This Year’s Emmys Come With a Historic Wave of Black Queer Firsts
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
“I accept this award on behalf of every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard, yet over-policed, like Glenda Cleveland, like Sandra Bland, like Breonna Taylor. As an artist, my job is to speak truth to power. And, baby, Imma do it ‘till the day I die,” with those words Niecy Nash-Betts went home with her first ever Emmy win after over three decades in the business. Her win was a poignant highlight of a 2023 Emmys season that brought nothing less than historic LGBT (and most often, Black queer) Emmy wins, including wins for Ayo Edebiri, RuPaul Charles, Keke Palmer and GLAAD.
Nash, who won Supporting Actress in a limited Series for Netflix’s Dahmer, was escorted on stage by her wife, Jessica Betts, who face nearly broke in two from smiling ear-to-ear. The actor wore a simply gorgeous Black velvet gown with matching elbow-length gloves, screaming with joy “Mama, I won!” to her mother in audience before exiting.
Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
In addition to Nash, Black queer talent swept the award show across the board.
Ayo Edebiri won for Supporting Actress in a Comedy series for her work in Hulu’s Bear, becoming one half of a duo marking the first time in Emmys history that Black actresses won both the lead and supporting Comedy categories in the same year (her partner in that historic milestone, Quinta Brunson, won lead actress in a Comedy for Abbott Elementary, becoming only the second actress to win that award in the show’s 75 year history. The last to do so was Isabel Sanford for The Jeffersons in 1981).
Photo by Monica Schipper/WireImage
Rupaul, once again, won both Reality Competition Program and Host of a Reality Series for RuPaul’s Drag Race. This is the fifth year the series won in the competition category, and RuPaul’s record eighth consecutive year winning as host. He is now also the most-awarded person of color in Emmys history (and if you include Drag Race’s wins on top of his individual ones, it’s not even close).
Speaking of reality TV wins, Queer Eye also won for Structured Reality Program, putting Karamo Brown among this year’s Black queer winners.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
And last week, Keke Palmer made history becoming the first woman in 15 years (!!!) to win an Emmy for Game Show Host, for her work on Password.
Taken together, Niecy Nash-Betts, Ayo Edebiri, Rupaul, Karamo Brown, and Keke Palmer make the largest cohort of Black queer talent to win at the Emmys in a single year. That alone is breathtaking. It’s the kind of ceiling breaking that can feel at a loss of words. I find myself both bursting with pride at the feat, but also tinged with sadness. To paraphrase Viola Davis during her own historic 2015 Emmy win, we know that the only thing that stands between often marginalized performers and accolades like this is opportunity. It’s never been a lack of talent. It’s always been a lack of institutions willing to see that talent for what it is, when it’s plainly in front of them.
Adding in the wins for Beef (Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, for lead actor and actress in a miniseries, respectively), Abbott Elementary (Brunson), The Last of Us (Storm Reid as guest actress for playing queer role Riley Abel), and The Trevor Noah Show, this year’s Emmys ties the record for the most wins by performers of color in a single year. Last night alone, five of the 12 acting categories went to people of color.
Those wins came during an award show that also paid tribute to the casts of Good Times, Martin and Arsenio Hall’s work in The Arsenio Hall Show. Arsenio entered the stage with A Black Lady’s Sketch Show’s Robin Thede standing up and doing his signature dog pound salute from the audience, before quipping that all he ever wanted to be was a modern Johnny Carson, even though his success as the first Black late night host was often overshadowed by Jay Leno and David Letterman. The cast of Martin, dressed to the nines and sitting on their original set, made a bit out of the fact that, despite changing the trajectory of Black sitcoms for the next 25 years, they had never been invited to the award show before now. Given the historic wins for Quinta Brunson and Ayo Edebiri, it felt good for Martin’s Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold to be greeted with roaring applause (at least in my living room, I’ll admit cheering so loud that I can’t be 100% certain what happened in the auditorium itself).
Last night’s Emmys was produced by an all-Black production team, which I’m sure made a difference in allowing us to hold space for these uncomfortable truths to begin with. We can be overjoyed with long overdue wins, especially to talent that absolutely deserves them. We can also simultaneously be aware that these wins come on the backs of so many people of color who were never given their rightful day in the sun. There are many giants whose shoulders we stand on.
GLAAD won the 2023 Governor’s Award for their continued advocacy to change the ways that we tell queer and trans stories. Given the historic wins for queer talent and storytelling, the fruits borne of their labor, it felt like a crowning achievement to cap off the night. From the stage, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis charged television creators in the audience that we urgently need more, fully developed, trans stories, noting that when polled more Americans have said they’ve known ghosts than knowing trans people and “when you don’t know people, it’s easy to demonize them. Visibility creates understanding and opens doors, it’s life-saving. Our community has achieved so much and yet, we are still being victimized and villainized with cruel and harmful lies. Sharing stories is the antidote.” Sometimes that can feel easier said than done, but we’ve also seen time and again how much that effort can make a difference.
Because this year’s Emmys ceremony, already full of Black joy (if not also Black yearning and wistfulness), aired on a Monday in January — it also happened to air on Martin Luther King Day. Emmys host Anthony Anderson closed the ceremony with a clip of his infamous “I Have a Dream,” recently voted by Academy members as one of the most impactful moments in television history. Of course, given everything we just saw, I was reminded of a different famous King quote: that the arc of the moral universe if long, even if it eventually will bend towards justice.
Feature image collage of Niecy Nash-Betts and Jessica Betts by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Ayo Edebiri by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images, and Keke Palmer by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Pop Culture Fix: Queer Dark Comedy Series “I Hate People, People Hate Me” Is Coming For You
Queer Canadian Comedy “I Hate People, People Hate Me” Is Coming in November
I Hate People, People Hate Me, is a new Canadian six-episode dark comedy debuting this November on streaming service CBC Gem about two outliers in the Toronto queer community doing their best to navigate it. Inspired by creator Bobbi Summers’ diary and films like Ghost World, Good Burger and Welcome to the Dollhouse; the program stars Lily Kazimiera as Tabitha and Bobbi Summers as Jovi — “two people perpetually disturbed by the world around them that have bonded over a mutual hatred of their peers and society at large, alongside suicidal feelings and drug abuse.”
“As much as this is a show about our grievances with the world, it’s also about self-examination and the fact that my hands aren’t squeaky clean either. I’ve contributed to problems, and I’ve been someone worth hating,” Summers told The Hollywood Reporter. “[And] people do hate my co-star and I, not because they’ve met us or because we’re not cool and chill. They just hate us to hate us, because we belong to certain groups.”
Director Blake Mewson has declared, “I don’t know if we’ve had anything come out of Canada since Porky’s that will be this disgusting at times.”
The series debuted at Tribeca Film Festival this summer.
Other pop culture stories relevant to your interests:
+ Part One of the Real Housewives of New York Season 14 reunion has arrived in our lives and with it, lots of feelings about Jenna Lyons wearing jeans, lots of apologies, Erin admitting she was being a bitch about Jenna’s skin condition and so much more! Jenna also talks about her relationship with legendary lesbian photographer Cass Bird and we learn that Jenna has “the best nipples.”
+ Crossroads director Tamra Davis on the sex scene she and Britney Spears had to fight for: the film is getting a re-release in conjunction with the impending release of Britney Spears’ memoir.
+ Hilarie Burton defends Sophia Bush against ‘laughable’ Erin Foster cheating claims: In the wake of the revelation that Bush is dating Ashlyn Harris, Erin Foster claimed on her podcast that One Tree Hill actor Chad Michael Murray cheated on her with Sophia Bush in the early 2000s.
+ Did you see this bonus clip from Red White and Royal Blue yet?
+ NBA Referee Che Flores on Becoming the First Out Trans and Nonbinary Ref in American Pro Sports
=Victoria Monet Spent the Weekend Singing a R&B Love Letter About Strap-Ons, How Bout You?
+ Kristen Stewart’s “Living for the Dead” Has Hot Paranormal Investigators and Big Gay Feelings
+ Janelle Monáe’s “Dirty Computer” Will Forever Be the Anthem to My Own Queer Journey
+ The Queer Palestinian Character Changing TV: Spanish actor Omar Ayuso talks about his queer Palestinian character from “Netflix’s rich-kid telenovela Elite”
+ NewFest Online offers fresh looks at queer culture from the inside
How Many Sapphic Scandals Will Be in the New Season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?
