Tag Archives: Jane the Virgin

Gina Rodriguez Says She’s More Bisexual Than Her ‘Jane The Virgin’ Character

Asked about whether her character Jane Villanueva is bisexual in an interview with BUST magazine, Gina Rodriguez responded with…

Jane is the furthest from bisexual — maybe Gina’s a little closer than Jane is!

This is not the first time Rodriguez has hinted at sexuality either.

In 2016, she tweeted that she does not feel the need to define her sexuality. She loves ‘hearts.’

https://twitter.com/HereIsGina/status/745335294573051904

In the interview she also said she’d love to play the fictional girlfriend of bisexual actress Stephanie Beatriz.

Stephanie plays Detective Rosa Diaz in FOX comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

I want to play her love interest so bad. I really hope they make that happen.”

Series 4 of Jane The Virgin starts this October.

All Lesbian Or Bisexual Characters To Watch On Television This Month

This fall we have more queer women characters than ever before with more representation of women of color in pivotal roles. Network, cable and streaming staff are finding more ways to be inclusive of LGBTQ women. Here are 21 shows, new and returning that are giving gay and bi women some screen time.

1. Gotham

In the third series of Gotham the bisexual murderesses, Barbara and Tabitha are up to their usual tricks and getting themselves into a love triangle again! This series is aired on Fox. (Fox, Mondays 8/7c)

2. Shameless

This comedy is one of the queerest shows on TV, and this season might be one of the queerest with the thriving polyamorous throuple of Veronica, Kevin and Svetlana alongside Ian seeing his boyfriend french kissing a woman in the season premiere. Three isn’t really a crowd on this show, and sexual orientation has little to do with how anyone is treated. (Showtime, Sundays, 9/8c)

3. Scream Queens

Pansexual Chanel #3 has her investigation head on after reports of a new red devil have her friends mildly concerned about their lives. last season ended with Chanel #3 finding a love interest inside the mental institution. (FX, Tuesdays, 9/8c)

4. The Walking Dead

This long running show boasts a lesbian character Tara Chambler but they killed off her girlfriend, Denise, with an arrow to the eye last season. It will be interesting to see what is in store for her during season 7. (AMC, Sundays, 9/8c)

5. Easy

This Netflix series is about love, sex and relationships in Chicago and is very queer inclusive. It will feature one episode based entirely on a lesbian couple and another about a couple who go onto tinder to seek a woman for a threesome and ends up spending the night with a woman they already know. (Netflix, available now)

6. Code Black

In season 2, Dr. Malaya Pineda, who is one of a very few gay Indian characters on TV, lost her love last season and endured some professional setbacks as well. This season let’s hope things get a bit better for her. (CBS, Wednesdays, 10/9c)

7. Empire

Fox’s hit musical drama Empire boasted several queer women characters in the first two seasons, so we are sure to get some scenes involving a few of them and there may even be more queer women who pop up on occasion as well. (Fox, Wednesdays, 9/8c)

8. Younger

Younger is now in season 3 and we will see the return of Maggie who had a brief affair with Lauren, who was against being labelled. Here’s hoping that there is another romance on the horizon for her during this season. (TVLand, Wednesdays, 10/9c)

9. Legends Of Tomorrow

Sara Lance is a bisexual superhero character that is a force to be reckoned with! Last season she spent time with quite a few love interests so she is sure to enjoy some more encounters in season 2. (CW, Thursdays, 8/7c)

10. Mary And Jane

Best friends Jordan and Paige are mainly focused on expanding their marijuana delivery service, but when they aren’t working, their relationships (and sexual fantasies) tend to be of the sexually fluid variety and both enjoy fantasies involving other women. Jordan even enjoyed being the attention of a hetro couple only to discover they were using her to spice things up for them at home. (MTV, Mondays 10/9c)

11. Supergirl

The character Maggie Sawyer is a lesbian working for the National City Police Department and the exec. producer of the show has promised to keep her as gay as she is in the comic books. Supergirl can be seen on CW. (CW, Mondays 8/7c)

12. Jane The Virgin

Rosie and Luisa have an awful lot of chemistry between them both but as Rose married and then murdered Luisa’s father things are far than simple for them both. Season three premiers on 18th October. (CW, Mondays 9/8c)

13. The Mindy Project

Out comic Fortune Feimster is back full time in Season 5 and plays a nurse who is the gay sister of Jody. (Hulu, Tuesdays)

14. NCIS: New Orleans

A new out lesbian character, Tammy Gregorio, is an FBI agent with a mysterious past. She is brashy, ballsy and outspoken so she is sure to ruffle some feathers along the way. (CBS, Tuesdays, 10/9c)

15. American Housewife

This new comedy stars a character called Angela who is back, gay and going through a divorce. Angela and her friends see themselves as the outcasts of the town, so naturally they use their differences as a fun way to scare off the racist homophobes attempting to move in next door. (ABC, Tuesdays 8:30/7:30c)

16. Queen Sugar

This TV series, co-created by Oprah Winfrey, is about a black family trying to keep their family business going. The character, Nova Bordelon, one of the family members, is a journalist, activist and weed dealer whose bisexuality is not a problem for her brother and sister. (OWN, Wednesdays, 10/9c)

17. Transparent

Ali and Cherry Jones are still together at the beginning of Transparent‘s third season, so that’s something! And Sarah has finally accepted that she’s bisexual! (Amazon Prime)

18. Life In Pieces

Dougie, another character played by Fortune Femister, comes out in season two and she gets to experience her first gay bar and gets into other hilarious situations that are sure to make us smile. (CBS, Thursdays 9:30/8:30c)

19. How To Get Away With Murder

Annalise Keating is black and bisexual and she is as smart as she is mysterious, making her the kind of woman you both fear and fall head over heels for. Her on-again/off-again lover Eve is also set to appear in a few episodes this season so that should make interesting viewing again. (ABC, Thursdays, 10/9c)

20. Saturday Night Live

Comedian Kate McKinnon is back again to deliver us some of the funniest sketches, impersonations and characters we have ever seen. (NBC, Saturdays, 11:30/10:30c)

21. Grey’s Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy lesbian MD Arizona Robbins is set for a new romance this season after losing her last love last season. So fingers crossed that this lady finds a love to make her smile. (ABC, Thursdays, 8/7c)

22. One Mississippi

One Mississippi is a semi-autobiographical dark comedy about a lesbian who returns to Mississippi after the death of her mother. The lesbian, of course, is Tig Notaro. (Amazon Prime)

Gina Rodriguez To Play A Lesbian Paramedic In Upcoming Sci-fi Film

Gina Rodriguez, best known for her role as Jane in the hit show Jane the Virgin, covers the October issue of Latina magazine.

Talking to the magazine, Rodriguez discusses politics, the importance of inner beauty, and the how she was offered multiple movie roles after winning the Golden Globe for Jane the Virgin, but she’s chosen carefully, including the upcoming sci-fi film Annihilation.

It’s about five women who are going into the Shimmer, an entity that’s starting to destroy the world. So we’re trying to stop it. We have guns, we’re doing some badass stunts and it’s a brilliant storyline. I play Anya Thorensen, a paramedic from Chicago who happens to be a lesbian and an ex-addict going into the Shimmer to be the hero that she’s kinda always wanted to be.”

Rodriguez’s co-stars include Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac. The film is based on a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, directed by Alex Garland, who Gina says, “is absolutely brilliant. You can read any of his books and you’re like, this man can just create any kind of world out of nothing.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF7JEHrHLoQ/

The Golden Globe winner cut off her brunette locks for her part in the sci-fi thriller, but took flack for doing so

I think it all plays into the idea of being your own hero and not feeling like you have to live up to other people’s expectations. I am not my beauty. Who I am is not my f—ing hair, and to be an actor is to transform. To represent a community is to commit, to give my entire all.”

Although filming has already begun, the movie has no offical premiere date yet. But don’t fret: Jane the Virgin returns October 17 on The CW.

