List of fictional lesbian characters
This is a list of fictional characters that either self-identify as lesbian or have been identified by outside parties to be lesbian. Listed characters are either recurring characters, cameos, guest stars, or one-off characters.
For fictional characters in other parts of the LGBTQ community, see the lists of gay, trans, bisexual, non-binary, pansexual, asexual, and intersex characters.
The names are organized alphabetically by surname, or by single name if the character does not have a surname. If more than two characters are in one entry, the last name of the first character is used.
Film
| Characters | Title / Franchise | Actors | Year | Notes | Country |
| Carol Aird Therese Belivet | Carol | Cate Blanchett Rooney Mara | 2015 | Carol was always attracted to females, but married as was expected of her social status and the post-WWII era. While in divorce proceedings, she meets Therese and comes out publicly after her love affair with her is exposed. Therese realizes she's gay after she meets Carol and falls in love with her. The film is based on The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. | United States |
| Amy Jenny | The War Widow | Pamela Bellwood Frances Lee McCain | 1976 | In this PBS made-for-TV film, set during World War I, Amy is married to a man that enlisted early. On a trip to New York City, she meets Jenny, a photographer. Their friendship blossoms into romance and they become lovers. | United States |
| Alex Cooper Frankie | ' | Addison Holley Nicolette Pearse | 2019 | In this Lifetime made-for-TV film, Alex, raised by conservative Mormon parents in Southern California, is fifteen-years-old when she meets Frankie, an eighteen-year-old out lesbian. Their mutual attraction becomes romantic. To "cure" her homosexuality, her parents trick Alex and leave her in the custody of a Mormon couple in Utah to undergo anti-gay conversion therapy, and she spends eight months under their cruel authority before she is finally able to escape and find help. The film is based on the 2016 memoir, Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began. | United States |
| Eden Matilda | Spidarlings | Sophia Disgrace Rahel Kapsaski | 2016 | Eden and Matila are a lesbian couple trying to get by. | United Kingdom |
| Countess Geschwitz | Pandora's Box | Alice Roberts | 1929 | Countess Geschwitz is often cited as cinema's first explicit lesbian character. | Germany |
| Linda Ray Guettner Barbara Moreland | A Question of Love | Gena Rowlands Jane Alexander | 1978 | In this ABC made-for-TV film, Linda and Barbara are a couple. Based on the true story of Mary Jo Risher, who in 1975 lost custody of her adopted 9‐year‐old son because she was a lesbian. | United States |
| Calamity Jane / Martha Jane Canary Joanie Stubbs | ' | Robin Weigert Kim Dickens | 2019 | In this HBO made-for-TV film, Calamity is lesbian and in love with Joanie. Joanie is lesbian and a hostess at a brothel. They rekindle their romance, which first began in the television series the movie is based on, Deadwood. | United States |
| Kena | Rafiki | Samantha Mugatsia | 2018 | Kena is a lesbian character. | Kenya |
| Ellen Lange Casey Walker Daisy Dolon Ricky Grace Mayo Kendis Winslow | In the Glitter Palace | Barbara Hershey Diana Scarwid Carole Cook Lynn Marta Tisha Sterling Salome Jens | 1977 | In this NBC made-for-TV film, Ellen, a lesbian, hires her ex-boyfriend to defend her lover Casey who is accused of murder. Daisy is lesbian and a nightclub entertainer. Ricky is lesbian and hiding a child she lost in a custody suit. Grace is lesbian. She was hired to seduce women so they can be blackmailed. Kendis, a judge, is lesbian and another blackmail victim. | United States |
| Leah Pearl | Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? | Leila George Emily Meade | 2016 | In this Lifetime made-for-TV film, Leah is in love with Pearl, a lesbian vampire. The film is a re-imagining of the similarly-titled 1996 television movie. | United States |
| Tammy Metzler | Election | Jessica Campbell | 1999 | Tammy is a closeted lesbian dumped by her girlfriend, Lisa Flanagan, for her brother, early in the film, and later runs a nihilistic campaign for class president aiming to dismantle student government, attempting to get revenge on her brother, She later falsely confesses to ripping down campaign posters, resulting in her expulsion and attendance at a Catholic girls school. Her story ends happily, as she meets her next love, Jennifer, at the school. Additionally, early on in the film, Tammy gives narration where she says, "It's not like I'm a lesbian or anything. I'm attracted to the person. It's just that all the people I've been attracted to happen to be girls," impugning classification as lesbian. | United States |
| Renee Montoya Ellen Yee | Birds of Prey DC Extended Universe | Rosie Perez Ali Wong | 2020 | Renee and Ellen are exes of each other. | United States |
| Janine Neilssen Sandy Cataldi | What Makes a Family | Brooke Shields Cherry Jones | 2001 | In this Lifetime made-for-TV film, when Sandy dies, Janine must fight to keep the child Sandy bore through artificial insemination. The teleplay is based on the true story of Janine Ratcliffe, who in 1989 won custody of the daughter of her deceased lesbian partner, Joan Pearlman. | United States |
| Policewoman Policewoman's girl | Love Actually... Sucks! | Lareine Xu Celia Chang | 2011 | The film tells a series of interconnected stories, several with LGBT relationships, with one of these being a role-playing lesbian couple, and the film celebrates the belief that life is love. It is the third feature film directed by the award-winning Chinese LGBT filmmaker, 'Scud'. | Hong Kong |