TWO Bravo Dyke posts in one day? How did I get so lucky?! We dropped by Real Housewives of New York earlier today to cover Jenna Lyons’ trip to Henrietta Hudson, and now we’re moving across the coast to Beverly Hills.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has had its fair share of homoerotic imagery and subtextually queer conflict throughout its more than a decade of drama, but it wasn’t until season 10 of the series that we got an explicitly queer storyline in the form of a…rumored love triangle involving the actress Denise Richards? Former Housewife Brandi Glanville came out as bisexual during that season as part of this storyline, claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Denise, which eventually led to Denise leaving the show. After stepping out of the spotlight a bit — and continuing to deny Brandi’s version of what happened between them — Denise is back for the 13th season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, making quite the entrance in the season’s trailer, which dropped yesterday. Take a look:
Denise will just be a “Friend of the Wives,” Bravo fandom parlance for a supporting cast member rather than a fulltime Housewife. It’s unclear exactly how or when we’ll pick up the threads of the dyke drama between her and Brandi over the course of the season, but it’s likely it’ll be addressed at least tangentially since it played such a huge role in Denise’s final season. We’ll always have “Bravo Bravo fucking Bravo.”
But Denise’s appearance in the trailer is actually NOT the most sapphically charged moment. The trailer opens with the tabloid headlines about a separation between Mauricio and Kyle (Bravo really is leaning into these dramatic headlines opening post-Scandoval…I have a feeling it’ll eventually get old, but for now, I’m living for the drama). When those headlines first surfaced earlier this year, rumors also started swirling about Kyle — who has been on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills since the beginning — and the country musician Morgan Wade. Kyle and Morgan have subsequently leaned in to those rumors (while vaguely denying them), with Kyle appearing as the hot MILF next door in Morgan’s latest music video.
“How did you guys meet?” someone asks Kyle when she introduces Morgan. “She stalked me,” Morgan jokes. Indeed, Kyle initially became obsessed with Morgan’s music, followed her on Instagram, and then Morgan initiated a conversation.
“You put the first letter of your name on her body?” Dorit asks Kyle in the trailer before we indeed cut to Kyle tattooing her initial onto Morgan, a detail some of the Bravo investigator girlies had already clocked earlier this summer.
“I’m just glad it’s you out there having the affair,” Kyle’s husband says in the trailer, presumably joking and trying to make light of the situation. “For once, it’s me,” Kyle says, alluding to past instances of there being tabloid rumors of Mauricio having an affair.
I genuinely can’t tell how much weight to give the rumors of this relationship, but I do think we’ll learn a lot more once the season starts airing. Regardless, the new season looks spicy.
“Living For the Dead” Trailer: Kristen Stewart Ghost Hunting Show Looks Like So Gay Dude
Kristen Stewart’s stardom may have begun as a hetero lover of vampires and werewolves. But her producing career is starting as a hunter of ghosts. The trailer for Living For the Dead is here and it confirms that “Kristen Stewart ghost hunting show” is not something we made up in a peak pandemic fever dream.
While narrated by Stewart and produced by her new production company, it’s not totally accurate to call this reality series from the creators of Queer Eye, the Kristen Stewart ghost hunting show. The movie star will not be the one actually venturing into these haunted houses so lets credit the ghost hunters doing the work! With a cast of queers ranging in identities and specialties — tarot, witch, tech, you know the expected stuff — Living For the Dead looks to add a spooky edge to the inspirational reality TV genre.
From a clown motel to a Vegas strip club, these paranormal investigators are looking to heal undead trauma all over the country. And who better to heal trauma than a bunch of queers?? Straight people who don’t discuss their deepest wounds on a first date never had any business trying to speak to ghosts. Leave that to us. How can you address spectral pain if you don’t even know the sun sign of who — or what — you’re dealing with? Seances and mediums and generally anything and everything occult is queer culture and now we have proof. Reality television proof.
And, hey, if you’re disappointed the Kristen Stewart ghost hunting show doesn’t have Stewart interacting with any actual ghosts, you can always check out her performance in Personal Shopper. From arthouse cinema to reality TV, Kristen Stewart is giving us the gay ghost representation we deserve.
Living For the Dead premieres on Hulu on Wednesday, October 18.
Trans Icon Angelica Ross Announces She’s “Leaving Hollywood”
Photo of Angelica Ross, who announced earlier today that she’s “leaving Hollywood,” by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Pride Live and Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center
I still remember the first time I saw Angelica Ross acting on screen. It would’ve been 2016, Jen Richards and Laura Zak’s groundbreaking webseries Her Story had first premiered and already it was my favorite sapphic rom-com (it still is). From the minute she entered the picture as Paige, Violet’s (Richards) best friend and NA sponsor, a trans lawyer looking for a love of her own, she was impossible to turn away from. Of course, back then, Angelica Ross and Jen Richards had yet to become household names for any fan of indie queer media. Her Story had yet to make history as the first indie web series to ever be nominated for an Emmy. Angelica Ross had yet to win, break, and mend everyone’s hearts back together as unforgettable Candy Ferocity in Janet Mock’s Pose.
I am feeling particularly nostalgic, looking back at nothing short of the mountains of queer and trans television that have been climbed in a short eight years (which is to say nothing of many mountains that are left to go) because, after nearly a week of detailing the racist, transphobic, and hostile work environments that she has been forced to endure — Angelica Ross announced on X that she is “leaving Hollywood.”
https://twitter.com/angelicaross/status/1704896890553483287
“For the folks who haven’t put it together yet, I’m ‘leaving Hollywood,’” the icon — and no, I don’t use that word lightly — wrote on X. “There are multiple articles that will be coming out detailing this. So I suggest you and your faves play nice, cuz I’ma Black trans woman with nothing to lose. Candy was born from my body. IYKYK. IYDYD.”
(This is not the point, but “Candy was born from my body” is a gorgeous piece of writing. And I know she meant every word.)
Ross has spent the last few days on social media describing incidents, primarily on Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story sets (Murphy was also a producer on Pose), that have felt shocking — though for any queer, trans, or Black person not at all surprising — to fans. She’s discussed that Murphy strung her along with the promise of an all-Black woman led season of AHS, keeping her under a first-position contract that led to her missing opportunities to work with other production companies during a peak of her acting career post-Pose — including an opportunity to work with Marvel Studios. Ross also shared that during the production of American Horror Story: 1984 she faced mistreatment including Emma Roberts misgendering her and making fun of her voice and crew members wearing racist t-shirts.
As these stories became public earlier this week, Roberts reached out to Ross directly to apologize. Murphy has yet to comment.
It’s easy to get lost in the salacious details of social media, but critically, Ross has taken great pains to point out that these aren’t one or two gossipy incidents. It’s about the whole picture of what it takes to work in Hollywood as a Black trans woman in an industry that was not designed for you.
https://twitter.com/angelicaross/status/1704721028306669918
“The last 3 years have been a nightmare in ways you are only beginning to know about,” she shared on X. “This is about a SERIES of events that tell a different kind of horror story. People on here are being unpaid extras whose inhumanity is frightening. Just know I’m prepared to face every demon.”
To be quite honest, it feels quite nearly impossible to imagine where we’d be right now in trans and queer media at all if it were not for Angelica Ross. Ross, along with Richards, Mock, Laverne Cox, Peppermint, Trace Lysette, Alexandra Gray, Alexandra Billings, Zackery Drucker and so so many others, have been at the forefront of a reckoning in how we’re able to see ourselves and our siblings in trans storytelling on screen. Of course, we also know that those people at the forefront of breaking those ceilings and storming through those doors — it doesn’t come without pain, without a price. There are shields for bows and arrows and body blows that we will never see sitting at home on our couch, or wherever you are reading this today.
But I hope, more than anything else, that today Angelica Ross knows that we do see her. And we are so proud. Thank you for everything you’ve done — from Her Story, to Pose, as Roxie Hart on Broadway in Chicago, and of course for all of your work as the founder of TransTech Social and the TransTech Summit.
Wherever you have walked, it has been followed by greatness. And greatness is what will follow you no matter where you go.
Speaking on behalf of everyone at Autostraddle, we will always be first in line to cheer you on.
Want to Break Up on TV? Ultimatum: Queer Love Season Two Is Casting!
Have you ever dreamed of moving into a camera-laced condo with a virtual stranger, calling that co-habitation ritual a “trial marriage,” and then using that experience to determine whether or not you are ready to marry the partner you were dating prior to this “experience,” while that partner is in a condo with a different stranger arguing about how much they do or do not love dogs??? Well have we got the thing for you!!! Netflix is currently casting for the next round of The Ultimatum: Queer Love! This is great news for us because that means there will be an Ultimatum: Queer Love Season Two — a show of mess and chaos that brought gifts into our life such as “Mal.” They’re looking for lesbians, queer women and non-binary people in relationships where one person is ready for marriage and the other person isn’t ready for marriage, but might be once they have to consider that their partner might fall in love with someone else!
