Ten years later, mainstream media has slowly been improving its bisexual and trans representation — and no show has tried to do more than Transparent. Amazon's Emmy-award winning series about the Pfefferman family discovering themselves in the wake of their parent's transition was inspired by Jill Soloway's own parent coming out to her. Her sister, Faith Soloway, is also a writer on the show and an out lesbian.



“Sex is so part of this show," Faith Soloway said during a phone interview. "It’s not about the sex scenes; it’s about the expression of sex — and it’s great to know that we’re not having to answer to producers who want to see ‘You have to have this amount of sex scenes per each episode’ or ‘Toplessness here.' There’s never a formula. It just really has to really work hand in hand with the actors and the characters.”

The first lesbian sex scene that occurs in Transparent transpires between Sarah (Amy Landecker) and Tammy (Melora Hardin) in Season 1. Tammy and Sarah are former college girlfriends who reconnected after they were both married and had kids, who coincidentally attend the same elementary school. Tammy and Sarah's secret affair is found out, and in this scene, they are professing how happy they are to be alone together, finally, while hungrily loving all over one another. Tammy is wearing a white tank top and boy shorts, fucking Sarah with her hands, stopping to kiss her gingerly before grabbing her tits and going down on her. "All I'm thinking about is you," Tammy says before Sarah says, "Get the dick out. Get the dick, get the dick, get the dick!" Sarah turns over on all fours as Tammy cleans off the dildo and begins pushing it into Sarah from behind. They're ultimately interrupted by a phone call; thwarted again.

“We had two queer women on set who were saying ‘This is how it goes down,’” Ganatra said. She directed the scene and episode writer Ali Liebegott was also on hand. “Then we had to realize ‘Oh, we’re very different, too.’"

The reality of sex is that even for two women, there is not a right or wrong way to be having it — which is why arguments over the authenticity of lesbian sex acts onscreen can get so heated. One woman's refusing to acknowledge scissoring as a viable sex act is another's tremendous appreciation for tribbing.

"One thing we did agree on was there was a moment where Melora Hardin took the dildo and was kind of smacking Sarah around with it," Ganatra said. "It was hilarious and she was going for the comedy but we were like ‘I don’t think I would slap a person with a dildo.’ Amy was like ‘Good, because I did not enjoy that.’ Ali was like “I don’t know, guys — I’m a little twisted. I might do that.’ We were just like dying. Like ‘OK, well, let’s figure out what’s right for these characters.’”

“We’re always just wanting to do the real and what isn’t seen a lot — those two things,” Soloway said. “The sex scenes really have to answer a lot of questions and open new questions — they can’t just be there like ‘I want to see this happen!’ They have to have emotional payoffs and emotional risk.”