Gina Rodriguez Gives The Perfect Response To People Questioning Her Sexuality

Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez took to Twitter this week for a Q&A with her fans.

She answered plenty of questions about her hit TV show, what book she’s currently reading and what it’s like to work with a female dominated staff.

However, one question in particular elicited a virtual standing ovation from fans (and us).

When a fan asked, ‘Do you identify as straight?,’ Rodriguez gave the perfect response was perfect

https://twitter.com/HereIsGina/status/745335294573051904

She followed her answer up by responding to this question: “How do you stay positive and happy?”

https://twitter.com/HereIsGina/status/745332253522280448

Yes! Such a beautiful way to say it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF7JEHrHLoQ/

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Fall TV Introduces Several New Queer Women of Colour

For years, lesbian, bisexual and otherwise non-heterosexual women have lamented the lack of queer female representation on TV, begged, pleaded and prayed on their lucky Ellen TIME magazine covers that TV would feature storylines about women who love women.

But as the times have changed and Hollywood has begun to reflect the changing social attitudes towards non-heterosexual people, what they are now asking for is an increase in diversity in those characters, rather than just an increase in their numbers.

Specifically, TV viewers have asked for more queer women of colour, hoping that networks to do better to reflect the LGBT community as it exists in reality.

For reference, last year’s GLAAD ‘Where Are We On TV’ report noted that on broadcast, just 28 out of 65 (43%) regular or recurring LGBT characters were women and just 26% of 65 were LGBT people of colour. On cable, 44% of the 64 LGBT characters on cable networks were women and 34% of that 64 were people of colour.

Unfortunately, GLAAD doesn’t provide a specific breakdown of the amount of women of colour but looking at those statistics, even if all of those LGBT people of colour were women, we wouldn’t be looking at a very large group.

Those numbers are dismal then, but they are so last year. They are a thing of the past, truly, because as we move into the fall TV season of 2015, several new queer women of colour are now gracing our screens, either in brand new shows or as characters who have just come out (in some capacity) since their shows returned.

One of the most talked about examples of this is on How To Get Away With Murder on ABC. The show was already breaking ground as one of few shows to feature a black woman as the lead but in its season premiere, lawyer Annalise Keating reunited with her old college gal pal, and it was revealed that they used to date. They rekindled their relationship (though it was short lived as Eve, Annalise’s ex, returned to New York) and it was so great that we even labelled it one of our ‘need to watch’ shows.

Over on FOX, Empire became another one of our need to watch shows when it introduced lesbian billionaire Mimi Whiteman. No Mimi isn’t a woman of colour, but in the first episode of the show’s new season, Mimi did sleep with Anika, a character who had only previously had relationships with men on the show.

American Horror Story: Hotel, which airs on FX, may see you sleeping with the lights on for the rest of your born days but the relationship between The Countess (played by Lady Gaga) and Ramona’s (played by Angela Bassett) is a grand reason to watch.

In terms of completely new shows, the likes of Grandfathered and Rosewood (both on FOX) deliver on that front. Grandfathered stars John Stamos as your typical, womanising white guy, but the twist is that his past has caught up to him and that not only does this bachelor have a son, but he also has a granddaughter too.

Kelly Jenrette plays a lesbian named Annelise and she’s also Jimmy’s co-worker. So far, things look okay for Annelise; we’re only two episodes in but reception to the show in general has been positive and she also has a budding friendship with Sara (Jimmy’s ex and the mother of his son), which is something.

And as for Rosewood, this procedural’s already on ‘cancellation watch’ due to a weak start, but you’ll be hoping it stays on the air for sweet couple Pippy (a woman of colour) and her fiancee Kathy, who work together in the pathology lab.

Admittedly not every show with a queer woman of colour is getting it right. Season 2B of Faking It on MTV began towards the end of September, and spent several episodes tiptoeing around Reagan’s frankly vomit-inducing biphobia and on Scream Queens, butch lesbian Sam is literally introduced as the ‘predatory lez’, with many saying that Ryan Murphy is relying on the very same trope he used to dehumanise Santana Lopez on Glee back in the day.

