Lez Hang Out | A Lesbian Podcast

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by shopping small for all your holly-gay apparel at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that hates gay Halloween– what do you mean you’re Chaguilera? This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with self-described “professional lesbian”, writer, podcaster and public sociologist, Erin Brown (@iamerinbrown), to talk about why the 2010 “musical” Burlesque, Should’ve Been Gay. If you’ve been a listener for a while, you know that we’ve had this movie on our SBG list for a very long time. And who better to talk about Burlesque, but an actual burlesque performer?  As a burlesque performer, Erin is quick to point out that for a movie titled “Burlesque” there is quite literally no actual burlesque to be seen. The performers don’t even take off so much as a glove during their dances, let alone channel the politically charged, feminist, queer energy that is so essential to the art form (And there is absolutely no excuse for the laughable quality of the wigs). While we do find the movie enjoyable, mostly due to the star-studded cast and our undying love for Chaguilera (Cher and Christina Aguilera), it is not an accurate representation of burlesque and feels unnaturally sanitized. Where the movie does get things right is in its RuPaul level campiness, the lesbian-coded male love interest, and the familiar queer storyline (banding together to save a lesbian bar from getting bought out by a terrible straight man– The Flame anyone?).  Don’t forget to subscribe to Erin’s podcast, The Lesbian Peepshow, a living archive of what queer women are doing right now. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Lez Hang Out is brought to you by Wet For Her.  Can’t get enough Lez Hang Out? Join our Patreon family to unlock 27 full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support our little podcast team by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch. We have cozy gifts for everyone on your list and free shipping on orders $100 or more.  Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that still would not sleep with a man even to avoid the outrageously high cost of IVF.  This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to talk about 2025’s The Wedding Banquet, for this Lez-ssentials episode, a recurring segment on the essential movies and TV shows in the lesbian canon. We both thought this movie was going to be a lighthearted comedy, but after sobbing on a plane Ellie would beg to differ.  The Wedding Banquet stars Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, and Kelly Marie Tran in what is technically a remake of a film from 1993 (which we have not seen). The story is a bit out-there, but the characters resonate all the same. If you haven’t seen it, the basic plot is this: a gay man and his lesbian bestie decide to help each other out by getting married in exchange for a green card for him and free IVF for her. Honestly with how expensive IVF is (and the general state of immigration), we 1000% get it. There may be nothing more quintessentially 2025 than the gays teaming up to defraud the government and get free healthcare. From the intergenerational trauma and classic mommy-issues to the chosen family and ‘be gay, do crime’ of it all, we think The Wedding Banquet is a must-watch. At the end of the episode, stick around to hear our original song based on The Wedding Banquet, titled “Pieces”, written by Leigh Holmes Foster and produced by Ellie Brigida. This and all of our original “Lez-ssential” songs are available for purchase on Bandcamp.  Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by shopping small for all your gay apparel at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is deeply tired of queerbaiting, but will be continuing to fall for it every time. This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with return guest, director, actor and screenwriter Kristina Pupo (@kristinapupo) to talk about why Legacies, Should’ve Been Gay(er). This CW spinoff to the infamous Vampire Diaries and The Originals, stars Danielle Rose Russell as Hope Mikaelson, the tribrid daughter of vampire-werewolf hybrid Klaus Mikaelson and werewolf Hayley Marshall. If you’ve seen Legacies, you’re probably thinking, “but guys, Legacies has actual gays in it”, and you’re not wrong– but somehow, the representation just falls short. We’re sorry to the Posie shippers and the Landon lovers, but respectfully, making actual unicorn Hope Mikaelson and a boy made of literal mud endgame was inexcusable; and Josie’s storyline is a master class in bisexuality tropes that ends with actor Kaylee Bryant (now Kaylee Kaneshiro) leaving the series early.  Legacies had a chance to do something so iconic with all-powerful tribrid Hope and twin witches Lizzie and Josie Saltzman. Their backstory is richly built and makes for the perfect slow burn. The girls have all known one another since they were children and Josie even admits to having had a crush on Hope in the past. We could have gotten the most powerful love triangle between Hope, Josie, and Lizzie but instead of giving fans the ship we wanted, they gave us Landon. I mean what was the point of telling us that Josie was into Hope and then going nowhere with it? The tendency of shows to shy away from allowing their titular character to be queer in favor of tossing in some random man is exhausting. Let your main characters be gay, please! Especially if those characters are deeply complex, highly powerful women that are very clearly into one another the entire time.  We know one thing for sure, Legacies Should’ve Been Gay(er). Stream Kristina’s brand new web-series Death Is A Babe on Youtube for more spooky, magical, very gay vibes and zero queerbaiting. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by getting a head start on holiday shopping at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is moving on up! This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Marita Prodger (@maritaprodger) who you may recognize as one of the stars of Season 2 of Netflix’s The Ultimatum: Queer Love. This episode is full of feels (three Pisces in one podcast makes for quite the fluid conversation), lesbian math, and musical manifestation. Quick disclaimer that we recorded this prior to the announcement that The Ultimatum: Queer Love has been cancelled, so please keep that in mind while listening.  