When the Sun has set, no candle can replace it

RIPE! (produced by sapphic football star Kelley O’Hara) - Starring Lola Tung (from The Summer I Turned Pretty) as our mc. This movie is based on a short film with the same name from 2024, where an American exchange student builds a (friendly) football rivalry with a Spanish girl, which slowly turns into a summer love. There has been a small teaser shared (and it look so good). According to O'Hara: “I was drawn to the opportunity to be able to tell a story with a happy ending because I think the typical queer love story features a lot of pain and heartbreak.”

Leviticus - “Two teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most: each other.” Supernatural horror, romance, etc. There has been a trailer shared. Coming out the 18th of June

Girls Like Girls (produced by Hayley Kiyoko, and based in her music video and book of the same name) - “LOVE BEGINS WHEN YOU LET IT IN. Coley, 17, from rural Oregon, navigates intimacy after her mother's passing. Meeting Sonya sparks new feelings, but self-doubt hinders their connection. Sonya, unfamiliar with dating girls, is uncertain. They learn to embrace emotions.”. Coming of age romance. There’s also a trailer (and it comes out the same day as Leviticus!)

Coward - “During the First World War, the soldiers behind the front line try to keep their spirits up. Stirred by the rhetoric of war, they each search for their own way to cope.” I’m really excited for this one because not only is it about wwi soldiers but apparently it’s gay too?? (Yes, I love wwi, sorry)

What's Wrong Wendy? - “When a pizza delivery girl is attacked by a bat on Valentine's Day, she drags her high school crush into battle. A sapphic tribute to the monstrous, feral women who struggle to hold onto their humanity.”

The Man I Love - “Set in late 1980s New York City, the film follows Jimmy George, an actor facing a life-threatening illness, who takes on what may be his final major role.” The illness is AIDS. Coming out on May 20.

Carmilla - “LESBIANS! DRAMA! VAMPIRES! LUST! Sheridan Le Fanu's classic story, Carmilla, is contrasted with Veronica and Amélia's, two rising actresses. Their relationship, which floats between hate, desire and passion, gets more intense when both get chosen to play opposites in the theatrical adaptation of Fanu's tale.” I don’t know if this is already out?? It’s a 2026 movie but I don’t know if it’s out. It’s a Portuguese movie.

Red, White & Royal Wedding (directed by Jamie Babbit, director of But I’m a Cheerleader) - Sequel to Red, White & Royal Blue (2023), an adaptation of the novel with the same name. Romcom with an established relationship (between the first son of the United States and the prince of England).

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (produced by Jane Schoenbrun, producer of I Saw The TV Glow) - “A NEW KIND OF HORROR REMAKE. The infamous Camp Miasma slasher franchise is getting rebooted yet again. But when the latest movie's director becomes obsessed with the mysterious, reclusive actress who played the "final girl" in the original film, a whole new kind of slasher emerges from the bottom of the lake.” There’s a trailer out, comes out the 7th of august.

The Black Ball - “The Black Ball, inspired by an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca, will be a queer vindication about three men in three different moments of Spanish history: 1932, 1937, and 2017.” If you have never read anything by Lorca, what are you doing?

Go, Beavers! (directed by Ethan Coen, director of Honey Don’t and Drive-Away Dolls) - At the reunion of a lesbian college women’s rowing team, members of the crew begin mysteriously dying.

Separate Rooms (directed by Luca Guadagnino, director of Call Me By Your Name, Challengers, Bones and All, Queer, etc) - “Fleeing from the image of his boyfriend who recently committed suicide, Leo arrives in England in order to descend into anonymity. Yet even here his mind continually turns to the reality of his lover’s death and their experiences together.” Adaptation of a 1989 Italian novel by Pier Vittorio Tondelli, of the same name (Camere separate). Coming out in 2027.

Rapture - “Monks at remote Lansley Abbey face crisis when plague victims become undead. As refugees seek shelter and infected attack, the brothers clash over helping the sick versus protecting ancient knowledge.”

My Ex-Friend’s Wedding - “On the eve of their former best friend’s wedding, four of their childhood friends receive a drunken voicemail from her, confessing that she believes she is making a mistake. The four friends then decide to stop the wedding.” Comes out 2027. Talking about weddings, we also have

Before I Do - “A lakeside bachelor party weekend devolves into chaos when the groom and his best man’s past romantic feelings reignite, entangling the wedding party in the chaotic pre-wedding drama.” Gay romcom!

There’s also a movie adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (with Netflix) and Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid planned, and a tv show adaptation of the lesbian romcom Cleat Cute (as an Amazon series) and the video game Life Is Strange.

