Lez Hang Out | A Lesbian Podcast

Lez Hang Out will be back with Season 7 quicker than you can say 'mycelium'. But in the meantime, put on your detective hat and get ready to solve a mystery! This week we are sharing the pilot episode from one of our favorite fiction podcasts, Arden. If you are a true crime and comedy fan, then you will love Arden.Forced into an unlikely partnership, Bea, a committed radio journalist, and Brenda, an unconventional private detective, team up for a new radio investigation into the 2007 disappearance of starlet, Julie Capsom. They'll unravel the mystery, or possibly unravel each other.CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of gore and severed limbs, discussion of stalking, missing people, drugs and alcoholEpisode credits and transcript at ardenpodcast.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are officially midway through our summer hiatus leading up to Season 7 of Lez Hang Out! Today, we have a very special treat for our listeners as we release one of the full length bonus episodes from our Patreon exclusive series, Lez-tracurriculars. Today, Ellie and Leigh discuss Chasing Amy, a movie from 1997 that was considered very progressive at the time and that critics absolutely loved. It has an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, and we can only assume these high ratings were given by men, seeing as the entire plot is basically male wish fulfillment. For anyone who remembers when there was so little truly gay media that this movie was constantly being recommended nearly the second you came out, we rewatched it so you wouldn’t have to be re-traumatized. We cannot imagine a more invalidating movie to watch after coming out, because it manages to be not only misogynistic and homophobic, but also very biphobic. Essentially the plot of this film is that a man (Holden) falls in love with a lesbian (Alyssa) and makes it everyone's problem. Instead of just appreciating his friendship as is, Holden constantly tries to make Alyssa feel bad for being gay. The whole plot reeks of male entitlement. Holden refuses to validate Alyssa’s sexuality, continually slut-shames her for actions in her past, and makes her responsible for his own emotional wellbeing instead of going to therapy like he so clearly needs. This would all be a relatively benign story if it was just boy loves girl, girl is gay, boy stays grumpy, the end. But instead the story is boy loves girl, girl is gay, boy makes girl feel like crap by shoving all his feelings at her, girl gives in and makes out with boy. This movie is literally the fantasy of every man who has ever dreamed of “turning” a lesbian and it is truly upsetting to watch Holden get everything he wants while Alyssa turns against everything she had so vocally stood for the entire movie.We want to hear your thoughts! Was this movie recommended to you by straight people after coming out? Did you like this movie and think we’re missing something? Let us know your experience with Chasing Amy on social media. Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster) and Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod).Our Patrons are the lifeblood of LHO and we absolutely could not make this show without listeners like you! If you enjoyed this episode of Lez-tracurriculars, you're in luck because there's a lot more where this came from! Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon for access to all eleven exclusive full-length bonus episodes. As a Patron, you'll get a new bonus episode every month as well as exclusive merchandise, special Patreon-only event invites, mp3s of our original songs, ad-free weekly episodes, access to our exclusive Discord channel and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lez Hang Out is still on summer hiatus, but don't worry! We would never leave you hanging. Join us all summer long for our Summer Spotlight series where we feature episodes from some of our favorite queer podcasts. This week we are sharing a recent episode from our friends over at The Gayly Planet, a queer media podcast from the folks at Hashtag Ruthless Productions:The Gayly Planet is a humorous, yet ruthless, podcast where two queer nerds talk about media we love! This week we are discussing D.E.B.S (2004) as part of our special Summer CAMP programming, where we talk about the Campiest movies all summer long. Find all of the Hashtag Ruthless podcasts at hashtagruthless.com Music credit: "Zazie" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)   Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0   License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Subscribe to Lez Hang Out wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow along on Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod), Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster) and Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lez Hang Out will be back in a few weeks with Season 7! But first, join our friends Dayra and Jojo over at Les Chat Podcast for an episode about all the things they wish they'd known before dating women.We hear straight women say quite often "I'm going to start dating women" with the idea that women relationships are easier to handle. Little do most people know lesbian/wlw relationships require much more effort than expected. Dayra and Jojo run down a list of things they wish they knew before dating women that could have potentially helped better prepare them for the types of relationship they had experienced.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lez Hang Out will be back in your ears in a few weeks with Season 7! But don't worry, we've got some really fun, queer feed swaps to share with you in the meantime. So, while you wait for Ellie and Leigh to return, check out this episode from our friends Lauren and Nicole over at Coming Out Pod.Holy cats! It's our 100TH EPISODE!!!! We take a queer walk down queer memory lane with clips from some of our most memorable moments inside and out of the closet, featuring past guests like Kirsten Vangsness, Erin Foley, Nicole's mom, and many more! We've also packed this ep with never-before-heard outtakes, bloopers, and behind the scenes moments. It's funny! It's moving! It's surprisingly sexy! JOIN US, WON'T YOU?! And, hey - thank you so much for listening :)Check out comingoutpod.com for resources, a media list, virtual community links, and anything else your queer little heart desires! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s fine-ally time to talk about the Target fiasco. This week Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to wrap up Pride month and Season 6 with a look at what it really takes to be a good queer ally in 2023. As anti-LGBTQ+ hate increases across the country, it is no longer enough for allies to just be okay with queer people existing. Corporations that were previously known for performatively turning their logo into a rainbow each June and selling Pride themed merchandise are now pulling back and removing what little support they had been showing in favor of appeasing the loud, fanatical homophobic and transphobic bigots. With our right to simply exist as we are under attack, it is so important for allies to show up and stand up for the queer community and to do so in ways that do not cause further harm. We are done accepting the bare minimum from so-called ‘allies’. Just going to Pride and posting pics of yourself day drinking in your Love Is Love t-shirt are not going to cut it anymore. The stakes are rising incredibly fast and true allies need to recognize the very real fear that queer people are currently experiencing. Depending on where you live, it may have never felt safe to be gay. However, now even the spaces typically known for being welcoming, safe environments for queer people are under attack. The safe havens that gays have been fleeing to from their small towns for decades are beginning to look a lot less safe. This Pride month has been a heavy one and has served as a stark and much needed reminder for many that Pride has always been and will always be a riot, a protest, and much more than rainbow capitalism wants it to be. It’s entirely possible to not be homophobic, but still not be a particularly good ally. Take Target for example. Historically, Target has not been homophobic and has long been viewed as ‘gay Walmart’. But this month, Target showed that when push comes to shove, they are not here for the community and are in fact a bad ally. If you think you are an ally but then balk at the first sign of backlash or resistance, you are not actually a good ally. Instead, a good ally is someone who is willing to be a little uncomfortable, willing to embrace change, and willing to show support even when that support is unpopular. Follow along on 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 along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). This #pridemonth and all year long don’t forget to support LGBTQ+ creators and small businesses directly. You can support Lez Hang Out while unlocking a bunch of awesome perks like access to our exclusive Discord community, monthly bonus episodes (there are already 11 of them to enjoy upon joining!), weekly ad free episodes, exclusive merch and more. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon.You can also support the podcast by buying our original merch at bit.ly/lezshop to proudly rep queer all year and purchasing our original songs for as little as $1 each on Bandcamp! Want to go on a dream vacation and make lifelong memories with a group of amazing queer people? Invest in your own joy this #pride and grab one of the last 3 spots on our #trovatrip to Croatia coming up this September! Get all the details at bit.ly/lezdocroatia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Check your toxic masculinity at the door and get ready for the skip day to end all skip days! This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with singer-songwriter and comedian Emma Jayne (@emmajaynegrams) to talk about the 1986 campy teen classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This movie exists outside of the confines of heteronormativity (and the space time continuum). Nearly every character is queer (except Principal Rooney who is continually punished for his crimes against the queer community ie. our beautiful polycule).Everything about Ferris’ relationship with Cameron and Sloane is giving Gen Z #relationshipgoals. Ferris planned this whole skip day just to lift his boyfriend Cameron out of his depressive funk and to give everyone a chance to bond with their newest polycule member, Sloane. We dive into the dynamics of our three leads, exploring Ferris through a transmasc lens and declaring Cameron our panromantic gray ace king. Sloane of course is not like the other girlies. She wears two different earrings, a sure sign of queerness; and we love watching her and Cameron get closer as the film goes on. There is nothing gayer in this world than Ferris lip-synching for his life TWICE on a parade float in his cheetah print vest. Not only is he fully embracing drag culture, but he is doing it all to cheer up Cameron. We love to see it. Ferris is absolutely winning for boyfriend of the year. This movie is pure vibes, just chasing one dopamine hit to the next. Genuinely feeling SO SEEN by this neurodivergent queer rep. #RepresentationMatters!We know one thing for sure, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Should’ve Been Gay. #SaveFerris (from heteronormativity).Follow along on 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 along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). This #pridemonth don’t forget to support LGBTQ+ creators and small businesses directly. You can support Lez Hang Out while unlocking a bunch of awesome perks like access to our exclusive Discord community, monthly bonus episodes, weekly ad free episodes, exclusive merch and more. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon. Want to go on a dream vacation and make lifelong memories with a group of amazing queer people? Invest in your own joy this #pride and grab one of the last 4 spots on our #trovatrip to Croatia coming up this September! Get all the details at bit.ly/lezdocroatia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reality dating shows, for when therapy is just too expensive and you want to add a little chaos to your life. This week Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and process the delightfully dramatic Netflix reality dating show, The Ultimatum: Queer Love. If you haven’t been watching this show or you are not that into #realitytv, buckle up, because this is a wild ride. The premise is absolutely nuts- one person in a relationship wants to get married, the other does not for whatever reason. The solution - not couple’s therapy! Nope. The solution is apparently to split up and get involved in a 3 week long trial marriage with someone from another couple in the same predicament. Then, to get back together for a 3 week long trial marriage of their own. At the end of all that mess, everyone can decide to choose their original partner by getting engaged, themselves by walking away single, or their new love ie. the person they spent 3 weeks with in that first trial marriage. The issue with the show is mainly the