Thankfully though, most of the new queer women of colour, and the returning TV favourites (e.g those on Jane The Virgin, The Fosters and Grey’s Anatomy) have enough good in them to outweigh the few examples of bad.

It’s highly encouraging for the future as these shows not only bust the troubling stereotypes that a) queer people of colour don’t exist and that b) that many non-white ethnicities are homophobic but it also gives queer women of colour the same shot at great representation that queer white women have enjoyed for so many years.

5 TV Shows With Queer Women That You Need to Pay Attention to

Once upon a time, queer female representation was so bad, so cheese-sarnie-in-the-summer-sun rotten that just a handful of gay, bi and otherwise not-heterosexual ladies graced our TV screens.

But gone are the days where re-watching The L Word on Netflix is the only time we’ll see women-loving-women in the media as now, it seems like every show has a female/female relationship looking to find a place in our hearts.

As a result, the problem isn’t the quantity of queer women on TV, it’s the quality. Now that we have a choice, we have to ask ourselves which shows are worth our valuable viewership.

It would be impossible for you to watch every pilot of every show to figure that out, so to make life a whole lot easier for you, here’s a list of five TV shows which feature queer women that you need to pay attention to.

1. How to Get Away With Murder

A few weeks ago, Viola Davis made history becoming the first black woman ever to win the lead actress Emmy. Indeed, her incredible turn as no-nonsense lawyer Annalise Keating was already reason enough to watch How to Get Away With Murder but in the season two premiere of the show, Annalise’s old college friend Eve showed up.

Annalise and Eve aren’t a couple of regular, platonic gal pals, however, as they dated but Annalise left Eve for (Annalise’s now murdered husband) Sam.

Unfortunately, Eve did head off back to New York at the end of episode two but with Eve and Annalise having rekindled their feelings (Eve says she’s still in love with Annalise, Annalise calls Eve the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to her), there’s a lot of room for this relationship to grow.

With so few bisexual women in the media (and bisexual women of colour especially) Annalise is a brilliant rarity so if you haven’t started watching HTGAWM already, you should get on that right now.

2. Person Of Interest

Looking at Person Of Interest‘s description – a show about a tech whiz, a former soldier and their pals as they try to protect people from the world’s dangers as well as the government’s snooping – it sounds like an unlikely candidate for fantastic queer representation but you’d be surprised.

The show’s two supporting women, Samantha “Root” Groves and Sameen Shaw are part of the core group of ‘good guys’ who aim to protect the world and though the two characters are incredibly sarcastic and spend most of their time shooting bad guys’ kneecaps, they still find plenty of time to flirt.

In Person of Interest‘s fourth season (the one that most recently aired), their flirting finally came to a head when Shaw (played by former L Word cast member Sarah Shahi) kisses Root right before she risks her life to save Root and co. and gets shot in the process.

Although Root spends the remainder of the season pining over Shaw/trying to find Shaw/talking about how much she misses Shaw, Shaw’s not dead and the two will be reunited in season five of the show.

3. Jane The Virgin

Earlier this year, Jane The Virgin made a splash as its lead actress Gina Rodriguez won a Golden Globe for her role as Jane, a virgin who becomes pregnant after a doctor accidentally artificially inseminates her when she goes in for a routine check-up. Based on a telenovela, this show is anything but easy to follow, nor is it overly serious, but it is a lot of fun to watch.

As for the queer content in Jane The Virgin, the doctor who inseminates Jane is a lesbian named Luisa. While there’s enough drama in Luisa’s life stemming from the fact that the sperm she inseminated Jane with belongs to her (as in Luisa’s) brother, on top of that Luisa has also been having an affair with Rose, who just happens to be the woman that her father is married to!

After a good many plot twists later, Luisa ends up with an MMA fighter named Juicy Jordan and thankfully, Rose, Luisa, and Juicy will all be returning when Jane The Virgin season two premieres on October 12.

