Five queer movies & TV shows to get your mind off the world – Wednesday, June 29, 2022

To take a beat from the news this week Anna talks the latest in queer TV and Film. From B-Boy blues on BET to the Queer as Folk reboot on Peacock, the queer vampire drama First Kill on Netflix and Fire Island on Hulu. All have diverse casts and LGBTQ actors on full display.

00:00 Welcome & Intro

00:47 Today’s Top Picks

01:20 Happy Pride

01:40 Intro Music by Aina Bre’Yon

02:20 BG Update  

02:53 LGBTQ Women’s Survey

04:20 Five Queer TV Shows & Movies

08:36 Outro

08:57 Anna’s got a word

Things for you to check out 

Join the QCrew

Get your tickets to BKLYN BOIHOOD’s Pride Party @The Bell House with code: BKBOIS2022

https://bit.ly/3tPBard

Take the National LGBTQ+ Women*s Survey today

​​https://www.lgbtqwomensurvey.org/

Sign the Petition – Secure Brittney Griner’s Swift and Safe Return to the U​.​S.

https://www.change.org/p/secure-brittney-griner-s-swift-and-safe-return-to-the-u-s

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Transcript

Family, its your favorite queer radio personality Anna DeShawn with our queer news for today. Now, I want to make you a promise. We will continue to bring you the latest in queer news, culture and politics: 7 minutes a day, 5 days a week. So, if you are digging our intersectional take on the daily, consider joining the QCrew.

The QCrew is our monthly membership program we started to help us grow the podcast. With your help we can bring you more stories celebrating our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & comrade communities. You’ve shown us your support by tuning into this episode. You can show your curiosity by clicking the link in the show notes to learn more about the QCrew.

Instead of diving into today’s top stories, we’ll take a break from the the coverage to chat about 5 new queer TV shows and movies you should binge to take your mind off the world. To escape reality a bit. From B-Boy Blues to the new Netflix vampire drama First Kill, I’m doing a spoiler-free rundown on the moments you missed in queer media. But first, we have an update on Brittney Griner.

BG has been wrongfully detained for 132 days. Our efforts to raise awareness have been working. But to guarantee BG’s safe return, President Biden and the state department need to negotiate her release from Russia. In the meantime, we need everyone to sign the petition to secure BG’s return. Every signature matters, so don’t forget to add yours today. As always, the link is in the show notes. We are BG.

Now with everything going on in the world sometimes we need to unplug. We must. And one way I love to do that is with tv and film. So I wanted to drop some queer recommendations that came out this month that might just help take you away from reality just for a bit. 

First up is B-Boy Blues. B-Boy Blues is an adaptation of the book by James Earl Hardy, who is considered to be the first American playwrite to depict a gay hip hop love story. The film follows a 27-year old journalist from Brooklyn and a 21 year old homeboy-bike messenger from Harlem as they fall in love in the summer of 1993. It’s a tumultuous love story that highlights the complexity of black queer love. The movie aired on BET earlier this month for Pride Month so the film is ready for a quick binge this week. The film and the soundtrack are full of Black queer artists and this is Jussie Smollett’s directorial debut. No matter how you feel about him this is definitely worth supporting. 

Next, Queer As Folk is back with a reboot on Peacock. Have you heard of it? The original British version of Queer as Folk broke a tremendous amount of new ground for LGBTQ+ storytelling in the late 1990’s – telling the story of three very different gay men. The new Queer as Folk is from creator Stephen Dunn, who has been developing the project since late 2018. The reboot reimagines the original series with a diverse cast of recurring, non-white, disabled, gender-fluid, and transgender actors. If you’ve ever attended our annual Purple Tie Gala then you’ll see a familiar face; Cleopockalips. She’s performed at nearly every gala and you’ll see her on screen as Bussey the matriarch of the scene. The show is now streaming on Peacock so be sure to add it to the queue.

If vampire dramas are more your vibe, you might want to hear about First Kill. When author-turned-executive-producer Victoria Schwab wrote the story she set out to “create a space in the genre for two girls to have a queer love story.” Since the Netflix series debuted earlier this month, the series has climbed to Number 3 on the streamer’s global rankings and in some countries, such as South Africa, it’s at Number 1. On social media, fans have been organizing viewing parties and rewatch sessions in the hope of pushing this camp supernatural drama toward a season two renewal. It’s that popular, family! And let me tell you none of this is happening without Felicia D. Henderson okay. There’s always a Black woman bringing it all together. Felicia is the showrunner, EP and head writer of the series and really brought Victoria’s vision to life. If you’re with it, head on over to Netflix and save it for later. 

Last for today, Hulu has its own queer line-up this Pride with two notable mentions. Earlier this month, I gave a shoutout to the film Fire Island for its representation of gay men in the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Fire Island follows a group of friends who embark on a weeklong vacation to Fire Island, the famous gay village on Long Island, New York. Noah, the heartthrob type, is focused on getting his best friend Howie to hook-up with someone during their trip. This plan backfires real quick as the group spends what might be their final week on the island. This movie is full of sexual innuendo’s, gay humor, and straight up conflict. And speaking of conflict, Hulu’s Love, Victor also released its third and final season on the platform this month. In this high school gay drama, which is a spin-off of the film Love, Simon, Victor explores what coming out and gay dating look like as a son of not-so accepting catholic parents at an affluent school. The series capitalizes on teenage angst and high school romance so be ready for a twist or two when you watch it.

I think any of these will help you take your mind off what’s going on in the world, even if only for a moment. Also, I want you to know that I’m working on my reflection from my trip to San Francisco to cover the 35th anniversary of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. It’s almost there so let’s close with a word from Cleve Jones that I captured during the opening ceremonies. His words are so poignant and I hope they inspire us to remember what can happen when we come together. 

Till tomorrow family, Peace.