Marita began her Ultimatum journey when she was just 24 years old, and now at 27 she credits her experiences on the show with helping her to grow, create an incredible community, and rediscover her self-worth. Although she did not come away from the show with “her person”, she walked away with a renewed sense of self-love and the understanding that she didn’t need to beg someone to love her. The right person would just do it naturally. Ending up with Britney as a trial marriage partner may not have been what either of them planned for, but it turned out to be the best thing for Marita to see her own energy reflected back like a mirror.  It’s easy to end up in a relationship that feels comfortable enough to stay, but still isn’t quite right for you. We may see going on the Ultimatum as a really drastic measure for fixing a relationship, but sometimes it takes blowing everything up to see what remains. Seeing how simple it was for Britney to show up and consider her in the small day-to-day moments was a huge eye-opener and helped to break Marita out of a cycle that without the show, she may still have been trapped in today.  You can find Marita on all the socials at @maritaprodger. Follow for information on how you can join her in the Canary Islands in January and for the chance to hear new music as she releases it.  Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more. A Patreon membership also makes a great gift for anyone who is interested in joining our little queer corner of the internet. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is hardlaunching Ellie's engagement! This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with very special guest, Ellie’s fiancée, Bailey Katsumata-Smith (@baileykatsu), to talk about why iconic Disney Channel Original Series Hannah Montana, Should’ve Been Gay. If you were around in 2006, whether you were an elementary school kid or a high school teen, you were probably watching Hannah Montana. This series was such a massive deal that Bailey was bullied in the 4th grade for not being allowed to watch it.  Hannah Montana follows the chaotic double life of Miley Stewart (played by real life queer icon Miley Cyrus) as she navigates being a “regular high schooler” while hiding her secret drag identity as pop star Hannah Montana from everyone except her very best girlfriend, Lilly. This girl spends 4 whole seasons literally going in and out of the largest closet we’ve ever seen, a closet she and Lilly go in specifically to transform into their flamboyant alter egos, Hannah Montana and Lola Luftnagle. Miley’s wig collection likely rivals Chappell Roan’s and we all had a pair of those baggy cargo shorts that Lilly was always rocking while skateboarding into view. Yet, Disney still forced us to watch 4 seasons of Miley and Lilly’s chemistry being tossed aside for lame, forgettable boys.  We know one thing for sure, Hannah Montana Should’ve Been Gay. Don’t forget to stream Bailey’s debut single, Bittersweet Bitch, for Olivia Rodrigo vibes and a sick Hannah Montana inspired guitar solo.  Stop giving your money away to billionaires and shop small & queer for the holigays at ⁠bit.ly/lezmerch⁠! We have unique gifts for everyone on your list. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by getting a head start on holiday shopping at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is not afraid to admit to being afraid of death. This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Elizabeth Earley (@therealelizabethearley), author and host of the popular Substack series (and podcast), Queering Reality, and the author of two novels: A Map of Everything and Like Wings, Your Hands. Her new nonfiction essay collection, Little Deaths All in a Row: Essays on Sex and Death, was released in September. We chat with Elizabeth about some super casual, lighthearted topics like the link between the female orgasm and the moment of birth or death, the age-old question of what happens after we die, how birth and death open channels to freely give and receive love, and the philosophical debate over whether humans can ever experience true reality.  Elizabeth wrote Little Deaths All in a Row in the aftermath of a near-fatal motorcycle accident that sent her mind into a panicked state while her body was in the literal process of dying. Although she survived this brush with death, Elizabeth was determined to examine her fear and attempt to overcome it so that the next time she met death, she’d be able to pass on gracefully. She explains that while she did not have a “near death experience” of the other side like some people do in terrible accidents, she does believe state of mind during the moment of death has an impact on what comes after. In order to get more intimate with death, Elizabeth began doing energy healing work on hospice patients. She expected to heal her fear of dying, but instead healed something she had not realized she was afraid of; a fear of love (she still fears death as does every human whether they want to admit it or not).  Pick up a copy of Elizabeth’s essay collection, Little Deaths All in a Row from Jaded Ibis Press [x] for more musings on the nature of reality, love, philosophy, sex, mortality, and what, if anything, comes after death.  Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes (next up is My Old Ass), ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! Supporting us on Patreon is the absolute best way to help our little indie team keep the mics on.  Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is gonna party like it's 1999!  This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) hosts solo and hangs out with Danielle Bezalel, host of the Sex Ed with DB podcast (@sexedwithdbpodcast), your go-to podcast for smart, science-backed sex education. Together they take a nostalgic trip down memory lane to the late 90s to talk about why the 1999 romcom Never Been Kissed Should’ve Been Gay. If you’re a younger gay, you may not have seen this 90s classic; but we bet you’ll recognize the major names in the cast. We’re talking Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Molly Shannon, Octavia Spencer, and freaking Jessica Alba all in the same movie. If that doesn’t convince you to watch it at least one dozen times, we don’t know what will. The plot follows Josie, a journalist going undercover at a high school for a story, as she experiences being retraumatized by the popular girls, falling in love with her teacher, and competing for prom queen.  