| Gail Springer Marjorie | My Two Loves | Mariette Hartley Lynn Redgrave | 1986 | In this ABC made-for-TV film, after her husband dies, Gail finds a job as a chef for a company, where she meets Marjorie, an executive who is open about her being a lesbian. Their friendship becomes a love affair. The script was co-written by Rita Mae Brown. | United States |
Graphic novels
| Characters | Title | Year | Notes | Country |
| Foxglove / Donna Cavanagh Judy Hazel McNamara | ' | 1989–2015 | Donna and Judy are lovers. After Judy dies, Donna changes her name to Foxglove and starts a relationship with Hazel. Foxglove and Hazel have a child, Alvie, the result of one heterosexual encounter by Hazel. | United States |
| America Chavez | Young Avengers | 2005–2014 | America Chavez is an openly gay character, who has had relationships with a male personification of the Ultimate Nullifier and a female emergency medical technician named Lisa Halloran. | United States |
| Tomoyo Daidouji Sonomi Daidouji | Cardcaptor Sakura ' | 1996–present | Tomoyo is in love with the protagonist of the show, Sakura. Sakura does not return Tomoyo's feelings. The creators intended for Tomoyo to have romantic feelings for Sakura. At some point, Tomoyo confesses her love to Sakura, but Sakura misunderstands her, thinking she means "love" as a friend, and Tomoyo says that she'll explain when Sakura is older. She simply doesn't have romantic feelings for Tomoyo in particular. Tomoyo's mother, Sonomi, confesses that she was in love with Sakura's mother. | Japan |
| Batwoman / Kate Kane | 52 | 2006–2007 | First appearance in this comic book series: 52 #7 and when DC Comics rebooted their universe with the series 52 in 2006, they reintroduced Batwoman as Kate Kane and identified her as a lesbian, making her the highest profile lesbian in the DC universe. | United States |
| Batwoman / Kate Kane Maggie Sawyer Renee Montoya | DC Comics Bombshells Bombshells United | 2015–present | The comics series is set in an alternate reality where DC Comics superheroines are depicted as 1940s pin-up style heroes during World War II. Despite being set in 1940s, the setting has no era-appropriate homophobia. Kate Kane is a lesbian and lives with her girlfriend, Detective Maggie Sawyer, at the start of the series. Kate Kane and Renee Montoya are revealed to be ex-lovers in issue #45. | United States |
| 2017–present | Kya's sexuality is not mentioned in the animated series The Legend of Korra. However, in the sequel graphic novel The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, she is shown to be lesbian and gives advice to Korra and Asami about coming out. | United States | ||
| Shuichi Nitori Anna Suehiro | Wandering Son | 2002–2013 | The protagonist of Wandering Son, Shu, is a transgender girl. Shu is attracted to and dates women throughout the series and when she officially comes out as a girl, her girlfriend Anna states "I guess this means I'm a lesbian" | Japan |
| Hothead Paisan | Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist | 1991 | Created by Diane DiMassa, Hothead Paisan's presentation was cathartic to lesbians, but so graphically violent that the strip was banned in Canada. | United States |
| Roxanne "Roxie" Richter | Scott Pilgrim | 2004–2010 | The book's protagonist, Ramona Flowers has seven evil exes: six ex-boyfriends and her ex-girlfriend Roxie. Ramona repeatedly corrects him by pointing out that "exes" is correct, not "ex-boyfriends", but she does not actually tell him about her ex-girlfriend until Scott meets Roxie in person. While Ramona says that dating a girl was just a phase, she Ramona later spends the night at Roxie's house and they make out offscreen. | Canada |
| Holly Robinson | Catwoman vol. 3 | 2002–2010 | Issue where her open lesbian identity begins: Catwoman vol. 3 #1. Holly Robinson is a friend of Catwoman and was one of the few openly lesbian characters in the early 2000s DC world. | United States |
| Scandal Savage Knockout | Villains United | 2005 | The Villains United miniseries is the first appearance of Scandal. In this comic, she becomes a member of the Secret Six, says at one point "Lawton, do you know what the word 'lesbian' means?" and later calls Knockout "beloved" as they hug after a battle. | United States |
| Mo Testa | Dykes to Watch Out For | 1983–2008 | Mo is a semi-autobiographical representation of the creator Alison Bechdel who started the strip in because she wanted to see representations of her life that were not available in the media at the time. | United States |
| Maggie Thrash | Honor Girl | 2015 | Honor Girl is a graphic novel memoir recounting writer Maggie Thrash's experience of falling in love with an older female camp counselor during a summer all-girls' camp. | United States |
| Raven Xingtao | Princeless Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess | 2012–present | Raven, a character in Princeless and the protagonist in the spin-off Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess, is a lesbian. | Canada |
| Ymir | Attack on Titan | 2009–present | The official website mentions Ymir is in love with Historia Also at the series panel for Animagic 2014, producer George Wada confirmed that Ymir and Krista are a couple | Japan |
Literature
| Characters | Work | Author | Year | Description |
| Aisling "Ash" Kaisa | Ash | 2009 | This story tells the classic Cinderella story, but Ash falls in love with a beautiful woman, rather than a prince, named Kaisa, who saves her "from her oppressive new existence." The twist to this story is described by some as important, especially for "those looking for a girl romance." | |
| Nancy "Nan" Astley Florence Banner Diana Leathaby | Tipping the Velvet | 1998 | Nan has sexual/romantic relationships with Florence and Diana; all three have also been with other women. | |
