Reflections on LGBTQ+ Media and High School Experiences

It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a long time (It’s Ellie and Leigh!). It’s been a long time coming (It’s fearless). It’s been a long time coming (big reputation)...It’s been a long time coming (And they said, Speak Now). It’s been a long time coming. (We are Lez Hang Out and we were born in 2017!) It’s been a long time coming (Loving her was Red). It’s been a long time (Meet me at Midnight). It’s been a long time coming (Lover).

That’s right, gays! Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) are back, baby with Season 7 of the little lesbian podcast that could! Thank you so much to everyone who has been listening whether you started the journey with us 6 years ago or are brand new to the pod. We are so excited to have you here!

An overview of what’s been going on in queer news and media would be too depressing, so we are doing something a little different this time and reminiscing about the gay old days. If you are a gay of a certain age like us, you probably had a very different high school experience than what is currently depicted in tv shows and movies. Many millennials and older gays did not get to have quintessential high school experiences like playing Seven Minutes in Heaven or bringing a date of their desired gender to the Prom. When we watch shows and movies like Hulu’s Crush, what stands out the most is just seeing the characters be openly queer without it having to be a whole thing. We can’t even imagine playing Spin the Bottle and not having to first have an intense discussion about what to do if it were to land on someone of the same gender. 

While we are sure it’s still not easy to come out and be openly queer (especially depending on where you live), it gives us hope to see that at least within the realm of queer media representation, things have improved for the youth. They are living their best gay teenage years and we love to see it! Can you even imagine how much better life would have been if the gay representation you had as a teenager was something like Crush instead of the biphobic love triangle in South of Nowhere, the hypersexualized relationships in The L Word or the barrage of Bury Your Gays attacks? Even more recent teen media like the OG Pretty Little Liars (which we refuse to believe was over a decade ago) gave full on softcore p0rn love scenes to the heterosexual couples and faded to black on Emison. It’s only very recently that the media has finally stopped cutting away every time a gay couple does anything even remotely sexual. 

Although a lot has changed (for the better!) about queer representation, there are still some things that are largely the same – namely the tropes. These tropes exist for a reason and we do love certain ones, but others really deserve to be left in the past. We would be very happy to never watch another ‘lesbian student falls for her highkey predatory teacher’ love story for the rest of our lives. Instead, we want to see more tropes spun on their heads! Give us more of the too cool for school gay kid who is the one doing the bullying or show us a teenage lesbian hitting on a straight friend without it absolutely ruining her entire life.

Don’t forget to follow along on the platform formerly known as Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod) and answer our Q & Gay at the end of every episode. Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster) and Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow us on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). 

We would not have made it to Season 7 without the support of our incredible Patrons! You can support Lez Hang Out while unlocking a bunch of awesome perks like access to our exclusive Discord, monthly bonus episodes (there is a brand new one available now about Nimona!), weekly ad free episodes, and more by joining us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon. You can also support the podcast by buying our original merch at bit.ly/lezshop and purchasing our original Lez-ssentials songs for as little as $1 each on Bandcamp!

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