ALSO two tv shows: The Body, “a thriller set in a small town revolving around dark secrets among a group of girls at a Catholic high school”, and Slo Pitch, “a determined coach leads their ragtag LGBTQ+ softball team through ups and downs on and off the field as they chase their dreams in local slo pitch leagues.”

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Extra Geography - “In an English girls boarding school, two teenage best friends grapple with the challenges of girlhood - friendship, boys, studies, and growing up - and embark on their school project, falling in love.” Apparently this came out in January but I haven’t heard anything about it? One review describes it as “The Holdovers for lesbians”

Big Girls Don’t Cry - “Over one transformative summer in rural New Zealand in 2006, 14-year-old Sid discovers desire, identity, and the internet as she imitates the people she longs to be loved by.” Also came out in January.

Gugu’s World - “Gugu, a shy teenager living with his mother in a fishing village, forms an intense friendship with a new boy who arrives from the city. As the two grow closer, Gugu begins to confront his sexuality, the expectations of his community, and the emotional turbulence of adolescence.” Brazilian coming of age film with a black mc. Apparently it talks a lot about his relationship with his grandma? It came out the 13th of February.

The Blood Countess - “The story follows Countess Erzsébet Báthory, who reappears in present‑day Vienna and searches for a mysterious book believed to have the power to eradicate evil. Accompanied by her maid Hermine and her melancholic nephew Rudi Bubi, she moves through historical sites in the city while vampirologists and a police inspector pursue her across Vienna and into Bohemia.” Vampire comedy, came out in the 16th of February.

...and that slowly becoming tense when Jonathan isn't there in a very specific way. We spend both those seasons with Joyce and Will, and he's always on the outside looking in. Seeing Joyce choose her other son, seeing Will choose his other friends...

...trying to figure out how to still be there for them but always a little too late. Because they're now relying on someone they were complaining about in the first place.

And there's a clear through line there where Jonathan is someone they can be angry at even though they're really angry at someone else. Joyce needs Jonathan to make breakfast and get Will ready to school because Lonnie isn't there. Will is taking his feelings out on Jonathan because Joyce is being overbearing and anxious.

But Jonathan's still not the person they seek out. And you can see that play out with Nancy too, wanting to be seen but not always knowing how to step into frame.

fanfic that I like

the dismissive and often disdainful reaction to the absence of masculinity in will is but one example. will and will ONLY is ridiculed by the general audience for offenses a lot of us gay guys were picked on for, like swaying his hips, having a fagcent, being weepy, being noticeably more sensitive and demure than his straight friends in body language and personality. even the show, despite glaring missteps in the representation, celebrates him for who he is and notes that he should never have to change to belong in this world.

rather than following suit and celebrating who he is, people in the fandom seek to make him assimilate as an overcorrection for his visible queerness. can’t be TOO different! can’t be one of those stereotypical gays! that’s offensive! here’s my question— why EXACTLY are you offended? if you can’t pinpoint it, think it over a little longer before you speak. valuing reasoned opinion over reactionary ones is how you build a better place

being a flaming queer isn’t stereotypical. what’s stereotypical is how it’s handled. whether the gayness is respected and given life, or whether it’s used as spectacle, laughingstock, or bare minimum brownie points. example: will drag headcanons! will fans like it because it fits with wills clear enthusiasm for theatricality in a safe space, his love for color and costumes and art and campiness, his clear drive to be initiated into community activity, his creative spirit, his strong enjoyment of gender nonconforming artists like david bowie. if a straight homophobe said will would do drag solely because he’s gay THAT would be stereotypical, especially because they’d likely be saying it with intent to insult. does their mistaken belief make drag bad? no.

it breaks my heart to see us conceding to the standards of living that straight people have set. if you have a certain vision for will, or by extension for yourself, you should pursue it because it feels authentic. none of us should hunger for straight approval.

overtly unabashedly queer things (aka: anything beyond a subtle button on a jean jacket) are NOT embarrassing or overly excessive either. a lot of people DID build their lives around being queer and still do. to a lot of us, it’s not a tack-on adjective, but a personal identity, a social status, a way of seeing the world. in those days people created gay choirs, baseball leagues, bands, book clubs, hell probably DND groups too. they went to clubs and bars because it was a guarantee of finding likeminded people. it didn’t matter how unrelated their interests were to sexuality, the issue pervaded everything because they weren’t accepted anywhere else. and even if they were accepted, it was on the basis of conditional tolerance, which honestly feels degrading to accept when you can have actual belonging with your own community

so. before declaring any shade of effeminacy or digression from the norm as weak or insulting or pathetic, do a little reflecting. effeminate gay men are the strongest people i have ever met. they bravely walk outside the norm every single day with their mannerisms, personality, and physical expression, despite disrespect both inside and outside the community.