| Therese Belivet Abby Gerhard | The Price of Salt | 1952 | A married woman, Carol Aird, meets and falls in love with Therese Belivet, which results in her sexuality being used against her and relinquishing custody of her daughter, with Therese Comes out to herself after meeting Carol, while Abby is also a lesbian character. Later made into a 2015 Hollywood film. | |
| Elizabeth Bennett Caroline Bingley Charlotte Lucas | Gay Pride and Prejudice | 2012 | In this story, which takes the original text of Pride and Prejudice, tweaking it and rewriting passages to "queer-up the story," Caroline Bingley has a crush on Elizabeth Bennett, while Charlotte Lucas never thinks "highly either of men or matrimony." | |
| Berdine Raina | Blood of the Fold Temple of the Winds | 1996 1997 | In these books, the two Mord-Sith are in a relationship with each other. Berdine comes out as a lesbian in the third book of this series, and says she loves Raina. This was later turned into a TV series, The Legend of the Seeker. | |
| Beebo Brinker Beth Ayers/Cullison Laura Landon | The Beebo Brinker Chronicles | 1957–60 | These books focus on gay and lesbian love, sexual adventure, with a positive, "yet still complicated look at lesbian relationships," in all five of the books in this series. In the first book, Odd Girl Outa college girl named Laura gets seduced by Beth, and in the next book, I Am A Woman, Laura goes to a bar and meets a butch lesbian, Beebo Brinker, and talks about coming out to her father. The following book, Women In The Shadows, the relationship between Laura and Beebo continues, while Laura's first girlfriend returns in Journey To A Woman, leading to a "drama-laden lesbian love triangle" of Beebo, Beth, and Laura. The next book, Beebo Brinker looks back to the formative years of Beebo. | |
| Molly Bolt | Rubyfruit Jungle | 1973 | Molly has numerous romantic and sexual relationships with other women. In this novel, she confronts the "hypocrisies of both heterosexual and homosexual societies." | |
| Jayde Robin Brown | Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit | Joanna "Jo" Gordon Mary Carlson | 2016 | In this sweet teen romance, Joanna, an "evangelical lesbian in a small Southern town," and Mary meet each other, as Joanna struggles to figure out her identity, but never considers it sinful. Even though Joanna and Mary are White, "the rest of their friends display considerable diversity," with one reviewer hoping it will help people "bridge the gap between faith and sexuality." |
| Calixte Tzara | Strange the Dreamer series | Laini Taylor | 2017–2018 | Calixte and Tzara are in a long-term lesbian relationship with each other at the start of the series. Thyon Nero has never been romantically or sexually attracted to a woman, but finds himself drawn to Ruza, who seems to reciprocate his interest, making them both gay or in Ruza's case at least bisexual. |
| Carmilla | Carmilla | 1872 | Carmilla, published as part of the book, In a Glass Darkly, is considered the first lesbian vampire story. In this story, Laura, who lives with her father, meets Carmilla, and they form a close relationship, with Laura becoming ill as Carmilla draws nourishment from her. | |
| Anne Damer | Life Mask | 2004 | This book is set in late 18th century London, telling the story of three women caught in a love triangle, one of whom is Anna, whose "lesbian side" is not realized until the end of the book. | |
| Clarissa Dalloway Doris Kilman | Mrs Dalloway | 1925 | This novel tells the day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional woman in post–war, and she is strongly attracted to Sally Seton, with both sharing a kiss. Clarissa also recognizes that Septimus dies without revealing his homosexuality, perceiving his failure to speak out as "protecting her private lesbian passion," while Doris later encourages Clarissa to name, at least privately, her "lesbian desires." | |
| Elinor "Lakey" Eastlake | The Group | 1954 | Elinar is a lesbian, and graduate from Vassar College in 1933, with the lives of the stories proatgonists involving the men in their lives. The Baroness is her lesbian lover, which her fellow seven female graduates realize when she returned from Europe. It was later adapted into a film in 1966. | |
| Lucy Farinelli | Kay Scarpetta novels | 1994–2003 | Lucy has romantic relationships and casual sexual encounters with other women. Lucy is not well accepted due to her suspected sexual orientation, has occasional one-night stands, mostly with women and occasionally with men, but she is seduced by Carrie Grethen, early in her career, a relationship which haunts her and those close to her across several books. | |
| Stephen Gordon Valérie Seymour | The Well of Loneliness | 1928 | This book, a candid novel about "coming to terms with a lesbian identity," was challenged as obscene, under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, for its "frank portrayal of lesbianism." Although the book has no language that is explicitly sexual, the lesbian themes were seen as a threat to the existing social order, seen as unpalatable, remained banned until 1959 when the Obscene Publications Act was amended, and was published in the U.S. in April 1929 when courts agreed that "lesbianism in and of itself was neither obscene nor illegal," meaning the book wasn't either. | |
| Joan Gilling Esther Greenwood | The Bell Jar | 1963 | The novel has a central relationship between Joan and Esther, and it addresses the question of socially acceptable identity, examining Esther's "quest to forge her own identity, to be herself rather than what others expect her to be" while highlighting the problems with oppressive patriarchal society in mid-20th-century America. There was the 1979 film adaption of the book, and a lawsuit by Jane V. Anderson claiming that she was not a lesbian and didn't have a relationship with Sylvia Path. | |
