Adult Swim is home to many hilarious surrealist adult animated projects, and their latest is a super queer stop-motion series inspired by the works and aesthetics of Pedro Almodóvar. Think of any Pedro Almodóvar movie you’ve seen — from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to All About My Mother — make it as silly as possible, and then you’d get Gonzalo Cordova’s hilarious and visually imaginative Women Wearing Shoulder Pads. The eight-episode, quarter-hour absurdist telenovela stop-motion series depicts a wealthy, self-centered, and philanthropic woman who asserts her power by emotionally exploiting the individuals in her vicinity. It’s as Adult Swim as you can get, laced with laugh-out-loud gags in both style and tone. It’s Spanish-language, a first for the Cartoon Network block, and it also features a plethora of cute guinea pigs.

In Quito, Ecuador, during the 1980s, Marioneta Negocios (Pepa Pallarés) is a wealthy, ruthless, and egotistical Spaniard who resides in the city with her right-hand Gabriela Cartol (Coquita). She is a producer of television PSA commercials that aim to convert cuyes (guinea pigs) from food to pets. Marioneta finds out that she has a new rival: Doña Quispe (Laura Torres), a former chef who is now the CEO of El Cuchillo, Ecuador’s most famous restaurant and home of the famous cuyes dish. In the series, cuyes are more than just food or pets; they are also bulls used for fighting, and one of Marioneta’s situationships, the butch and suave Espada (Kerygma Flores), is a cuy fighter.

Upon discovering Doña’s 12-year-old daughter, Nina Quispe (Nicole Vazquez), is a cuy activist and has a huge pet she uses like a horse, Marioneta attempts to use Nina to make her a star in her public service announcements.

Throughout her busy and messy lifestyle, Marioneta finds herself being stalked by a mysterious figure. The suspect list grows long as her inflated ego either ostracizes or emotionally manipulates the people in her life.

In a post-Emilia Perez world where a straight Frenchman was lauded for LGBTQ Latinx representation, Women Wearing Shoulder Pads arrives right on time to course-correct.

The series was made by Mexico City-based animation studio Cinema Fantasma, as opposed to Adult Swim’s frequent collaborator ShadowMachine (Robot Chicken, Shivering Truth, Moral Oral).  I’m very familiar with Fantasma’s works (watch Frankelda on HBO MAX), as they are one of the best-looking stop-motion studios out there beyond Laikas, Shadowmachine, and Aardman. They pour so much stunning quality into each project, and Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is no exception. The series’ art direction recreates its Ecuadorian world with picturesque detailing in its background, character wardrobe, and design. Here, they pour exquisite detailing into body movement and mannerisms. I was truly astounded by this authenticity and attention to detail, especially considering this is all handcrafted. Plus, every furry guinea pig on display is cute as hell.

Part of the show’s greatest strength is its straightforward playing into its telenovela archetypes while retaining such a silly sense of humor. Gonzalo Cordova assembled many queer Hispanic comedic writers — including Francesca D’Uva and River L. Ramirez, to name a few — to work wonders, as the interplay between this familiar character study and comedy is well balanced. Many of its visual gags got a laugh out of me, particularly every live-action insert-shot of characters holding objects, only to cut it back to the stop-motion figurines. The hilarious, punchy dialogue and original songs also delight. The story it tells of Marioneta and her ego is well dissected and manages to genuinely surprise you in its narrative twists and turns, just like an Almodovar flick.

It also shares so much subversion across the board in its queer representation in terms of its characterization. Every character in its all-women ensemble is under the rainbow; sometimes it’s established out the gate, other times as a shocking reveal, and yet everyone is textured enough with dimension that you adore ’em all the same. My favorite happened to be Espada, who may be a suave cuy fighter in the ring but possesses the heart of a water sign out of it.

By the end of its rather short eight-episode run, I wanted much more of Women Wearing Shoulder Pads. It’s an absurdist riff on the conventions of Pedro Almodóvar movies while being a potent character study in of itself. These little wooden dolls and their adorable guinea pigs made me feel more than most shows I’ve seen this year.

While many lament the end of summer, it has always been one of my favorite times of year, in large part due to the U.S. Open, which I have been watching for pretty much as long as I can remember thanks to my tennis-obsessed father. We’re in the midst of the second round of the major tournament this year, and things are heating up. I’ve already stayed up way past my bedtime to catch some of my favorite players in Arthur Ashe Stadium during primetime coverage, including Venus Williams, who secured a wildcard to enter this year’s draw at the age of 45. While she didn’t make it past that first round, it was incredible to watch her still command so much of the court at what’s considered a very advanced age for high-level pro tennis. She’s one of the greats, and I’ve been watching her at the U.S. Open probably since a single-digit age!

Today is official Pride day at the U.S. Open, and as Autostraddle’s resident Tennis Lesbian, I felt compelled to touch down on some of the LGBTQ+ happenings this year. In an exciting development, two openly queer women made it into the U.S. Open singles draw: Daria Kasatkina of Australia and Greet Minnen of Belgium.

Minnen was knocked out of the first round by Naomi Osaka, who named her glittery red Labubu “Billie Jean Bling” and who has been seving some of the most stunning looks at the U.S. Open in recent years. But Kasatkina is still in it, knocking Romanian player Elena-Gabriela Ruse out in the first round. She’ll play her second round match against Russian player Kamilla Rakhimova this afternoon.

Kasatkina used to represent Russia, where she was born, but in March this year she announced she would start playing for Australia, where she has moved. She has been outspoken against Russia’s occupation of Ukraine as well as anti-LGBTQ policies in her home country. “With everything going on in my previous country, I didn’t have much choice,” she told CNN of the decision to change her nationality. “For me, being openly gay, if I want to be myself, I have to make this step, and I did it.” She identifies as a lesbian and became engaged to her partner — professional figure skater Natalia Zabiiako — in June. They are extremely cute and often vlog together about life on the WTA tour. She’s currently ranked 18.

While Minnen is out of the U.S. Open after the first round, she put up a good fight against the dazzling Osaka. She has been out publicly since 2018 and used to be in a relationship with fellow WTA player Alison Van Uytvanck, but they called off their engagement in 2020. She’s now married to her partner Marie Diels. They got married not long before the U.S. Open, in mid-July. She’s currently ranked 72.

Tennis has had a long history of openly queer women, including Billie Jean King, who was at the forefront of the fight for equal pay in tennis. Men’s tennis lags, Joao Lucas Reis da Silva of Brazil becoming the first openly gay player on the ATP tour last year. He lost in the qualifiers at the U.S. Open last week.

And while I am indeed excited about the fact that there were two queer players in the women’s singles draw this year — the most there has been in a minute — I’d be remiss to not also acknowledge the sport’s ongoing trans issue, namely the fact that Martina Navratilova, a very vocal TERF, continues to have such a significant platform at the U.S. Open and in tennis in general. She has been a longtime commentator for the event, and this year she’s calling matches for the British sports network Sky Sports. Pro tennis has yet to really reckon with Navratilova’s transphobia, which is even aimed at recreational players. At Wimbledon this summer, she had a spot in the VIP box for the women’s finals, brushing shoulders with Billie Jean King, who has spoken in support of trans athletes.

Navratilova may have been one of the groundbreaking queer players in a different era of pro tennis, but her TERF rhetoric undermines that legacy and furthermore is detrimental to the sport as a whole. We can see this clearly in a story like Cammie Woodman’s, a trans rec player who was kicked off her league in Brooklyn after an opponent made a transphobic complaint. Pushing players like Cammie out of the sport is bad for the entire world of tennis, and given that professional tennis was so instrumental to the overall fight for gender equality across all sports, it’s especially devastating to see players like Navratilova continue to spread hate unchecked.

I want tennis to become more and more queer. I hope to one day report a lot more than just two openly gay players competing at the U.S. Open. But we will not get there by turning our backs on our trans siblings in the LGBTQ+ community.

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 1079 articles for us.

On September 14, the actual 2025 Emmys will take place. But every year we do our very own little Emmys, the Autostraddle TV Awards. They were created as a response to and a step beyond those official awards, a way to celebrate the many queer stories so often overlooked during award season.

The field has been narrowing the past few years, and that continues now — fewer gay shows are getting made, and the initial burst of authentic queer content of the 2010s has vanished. But that makes it more important than ever to celebrate the television still making its way to your screens and hearts, the creators fighting against monumental financial odds to still deliver queer stories.

Trust us: Once you have to vote in some of these categories, you’ll realize there’s still a lot to choose between.

How it Works: For the past few weeks, the queer critics who make up our TV Team have collaborated on a lengthy process to determine the year’s nominees in each of our Autostraddle TV Awards categories. We have 21 whole categories, and while there’s some Emmys overlap, we’ve also created a lot of our own categories that are too often overlooked by mainstream awards systems, like genre television.

Now, it’s your turn to help us pick the winners. Individual Autostraddle readers can vote once in each category. Your votes will be combined with the TV Team’s final votes to choose the winners.

There are also three fan-favorite categories that YOU get to decide completely yourselves! Those categories are Fan Favorite Couples, Fan Favorite Character, and Fan Favorite Out Queer Actor.

We follow the same rules as the Emmys as far as timeline, which means the shows must have aired between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025 in order to be eligible. (This means Murderbot and Nine Perfect Strangers Season Two are not eligible!) While the show’s full season does not need to have aired during that range, most of its episodes must have aired.

Voting is now open and will close on August 25th at noon EST. The winners will be announced on September 11.

UPDATE: WE HAVE EXTENDED VOTING UNTIL AUGUST 26TH AT NOON EST!!!! THERE IS STILL TIME TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVS!

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AND THE NOMINEES FOR THE 8TH ANNUAL AUTOSTRADDLE TV AWARDS ARE…

Outstanding Comedy Series

Hacks (HBO Max)
No Good Deed (Netflix)
XO Kitty (Netflix)
Overcompensating (Prime Video)
Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Poker Face (Peacock)
Somebody Somewhere (HBO Max)

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Outstanding Drama Series

Fifteen-Love (AMC+)
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Criminal Minds: Evolution (Paramount+)
Heartstopper (Netflix)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Matlock (CBS)

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Outstanding Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Series

Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC+)
Severance (Apple TV)
The Last of Us (HBO Max)
Agatha All Along (Disney+)
Sunny (Apple TV)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
Wheel of Time (Prime Video)

Outstanding Animated Series

Harley Quinn, season 5 (Max)
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy (Prime Video)
The Legend of Vox Machina (Prime Video)
Arcane (Netflix)
#1 Happy Family USA (Prime Video)
Big Mouth (Netflix)

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Outstanding Lead Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Drama Series

Jasmine Savoy-Brown as Taissa Turner, Yellowjackets
Tawny Cypress as Taissa Turner, Yellowjackets
Sophie Nélisse as Shauna, Yellowjackets
Melanie Lynskey as Shauna, Yellowjackets
Ella Lily Hyland as Justine Pierce, Fifteen Love
Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent, Heartstopper

Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Drama Series

Liv Hewson as Van Pamer, Yellowjackets
Lauren Ambrose as Van, Yellowjackets
Midori Franis as Mika Yasuda, Grey’s Anatomy
Samira Wiley as Moira, The Handmaid’s Tale
Sarah Greene as Bibi Garvey, Bad Sisters
Laysla De Oliveira as Cruz Manuelos, Special Ops: Lioness

Outstanding Lead Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Comedy Series

Hannah Einbinder as Ava, Hacks
Amit Kaur as Bela Malhotra, Sex Lives of College Girls
Victoria Bazua as Kate, Land of Women
Linda Cardellini as Margo Starling, No Good Deed
Anna Catchcart as Kitty Song Covey, XO Kitty
Jerrie Johnson as Tye, Harlem

Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Comedy Series

Robbie Hoffman as Randi, Hacks
Regan Aliyah as Juliana, XO Kitty
Abbi Jacobson as Leslie Fisher, No Good Deed
Poppy Liu as Sarah Webber, No Good Deed
Kate Moennig as Gwen, No Good Deed
Ruby Cruz as Ash, Sex Lives of College Girls

Outstanding Lead Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Series

Kathryn Hahn as Agatha, Agatha All Along
Bella Ramsey as Ellie, The Last of Us
Rashida Jones as Suzie, Sunny
Krysten Ritter as Lucy / Young Dr. Eleanor Miller, Orphan Black: Echoes
Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, What We Do In the Shadows

Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Series

Isabel Merced as Dina, The Last of Us
Aubrey Plaza as Rio/Death, Agatha All Along
Annie the Clumsy as Mixxy, Sunny
Babirye Bukilwa as Sammie, Domino Day
Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche, Wheel of Time
Jen Tullock as Devon Scout-Hale, Severance

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Santana Lopez Legacy Award For Outstanding Queer Teen Character

Kate, Land of Women
Kitty Song Covey, XO Kitty
Taissa, Yellowjackets
Van, Yellowjackets
Shauna, Yellowjackets
Elle Argent, Heartstopper

Most Groundbreaking Representation (Show)

Somebody Somewhere (HBO Max)
Agatha All Along (Disney+)
Land of Women (Apple TV)
XO Kitty (Netflix)
Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC)
The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max)

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Outstanding Performance by an Out LGBTQ+ Actor in a Comedy

Hannah Einbinder in Hacks
Cynthia Erivo in Poker Face
Mary Beth Barone in Overcompensating
Amrit Kaur in Sex Lives of College Girls
Renée Rapp in Sex Lives of College Girls
Megan Stalter in Hacks

Outstanding Performance by an Out LGBTQ+ Actor in a Drama

Jasmin Savoy Brown in Yellowjackets
Liv Hewson in Yellowjackets
Ayo Edebiri in The Bear
Supriya Ganesh in The Pitt
Cherry Jones in The Handmaids Tale
Adelaide Kane in Grey’s Anatomy
Midori Francis in Grey’s Anatomy
Krys Marshall in Paradise

Outstanding LGBTQ+ Actor in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show

Aubrey Plaza in Agatha All Along
Sasheer Zamata in Agatha All Along
Bella Ramsey in Last of Us
Isabella Merced in Last of Us
Jen Tullock in Severance
Amandla Stenberg in The Acolyte

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Outstanding LGBTQ+ Director / Writer / Showrunner

Brittani Nichols, Abbott Elementary (writer / producer)
Leslye Headland, Star Wars: The Acolyte (showrunner)
Emily St. James, Yellowjackets (writer)
Desiree Akhavan, Overcompensating (director)
Clea Duvall, Poker Face (director)
Nahnatchka Kahn, Laid (showrunner)

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Outstanding Performance by a Straight Actress in a Straight Role

Bridget Everett as Sam, Somebody Somewhere
Catherine O’Hara as Patty Leigh, The Studio
Natasha Rothwell as Melissa, How to Die Alone
Jean Smart as Deborah, Hacks
Sheryl Lee Ralph as Barbara Howard, Abbott Elementary
Jessica Williams as Gaby, Shrinking

Outstanding Cis Male Character

Benito Skinner as Benny (Benito Skinner), Overcompensating
Noah Wyle as Dr. Rob (Noah Wyle), The Pitt
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), The Last of Us
Sterling K Brown as Xavier Collins, Paradise
Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks in The Bear
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie in The Bear

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Outstanding Hairstyling for an LGBTQ+ Character

Marley, Survival of the Thickest (Monique Gaffney)
Amrit Kaur as Bela, Sex Lives of College Girls
Agatha, Agatha All Along (Cindy Welles)
Mixxy, Sunny
Dina, The Last of Us
Taissa Turner, Yellowjackets

Outstanding Costume Design for a Show With LGBTQ+ Characters

Keia Bounds, Survival of the Thickest
Daniel Selon, Agatha All Along
Kathleen Felix-Hager, Hacks
Leah Katznelson, Poker Face
Sharon Gilham, The Wheel of Time
Marie Schley, Yellowjackets

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To vote in the above categories as well as the THREE SPECIAL FAN FAVORITE CATEGORIES*, go forth!

*When voting in the fan favorite categories, please keep the eligibility guidelines in mind and only nominate couples/characters/actors who appeared in shows that aired between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. Otherwise your vote will be wasted!

There is no Disney Channel Original Movie that millennial lesbians love to rave about more than Cadet Kelly.

My little sister, a late-in-life bisexual, once spent a very high Thanksgiving 2018 monologuing at me about how gay that movie was — particularly the performances of Hilary Duff and Christy Carlson Romano.

In 2002, I was just a little too old for Cadet Kelly. I lost touch with DCOMs after Halloweentown (1998) and Zenon: Girl Of The 21st Century (1999).

I’d actually never seen it until this week. I figured Cadet Kelly would be a situation where everyone was looking back with fond nostalgia on a kids’ movie as gay wish-fulfillment. It couldn’t really be THAT explicit.

I was wrong. This movie isn’t only lesbian. It’s a gateway to an adulthood of kink.

The film follows Kelly Collins (Duff), a free-spirited New York City girl, who is forced to attend George Washington Military Academy after her mother marries the commandant of the school. Her father travels the world for work, leaving Kelly no choice but to move upstate with her mother’s new husband, whom she calls “sir,” and her newly trad-wife-pilled mom. The environment is obvious fascist propaganda. That’s the position conscientious objector and gun control advocate Kelly holds too — until she inevitably finds the beauty in the military. I felt insane watching this lesbian-coded Army ad while my city of Los Angeles is currently occupied by Trump’s National Guard. So ACAB. Yes, even for lesbians. Yes, even for Cadet Kelly.

The movie is about being in the closet.

The heart of the film is Kelly’s relationship with her strict commanding officer Jennifer Stone (Romano). One of the first issues the two have with each other is that Kelly insists on keeping a rainbow blanket on her bed. There’s even a transition shot from the rainbow blanket to an American flag. Jennifer snatches the blanket and rubs it under her boot, kicking it away. I’m not sure of a straight way you can read that scene. Throughout the movie, she delights in calling Kelly a “maggot.” It’s one letter off from the slur I’m convinced it was supposed to mirror.

After Jennifer tells Kelly to get rid of the blanket, Kelly hides it messily under her pillow. Jennifer sees it poking out, grabs it, and rips it to shreds in front of everyone.

Kelly’s blonde tresses are layered and streaked with color. She’s wearing gaudy accessories, which she calls a girl’s best friend. Jennifer has her brown hair in a tight regulation bun. Other female captains wear skirts, but Jennifer only wears pants. She isn’t exactly butch, but the uniform forces the look.

Jennifer is also much taller than Kelly (5’7 to Duff’s 5’2), so she gives top energy. (Okay, short people can be tops, too.) We never see her in plainclothes except at the dance when she’s in a white dress. She is then immediately dirtied by Kelly falling through the doors covered in mud. Kelly has publicly ruined the pristineness of Jennifer’s heterosexual presentation. Jennifer wants to remain invisible in her queerness. Kelly forces attention to it.

Kelly decides to get back at Jennifer for her abuse and paints the back of her captain’s hair pink, orange, yellow, and blue. (Pansexual?)

Jennifer walks through the barracks not realizing what she’s flagging while everyone points and laughs at her. She tries to cover up the rainbow Kelly put on her, but is ultimately forced to remove her hat and reveal it to the student court-martial committee.

Presumably, both Jennifer and Kelly have a crush on another student named Brad, played by Shawn Ashmore. As a little Easter egg, Ashmore is one half of the sexually charged Iceman and Pyro duo of the 2003 X-Men sequel X2. His mother delivers the iconic queer-coded line, “Have you tried… not being a mutant?”

Kelly and Jennifer’s competition for Brad never goes anywhere. Kelly is only interested in him because Jennifer is and she wants to annoy her. Brad is solely there to bring them together. He’s the one who insists Kelly make the drill team and that the girls do a routine together. He does not end up with either one of them.

Brad pushing them together comes off partially like a straight guy wingman who knows you and your friend like each other and like a frat guy who wants to see lesbians kiss.

There’s other queer stuff, too.

At one point, Kelly learns about a battle that wasn’t a retreat, it was “an advance to the rear.” Kelly sees the art of the drill team while watching two female cadets dance together at one of the competitions. Kelly’s friend Carla tells Kelly that coming to George Washington Military Academy is “heaven on Earth for a girl like me” because she had a bad home life, for an undisclosed reason. (Gay?)

“Maybe there is a feminine side to military life!” Kelly cheers when she hears about the Welcome Back dance. Unfortunately, Jennifer makes Kelly stay out in the rain and redo an obstacle course instead. She also delegates Gloria, another student, to lord over Kelly until she gets it right. Kelly remains optimistic. Gloria says: “We have got to get to the bottom of your denial.”

Here’s my assessment of Gloria. She’s also gay. She’s the girl who you experiment with, no strings attached because you’re the only two lesbians in your town. You’re not in love with each other. Maybe you’re both in love with Jennifer Stone. But you’re chill and cool and you’ll always have love for each other.

When Kelly wants to join the drill team, she asks Gloria to be her coach. What follows is a very cute and gay montage of Gloria whipping her into shape. Their faces are so close together. When Gloria proclaims she is ready for tryouts, Kelly squeals and kisses her on the cheek.

The movie might also dabble in polyamory! Kelly’s mother Samantha, birth father Adam, and stepdad Joe all have dinner together, and it’s really lovely. Adam and Joe shake hands and say it’s good to see each other. Joe isn’t jealous of Samantha and Adam. He’s only sad he doesn’t have a more affectionate relationship with Kelly. Later, Joe helps her rescue Adam who has fallen off a cliff. She holds both their hands and says she is happy to have two dads. The men agree. It’s wholesome. Samantha is a lucky woman.

This movie is so kinky. WTF??

Jennifer calls Kelly “maggot” every chance she gets. Kelly calls her “ma’am.” That’s already toeing the line.

But there’s one scene that actually takes it over the edge, pun intended. I’ve seen a lot of kink in my day, and I was flabbergasted this was in a kids’ movie.

Kelly is punished and assigned to shine the boots of the entire drill team. She struggles to get it right until Brad shows up and SPITS ON THE BOOT right in her face while smirking. I… I can’t believe this was for children. It’s so hot. In response, Kelly spits on the shoe too. (In real life, Ashmore was 23 years old, thank god.)

As her time on the drill team continues, Kelly suddenly has reverence for all the buckles and belts and knots. She runs her fingers lovingly over her uniform.

After their team underperforms, Brad is upset. In the equipment room, Kelly does a silly dance to cheer him up. He smirks. “Do that again,” he says, standing close to her. “And that’s an order.”

That it’s Brad behaving this way is beside the point. He’s not a real man. He’s a vessel for discovering kink. Now shoo, Brad. Take your shoe and shoo!

The ribbon dance was so much more than I even dreamed it could be.

Kelly comes upon Jennifer trying to learn moves for her solo and playfully copies her. Annoyed, Jennifer shoves her and sizes her up. They get into an improvised military dance battle with their faces so close together. At one point, Jennifer barks at Kelly!

Gloria smirks. Brad says this is the fire they need! Jennifer and Kelly have to work together so they can win. Oh no, passionate enemies with forced proximity! Whatever will these girls do?

After practice, Jennifer snidely asks if Kelly is going to talk to Brad about their routine. Kelly says no. “You are my partner and commanding officer,” Kelly replies, blinking her baby blues up at Jennifer. “I work with you.” Jennifer melts.

The infamous dance itself is gay beyond my wildest dreams. If anything, people were underselling it to me for all these years. There’s synchronized ribbons. There’s knowing glances and giggles and smiles. Who the fuck is Brad? Who even cares?

“I knew I’d be telling my grandchildren about this someday,” Kelly grins. She and Jennifer hug. I assume she’s talking about the grandchildren they will share as an old married couple.

Kelly starts planning their routine together for next year. Jennifer stops her. Her dad got a new job, so she’s moving to Europe. (Vague?)

Kelly is sad, but she knows your first real girlfriend doesn’t have to be your last. They’re only in high school, not the real Army. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be. (I am assuming all of this.)

In the end, Jennifer smiles and says she hopes Kelly will become a platoon leader herself, and that she will “have to deal with a little maggot just like you.”

And with that, Jennifer becomes a wise queer elder.

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Previously, on Trans Guy Watches: She’s the Man.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup kicked off today, a fact I would have been somewhat indifferent to mere months ago, but I’ve recently become very invested in professional women’s rugby (unsurprisingly, the U.S. rugby queen Ilona Maher impacted this journey, though you won’t see her name below, as she’s sadly straight, but she does seem very aware of and happy about a large part of her fanbase skewing gay). Rugby is such a cool and intense sport. The athleticism and strength it requires are striking. If you’re newer to it, there’s no better event than the 2025 Women’s World Cup to tune into to brush up on the game and learn the players — many of whom are gay gay GAY.

No, seriously, there are so many out queer rugby players competing at this international tournament, which features 16 teams split across four pools. OutSports reports there are over 50 out LGBTQ+ players. Among those players, there are also several same-team and cross-team rugby4rugby relationships. Below, I’ll take you through each of the openly queer-identifying rugby players, who they’re dating, and what you should know about them if you’re tuning into the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which opened today with USA vs. England (it was an absolute blowout, with England clobbering the U.S. — I’m still recovering emotionally). You can stream it all on Paramount+. And I’ve indicated below where players who are dating each other will have to face off against each other.

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Pool A

England

Holly Aitchison

Aitchison dates fellow teammate Hannah Botterman. The two met as teenagers in college and have been long-time partners AND long-time teammates, playing on the England professional rugby club the Saracens together as well as for the national team. Aitchison said of queerness in rugby in an interview with Pink News: “In rugby, and in women’s sports in general, it’s definitely a lot more acceptable for people to be in relationships in the team and to be gay. We’re really lucky to be in an environment where we can be ourselves and are not judged.”

Sarah Bern

Bern is a prop for the national team as well as for the Bristol Bears, which Ilona Maher played on last season. Bern dates teammate Mackenzie Carson. For the World Cup, they’ll be playing together, but they recently had to play against each other for their respective teams in the Premiership Women’s Rugby semi-finals. They play the same position on opposing teams, but as they explain in this very cute interview, they put their personal relationship to the side when a match starts. It’ll be fun to see them playing together on the same side of the pitch in the World Cup.

Hannah Botterman

Botterman is in a relationship with Aitchison, and they used to play on the Saracens together, but Botterman is now with the Bristol Bears. While they met when they were 16, Aitchison wasn’t quite ready to come out, and they went their separate ways before eventually reuniting on the Saracens. They’ve been officially together since 2020. In Pink News, Botterman said of LGBTQ+ representation in rugby: “As far as sports go, rugby is probably up there with better representation, more so than in other sports.”

Mackenzie Carson

Here we have the other half of the Bern/Carson power couple. Again, it’ll be fun to see these two playing together instead of on opposing teams, though I’m also a sucker for the drama of partners having to play against each other. “It’s definitely an interesting dynamic that I’ve not really experienced before,” Carson said of playing against her partner in an Independent interview. “But it’s also really special because not many people get to do this, and to do it with your partner is quite cool.

Amy Cokayne

Hooker Cokayne plays for Sale Sharks, and she dates fellow rugby player Bethan Dainton, who is not appearing at the World Cup.

Rosie Galligan

If it seems like the entire England team is dating, well, they kind of are! Galligan is in a relationship with Marlie Packer. And heading into the World Cup, they recently got engaged! Fiancees who scrummage together!

Megan Jones

Jones dates her Trailfinders teammate Celia Quansah, who is not appearing at the World Cup. Jones had been openly gay for longer than Quansah, who says she was “quite new to the lesbian scene” when they started talking. Jones’ sister had come out as bisexual before her, which she says made telling her family easier.

Claudia Moloney-MacDonald

Winger Moloney-MacDonald is married to rugby player Cliodhna Moloney, who will indeed be playing at the World Cup as well but for Ireland. So we’ve got a pair of cross-team wives here! As their teams are in different pools, they won’t have to face off in the group stage of the tournament. The earliest they could possibly face each other wouldn’t be until the semi-finals, so we’ll see.

Marlie Packer

Packer is engaged to Galligan. She has a son named Oliver with her previous partner.

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Australia

Lori Cramer

More cross-team romance! Cramer dates Team USA prop Charli Jacoby. The two play together for the Exeter Chiefs. As both teams are in the same pool, the two will play against each other in the group stage, when Australia and USA face off on August 30.

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USA

McKenzie Hawkins

While this is technically Hawkins’ second World Cup, she never actually played on the pitch last time around. After taking a brief break from the sport, she’s back as flyhalf. She has been in a relationship with her girlfriend Liv for over two years.

Charli Jacoby

Prop Jacoby dates Cramer of Team Australia. Jacoby has said of celebrating Pride in rugby: “Celebrating pride to me is about living a life of authenticity. It’s about being proud of the person you are regardless of outside influences. My parents raised me to be a good person, a confident person and most importantly, proud of the person I am and I don’t ever intend to change. I am a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community (emphasis on the ‘L’).”

Erica Jarrell-Searcy

Starting Lock Jarrell-Searcy got married to her Sale Sharks teammate Kay Jarrell-Searcy earlier this summer. Kay is not set to appear at the World Cup.

Alev Kelter

After winning the Bronze with Team USA at the Paris Olympics, Kelter proposed to her girlfriend and World Cup teammate Kathryn Treder.

Kathryn Treder

Treder is engaged to Kelter, and the proposal video really is so damn cute. Now the fiancees will play hard together in the World Cup!

Kate Zackary

Team Captain Zackary is making her third World Cup appearance. She is married to her partner and former teammate Mandy Wagner.

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Pool B

Canada

Olivia Apps

I’m a big fan of Apps, who is queer and also has alopecia. My sister also has alopecia, and Apps has been a really great advocate for alopecia awareness. She’s also openly queer. “Rugby has been really positive and inclusive, especially for the queer community,” Apps told SportsBoom.

Tyson Beukeboom

The daughter of an NHL player, Beukeboom is in a relationship with rugby player Kendra Cousineau.

Sophie de Goede

Back row forward de Goede is dating rugby player Emma Taylor. The two played together on the Saracens.

Paige Farries

Farries is a very vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusivity in rugby and sports, hosting Pride conversations with fellow players and speaking out on how the collaboration of rugby mirrors LGBTQ+ community. She’s married to Team Scotaland’s player Caity Mattinson. Their teams will play against each other on September 6.

Julia Schell

Schell is dating Team Scotland player Rachel Malcolm. Their two teams will face each other on September 6.

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Scotland

Leah Bartlett

Leicester Tigers teammates Bartlett and Natasha Jones are engaged.

Leia Brebner-Holden

Brebner-Holden is in a relationship with Team Scotland and Loughborough Lightning teammate Elis Martin.

Lisa Cockburn

Lisa Cockburn has been married to her wife Lisa Campbell for over three years. The Lisas!

Jade Konkel

Konkel married her wife Helen Roberts in 2022. They ended up proposing to each other on the same day without having planned it that way. Cute!

Rachel Malcolm

Malcolm is dating Team Canada’s Julie Schell, and the two spent a lot of off-season time together. Their respective teams are set to play against each other on September 6.

Elis Martin

Martin is dating fellow teammate Brebner-Holden.

Caity Mattinson

Mattison is married to Team Canada’s Paige Farries. Mattison plays for Gloucester–Hartpury, while Farries is with Saracen, so they don’t see each other much, but they both have been training hard for their respective World Cup 2025 careers.

Helen Nelson

Nelson has been in a 10+ year relationship with professional rugby union referee Hollie Davidson, who will be ref’ing this year’s World Cup.

Anne Young

Young plays for Team Scotland as well as the Loughborough Lightning. She has a partner of a couple years named Alicia.

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Wales

Kelsey Jones

Jones is in a relationship with English player Sarah Beckett who will not be making a World Cup appearance.

Jasmine Joyce-Butchers

I’m obsessed with how often married queer rugby players take each other’s last names! Jasmine is married to Welsh teammate Alisha Joyce-Butchers, who is not playing at the World Cup but who is pregnant with their first child.

Courtney Keight

Keight is making her World Cup debut.

Kayleigh Powell

Powell is in a relationship with Harlequins teammate Lucy Burgess.

Donna Rose

Rose has been a vocal advocate for awareness around living with borderline personality disorder. Joining rugby also helped her come out as queer. She has spoken about the inclusivity of rugby in Diva magazine: “It’s so open,” Rose said. “We will take anyone if you can catch and run with a ball. No one judges.”

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Pool C

New Zealand

Laura Bayfield

Making her World Cup debut, Bayfield has been in a long-term relationship with her partner Rikki Rawleigh.

Kelly Brazier

Together with her wife Taklia Brazier, Kelly has two sons.

Iritana Hohaia

She’s queer, but she’s also a cop in New Zealand.

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe

Woodman-Wickliffe is an absolute legend, up there with Ilona Maher in terms of name recognition even for those only casually familiar with the sport. She actually retired after the Paris Olympics, but guess what! She’s BACK. We love a comeback. She’s married to Black Ferns teammate Renee Woodman-Wickliffe. They’ve been together since 2013 and married in 2022. They’re one of THE rugby power couples. And while Portia has picked up her boots again, Renee is retired.

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Ireland

Nicole Fowley

Fowley has been married to her wife since March 2024. She and her wife Mary met playing on Ireland’s Connacht rugby team.

Brittany Hogan

Team Ireland’s Hogan has spoken about the inclusivity of rugby: “Identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community, I feel like I can be unapologetically myself which is a great feeling. I’m not alone and I’m welcome wherever I go.”

Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald

Married to Team England’s Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, Cliodhna could face her wife in the semi-finals of the World Cup. They were married earlier this summer, and several out pro rugby players were in attendance, including teammate Fowley.

Dannah O’Brien

Flyhalf O’Brien is in a relationship with fellow Irish rugby player Katie Whelan, who is not making a World Cup appearance.

Spain

Claudia Perez

Perez is making her World Cup debut and appears to have a girlfriend named Paula.

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Pool D

France

Carla Arbez

Arbez’s partner Sarah-Maude Lachance is a Canadian rugby union player but is not appearing at the World Cup.

Emilie Boulard

Boulard has been in a relationship with her partner Agathe Lee for seven years.

Pauline Bourdon Sansus

French teammates Pauline Bourdon Sansus and Laure Sansus previously vied for just one spot on the French national team in 2022. They’re now married. When they got married in 2023, a fellow rugby teammate served as their witness.

Agathe Sochat

Another queer parent competing at the World Cup, Hooker Sochat had a daughter with her wife Adele in 2022.

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Italy

Giordana Duca

Italian Lock Duca also competed for Team Italy at the World Cup in 2022 (which was actually the 2021 World Cup but had to be delayed due to the pandemic). She is in a relationship with teammate Michela Sillari.

Laura Gurioli

Flyhalf Gurioli appears to be in a relationship, according to Instagram.

Michela Sillari

Sillari is dating teammate Duca. This is her third World Cup.

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South Africa

Luchell Hanekom

Hanekom is the only out queer player for South Africa. She’s 24, and this is her World Cup debut.

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Brazil

Marina Fioravanti

Fioravanti was one of the many out LGBTQ+ athletes who competed at both the Paris and Tokyo Olympics in recent years.

Taís Prioste

Prioste is married to Brazilian rugby player Brena Prioste, who is not competing at the World Cup this year.

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And there you have it, folks! If this long list (over 50!) of super muscular queer women doesn’t convince you to tune into the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, well, I cannot relate! Did I miss someone? Let me know!

“I think we stayed in that car for like, an hour, kissing. It felt like, finally. It was magical.” These are the words of Mollie McClure, a deeply important unheard voice of a ubiquitous true crime mystery that’s plagued the genre for nearly 30 years.

On March 24, 1998, Amy Bradley disappeared on a Royal Caribbean cruise she was taking with her brother Brad and their parents Ron and Iva. After a night of drinking and dancing, she and her brother returned to the room the family was sharing and sat on the balcony enjoying the sea air. Brad eventually went to sleep. By 6 a.m., Amy had disappeared. To this day, neither her clothes nor her body have ever been recovered.

Because I’ve dabbled in writing crime fiction, I’ve done my share of true crime deep dives, particularly into the stories of Jane and John Does and missing marginalized persons. Even before the most recent documentary about her case, Amy Bradley Is Missing, premiered on Netflix last month, I knew the basics behind Amy’s story. Or so I thought.

Amy Bradley Is Missing, directed by the duo behind the exploitative The Price of Glee, circles three categories fans of the genre can’t resist. The first is missing white woman syndrome. The second is the thrill of a “locked door” mystery. The third is xenophobic panic about the human trafficking of nice girls from the suburbs.

The most prominent photo of Amy distributed to the public is understandably from the night she went missing, though it isn’t what she went missing in. It shows her dressed up for a formal dinner, wearing a black and jeweled necklace, shiny earrings, and a black dress. It wasn’t until this new documentary that I — and even Internet experts on this case — saw more casual pictures and videos of her.

I’m not sure how to explain the ‘90s lesbian je ne sais quoi but whatever it is, Amy has it. In these new photos, Amy is all baseball caps and shorn hair. She has a tattoo on her back of Taz from the Looney Tunes spinning a basketball. In videos of her doing the “trick shots” her friends say she was known for, she has undeniable swag. It turns out that in her everyday life, Amy Bradley was pretty butch.

Yet Amy’s sexuality was kept hush-hush for nearly three decades. (Even the subreddit dedicated to her case was rocked by the information.) Apparently, Amy had come out as a lesbian a few years before the cruise, and her Virginian family had not been thrilled about it.

Her mother explains in the documentary, “As her parents, we were concerned that in 1995, those feelings would not be welcomed by the general population.”

Iva isn’t wrong. Butch lesbians in the early 1990s are like gods to me. What must it have felt like to hear even the most liberal politicians slam gay marriage and vote for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Every single butch who was out in the 90s should be given the Purple Heart for their service.

Amy being a lesbian and the erasure of her sexuality matter to the case. No doubt there are people who know far more about Amy’s story than I ever will, but I want to speak to the queer reveal and why it wasn’t disclosed until 2025.

The film starts with Amy’s mother sobbing. She and Amy’s father have not moved on at all. They think about her 24/7. They’ve kept her car in the garage untouched, waiting for her return. They obviously loved their daughter. In an interview with one of Amy’s best friends Sarah Luck, she claims that Amy’s parents’ disapproval of her sexuality definitely bothered her. Their whole college social circle drank a lot, but it seemed to Sarah like Amy was trying to numb the pain of her parents’ rejection.

Kat Lovelace, the first of Amy’s ex-girlfriends interviewed, says their relationship is why each of them came out to their families. Afterwards, Amy’s father wrote Kat a three-page letter blaming her for making his daughter gay.

In the doc, Ron refutes this. “It’s Amy’s life. It wasn’t what we would choose for her but it’s her life,” he says, “and we loved her unconditionally, and I remember putting that in the letter.”

Amy’s brother Brad, in follow-up interviews after the documentary’s premiere, clarified that their close knit family was actually fine with Amy’s sexuality. But, he says, Amy was never a lesbian. Sure, she’d come out to them as bisexual, but at the time of her disappearance, Brad claims Amy had a boyfriend. (Her friend Sarah says that Amy self-identified as “gay.”)

This all would have been useful to determine Amy’s state of mind. She had allegedly had seven light beers and was feeling unwell when her brother left her on the balcony at around 3:30 a.m. Some theorize that she was drinking so much because it was stressful to be trapped at sea with her parents or that she was sad about her recent breakup with the aforementioned Mollie.

Her parents deny that Amy’s disappearance was an accident brought on by drinking away her pain. They also insist she did not die by suicide. To them, Amy did not go overboard at all. As the years crept on, why would her family want to think their harsh response to her coming out may have contributed to her disappearance? The guilt would eat me alive.

They say Amy must have been kidnapped. Amy must have been trafficked. Her family paints a picture of a woman that men flocked to. She was magnetic, they say. So much so that the femme photos she’d taken before dinner were stolen by an admirer and had to be reprinted. The waitstaff were at her beck and call. Every guy on that boat was flirting with her. Investigators wondered if she could have been lured by one who “sweet-talked” her into following him to a rough area of Curacao.

I also don’t think Amy died by suicide. I don’t believe her intoxication was connected to her family’s rejection, and I don’t think she was smuggled off the ship and forced into prostitution. I think she fell off the railing while trying to puke.

Still, we can’t ignore the world Amy was living in. Matthew Shepard was killed that year. Ellen DeGeneres coming out in 1997 had ruined her career. Conversion therapy was in full swing, enough for the 1999 LGBTQ movie But I’m A Cheerleader to resonate with the community. It would be understandable if her family felt saying Amy was gay would endanger her with her kidnappers, or make the general public uninterested in her case.

It would have cleared up one demerit against the case’s prime suspect: Alistar Douglas, the bass player from the ship’s band. People speculated that maybe she left to hook up with him because she was seen dancing with Alistar right before she went missing. He could have killed her afterwards. (A couple of teens claim they saw her on the upper deck with him.) Now that seems unlikely.

Her being a lesbian also sheds some light on the racist and sexist fetishization that has come out of Amy’s story. “Amy Bradley Is Missing” spends a lot of time dissecting a set of prurient photos of a sex worker advertisement that the family was emailed anonymously in 2005. The woman does resemble Amy even though she’s done up in teased hair and pink eyeshadow, but she doesn’t have Amy’s tattoos. Maybe they’re covered. It’s 50/50 on whether she’s Amy, but I lean toward no.

It’s interesting to note that being public about Amy being taken as a sex slave (on shows like Dr. Phil) was less harrowing to her family than revealing she was gay. It’s a better narrative that she’s being assaulted by men then that she may have struggled with her lesbianism.

When “witnesses” come forward in the doc, it’s men with rescuer fantasies, and one older white lady who believes she saw Amy being manhandled by a pimp in a bathroom. A guy who claims he saw her flanked by two scary men on a beach weirdly describes her as “tanned” and “in good shape.” A Navy seaman says he was a client of hers in a brothel and that she asked for his help. Another admits he talked to her over their shared balcony on the ship and that she was the quintessential “girl next door.” It’s an amalgamation of white fear that “good, Christian” women are being taken prisoner in foreign countries. The woman in the bathroom describes stereotypical Latin thugs threatening the hypothetical children Amy’s been forced to bear. Amy Bradley has been portrayed as a person she never was to serve a thriller novel narrative.

With the reveal of Amy’s authentic self, the 27-year-old cold case becomes 3-dimensional and warm. People can parse out some new theories. Gaps are filled in. Amy was a whole person, not some face in a spooky viral TikTok or a salacious podcast episode. Her ex Kat lovingly recalls the first time Amy kissed her. Her more recent ex Mollie takes out an eerie gift Amy gave her a few months before she disappeared: a message in a bottle. Mollie is reluctant to share it. She’s still raw all these years later. “I can see her, I can smell her, I can feel her,” Mollie says, letting herself remember those days. “Cause we’re bringing her alive, you know? We’re bringing her alive.”

Mollie and Amy met at a basketball tryout when they were 14. Amy had a full mullet. Mollie was shy. She would sleep over at Amy’s house, and her heart would be pounding. She was falling in love. After a night of dancing at a gay bar post-college, they hooked up.

Amy gave Mollie the handwritten letter in a bottle as an apology for drunkenly kissing another girl. I paused the screen to read the parts that weren’t being highlighted by the filmmakers and saw one of the most sapphic sentences I’ve ever read: “I would drive 400 miles to eat lunch with you.”

Mollie feels they would have gotten back together. On the same day she learned Amy was missing, she received a postcard from her that read, “Wish you were here.”

“It was the 90s,” Amy’s friend Sarah says, reflecting on the atmosphere of being a lesbian at that time. “It was taboo. It was difficult for a parent to say I have a child that’s gay, but [her family] loved her regardless.”

We’ll never really know Amy’s thoughts on that. The most important person in this documentary is Mollie, who through tears says that she doesn’t like to think about the theories of Amy’s fate.

“For me, and my making peace with that she’s no longer here, the one that I have loved is…” she trails off. “The fact is I’m living my life without her. That’s not going to change. That doesn’t change.”

This weekend, Cynthia Erivo starred as Black lesbian Jesus in the Hollywood Bowl performance of Jesus Christ Superstar alongside Adam Lambert, Phillipa Soo, and more. It was a gay-ass rock opera adventure, and I personally can’t stop watching clips of it. I was curious about what they would do, if Cynthia would be in drag, or if they would change the lyrics…but they did neither! Cynthia Erivo was in a dress for most of the show, and none of the lyrics were changed, including when Phillipa Soo serenaded and embraced Cynthia Erivo as Mary Magdalene during “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”

I do hope they release more official videos soon, but for now I am living for the TikTok clips of Cynthia and Phillipa having INCREDIBLE chemistry, especially during “What’s the Buzz.” This is my new religion.

Despite the considerable size difference between Adam Lambert and Cynthia Erivo (she really is so wee, and his platform boots didn’t help), their voices were matched in power and passion as they led us through the musical. Despite the casting being “gender blind”, I do believe this casting was still very specific, especially in light of recent events (including but definitely not limited to the Kennedy Center’s recent homophobic mandates), and there’s something really special about seeing two loud and proud queer people taking these specific roles right now. As Playbill pointed out, with this particular duo, “Some lyrics hit differently, like when the Roman leaders repeatedly called Jesus ‘dangerous’ and Judas urged Jesus to be more cautious: ‘They only need a small excuse to put us all away.’” And any conservative who takes issue with it never really paid attention to the original musical in the first place, which has always been anachronistic and critical of the way people interpret what they themselves purport to be Jesus’s message.

The performance also included theater legend Raúl Esparza as Pontius Pilate, with John Stamos and Josh Gad splitting the role of King Herod.

Check out Cynthia Erivo singing as Jesus here:

And Phillipa Soo singing about being in love with her here:

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What’s the Buzz, Tell Me What’s A-Happening

+ The Hunting Wives could have had a buried gay, based on its source material, but showrunner Rebecca Cutter wasn’t having it (also it could have a season 2!)

+ On the opposite end of the spectrum, despite being a show about people being unable to die, SYFY’s Revival still managed to bury a gay

+ Doechii performed at Lollapalooza and announced she’s going on tour this October

+ Don’t let the haters tell you otherwise: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) was a damn BLAST to watch if you’re a fan of the original movies, and also there are queer characters this time around, including a character whose casting call must have said “Reneé Rapp energy” and you will never convince me otherwise)

+ The Buccaneers is soaring to the top of the streaming charts

+ Jinkx Monsoon came out to Ziwe (and all of us) as pansexual

+ ICYMI, Reneé Rapp AND Chappell Roan released new music last week

+ And of course, with new Reneé Rapp music comes more Reneé Rapp chaotic press coverage

+ But don’t expect a full album from Chappell Roan anytime soon

+ Trans sitcom The Switch, starring Nyla Rose, will be available for free soon, giving the short-lived show new life

Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dropped its first two episodes of the season, and while the season doesn’t seem to have any queer romances brewing, the franchise’s queer actors are hoping for a gayer future.

Jess Bush, who plays nurse Christine Chapel, said to Out Magazine: “I would love for our show to represent queer love on screen…I think that that would be wonderful!” Her character has hinted at dating women in the past, and Bush did tease that it’s possible LGBTQ+ fans will be represented in the future of the series, but of course couldn’t reveal too much.

Melissa Navia leans into the queer energy and gender fluidity of her character, Erica Ortegas, the pilot of the Starship Enterprise, and says that one of the lessons she hopes that audiences take away from the show is: “It’s our differences that make us stronger.”

Celia Rose Gooding, who plays communications officer Nyota Uhura, echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “‘Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations’ is, I think, a core quality of Trek, and I think our present 2025 world could learn a lot from that.”

Of course, Star Trek hasn’t been entirely straight over its long and storied past. Season One of Strange New Worlds featured non-binary actor Jesse James Keitel; Star Trek: The Next Generation had a taboo relationship with an agender alien; two alien women fell in love briefly in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; and Star Trek: Discovery gave us a nonbinary character and their trans boyfriend.

And like the queer actors of Strange New World, I’m hoping for a gayer future for Trekkies everywhere.

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Live Long, Prosper, and Read More News Stories

+ Meanwhile, in the Star Wars universe, a sapphic couple was just confirmed in the comics…Who will win the gayest (space) race?!

+ The upcoming Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri film After the Hunt might have a sapphic twist

+ This weekend was a very gay WNBA All-Star weekend…I’m not even a sports gay, and my social feeds are all about the Stud Budz

+ Pansexual actress Bella Thorne is the titular Clare out for revenge against abusers and predators in upcoming film Saint Clare

+ Billie Eilish is filming a mysterious 3D project with James Cameron

+ Reneé Rapp dropped another single from her upcoming album, this one called “Why is She Still Here?”

+ It also came with a video of Reneé singing the song on a theater stage and, unlike Mad (which is a bop, don’t get me wrong) it really shows off her vocal talents

+ School Spirits upped non-binary actor Ci Hang Ma to series regular for its upcoming third season, which I hope means my theories about Quinn and Rhonda come true

+ Sophia Bush was almost asked to be on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills but missed the text (and probably would have said no anyway)

+ Catch a brief glimpse of our girl Robin in the latest Stranger Things teaser

+ Genderqueer actor JP Karliak plays Gargamel in Rihanna’s new Smurfs movie

This past WNBA All-Star weekend has generated unprecedented levels of buzz, content and delight — in large part due to the (seemingly) unsanctioned and ecstatically entertaining live-stream of the event executed by Court Williams (Court) and Natisha Hiedeman (T), aka the Stud Budz. For what GQ declared to be “one of the most cheerful, devil-may-care weekends in recent memory for professional sports,” the game itself was almost an afterthought. This time, the foreground was ceded to the Stud Budz, who brought their followers on an unedited journey into Indianapolis’ hotel hallways, messy rooftop parties, hungover practices and tunnel gossip.

The Stud Budz danced, several times in several different contexts, to Pink Pony Club. They got scooters and T required an IVs to nurse her hangover. They threw it back with Syd Colson. They did the Shmoney with Cheryl Reeves. T shared a tentative hug with her maybe-crush Skylar Diggins. They were interrogated about strap-on behavior by Megan Rapinoe. They befriended Caitlin Clark’s aunts, and sang “Love” by Keyshia Cole with their arms slung around Paige Bueckers.

“If StudBudz has proven anything to people, I hope it’s that WNBA players really do not hate each other and that this space is absolutely an inclusive space where ppl can be themselves and it’s the norm,” tweeted @sheknowsports. “That stream is EVERYTHING.”

Let’s get into this gay as hell weekend.

The Stud Buds Livestream Became Must-See TV

Court and T, both 5’8 guards for the Minnesota Lynx, started their Stud Budz Twitch channel at the top of the season, streaming their daily hangouts (except game days), often with special guests (e.g., Dijonai Carrington, Marina Mabrey), all season long. Aside from the thousands who tune in live, there are possibly millions more who scroll through clips every evening on TikTok and Instagram, including myriad viral moments.

Court is the more dominant personality — she’s loud, unrestrained, honest, perhaps the only person in history to respond to accusations of misogyny with the defense, “I don’t even know what [misogyny] means, so there’s that.” Her laughter is full-bodied — she stomps her feet, leaps out of her chair, slaps any nearby shoulders, vaults across the room and back. She’s got an energy that brings you in and shakes you around. T is a more subdued character, the wide-eyed little brother just thrilled to be invited but also very ready to get in trouble. She’s funny, sharing Court’s self-deprecating sense of humor, and is also earnest, supportive and quite frankly, fucking adorable. They’re both fundamentally unserious and always unpretentious. Most of all, they love the hell out of each other, and we love a bromance.

Williams, picked for the 2025 All-Star game, decided to take T along. They announced to their followers that they planned to do a 72-hour livestream of the entire weekend. The objective, it seemed, was mostly just to have a good time and earn some sponsor cash.

They turned up in a series of lightly or precisely identical outfits, both heads of hair freshly dyed hot pink (they often dye their hair during livestreams), delivering an open-hearted, chaotic window into the WNBA’s friends, lovers and chosen families.

The Stud Buds takeover also reiterated what the true backbone of this league has always been — Black women generally, and often Black lesbians specifically. And they made the entire weekend GAY AS FUCK. Here are some of the many gay highlights:

Tash Cloud Won All-Star Skills Challenge, Promised Her Girl a House

@espn

Natasha Cloud dedicated the skills challenge win to her partner Izzy Harrison #wnba #basketball #wholesome #love

♬ original sound – ESPN

After Cloud secured her first All-Star competition victory in the 2025 All-Star Skills Challenge, she sprinted to the sidelines, lifted her girlfriend Isabelle Harrison into the air, and kissed her right on the mouth. In interviews, she heaped praise on Harrison, acknowledged the extreme privilege they have to play on the same team and celebrated the financial winnings which will enable her to put a down payment on a house. “You’re gonna get that house!” she said to Isabelle. Furthermore: “We’re really thankful for where our journeys have brought us and our careers brought us and this is just the next step. So yeah, this is going to be money well spent.”

Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd Were In Full Girlfriends Mode

Don’t worry, we’ve written an entire post about Paige Bueckers referring to Fudd as her “girlfriend” on the orange carpet in an interview with wagtalk. But they were unabashedly together all weekend long, Azzi even saying Dallas flew her out for the event. On Stud Buds, T got her way into a photograph, cheesing that she was thrilled ot be pictured with THEE power couple of the league.

WNBA Lesbian Relationships Got Put On Blast

Jonquel Jones earned some heat a few months back when she commented on an instagram post distributing points to WNBA teams for how gay they were — disappointed that the New York Liberty came out on top she went ahead and shared some missing names, which included asking, “How Gabby on the list but not Marine..?” She was, of course, referring to French ballers Gabby Williams and Marine Johannes, who’ve spent a lot of time playing overseas but both returned to the W this year.

Many know or believe Williams and Johannes are engaged, but neither has confirmed even being girlfriends. After Court casually flirted with Williams on their livestream, she relayed to Johannes, “I know all y’all trying to act like I was trying to take her woman, I wasn’t. I love your woman.”

Both players steered clear of the livestream for the remainder of the weekend — but then the sportscasters got in on the action. After Gabby took a show, Rebeca Lobo noted, “That was for Marine Johannes, I bet”. Ryan Ruocco followed up with, “Gabby’s longtime partner.” OK THEN!

The Stud Buds also poked around Marina Mabrey and Saniya River’s rumored relationship. Who, to be fair, are really baiting us with these homoerotic photoshoots.

Pay Us What You Owe Us

Finally, I must mention that the players are continuing to fight for better pay in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), with both All-Star teams showing up to the Saturday night game in “pay us what you owe us” t-shirts. Over 40 players showed up to a union/league meeting on Thursday, but didn’t feel any progress was made.

The skill and fight of these players is on display six days and/or nights a week all season long, but this weekend wasn’t about competition but about personality. It has never been more obvious than it is at this moment in history how much value the WNBA brings to the table, how much talent and charisma remains under-appreciated, how these women bring a playfulness and joy and sexual tension to athletics that you just wanna capture in a bottle and hold close forever. This is sport at its purest. The game itself was fun to watch, as it always is —  players passing the ball to the other team or an injured teammate, eschewing defense altogether or trying to block a shot with an around-the-waist hug.

“This might be the best weekend of my life,” T said to Court on the Friday night livestream. Court was already under the covers while T bopped around.

“Oh, friend!” Courtney screamed.

“No, I’m serious twin,” T insisted.

“Oh T, the best weekend of your life?!?”

“The whole weekend?” T was incredulous. “Yes!”

Courtney threw both arms into the air, bringing her best friend in for a hug, and as T leaned into her, Court yelled, “I love you, bitch!”

And don’t we all.