All you have to do is fill out this 50+ question form, answering important queries such as “Do you wonder if the grass is greener with someone else?” and “How have you tried to improve your relationship? Have you seen a therapist? Please explain.” You’ll also need to provide links to all your social media handles. Nowhere on this form do they ask for our opinions on “Fingergate,” though, which is a missed opportunity.
It’s important to note, should you be realistically considering auditioning for The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season Two, that you need to be able to take two full weeks off from work. It looks like they’re seeing if you have any major conflicts between February 12, 2024 and April 10, 2024, so if you’re ready to see if your relationship can stand the stressors of reality TV production, don’t schedule any vacations during those dates!
Sometimes, sometimes, deep in Nico’s conspiracy theorist brain, they think that shows like this a psy-op trying to get us as a collective to value monogamy and marriage and child-having. But who knows! All they know is that they watched the last season of The Ultimatum: Queer Love while going through a breakup and that was certainly a choice.
There’s no word on when the casting call closes, so get in there and apply, queers!
Amazon Cancels “A League of Their Own” Season 2, Turns Out There Is Crying in Baseball
In absolutely devastating news, Amazon has announced that we won’t be getting the second season of A League of Their Own after all. This is despite the fact that they already were only going to give us a half season, just four more episodes. Despite the show having a huge fan following, and wildly positive critical reviews (it has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes!), Amazon refused to commit to a full season… and now they’re not even committing to the scraps we were promised.
Turns out there is crying in baseball. And it’s all Amazon’s fault.
Of course, they want to blame it on the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes. They want to make it look like writers and actors asking for fair pay for their hard work are to blame, even though it’s corporate greed that is keeping the strike going for so long. Also, the strike wasn’t happening yet when they originally begrudgingly renewed A League of Their Own for just four more episodes, so anyone who is paying attention will know it’s not the strike’s fault. They claim part of the reason for the cancellation is that the second season would end up airing a few years after the first season premiered, but it’s hard to take that at face value while standing amidst the rubble of all the other queer shows that have been canceled in the past few years. The truth is, Amazon could afford to take the financial risk and make four (4) episodes of a charming show about baseball with a passionate fanbase that involves very little CGI and can’t be as expensive to make as a lot of less popular shows that keep getting renewed. Because they’re literally Amazon.
It doesn’t take a lot of market research to know this one indisputable truth: if you show up for queer fans, queer fans will show up for you.
The L Word went off the air in 2009, and queer people showed up in droves to watch The L Word: Generation Q when it started TEN FULL YEARS later. Warrior Nun somehow supposedly got so much fan backlash to being canceled it’s being given a movie or three and the main ship on that show had one (1) peck over two seasons. Hell, the A League of Their Own movie came out in 1992 and wasn’t even explicitly queer and we claimed it as our own, and were hyped about the show before it dropped, because of it.
There aren’t a lot of shows made for us and by us, so when there is one, we’re going to support it. And if that show is GOOD? Legitimately well done, with well-rounded queer characters at the forefront of the story, with MULTIPLE different queer and trans characters and storylines of different races, not just one single skinny white cis couple only featured in one Very Special Episode? You better believe we show up for that content. I don’t even care about sports one single bit and A League Of Their Own was my favorite new show of 2022.
This is a devastating loss to our community, losing so much representation in one fell swoop. I’m going to miss Abbi Jacobson and D’Arcy Carden’s chemistry. I’m going to miss swooning over and rooting for Chante Adams. I’m going to miss laughing at everything Roberta Colindrez and Kelly McCormack do (until they make me cry.) I’m going to miss Gbemisola Ikumelo as the BEST best friend a girl could ask for. I’m going to miss the too-rare representation that Melanie Field’s Jo and Lea Robinson’s Uncle Bert provided. I’m going to miss watching the Peaches come together as a team, Carson and Max forge their unlikely but inevitable friendship, watching the girls all come into their own and learn how to be their truest selves. But I think most of all I’m going to miss the fun we had as a community watching this show. Writing thinkpieces, making memes, taking quizzes, getting style inspiration. We came together like a team, and no matter who your favorite character was or what your favorite episode was, there was always someone to play catch with. It was such a source of brightness during a dark time.
Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson created something truly special with A League of Their Own, and I will never forgive Amazon for calling the game before it was over, especially when it seemed like we were finally going to win.
Madelaine Petsch and Vanessa Morgan Pushed for More Choni Sex Scenes in Riverdale
After seven sprawling seasons, Riverdale is about to come to an end next week, on August 23. Even though it has only been in my life for six years, they were formative ones, spanning the second half of my twenties and into the early parts of my thirties. The intensity of my obsession has ebbed and flowed through the years but never diminished completely. I’m struck by how sad I am by its impending departure; I didn’t expect to feel this way.
Vulture‘s exit interview with the main cast captures a lot of why this show, for all its absurdness, genuinely means so much to me. I don’t think viewers — especially casual ones who popped in and out over the course of the series — always totally understood what Riverdale was doing. People who only experienced the show by way of social media certainly didn’t. But this exit interview makes it clear that the people involved in the show, including the actors, all understood exactly what they were doing. Riverdale is a playground; Riverdale is, in many ways, an actor’s dream job, allowing them to push themselves episode after episode with little by way of rules and constraints. For example, none of them ever had to prove they could sing at any stage of the audition process. None of them expected to ever sing on the show at all. Then the first musical episode happened, then another, then more, until the show started working casual song and dance numbers into episodes not even branded as musical ones. Riverdale was constantly reinventing itself — sometimes mid-episode. And it has been a thrill to watch these young stars grow up inside of that wild world.
Among the many gems in the exit interview is a sweet moment from Madelaine Petsch and Vanessa Morgan, whose Cheryl Blossom and Toni Topaz comprise one of the show’s many longtime, on-and-off romantic relationships, referred to by shippers as Choni. While some cast members share their (rightful) frustration toward some of the more intense reactions they received from shippers through the years (Cole Sprouse mentions getting death threats), Petsch chimes in to say that on the other side of things, she and Morgan actually received a lot of positive energy from shippers regarding Choni. “On the other side,” she says, “Vanessa and I have a very specific relationship, Choni, and we get a lot of support.”
“I’ve been grateful for it,” Morgan adds in the interview.
Later, when asked about the sexualization of their characters, all of the cast members candidly open up about struggling with body image over the course of the show. Petsch once again brings up another side of things though and talks about how she and Morgan actually advocated for more sexual Choni moments. She says:
Being in a female-female relationship on the show was interesting because Vanessa and I were the biggest supporters of having more sexual encounters on the show. And I feel like some people were scared of that. In season three, she and I just decided with a director to put in this sex scene that wasn’t there. And that, I think, broke the barrier of allowing us to be more like the other couples on the show. I felt it was really important for our particular relationship.
I love that Petsch, Morgan, and one of the series’ directors came together to add in a sex scene on their terms. There were times early on in Cheryl and Toni’s relationship where they were almost portrayed simultaneously as too chaste and too adult, living together like a married couple but rarely seen getting up to the same horny antics as the other ships. I like hearing that Petsch and Morgan prioritized allowing Cheryl and Toni to visibly act on their desires in the same ways other couples do on the show.
But perhaps my favorite moment of the interview is when Lili Reinhart — whose Betty Cooper has been on a fascinating queer journey this season that I’ve been meticulously tracking — succinctly articulates so much of what I feel about this show:
I think it’s important to acknowledge that our show is made fun of a lot. People see clips taken out of context and are like, What? I thought this was about teenagers. And we thought so as well—in season one. But it’s really not been easy to feel that you’re the butt of a joke. We all want to be actors; we’re passionate about what we do. So when the absurdity of our show became a talking point, it was difficult. It is What the fuck? That’s the whole point. When we’re doing our table reads and something ridiculous happens, Roberto is laughing because he understands the absurdity and the campiness.
WHAT THE FUCK. Is. The. Whole. Point. Say that, Lili!
Vulture also just published an unofficial Riverdale yearbook full of film shots from behind the scenes. I may or may not have teared up!!!!!!!! And of course, I also have to shoutout one of my all-time favorite Riverdale features, also published by Vulture: What Temperature Is It in ‘Riverdale’? We will simply never know. And that? Is beautiful.