| Rosemary Harper, Sissix | The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Becky Chambers | 2015 | Rosemary Harper and Sissix are both either lesbian or bisexual as the two women enter a relationship with each other over the course of the novel. In her review, Casey Stepaniuk describes the book as "like Star Trek but with lesbians and more aliens." |
| Hurley Sloane | The Adventure Zone | 2018–present | In the third graphic novel, Petals to the Metal, there are two secondary female characters named Hurley and Sloane who have a relationship/feelings for each other. The Hurley-Sloane lesbian couple survived to the end of the story, surviving a near-death experience, while Taako got a boyfriend and Lup, Taako's sister, is a trans woman. | |
| Ijeoma Amina | Under the Udala Trees | Chinelo Okparanta | 2015 | Ijeoma and Amina fall in love with each other as children and keep loving each other way into adulthood. |
| Ashlinn Järnheim | Godsgrave | 2017 | Mia Corvere, is an infamous assassin and fugitive slave, is fleeing from the Blades of the Red Church and Luminatii legion, with her family wanting her to die and her mentor in hands of her foes. She works with many individuals, liker her lover, Ashlinn, to find out the "final answer to the riddle of her life." | |
| Holland Jeager Cece | Keeping You a Secret | 2003 | In this coming out novel, Holland is intrigued by a student transferring to her school who wants to "wants to start a Lesbigay club at school." In the process, Holland faces homophobia, and begins an relationship with Cece, adjusting to her new sexuality quickly. | |
| Jeanette | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit | 1985 | This book is a coming-of-age story about a lesbian girl named Jeanette who grows up in an English Pentecostal community. Key themes of the book include transition from youth to adulthood, complex family relationships, same-sex relationships, and religion. A television adaptation of the book was made and aired by the BBC in 1990, starring Charlotte Coleman and Geraldine McEwan, which won the Prix Italia in 1991. | |
| Jo Lara | Ukiah Oregon series | 2001–2004 | In this series of books, Jo and Lara are the mothers of Ukiah Oregon, the story's protagonist. In the first book, Alien Taste, it is revealed that Ukriah was raised first by wolves, then by Jo and Lara. Jo and Lara also appear in the three other books in the series, Tainted Trail, Bitter Waters, and Dog Warrior, but only as minor characters. | |
| Annie Kenyon Liza Winthrop | Annie on My Mind | 1982 | This book is a retrospect by Liza, remembering her first semester at MIT, how she met Annie, struggled to recognize her lesbian identity, and they reaffirm their love for each other on the phone at the end of the book. Due to these themes, religious fundamentalists burned a copy of the book, a Kansas superintendent removed it from school libraries, and a lawsuit ensued, with a judge ruling on the side the ACLU, ordering the book to be returned to library shelves. The book is well-regarded as "canonical lesbian-coming-of-age novel." | |
| Keren | Arrows of the Queen | 1987 | Keren, a minor character, is life bonded to Ylsa and then Sherrill. | |
| Daja Kisubo Lark | The Will of the Empress | 2005 | Daja is the main character who begins a relationship with a woman while Lark is in a long-term lesbian relationship. In this story, the relationship between Daja and Lark ends sadly, making the point you should choose your chosen family over "a partner who’s not good enough for you." | |
| Renee LaRoche | Along the Journey River | 1996 | In this novel, originally published in 1996, and re-released in 2017, it is the first detective novel to have "an openly out Indigenous lesbian," the protagonist, Renee. | |
| Anna Lightwood Ariadne Bridgestock Helen Blackthorn Aline Penhallow | The Shadowhunter Chronicles | 2007–present | Anna is a genderqueer lesbian, as confirmed by author Cassandra Clare, who has had many lovers but has never truly gotten over her first love, Ariadne Bridgestock, a closeted lesbian who entered a lavender engagement with Charles, becoming his fiancé. Anna also, according to the author, outright rejects the gender binary but uses female pronouns because the book is set in 1903. | |
| Carnival | 2006 | This story revolves around two spies sent to steal alien tech from Amazonia, a "planet ruled by man-enslaving lesbians" like Claude and Maiju. Additionally, the two spies, Vincent and Michelangelo are homosexuals from a world with "regressive and repressive mores." | ||
| Moff Delian Mors | 2015 | Moff, the first LGBT character in the Star Wars canon, was introduced in this book, is an Imperial officer who makes mistakes, is very capable, and happens to be a lesbian as well, with those who included it saying that Star Wars should be diverse, apart from stories about "straight, white males." Reviewers for the New York Daily News stated that while her sexuality is not a major concern in the novel, suggesting that "homophobia isn't an issue in the Empire," and something that Imperial Army doesn't worry about, even as they fight rebels. | ||
| Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | Becky Albertalli | 2015 | Abby's cousin Cassie Peskin-Suso, a principal character in the sequel novel The Upside of Unrequited, is a lesbian and Mina is her pansexual girlfriend while Cassie also has two mothers Nadine, who is a lesbian, and Patty, who is bisexual. | |
