27 lost lesbian storylines and characters that deserved the spotlight

Hollywood has come along way since the days of the Hays Code where all LGBTQ+ content had to be excised, but today queer women are still being cut out of movies and TV shows all the time.

Sometimes entire characters or plot lines are cut out to appease procedures or studio heads, while other times lesbian sex scenes and even chaste kisses were removed because test audiences balked at the inclusion of queer characters. But whatever the reason, we were robbed of having so much more representation on screen!

Here are 27 TV shows and movies that cut out queer women, lesbian sex scenes, or straightwashed characters that were intended to be queer.

'Times Square' (1980)

Many read Times Square as an inherently sapphic movie, but the romance between main characters Pamela and Nicky is all subtextual because the actual lesbian plot line was cut from the movie. Pressure from producer Robert Stigwood, who insisted all of the lesbian content be stripped from the film, led to the sapphic romance being cut, causing director Allan Moyle to quit before the film was complete, Cinephile City reports.

'The Color Purple' (1985)

The sexual relationship between Celie and Shug is clear in the book, but when director Steven Spielberg adapted Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple into a movie, he left out everything except a kiss between the two women. Walker said she knew “the passion of Celie and Shug’s relationship would be sacrificed,” and she was correct. In a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg admitted to cutting out the majority of the lesbian content.

“There were certain things in the [lesbian] relationship between Shug Avery and Celie that were finely detailed in Alice’s book, that I didn’t feel could get a [PG-13] rating,” he said. “And I was shy about it. In that sense, perhaps I was the wrong director to acquit some of the more sexually honest encounters between Shug and Celie, because I did soften those. I basically took something that was extremely erotic and very intentional, and I reduced it to a simple kiss. I got a lot of criticism for that.”

'Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael' (1990)

Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael had a sex scene between Winona Ryder and another woman that was cut out of the film because of the reaction from test audiences. The final cut of the film only left in a scene the two women in a bedroom that hints that they had sex.

"At test screenings, people were kind of shocked to see the two [women] in bed. I thought it was done pretty tastefully...I think we miscalculated the reaction,” director Jim Abrahams said, while screenwriter Karen Leigh Hopkins blamed the move on the studio. "We’re lucky (the scene) is in there at all. Paramount was very nervous about it and wanted it cut...But there’s nothing wrong with (two women) being lovers. Roxy is the hero — and she’s bisexual,” she said per Buzzfeed.

'Fried Green Tomatoes' (1991)

Fried Green Tomatoes is often considered a lesbian classic, despite the fact that all of the queerness in the film is subtextual. While the book makes the lesbian love story between the two main characters pretty explicit, the Hollywood adaptation left it all out. You may be able to cut the sexual tension between Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker with a knife (and the whole film feels extremely gay), but there is nary a lesbian kiss or sex scene in the entire movie. In fact, according to Autostraddle, the food fight scene in the movie was meant to be a stand-in for lesbian sex.

'Switch' (1991)

Okay, so admittedly this is a weird one. Switch tells the story of a man named Steve who is reincarnated as a woman named Amanda and can only make it to heaven if he can find a woman who will love him. The film was supposed to have a scene where Amanda/Steve has sex with a lesbian, but it was cut after it made test audiences uncomfortable. Instead of leaving the scene on the cutting room floor, it was rewritten so that Amanda/Steve is seen turning down the lesbian suitor. “Beyond the explicit and offensive homophobia that provokes such a censorious action, the suppression of this scene is further complicated by the fact that arguably, it would’ve been the ‘safest’ way to represent lesbianism in a Hollywood movie: not as lesbianism at all, but as heterosexuality,” OutWeek reviewer Monica Dorenkamp wrote back in 1990.

'A League of Their Own' (1992)

The canceled-too-soon A League of Their Own TV series was incredibly gay, but the original movie was only subtextually queer. While Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna’s friendship had a sapphic feel to it, there were no overtly lesbian characters. This is a slap in the face considering the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was chalk full of queer women and Josephine D’Angelo — the real woman Geena Davis’ character was based on — was gay and got kicked out of the league because she got “a butchy haircut” which broke the cardinal rule of the league: “Play like a man, look like a lady,” according to the article The Hidden Queer History Behind ‘A League of Their Own.’

