holly marie combs

From new hit series to the return of old favorites, these 10 shows are must-see TV for LGBT viewers this winter.

I am addicted to "Pretty Little Liars," ABC Family’s newest teen dramathon, based on Sara Shepard’s books of the same name. It’s difficult pin down what exactly is so deliciously irresistible about Pretty Little Liars. At first I was deeply uncomfortable with the fact that it seemed the show was putting Shay Mitchell's character, Emily’s bisexuality on the same level of negativity as the other girls’ morally wrong and seriously illegal behavior. The show stars Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Trolan Avery Bellasario and Shay Mitchell.

If you were up past your bedtime last night aimlessly clicking around on Twitter and Facebook --like I was -- you may have noticed a fairly sudden flood of red equality symbols replacing profile pictures. By morning about 80 percent of my Twitter and Facebook feeds were filled with red profile pics and declarations of support for marriage equality as the Supreme Court was getting underway with today’s Prop 8 hearing and in anticipation of tomorrow’s DOMA hearing.

It seemed for a couple of weeks that Pretty Little Liars’ resident gay girl Emily’s character had been benched, what with her first love Maya having been hauled off to juvie rehab / ex-gay camp several episodes ago. But this week presented a gay storyline refresh that made Em the object of scorn from a hateful parent, the recipient of much love from her homophobic leaning mom and the apple of at least one girl’s eye. Not that someone with remotely tuned Gaydar couldn’t have seen it coming, but still, it’s nice to see the lesbian storyline getting some love. The last time we saw Emily (Shay Mitchell) she was swimming her heart out in the pool to the point that her former team mate / gay-baiting bully Paige (Lindsey Shaw) had all but conceded defeat, especially after she turned up on Emily’s doorstep in the rain apologizing for being such a narrow minded jack-ass.

Tonight we bid farewell to Emily, Spencer, Hanna and Aria for three more months and I’m already missing my not-so-guilty pleasure.