| Emi Price, Ava | Everything Leads to You | Nina LaCour | 2015 | In this novel, Emi Price finds a letter written to a recently-dead film icon, leading them to Ava, his granddaughter, who Emi is smitten with, and hopes for "new love with Ava." |
| Margaret Prior Selina Dawes | Affinity | 1999 | Margaret, also called "Peggy" and "Aurora", is an unmarried woman from an upper-class family, becomes a visitor at the prison, and meets Selina, but she is a prisoner in her life, "dictated by gender rules and societal expectations, as Selina is in her physical cell." This novel is set in a women's prison in London, explores the "Victorian world of spiritualism," and won the Somerset Maugham Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction. Like her first novel, Affinity contains overarching lesbian themes, and was acclaimed by critics on its publication, and later turned into a feature film. | |
| Imogene "Idgie" Threadgoode | Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe | 1998 | This novel weaves together the past and the present through the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman who lives in a nursing home, while her sister-in-law, Idgie, and her friend, Ruth, ran a café. Idgie is a lesbian and has a long-term romantic relationship with another woman, and sexual encounters with one other woman. Although it is not explicitly labeled as a lesbian relationship, every resident both knows about and accepts Idgie and Ruth's relationship, making lesbianism a theme in the novel while in the film adaptation, a story of Southern female friendship and love, Ruth had been in love with Buddy Threadgoode, Idgie's brother. | |
| Aud Torvingen | The Blue Place | 2007 | Aud Torvingen, an 18-year-old coming to the U.S., who is the daughter of a rich diplomat, rents an apartment near Atlanta, and becomes an Atlanta cop, but falls into passionate encounters. One of these encounters is with Julia. She remains a protagonist in the book's two sequels,Stay and Always, and becomes "one of the most human and intriguing lesbians in crime fiction." | |
| Jaret Tyler Peggy Danziger | Happy Endings Are All Alike | 1978 | This young adult book is the first one with a "clearly lesbian main character," named Jaret Taylor who comes out in the book's first line: "Even though Jaret Tyler had no guilt or shame about her love affair with Peggy Danziger she knew there were plenty of people in this world who would put it down." Jaret, a future lawyer, endures hardship and discrimination but remains strong even as Peggy, her girlfriend, "wavers in the face of family and small-town prejudices." Scoppettone would go on to write a popular mystery novel series featuring a lesbian detective named Lauren Laurano. | |
| Clodagh Unwin | A Village Affair | 1989 | In this story, Alice Meadows questions her identity, having an affair with a lesbian woman named Clodagh Unwin, while she remains married, with her awakening depending on "a heart-wrenching choice between her lover and her family." | |
| Clarissa Vaughan Sally | The Hours | 1998 | In this novel, which has strong parallels with Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa rejects a relationship with Richard, a gay man, for the love of her life, Sally, who is invigorated by this love. Louis is also Richard's former lover, with Richard later taking his own life, while Clarissa comes to a full realization of her own identity. | |
| Patience White Sarah Dowling | Patience and Sarah | 1969 | This book, which captures "Lesbian-feminist consciousness" in the U.S. in the 1960s, is not only a love story of Patience and Sarah but also became important in the "lesbian literary-political tradition," with Miller's experience as a woman and lesbian shaping the book itself. | |
| Felicity Worthington | Gemma Doyle Trilogy | 2003 | Felicity is am "alpha girl," who becomes friends with the protagonist, Gemma, and has an "obsession with power," and has a tortured lesbian relationship with Pippa Felicity is revealed to be either bisexual or a lesbian in the last book when she shares a passionate kiss with Pippa, before leaving the corrupt Pippa behind forever. |
Live-action television
This is a list of characters in live action television that either self-identify as lesbian or have been identified by outside parties to be lesbian. Listed characters are either recurring characters, cameos, guest stars, or one-off characters. For other LGBTQ characters in live-action television, please see the lists of dramatic television series with LGBT characters in the,,, and pages which highlight LGBT characters in television and radio, and comedy television series.Video games
| Characters | Series / Title | Year | Notes | Developer |
| A ghost couple Other couples | Kindred Spirits on the Roof | 2012 | In the English release of this Japanese visual novel, the main character Toomi Yuna helps a female ghost couple, create other lesbian couples at her school. This game is notable for being the first erotic visual novel released on Steam not to be censored. | Liar-soft |
| Asellus | SaGa Frontier | This Japanese role-playing game features a female main character named Asellus who was infused with mystical blood that causes her to be highly attractive to other women. | Square | |
| Athena Janey Springs | Borderlands ' | 2014 | In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel the playable character Athena and the supporting character Janey Springs are lesbian. Janey repeatedly flirts with Athena, causing her to become embarrassed. | 2K Australia Gearbox Software |
| Sophie de Bretheuil Rebecca Norton | The Last Express | This adventure game has the player meeting two young adult girls named Sophie de Bretheuil and Rebecca Norton who are almost always in each other's company. While at first they appear to be merely close friends, reading the diary of Recbecca suggests they are lesbians, but there are no explicitly homosexual gestures beyond hand-holding. | Smoking Car Productions | |