'Now and Then' (1995)

The ‘90s coming-of-age story Now and Then was another missed opportunity to have Rose O’Donnell play a lesbian. Christina Ricci starred as the teen version of the beloved character while O’Donnell played her as an adult and although she was clearly a tomboy in the movie, she was originally intended to be queer. Creator Marlene King — also responsible for Pretty Little Liars —told Entertainment Tonight back in 2015 that Roberta was originally written as a lesbian, but when they started screen testing the movie, audiences “freaked out” that Roberta was a queer gynecologist who helps Rita Wilson’s character give birth. King explained, "They were like, 'Ew, she's a lesbian and she's looking at her vagina!' And we were like, 'What? Seriously? Do you really care?'"

She continued, "The studio, New Line Cinema, just felt like it was so distracting because it tested like that over, and over, and over again. So then they were like, 'We don’t want people to leave the theater with just those crazy thoughts,' so it was changed."

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1997-2003)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was full of sex — the titular character slept with Angel, destroyed a house during sex with Spike, and had a bizarre sex marathon with Riley — but a lesbian kiss was a step too far. Willow and Tara got together in season 4, but it took until season 5, episode 16 for the beloved sapphic couple to share an onscreen kiss, and creator Joss Whedon had to fight against the studio to include it at all.

'X-Men' franchise (2000-present)

The blue-skinned shapeshifter Mystique is portrayed as bisexual in the Marvel comic books, but every iteration of her that we’ve gotten in the X-Men franchise has ignored this fact. Sadly, this means we’ve never gotten a bisexual Mystique on the silver screen, despite her having a long-term partner named Destiny, which became canon in the comics in 2019.

'Legally Blonde' (2001)

Legally Blonde star Jessica Cauffiel admitted that the movie was supposed to end with Elle (Reese Witherspoon) and Vivian (Selma Blair) on a beach vacation that would leave viewers thinking the two women were an item. “The first ending was Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands. The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically,” Cauffiel said in an interview with the New York Times. Legally Blonde actress Alanna Ubach remembers this never-filmed ending, but the screenwriters claim it doesn’t exist.

'Scooby-Doo' (2002)

Fans have long considered the smarty-pants member of the Scooby gang to be fam, but we almost got an “explicit gay” Velma in James Gunn’s live-action Scooby-Doo movie. After a fan on social media urged Gunn to make a third film in the franchise with a queer Velma, Gunn admitted that he had to “water down” Velma’s LGBTQ+ identity until it was nonexistent because of pressure from the studio.

“I tried! In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. But the studio just kept watering it down and watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version), and finally having a boyfriend (the sequel),” Gunn wrote according to IndieWire.

'Love Actually' (2003)

Love, Actually is made up of a ton of interconnected plot lines, and yet despite how many there are, none are queer. But the movie wasn’t originally intended to be only about straight couples finding love around the holidays. There was supposed to be a lesbian tearjerker plot line that ended with the death of a character. Actress Anne Reid filmed scenes that were ultimately cut where she played a headmistress at the school that Emma Thompson's kids and Liam Neeson’s stepson went to. In the deleted scene, Reid’s character is seen heading home to see her partner, played by Frances de la Tour, who is suffering from a terminal illness that ultimately takes her life. Sounds like a real heartwarming Christmas moment!

“The idea was meant to be that you just met this sort of stern headmistress,” director Richard Curtis said before the deleted scenes on the DVD. “And the idea was meant to be that later on in the film…we suddenly fell in with the headmistress, and you realize that no matter how unlikely it seems, that any character that you come across in life has their own complicated tale of love.”

Suicide Squad (2016)

Fave antihero Harley Quinn is canonically bisexual in the comics, was confirmed to be bi inBirds of Prey, and has a relationship with Poison Ivy in the animated series Harley Quinn, but 2016’s Suicide Squad cuts out her queer identity entirely. Instead of being a bisexual badass with a penchant for using a baseball bat as a weapon, Harley Quinn is totally focused on her relationship with Joker.

Birds of Prey may have referenced her bisexuality, but Harley Quinn actress Margot Robbie has been petitioning to have her character date Poison Ivy in a live-action movie for years. “Trust me, I chew their ear off about it all the time,” Robbie said in an interview with Den of Geek back in 2021. “They must be sick of hearing it, but I’m like, ‘Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy. Come on, let’s do it.’ I’m very keen to see a Harley-Poison Ivy relationship on screen. It’d be so fun. So I’ll keep pestering them. Don’t worry.”

'Legends of Tomorrow' (2016-2022)

The season 5 finals of Legends of Tomorrow as meant to include a goodbye kiss between shapeshifter Charlie and the original Zari (AKA Zari 1.0), but it was cut before audiences ever got to see their ship “Zarlie” come to life.

"It was a goodbye kiss, Charlie knowing she would never see Z again, and deciding to take that leap before Z had to go back into the totem,” executive producer Keto Shimizu admitted on social media. Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who played Charlie, also said that the kiss was cut "solely because it changed the needed tone of an emotional scene,” despite everyone wanting to keep it in, Screenrant reports.

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

On the last day on the set of Pitch Perfect 3, Rebel Wilson, who played Fat Amy in the franchise, let it slip that star Anna Kendrick pushed for a kiss between Chloe and Beca and that the scene was even filmed, but was ultimately left on the cutting room floor because the studio refused to allow it in the final cut of the movie, Buzzfeed reports.

This could just be chalked up to a rumor reported by Wilson, but her fellow cast members Hana Mae Lee and Chrissie Fit confirmed that the story is true. Considering that the sapphic moment was teased in the movie posters which showed Beca and Chloe almost kissing, fans’ queerbaiting accusations seem well founded.

'Thor: Ragnarok' (2017)

Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson, may be the first openly LGBTQ+ superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we almost got more than vague allusions to her bisexuality in Thor: Ragnarok.

Thompson was a champion of including more overt references to her sexuality, building her bisexuality into her backstory, and convincing director Taika Waititi to shoot a scene where a woman is leaving Valkyrie’s bedroom. Waititi told Rolling Stone that he “as long as he could,” but “the bit had to be cut because it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition.”

In the end, instead of an onscreen confirmation of Valkyrie sleeping with a woman, we got to see her flirting with Thor. Boring!

Black Panther (2018)

Okoye and Ayo were supposed to have a brief flirtation in Black Panther that would confirm their same-sex attraction to one another, but the scene was allegedly cut to make time for other storylines. Marvel has since denied that the scene existed in the first place.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was supposed to reveal that Daniella Pineda's scientist character is a lesbian, but the scene was cut from the film before it hit theaters. In the Jurassic World sequel, Pineda plays a Zia, a paleo-veterinarian who joins Chris Pratt's Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire on an adventure to save the dinosaurs, but the scene where a joke reveals her sexual identity was ultimately left on the cutting room floor, much to Pineda’s dismay, the Advocate reports.

In the deleted scene, Zia sizes Owen up, commenting on his “square jaw, good bone structure, tall, muscles” before saying, "I don't date men, but if I did, it would be you. It would gross me out, but I'd do it.’" Pineda loved the scene because her character saying that the “hottest guy in the world” would “gross me out” would have given audiences an “insight into my character.”

'The United States vs Billie Holiday' (2020)

Bisexual icon Billie Holiday wrote in her memoir about her love affair with Tallulah Bankhead, but the Hulu biopic The United States vs Billie Holiday turned them into friends, not lovers.

The trailer for the film was promising. It showed a passionate kiss between the two women and them being playful together at a jewelry shop, but all of that was left on the cutting room floor, and what ended up in the final film were scenes that showed Holiday and Bankhead as close friends, and Holiday sleeping with men, After Ellen reports.

