Sure a gay girl can watch TV shows without a lesbian character in sight. But it sure is nice to be represented on screen once in a while. It adds greatly to the “normalcy” effect both for us and for our straight friends out here in real life. It’s all about visibility, right?

Here are just a few of the great shows out there that can be watched on cable and/or Netflix that have a lesbian character or characters giving it extra points in my book for being more representative of our society. Lesbians are around in real life. So we certainly should be around on screen too!

Grey’s Anatomy

This well-known medical drama is home to a variety of both lesbian joy and drama. Marriage, infidelity, and custody all come into view. ABC

Glee

A young lesbian couple is featured in this show, allowing an excellent arch exploring coming out as a teenager and translating that into the “real” world as an adult. Originally aired on Fox, available on Netflix

Orange is the new Black

Jail is the background and lesbian storylines of all varieties play in the foreground. The central character has a lesbian past and, as the plot unfolds, perhaps more as well. Netflix

The Catch

The story is about tricking and cheating the rich. One of the central female characters has a female love interest. No spoiler here, but thing get, well, interesting. ABC

The Fosters

A lesbian couple adopts children to create a family that most would find enviable. But some of the children’s difficult pasts lead to trouble. Freeform

Faking It

Two girls claim to be lesbians to gain popularity. Except it seems as if only one of them is actually “faking it.” Having a crush on your straight BFF is torture. MTV

Ellen

If you don’t know about Ellen, you can turn in your lesbian card now. Right. Now. ABC

One Big Happy

Gay girl. Straight guy. Best friends. Both want a baby. It’s a bit of a Will & Grace redeux. Elisha Cuthbert alone makes it worth watching. For a number of reasons. NBC

Pretty Little Liars

These girls are not nice (see photo above). But the show sure is fun. One of the female characters comes out as not only gay but also has a young woman determined not to be defined solely by her sexuality. Freeform