As much as we genuinely adore this movie, it is impossible not to talk about the ocean of reasons why Never Been Kissed is not the wholesome, family-friendly movie it was marketed as and is instead highly problematic. We get that Josie is 25 and only pretending to be a high schooler for the sake of her journalism career; but her teacher does not know that and has no reason to think she isn’t a 17 year old student. Yet, they are the main romance that the audience is very much supposed to be rooting for. Thankfully, we have our gay glasses on and with a few little changes to the script we can see our path to a much less problematic, and much, much queerer movie. After all, there’s something pretty queer already about a 25 year old woman who has never had a romantic kiss or felt sparks from any guy. The school-sized closet Josie is hiding out in is truly made of glass.  We know one thing for sure, Never Been Kissed Should’ve Been Gay. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). You can also support the show by getting an early start on holigay shopping at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by grabbing a cozy fall sweater at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is investing in a VHS player for no particular reason.  This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Daviel Shy (@solsticetits), a multi-disciplinary artist who wrote and directed over a dozen short films, runs and curates L.M.N.O.P (Lesbian Movie Night Ongoing Project), and co-founded DAYLiGHT FiLMs, a kinky, queer, analogue pivot into the adult entertainment industry. We talk in-depth about Daviel’s new series The Lovers, a 7-episode series available on Prime Video, that she brought to life during the pandemic lockdowns.  The Lovers follows the story of a laid off sex-worker who falls for a fitness witch in 2020’s L.A. When asked her elevator pitch for the series, Daviel explained that it’s basically a kinkier, gayer Skins and after watching it, we fully agree with that description. Prior to creating The Lovers, Daviel had a lot of experience with writing, directing and producing, but with the barriers of the lockdowns, she decided to also star in the series, a first that helped her realize she actually wanted to do what her character was doing. Through the assistance of the kink community in L.A., Daviel was able not only to create her series, but to connect with the network she would need to break into the adult entertainment industry and co-found DAYLiGHT FiLMs.  You can stream The Lovers on Amazon Prime Video or Vimeo On Demand.  Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is always going to root for Aubrey Plaza (even when she’s playing a literal stalker).  This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the 2017 dark comedy Ingrid Goes West Should’ve Been Gay. We really enjoyed this extremely cringey comedy, but we wish it had gone further with Ingrid and Taylor’s relationship. Ingrid’s behavior was unhinged, for sure; but it wasn’t Saltburn level unhinged.  For those who have not seen the movie, the plot centers around Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) who moves to LA specifically to stalk the Instagram influencer (Elizabeth Olsen) that she is obsessed with. While we fully understand the point they are trying to make about parasocial relationships and social media, we can’t help but root for Ingrid the entire time. She may have gone about everything in a really convoluted way, but Ingrid does love Taylor (unlike Taylor’s husband, who seems to hate everything about her). It feels a lot like Killing Eve, where you can’t help but root for Villanelle to “get the girl” even as she is killing people left and right.  We know one thing for sure, Ingrid Goes West Should’ve Been Gay. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). You can also support the show by gearing up for Halloween at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by grabbing a cozy Halloween sweater at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that wants you to elect more lesbians! This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Janelle Perez (@janelleperezfl), the Executive Director of LPAC (@teamlpac), the only organization in the U.S. dedicated entirely to electing LGBTQ+ women and non-binary leaders. LPAC is a nonpartisan organization born out of the realization that the majority of the financial contributions made to LGBTQ+ organizations were disproportionately going to cis white men. A group of lesbians recognized this disparity and decided to try to increase equity in politics by electing a more representative government. When LPAC was founded in 2012, there was only one queer woman running for office. Just 12 years later, in 2024 there were over 200 queer women and non-binary candidates. And not only are more candidates running, but more are winning too! LPAC had an impressive 74% win-rate in 2024.  Janelle explains what it takes to become an LPAC endorsed-candidate (main answer: BE GAY!), why queer women statistically win more candidacy races than gay men do, and how a life-altering cancer diagnosis brought her parents from homophobic to “we want you to have your wedding on our front lawn” in record-time. Although she is now 10-years cancer free, Janelle’s coming out journey, decision to run for State Senate in FL, and involvement with LPAC are all interwoven with her diagnosis. At 28 years old, Janelle was diagnosed with 2 types of terminal cancer. This could’ve easily derailed her life, but instead it was the catalyst that brought her family together and gave her the itch to get involved in local politics. Janelle shares that queer women typically run for office for mission-driven reasons rather than a desire for power. She herself ran on the basis of expanding access to healthcare for people in her home state after receiving an egregiously large bill for a cancer treatment. After her experience running for office, she pivoted to the organization that had backed her candidacy, LPAC, eventually stepping into the role of Executive Director. We talk a lot about gay audacity on this podcast, and Janelle and LPAC have it in spades. If Janelle’s story inspires you and you would like to learn what it takes to run for office in your district, be sure to reach out to LPAC for all the resources you could ever possibly need to get started. Learn more about LPAC: https://www.teamlpac.com Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices