The Christmas-week episode of Showtime’s rebooted drama The L Word: Generation Q featured a lesbian minister who tells her female lover she has an “open relationship, sexually” with Jesus.
“Lost Love,” the episode that aired on December 22, portrays Rebecca, played by Olivia Thirlby, and her lesbian lover Finley, played be Jacqueline Toboni, having a conversation after Finley discovers Rebecca is a minister.
The story reveals the two women met at a bar and end up in bed together. After Finley finds out, while on a work assignment, that Rebecca is a minister, she expresses her shock in a discussion with her after a church service.
Media Research Center provided the clip of the conversation between the lesbian lovers, which also portrays the Catholic faith as hostile and frightening.
Rebecca: I’m sorry that you had to find out like that. I know that it can be kind of weird at first. Um, I’m actually more closeted about being Christian than I am about being queer.
Finley: [Laughs] Yeah.
Rebecca: And it was going so well between us. Right?
…
Finley: Yeah. ‘Cause you’re, like… married to Jesus, right?
Rebecca: Yeah. I am. But it’s an open relationship. Sexually, I mean.
Finley: Oh… [Laughs]
Rebecca: So, did you have a religious upbringing?
Finley: Uh, yeah. I was raised Catholic. Very, very Catholic.
Rebecca: Well, a lot of people that come here have your experience. They were raised Catholic. And then they come here. I try to help remind them that they’re not those kids anymore. They can choose what they want to believe.
Finley: [Grunts]
Rebecca: Have you been in a Catholic church since you were a kid?
Finley: No. God, no, I didn’t even go to my grandpa’s funeral.
Rebecca: Uh-huh. What do you think would happen if you went to one?
Finley: I don’t know.
Rebecca: Some churches are safe spaces.
Finley: [Laughs] Not in my experience. So, do you have, like, a direct line to Jesus back there or…?
Rebecca: Yeah, the phone’s right in my office.
Finley: See, I don’t know if you’re kidding.
Showtime says the new season of The L Word features “a new group of diverse, self-possessed LGBTQIA+ characters experiencing love, heartbreak, sex, setbacks and success in LA.”