I’m in Lesbians with the Scott Pilgrim Animated Series Teaser
The Scott Pilgrim vs. the World anime adaptation is coming to Netflix on November 17 and impressively features everyone from the iconically stacked cast of the original 2010 movie, which was an adaptation co-written and directed by Edgar Wright and based on the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, as the American-Canadian-Japanese anime will be called, is set to have eight episodes and now officially has a trailer, which includes a lot of familiar images and sequences from the film.
Most relevant to our interests here at Autostraddle, beloved queer actor Aubrey Plaza will be back as the bleep-happy Julie Powers. And Mae Whitman is set to return as my personal favorite of Ramona Flowers’ many evil exes, Roxie Richter, whose very GIF-able “I’m a little bi-furious” and “prepare to die, obviously” moments had tumblr in a chokehold in the early 2010s. (Honestly, I am a little shocked Autostraddle has never made bi-furious merch…mayhaps the impending Scott Pilgrim renaissance is the TIME.)
To me, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World will always be the movie I went to see in theaters on a HETEROSEXUAL DATE when I was a closeted high schooler. I often compared the boy I went on this date with to Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim himself, meanwhile casting myself as Ramona Flowers (and even begging my mother to let me dye my hair blue, a request that was promptly denied), which in retrospect has an almost too obvious did I want to be her or be with her energy to it. These days, my relationship with the film is more explicitly queer, as I rewatch it annually with my fiancée because we both love it and are obsessed with the killer soundtrack.
While most of the moments in the trailer seem like direct replications of the movie, Wright, who was involved in the series’ production as well, teased earlier this year that the series would expand the Scott Pilgrim universe, so perhaps we’ll see moments from the books that didn’t make it to the big screen or even totally new stuff. To which I say: More Roxie, please!!!! Or even better: Give Ramona a second ex-girlfriend (slash just make it Julie?? — sorry, Scott!).
Check out the Scott Pilgrim animated series teaser, below:
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors who are currently on strike, series like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off one would not be possible, and Autostraddle is grateful for the artists who do this work.
Here’s What LGBTQ+ Actors Are Saying About the Strike
feature image photo by by John Lamparski/Contributor via Getty Images
Happy Hot Strike Summer! As you probably already know, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has joined the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), both unions fighting for fairer practices when it comes to pay, protections against AI, and benefit plans. I like to imagine them joining together like Power Rangers forming Zords at the end of the episode. Vulture‘s (cheekily on-brand) primer on the combined strikes is helpful if you’re looking for a super basic rundown!
Lots of actors have been speaking out about their own experiences in the industry, including in a big New Yorker story about how Orange Is the New Black is a striking and early example of just how fucked the streaming economy is in its undervaluation of writers and actors. The wildly popular show reached a huge audience, and yet their wages did not reflect this, many of the actors keeping their day jobs even multiple seasons into the hit show.
The conversations happening with this strike about the brokenness of streaming are inseparable from the ongoing “cancel your gays” conversation. The practice of streaming giants removing less-popular series from their platforms to avoid paying residuals especially hurts LGBTQ+ and actors of color, as it’s queer shows and shows with predominantly POC casts that are often on that notorious chopping block. Latine writers and actors are disproportionately underpaid in Hollywood, and it’s easy to see how there’s even more at stake for marginalized groups in this industry, including queer and trans folks.
Below, I’ve rounded up some quotes and social media posts from LGBTQ+ actors speaking out about their experiences and hopes for the future during this strike. I’ll periodically add to it as more voices join the conversation, so consider this an ongoing project just like the strikes are an ongoing movement. Let’s keep the momentum up!
“It is a clear choice when stories that can, and do, change lives are created only to vanish as if they never existed. It tells us that our voices only matter as long as those in power say they do.” – Leo Sheng
https://twitter.com/iLeoSheng/status/1679966664115523589
The L Word: Generation Q‘s Leo Sheng correctly connects the dots between the deplatforming of LGBTQ+ shows from streamers and corporate greed!!!!!
“My last residual check came in June, it was for $20.27” – Lea DeLaria
DeLaria was one of the many actors quoted in the New Yorker piece, and she also went on CNN to talk about the strange disconnect of being recognized by fans all the time while not making very much money from the show that helped propel her to that huge popularity.
“…I have never once made enough to qualify for SAG-AFTRA healthcare.” – Mara Wilson
I haven’t acted much as an adult, but I WAS on a recurring character on one of the most critically acclaimed animated shows of all time, as well playing an actual Disney villain.
But thanks to streaming, I have never once made enough to qualify for SAG-AFTRA healthcare.
— Mara Wilson (@MaraWilson) July 13, 2023
Better healthcare benefits and pension plans are some of the many things SAG-AFTRA is asking for, and this tweet from Mara Wilson underscores why!!!!!
“I know as a queer entertainer, you never know when your next gig is coming. And we live off our gigs, so it’s scary to turn down work. But if a company approaches you right now to promote new work, to act in new work, to write for new work, and you take that job, you will be considered a scab.” – Jinkx Monsoon
Jinkx Monsoon does a great job in this Instagram video of expressing empathy toward gig-working performers who may feel pressured to take on gigs as non-union members while also warning against being a scab going against the interests of striking workers.
Canadian LGBTQ+ performers like Elliot Page, Mae Martin, Emily Hampshire, and Tatiana Maslany signed onto a letter asking fellow British Columbia actors to vote down a deal with the AMPTP so as not to be used as bargaining chips and to support the efforts of SAG-AFTRA.
“I’ve been a proud SAG member since 1995. I love my job. Hoping for a FAIR meeting of the minds.” – Niecy Nash
Niecy Nash has also been an active supporter of the writers strike leading up to this moment.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuxZLDfO9JM/
Yellowjackets and Scream star Jasmin Savoy Brown has deleted all the photos from her Instagram grid and is instead posting in solidarity with the actors and writers unions every day. It’s a small but very visible way to center the strike.
https://twitter.com/BisHilarious/status/1679629186569474048
Aaaaaand this one simply just made me laugh, but you should follow Abbott Elementary‘s Brittani Nichols on Twitter and Instagram for lots of double strike updates.
The Screen Actors Guild Join the Writers in Strike After Contract Negotiations Fail
Hello, hi there, today the stage has been set for a historic double strike in Hollywood — the kind of which has not been seen in 63 years. The 160,000 members of The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) will join the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). It’s a move that will all but force studios to go black.
Let’s talk about how we got there.
SAG-AFTRA announced overnight that its negotiating committee has voted unanimously to recommend that its 160,000 members strike after weeks of negotiations with the AMPTP (who represents Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, along with all other major production companies) could not come to terms before yesterday’s midnight deadline. After a formal vote this morning Pacific Time regarding the strike, it was announced at a news conference that the strike’s officially on.
This will be the first time that SAG-AFTRA members have stopped work on movie and television productions since 1980.
“The studios and streamers have implemented massive unilateral changes in our industry’s business model, while at the same time insisting on keeping our contracts frozen in amber,” SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement. “Their refusal to meaningfully engage with our key proposals and the fundamental disrespect shown to our members is what has brought us to this point. The studios and streamers have underestimated our members’ resolve, as they are about to fully discover.”
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher echoed Cabtree-Ireland’s statements, adding that while the guild “negotiated in good faith,” they have not been met in return. “AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.”
Taken in broad scale, the actors’ demands largely overlap with their colleagues in the Writers Guild, who have already been on strike for months. Both groups want restrictions and protections as it relates AI technology, which can simulate a performer’s likeness or writer’s style and is setting a stage for unchartered waters in the industry that could be harmful to creatives. Both groups also want a revamped payment structure and business model for their work on streaming networks, which both unions have widely described as currently unfair if not unethical.
That said, even with their overlapping concerns, a double strike with writers is still nearly unprecedented. According to research done by The Washington Post, though actors and writers have simultaneously walked off sets several times — including during the 2007 writers strike and also a six-month performers strike in 2000 (then one of the longest entertainment strikes in history) – they have only simultaneously picketed once before, in 1960. Until now.
Production on most television shows and movies have already been halted by the WGA strike that began in May, a joint walkout by the actors is expected by all industry experts to essentially completely shut down what’s left of filming.
That kind of shut down impacts thousands more workers who are not just in the unions, and as such it has not to be taken lightly. SAG-AFTRA worked with the studios for weeks to avoid a second strike, first extending their original deadline of June 30th into this month and making a last minute request from the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for help, who dispatched a senior mediator for the final round of talks on Wednesday.
“This is the Union’s choice, not ours,” said the AMPTP in a statement. “In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more…. Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.”
