Summer is admittedly my least favorite season of the year. I’m definitely a winter girl. I hate being hot because I hate not being able to wear jackets. Having to suffer through wearing a leather jacket in the club in mid-July is never something I look forward to. Jackets are a quintessential aspect of every queer person’s life, so I think summer is hard for all of us. All that being said, it is still the gayest season of the year, mostly because of Pride. Pride is gay Christmas. I wake up every month during June just exuding gayness, and it feels amazing. Every Pride, we are given so many beautiful gifts from music to movies to general pop culture events, and this year was no different.
As fall rolls in and we say goodbye to warm weather, let’s reminisce on all the gay things that Summer 20GAYTEEN brought to us.
Yes, we all know it’s not explicitly gay. We all agree that lesbian representation is lacking, and Hollywood has to do better by queer women. But this movie was big dyke energy from start to finish. Every single suit that Cate Blanchett wore gave me heart tremors. The blue suit was tailored for the goddesses, the sequined jumpsuit she wore after the heist invented being a lesbian, and her on a motorcycle gave us marriage equality. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules. Every single one of them looked ridiculous at the Met Gala. I don’t even want to talk about Rihanna in that red dress. I can’t do it. I’ve been in love with Anne Hathaway since 2001 when Paolo turned her into a princess, so that’s that on that. Sandra Bullock feeding Cate Blanchett threw the first brick at Stonewall. I could go on for hours, but we have to move on.
Nanette made male stand-up comics big mad.
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Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up special Nanette is a work of art. It deconstructs comedy and criticizes it as a medium that tells incomplete stories and how that can negatively impact the way we view ourselves and others. It’s really brilliant and funny and poignant, and all the white guys who make the same four jokes about Tinder are really upset about it. Gadsby, who is an out lesbian, has received a handful of criticism for parading a one-woman show as a comedy special. I find that telling comics what is and isn’t stand-up to be a very useless and boring conversation. Nanette is an unconventional use of comedy, and it’s exactly what it needs to be. When will people let lesbians live?
When an artist puts out a new record, Kehlani tends to be featured on the best song on it. That was definitely true for Hayley Kiyoko’s Expectations. What I Need was instantly my favorite song, so you can only imagine my excitement when the music video came out right at the beginning of Pride. The video follows Kehlani and Kiyoko as their friendship turns into something more. There’s running in the desert, dancing on pool tables, and it ends with them making out on the side of the road. Kehlani topping Kiyoko in a music video is why we even have a Pride month, to be honest.
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I am all for people coming out in their own time without feeling pressured to do so. Monae did just that and now publicly identifies as queer. For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen her walking red carpets in suits, completely oblivious to social norms, and I’ve always identified with that. Seeing queer women of color so unabashedly and publicly expressing their gender or sexuality makes me feel so seen. Monae is doing that in every way, with her music, her shows, and her red carpet looks. I support her and am so glad she’s officially part of the community. Welcome, girl, your complimentary hummus and pitbull are on their way.
Ellen is doing stand-up again.
Most people know that Ellen as the friendly lesbian talk show host who gives people cars and kitchen appliances. But decades before her dancing days, Ellen was exclusively a stand-up comic. Watching her stand-up specials made me fall in love with comedy, and I never thought she would ever return to it. My gay prayers have, however, been answered. Ellen is doing stand-up again, and she went on her first tour as a comic for the first time in 15 years. This is all leading up to her upcoming Netflix special that we should be expecting early next year.
The 2018 ESPN Body Issue is something I have never in my life had even the slightest interest in, except for that time Serena Williams was on it. I know I’m a bad dyke, and I should know more about sport. But I played soccer in high school; I did my time. The 2018 cover, however, features a few LGBTQ athletes including lesbian WNBA player Sue Bird, and her partner, soccer star Megan Rapinoe. First of all, I love the fact that a WNBA star is dating a soccer star. Also, I think that the last step to lesbian self-actualization is becoming obsessed with either the WNBA or the USWNT, and I feel like I’m about to do both of those things because of this picture.
Kristen Stewart is going to be an angel.
Like most lesbians, I have complicated feelings about Kristen Stewart. It seems like she has very complicated feelings about lesbians, so it’s only fair. That being said, I am pretty excited to see her in Elizabeth Banks’ remake of Charlie’s Angels. Is Kristen Stewart the best actress? Well, she’s developed very little since her Twilight days, but this role might not require a Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada performance. It might just require cool stunts and lesbian vibes, which I am confident Stewart can deliver. Charlie’s Angels is already part of the lesbian canon; it was my personal introduction to our lord and savior, Lucy Liu, who has given the reboot her blessing. This can only go right.
Amandla Stenberg and King Princess are adorable.
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Hey mom yeah sleep-away camp is awesome I wet the bed but I made a new uh..friend 😝
This lesbian teen romance is blooming right in front of our eyes, and it’s so beautiful. King Princess interviewed Stenberg for Wonderland Magazine, and they discussed how they met as well as the evolution of their sexuality. The pair has since been precious on social media, both being very supportive of each other’s careers. They’ve also been killing red carpets together. Seeing an out lesbian couple on a red carpet makes me feel so hopeful and happy for all the baby queers out there. I’m so excited that they have this kind of representation.
To women, hair means a lot. And to Black women, even more so. There is so much pressure to have your hair a certain way when you’re Black, just in order to easily navigate day-to-day society. Our hair is our womanhood, our femininity, and our Blackness. Letting go of it, while it feels cohesive with our queerness, doesn’t also feel the same way with the rest of our identities. When she cut her hair, Waithe said that it was a way of letting go of the femininity she was holding onto to make other people feel comfortable. As always, she’s an example of how to take up the space you think you deserve without putting caveats or modifications on yourself. The Black butch queen we needed has arrived. But really she’s always been here—her hair’s just shorter.
This summer, Demi Lovato took Kehlani on tour with her. While Lovato was performing in New Jersey, Kehlani joined her on stage, and things took a gay turn. Kehlani put her arms around Lovato and naturally, Lovato turned around and kissed her. Then, believe it or not, it continued to get gayer. Kehlani laid down on the bed that was so conveniently on stage, and Lovato straddled her as she performed. I know it’s my job to do so, but I can’t put into words how I felt the moment I watched that video.
This list was hard to compile because it was almost impossible to narrow down all the beautiful gay things that happened this summer. These were the ones that stood out to me the most, but it barely scratches the surface. 20GAYTEEN has been so good to us so far, and I’m so excited to see what fall brings. Like I always say, there is no such thing as too much lesbian content.
