Bette Porter and Tina begin the show as the established couple. Bette is a biracial, lesbian director of an art museum and is one of the more aggressive characters. Though she is an attractive and very well-to-do mixed Latina (this is the word used on the show) and black, she is also ethnically ambiguous and could pass as white. She supports Tina financially throughout the first two seasons, even through their breakup due to her affair with Candace (see the characters section on supporting characters). Bette loses her job before the third season, and the roles are reversed. She is also the fourth character to become mentally unstable, as seen in the finale of the third season (both Marina and Jenny were institutionalized for suicide in the first two seasons and Alice also ends season 3 with mental issues, with her abuse of prescription drugs following her break up with Dana).

In the first half of season 1, Bette's identity as biracial was discussed briefly. This was mostly done in terms of her decision to have a child with Tina, but also as a basis for her meeting Candace. The topic of race has since disappeared from the show, as if to say "we are aware, we brought it up, now let's just let it be." It is brought up again in the end of the third season, when Tina and Bette split up. Bette's reasoning for having custody of a child her partner gave birth to after being artificially inseminated is race, that Angelica is the same race as her. But, Angelica looks no more like Bette's daughter than Tina's.

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As with most of the characters, you can see Bette's media images become more sexualized over the seasons, though the fourth season image seems to have mellowed a little, but is just as eccentric as in the previous photo.