[INTRO MUSIC PLAYS]
ELENA: Hello and welcome back to Hoo’s at the Writing Center! I’m Elena,
KARISSA: I’m Karissa,
SARAH: I’m Sarah,
ALI: I’m Ali,
KIMBERLY: And I’m Kimberly!
KIMBERLY: Happy Pride Month Owletts! Um, we’re still trying to think of our fanbase name, so if you have any sort of idea, please let us know at wr[email protected], or just come up to us in person and tell us that we should have a fanbase. Because – because we’re trying so – and by “we” I mean “I” -- am trying desperately, so hard, to come up with a fanbase, ‘cause I think it’s fun! Um, but anyway. We at the HATWC Podcast have been looking forward to this month just because of what Pride Month symbolizes and embodies and what a great way to end the year then to end celebrating love?
ELENA: We do wanna recognize the hardships and obstacles the LGBTQ+ community has faced in history, but if even for a moment we can celebrate what pride means and shine light on the good as well, then we would be most honored to. With that being said, be sure to celebrate Pride month every month! And we’re going to go ahead with some fun history and then a little bit about our favorite LGBTQ+ anything -- literally anything.
KARISSA: So, starting off, we wanted to talk a little bit about the history of Pride Month, and this was taken from an article written by Brian Thompson, and the article’s called “The History Of Pride Month And What It Can Teach Us About Moving Forward Today,” and we will link it in the description. So, although LGBTQ+ activists have been organizing since as early as the 1920s, it was the Stonewall riots that took place in June of the year 1969 that served as a catalyst for the movement toward LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
SARAH: On the early morning of June 28th in 1969, eight NYPD officers raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence since cops could arrest or hospitalize people within the LGBTQ+ community during that time; however, those who were at the bar chose to fight back against the cops' raid. Marsha P. Johnson threw a shot glass into a mirror and shouted, “I got my civil rights,” encouraging others at the bar to join in the fight. Patrons from neighboring bars joined in fighting arrest, braking windows, and starting fires. The police officers eventually barricaded themselves inside the Stonewall Inn. Word spread quickly about the incident, and thousands of people returned to Stonewall to continue the protest that lasted six days.
ALI: The following year, on the anniversary of Stonewall, demonstrations took place in major cities across the nation, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Each of these demonstrations had different names, each encompassing gay freedom and liberation. These demonstrations had parades and celebrations promoting the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community.
KIMBERLY: Since these demonstrations in the 80s, Pride parades and celebrations have drawn crowds of more than a million people. For seven consecutive years, from 2009 to 2016, President Obama officially named the month of June LGBTQ+ Pride month. Despite the change in presidency, June has continued to be recognized and celebrated as Pride month as of 2016.
ELENA: So, we also wanted to go into the history and meaning of the flag, because the rainbow flag is – well, it’s everywhere around Capitol Hill, which was definitely a...change for me, when I came to Seattle and just saw it everywhere – a good change, um, but that was really cool to see. And, so some of the history of it, and this is taken from Curtis M. Wong’s “The History and Meaning of the Rainbow Pride Flag” which is probably a source we will link below.
So, the original rainbow pride flag was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a queer artist based in San Francisco. In his currently unpublished memoir—excerpts are featured on the Gilbert Baker Estate website—Baker wrote about the flag “I thought of the American flag with its thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, the colonies breaking away from England to form the United States. I thought of the vertical red, white, and blue tricolor from the French Revolution and how both flags owed their beginnings to a riot, a rebellion, or revolution. I thought a gay nation should have a flag too, to proclaim its own idea of power.”
SARAH: This original flag had eight colors: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. According to the Gilbert Baker Estate each color had a defined meaning: pink was for sex, red was for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, indigo for harmony, and the color violet was for spirit.
ALI: Baker purposefully never sought to copyright his design of the flag because he wanted everyone to be able to claim ownership over it. Because of this, the flag has been subject to change over the years. The best-known version of the flag was established in 1979 and is only six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple each still having a specific meaning. Red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony, and purple for spirit.
KIMBERLY: So, this is the part where we start talking about our favorite LGBTQ anything...
KARISSA: Um, so starting off – I recently just read the book Call Me By Your Name, and I’d seen the movie like, a few years ago, but I just read the book, and it was really, really good; I was actually kind of shocked, I don’t know why, I guess I just – that was the first really good, beautifully written book I’ve read in a really long time, and it was just – I was talking to one of my friends about it, ‘cause she had also read it around the same time I did, and I remember in our conversation, I kinda just said, like, “I wanna know what it feels like – what it like, genuinely feels like – to be in love with a person, like, in that way.” Just because the way it’s written about is just so beautifully intense, and descriptive, and just everything about it I was like, “Oh my gosh, I wanna know what that intensity feels like,” I just – I don’t know! Um, so yeah, it was just really...a really good read. And the movie, of course, really good; they both made me cry [Laughter] a lot, um, but yeah, no, I would recommend both of them! ‘Cause they’re both just so good. The book and the movie. I don’t think you can do just one; you have to do both. I don’t make the rules.
And then, the next one is a TV series; it’s called Killing Eve. Um, I believe it’s on Hulu. BBC did it, and I’ve been watching a lot of BBC recently, and everything – I just don’t think that they miss? I don’t know. But, yeah! And I was reading a little bit about it as well, um, because – the two main – well, one of the main characters, it openly discusses her sexuality; she’s a lesbian. And then the other main character, who is interested, and kinda like pursuing -- it’s an interesting dynamic, ‘cause she’s pursuing this person, because she’s a detective and the main character is like, a murderer, but there’s also like a romantic aspect to it, as well. Um, in some instances. So I was like, doing a little bit of research on that, and I thought it was really interesting because there were a lot of people who had written like opinion pieces or articles just kind of talking about the ways that it’s -- a lot of times in movies or TV series, there’s, um, queer women, but they disappear in the storyline shortly after they’re introduced, so they’re not like a super vital piece of the puzzler, or of the grander scheme of things within the film or the TV series, and a lot of people had praised this show for, um, putting queer female characters at the forefront of it, and making them kind of, like, the center of the story. Um, and there was a lot about how – it's just like a very, in this aspect as well, but just all around in the show – it’s a very like, complex and human thing, there’s a lot of – you watch the show and it’s, I feel one thing and then I feel another thing, and there – there's just, it’s just very complex, and I think that that illustrates life really well, because it’s easy to watch mainstream TV and be like, “Oh, this is the bad guy and this is the good guy,” but I think sometimes in this show, the lines are blurred a little bit, and like a lot of people were praising that first of all, and then like praising the fact that sexuality is openly discussed, and also that the main character, um, is a queer female. And, it’s also just like, an incredible TV show. I like, binged it I think in a week? So yeah, I’d also recommend that one.