'Valley Girl' (2020)

In the 2020 remake of the ‘80s classic Valley Girl, a kiss between Mae Whitman’s characters Jack and Chloe Bennet’s character Karen was filmed, but was left out of the final cut of the film. This was revealed in a since-deleted tweet where Whitman admitted the steamy kiss was left on the cutting room floor, “Yes we even filmed a special kiss that didn't make it in but should haaaaave,” she wrote.

'Luca' (2021)

Pixar’s Luca is undeniably queer, from the close bond between main characters Luca and Alberto to the themes of found family, running away to be your authentic self, and having to hide your identity. But not only did director Enrico Casarosa not intend Luca and Alberto to be gay because the movie was “about their friendship in that pre-puberty world,” but two sources from Pixar said there were discussions about making Giulia, the human girl the boys befriend, queer. Giulia’s sapphic identity never made it into the movie because they couldn’t figure out how to add it in without giving her a girlfriend.

“We very often came up against the question of, ‘How do we do this without giving them a love interest?’” one of the sources told Variety. “That comes up very often at Pixar.”

'Turning Red' (2022)

Fans of Disney Pixar’s coming-of-age animated film Turning Red started demanding that the company “release the Gay Cut” after employees came forward claiming that Disney executives cut the majority of the queer scenes in the film. Fans believe that it is likely that the scene the Pixar employee was talking about had to do with Priya and the goth girl she has a slight flirtation with in the film.

'Archive 81' (2022)

The Netflix series Archive 81 was based on a scripted podcast series, but when the streaming behemoth adapted the story, they straightwashed the main character. In the podcast, Melody Pendras was queer and had a wife she had been married to for 20 years, but the TV series never mentions her queer identity. Not only that, but her wife was erased, and in her place, they gave Melody a male romantic interest, according to Autostraddle.

'Thor: Love and Thunder' (2022)

Before Thor: Love and Thunder premiered, Natalie Portman claimed the Marvel movie would be “so gay” and director Taika Waititi called it “super gay,” but sadly their descriptions proved inaccurate. To be fair, the film goes farther than Ragnarok ever did. Valkyrie’s bisexuality is confirmed, and she is seen both kissing the hand of a woman and opening up about losing her girlfriend who died during a battle. Recurring character Korg is also portrayed as being gay, and there is a brief mention that he has a kid with his male partner. But fans were still disappointed and felt like Portman and Waititi had oversold just how queer this film was.

The Marvels (2023)

Thor: Love and Thunder may have been a very small step in the right direction for LGBTQ+ representation, but The Marvels shattered the illusion that Marvel was willing to show queer relationships on screen.

According to PRIDE’s sister publication Out, The Marvels was supposed to include a line that made it clear that Captain Marvel and Valkyrie once had a sexual relationship together, but Marvel allegedly removed it from the final cut of the film.

'Joy Ride' (2023)

If you notice sexual tension between frenemies Lolo (Sherry Cola) and Kat (Stephanie Hsu) when watching Joyride, you aren’t wrong. The original screenplay for Joyride featured a lesbian romance between the two women that ended up being cut out entirely. Sabrina Wu, who played Deadeye, said in an interview with Collider that the movie ”was a little gay” and Hsu said that originally there was a “whole gay track between Sherry's character and my character.”

Director Adele Lim told Entertainment Weekly that the romance was cut for “pacing and time,” but "if viewers felt sexual tension between Lolo and Kat, it's not in their heads.”

'Inside Out 2' (2024)

Inside Out 2 was supposed to make Riley textually lesbian, but the creative team had their legs cut out from under them when Disney insisted they tone down the queerness. Several sources told IGNthat the studio leadership was “uncomfortable” with the queer themes and insisted they make Riley “less gay,” and reported that there were rumors that care was taken to make the relationship between Riley and Val seem platonic by removing any scene that showed “romantic chemistry.” One of the sources described this work as "just doing a lot of extra work to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight."