Pop Culture Fix: Hayley Kiyoko’s Big Win, Courtney Act’s Bisexual Dating Series, a Queer Rom-Com Renaissance and More!

Welcome to your weekly pop culture fix, a tin of earthly delights sold to you by the Boi Scouts and delivered by me.


+ Hayley Kiyoko won “Push: Artist of the Year” at the MTV Music Video Awards on Monday night and dedicated it to all queer women of color and then screamed WE DID IT TWENTY GAY TEEN!!!! It was really gay and really great. She also performed “Curious” and although she did not win Best New Artist, she did ALMOST win Best New Artist and was the first out lesbian ever nominated for a Best New Artist Award.

+ From Vogue Magazine: Fresh Off Her VMAs Win, Hayley Kiyoko Shares a Photo Diary of Her Big Night.

+ Drag queen Courtney Act will host a U.K. dating series that “will focus on a group of bisexual, pansexual, and sexually fluid single British people who are on the “ultimate adventure to find love.” It will be called “The Bi Life” and I imagine will inevitably be better than cult classic A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila or its follow up program, A Shot at Love With The Ikki Twins. Sidenote; who remembers Dani Campbell.

+ LENA WAITHE INTERVIEWED JANELLE MONAE FOR THE DIGITAL COVER OF HYPEBEAST MAGAZINE AND IT’S GREAT! As Natalie said, “I have been dreaming of this conversation since Dirty Computer dropped.”

LW Pansexual was the number one Merriam-Webster word the day the news broke about you coming out. What was that like? 

JM That is amazing. I found out about that. I never would have thought or guessed that. It’s great that people are being educated. This was a very personal story that was not necessarily just about me but it was about a community of folks who have been pushed to the margins of society. You know like I know, our stories are being erased. They’re not being told.People don’t realize that being free, being a free ass motherfucker, comes with sacrifice. This is not a walk in the park accomplishment. You know that. It comes with sacrifice. It can come with stress. It can come with a lot of misunderstanding. It comes with responsibility.

+ AMEN: it’s time for a queer rom-com renaissance

+ Amandla Stenberg Breaks Down the Importance of King Princess’s “Talia” Video

+ Russell T Davies Writes New Channel 4 Drama About The 1980s AIDS Crisis

+ Anna Torv on her character’s sexual orientation in Mindhunter:

“I loved that it was not spoken and I loved that the only little mention of it you get is when she’s talking to her girlfriend. And she’s like, “What? You’ve told them?” And she said, “Of course I haven’t told. It’s not even a discussion.” But it’s that and there’s little moments of it which she reacts quite strongly to the Brudos stuff. And there was one little line that you don’t know that she’s a lesbian at that point, I don’t think. “

+ Mrs. Fletcher, “a dual coming-of-age story that explores the impact of internet porn and social media on the lives of an empty-nest mother and her college freshman son,” has been picked up to series by HBO. The show stars Kathryn Hahn, but most important to your heart and mine is that our very own Jen Richards is a series regular!

+ Here’s Your First Look at “The Fosters” Spin-Off, “Good Trouble”

+ GLOW has been renewed for a Season Three on Netflix.

+ ‘King Ester’: ‘Pose’ Star Angelica Ross Joins Web Series On Black Transgender Woman Escaping Hurricane Katrina

+ Listen To The Sound Of Gender Transforming: Five-Tracks Of Resistance

+ Netflix has renewed End of the F**cking World for Season Two, but no word on whether I will get the lesbian buddy cop spinoff I requested.

+ Rumor has it that the final season of The Affair “will be a new story told from the viewpoint of a lesbian in her twenties.”

+ “Claws” Season Two is More Messy Intersectional Feminism, and it’s Still So Necessary

+ A one-year wedding anniversary is murder for a lesbian couple in Colin Minihan’s thriller “What Keeps You Alive.”

+ Kelly Clarkson Defended Lesbian Couple Against Homophobic Troll

+ A non-binary Jewish writer on The ‘Nanette’ problem.

+ Why “Sharp Objects'” Portrayal Of Adult Self-Harming Is So Important

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3271 articles for us.

14 Comments

  1. Mrs. Fletcher sounds interesting and I have some hope it’s queer. Is Kathryn playing a straight character or is she lbq in this?

  2. I love Amandla and King Princess (lol I know her name is Mikaela but it feels so weird to call her anything but King Princess) being so supportive of each other!! But isn’t it funny how the MTV article doesn’t mention that they’re dating? It’s like “collaborator” and talks about how they attended the VMAs together, but….

  3. As someone who is a hopeless romantic and who watches way too many straight rom-coms, I’d absolutely love to see more rom-coms about women loving women.

  4. Hold on, Courtney Act is bisexual? This is the first time I recall a RuPaul’s Drag Race queen coming out as non-monosexual!

    • According to her wiki she’s pan and polyamorous (and gender fluid)! I can’t think of any other Drag Race queens who are out as bi/pan either.

    • Cynthia Lee Fontaine, Kelly Mantle, Jasmine Masters, and I believe Morgan McMichaels are bisexual. That may not be an exhaustive list either.

  5. “Or cast Tessa Thompson and Lena Waithe in a girl-meets-girl flick.” UH, YES. HOLLYWOOD PLS DO THIS.

  6. My gf and I have been watching the British dating classic Love Island and have been desperate for a gay version so THANKS COURTNEY ACT. We also talked about Dani Campbell like a week ago so are y’all reading my texts?

  7. That article about Nanette put into words so many thoughts and feelings I had after watching the special. I just felt underwhelmed and disappointed in her treatment of justified queer anger.

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