4. Empire

Empire is another fine example of a TV show. The show is all about the Lyon family (Lucious, his three sons Jamal, Andre and Hakeem and their just-out-of-jail mother, Cookie) and their record label and the trials and tribulations of both running the label and keeping their home, love and family lives in tact.

In addition to being a majority black show, Jamal is also gay. That was a big deal in season one (which features Jamal’s coming out) but in season two, there’s something for queer ladies as well.

Marisa Tomei is on board as lesbian billionaire Mimi Whiteman and in the season premiere we saw Mimi flirt with Cookie but ultimately Mimi went home with (Lucious’ ex) Anika.

It’s unclear whether or not that flirtation between Mimi and Cookie will come to anything, or whether Anika and Mimi will get a part two as Mimi is only set to be in a few more episodes, but with The L Word co-creator Ilene Chaiken being Empire‘s showrunner, you know that there’s going to be some must-watch queer content here.

5. Transparent

Another award winner in this post is Transparent, the Amazon-only TV show that debuted on Amazon Instant Video last year. At this year’s Emmys, not only did the show take home two awards, but during her acceptance speech, its creator Jill Soloway stated that “we don’t have a trans tipping point, we have a trans civil rights problem”.

Indeed, the show which builds upon Soloway’s own experiences with her ‘Moppa’ stars Jeffrey Tambor as a trans woman who comes out to her three adult children – children who have only ever known her as their father.

Transparent is a must watch for Maura, as her story follows how she finds a place for herself in the trans community and how those around her handle her gender identity, but her daughter Sarah’s bisexuality is also a draw. Sarah is married to a man and they have children together, but she cheats on him, and eventually leaves him for her ex-girlfriend.

Admittedly, Sarah and her siblings aren’t the most loveable bunch (they’re self-centred and selfish at best, and amusingly useless at best) but with just 10 episodes of the show having aired so far, it’s a fabulous dramedy and it won’t take you long to catch up before Transparent season two airs in December.

3 Reasons Why Everyone Should Watch Jane The Virgin

Responsible for such hit television shows as Gossip Girl and 90210, The CW network isn’t usually the go to TV channel when it comes to queer TV programming. In fact, given that the channel had no regular LGBT characters in any of its shows (as of October 1st, 2014), The CW was actually a channel that LGBT folk avoided.

But that could all change with Jane The Virgin.

Based on a Venezuelan telenovela called Juana la Virgen, Jane The Virgin focuses on a woman named Jane who has chosen to save herself for marriage. But that all comes into question when she becomes pregnant via an accidental round of artificial insemination following a routine doctor’s appointment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgDz0s7xw8A

All of the drama ensues, complete with a tangled web of lies, tales, family members and love interests and it makes Jane The Virgin one of the most unique, original and outright brilliant TV shows to grace our screens. Here are three good reasons why you should watch it.

1. A Diverse Cast

Very often, we find ourselves rolling our eyes at just how white (and usually male) the casts of our favourite television series are. Not so with Jane The Virgin as the majority of the cast are actors of colour.

Jane and the members of her family, along with her best friend and her boss’s sister are Hispanic, while Jane’s fiancée and Jane’s boss’ wife are white, the best friend of Jane’s boss is mixed race and the police partner of Jane’s fiancée is black.

We very rarely get casts this diverse and with Jane The Virgin it never feels like anybody’s a token, merely, these are the characters and it’s just nice to see some more relatable faces. None of the characters are stereotypes either making it a shining example of good representation.

2. Queer Characters

Yes, for many of you the amount of queer characters is a deal-breaker as it rightly should be! No need to worry about Jane The Virgin then as the story kicks off thanks to the lesbian sister of Jane’s boss.

After she walks in on her wife mid-affair, Dr. Luisa Alver drinks and shows up to work dazed and out of it, which is why she fails to realise that she artificially inseminated the wrong woman. While the circumstances are unfortunate, with Luisa we have the plot of the show.

She also gets a love interest a few episodes in, which comes with its own strings and issues (naturally), but Luisa isn’t treated as a side character nor does her drama only focus on her sexuality. Rather, her problems are in the thick of it right with everyone else’s.

