The Best LGBTQ+ Shows and Movies on Streaming 2024

The Owl House

In recent years, animated shows have been able to include more diverse sets of characters in more prominent roles, and The Owl House is a great example. It’s about Luz Noceda, a human girl who stumbles into a world of demons and magic, determined to become a witch herself. Following in the footsteps of Gravity Falls, Star vs the Forces of Evil, and Amphibia, it provides a rich fantasy world for kids and adults alike.

Elton John: Farewell From Dodger Stadium

It doesn’t advertise it a whole lot, but Disney+ is home to a lot of filmed concerts. If you weren’t able to score tickets to Elton John’s farewell tour, you can experience it from the comfort of your living room for two and a half hours of music with the gay icon. (You can also catch his biopic Rocketman on Sling TV).

Nimona

If you were on Tumblr in the 2010s, you might remember Nimona. ND Stevenson’s hit webcomic eventually became a graphic novel before the now-shuttered Blue Sky Productions adapted it into a film.

Disney killed the film when it bought Fox, but Netflix saved it from oblivion and released it in 2023. The result is a wonderful film about being a shapeshifter in a world of knights taught to hate you.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power may have only aired for a year and a half, but it quickly became a cult favorite over its five seasons. Princesses of Power reinvented the ’80s character for the modern age, and fleshed out the stories of a diverse group of heroes and villains from the original series.

The best part of She-Ra? Unlike Masters of the Universe: Revelation, you don’t need to be familiar with any of the original shows to follow along.

Heartstopper

Heartstopper is a super-tropey teen romance filled with misunderstandings, milkshakes, and on-screen text messages. So many on-screen text messages. This isn’t an easy show to watch while multitasking. But if you like coming-out stories for a slightly younger audience, this one’s for you.

Heartstopper season 2 premiered on August 3.

Warrior Nun

This show may have ended before its prime, but for the two seasons that it existed, Warrior Nun was a great show about a bisexual girl who comes back from the dead only to be saddled with the legacy of an order of secret warrior nuns keeping the world safe from otherworldly forces. The costuming and fight choreography were unmatched.

There are whispers of a mysterious website, though, which seems to be counting down to August 15. Could this be season 3? A graphic novel? Or something else?

Dead End: Paranormal Park

Here’s yet another show that was canceled too soon, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying the two seasons that we did get. Dead End is about a transgender teenager named Barney who gets a job as a security guard at an extremely haunted amusement park. While it’s not getting another season, the very similar Deadendia comics that inspired the show are still ongoing.

It’d be great if Netflix would stop canceling its LGBTQ+ titles, though.

Our Flag Means Death

Our Flag Means Death is maybe the biggest stealth hit of 2022. Airing in drops of two or three episodes at a time, it never advertised itself as an LGBTQ+ show, but let the story speak for itself. That strategy worked out, and word of mouth turned it into one of Max’s most popular shows.

We expect season 2 in late 2023 or early 2024.

Harley Quinn

Looking for an adult animated comedy? Harley Quinn will provide. From King Shark to the Joker, this show transforms the usually ultra-gritty, dark and serious DC characters into something a little more fun. It’s almost enough to fill the Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey–shaped hole in our hearts.

Harley Quinn season 4 began on July 27.

Crush

The streaming wars have brought us a lot of straight teen rom-coms: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before from Netflix, Moonshot from HBO, etc. But Hulu’s contender, Crush, stands out by providing a lighthearted story about the sapphic scene at one high school’s track team.

Just be prepared—as you can tell from the trailer, the characters don’t shy away from talking about sex, making this movie TV-MA.

Fire Island

Have you ever caught yourself wishing for a gay, R-rated Pride and Prejudice retelling set off the coast of modern-day New York? Maybe one starring Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, and Matt Rogers? Today’s your lucky day.

We’ve seen this story played out a lot of times—once even involving zombies— but Fire Island puts enough of a twist on the classic to enchant audiences all over again.

Wheel of Time

On its surface, Wheel of Time seems like another Game of Thrones wannabe, but it has its own charms. It seems to be diverging from its source material in a positive way, especially when it comes to one of the show’s protagonists Moiraine and her partner, Siuan.

In a fantasy setting where gender plays an important role (even if that concept of gender is so far, very binary), it makes sense for them to explore same-sex relationships the books only hinted at.

Good Omens

Season Two of Good Omens is fast approaching—July 28 on Amazon Prime—so this is the perfect time to catch up. Based on the classic book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett, this is one of those rare adaptations that actually does its source material justice. In fact, it did so well that it’s continuing even beyond the ending of the book, so even superfans don’t know what to expect next.

Pride

If you’re stuck waiting for the final season of Stranger Things and want more ’80s content, well, there’s already a lot of ’80s content out there. But we like 2014’s Pride for the way it centers real gay and lesbian activists as they struggle to support a striking miner’s union in Wales. Also, Andrew Scott from Fleabag is in it, if that persuades you.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury

Taking cues from the classic Revolutionary Girl Utena, this anime is about a teenage pilot-in-training named Suletta Mercury who wins her first-ever mech suit duel, winning an engagement to a powerful CEO’s daughter, Miorine. In addition to becoming Miorine’s groom, she has to constantly battle other students to maintain her title as the school’s “holder.”

However, this is also an installment in the long-running Mobile Suit Gundam series, so it quickly becomes a grim exploration of the horrors of war and the ethics of being a weapons manufacturer.

Yuri!!! on ICE

Yuri!!! on ICE is sports anime at its finest, a story about a competitive figure skater named Yuri whose viral performance lands him a mentorship with the current world champion. The show follows Yuri as he gets closer to his dream of becoming a world champion himself—and as he gets closer to his mentor, Victor.

Willow

This series from Lucasfilm is a sequel to the 1988 movie, but you don’t need to have watched it to enjoy the new story. Years after the original adventure, the kingdom is once again in danger as evil forces kidnap Queen Sorscha’s son, Prince Airk. A new adventuring party sets out to rescue him, including Airk’s sister, the rebellious Princess Kit; Kit’s “best friend,” the knight-in-training Jade; and Airk’s fiancé, a maid called Dove with a mysterious and magical past.

Unfortunately, Disney+ removed Willow from its platform on May 26, so you won’t be able to legally stream it anywhere for the moment.

Runaways

This Marvel show made some interesting departures from the original comics, but one positive change it made was in the relationship between Karolina Dean and Nico Minoru. The original comics, about a group of teens who find out their parents are supervillains, came out in 2005, when the state of comics was very different. (Iceman wasn’t even gay yet! Dark times.)

But this show fast-tracks their relationship, something that took the comics fifteen years to figure out.

Unfortunately, Disney+ and Hulu both removed Runaways from its platforms on May 26, but you can still watch it on video-on-demand (VOD):

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

This show didn’t get a ton of press (unless, like mine, your TikTok algorithm is very in tune to this kind of thing), but it’s a show that everyone should watch. Rise of the Pink Ladies is a prequel to the classic 1978 film Grease, following Frenchie’s older sister in her campaign to become class president and fight sexism and racism at Rydell High. Also, it’s a musical and the choreography and staging are phenomenal, often paying homage to visuals from the original.

Unfortunately, Rise of the Pink Ladies was canceled and removed from Paramount+ shortly after its finale, but it’s coming to DVD on November 7 and you can still find it on VOD: