Guides to Pride can be a complicated endeavor these days, as the annual celebration of LGBTQ+ identity now regularly involves the very forces — corporations, cops — it once stood against. And don’t even get us started on our mixed feelings about celebrating queer stories from Hollywood networks and studios that too often waver when their courtship of LGBTQ+ audiences becomes politically inconvenient.
And yet. At a moment when LGBTQ+ people and their civil rights are under fire from conservative groups and right-wing politicians, it’s important to be reminded of our vibrant presence in every nook and cranny of society, real and fictional, past and present. So we’ve pulled together a list of eight new TV series — or returning TV series with new seasons — to catch up with this Pride Month.
After all, the old saying never really gets old: We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.
‘Book of Queer’
The most appropriate way to kick off Pride Month is with a celebration of LGBTQ+ history, honoring the heroes who likely never imagined there would be a monthlong explosion of rainbow merchandise and corporate statements. With the help of queer historians and experts, “The Book of Queer” aims to shed light on historical figures whose contributions have been overlooked, or their queer identities erased, by mainstream society. Narrated by queer icons and featuring an entirely LGBTQ+ ensemble cast, the five-episode series will include stories about Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, Josephine Baker, Harvey Milk, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and more. As conservative lawmakers across the nation attempt to ban educators from even acknowledging the existence of queer and trans people in classrooms, this series, infusing facts with comedy and musical fun, is a vital reminder that LGBTQ+ people have existed throughout history.
