comedian Abby McEnany says in this semi-autobiographical comedy about a 45-year old, self-proclaimed fat, queer dyke mired in depression and OCD. Sounds like a riot, right? Abby's neurotic behavior turns out to be an endearing quality, as she embarks on getting her life back on track thanks to a new romantic relationship with a trans man. The Chicago-set comedy offers a real look at the LGBTQ community -- as well as the unique details that come with dating in the community -- and it's incredibly funny and sweet, with McEnany proving that she should have had a TV show a long time ago. – Tim Surette

The Bisexual

Watch it on: Hulu

Created by Desiree Akhavan (director of Miseducation of Cameron Post) and Rowan Riley, The Bisexual is an intimate dramedy that explores the fallout of Leila (Akhavan) breaking off a decade-long lesbian relationship and exploring her bisexuality for the first time. What could be a trite, agonizing premise drowning in tropes evolves into an unflinching look at a community that stands divided by its diversity just as often as it stands united by it. This is not a show that's interested in defining bisexuality, or queerness even; the series prefers to explore the many different ways queer folks connect with the people around them. Despite being filled with characters who frequently say the wrong thing, The Bisexual is a rare series in which the nuances around queer sexuality and community are allowed to move the conversation forward. – Krutika Mallikarjuna

Pose

Watch it on: Hulu, Netflix

How wrong we were to believe we'd seen a full, three-dimensional representation of the LGBTQ community on TV before Pose arrived in 2018. The FX series, set decades ago in the New York City ballroom community, has served to show us how much we don't know and haven't seen. In this heartwarming and often hilarious drama, the trans women who started the ballroom scene -- the scene that's made black/Latinx gay lingo like "slay," "read," and "spill the tea" mainstream -- get their due, making them the subject of the story instead of the afterthoughts. Through characters Blanca (Mj Rodriguez), Elektra (Dominique Jackson), Angel (Indya Moore), and Pray Tell (Billy Porter), we befriend queer people of color who've banded together for survival, for love, and the pursuit of happiness. It's radical for humanizing trans people and portraying their unique experiences with compassion, but it shouldn't be: It's fundamentally an engrossing, uplifting show stuffed with drama and heart. Consider it essential viewing. – Malcolm Venable

Feel Good

Watch it on: Netflix

This charming comedy series is about the important stuff: love, addiction, and stand-up. Co-creator Mae Martin stars in this semi-autobiographical sitcom as a Canadian stand-up comedian living in London who enters a relationship with a neurotic woman named George (Charlotte Ritchie), who has never been in a relationship with another woman before. Mae is a recovering addict who stopped using drugs a long time ago, but doesn't really go to 12-step meetings and still has addictive tendencies. Her new addiction is George. The show is about how addiction can come in many forms, not just with substances. It's honest, vulnerable, and drolly funny, like a more polite Fleabag. – Liam Mathews 

We're Here

Watch it on: HBO Max

This heartwarming, Queer Eye-ish docuseries follows Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O'Hara, and Shangela Laquifa Wadley as they travel to small towns across the country and put on empowering drag shows with locals who need some color in their lives. In the series premiere, they go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and meet a make-up artist who wants to foster a deeper relationship with his father and a conservative Christian mother who wants to reconnect with her estranged bisexual daughter, among others, and help them through the transformative power of drag. –Tim Surette

Gentleman Jack

Watch it on: HBO Max

Suranne Jones is a star across the pond but hasn't quite broken through with American audiences, but that should change with Gentleman Jack, as Jones playing Anne Lister -- the real-life industrialist in the 1800s whose 5 million-word coded diary forever changed the way lesbian history is viewed -- is a performance you'd be remiss not to watch. Creator Sally Wainwright more than does justice to the incredible true story of Lister and her romance with (and eventual marriage to) sheltered heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), but it's the cheekiness and heartbreak Jones brings to the lead role that makes this historical drama so compelling. –Sadie Gennis