The Rainbow Age of Television

The ultimate deep dive into the revolution of queer TV With the last decade’s television boom across a multitude of platforms, producing hundreds of network and streaming series, American audiences are being treated to a cascade of shows that some have trumpeted as a second Golden Age. But something completely new is stirring, too—the Rainbow Age. For the first time in the history of American television, we have shows in which LGBTQIA+ characters have evolved from being an anomaly to being an almost given and celebrated presence on the small screen. But what more can queer TV do? Is each new queer character really breaking ground? And has the curse of the fictional dead lesbian finally been defeated? The Rainbow Age of Television tackles these questions and more as author Shayna Maci Warner tracks the history and evolution of LGBTQIA+ icons across the televised ages and into the future of streaming—from the very first televised queer kiss (we think) to the shows that are making