And then next up is the Q Files which is a podcast and I just recently started listening to this well in like, within the … the last month, um, so, it’s the hosts Shane McClelland and Lori Gum, who are from the Queer Ghosthunters reality series, and they created this podcast and it kind of goes into a bunch of supernatural and, like, weird phenomenon. Just like, oddities, different stories—I think their most recent episode was like a weird like ghost story for Mother’s Day and then they also—Their most recent one I've got was about Chernobyl. Um, so they’ve just kinda like go over a lot of these instances, like, just kinda like tell the story, which I really like. It’s not so much like conversational, it’s just like telling you the story of these weird things that happen, which I really like just to have playing in the background all the time.
And then another podcast that is one of my favorite podcasts is The Bald and the Beautiful and it’s--The hosts are, uh, drag queens, Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamo. And they just—It's so chaotically hilarious and the quee—Those two queens are my favorite and just—The chemistry that they have with each other and like the back and forth is SO funny. And yeah, they just get really real, but also, they still have their same zany, like chaotic sense of humor about literally everything. Um, and yeah, it’s just like I love playing it in my apartment, it just fills the space and like, I’m always laughing. Um, and they also have a YouTube show called UNHhhh and that is also equally as funny, it’s basically like a shorter version of the podcast. Um, and they have like a bunch of YouTube series. They also do, like, a “[I Like to] Watch” thing with Netflix that I laugh every time ‘cause they’re...They’re just so funny. So, yeah, I would recommend literally all of those things for...Yeah, for everything. All the time, anytime, if you want a laugh, mainly. [Laughs] The Bald and the Beautiful. I’m obsessed with it. It's all I’ve been listening to, recently, so.
SARAH: Awesome! I will definitely check those out. Oh my gosh, The Bald and the Beautiful, what a good name. [Laughs] Like, that is awesome. I just decided to, like, list a bunch of like artists and TV shows and just, um, content in that way. So, some artists I would love for y’all to check out, um, Shea Diamond, Mitski, Jessie Reyez, Dodie, King Princess, Kehlani, Harry Styles, Janelle Monet, Lizzo, Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, um, all incredible creators and artists. Obviously, there is an infinite list, but I just thought I’d highlight those peoples.
Um, some authors that I really love, um, Gloria Anzaldua, Roxane Gay, Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, um, and I really love Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, I read the book in like a day—Love it, also [the book] made me cry. I like had to annotate it, like it was very weir—It was a very weird experience, like it’s a very poetic book because he’s a—He usually, um, writes poetry, but this is his first novel and just every line I really wanted to like remember it, just...Just so incredibly beautiful. I highly recommend that book.
I think, like, the first queer YA book that I was exposed to was Simon vs. The Homosapien Agenda by Becky Albertali and that was in 2015 and it...it got turned into a movie called Love, Simon, that was made in 2018, and I know those are fairly recent dates, but it just really shows the lack of representation that this community has in mainstream media, um, as Karissa was talking about earlier.
Um, another movie on Netflix—It's a Netflix original called The Half of It, incredible as well, highly recommend, such a cute movie. Some content creators are mainly comedians that I also wanted to shoutout, um, are Margaret Cho, Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang, Rhea Butcher, Billy Eichner, um, Jaboukie Young-White, Eugene Lee Yang, all incredible people, um, and also comedians. Um, and just some TV shows that have representation of the community, but unfortunately, I don’t think any of these like have “main main” characters, which is also just something to point out and something that we really need to work on as a society, but um, Jane the Virgin, Good Trouble, Sex Education, One Day at a Time, Atypical, Glee [Laughs] I was debating whether or not to put that one in there. [Laughs] But uh [Laughs] Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, The One, Grace and Frankie, Modern Family, and The Politician, and those are all—I want to say all mainly, um, on Netflix, but also on Hulu, I believe, as well.
ALI: Okay, so I’m like actively looking at all of my like streaming platforms and Spotify and trying to like figure out what I watch and consume and what I’m realizing is that I don’t know if that many things that I watch or like listened to are like overtly queer? Like, as like a queer-identifying person, I’m like, “Hm. What is it – what is it that I’ve like, watched and seen that’s also gay? I don’t even know!” Um, maybe that uh...maybe that says something about, uh, not only me but also our culture [Laughs].
Um, I – honestly, yeah, kinda keepin’ it short and sweet, I, um, Phoebe Bridgers is just my favorite musician right now; I’ve been listening to her pretty much nonstop. Um, she’s also in another band called boygenius, with Lucy Dacus and, um...Julien...no. Who’s in boygenius? Wait, one sec, I have to look it up. [Keyboard clicking] I know...oh! Julien Baker. Um – [Laughter] I’m a fake gay for not knowing that. But uh, anyway, I love them, they’re really powerful queer women who are doing just like, beautiful, beautiful work. I’ve also been listening, right now, I think I mentioned this on our last episode, but um, I’ve been listening to the TryPod, from the Try Guys, formerly of BuzzFeed, and they started their own company and then started this podcast, and they’re the funniest people ever! They make me laugh so much, because they’re just like, silly? And so, whenever I’m just like, kinda hangin’ out in my house, um, I like to listen to them; just kind of like, shootin’ it with each other; it’s really fun.
And then...like three shows on Netflix, just to quickly recommend, um, Derry Girls, so funny, uh, there is a queer like, plotline that ends up coming out I think in the second season – coming out, no pun intended, ha ha! -- uh, but it’s great, it’s so funny; it’s about a bunch of teenagers in Ireland, um, in the 90s? And then Schitt’s Creek, of course, I mean, it’s...that’s just also really heartwarming stuff. And then Pose is a show I have not seen yet – another tally in the Ali Shaw is a fake gay column – uh, because it’s SO GOOD, and from like everything that I’ve heard; everyone has recommended it a thousand times, but um, I have not yet delved in, so that is on my list. And Pose is kind of around, um...basically, like covers the New York drag ball scene. So it’s not like RuPaul’s Drag Race, where it’s like, you’re judged and you’re performing, but it’s more like, the ball scene is MUCH more like, ostentatious and dramatic, if you can even imagine that! So, anyway, that’s on my list; if you’re gonna watch, know that you’re watching with me, hopefully soon, after...after midterms and whatever are over...and yeah! That’s what I got. Oh, also! I need to piggyback on the, um, Ocean Vuong recommendation, because On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is...I think one of the most beautiful books ever written. Um, so...yeah! Enjoy!
KIMBERLY: So, one of the things that we at the Hoo’s At The Writing Center podcast have talked about in previous episodes is our love for Moonlight, directed by Barry Jenkins. Uh, it follows the story of Chiron, and hopefully I’m remembering the pronunciation right and if not, I will correct myself, um, and his life as a – both as a Black individual and also as a gay man. And it’s completely...it tears at your heartstrings; it makes you scream and shout and...it’s just the coming of age story that I think sets itself so differently from all the other ones that we watch and I highly recommend it. It has a lot of – there is a lot of content that might be a little...triggering for others, or um content that might be too mature for you, so please, I recommend watching at your own discretion.
Um, I also wanna talk about Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, which is not technically a film as I put down; it’s actually more of a...not even documentary; it’s like a stand-up hour, you know when like, they give John Mulaney or Ali Wong an hour on Netflix to do their standup routine? It’s basically that, but it’s more of a storytelling aspect, and Hannah Gadsby talks about her...sort of identity as a queer woman, and – she's Australian, so it’s really great to get it from a different perspective – to get it from a different perspective in a country that we do not outright know what their policy is regarding the LGBTQ community. I highly recommend it. She’s also incredibly funny, but also really real about the situations.
So, another thing that I also wanted to include, because I recognize that I haven’t watched a lot of LGBTQ+ films. Like, that is just my thing, and that’s my issue, but I do listen to a lot of music artists, and we will be including a playlist, uh, of music artists from the LGBTQ+ community, or songs that, you know, speak true to that community. So, artists that I really love and adore: Mary Lambert, her song “She Keeps Me Warm” from Macklemore’s first, initial song...which, I can’t even remember the name of! Why is my memory blanking so bad? Anyway, Mary Lambert, the artist featured in that song, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, created her own...track called “She Keeps Me Warm,” and it is one of the first songs that I felt personally...comforted by, and probably made me cry. It was one of the first songs that introduced me to...a queer artist writing about a woman. In a more mainstream platform. So I highly recommend her.
Hayley Kiyoko, I literally—what is the terminology—worship the ground she walks on. She really is an idol for me, and I hope to embody the confidence and the... just everything about her. Enough said. And, of course, what kind of person would I be if I didn’t include Lil Nas X, because he’s amazing and such a trailblazer in our generation, especially because he is around our age. If you don’t know who he is, I’m sorry not to get political, but you’ve been under a rock.
Anyway [laughs]. Another artist that I’ve also been really into lately, his name is JORDY. J-O-R-D-Y it’s all in capitals. Um, he writes a lot of songs about long distance relationships and you know anxiety, and just like the things that I personally connected to, and so listen to a couple of his tracks and you’ll get a feel of what his other songs are about. Then of course we have Sam Smith and Ben Platt, both are amazing, queer artists who have written love songs that I’ve been listening to since, god knows how long, I mean we-- theatre lovers our there know Ben Platt form Dear Evan Hanson and now he has his own music career, which is really amazing and lovely and we listen to his music. I use the royal we in that sentence. I’m not speaking on behalf of the Hoo’s at the Writing Center podcast. Then I have a little section, because I don’t watch a lot of TV and film and all that stuff, and that something I’m working on catching up on, I wanna include two things that my partner has personally... can vague for in terms of LGBTQ books or TV series. So the first one is obviously Schitt’s Creek. If anyone knows, I think his names is Dan Levy? Anyway, Schitt’s Creek is a show that features our wonderful Dan Levy, Levi? Lavy? Anyway, Schitt’s Creek, TV series, go watch it. And then we have our first book that I’m introducing in this section of the podcast, is Red, White, and Royal Blue, which sort of follows the royal meets non-royal kind of storyline. It’s very cute, very sweet, very wholesome. It’s a very cute love story, it’s very—goes against the traditional sort of Disney romance stories that we’ve been so accustomed to, and I highly recommend those. And by I, I mean my partner.
And, that’s really about it. Elena, why don’t you pull out your whole discography of LGBTQ+ books? [Laughs]
ELENA: [Laughs]
KIMBERLY: Because you know you’ve got it!
ELENA: So, here’s the funny thing, is that the first two books on this list and the reason why I haven’t been able to watch a lot of the movies and fun media on this list—not that these aren’t fun media—uh, the first two books on this list are my thesis books, which means I can’t reread these for fun for like at least another year [laughs], because I’ve spent too long with them at this point. But they’re very good books. If you’re not writing a thesis on them, I definitely recommend them. The books are Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. They’re about lesbian necromancers in space, which I feel like is all that needs to be said about those. They’re epic fantasy, so they’re pretty chunky, but they’re very fun reads, and I think the third book is coming out next year, or something like that.
Also I remembered the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song. It’s Same Love [laughs] so--
KIMBERLY: You would think—I was like is it Love is Love? Is it—that's really it--
ELENA: Two words [laughs]
KIMBERLY: That’s really the only title [laughs] the only title I could think of. Anyway Same Love feature Mary Lambert--
ELENA: Yes.
KIMBERLY: Who then created her own track called She Keeps me Warm which includes the bridge of that song?
ELENA: Sure.
KIMBERLY: The chorus, bridge?
ELENA: The bridge chorus.
KIMBERLY: I think it’s both. Bridge, chorus there’s-- I’m so sorry music majors everywhere. The chorus and the bridge, I think it’s both of them that she sung on that song, into her own track. Same Love Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Thank you, Elena.
ELENA: This is important lore [laughs]. Anyway, another book that I actually haven’t finished, it’s been sitting on my shelf so, you know, while I’m very glad that you think that I [chuckles] am very good about reading all these gay books, obviously it’s just been sitting there, I read the first two chapters of it. It is really good so far, it’s called Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, and it’s about—the premise is—it's about a Latinx family and this kid who is trans and is trying to prove his masculinity by proving to his family that he’s a witch, and he accidentally summons a ghost, a cute ghost who doesn’t leave. And that’s the book, and it's really wholesome. You think it’s gonna be sad and then it’s not, it’s actually very happy and great, so would recommend.
And I also have some podcasts to recommend. Dames & Dragons is a D&D podcast. IT’s just—it's genuinely hilarious. I think they’re all like friends in real life, and you can tell, so it’s just like a bunch of friends hanging out, being ridiculous and playing Dungeons and Dragons. And the other two are queer horror podcasts. The Magnus Archives is most of the characters are LGBTQ+ and it’s also very scary [chuckles]. Old Gods of Appalachia also has queer creators and some of the main characters are queer witches, who are the good guys actually [laughs]. It includes a lot of history of race relations and racism in Appalachia, plus a lot of stuff about environmentalism and critiques of capitalism and industrialization. So, there’s a lot in that one.
Another one is an Eisner nominated webcomic, it’s free to read online, but I think you can also get like physical copies of it. It’s called Tiger, Tiger. The art is really great, and the general premise of it is girl wants to study sea sponges in the ocean, so she dresses in drag as her brother to be the captain of his ship and ends up falling in love with like this eldritch sea mermaid creature. It’s pretty great.
KIMBERLY: As she should. As she should.
ELENA: Yep! They’re happy together it’s a good time.
And my last two recommendations are Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is literally just two hours of like historical, period drama, lesbian yearning. It’s pretty great. It’s-- I’m not a film major but it’s very beautifully [laughs] beautifully shot. A good aesthetic experience, if you will. And lastly, another queer book The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers, which is a queer sci-fi series. It just has super cool takes on sci-fi diversity in general, I think sci-fi is kind of a—can be a pretty bland genre given whom it is associated with [laughs].
KIMBERLY: Controversial topic!
ELENA: It’s really not [laughs], but yeah, it’s not another sci-fi book written by a straight, white dude with like the same rehashed like aliens and alien worlds, so she has a lot of really cool stuff there. And a new book just came out, I think! I think it’s the fourth book in the series, and they’re like pretty quick reads. They’re no Gideon and Harrow the Ninth, they’re pretty quick, fun reads, so...
KIMBERLY: They’re not books that you wanna include in your thesis that you have to wait a year to enjoy them?
ELENA: [Laughs] I truly wish I had written my thesis... no [laughs] I don’t wanna bash Gideon and Harrow, they’re both really good books, but I’ve spent a lot of time with them [laughs].
KIMBERLY: I wanted to also say [laughs] disclaimer to Karissa and Karissa only: we do not—we are not actively hating on Star Wars. That is all [laughs].
ELENA: Oh no, Star Wars has some good stuff going for it, but--
KIMBERLY: That’s good, I figured like sci-fi, like the first thing that came to my mind was--
ELENA: I was talking about sci-fi books, specifically.
KIMBERLY: Ohhhhh!
ELENA: ‘Cause that’s--
KIMBERLY: That is fair.
ELENA: Yeahhhhh. That could be a whole other episode, but it’s not this one [laughs]
KIMBERLY: Yeah. Queer sci-fi is better. In conclusion queer sci-fi...
ELENA: In conclusion: queer sci-fi, better actually [laughs].
KIMBERLY: Queer sci-fi and then like greater than symbol like a bunch of times and then everything else, so that’s that.
ELENA: Mhmm. Correct.
KIMBERLY: We don’t hate Star Wars; we don’t hate Star Wars!
KARISSA: We, of course, here at the Writing Center, want to emphasize that our space and community is always welcoming to everyone regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, expression, and what have you! We see each and every one of you and want to say, “Hey, you’re doing great!”
SARAH: We’ve also included a link in the description to a pride month Spotify playlist we created, as a Writing Center, highlighting some of the artists and podcast that we mentioned within the episode!
Also check the description for links to the resources we used at the beginning of the episode.
ALI: Be sure to check out our second episode of the HATWC Podcast where we talk about the Art of Arguing and give Oscar worthy performances exemplifying said fallacies! If you have episode ideas that you would like to see on Hoo’s at the Writing Center sometime soon, click the link in our description below for a Microsoft Form where we would love to get more information from you and make more content that you guys will love!
KIMBERLY: Additionally, check out our Writing Center blog for transcribed versions of episodes and for posts by our Writing Center Staff! Read posts like “Outlining: Finding What Works For You” by Maddy Corteway, one of our own Hoo’s at the Writing Center podcast members, or “An Unfamiliar Normal: A Reflection on Our Return to ‘Normalcy’” by James Gamboa!
ELENA: You can also follow our social media! @suwritingcenter on Instagram, Seattle U Writing Center on Facebook, and @writingcentersu on Twitter!
KIMBERLY: With that, stay safe, take care of one another, and this has been another episode of--
ALL: Hoo’s at the Writing Center!
