Happy bisexual visibility day: Showcasing our fave female bisexual babes on screen
Here at Q+ Magazine, we’re sending Bisexual Visibility Week off into the universe with a bang. According to the Williams Institute, fifty percent of people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual are actually bisexual, positioning the bisexual community as the largest group within the LGBTQ+ family. We’re all about representation here, so we went on a trip through queer media and have compiled a list of our fave female bisexual babes that have appeared on our screens over time.
We know that our bisexual family gets a pretty bad rap, so visibility is more important than ever for them. This list is just a short list of some of our female bisexual characters, but there are many other female presenting bisexual characters on screens. Especially in recent times.
Appearing in no particular order, here are some of our fave female bisexual babes in episodic television.
Callie Torres
Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) is the longest running LGBTQ character to appear on screen in television history. She appeared in 11 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and 241 episodes, and she just so happens to be one of our very fave female bisexual babes!
Torres was written into the show intending to be a love interested for George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) but after their marriage dissolved, Callie begins a relationship with a female colleague also working at the hospital. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) kisses Callie to make another colleague jealous, but sparks fly and their relationship develops from there.
Over the years, Callie ends up in multiple relationships with female coworkers and learns to own her bisexuality with pride. It’s a point of contention for her very religious father but over the course of several heart felt episodes, the two work out their differences.
The most noteable relationship (in our humble opinion) that Callie has throughout the entirity of the show is the one she shares with Arizona (Jessica Capshaw). Callie ends up birthing a child, which Arizona ends up adopting. Like most relationships in this fictional universe though, Callie and Arizona don’t end up together.
Detective Rosa Diaz
When it comes to our fave female bisexual babes on episodic television, Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) is a name that should never be left off the list. A series regular in Brooklyn 99, the detective is considered extremely private, and just a teensy bit terrifying too.
In 2018, during season 5 of the show, despite her protectiveness over her private life, Detective Diaz came out on the show as bisexual. It is believed that the character’s coming out was mostly driven by the actress that plays her, who also identifies as bisexual in her real life.
The show enjoyed 8 seasons and finished in 2021, but Beatriz received two Gracie Awards and one Imagen Award for her depiction of the feisty detective. Brooklyn 99 has also won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for its portrayal of LGBTQ characters and storylines.
Annalise Keating
Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) is the main protagonist of How To Get Away With Murder. Keating is also bisexual. Through a series of flashbacks, and then some events that take place in the current time, audiences learn that Annalise had a relationship with a woman named Eve (Famke Beumer Janssen) while she was in law school.
Eve isn’t the only same-sex relationship that Annalise experiences throughout the show. Another notable mention is her relationship with Bonnie (Liza Weil), another associate at Keating’s law firm. Their relationship isn’t a bed of roses though, and the two share quite a volatile connection, though a connection is in fact there.
When the show opens, Annalise is married to her male therapist, and after they break up, she does have other relationships with men throughout the show as well. We love to see the full spectrum of bisexuality being represented.
However, because of the negative aspects of her character, Annalise has been criticized as “unworthy” bisexual representation because she essentially epitomizes all the stereotypical pitfalls of a cutthroat attorney. Unlike others though, we’re chalking that up to her personality and her chosen profession, and not the fact that she is in fact a member of the LGBTQ community.
Angela Montenegro
Found in the ever-popular show on Fox, Bones, Angele Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) is a free-spirited bisexual who is sex-positive and essentially the heart and soul of the Jeffersonian Institute – a fictional science lab supposed to emulate the Smithsonian corporation.
Bones was on television for 12 seasons, and although the writers only gave Angela one female lover in that entire time, Roxie (Nichole Hiltz) is one of Angela’s greatest loves, and most important relationships she ever has. They were together in college, and are reunited as adults in between Angela dating Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) and then Jak Hodgins again.
When she comes out to all her friends, although its a bit of a surprise, the show does a relatively good job of just folding it int0 the storyline without much fuss: Angela is with Roxie and she is happy. That’s all they care about, and that’s all that matters.
Angela eventually marries Hodgins and the pair start a family together.
Delphine Cormier
In Orphan Black, Delphine Cormier (Evelyne Brochu) is canonically in a relationship with Cosima Niehaus (Tatiana Maslany). Delphine is an underdog in the race for our fave female bisexual babes on screen, but really shouldn’t be left off the list!
Cosima is Delphine’s bisexual awakening. Before Cosima, Delphine was in involved in a situationship with a male scientist, but then she is assigned to monitor Cosima and things get a bit wonky.
She mentions that she isn’t sure about how she feels when it comes to dating a girl, and says that she “never thought about bisexuality.”
However, Cosima ends up kissing Delphine, who panics a bit at first, but they eventually work it all out, and well, the rest is bisexual history (for Delphine anyway as Cosima is of the lesbian variety of the rainbow family).
All 5 seasons of Orphan Black are available to stream on Netflix in some countries.
As we said, these are just some of our fave female bisexual babes on our screens. The good news is, bisexual representation is increasing in frequency, and it’s getting better in the kinds of bisexual characters we’re given. While there are plenty of stereotypes still gracing screens, it does appear that a concerted effort to up the game for the bisexual community is taking place.
Did we leave someone off our list that you can’t get enough of? Drop by one of our social media accounts and let us know!
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