Though in reading that statement, it is worth noting — as the Writes Guild has many times — that the demands put forth by these unions represent a fraction of a percentage of studios’ annual revenue. IndieWire looked at the writers’ demands specifically and found that “as a percentage of total revenue, that added cost is a fraction of a percent. In Netflix’s case, it’s .214 percent (2022 revenue: $31.6 billion) and at Disney it’s .091 percent (2022 revenue: $82.7 billion).”
Conversely, just this week a studio executive told Deadline that as it related to the writers strike, “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” A different insider in the same article called this breathtaking approach “a cruel but necessary evil.” (A spokesperson the AMPTP told Deadline, “these anonymous people are not speaking on behalf of the AMPTP or member companies.”)
To give a concrete example of the stakes here — the Screen Actors Guild, in part, is seeking increased base compensation for performers, which has declined as streaming-first studios (such as Netflix, Amazon) have taken advantage of previous contracts to pivot away from paying out residuals to talent.
Residuals are what actors — though writers are also striking over this issue as well — are paid when you or I watch reruns of their work. Just this week, a piece in the New Yorker honoring the 10-year anniversary of Orange Is the New Black, a show largely credited for ushering Netflix into its heyday as a television studio, noted that cast members of its largely woman and queer ensemble were being paid cents (as in, less than a dollar) per episode in residuals.
Kimiko Glenn, best known to all of us as Poussey’s girlfriend Brook Soso on the series, noted on her TikTok in 2020 that per episode she was receiving pennies of income from residuals (we’re talking two cents, four cents per episode), with a grand total coming to $27.30 for her years of work. This May she reposted the video on her Instagram when the writers went on strike — with many of her OITNB commiserating similar stories in the comments.
@itskimiko “New media” 🙄😩 #oitnb #royalties #paycheck #netflix #orangeisthenewblack #brooksoso #soso #kimikoglenn
Emma Myles, the queer actor who played Leanne on the show (you’ll remember Leanne as formerly Amish person who struggled with overcoming drug addictions), noted that the disparity comes directly from streaming, as opposed to cable or broadcast television. According to the New Yorker, “Myles still gets around six hundred dollars a year for a handful of guest spots on ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,’ stretching back to 2004, but her residuals this year for ‘Orange’ [Autostraddle Note: a show for which she had a much larger role] have come to around twenty bucks.”
Streaming studios are notoriously reticent to share the numbers of exactly how many people watch their programing, but from the New Yorker’s reporting, Netflix executive Ted Sarandos once let it be known that more people watched OITNB at its peak than watched Game of Thrones. Yet, the cast and writers of that show are still not paid their due worth accordingly. And this is only one example.
I know that in covering these reports a big question that comes up for us as queer audiences who love television and film is: How can we help? As of right now, there is still no call from union leadership to engage in an active boycott from consumers — so the best way to help is to vocally show support and spread an understanding of not just that there are strikes occurring, but why. We are in this for the long haul, together, and the only way out is going to be together as well.
This post has been updated as new information is made available.
Kristen Kish Is Top Chef’s New Padma Lakshmi, Unleash The Suits!
Let’s just get this settled right up front: There is no one on the face of the earth that can replace Padma Lakshmi, who announced her retirement from Top Chef after this year’s twentieth season in London. She is a singular voice in the food world. However, there is one person who has the skills and experience and charm to follow Padma’s culture-changing tenure, and that’s season ten winner and frequent guest judge Kristen Kish, who has also co-hosted Iron Chef and starred in the Bourdain-esque Restaurants at the End of the World. Luckily Bravo knew this truth and went after the widely beloved queer chef — and she’s signed on for season 21, which will take place in my wife’s home state of Wisconsin! Bring on the queer suits, Kristen Kish! Bring on the cheese!
Kristen posted the news on her Instagram with a video talking about what an amazing full-circle moment this is for her, and how excited she is to sit alongside judges Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio, who are returning to the show, and to get to know these new chefs (and to hang out with old foodie friends).
And the Top Chef family is just as excited as we are! Look here at our dear Gail, who was shouting Kristen out as soon as the news landed this afternoon! “Can we all bring it in for my girl Kristen Kish, who’s officially joining our Top Chef team?!?” Gail wrote on Instagram. “Psyched beyond words to have her pull up that seat at Judges’ Table and join our endless feast.” She used an orange heart emoji, so I know she was directing her joy specifically at me.
In a statement from Bravo, Kristen said, “Top Chef’ is where I started my journey – first as a competing chef, then a guest judge and now as host I have the honor of helping to continue to build this brand. m thrilled to sit alongside Gail and Tom as we get to know new incredible chefs and see what they cook up. It feels like coming home.”
Congratulations, Kristen! We’ll be glued to our screens, rooting you on!
Jenna Lyons Is Here for a More Queer Real Housewives of New York City
feature image of Jenna Lyons by JP Yim / Stringer via Getty Images
Finally, after many years of me declaring that the Real Housewives universe is inherently queer, we are living in a golden age of openly LGBTQ+ Real Housewives. I’m living my wildest Bravo Dyke dreams. The latest entry into this growing pool is Jenna Lyons, set to be a main cast member in the upcoming rebooted version of Real Housewives of New York City, a franchise that has been long in need of an overhaul. Season 14 of RHONY will introduce a slew of new (and absurdly wealthy) Housewives, including Lyons, the queer former creative director and president of massive fashion brand J.Crew. Here’s a quick primer on who Jenna Lyons is, why there was a media frenzy around her sexuality, and what we might expect in terms of Gay Drama from the upcoming season of RHONY.
In the above trailer for RHONY’s upcoming 14th season, a fellow new Housewife asks Lyons if she came out, and Lyons replies: “That was done for me by the New York Post.”
Indeed, in 2011, the New York Post outed Lyons in a tabloid piece about her divorce from her ex-husband and father of her child, Vincent Mazeau. The piece detailed rumors about Lyons falling in love with a woman and caused a flurry of media coverage — including significant conservative backlash. At the time, Lyons was the 43-year-old creative director and president of J.Crew, making her a hugely visible person in the global fashion industry. Her fashion influence at J.Crew was huge, particularly known for its impact on Michelle Obama’s closet.
Tabloids gobbled up the news of her being in a relationship with a woman like it was a capital-s Scandal. And while I don’t really think exceptionally wealthy white women like Lyons are at the top of the list of folks who shouldn’t be outed, it was a veritable shitshow.
A decade later, Lyons has been able to reclaim her narrative and the way she talks about her own queerness. In a piece for The Cut in 2021, she opened up about her journey and the lasting impact of that New York Post piece. She talks about falling for her good friend Courtney Crangi, the other half of all those tabloid pieces from 10 years prior, who was largely responsible for Lyons’ queer awakening, which was sharply interrupted by being outed. “Meanwhile, I had no idea what was going on with me,” Lyons says in the piece. “Was I straight? Was I gay? Was I bi? I was tumbling into love with a woman and it was all new and I didn’t have any guideposts. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t make any definitive decisions for myself around the whole situation.”
She continues:
I was 43 years old. I was the head of a huge company and a very American, classic brand. We had an intercom at the office, and I was running a pretty large meeting. I was standing in front of the room, and I get a call over the intercom. The heads of marketing were on the other end, and they said, “We have a call from New York Post. There’s a report that you’re seeing a woman — should we confirm or deny?” You have to imagine: I’m standing on the phone with a whole room full of people and I can feel their eyes on me. And I’m like, literally six weeks into this totally new relationship. I heard the word “confirm” come out of my mouth. It wasn’t like I was confirming that I was gay or that I was bi. The truth was, I was seeing a woman, so yes, confirmed. I wasn’t going to lie about it. And then it just kind of snowballed.
There’s a special place for the person who took it upon themselves to make that decision. I hadn’t told my mother, I hadn’t told any of my friends, really. I hadn’t told my ex-husband. I had a child.
The story that outed her wasn’t the first time Lyons had received conservative backlash in the media. Earlier in 2011, she had transphobic bloggers in an uproar because of a photoshoot and interview she did in which her son was seen wearing pink nail polish on his toes. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to see the same kind of backlash happening today as anti-trans, anti-gay policing of children only continues to intensify under the current political climate.
While details of Lyon’s and Crangi’s relationship were initially divulged without their initial permission, Lyons publicly acknowledged their relationship for the first time in 2012 when she thanked her girlfriend while receiving a Glamour Women of the Year award. Lyons split from Crangi in 2017 and has been a queer single mom in recent years.