| Abigail Black | Clive Barker's Jericho | Lt. Abigail Black, a telekinetic sniper and playable character, is confirmed to be lesbian in this Spanish first-person shooter and survival horror game. | MercurySteam Alchemic Productions | |
| Byleth Edelgard Dorothea Mercedes Linhardt Jeritza Rhea Sothis Yuri | Fire Emblem ' | 2019 | Edelgard, Jeritza, Dorothea, Yuri, Rhea, Sothis, Linhardt, and Mercedes can be romanced by the player character regardless of gender during certain routes. Also in Edelgard and Dorothea support, they were seen to be slightly romancing each other in their A support: "When the two of us are together, talking like this... Somehow I don't feel like I care about my troubles with love anymore." | Intelligent Systems Koei Tecmo |
| Caithe Faolain | Guild Wars 2 | 2012 | This MMORPG game includes the sylvari race of plant-like humanoids who don't reproduce sexually. As such, they do not base their relationships upon reproduction, but rather love, sensuality, and finding beauty in one another. Caithe and Faolain are minor characters, two female sylvari in a lesbian relationship. Eladus and Dagdar are two young male sylvari in a gay relationship. The player is able to encounter and save Eladus and Dagdar from the Knight Bercilak the Green in an optional quest. | ArenaNet |
| Corrin Niles Rhajat | Fire Emblem Fire Emblem Fates | 2015 | This game is the first in the Fire Emblem franchise to feature a same-sex marriage option for both the 'Birthright' and 'Conquest' versions of the game. The same sex options, however, are restricted to one character per game, and if the player marries a character of the same sex, they will not be able to unlock Kana or Nina, Niles' daughter. | Nintendo SPD Intelligent Systems |
| Crystal Amber Bailey | Dead Rising 2 | It's hinted that two minor villains, twin sisters Crystal and Amber Bailey, are in an incestuous lesbian relationship in this Canadian survival horror and beat 'em up game. | Blue Castle Games | |
| Ellie Riley Abel | The Last of Us | 2013 | In The Last of Us, Ellie is one of the main characters and Riley is sometimes mentioned. In the DLC prequel ', players control Ellie as she spends time with Riley, and it is implied Ellie has feelings for Riley, culminating in a kiss between them near the climax. The developers Naughty Dog later confirmed they have romantic feelings for each other and the writer for Ellie's character, Neil Druckmann, said he wrote her to be gay. | Naughty Dog |
| Garnet Pearl | Steven Universe ' | 2017 | Garnet, and Pearl, are lesbian characters in this action-adventure, and role-playing game. | Grumpyface Studios |
| Steph Gingrich | Life Is Strange ' | Steph has a crush on Rachel and can mention it to Chloe in episode 2. Her voice actress, Katy Bentz, later confirmed during a Reddit AMA that Steph is a lesbian. | Deck Nine | |
| Hailey | I Don't Have A Cue! | 2018 | In this visual novel game, Hailey, during her college's production, she got a crush on Shana, who has issues with processing her signals because of her autism. | Drazillion |
| Tracker McDyke | Caper in the Castro | 1988 | A murder mystery problem solving and adventure game for Apple Mac computers written in the HyperCard language, distributed on underground gay bulletin boards, starring the lesbian detective Tracker McDyke. C. M. Ralph, who wrote the game, later released a straightwashed version called "Murder on Main Street" and published by Heizer Software. | C. M. Ralph |
| Fiona Mickey | The Longest Journey | 1999 | This computer game features Fiona and Mickey, a lesbian landlady and her long-time lover. The game also features and a gay cop. While the game used a futuristic Blade Runner type setting, the gay characters are not used to show how decadent society had become,but are seen as normal and well adjusted secondary characters. | Funcom |
| Kendall Flowers Charlotte Grewal | Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story | 2011 | Kendall and Charlotte have recently broken up as of the start of this Canadian visual novel game. | Love Conquers All Games |
| Aurora James | Gangsters in Love | 2016 | A lesbian character who can be in a romance with the player character. | Voltage Entertainment USA |
| Juhani Another female Jedi | Star Wars ' | 2003 | The party member Juhani is lesbian, though bugged coding on the initial release allowed her to be attracted to the player character regardless of gender. In subsequent patches, she reverts to same-sex preferences. She and another female Jedi were also heavily implied to be lovers. This would make Juhani the first known gay character in the Star Wars universe. | BioWare |
| Alexios Kassandra | Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 2018 | The player may choose to play as either Alexios or Kassandra; a pair of siblings. The game presents both opposite-sex and same-sex relationship options for the player character. They are potentially lesbian, gay, or bisexual. | Ubisoft Montreal |
| Medusa | Astoria: Fate's Kiss | 2015 | Medusa is a lesbian in this visual novel game, and can enter into a relationship with the protagonist. | Voltage Entertainment USA |
| Nari | Magical Mystery Cure | 2018 | This game, part crafting game and part visual novel, features Nari, a genderfluid partner of Ella, a trans woman and oracle of the stars. Nari and the players of the game have to combine the right combination of ingredients in order to reverse the effects of a magical potion ingested by Ella at her birthday party. | Dotorriii |
| Paige | The Walking Dead | 2016 | Paige has feelings for her friend Samantha | Telltale Games |