[OUTRO MUSIC]
ELENA: Hello and welcome back to Hoo’s at the Writing Center! I’m Elena,
KARISSA: I’m Karissa,
SARAH: I’m Sarah,
ALI: I’m Ali,
KIMBERLY: And I’m Kimberly!
KIMBERLY: Happy Pride Month Owletts! Um, we’re still trying to think of our fanbase name, so if you have any sort of idea, please let us know at wr[email protected], or just come up to us in person and tell us that we should have a fanbase. Because – because we’re trying so – and by “we” I mean “I” -- am trying desperately, so hard, to come up with a fanbase, ‘cause I think it’s fun! Um, but anyway. We at the HATWC Podcast have been looking forward to this month just because of what Pride Month symbolizes and embodies and what a great way to end the year then to end celebrating love?
ELENA: We do wanna recognize the hardships and obstacles the LGBTQ+ community has faced in history, but if even for a moment we can celebrate what pride means and shine light on the good as well, then we would be most honored to. With that being said, be sure to celebrate Pride month every month! And we’re going to go ahead with some fun history and then a little bit about our favorite LGBTQ+ anything -- literally anything.
KARISSA: So, starting off, we wanted to talk a little bit about the history of Pride Month, and this was taken from an article written by Brian Thompson, and the article’s called “The History Of Pride Month And What It Can Teach Us About Moving Forward Today,” and we will link it in the description. So, although LGBTQ+ activists have been organizing since as early as the 1920s, it was the Stonewall riots that took place in June of the year 1969 that served as a catalyst for the movement toward LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
SARAH: On the early morning of June 28th in 1969, eight NYPD officers raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence since cops could arrest or hospitalize people within the LGBTQ+ community during that time; however, those who were at the bar chose to fight back against the cops' raid. Marsha P. Johnson threw a shot glass into a mirror and shouted, “I got my civil rights,” encouraging others at the bar to join in the fight. Patrons from neighboring bars joined in fighting arrest, braking windows, and starting fires. The police officers eventually barricaded themselves inside the Stonewall Inn. Word spread quickly about the incident, and thousands of people returned to Stonewall to continue the protest that lasted six days.
ALI: The following year, on the anniversary of Stonewall, demonstrations took place in major cities across the nation, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Each of these demonstrations had different names, each encompassing gay freedom and liberation. These demonstrations had parades and celebrations promoting the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community.
KIMBERLY: Since these demonstrations in the 80s, Pride parades and celebrations have drawn crowds of more than a million people. For seven consecutive years, from 2009 to 2016, President Obama officially named the month of June LGBTQ+ Pride month. Despite the change in presidency, June has continued to be recognized and celebrated as Pride month as of 2016.
ELENA: So, we also wanted to go into the history and meaning of the flag, because the rainbow flag is – well, it’s everywhere around Capitol Hill, which was definitely a...change for me, when I came to Seattle and just saw it everywhere – a good change, um, but that was really cool to see. And, so some of the history of it, and this is taken from Curtis M. Wong’s “The History and Meaning of the Rainbow Pride Flag” which is probably a source we will link below.
So, the original rainbow pride flag was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a queer artist based in San Francisco. In his currently unpublished memoir—excerpts are featured on the Gilbert Baker Estate website—Baker wrote about the flag “I thought of the American flag with its thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, the colonies breaking away from England to form the United States. I thought of the vertical red, white, and blue tricolor from the French Revolution and how both flags owed their beginnings to a riot, a rebellion, or revolution. I thought a gay nation should have a flag too, to proclaim its own idea of power.”
SARAH: This original flag had eight colors: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. According to the Gilbert Baker Estate each color had a defined meaning: pink was for sex, red was for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, indigo for harmony, and the color violet was for spirit.
ALI: Baker purposefully never sought to copyright his design of the flag because he wanted everyone to be able to claim ownership over it. Because of this, the flag has been subject to change over the years. The best-known version of the flag was established in 1979 and is only six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple each still having a specific meaning. Red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony, and purple for spirit.
KIMBERLY: So, this is the part where we start talking about our favorite LGBTQ anything...
KARISSA: Um, so starting off – I recently just read the book Call Me By Your Name, and I’d seen the movie like, a few years ago, but I just read the book, and it was really, really good; I was actually kind of shocked, I don’t know why, I guess I just – that was the first really good, beautifully written book I’ve read in a really long time, and it was just – I was talking to one of my friends about it, ‘cause she had also read it around the same time I did, and I remember in our conversation, I kinda just said, like, “I wanna know what it feels like – what it like, genuinely feels like – to be in love with a person, like, in that way.” Just because the way it’s written about is just so beautifully intense, and descriptive, and just everything about it I was like, “Oh my gosh, I wanna know what that intensity feels like,” I just – I don’t know! Um, so yeah, it was just really...a really good read. And the movie, of course, really good; they both made me cry [Laughter] a lot, um, but yeah, no, I would recommend both of them! ‘Cause they’re both just so good. The book and the movie. I don’t think you can do just one; you have to do both. I don’t make the rules.
And then, the next one is a TV series; it’s called Killing Eve. Um, I believe it’s on Hulu. BBC did it, and I’ve been watching a lot of BBC recently, and everything – I just don’t think that they miss? I don’t know. But, yeah! And I was reading a little bit about it as well, um, because – the two main – well, one of the main characters, it openly discusses her sexuality; she’s a lesbian. And then the other main character, who is interested, and kinda like pursuing -- it’s an interesting dynamic, ‘cause she’s pursuing this person, because she’s a detective and the main character is like, a murderer, but there’s also like a romantic aspect to it, as well. Um, in some instances. So I was like, doing a little bit of research on that, and I thought it was really interesting because there were a lot of people who had written like opinion pieces or articles just kind of talking about the ways that it’s -- a lot of times in movies or TV series, there’s, um, queer women, but they disappear in the storyline shortly after they’re introduced, so they’re not like a super vital piece of the puzzler, or of the grander scheme of things within the film or the TV series, and a lot of people had praised this show for, um, putting queer female characters at the forefront of it, and making them kind of, like, the center of the story. Um, and there was a lot about how – it's just like a very, in this aspect as well, but just all around in the show – it’s a very like, complex and human thing, there’s a lot of – you watch the show and it’s, I feel one thing and then I feel another thing, and there – there's just, it’s just very complex, and I think that that illustrates life really well, because it’s easy to watch mainstream TV and be like, “Oh, this is the bad guy and this is the good guy,” but I think sometimes in this show, the lines are blurred a little bit, and like a lot of people were praising that first of all, and then like praising the fact that sexuality is openly discussed, and also that the main character, um, is a queer female. And, it’s also just like, an incredible TV show. I like, binged it I think in a week? So yeah, I’d also recommend that one.