While no longer at the helm of J.Crew, Lyons remains a massively powerful figure in fashion design and business. Now, she’s taking on a whole new role by joining Bravo’s ever-expanding Real Housewives universe. She’s being billed as the first openly queer woman to join RHONY (which I guess is true if we don’t consider Sonja Morgan bisexual, but Morgan has on many occasions implied she is bisexual even if she doesn’t say it in the most explicit terms!), and as the trailer suggests, we’re going to get storylines that touch on her queerness.
In fact, the origin story of how Lyons came to join Real Housewives is very gay in and of itself. According to a recent profile in the New York Times, in 2021 Lyons was being interviewed as a guest on the popular queer podcast Dyking Out (which I’ve also been a guest on — perhaps the closest connection I have with a Real Housewife) when co-hosts Melody Kamali and Carolyn Bergier pitched that she should join RHONY and Lyons replied: “I’m down.”
Then, in February 2022, Lyons reposted a gay podcaster who had photoshopped her face onto a RHONY promo in her Instagram story and wrote “Who do I need to call?? I am available.” In a very “haha jk…unless” moment, she called it a joke but also forwarded the post to Andy Cohen, Bravo’s Daddy in Chief (okay, fine, his relevant official title here is executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise) whose Christmas parties she’d attended before. Fast-forward several months, and Lyons was hit with a call asking her to screen test for the rebooted RHONY. Andy’s official review of her? “When she comes on the screen, you want to see more of her,” he said, according to the NYT profile.
It’s a bit of a surprising turn for Lyons, given that she has been laying low for the past few years. It’s also surprising that someone with as much baggage about celebrity press as she has would step into the realm of reality television, which puts one’s life under the microscope in an extreme way. Gossip magazines cover reality fodder with reckless abandon. But perhaps Lyons sees this as an opportunity to put herself in the public spotlight in a way that ultimately feels on her own terms.
Already, her personal life is in the spotlight again. The official Bravo site published a piece discussing who she’s currently dating, which comes up in the NYT profile. In June, she confirmed she’s dating her prior crush, photographer Cass Bird. The show filmed this past winter, so I’m not sure how much of that we’ll see play out on screen, but I for one am looking forward to the prospect of a single openly queer Housewife in the mix this season. Would love to have some good queer dating-around and flirting storylines! And look, will any of it be relatable? Probably not! The new RHONY cast seems overall even more wealthy than previous iterations of the cast. A moment in the trailer includes a fight about flying commercial.
RHONY returns and Lyons makes her Queer Real Housewife debut on July 16, and you better believe I’ll be covering all the juiciest tidbits right here on Autostraddle.
Bravo Dykes, We’ve Got Another Queer Real Housewife! Taylor Armstrong Is Bisexual
feature image photo by Bravo / Contributor via Getty Images
Hello, Bravo Dykes! I can’t believe I’m here to talk about something that isn’t Scandoval! In the July 28 episode of Real Housewives of Orange County, longtime Bravolebrity Taylor Armstrong came out as bisexual, telling the Housewives about a five-year relationship she had before her marriage to her late husband Russell.
Taylor is a “friend of the wives” for this season of RHOC, a tier of Real Housewives casting that essentially means she isn’t a main Housewife but still appears in a lot of episodes, including cast trips. Wednesday’s episode features the beginning of the cast trip to Montana, where Taylor opens up about her dating history and sexuality.
After the women participate in the casual and totally straight group activity of riding a mechanical bull for each other, cast member Tamra Judge asks Taylor to share something the rest of the group doesn’t know about her so they can get to know each other better. Without hesitation, Taylor says: “I’m bisexual.” Tamra says she knew this already and asks her about the woman she was in a relationship with before. It does seem like Tamra and Taylor pre-planned this conversation to happen on camera, which makes me wonder if it’s going to come up in some other way as the season progresses.
“Most people are surprised to find out that I’m bisexual,” Taylor says in testimonial. “Probably because just, like, stereotypes. I mean, it’s not something I broadcast, but I’m open to all people that have great souls and that you can love.”
I wish we got more, but that’s pretty much it! I would love to know the specifics of Taylor’s relationship with this woman, why things ended, and how she views her own bisexuality. Does she ever talk to any of the other bisexual Housewives? Do they have a secret club called THE REAL BI WIVES? If not, they should. Taylor is currently married to her second husband, attorney John Bluher.
This is, I believe, the first time an original Real Housewife has explicitly come out as queer. Real Housewives of Miami‘s Julia Lemigova is bisexual, but she didn’t join the series until it was rebooted, and the Real Housewives themselves are all very particular about who counts as an OG, and Julia doesn’t make the cut. RHOC‘s Braunwyn Windham-Burke came out as a lesbian, but she didn’t join the series until season 14. Similarly, Brandi Glanville of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is bisexual but is not an OG. Even though this is Taylor’s first season of RHOC and she’s only a friend of the wives, she is indeed an OG Housewife, because she started her Bravo journey as an original Housewife on Beverly Hills. After departing that show for a bit, she returned for Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, which is basically like a Housewives version of All-Stars, mashing up Housewives from different franchises. Then, she joined RHOC for this season, confirming my long held belief that Housewives should be traded between cities like pro athletes.
I have long believed that cast trips on every franchise of Real Housewives are where we especially see homoerotic and straight-up gay behavior on these shows. These women leave husbands and boyfriends and children behind for a homosocial environment where the booze is flowing and the drama is bubbling. They often have to share beds or rooms, and they love to play games on these trips that are very sexual! It’s the perfect environment for a little bit of dykey activity. In fact, I once snapped a pic of Brandi and Taylor — who we now know are both bisexual but who weren’t out publicly at the time — kissing on one of the Beverly Hills cast trips for a very important tweet thread I was compiling:
This RHOC Montana trip reminisces of the Montana trip taken by the Real Housewives of New York in season six, which may not have had an explicit moment of queerness but nonetheless…pinged:
watching season six of Real Housewives Of New York like LOOK AT ALL THESE LESBIANS pic.twitter.com/iMidKt33Tz
— kayla kumari upadhyaya (@KaylaKumari) July 8, 2017
Even though the moment does feel very produced, the fact that Taylor comes out on a cast trip absolutely tracks with my theory that these trips provide a liminal queer space in the lives of the Housewives. I like that she gets to come out completely on her own terms, which is not often the case on these shows. Taylor has had a lot of things about her personal life disclosed very much not on her terms in the past (“but now we said it”….iykyk). Also, Taylor outright saying she’s bisexual stands out, as a lot of Housewives in the past have alluded to past queer relationships and experiences without ascribing labels to themselves. Across franchises and through the seasons, many have used the phrase “taken a dip in the lady pond” to describe these histories, and while I suppose anyone can technically use any language they wish to describe their own sexuality…why LADY POND! NO THANK YOU!
After the episode, Taylor went on Watch What Happens Live, and Andy Cohen said he was surprised by the reveal, confirming he hadn’t previously known she was bisexual. Taylor said it was probably a surprise to a lot of people, including her mother.
We officially have a lot of openly queer Housewives! I think it might finally be time for me to put together a Bravo Dyke history/timeline of sorts.
A Bonus Episode of Yellowjackets Might Be Happening — Here’s What I Think It Should Be About
Most of my friends know to text me the second they see anything Yellowjackets related or, frankly, cannibalism related, so today, I received an onslaught of messages about a tweet from @DiscussingFilm alleging that a bonus episode of Yellowjackets is coming:
‘YELLOWJACKETS’ co-creator Ashley Lyle confirms a bonus episode will be released during the hiatus between seasons 2 and 3.
(Source: @ashannlyle) pic.twitter.com/KqI1YhLOo7
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 2, 2023
Now, this news is admittedly vague! It also has yet to be confirmed by the official Yellowjackets account or by showrunner Ashley Lyle on her own Twitter feed. Regardless, I’ve been mourning the end of season two of Yellowjackets and am desperate to speculate and theorize with all my beloved recap commenters! Again, I’m not getting my hopes up too much, especially because “between season 2 and 3” could mean…basically anything. Season three is currently delayed due to the writers strike. But I have tbh been curious about the episode count for season two, which came in at nine episodes — a strange number! I do think Jackie’s jersey number was 9, so perhaps it was in tribute to our dear late Snackie, but perhaps there was always going to be a special little bonus treat!
Here are some bonus episode and storyline ideas I’d love to see if we are indeed getting a surprise tenth episode.
(I’m operating under the assumption that it’s more interesting and self-contained than just an episode that linearly continues the story after the fire and other events of the season finale, because otherwise why would it be released as a “bonus” episode in the first place?)