3. Brilliant Storylines

If you’re struggling to keep up with the immaculate pregnancy premise then don’t worry. As Jane The Virgin is based on a telenovela it’s meant to have these many branches of stories and lies, that’s what keeps it fun.

Rather than being campy or ridiculously as telenovelas can be, Jane The Virgin’s plots have migrated to network television incredibly well and each week, reveals that you’d usually expect shows to bookmark in a series premiere or finale pepper each episode and keep you addicted.

Watch Jane The Virgin on Mondays on The CW.

Fall TV Makes Progress With Lesbian Characters – But There’s Still a Long Way to Go

On the path of gay rights and acceptance, the way that the media portrays the lives of gay is massively important. No, not just in the way they talk of Bill and David’s whirlwind marriage following the repeal of DOMA or Kathy and Sue’s adoption of a child following a court ruling but in the fictional stories too.

For those who don’t know any gay people, televisions shows and movies can help normalise the non-heterosexual relationships that really exist. It eliminates the idea of the rainbow wearing bogeyman (or woman) hiding (both literally and figuratively) in a closet.

But getting to a point where the media is fair with its portrayal isn’t always easy. We’re moving forward but playing the turtle’s game against a heteronormative hare doesn’t help conjure favourable opinion towards gay people in the short term.

As noted by GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis,

“Television networks are playing a key role in promoting cultural understanding of LGBT lives around the world, and are now producing some of the best LGBT-inclusive programming we’ve yet seen.”

Thankfully, the latest GLAAD ‘Where We Are On TV’ report for the 2014 to 2015 season (including shows scheduled to air in the Summer of 2015) show a swathe of new lesbian faces for queer women to identify with.

These include Renee Montoya on Gotham, Renee’s love interest Barbara Kean and the lesbian doctor responsible for the main mix-up at the centre of Jane the Virgin’s story. When we add all of the newcomers to those that already existed we have 74 queer women (bisexual and lesbian) of all races depicted across cable and broadcast networks.

However, although the numbers are strong (if you can call less than 10% of all characters being LGBT ‘strong’, anyway) we are faced with many challenges about representation.

Also according to GLAAD’s statistics, on both cable and broadcast, the figures of queer woman hovered just above 40%, with most queer characters being men. In total this leads to a difference of over two dozen queer men in comparison to the total of queer women. Whilst many could argue that queer representation for all genders is a plus point, a lack of real equality can lead to inherent problems.

Glee in particular comes to mind as although it has a reasonable amount of white, gay males (the show’s creator is also a white, gay male it’s worth nothing) it has gone as far as to ridicule, mock and make fun of female queerness and antagonise the fans of said characters.

Meanwhile, despite Modern Family being very proud of its two gay leads (married male couple Cam and Mitch) when it featured a lesbian couple, they were incredibly stereotypical in their portrayal which is perhaps not offensive but is definitely enough to roll your eyes.

Not only this but the portrayal of queer women on our TV suffer from the same plague of ‘mostly white characters’ that the roster of heterosexual characters do. While it’s difficult to get a break down of queer women only, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that with 117 white LGBT characters out of 170 LGBT characters, there aren’t going to be a whole lot of queer women included.

Hollywood is racist from the ground up – the practice of whitewashing and the stereotypes they promote can tell us that much – but the TV side of the industry needs to embrace and overcome its problematic past.

One the one hand showing queer faces of colour can have a massive impact as it shows people that yes, people of all races can be gay not just the effeminate white man down the street, leading them to be more accepting. While on the other, with people of colour watching more TV than white people it just makes better business sense for Hollywood – y’know, if they aren’t particularly interested in the legacy and the messages that their media leaves behind.

But with this all said, it should be praised that we’re seeing new types of stories, even if we need the demographics to change a little. We have queer parents, we have bisexual women who aren’t just a sweeps week ploy and there are queer people of all sorts of professions and backgrounds too.

Ultimately there’s a long way to go until we can be truly satisfied but we’re slowly and surely getting there, at least.