And then next up is the Q Files which is a podcast and I just recently started listening to this well in like, within the … the last month, um, so, it’s the hosts Shane McClelland and Lori Gum, who are from the Queer Ghosthunters reality series, and they created this podcast and it kind of goes into a bunch of supernatural and, like, weird phenomenon. Just like, oddities, different stories—I think their most recent episode was like a weird like ghost story for Mother’s Day and then they also—Their most recent one I've got was about Chernobyl. Um, so they’ve just kinda like go over a lot of these instances, like, just kinda like tell the story, which I really like. It’s not so much like conversational, it’s just like telling you the story of these weird things that happen, which I really like just to have playing in the background all the time.
And then another podcast that is one of my favorite podcasts is The Bald and the Beautiful and it’s--The hosts are, uh, drag queens, Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamo. And they just—It's so chaotically hilarious and the quee—Those two queens are my favorite and just—The chemistry that they have with each other and like the back and forth is SO funny. And yeah, they just get really real, but also, they still have their same zany, like chaotic sense of humor about literally everything. Um, and yeah, it’s just like I love playing it in my apartment, it just fills the space and like, I’m always laughing. Um, and they also have a YouTube show called UNHhhh and that is also equally as funny, it’s basically like a shorter version of the podcast. Um, and they have like a bunch of YouTube series. They also do, like, a “[I Like to] Watch” thing with Netflix that I laugh every time ‘cause they’re...They’re just so funny. So, yeah, I would recommend literally all of those things for...Yeah, for everything. All the time, anytime, if you want a laugh, mainly. [Laughs] The Bald and the Beautiful. I’m obsessed with it. It's all I’ve been listening to, recently, so.
SARAH: Awesome! I will definitely check those out. Oh my gosh, The Bald and the Beautiful, what a good name. [Laughs] Like, that is awesome. I just decided to, like, list a bunch of like artists and TV shows and just, um, content in that way. So, some artists I would love for y’all to check out, um, Shea Diamond, Mitski, Jessie Reyez, Dodie, King Princess, Kehlani, Harry Styles, Janelle Monet, Lizzo, Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, um, all incredible creators and artists. Obviously, there is an infinite list, but I just thought I’d highlight those peoples.
Um, some authors that I really love, um, Gloria Anzaldua, Roxane Gay, Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, um, and I really love Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, I read the book in like a day—Love it, also [the book] made me cry. I like had to annotate it, like it was very weir—It was a very weird experience, like it’s a very poetic book because he’s a—He usually, um, writes poetry, but this is his first novel and just every line I really wanted to like remember it, just...Just so incredibly beautiful. I highly recommend that book.
I think, like, the first queer YA book that I was exposed to was Simon vs. The Homosapien Agenda by Becky Albertali and that was in 2015 and it...it got turned into a movie called Love, Simon, that was made in 2018, and I know those are fairly recent dates, but it just really shows the lack of representation that this community has in mainstream media, um, as Karissa was talking about earlier.
Um, another movie on Netflix—It's a Netflix original called The Half of It, incredible as well, highly recommend, such a cute movie. Some content creators are mainly comedians that I also wanted to shoutout, um, are Margaret Cho, Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang, Rhea Butcher, Billy Eichner, um, Jaboukie Young-White, Eugene Lee Yang, all incredible people, um, and also comedians. Um, and just some TV shows that have representation of the community, but unfortunately, I don’t think any of these like have “main main” characters, which is also just something to point out and something that we really need to work on as a society, but um, Jane the Virgin, Good Trouble, Sex Education, One Day at a Time, Atypical, Glee [Laughs] I was debating whether or not to put that one in there. [Laughs] But uh [Laughs] Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, The One, Grace and Frankie, Modern Family, and The Politician, and those are all—I want to say all mainly, um, on Netflix, but also on Hulu, I believe, as well.
ALI: Okay, so I’m like actively looking at all of my like streaming platforms and Spotify and trying to like figure out what I watch and consume and what I’m realizing is that I don’t know if that many things that I watch or like listened to are like overtly queer? Like, as like a queer-identifying person, I’m like, “Hm. What is it – what is it that I’ve like, watched and seen that’s also gay? I don’t even know!” Um, maybe that uh...maybe that says something about, uh, not only me but also our culture [Laughs].
Um, I – honestly, yeah, kinda keepin’ it short and sweet, I, um, Phoebe Bridgers is just my favorite musician right now; I’ve been listening to her pretty much nonstop. Um, she’s also in another band called boygenius, with Lucy Dacus and, um...Julien...no. Who’s in boygenius? Wait, one sec, I have to look it up. [Keyboard clicking] I know...oh! Julien Baker. Um – [Laughter] I’m a fake gay for not knowing that. But uh, anyway, I love them, they’re really powerful queer women who are doing just like, beautiful, beautiful work. I’ve also been listening, right now, I think I mentioned this on our last episode, but um, I’ve been listening to the TryPod, from the Try Guys, formerly of BuzzFeed, and they started their own company and then started this podcast, and they’re the funniest people ever! They make me laugh so much, because they’re just like, silly? And so, whenever I’m just like, kinda hangin’ out in my house, um, I like to listen to them; just kind of like, shootin’ it with each other; it’s really fun.
And then...like three shows on Netflix, just to quickly recommend, um, Derry Girls, so funny, uh, there is a queer like, plotline that ends up coming out I think in the second season – coming out, no pun intended, ha ha! -- uh, but it’s great, it’s so funny; it’s about a bunch of teenagers in Ireland, um, in the 90s? And then Schitt’s Creek, of course, I mean, it’s...that’s just also really heartwarming stuff. And then Pose is a show I have not seen yet – another tally in the Ali Shaw is a fake gay column – uh, because it’s SO GOOD, and from like everything that I’ve heard; everyone has recommended it a thousand times, but um, I have not yet delved in, so that is on my list. And Pose is kind of around, um...basically, like covers the New York drag ball scene. So it’s not like RuPaul’s Drag Race, where it’s like, you’re judged and you’re performing, but it’s more like, the ball scene is MUCH more like, ostentatious and dramatic, if you can even imagine that! So, anyway, that’s on my list; if you’re gonna watch, know that you’re watching with me, hopefully soon, after...after midterms and whatever are over...and yeah! That’s what I got. Oh, also! I need to piggyback on the, um, Ocean Vuong recommendation, because On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is...I think one of the most beautiful books ever written. Um, so...yeah! Enjoy!
KIMBERLY: So, one of the things that we at the Hoo’s At The Writing Center podcast have talked about in previous episodes is our love for Moonlight, directed by Barry Jenkins. Uh, it follows the story of Chiron, and hopefully I’m remembering the pronunciation right and if not, I will correct myself, um, and his life as a – both as a Black individual and also as a gay man. And it’s completely...it tears at your heartstrings; it makes you scream and shout and...it’s just the coming of age story that I think sets itself so differently from all the other ones that we watch and I highly recommend it. It has a lot of – there is a lot of content that might be a little...triggering for others, or um content that might be too mature for you, so please, I recommend watching at your own discretion.
Um, I also wanna talk about Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, which is not technically a film as I put down; it’s actually more of a...not even documentary; it’s like a stand-up hour, you know when like, they give John Mulaney or Ali Wong an hour on Netflix to do their standup routine? It’s basically that, but it’s more of a storytelling aspect, and Hannah Gadsby talks about her...sort of identity as a queer woman, and – she's Australian, so it’s really great to get it from a different perspective – to get it from a different perspective in a country that we do not outright know what their policy is regarding the LGBTQ community. I highly recommend it. She’s also incredibly funny, but also really real about the situations.
So, another thing that I also wanted to include, because I recognize that I haven’t watched a lot of LGBTQ+ films. Like, that is just my thing, and that’s my issue, but I do listen to a lot of music artists, and we will be including a playlist, uh, of music artists from the LGBTQ+ community, or songs that, you know, speak true to that community. So, artists that I really love and adore: Mary Lambert, her song “She Keeps Me Warm” from Macklemore’s first, initial song...which, I can’t even remember the name of! Why is my memory blanking so bad? Anyway, Mary Lambert, the artist featured in that song, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, created her own...track called “She Keeps Me Warm,” and it is one of the first songs that I felt personally...comforted by, and probably made me cry. It was one of the first songs that introduced me to...a queer artist writing about a woman. In a more mainstream platform. So I highly recommend her.
Hayley Kiyoko, I literally—what is the terminology—worship the ground she walks on. She really is an idol for me, and I hope to embody the confidence and the... just everything about her. Enough said. And, of course, what kind of person would I be if I didn’t include Lil Nas X, because he’s amazing and such a trailblazer in our generation, especially because he is around our age. If you don’t know who he is, I’m sorry not to get political, but you’ve been under a rock.
Anyway [laughs]. Another artist that I’ve also been really into lately, his name is JORDY. J-O-R-D-Y it’s all in capitals. Um, he writes a lot of songs about long distance relationships and you know anxiety, and just like the things that I personally connected to, and so listen to a couple of his tracks and you’ll get a feel of what his other songs are about. Then of course we have Sam Smith and Ben Platt, both are amazing, queer artists who have written love songs that I’ve been listening to since, god knows how long, I mean we-- theatre lovers our there know Ben Platt form Dear Evan Hanson and now he has his own music career, which is really amazing and lovely and we listen to his music. I use the royal we in that sentence. I’m not speaking on behalf of the Hoo’s at the Writing Center podcast. Then I have a little section, because I don’t watch a lot of TV and film and all that stuff, and that something I’m working on catching up on, I wanna include two things that my partner has personally... can vague for in terms of LGBTQ books or TV series. So the first one is obviously Schitt’s Creek. If anyone knows, I think his names is Dan Levy? Anyway, Schitt’s Creek is a show that features our wonderful Dan Levy, Levi? Lavy? Anyway, Schitt’s Creek, TV series, go watch it. And then we have our first book that I’m introducing in this section of the podcast, is Red, White, and Royal Blue, which sort of follows the royal meets non-royal kind of storyline. It’s very cute, very sweet, very wholesome. It’s a very cute love story, it’s very—goes against the traditional sort of Disney romance stories that we’ve been so accustomed to, and I highly recommend those. And by I, I mean my partner.
And, that’s really about it. Elena, why don’t you pull out your whole discography of LGBTQ+ books? [Laughs]
ELENA: [Laughs]
KIMBERLY: Because you know you’ve got it!
ELENA: So, here’s the funny thing, is that the first two books on this list and the reason why I haven’t been able to watch a lot of the movies and fun media on this list—not that these aren’t fun media—uh, the first two books on this list are my thesis books, which means I can’t reread these for fun for like at least another year [laughs], because I’ve spent too long with them at this point. But they’re very good books. If you’re not writing a thesis on them, I definitely recommend them. The books are Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. They’re about lesbian necromancers in space, which I feel like is all that needs to be said about those. They’re epic fantasy, so they’re pretty chunky, but they’re very fun reads, and I think the third book is coming out next year, or something like that.
Also I remembered the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song. It’s Same Love [laughs] so--
KIMBERLY: You would think—I was like is it Love is Love? Is it—that's really it--
ELENA: Two words [laughs]
KIMBERLY: That’s really the only title [laughs] the only title I could think of. Anyway Same Love feature Mary Lambert--
ELENA: Yes.
KIMBERLY: Who then created her own track called She Keeps me Warm which includes the bridge of that song?
ELENA: Sure.
KIMBERLY: The chorus, bridge?
ELENA: The bridge chorus.
KIMBERLY: I think it’s both. Bridge, chorus there’s-- I’m so sorry music majors everywhere. The chorus and the bridge, I think it’s both of them that she sung on that song, into her own track. Same Love Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Thank you, Elena.
ELENA: This is important lore [laughs]. Anyway, another book that I actually haven’t finished, it’s been sitting on my shelf so, you know, while I’m very glad that you think that I [chuckles] am very good about reading all these gay books, obviously it’s just been sitting there, I read the first two chapters of it. It is really good so far, it’s called Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, and it’s about—the premise is—it's about a Latinx family and this kid who is trans and is trying to prove his masculinity by proving to his family that he’s a witch, and he accidentally summons a ghost, a cute ghost who doesn’t leave. And that’s the book, and it's really wholesome. You think it’s gonna be sad and then it’s not, it’s actually very happy and great, so would recommend.
And I also have some podcasts to recommend. Dames & Dragons is a D&D podcast. IT’s just—it's genuinely hilarious. I think they’re all like friends in real life, and you can tell, so it’s just like a bunch of friends hanging out, being ridiculous and playing Dungeons and Dragons. And the other two are queer horror podcasts. The Magnus Archives is most of the characters are LGBTQ+ and it’s also very scary [chuckles]. Old Gods of Appalachia also has queer creators and some of the main characters are queer witches, who are the good guys actually [laughs]. It includes a lot of history of race relations and racism in Appalachia, plus a lot of stuff about environmentalism and critiques of capitalism and industrialization. So, there’s a lot in that one.
Another one is an Eisner nominated webcomic, it’s free to read online, but I think you can also get like physical copies of it. It’s called Tiger, Tiger. The art is really great, and the general premise of it is girl wants to study sea sponges in the ocean, so she dresses in drag as her brother to be the captain of his ship and ends up falling in love with like this eldritch sea mermaid creature. It’s pretty great.
KIMBERLY: As she should. As she should.
ELENA: Yep! They’re happy together it’s a good time.
And my last two recommendations are Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is literally just two hours of like historical, period drama, lesbian yearning. It’s pretty great. It’s-- I’m not a film major but it’s very beautifully [laughs] beautifully shot. A good aesthetic experience, if you will. And lastly, another queer book The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers, which is a queer sci-fi series. It just has super cool takes on sci-fi diversity in general, I think sci-fi is kind of a—can be a pretty bland genre given whom it is associated with [laughs].
KIMBERLY: Controversial topic!
ELENA: It’s really not [laughs], but yeah, it’s not another sci-fi book written by a straight, white dude with like the same rehashed like aliens and alien worlds, so she has a lot of really cool stuff there. And a new book just came out, I think! I think it’s the fourth book in the series, and they’re like pretty quick reads. They’re no Gideon and Harrow the Ninth, they’re pretty quick, fun reads, so...
KIMBERLY: They’re not books that you wanna include in your thesis that you have to wait a year to enjoy them?
ELENA: [Laughs] I truly wish I had written my thesis... no [laughs] I don’t wanna bash Gideon and Harrow, they’re both really good books, but I’ve spent a lot of time with them [laughs].
KIMBERLY: I wanted to also say [laughs] disclaimer to Karissa and Karissa only: we do not—we are not actively hating on Star Wars. That is all [laughs].
ELENA: Oh no, Star Wars has some good stuff going for it, but--
KIMBERLY: That’s good, I figured like sci-fi, like the first thing that came to my mind was--
ELENA: I was talking about sci-fi books, specifically.
KIMBERLY: Ohhhhh!
ELENA: ‘Cause that’s--
KIMBERLY: That is fair.
ELENA: Yeahhhhh. That could be a whole other episode, but it’s not this one [laughs]
KIMBERLY: Yeah. Queer sci-fi is better. In conclusion queer sci-fi...
ELENA: In conclusion: queer sci-fi, better actually [laughs].
KIMBERLY: Queer sci-fi and then like greater than symbol like a bunch of times and then everything else, so that’s that.
ELENA: Mhmm. Correct.
KIMBERLY: We don’t hate Star Wars; we don’t hate Star Wars!
KARISSA: We, of course, here at the Writing Center, want to emphasize that our space and community is always welcoming to everyone regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, expression, and what have you! We see each and every one of you and want to say, “Hey, you’re doing great!”
SARAH: We’ve also included a link in the description to a pride month Spotify playlist we created, as a Writing Center, highlighting some of the artists and podcast that we mentioned within the episode!
Also check the description for links to the resources we used at the beginning of the episode.
ALI: Be sure to check out our second episode of the HATWC Podcast where we talk about the Art of Arguing and give Oscar worthy performances exemplifying said fallacies! If you have episode ideas that you would like to see on Hoo’s at the Writing Center sometime soon, click the link in our description below for a Microsoft Form where we would love to get more information from you and make more content that you guys will love!
KIMBERLY: Additionally, check out our Writing Center blog for transcribed versions of episodes and for posts by our Writing Center Staff! Read posts like “Outlining: Finding What Works For You” by Maddy Corteway, one of our own Hoo’s at the Writing Center podcast members, or “An Unfamiliar Normal: A Reflection on Our Return to ‘Normalcy’” by James Gamboa!
ELENA: You can also follow our social media! @suwritingcenter on Instagram, Seattle U Writing Center on Facebook, and @writingcentersu on Twitter!
KIMBERLY: With that, stay safe, take care of one another, and this has been another episode of--
ALL: Hoo’s at the Writing Center!
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