Too soon?
Hulu’s riveting adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments has expanded the world of The Handmaid’s Tale with a new generation of women resisting Gilead — and for LGBTQ+ viewers, one character is already emerging as the emotional core of the story: Becka Grove, played by Mattea Conforti.
Becka, a young woman raised inside Gilead’s rigid religious hierarchy, becomes one of the most quietly radical figures in Atwood’s sequel. Her storyline, long read by queer audiences as deeply sapphic and emotionally intimate, has taken on new resonance as Hulu brings her from the page to the screen.
Becka’s life is defined by the suffocating expectations placed on girls in Gilead. The daughter of a powerful Commander, she grows up under the constant threat of forced marriage and state‑sanctioned control of her body. Her refusal to marry — a dangerous act of defiance — becomes one of the earliest signals of her resistance.
But it is Becka’s relationship with Agnes, another girl raised in Gilead’s indoctrination system, that has made her a standout character for queer fans. Their bond, forged in secrecy and survival, has long been interpreted as queer‑coded: emotionally intense, deeply loyal, and rooted in a shared understanding of what it means to live under a regime that denies them autonomy.
LGBTQ+ fans have embraced Becka as a symbol of queer resistance; a young woman who finds strength, identity, and purpose through her connection to another girl in a world designed to erase any indication of sapphic bonds.
A legacy of LGBTQ+ storytelling
The decision to foreground Becka’s emotional journey comes as Hulu continues to expand the queer themes that have defined The Handmaid’s Tale since its debut. Actresses Samira Wiley (Moira) and Alexis Bledel (Emily) portrayed queer women whose identities put them at even greater risk under Gilead’s rule. Their performances helped establish LGBTQ+ survival as a central theme of the franchise.
Becka’s storyline is poised to carry that legacy forward — not through escape or rebellion from the outside, but through a quieter, internal resistance that grows from her refusal to conform.
For LGBTQ+ viewers, Becka represents a different kind of queer heroine — one whose strength lies not in open rebellion, but in her unwavering sense of self in a world that denies her the right to have one. Her quiet courage, emotional depth, and queer‑coded bond with Agnes has positioned her to become a new symbol of LGBTQ+ resilience in dystopian storytelling.
Praise be for fans of The Testaments: the show’s been picked up for season two. Under his eye.