- A Van flashback episode that fills in some of what happened between getting out of the wilderness and when we meet her in season two.
- A Nat-centric episode :(
- On those same lines: A flashback episode showing the dissolution of Van and Tai’s relationship after the wilderness.
- A flashback episode showing how Tai and Simone got together.
- A full-on musical episode centered on Misty with an original soundtrack. I’m only 50% kidding with this one. I’m a sucker for a musical episode.
- An episode from the perspective of Caligula.
- Any episode that somehow brings back Jessica Roberts.
- The girlies stage a Chopped-like competition in the wilderness to see who can make human flesh the tastiest using only ingredients found in nature.
- A full flashback episode for Coach Ben and Paul. I know we’re mostly all here for the ladies, but I love these two gay boys! And I also just want to see more of Paul’s gorgeous apartment!
- A flashback episode centered around Jeff and Shauna’s wedding (which I believe the other surviving Yellowjackets were all in attendance for — except maybe Lottie?)
- An episode solely about Lottie’s acolytes.
- A bottle episode set in the wilderness where Misty rallies everyone to put on a play in the attic. Think Station Eleven vibes.
Clearly I’m joking about most of these, but what would YOU like to see from a bonus tenth episode of Yellowjackets season two? Do you think it’s really happening? And if you haven’t had a chance to delve into my recap of the season finale, hop to it!
Pansexual Dating Show ‘Love Allways’: Everything We Know About Everyone Involved
Are we entering a bold new era of queer-inclusive dating shows, or is The Ultimatum: Queer Love just-so-happening to premiere one week before Paramount+ debuts pansexual dating show Love Allways? Well, there’s only one way to find out and it’s to live through the entire year to find out what else lands on our television screens. But first things first: we’re here to discuss everything we know about new pansexual Gen Z dating show Love Allways!
When Does ‘Love Allways’ Premiere?
Pansexual bachelorette Lexi Paloma will be getting the CHANCE of a LIFETIME to find her PERFECT HUMAN at the age of 20 in this Gen-Z reality show that’ll drop three episodes on Paramount+ on Friday, June 2, with weekly releases of new eps following thereafter (on Paramount+ and Awesomeness’ YouTube channel) for a grand total of ten episodes.
What’s ‘Love Allways’ About?
The press materials implore us to ask ourselves, “what’s love without a little friendly competition?” Furthermore:
As she narrows down her pool of contestants of all genders, some start falling for one another, causing a spiral of drama, betrayal, passion and jealousy. Throughout the process, Lexi is assisted by two professional relationship gurus, Spicy Mari and Anthony Recenello, who also serve as mentors to their teams of potential suitors. Not only are the daters competing for a chance at love, but the relationship gurus are also going toe-to-toe to see whose protégé gets chosen.
We love a show that allows its contestants to fall for each other by design, and it’ll also be interesting to see how that shakes out on the boys side, which has a mix of straight and bisexual contestants.
Who is Leading Lady Lexi Paloma?
Lexi Paloma is a 20-year-old TikTok influencer with 1.3 million followers who posts a lot of dance videos and swimwear videos.
Who are the Girls Competing For Lexi’s Heart?
Sienna Scibird, 23
Sienna Scibird is a TikTok influencer who first went viral in 2019 with a Justin Bieber concert video. Now she does lip syncs and videos about being gay! She was on the golf team at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Camille Cupid, 21
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp31R0msV0y/
Camille is a photographer based in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.
Jasmine Cervantes, 19
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqtT7Bsv5RU/
There’s not a lot out there about Jasmine but she is based in Los Angeles and is labeled by the show as “the funny sexy girl.’
Kalysta Mallory, 20
Identified as “the baddie,” Kalysta a bisexual model from Arizona and was featured on the July 2021 cover of Playboy New Zealand and works on OnlyFans.
Rylin Utah, 20
Rylin is a TikTok creator Instagram influencer and model from Florida who loves God and was homeschooled all her life. She’s also the ex-girlfriend of Kylie Prew, who herself is the legendary ex-girlfriend of JoJo Siwa, and you can read more about all of that here.
Jayme Aiden Schiller, 20
Jayme is a student at UCLA. She’s verified on instagram but only has a few thousand followers, which is mysterious to me!
The men competing for the love of Lexi are digital creator Cyprien Boustiha, basketballer Marc Bateman, “Alabama Boy” TikToker Tyler Hearing, soccer player Luis Diaz, “bisexual player” and TikToker Brian Batesy, actor/influencer/student/comedian Joshua Cureton, and model/influencer Cameron James.
It will definitely be interesting to see how a reality TV dating competition is executed with a group of people who are mostly under a legal drinking age and definitely nowhere near the age at which one might expect to meet ones absolute perfect match wife husband forever true love soulmate!
Eurovision 2023 Starts Today! Here Are the Songs by Bisexual Contestants Loreen and Alessandra
Calling all my high camp, pop-loving, theater kid energy gays! Eurovision 2023 — the longest-running original song competition in the world — kicks off today with part one of the semi-finals, and two of the contestants competing for international pop song glory are openly bisexual women!
The first is past champion Loreen, who is representing Sweden again after winning Eurovision in 2012. Loreen won 11 years ago with her song “Euphoria” and received what was, at the time, the second-highest number of points ever. While she wasn’t publicly out as queer at the time, she came out on Swedish television in 2017. This year, she’s competing with her new song “Tattoo,” which you can check out below:
Heading into Eurovision 2023, Loreen is already strongly favored to win. If she does, she’ll become only the second person to ever win Eurovision twice (Ireland’s Johnny Logan won in 1980 and 1987), and she’ll be the first woman to ever do so. Speaking to the Gay Times, Loreen touched on the LGBTQ community’s support of her first winning song “Euphoria” and on the creative freedom of the competition. “This was the community that accepted me for who I am,” she said in the interview.
Also competing this year is openly bisexual artist Alessandra, who will be representing Norway. The Norwegian-Italian singer most recently competed in the seventh season of Norway’s version of The Voice in 2022. She will be singing her song “Queen of Kings.” Check it out:
Another bop! When talking about the meaning behind her song with Eurovision-specific news site Eurovision Fun, Alessandra touched on her queerness, saying:
“This song shows the power of women, but also the power of all people, about how important it is to feel yourself. I am bisexual and when I lived in Italy I had to hide who I was because some of my friends and relatives would not approve it. So I think it’s important to accept who we are, without caring about the opinion of others, as well as to accept that there are also bad moments in life from which we become stronger!”
Other gay contestants this year include Serbia’s Luke Black and Belgium’s Gustaph. Luke Black will compete in today’s Semi-Final 1 alongside Loreen and Alessandra, while Gustaph will compete in Semi-Final 2 later this week.
The Eurovision Song Contest features artists representing countries by singing original songs for the globally televised event. Eurovision 2023 is the 67th iteration of the global singing competition, which is being hosted in Liverpool, and 37 countries are competing. Points are determined by viewer voting, and for the first time ever, viewers located in non-participating countries are able to vote, which means U.S. viewers can cast votes this year. The hosts of Eurovision 2023 are Julia Sanina, Graham Norton, Alesha Dixon, and my Ted Lasso wife Hannah Waddingham.
Semi-Final 2 will air on May 11, and the final goes down on May 13. All three segments of Eurovision 2023 will be streaming on Peacock at 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific on the respective days, starting today with Semi-Final 1, when you can catch bicons Alessandra and Loreen sing for glory.
Who are you rooting for this year?
“The Ultimatum: Queer Love” Has Blessed Us With Cast Details, Full-Length Trailer, More Pics
The queer community’s increased sense of anticipation for the release of The Ultimatum: Queer Love on Netflix this May 24th has been stoked further today with the release of a full-length trailer, more pictures, and information on the names, ages and pronouns of the cast.
In case you missed it, this season of The Ultimatum is keeping its initial premise — one person in a couple is ready for marriage, the other isn’t, and the ready-for-marriage human is not only ready for marriage but also ready to issue an ultimatum to their commitment-shy partner: marry me or it’s over!!!!!!! In order to test the strength of their relationship, all the cast members are allowed to date each other, enter into a three-week “trial marriage” with whomstever they click with the most (if the clicking feelings are mutual), and then participate in a “trial marriage” with the person they arrived with. At the end, they return to the table to face their partners and decide if they want to leave engaged, leave alone, or leave with their new activity partner. As the title suggests, the second season of The Ultimatum is focused on queer love, with a cast entirely comprised of lesbian, bisexual and queer women and nonbinary people.