| Vivien Pentreath | Moonmist | 1986 | In one of the possible storylines, it is revealed that Vivien, a friend of Lord Jack, was in a relationship with his former fiancée, Deirdre, before her apparent suicide and was jealous that she chose Lord Jack over her in this interactive fiction. | Infocom |
| Chloe Price | Life Is Strange | 2015 | In Life Is Strange, Chloe admits that she had romantic feelings towards Rachel. In the prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, depending on the player's actions, Rachel may open up and reveal that she has romantic feelings towards Chloe too. At some point, Chloe may have the choice to kiss Rachel. Rachel also had a relationship with Frank before the plot of Life Is Strange. | Dontnod Entertainment |
| Seiko Shinohara | Corpse Party: BloodCovered | Seiko is shown to have romantic feelings for her best friend, Naomi Nakashima in this Japanese survival horror, adventure, and dōjin soft game. | Team GrisGris | |
| Hiyu Shinosaki | Bokuhime Project | Hiyu, a supporting character attending the same school as the protagonist, is attracted to women in this Japanese adventure game. | Nippon Ichi Software | |
| Sole Survivor | Fallout Fallout 4 | 2015 | The player character, "Sole Survivor", can romance their companions, regardless of their sex. | Bethesda Game Studios |
| Tiny Tina | Borderlands Borderlands 2 | 2012 | Tiny Tina confesses that she likes Maya and asks if she likes her in turn. It was confirmed by lead writer Anthony Burch on his ask.fm that she is lesbian and also that during production of the DLC Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, it was planned to depict Tiny Tina having a crush on Moxxi, but the dialogue concerning this was ultimately deleted before the DLC was released. However, in Borderlands 3, echo logs reveal that she had been in relationships with both men and women. | Gearbox Software |
| Two female lovers | The Dagger of Amon Ra | This adventure game features a woman from a small town who gets a job for a New York paper in the 1920s. Two of the women she meets are involved in a secret love affair. | Sierra On-Line | |
| Various girls Teachers Nurses | A Kiss for the Petals | 2006–2016 | A series of adult yuri visual novels. | Fuguriya |
| Various girls | Nurse Love Addiction | 2015 | This is a Japanese yuri game, in the visual novel genre, centered around lesbian nursing school students. | Kogado Studio |
| Emily Verma | Queen's Gambit | A lesbian character in this visual novel game which can have a romance with the player character. | Voltage Entertainment USA |
Webcomics
| Characters | Title | Year | Notes |
| Acolyte Goddess | Lady of the Shard | 2016 | This comic by Gigi D.G. features a romance between women. Specifically between Acolyte and the Goddess, the latter she is giving gifts, in the form of breakfasts and other meals. As the comic moves forward, romantic strains increase as they try to figure out their love for each other. |
| Dani Christy Callie Olive Other minor characters | My Dragon Girlfriend | 2018–present | This webcomic, by Fawnduu, has a varied LGBT cast including the main protagonists. This includes Dani, a lesbian girl that can turn into a dragon, and her human girlfriend, Christy, who she saves from a terrible date with a guy at a bar, while and two lesbian dragons, Callie and Olive, who have feelings for each other, along various other minor characters. |
| Dani Yvette | Her Name Was Sunny | 2020 | This three-chapter comic, by Madamka, features various LGBTQ characters. The protagonist, Dani, has a crush on a girl named Sunny, who has a fiancé named Toby and works at a local coffee shop. Sunny's friend, Yvette, who works with her at the coffee shop, has a crush on the protagonist as shown in the last chapter, "Polar Rose," who is also excited about the "Princess Prom" episode of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. |
| Donna | Bruno | 1996-2007 | In this Christopher Baldwin webcomic, Bruno, the titular bisexual character, had a passionate relationship with Donna. However, due to Bruno's alcoholism and somewhat turbulent personality, they break up. In a later comic, Donna is seen with a new girlfriend. |
| Eve Lilith Candace Abelle | Eve's Apple | 2008–2013 | This webcomic, by Christine Smith, focuses on intimacy and dating from a transgender perspective, centers on a gay, and overweight, trans woman, Eve, and has "some very frank discussions about physical intimacy." The story was well received by the trans community, while Smith added that Alison Bechdel's webcomic "Dykes To Watch Out For" was a big influence on her. This comic also includes Eve's crush, and best friend, Lucy, while her lesbian friend, Lilith, has a crush on Eve, along with other LGBT characters, like a trans man named Adam, and two estranged lovers, Candace and Abelle. Christine Smith later spun off Sarah, who had a few frames in this comic, to her new comic, "The Princess," as noted in a later entry on this page. |
| Jane Other characters | Jane's World | 1998–2018 | In this webcomic by Paige Braddock, most of the central characters, including the titular Jane, are lesbians. Bisexual women characters are also included. |
| Jo's dads | Lumberjanes | 2014–present | Jo is a trans woman of color with two dads, and acts as an "expert on what it means to be a Lumberjane" to the fellow campers. |
| Kate Celine | Demon Street | 2013–present | This comic by Aliza Layne features several queer characters, including a nonbinary character, and a pair of crushing pre-teen girls, Kate and Celine. |
