Every Streaming Service Ranked by their LGBTQ+ Catalog

It’s that time again, folks. Streaming service curators and social media managers are dusting off their Pride collections and celebratory posts, and while corporate Pride sentiment has always felt hollow, the messages and collections curated by these streamers feels more performative than ever this year, mostly thanks to the brutal year queer representation has had.
Though the main worry in regards to queer representation over the years has been the Bury Your Gays trope, lately, it seems that sentiment has shifted from killing queer characters to instead canceling queer shows, and in some cases, removing them from platforms entirely. Netflix is usually the streaming service to feel the wrath of queer fans, considering how many LGBTQ+ shows have met their demise after just one or two seasons on the platform, but newer streamers like Disney+, Max, and Hulu have now begun removing canceled series.
While queer shows getting canceled hurts, the disappearing act hits the hardest; representation is about being seen on screen, these shows act like lifelines for queer audiences, and making them unavailable and inaccessible is depriving queer people of a tangible connection to people like them—both on and off screen. Online communities get built around these series, and it’s one thing for a show to never produce any new content ever again, but it’s an entirely different thing to strangle the life out of a fandom by removing its lynchpin from existence. With no way for new people to discover these series, the communities built around them will dissolve, and the memory of each removed show will only live on in the minds of those that were lucky enough to watch it while it still existed. It’s heartbreaking and devastating, and will have a profound impact on the queer community, affecting LGBTQ+ teens in particular as they look to their screens for some type of connection.
Below, we’ve ranked every streaming service based on how inclusive their originals are in particular, how many queer shows they have canceled, and how many queer shows they have erased. This list (as well as the current state of queer representation) is a little bleak, but if you’re looking for something fun to watch this Pride Month, we have also ranked the best queer shows to watch if you’re looking for a good, gay time.
8. Disney+
The most disappointing thing about Disney+’s representation is the lack thereof. Actually, if I had made this list about a month ago, I probably could have bumped Disney+ up one more to be in the seventh spot, but mere days ago, the streamer removed their only queer-led original, Willow. Willow was an incredibly fun and well-made series that featured the beautiful love story that blossomed between Jade and Kit, and featured strikingly meaningful representation for a Disney+ original; unfortunately, now the only way to see it is through less-than-legal means.
Other than that, Disney+’s originals rank from either resoundingly straight to only vaguely gay; High School Musical: The Musical: The Series features a few queer side characters, Loki was confirmed genderfluid in a blink-and-you-miss-it frame in the credits of one of the episodes of his show, and Andor’s minimal representation. While it is nice to see Disney move towards more inclusivity within their programming, it’s a bit sad when the only things included in your Pride collection will be the phenomenal series The Owl House (a Disney Channel original that is probably the queerest thing on the platform), imports from Hulu (like now-ended Love, Victor), and half-baked Star Wars and Marvel representation.
7. Hulu
Hulu, which is admittedly one of my favorite streaming services, is another less-than-fruitful platform for queer representation within their originals—especially after their own recent content purge. The removals of Dollface and Marvel’s Runaways, which each featured leading sapphic characters, put a large dent into the remaining representation on the platform, especially from their own originals. While you can access diverse and outwardly queer series like What We Do in the Shadows and Pose through FX on Hulu, the strides made by that network don’t make up for the lack in their own originals. It was admirable for Only Murders to take a leap in including sapphic representation in its second season, but the way that relationship fizzled to an odd conclusion is emblematic of the state of their queer representation. The now-ended Love, Victor is a wonderful series, also-ended Shrill provides great representation, and their catalog of original films (like Fire Island and Crush) also feature diverse casts and stories, but there’s still much work to be done for Hulu—especially after taking three steps back.
6. Max (née HBO Max)
The newly minted Max is a bit of a mixed bag, but has provided decent representation that allows their deletions and removals to be off-set more than Disney+’s. While they did remove Genera+ion, the incredibly queer series that was canceled shortly after it first aired, the streamer’s Sex Lives of College Girls is one of the best instances of representation currently still on air. In addition, many of their other marquee original series feature some sort of queer representation, including Hacks, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, The Flight Attendant, and even the much-loathed Velma. And even though Genera+ion is no longer on the platform, Warner Bros. Discovery get some points for moving it to Tubi, rather than just throwing it in the Disney Vault where Willow will live in perpetuity. And, of course, you can access all of HBO’s queer content (including shows like The Last of Us and Looking, to name a few), but those are simply supplements to Max’s own originals library. While the future of Max is still uncertain, it’s clear that representation of some kind has always been baked into their originals, and we can only hope that won’t change under new leadership.