I’ve already seen the first four episodes available to press, and I cannot tell you a single thing about them, but I can tell you that I am VERY EXCITED for us all to watch it together!
Netflix’s “The Ultimatum: Queer Love” Full-Length Trailer
We got a trailer two weeks ago but don’t worry we got yet another trailer today! Set to the dulcet tones of the Hayley Kiyoko / Kehlani tune “What I Need,” we get a little more info about what our new friends are facing in the season ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0lam6K0hDo
Meet The Cast Of The Ultimatum: Queer Love
Lexi & Rae
First up we have Lexi (25, Pronouns: She/Her) (in the red shirt) who issued the Ultimatum to Rae (27, Pronouns: She/Her). In the trailer we see Lexi, at the age of 25, saying she is ready to start her life together with Rae, but unfortunately Rae is not quite so ready.
Lexi also says in a voiceover that now that she knows what a good marriage looks like, she needs to find out if she can have that with the person she came here with.
Sam & Aussie
Simone Thompson/Netflix © 2023
Next we have Sam (31, Pronouns: She/Her) (in the purple tank top), who issued the Ultimatum to Aussie (42, Pronoun: Aussie). In the trailer, we don’t see a lot of Sam, but we see Aussie expressing concerns about gender roles and meeting the parents.
Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Xander & Vanessa
Simone Thompson/Netflix © 2023
Next up we have Xander (30, Pronouns: She/Her/They) (wearing a black polo), who issued the Ultimatum to Vanessa (30, Pronouns: She/Her). In the trailer, Vanessa boldly declares the show’s events to be a “shitshow.”
Tiff & Mildred
Simone Thompson/Netflix © 2023
Next up is Mildred (33, Pronouns She/Her), who issued the Ultimatum to Tiff (32, Pronouns: They/Them). Mildred is the one in the red dress. “You’re the most masculine person I’ve ever been on a date with,” Tiff says to fellow cast member Mal in the trailer.
Yoly & Mal
Simone Thompson/Netflix © 2023
And then there is Yoly (34, Pronouns: She/Her), who issued the Ultimatum to Mal (36, Pronouns: She/Her/They). I believe it is within my rights to inform you that Mal is my favorite cast member of The Ultimatum: Queer Love!
In the trailer, we see Yoly describing Mal as her “person” and asking Mal if they’ve started saving for IVF, which she describes as “a very real possibility.”
The first four episodes of The Ultimatum: Queer Love drop on May 24th, and Autostraddle will be covering the season in depth, so stay turned for more!
Some Bravo Dyke Thoughts on the Vanderpump Rules Finale Trailer
After it leaked online, Bravo had to move faster than DJ James Kennedy running from Pump to SUR with his DJ equipment between gigs to get up a full version of the season 10 Vanderpump Rules finale trailer, which teases some of the most explosive Scandoval moments yet.
If you’re like “what the fuck is Scandoval and why does it sound like a mid alt pop music group”, well, it is a portmanteau of “Sandoval,” one of the SURnames of the two Toms who are part of the Bravo reality television series Vanderpump Rules, and the word “scandal.” The scandal in question is, in short, that Tom Sandoval cheated on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with fellow castmember Raquel Leviss. I’ve written about the sordid details before. And if you’re like “okay but why is the managing editor of Autostraddle following this so closely and writing about it here”, I’m sorry but this is taking up an untoward amount of my brain space and is the only television show lately that feels like a genuine escape. I don’t know how to explain the potency of this drama to the uninitiated!!!! It’s somehow the most engrossing reality television twist of recent years! If it sounds very stupid to you, just don’t read this!
Plus, I have a column called Bravo Dyke, so it just feels right to keep touching down on Scandoval, which is also a frequent topic of discussion in my very lesbian household. Also, Ariana is bisexual, so that makes this narrative relevant to this website for lesbians, bisexuals, and queer people, okay?! In fact, Ariana recently had to defend her own bisexuality when a fan responded to the false rumors that she was in an open relationship by asking if she’s no longer bisexual, prompting Ariana to say something that goes without saying here at Autostraddle: “bisexual ≠ polyamorous.” These are not interchangeable words, people!
The season 10 preview is indeed very juicy but sadly does not include as many Bad Hats as the midseason trailer did. This is especially a personal affront to me, because when my preferred way to watch straight people on television is for them to be wearing Bad Hats.
Take a look at the Vanderpump Rules finale trailer:
We see Sandoval telling Scheana he was planning to break up with Ariana, and Scheana pointing out that he didn’t though and instead chose to cheat with Ariana’s friend. I do think this line would have been better delivered in a comically large hat, but I digress, Scheana is correct here. We also finally see the conversation between Sandoval and Ariana that results in her screaming “I don’t give a fuck about fucking RAQUEL,” a line we’d previously only seen delivered without audio in the midseason trailer.
She says this in response to Sandoval saying he and Raquel just became really good friends, and you know, I actually find a lot of peace in the fact that his words sound familiar. My friend said she doesn’t usually like cheating/affair stories — whether they’re in scripted or unscripted series, books, etc. — because they’re boring. She’s right! There’s not a lot of new ground to break there. It’s definitely why, when it comes to scripted series in particular, cheating as a plot device can seem so lazy. But there’s something about the mundanity and cliches in the way Sandoval talks about “why” he cheated that’s oddly soothing. It’s like, yeah, these people are unoriginal! They think they found something special or are uniquely tortured individuals, but they’re not! They’re just like everyone else who chooses to cheat rather than break up because it’s the “easier” thing to do.
There are a lot of reasons why I think Scandoval feels like such a riveting moment in reality television, and perhaps at the end of the season I’ll dig deep into all of them, but I do think part of it is rooted in the same reason Kelsey McKinney’s podcast “Normal Gossip” is so popular. Scandoval is packaged explosively, and the reality television context adds a few layers, but at the end of the day, the drama is pretty commonplace, and we can view it without opening ourselves up to any scrutiny or drama ourselves.
Anyway, the trailer ends with a genuine jumpscare by revealing the owner of a pair of strappy sandals ominously approaching the camera to be none other than Kristen Doute, Sandoval’s ex girlfriend who accused him of cheating on HER with ARIANA back in the day. But Kristen and Ariana are now friends, because the relationship dynamics in this friend group are impossible to predict and as unstable as they come.
“There’s No Space for Me”: Liv Hewson Brings Attention to the Limits of Gendered Emmys Categories
feature image by David Livingston / Contributor via Getty Images
According to Variety, Liv Hewson won’t be submitting their work as Van on the television sensation Yellowjackets for the Emmys this year. Hewson, who is queer and nonbinary, spoke with Variety about the decision:
“There’s not a place for me in the acting categories. It would be inaccurate for me to submit myself as an actress. It neither makes sense for me to be lumped in with the boys. It’s quite straightforward and not that loaded. I can’t submit myself for this because there’s no space for me.”
They’re right; it’s not that complicated: Binary gendered categories at awards ceremonies are inherently exclusive. And Hollywood has been slow to change. Some awards institutions have eliminated gendered categories, such as the British Independent Film Awards, the Berlin Film Festival, the Gotham Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards. But the Emmys, Golden Globes, Oscars, and other major awards ceremonies continue to separate categories by “men” and “women.”
This forces nonbinary or genderqueer people to choose to submit in a category that does not reflect their identity or to not submit at all, as Hewson has opted for. Some nonbinary actors, like Emma D’Arcy, have spoken about the pressure to present as cisgender in order to succeed. Billions star Asia Kate Dillon penned an open letter to the SAG Awards committee in 2020 asking for an end to gender-segregated categories.
In today’s Variety story, Hewson crucially pushed back against the argument people tend to make against gender neutral categories: that it would mean cis white men would dominate in all categories across the board. They managed to articulate something I’ve long felt but never knew how to say so succinctly: “There is an implied fatalism there, which suggests that we’ve all agreed that equality is impossible. And that’s sad,” they told Variety.
Indeed, the implication that gender neutral categories would make it impossible for women and nonbinary people to win awards is derivative at best. It misguidedly aligns gender neutrality in awards with regression, when really it’s a step forward for the industry, one that allows for more inclusion and representation — not less.
Hewson tells Variety they’ve been supported by Showtime and the cast of Yellowjackets cast in this decision. They’re straightforward and firm about their choice, and I’m struck by their impressive balance of not wanting to sensationalize this stance while also underscoring they do want to see change. They tell Variety they “very gently and respectfully ask that people get their gears turning a little.”
It shouldn’t take actors missing out on potential opportunities and accolades over and over again to move the needle.