| Alexis "Alex" Koenig | Motherlover | 2018–present | This webcomic, by Lindsey Ishihiro, is a slow-burn romance about two moms from different walks of life, who eventually fall in love, and will be published in print in 2023 by Iron Circus Comics. The story centers around two women: Alexis "Alex" Koenig, a single lesbian woman of Japanese descent who moved back to her childhood home, with a daughter, and her neighbor Imogen Dawson, a stay-at-home mom who is trying to find "a new identity and purpose" in her life, who is married to Jonathan, living with their four children. |
| Luna Lion Unnamed characters | Acception | 2015–present | This ongoing Dutch teen dramedy romance webcomic by Coco "Colourbee" Ouwerkerk, who was inspired by "manga genres such as shojo and shounen," focuses on a rainbow-haired male protagonist named Arcus McCarthy, a high school student who faces some hostility for his appearance. The comic also features various LGBT characters. This includes Luna Lion, a trans woman who is introduced in the 23rd comic, who is transitioning, and Casper, a gay guy, both of whom have crushes on Arcus. The comic also features Bo, an asexual woman, introduced in the 78th comic, along with gay, trans male, lesbian, bisexual, characters in other comics. |
| Mal Molly | Lumberjanes | 2014–present | This series, created by Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters, features two campers, Mal and Molly, who discover they have mutual crushes for each other, with their friends accepting their relationship. |
| Kabi Nagata | My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness | 2016 | This autobiographical manga is by a lesbian author named by Kabi Nagata. |
| Nimona | Nimona | 2012–2015 | Noelle Stevenson, the author of this webcomic, described Nimona, the series protagonist, as a person who is stocky, wears pink, but is "still very kind of butch," referring to a woman with masculine traits, beyond what is considered typical of a tomboy, specifically a lesbian identity. |
| Nye | Fera | 2009–present | This webcomic by Davy Shirley features a lesbian protagonist, Nye, and her bisexual partner. |
| Peggy Sandro | My Two Lesbian Ants | 2017–present | This comic strip, by Lisa Franklin, is about two ants, Peggy and Sandro, which are lesbian, and one who is non-binary and queer, Angie. |
| Anaïs Phalèse Fauna Lokjom | Curvy | 2008–present | This webcomic by Sylvan Migdal features two lesbian protagonists, Anaïs Phalèse and Fauna Lokjom, who are in a relationship. |
| Rosie Isabelle | Close Your Eyes, Look at the Mountains | 2016–present | In this comic by Juniper Abernathy, all main characters are lesbians, queer, and/or trans, like Rachelle. Most strips are about a cat named Rosie and a dog named Isabelle who are in love. |
| Sarah | The Princess | 2010–present | This comic by Christine Smith sports a transgender protagonist, Sarah, among various other LGBT characters, as she struggles against transphobia. |
| Mo Testa Sparrow Pidgeon Clarice Clifford Toni Ortiz Dr. Sydney Krukowski | Dykes to Watch Out For | 1983–2008 | This webcomic by Alison Bechdel features multiple lesbian characters, specifically a lesbian feminist named Mo Testa, a drag king named Lois MacGiver who dates Jasmine and the mother of a trans teen: Janis, and a self-described "bisexual lesbian" named Sparrow Pidgeon. There's also the college girlfriend of Mo, the married partner of Clarice, the current lover of Mo, and a Jewish lesbian named Theo who was Sydney's lover in college, along with other central characters, like Jezanna and Audrey who are in a relationship, and Harriet, Mo's ex-girlfriend. |
| Thea Angel | Girls With Slingshots | 2004–2015 | This webcomic, by Danielle Corsetto, focuses on the adventures of Jaime, Hazel, and their friends, and at one point "Thea and Angel have the safe lesbian sex talk." Corsetto also leads the readers through the "wonderful world of sex with girls," reminding readers that "sexuality comes in a number of flavors." |
| Venus Envy | 2001–2014 | This comic by Erin Lindsay, features MtF transsexual character , whose birth name was Alex, adjusting to school life as a girl. Also features an FtM transsexual and a lesbian as characters. S. Belmar later wrote a spin-off of this comic with a "trans gag strip" named Venus Ascending | |
| Bucko | 2011–2012 | This Jeff Parker and Erika Moen webcomic features an "uninhibited" lesbian main character who is the housemate of the protagonist, Rich "Bucko" Richardson. |
Background
In recent years, lesbian characters have gained relative prominence in various formats, especially since 2013 with the advent of streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu.LGBT themes and characters were historically omitted intentionally from the content of comic strips and comic books, due to either censorship, the perception that LGBT representation was inappropriate for children, or the perception that comics as a medium were for children. In the 1950s, American comic books, under the Comics Code Authority, adopted the Comic Code which, under the guise of preventing "perversion", largely prevented the presentation of LGBT characters for a number of decades. Within the Japanese anime and manga, yaoi is the tradition of representing same-sex male relationships in materials that are generally created by women artists and marketed mostly for Japanese girls while the genre known as yuri focuses on relationships between women. In recent years, the number of LGBT characters in mainstream comics has increased greatly. There exist a large amount of openly gay and lesbian comic creators that self-publish their work on the internet. These include amateur works, as well as more "mainstream" works, such as Kyle's Bed & Breakfast. According to Andrew Wheeler from Comics Alliance, webcomics "provide a platform to so many queer voices that might otherwise go undiscovered."