A+ Roundtable: Our Celebrity Crushes

feature image via Shutterstock/Kathy Hutchins (Christina Ricci, Queen Latifah); lev radin (Sara Ramirez)

For many of the team, a celebrity crush gave them the first inklings of gayness. When your friends are crushing on Justin Timberlake and you’re holding a candle for Mel B, after all, it’s definitely a sign! I really wonder, if we surveyed a larger portion of the queer population, if we’d come away with some consistent patterns in early celebrity crushes. Is there something about these people that read as queer, that draws them toward certain actors, musicians, people in the public sphere?

Then, of course, it can just be fun to have a celebrity crush. It’s a crush that can have very few consequences when it comes to your actual life. What are the chances I’m going to run into anyone from Hollywood I have a crush on? (Next to none, is the answer). As Valerie said, “Celebrity crushes are fun because they are zero stakes!” And I think we deserve a little low-stakes fun. So, who’s your celebrity crush?

xoxo,

Nico

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20 Comments

  1. eeeeheeeeheeeee thank youuuuu for sharing this!!!! this is lovely. . .

    but i love A Tony’s & Valerie’s enthusiasm for many celebrity crushes. mine are few and far between – i mean how am i supposed to have a crush on someone i’ve only seen in 2d & who doesn’t know i exist. i have crushes on my wife & friends instead! then Roberta Colindrez makes my stomach drop & my heart soar every. damn. time.

    also Nico, lovin your naaaaaaaaaaaaaammme <3 <3 <3 cheers!

  2. Forever and always Gillian Anderson and Winona Ryder. Unoriginal? HUGELY, but clichés are clichés for a reason people!!!

  4. VALERIE THANK YOU FOR BRINGING AMY JO JOHNSON BACK INTO MY LIFE UPON FURTHER REFLECTION YES THE PINK POWER RANGER WAS ABSOLUTELY MY FIRST CRUSH, YES I DID GET IN TROUBLE FOR STEALING ONE OF MY LITTLE BROTHER’S POGS BECAUSE IT FEATURED HER AND I WAS LIKE “SURELY THIS POG MUST BE MINE, WEIRD THAT IT APPEARED IN MY LITTLE BROTHER’S POG PACK, I SIMPLY MUST RESCUE THE PINK POWER RANGER FROM HIS ROOM AND KEEP THIS POG CLOSE TO ME AT ALL TIMES” NOTHING TO SEE HERE, NOT AT ALL A BUDDING LIL LESBIAN, NOOOOOOO MA’AM

  5. Heather, I’ll offer myself up as VP of the Lynda P. Frazier fan club.

    (Also this list is quite lacking in Scully/Stella/Gillian Anderson references.)

  6. Oof if I’d written mine after watching a League of Their Own I would have had to add Roberta Colindrez. 💦🔥

  7. So back when I was trying to figure out if I was only into girls or maybe also into boys, I made a list of ever celebrity I’ve ever found attractive. One male list and one female. (This was 2009, so yes, just two lists.) One the male list, I could scarcely get into the 40s, but some long-lasting crushes I had included Chad Michael Murray, Shane West, Prince Harry, and Benji Madden from Good Charlotte. The female list, on the other hand? Wayyyyy over 100. Obviously too many to list, but the two earliest ones I remember were Julia Roberts (in Pretty Woman, specifically) Stockard Channing (in Grease, specifically). I basically had Grease memorized by the time I was five, and There Are Worse Things I Could Do was always always my favourite song even though I was in highschool before I understood half of it. Rizzo just DID things to me I did not understand!

  9. “I once ?screamed? at a boy on the bus because he said Angelina Jolie was unattractive” Kayla you were right to do this

  10. It’s wild to me that Cate Blanchett, Lena Headey, Aubrey Plaza nor Rachel Weisz were mentioned! If I hadn’t already known I was gay when The Mummy came out, that sure would have done it. And I will always be devastated that Luce the Lesbian Florist from Primrose Hill is not a real person.

  12. O. M. G. Celebrity crushes. What’s the character limit in comments?
    I’ll break it down a bit. First celebrity girl crush that I can recall: Annie Lenox. Holy shit, that suit from Sweet Dreams.
    Most enduring: Angelina Jolie
    Baby gay years: Mary Stuart Masterson, Gina Gershon, Ani DiFranco, Melissa Etheridge, pretty much any bi or lesbian musical artist.
    Throughout the years in some form or another: Halle Berry, Hayley Atwell, Lana Parrilla, Winona Ryder, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Murray, Katie McGrath, Allison Hannigan, Lauren Jackson, Sue Bird, Mia Hamm, Jodie Foster.
    My 10% from my baby gay years: George Strait.

    How fun to reminisce about this.

  13. Maybe it’s age but first crush? Sigourney Weaver in Holes NO question. The swagger? The boots? The rattlesnake nail polish? And then also Sigourney, of course, in everything else

  15. i feel like i left so many off the list, but i LOVE getting to know everyone through their celebrity crushes. this confirms that i’m surrounded by my people

    • I keep finding out more that I left off the list! This was actually a very difficult challenge.

  16. My #1 gay awakening celebrity crush was Kate Winslet in Titanic. I joke that seeing her boobs in that movie made me gay but I am actually not joking.

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