premise itself. It basically throws people into that honeymoon phase and makes them compare those feelings to the less exciting feelings they have for their long term partner. We talk about the reasons The Ultimatum is an incredibly unhinged concept, the bonkers decision to not once tell us a single one of these queer people’s pronouns, and the hate crime that was the finale. Genuinely, we were so relieved to watch the reunion, because watching that finale felt like we had stepped into an episode of Black Mirror. Ultimately, if all the show achieved was freeing Xander, it was worth every second.Follow along on 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 along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). This #pridemonth don’t forget to support LGBTQ+ creators and small businesses directly. You can support Lez Hang Out while unlocking a bunch of awesome perks like access to our exclusive Discord community, monthly bonus episodes, weekly ad free episodes, exclusive merch and more. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon. Want to go on a dream vacation and make lifelong memories with a group of amazing queer people? Invest in your own joy this #pride and grab one of the last 4 spots on our #trovatrip to Croatia coming up this September! Get all the details at bit.ly/lezdocroatia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Fate be changed. Look inside. All the gays are out for Pride!” This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Mexican American story artist and character designer Stephanie Rizo (@steph_rizo) to talk about the 2012 Disney Pixar hit film Brave. This movie is so gay! It is essentially a coming out story for Merida who is struggling to get her mom to understand that her sexuality is not just a phase and she will 100% burn down the country before marrying a man.We talk about Stephanie’s experience as a storyboard artist and character designer for animation and how she manages to sneak queerness into the backgrounds wherever she can. Then, we delve deeper into everything that makes Brave the gay masterpiece that it is. Merida’s entire personality revolves around breaking free from the heteronormative ideals that her mother is desperately trying to instill in her. We love that this movie ultimately respects who Merida is and does not try to force a love interest onto her in the end like Disney does with so many of its princesses. Not a single one of those male suitors was serious about pursuing marriage and honestly, they don’t exactly come off as straight either.Merida’s own father is a great example of how much internalized homophobia can mess someone up, because that man is 1000% obsessed with bears. He may claim to hate them, but he spends pretty much the entire movie talking about Mordu and his castle is basically a shrine to bears. This man is so bear for bear and he does not even realize it. He also is very supportive of Merida and her distaste for heteronormativity, giving her a bow of her own and not minding one bit about her ‘unladylike’ manners. Elinor, Merida’s mother, takes longer to come around after having forced herself to adhere to her own compulsory heterosexuality. This woman is so bisexual it is almost painful. When she is trying to convince Merida to go through with the marriage, she explains that she too had a defiant ‘phase’ where she did not want to get married. We see you Elinor and you are not fooling anyone.We know one thing for sure, Brave Should’ve Been Gay. Follow along on 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 along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). Want to support Lez Hang Out while unlocking a bunch of awesome perks like access to our exclusive Discord community, monthly bonus episodes, weekly ad free episodes, exclusive merch and more? Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if you met your wife for the first time in Paradise? This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) talk about the 2016 episode of Black Mirror - San Junipero for this Lez-ssentials episode, a recurring segment on the essential movies and TV shows in the lesbian canon. If you haven’t seen this episode of Black Mirror yet, go watch it! It’s only an hour long and unlike most episodes, it is less horror, more sci fi romance. This story is unique because it both does bury the gays and also doesn’t. All things considered, it actually has a very happy ending for our sapphics, if you just ignore that they’re technically dead and have had their consciousnesses uploaded to a digital afterlife. It’s the sort of bittersweet happiness that we absolutely eat up, or as Ellie says, “It’s giving Notebook vibes.” There is just something so sweet about watching Yorkie get a first shot at love after her incredibly traumatic accident and Kelly getting a second chance at a love that she never really envisioned herself having after losing her husband and daughter. Yorkie is such a relatable baby gay and honestly between her sheltered homophobic upbringing and the car accident happening the same night she came out, we are just so happy to see her get to experience the lesbian life that she could never have even imagined was possible for herself.With Kelly, she is a little more hesitant to allow herself to fall in love as she is not planning to stay in San Junipero. We get very little good bisexual representation on our screens and Kelly is top tier, hands down. She was married to a man and very much in love with him for over 40 years, but that does not in any way invalidate her bisexuality or stop her from dating and hooking up with both women and men in San Junipero. So often society writes off bisexual women as soon as they marry men and it is really important to show the world that getting married does not suddenly erase a person’s sexuality. The fact that we get to see Yorkie go from completely missing out on life due to homophobia to regaining her freedom and chance for love through gay marriage is amazing. She was hesitant to even dance with Kelly at first, because she thought it would be improper for two girls to be seen dancing together and within the span of a few short weeks she is literally married to her. We love to see it!At the end of the episode, stick around to hear our original song based on San Junipero titled “Paradise” written by Leigh Holmes Foster and produced by Ellie Brigida. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon for mp3 downloads of all our original songs or find us on Bandcamp to purchase songs individually.Follow along on 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 along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices