More than a dozen LGBTQ women are nominated and five of this year's performances will be from queer ladies. 

Queer representation at the Grammys hit a particular zenith in 2014 when the lesbian singer/songwriter Mary Lambert dueted with Madonna on “She Keeps Me Warm” (Lambert’s hook from Macklemore’s “Same Love) as Queen Latifah officiated the nuptials of 33 same-sex couples. The orchestrated moment could have only occurred because of long-fought shifting cultural mores, increased visibility, and marriage equality legislation.

Five years later, the 2019 Grammy Awards (airing this Sunday on CBS) is irrefutably a landmark year of visibility for queer women. There are no fewer than 13 queer women nominated across multiple categories. And five of the female artists slated to perform for a live television audience at the ceremony are part of the LGBTQ community. 

Recent Grammy Awards ceremonies have recognized the work of queer women including Kesha, Lady Gaga, and Kehlani with nominations. But this year, women across the queer spectrum in a variety of music genres and from several generations earned nominations. Some of the women nominated have been out for decades while others came out within the past year. 

Janelle Monáe, who came out as pansexual in 2018, is nominated for her paean to labia for “Pynk.” And her singularly innovative Dirty Computer earned a nod in the album of the year category. When she received her nominations, she shouted out to underrepresented and under-recognized artists. 

"Being a young Black queer woman in America, there was something I had to say and there was a group of people that I wanted to celebrate, and I’m happy to be representing them,"Monáe said when the nominations were announced. 

"I hope they feel seen; I hope they feel heard; I hope they feel loved, and I hope they feel celebrated. This is for you!” she said. 

Janelle Monáe

Joining Monáe in the album of the year category is Brandi Carlile, the 37-year-old singer-songwriter from Seattle who’s By the Way, I Forgive You, wowed critics and audiences alike. 

An out lesbian since before her career kicked into high gear circa 2007, Carlile picked up a total of six nominations including four in major categories as well as in Americana and Roots music categories for the album and also for the song “The Joke.” 

When the nominations dropped in December, Carlile paid homage to the queer legends who came before her. 

"Those of us that are just a little bit younger than [Linda Perry], and the Indigo Girls, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, K.D. Lang, George Michael — and so on and so forth — our road has been paved with parody and humility,” Carlile told Billboard. “That’s something I’ll never forget. Those people have been parodied for being gay through the course of their career in a way that would never be acceptable now."

Lady Gaga

A perennial favorite, Lady Gaga earned five nominations with her megahit “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, which earned nods for song of the year and record of the year. 

Meanwhile, bona fide breakout star, Cardi B. who came out as bisexual in the dust-up over Rita Ora’s “Girls” is nominated in several categories including for album of the year, record of the year, and best rap performance. 

Other nominated queer female musicians include, Me’shell Ndegeocello whose Ventriloquism landed a nod for Best Urban Contemporary Album category; St. Vincent (Annie Clark) for Masseducation in the alternative album category; the Scottish musician Sophie for best dance album; and best new artist nominee Bebe Rexha, who also came out as a result of her participation in “Girls.” 

Brandi Carlile

While Carlile, who appeared in A Star Is Born in the film’s Grammy’s scene, has broken out of the more niche American section of the Grammys and earned nominations in major categories, there are two legendary women holding down slots in the folk music category. Lesbian singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, 56, is nominated in the folk album category for Rifles and Rosary Beads. The 78-year-old iconoclast Joan Baez (who spoke about her relationships with women in 1973) is also nominated in the folk category for Whistle Down the Wind. 

But it’s not just musicians who’ve earned recognition from the Grammys this year. Linda Perry earned a nomination for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Meanwhile, songwriter Teddy Geiger earned a nomination for co-writing Shawn Mendes’s "In My Blood" while Sarah Aarons co-wrote the nominated smash “The Middle” by Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey. 

Beyond representation across categories, four of the nominated women including Monáe, Carlile, Gaga, and St. Vincent are slated to perform. If that weren’t queer representation enough, Miley Cyrus is also taking to the Grammy's stage. 

Annie Clark (St. Vincent)

It's not new for queer women to stake a claim at the Grammys. They've been nominated and winning for decades. Melissa Etheridge has a pair of wins for best rock vocal female for “Come to My Window” and “Ain’t it Heavy.” k.d. lang has four wins, including one for best pop vocal performance, female for “Constant Craving. Gaga has won six Grammys — five from the “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance” stages of her career.  

But while queer women have been recognized by Grammys past, the sheer number of remarkable women from the LGBTQ community who are of up for awards this year and the fact that Monáe and Carlile are both nominated for album of the year, is momentous. 

And of the more than a dozen queer women nominated this year, the only previous winners are Gaga and St. Vincent, who won for best alternative album in 2014, leaving room for so many historic wins at the 61st Grammy Awards on Sunday.

In a powerful episode this Friday, bisexual character Chris Alonso finds herself at odds with her team when protests at a gay rights rally go awry. 

CBS’s S.W.A.T. has been quietly tackling queer storylines this year. In the fall, the show’s bisexual character Christina (Chris) Alonso entered into a polyamorous relationship with an opposite-sex couple and the show broached issues around negotiating needs when poly. 

On Thursday's episode of the Shemar Moore-led series, the S.W.A.T. team is called to an LGBTQ rights festival following the murder of a gay couple. Protests ensue, and one frustrated activist takes a far-right button-pushing media personality hostage at his studio. 

While the idea of a queer activist going rogue may appear to paint activists in a purely reactionary light, the episode presciently delves into important issues like the traditionally fraught relationship of marginalized groups and the police. 

During negotiations with the hostage taker, Chris (Lina Esco) talks down the perpetrator by revealing she's part of the LGBTQ community and sharing how much she relates to his frustration with inaction on the part of the authorities.   

Later, Chris and her colleague Deacon (Jay Harrington) face off over the religion.

S.W.A.T. airs Thursdays at 10 on CBS.

S.W.A.T. Takes on the Fraught Relationship Between LGBTQ People and Police

The actress and musician was honored with Best Song for "Shallow," from A Star Is Born.

Grammy-winner Lady Gaga is now on her way to an EGOT after nabbing Best Song during Sunday's Academy Awards.

Gaga won for "Shallow," the iconic theme from A Star Is Born, which she starred in with Bradley Cooper. Gaga was honored with the award, along with Cooper, who performed it with her, and songwriters Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt, who wrote "Shallow" along with Gaga.

The pop star makes history as one of the few out bisexual stars to win an Academy Award.

Gaga thanked the Academy, her family, and Bradley Cooper, before exclaiming how hard work got her there.

“This is hard work. I’ve worked hard for a long time. It’s not about winning -- what it’s about is not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it. There’s a discipline for passion, and it’s not about how many times you get rejected or you fall down or get beaten up. It’s about how many times you stand up and are brave and keep going.”

Ronson thanked Gaga: “I think when you’re in the room with this person, you don’t have to do that much. She acts, she sings the song. Lady Gaga, we salute you.”

The grounbreaking series finished filming and the cast paid tribute with Laura Prepon becoming very choked up saying goodbye to Alex Vause. 

When Orange Is the New Black premiered in 2013, it was revolutionary television. Not only was the series from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan benchmark TV in terms of the diversity of its primarily female cast and characters that included LGBTQ people and people of color, but it was also one of Netflix’s earliest successes with scripted TV. As shooting on the show’s seventh and final season wrapped Tuesday, the cast began posting emotional farewells. 

While many cast members posted in their Instagram stories, Laura Prepon, who played the lesbian intellectual convicted drug runner and half of the show’s central couple, Alex Vause, posted an emotional video of the moment she left the set when the cast and crew applauded wildly. 

That’s a wrap on one of the greatest gifts: bringing Alex Vause to life and being a part of this phenomenal show, #OITNB. #orangefamily, I am truly grateful for this experience and for all of you! pic.twitter.com/Ep8FFMa3J2

— Laura Prepon (@LauraPrepon) February 27, 2019

“You guys are amazing. Thank you. This has been a true gift and an honor to work with you. Thank you,” an overcome Prepon said before exiting the set. 

Upon the show’s final season, Kohan posted a photo of the cast and crew with the caption “This is a family.”
 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a family. #OITNB

A post shared by Jenji Kohan (@ijnej) on Feb 26, 2019 at 2:05pm PST

She also posted a picture of cast member Danielle Brooks (Taystee) holding a sign that reads “That's a wrap.” 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all she wrote... #OITNB #Bye

A post shared by Jenji Kohan (@ijnej) on Feb 26, 2019 at 8:43pm PST

Based on Piper Kerman’s memoir of the same name, Orange Is the New Black began as a fish-out-of-water story with uptight socialite Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) finally landing in Litchfield penitentiary nearly a decade after she helped her then-girlfriend Alex run drugs. 

While Kerman’s own story was the catalyst for the narrative, the show soon began focusing on secondary characters like Taystee, Suzanne (Uzo Adubua), Poussey (Samira Wiley), Sophia (Laverne Cox), Daya (Dascha Polanco), and Gloria (Selenis Leyva), whose stories eventually became more central to the series. 

Over the years, OITNB racked up several Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Critics' Choice Awards, to name just a few. 

Natasha Lyonne, who plays Nicky Nichols, shared on her Instagram story that upon wrapping, "a guttural sound came out of me, like some wounded animal." 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the last shot, a guttural sound came out of me, like some wounded animal.

A post shared by Natasha Lyonne (@nlyonne) on Feb 20, 2019 at 7:03am PST

WHOA. My heart is full and achey, and so overflowing with gratitude, I’m a little dizzy,” Schilling wrote at the end of filming, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OITNB series wrap! WHOA. My heart is full and achey and so overflowing with gratitude I’m a little dizzy. #orangefamily forever. #thatsawrap @lauraprepon #katemulgrew @uzoaduba @daniebb3 @tarynmanning @nicksandow @sheisdash @selenisleyvaofficial @yaelstone @acmoore9 @nlyonne @jackiecruz @theonlyelizabethrodriguez @thecrusher007 @mslauragomez @dalesoules @mattvanpeters @alysiareiner @ijnej @ttobie @markburley @lvinnecour @nerikyle @carolapaiz @angeldeangelis @karenreutermakeup711 @valerievelez76 @dierblessed @stephbarrmakeup @makeupartistlife @jennrogien @pinkpenny169 #cindyholland

A post shared by Taylor Schilling (@tayjschilling) on Feb 26, 2019 at 3:55pm PST

Regarding the end of the series, Schilling told THR,  “I feel like we’ve told the stories, and I don’t feel like any stone is left unturned. I think [the show] did what it came to do. And now, in the Trump era, there are new stories to tell.” 

A release date for season 7 has not been set, but the show typically drops in June or July. 

Orange Is the New Black Cast Wraps Series With Emotional Goodbye

New Zealand-based comics Madeline Sami and Jackie Van Beek wrote, directed, and costar in the irreverent, often queer, comedy about platonic love.

Breaking up isn’t hard to do when you can hire someone to do it for you. At least that’s the initial idea in the Netflix comedy The Breaker Upperers from New Zealand-based comics Jackie Van Beek and Madeleine Sami, who wrote, directed, and star in the irreverent comedy.

The Breaker Upperers stars Van Beek as Jen and Sami as Mel, friends who launched a breaking-up service after they realized 15 years ago that they were being two-timed by the same guy.

The women happily don costumes and fake pregnancy bumps to help couples burn down relationships and irrevocably break up, that is, until Mel begins to feel guilty about the damage they leave in their wake.

The movie offers up as much heart as it does gross-out hilarity and saucy sex jokes (those are mostly courtesy of Mel, who’s bisexual and speaks openly about her sexual experiences). But in the end, it’s really a romantic comedy about the platonic love between its female leads. Complete, with fantasy sequences, a music video, and a guffaw-worthy strip-tease, The Breaker Upperers is refreshingly unhinged and very queer.

Friends in real life, Van Beek and Sami (who is queer and in a relationship with New Zealand-based singer Ladyhawke) have a deep affinity for one another that they wrote into their characters in the film.

Watch a montage of scenes from the Breaker Upperers below. The movie is currently streaming on Netflix.

Netflix Bramance The Breaker Upperers Shows Life After Toxic Men

March is Women's History Month. From Gladys Bentley to Mercedes de Acosta, here are 20 queer women who paved the way in their fields of work. 

Celebrate Women's History Month with Queer Women Who Paved the Way

Astronaut Sally Ride

Model, Spy, and Arts Patron Toto Koopman

Playwright Lorraine Hansberry

Philanthropist and Arts Patron Winaretta Singer

Broadcaster and Journalist Nancy Spain

Journalist Lorena Hickok

Journalist Edythe Eyde

Nurse Florence Nightingale

Athlete and Professional Golfer Babe Didrikson

Politician Barbara Jordan

Building Manager, Artist, and Activist Louise Lawrence

First Lady and Diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt

Poet, Diarist, and Teacher Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Actress and Politician Nancy Kulp

Anthropologist Margaret Mead

Writer and Costume Designer Mercedes De Acosta

TV Journalist and Anchorwoman Jessica Savitch

Blues Singer Gladys Bentley

Director Dorothy Arzner

Nightclub Performer, Lecturer, and Author Christine Jorgensen

20 Game-Changing Queer Women to Celebrate Women's History Month 

March is Women's History Month. From Gladys Bentley to Mercedes de Acosta, here are 20 queer women who paved the way in their fields of work.

The actress who plays the Black Lives Matter activist Malika on The Fosters’ spin-off spoke with The Advocate about her identity as a bisexual woman of color. 

Step into the character Malika’s room on Good Trouble, Freeform’s edgier spin-off of The Fosters, and hanging on the wall is the iconic photo of Elizabeth Eckford, who in 1957 (as part of the Little Rock Nine) became one of the first students of color to attend Little Rock Central High School even as a mob of primarily white women hounded her. Malika resides at the Coterie, the communal living space where the Adams Foster sisters Callie and Mariana land upon their arrival in downtown Los Angeles post-graduation, and her picture of Eckford is an ever-present reminder to viewers that her work as a Black Lives Matter activist is part of a continuum of civil rights work. And it can’t be extricated from the intersections of who Malika is.  

Like its parent show before, Good Trouble leans into topical issues and LGBTQ visibility. The Coterie brims with intersections of race, queerness, gender, and class. Malika, a woman of color who grew up in the foster system, embraces a few of those intersections as well as the heart of The Fosters—a show about finding and holding on to family — perhaps more than any other new character on the series. On the show from three out executive producers, Joanna Johnson, Bradley Bredeweg, and Peter Paige, which also features an Asian lesbian character (Sherry Cola’s Alice) and a groundbreakingbisexual male character, Gael (Tommy Martinez), Malika does not identify as part of the LGBTQ community. But Zuri Adele, the actress who plays her, does. And she says that the series has inspired her to bring her “authentic” self to the role.  

“This is a great time [in TV], especially with Good Trouble. … We're putting a bisexual character [Gael] on television who is multidimensional, and I think it's a great time for a bisexual actor like myself to also represent for the community,” Adele tells The Advocate.“The show is holding [the characters], like the actors, also accountable to live authentically as who we are in our real life.” 

Even before Adele landed the role on the series (her first), which premiered in January, she knew it would be special. Not only had she watched and loved The Fosters, but at the audition, she could see that the producers were open to having various kinds of women step into Malika. 

“We all looked really different. They were still finding Malika and I loved that. I loved seeing the diversity among black women and that they were really open to that because all the women in the waiting room, we expressed ourselves really differently,” Adele says. “From our fashion to our hair to our voices. It was just cool to see that, Oh, Malika could be any of us. They're really breaking that ground.”

“There has been a past of black women being caricatures in a way on TV,” Adele adds. “It was so great to see so many different-looking women in that room.” 

Good Trouble’swriters established Malika’s identity as a Black Lives Matters activist straight away in the pilot when she squared off with Callie (Maia Mitchell), who began clerking for the conservative judge on the fictional but all-too-real Jamal Thompson case, in which police shot and killed an unarmed black man. Later in the episode, she revealed to Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Callie that she too grew up in the system, although, unlike them, she wasn’t adopted (by nurturing lesbian moms, no less). 

While Adele, a graduate of Spelman College (a historically black college for women), doesn’t share Malika’s past, she says she relates to her passion. 

“I love her. She's the perfect character for me. We're so passionate about the same issues and we also have different upbringings, so I get to learn a lot,” Adele says. “It's school and it's a way to channel my passions and then I get to learn from her. I get to channel myself in her. I get to use my authentic voice.”

Authenticity is something Adele keeps coming back to, crediting Johnson, Bredeweg, Paige, and even the network Freeform with inspiring the cast to be true to themselves in their art and lives. It’s why, although she never had the “aha” coming-out moment that’s depicted in so many movies and TV shows, she’s wide open about her bisexuality being another thread in her intersectionality. She’s also aware that expressing herself openly is important for those who don’t feel represented. 

“I'm so proud to be a part of the LGBTQ-plus community and I know that with this platform that I have, it's really important to make sure that all of my intersectionality is represented, because that's the one part. You can see that I'm a woman, you can see that I'm black, but you can't necessarily see that I'm queer,” Adele says. 

While Good Trouble is such a nurturing space to express one's true self that Adele and her castmates became so immediately close that they've been in a group text chain since they began shooting, Adele is conscious of the responsibility that comes with being out there and visible, as if a baton has been passed to her, she says. 

“It's scary and it’s also so right, Adele says. “There have been attacks on people who speak out for activism in their black bodies or queer bodies, and to be doing so on television definitely feels like an incredible responsibility and also allows me to know that I have to be really aware of my surroundings because there are still so many people who are not as progressive as we are and our fans are.”

“It's like my ancestors passed me the baton and now I'm running,” Adele says. 

As Good Trouble’sfreshman season draws to a close — season 2 is already in the works — Malika came face-to-face with her derelict mother in an emotional showdown last week. The episode peeled back the character’s past and revealed that Malika and her brother entered the system after she called child protective services on her mom, who had been abusing drugs. While Adele says she continually learns from her character, the actress is also fast becoming a beacon for other queer women of color. Her open embrace of her identities mirrors that of celebrities like Janelle Monáe, Tessa Thompson, Kiersey Clemons, and Sasha Lane, who are leading the way for LGBTQ representation. 

“That's just what we do. We can't hold this in. It feels spiritual, and I don't mean religious. It feels like a spiritual thing that we can't hold in our truth for too long,” Adele says of women of color who are authentic in their identity.  

“Maybe we've felt silent in a lot of movements, so now our generation is saying, 'We're going to use our voices.' It's more important to us to use our voices because we know what it's like not to have been able to,” she says. 

Good Trouble'sZuri Adele on Bringing All of Her Authentic Self to the Role

The activist and actress has now given her donation to an organization that specifically offers support to the bi-plus community. 

Activist and actress Sara Ramirez was refunded a donation she made to New York’s LGBT Community Center 18 months ago that was intended to help create assessments and training for staff around the bi-plus community that never panned out, she tweeted earlier this week. Instead, the money will go to BiNet USA, which will use it to train staff and volunteers at True Colors United, Cyndi Lauper’s organization dedicated to stemming LGBTQ youth homelessness. 

Just got a full refund from the NY LGBT Center because after a year & a half of promising my donation would create #bi+ assessments & training 4 their staff, it never happened. Good news is it’s going 2 @BiNetUSA 2 train @TrueColorsUnite (who’s ED scheduled within a few months)

— Sara Ramirez (@SaraRamirez) March 11, 2019

Ramirez, a Tony winner and a star of Grey’s Anatomy, where she played the landmark bisexual character Callie Torres, came out as bisexual in 2016. She has since become an ardent supporter and activist for bi-plus people. 

In 2017, the New York center honored Ramirez with its Trailblazer Award at the 20th Annual Women’s Event. At the time, the actress, who currently plays bisexual character Kat Sandoval on Madam Secretary, spoke passionately about activism around issues affecting bi-plus people. 

During her speech, Ramirez remarked that she originally thought to ask others in the room who were bi-plus to stand with her so that they could “see and celebrate one another,” but she changed her mind, she said. 

“The anticipation of almost no one standing up with me because so many of us don’t feel safe was too painful for me to risk. I have felt so vulnerable so often,” Ramirez said. “And no matter where I turn, there are so few resources specifically for bisexual-plus people generally, and especially bisexual-plus people of color. We are suffering because we don’t have community. We are fractured. We are isolated.” 

Her speech then delved into a dearth of support for bi-plus people within LGBTQ organizations. 

“Over 50 percent of the LGBTQ-plus community identifies as bisexual, fluid, nonmonosexual, and yet we are often neglected and erased. There is rarely programming specific to our needs, rarely speakers, trainers, and staff who are bi-plus and who can lead bi-plus-specific work,” Ramirez said. 

Finally, Ramirez offered a cheat sheet of sorts to LGBTQ organizations on how to better serve the bi-plus community. 

“It is time for that to change, for us to see bi-plus staff at large LGBTQ institutions, to see brown and black bisexual-plus people in top leadership positions, to have bi-plus specific programming, to have clear, easy access to culturally competent bi-plus resources when going to LGBTQ orgs’ websites, to see signs up in your lobby that explicitly celebrate bi-plus people, to direct funding to the bisexual-plus community’s needs, to have leaders (whether they identify as bisexual-plus or not), naming our identities and sharing our stories.” 

The Advocate reached out to the center for comment regarding refunding Ramirez's donation. 

"We strive to meet donors' expectations but unfortunately were not able to do so in this instance. Given that, the most responsible course of action was to return the donor's gift," the center's director of communications, Mary Steyer, wrote in an email. 

BiNet USA, where Ramirez has now made a donation, is a nonprofit that helps facilitate “the development of a cohesive network of bisexual communities, promote bisexual visibility, and collect and distribute educational information regarding bisexuality.” 

On Twitter, the organization thanked Ramirez for her donation that will help train people at True Colors United, an organization Ramirez has long supported.

And we thank you for this opportunity to educate and make the world a little but better. #BigBiHugs#20BITEEN#bitwitter

— BiNet USA (@BiNetUSA) March 12, 2019

This past December, Ramirez performed the song “True Colors” with Lauper at the organization’s Home for the Holidays concert. 

Sara Ramirez Refunded Donation From NYC LGBT Center After Dearth of Bi-Plus Support 

The Perfectionists creator I. Marlene King and star Sasha Pieterse spoke with The Advocate about the new show's LGBTQ visibility and just why Alison left Emily.

For devotees of Pretty Little Liars, the twisting mystery that had fans guessing who (various forms) of “A” was for seven seasons, Beacon Heights, where the show’s spin-off Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists unfolds, is an uncanny West Coast answer to PLL’s Pennsylvania-based fishbowl that was Rosewood. Save for familiar faces like PLL’s original dead mean girl Alison and the tenuously stable tech genius Mona, The Perfectionists introduces a brand-new cast of unreliable, morally ambiguous characters who are caught in a different mystery and a web of lies of their own design. While The Perfectionists, shot near Portland, Ore., arrives with fabulous eerie newness, five minutes into the pilot it’s clear that it’s still the world of intrigue and LGBTQ visibility that PLL creator I. Marlene King built.

“Pretty Little Liars is in the title, so it's mystery, it's romance, it's high-stakes soapy drama. Lots of twists and turns,” King tells The Advocate about what to expect from The Perfectionists.“I think it fulfills its promise as a Pretty Little Liars spin-off.”

But it’s also more than that. For all of PLL’s zany plot lines and elements requiring suspension of disbelief, like the time the main characters’ omniscient cyberbully A impregnated the no-longer-dead Alison with her true love Emily’s fertilized embryos (more on that to come), the series was grounded in heartfelt stories of female friendship and also important landmark LGBTQ representation. 

Premiering on Freeform (then ABC Family) in 2010, the series introduced a thoughtfully navigated coming-out story for Emily (Shay Mitchell), who was gay, and later for Alison, who is bisexual. For all of its departure from PLL, amid the secrets and lies that unfold at Beacon Heights University, where Alison has landed as a teacher’s assistant and mentor to the younger characters, The Perfectionists hews closely to its parent show with its focus on surveillance (being watched by an all-knowing entity). But mainly, the new series follows in PLL's footsteps in its telling of stories with a heart and its commitment to moving the needle forward with LGBTQ visibility in TV — especially with Sasha Pieterse’s Alison leading the show and with the introduction of gay and bisexual male characters. 

“We’re very excited to have a gay male character and a bisexual character, and you may see a budding lesbian romance down the line. We’re really happy to be inclusive on the show,” King says. 

While King remains humble about her place in creating game-changing television, especially for young LGBTQ  people within the PLL universe, Pieterse credits King, who is a lesbian, with pushing for diversity on the parent show and on The Perfectionists. 

“Marlene was definitely the leading force behind this [push for LGBTQ representation]. I love her wife. Her family is just so beautiful. She is coming at this from such a different perspective,” Pieterse tells The Advocate.“What I loved about [PLL] was that even though Rosewood is such a heightened reality, such a crazy place, she was handling really tough and intense issues with ease. That was the real part of the show — the dynamics between these teenagers and their parents.” 

“[King] really just took care of Emily and that character and then took care of Alison and Emily. That’s why it's such a beloved relationship, because of this intricate love story. I think she's really made sure that it's normal because it is. It shouldn't be overexaggerated. It shouldn't be played up. It shouldn't be anything more than it is,” Pieterse adds.  It's been really great to be able to play a character like that and to be able to touch so many people.”

Janel Parrish as Mona 

Ten years ago PLL put actresses including relative unknowns Mitchell, Troian Bellisario, and Ashley Benson on the map (Lucy Hale was the biggest star of the series at the time) along with Pieterse and Janel Parrish, who plays the deliciously troubled Mona and who is Pieterse’s co-lead on the new series. Soon after arriving in Beacon Heights, Alison discovers that her nemesis and sparring partner in many a slap-fight, Mona, manipulated her into coming to the West Coast town — ostensibly to get to the bottom of the recent death of the daughter of Beacon Heights’s premier family, the Hotchkisses. The daughter, in true PLL style, happens to be a doppelganger for Alison. 

Pieterse, who was in her early teens when she shot the PLL pilot about a decade ago, promises that The Perfectionists, which picks up with Alison after she's left her wife, Emily, and their twins behind in Rosewood to truly find herself, carries King’s vision of bringing sincere stories about human interaction forward. And that's even as the pilot episode, which introduces a new crew of pretty little liars including Sofia Carson’s Ava, Sydney Park’s Caitlin, and Eli Brown’s gay cellist Dylan, closes with a murder. 

At 23, Pieterse, between playing Alison for seven seasons and starring in the gay-themed teen comedy G.B.F., has amassed her own queer following. And she's especially excited about the introduction of Dylan into PLL’s world. 

“Dylan is the first gay male character in the Pretty Little Liars series, and the best part about it is that it's not really addressed. I don't mean it's not spoken about. It's just normal because it is,” Pieterse says. "It's not like the network was like, Well, we have to have this demographic in here. Nothing was pushed. It was like this was a fun, great, cool character. This was his relationship, and it's amazing, and it's supportive, and it's loving." 

Both King and Pieterse assure that The Perfectionists will appeal to new viewers without confusing them with leftover PLL plotlines while also offering enough Easter eggs and nods to fans of the parent series (like a Lady Gaga musical allusion in the pilot’s opening moments).

One major part of the narrative that could be a sticking point for fans of Alison and Emily (Emison) as a couple is that The Perfectionists sees Alison —who was once presumed dead, later found to have been buried alive, and who was in hiding for about five seasons of PLL before reuniting with her friends and confessing her love for Emily — pick up and leave her wife and children. But Pieterse cautions viewers of PLL to remember that Alison never asked for the babies, considering it was Uber-A who violated and impregnated her with Emily’s fertilized embryos.

Parrish, I. Marlene King, and Sasha Pieterse 

“One of my main questions when I started this was, What is the deal with Emily and the babies? Alison seems like such a bad mom,” Pieterse says of Alison taking on a position a world away from her family. 

“I had to kind of fill in my storyline in there to motivate my feelings and the way that Alison is reacting. What resonated was the fact that they [Alison and Emily] have been A-less for quite a while and it's more about the dust settling. As much as she loves her babies, she didn't ask for them,” Pieterse says. 

“Alison's intention with coming to Beacon Heights is to get her to grieve so that she can go back to Rosewood and teach at Hollis and become a professor there,” Pieterse adds of her character's motivation. “She wants to be a better wife. She wants to be a better mom, and she's trying to prove to Emily that she can be a better person and rise above everything that's happened.” 

For King’s part, she knows that Emison fans are passionate. She says she tried to be truthful to the character of Alison while honoring the epic love story. 

“Pretty Little Liars has a heightened world, but we try really hard to make the problems these people face relatable to everyday people problems,” King says. “Hopefully the truth that the writers’ room is experiencing is going to parallel what people are going through out there in the real world.” 

Regarding the real world, if Rosewood was ultimately a fishbowl where everyone was being spied upon a la Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, then The Perfectionists takes the idea of surveillance to new heights during a time when it seems like no one is free from scrutiny on social media or elsewhere. 

“You’re diving into a world that feels like PLL, but it's not redundant. We're focusing on new, very real issues. One of them is this Big Brother feel where you're being watched and you don't know how much,” Pieterse says. “It's something that could be easily happening to us now and probably is. You think about bathrooms, you think about your home, you think about hallways, the streets, your work, everywhere constantly being watched and not knowing why, and where is that data going?”

“It only gets darker and creepier and that's really exciting,” Pieterse says. 

The Perfectionists airs Wednesdays on Freeform, beginning tonight.

The Perfectionists Ups the Mystery and Queer Quotient of Pretty Little Liars

The model and actress shared that she prefers to give in love and in the bedroom during a refreshing interview with RuPaul. 

Model and actress Cara Delevingne spoke with great candor on the latest episode of RuPaul: What’s the Tee,in which she openly discussed sexual roles in the bedroom.

As part of a refreshingly open interview with RuPaul and Michelle Visage that included talk about food and career, the 26-year-old, who is bisexual, discussed how she prefers to give pleasure rather than to receive it and how she’d rather stay in and have sex than go to a club.

“Laughter in during sex is so important. Part of sex — that connection — it’s feral. You meet someone, but when you go in the bedroom, it’s another animal. To me that is so interesting, because there are people who are supersexy and you flirt with them, but then you have sex with them and they’re terrible,” Delevingne said. 

“I like people who are really prudish because when they get in the bedroom. … It’s a whole transformation,” she added.

In a year when queer women have been open on social media about wanting to be topped by Rachel Weisz following her queer roles in Disobedience and The Favourite, Delevingne revealed that she prefers to be dominant with women.

“As a person, generally, I’m really good at giving love and not receiving it and I’m kind of the same in bed as well,” Delevingne said. “There’s a part of it where I find it quite difficult to receive pleasure or love. So I just kind of like to give.”

“I’m always very submissive with men, and with women I’m the opposite,” she added.

Over the years, Delevingne was famously in a relationship with Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and dated Michelle Rodriguez.

Delevingne, who’s been out since early in her career, also spoke about how she hopes there will be queer Disney princesses moving forward.

“I hope so,” Delivingne replied to Visage when asked if she thought Disney would ever tell a story about a gay princess.

“Especially for a lot of my family and the kids, it’s really important for them to understand being gay and fluidity, you know, because a lot of them are tomboys. A lot more now, it’s accepted, the kind of gender fluidity,” Delevingne said.

Listen to the entire podcast below. 

Halliwell claims Mel B lied about a hookup they allegedly had at the height of Spice Girls' fame in the '90s. 

Social media exploded when Mel B (Scary Spice) revealed she and her former fellow Spice Girl Geri (Ginger Spice) Halliwell Horner had sex in the 1990s. But Halliwell says that Mel B’s assertion is a lie and called the statements “hurtful,” according to People. 

“It had been very disappointing to read about all these rumors again, especially on Mother’s Day of all days,” Halliwell said via a representative.

 It “is simply not true and has been very hurtful to her family,” the representative wrote in a statement.

Halliwell was responding to an assertion Mel B made on Piers Morgan’s upcoming Life Stories that was shown in a clip on Good Morning Britain last week.

In the clip, with Morgan's prodding, Mel B nodded affirmatively that she hooked up with Halliwell.

“It was just that once,” she said. “And hopefully when Geri gets asked that, which hopefully she will after this, she won’t deny it. Because it was just a fun thing.”

“[Geri’s] going to hate me for this because she’s so posh in her country house with her husband,” she said. “But it’s a fact. It just happened and we just giggled at it and that was it.”

After rumors that Ginger and Scary Spice had sex at the height of the Spice Girls’ popularity in the ’90s blew up on social media, Mel B appeared on 2Day FM Breakfast With Grant, Ed & Ash, where she hinted at their hookup again.

“We’ve known each other for 20-plus years. It was just one of those things that happened one night,” Mel B said.

Despite being disappointed at Mel B’s assertion, Halliwell expressed that she is looking forward to the upcoming Spice Girls’ U.K. reunion tour.

“Geri can’t wait to see the girls and all the fans on the tour, have an amazing time with everyone, and make some new memories,” according to her rep.

The actress behind Kat teases the next phase of her character's same-sex relationship.

Freeform’s breakout series, The Bold Type, about three best friends navigating career, life, and relationships while working at a Cosmopolitan-esque fashion magazine, returns for its third season on Tuesday. 

The Advocate caught up with Aisha Dee, who plays social media guru Kat Edison, in The Bold Type's infamous fashion closet. In the video below, Dee, whose character came out as bisexual as she realized she was falling for Adena (Nikohl Boosheri, playing TV’s first lesbian Muslim) in season one, chats about what it means to portray a bisexual character. 

“It’s a lot of responsibility. That’s not lost on me. It’s something that I see and it’s something that I really care deeply about,” Dee says. “I feel so blessed even though there are moments where I feel like I’m absolutely not worthy and they should get someone who’s more articulate or has their shit together more than I do.” 

“I think it’s interesting to see a grown woman discovering their sexuality a little later,” she adds about Kat’s journey. 

In TheBold Type’s second season finale, Kat and Adena went through an abrupt, heartrending breakup that sent fans on social media reeling. But that was not the end, according to Dee.

“Last season kind of felt like the end and it couldn’t be because it wasn’t quite explained. There were still questions I had in my mind and I think that people are going to be really happy because it allows Kat to go off and grow on her own, which she really does need to do some growing up," she says. "I think it will be really interesting when we get to see that stuff come back up again because it will.”

Dee also speaks candidly about the show's portrayal of female friendships and of breaking the mean girls' stereotype. She notes that her friendships with her costars, Katie Stevens (Jane) and Meghann Fahy (Sutton), mirror those of the relationships on the show. Watch Dee below. 

The Bold Type airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on Freeform. 

The Bold Type's Aisha Dee on Female Friendship and Playing Bisexual

Morales chats with TheAdvocate about making history as a queer woman of color playing network TV's first bisexual sitcom lead.

The new NBC comedy Abby’s offers a straight-forward premise that fits perfectly with the multi-cam sitcom format that dominated TV comedies for decades — a no-nonsense former marine opens an unlicensed bar in her backyard where she surrounds herself with a group of loveable patrons who abide by her quirky rules. Even as the series bears the familiar audio of being filmed before a live audience and the recognizable shot-reverse-shot camera work prevalent in multi-cam comedies, Abby’s is quietly revolutionary in its casting of Natalie Morales, a queer Cuban woman, to play the titular character, TV’s first bisexual lead in a comedy who is also a woman of color. 

“It's a huge deal, not only personally, but just that the character is the first bisexual lead of a network show and we meet her ex-girlfriend!” Morales tells TheAdvocate.  

“It's not necessarily the main thing but you are showing a woman who dates women and is the lead of a show and it's totally normal. That's what we wanted to perpetuate and talk about is the normalcy of it,” she adds.

It’s no secret that the character of Abby is bisexual, something Morales says creator Josh Malmuth and executive producer Mike Schur (Parks & Recreation, The Good Place) wanted from the start. The show's first two episodes set up the world of the bar and the denizens who frequent it. But the third episode entitled “Free Alcohol Day” (airing tonight) features Abby matter-of-factly telling her new landlord Bill (Nelson Franklin) she’s bisexual when her ex-girlfriend turns up to deliver the “free alcohol.” 

The series never makes a meal of Abby’s sexuality, and it’s probably a lot less interesting than the 162 rules and regulations of her bar that include a no-phones rule and a tiered seating arrangement based on time served at the bar.

Still, the reveal that she dates men and women is revelational coming from a lead character of a sitcom whose queerness was known even before the first episode aired. The Good Place’s Eleanor (Kristen Bell) revealed she’s bi in the third season after much innuendo, but her identity wasn’t clear from the start. After 10 seasons of baiting and a recent affair with a woman, Will & Grace had the opportunity to declare Karen (Megan Mullally) bisexual (which would have retroactively made her the first bi character in a comedy ensemble), but the writers chose to have her come out as straight.

“It’s a huge deal for me,” Morales says of carrying the mantle of bi visibility, especially since it's also personal. 

“I never saw that growing up. I never saw anything like that and especially not on network television and especially like an LGBTQ+ character that wasn't in peril and who wasn't going to be killed or their girlfriend was going to die in their arms or whatever,” Morales says.

Now 34, Morales cut her teeth in sketch comedy before going on to star in the 90210 reboot, Parks and Recreation, Girls, and Santa Clarita Diet. She had recently wrapped production onBattle of the Sexes(the biopic starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King who took on Bobby Riggs in the tennis match of the century while also discovering her sexuality) when she came out as queer in an op-ed in June 2017. In the film, Morales played Rosie Casals, a contemporary of King’s who was part of the "Original 9" tennis players who fought for equal pay in sports.

“It’s a really remarkable story, especially on the front of being gay in any way, and daring to fight for something publicly,” Morales says of King and the Original 9.

“For so long, and probably still for a lot of people and a lot of places, you want to stay low on the radar if you feel like you have something to hide. And Billie Jean King and the rest of these women were like, I don't care if people come after me, this is wrong and I have to fix it,” Morales says. “That's just an amount of boldness that is very rare in this world and that I would like to emulate in any way I can.”

But Morales, who says costarring in Battle of the Sexes was, “One of the best moments of my life,” has already emulated that boldness by coming out publicly and blazing a trail for other queer lead sitcom stars to come out and play characters not defined by their sexuality.

“You’re just showing a person living their life and thriving, and people love them, and they're doing okay,” Morales says. “It shouldn't be a big deal, but that is huge.” 

Abby's Natalie Morales Plays a Bisexual Lead and It's a 'Huge Deal' 

Finally, the trailer for the film about the years-long love affair between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West is here. And it was worth the wait. 

Period pieces about queer women were big in 2018 with The Favourite, Collette, and Lizzie. And 2019 promises to continue with that trend now that the long-awaited trailer for Vita and Virginia, about the years-long love affair between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, has finally dropped. Additionally, the film has been set with a release date of July 5. 

From director Chanya Button, Vita and Virginia stars Elizabeth Debicki (Widows, The Night Manager) as the great modernist, feminist writer Virginia Woolf and Gemma Arterton (who executive-produced the film) as poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West.

Replete with feminist treatises, alternately furtive and long-held looks, lingering touches, and the click-clack of the typewriter, Vita and Virginia appears as though it will be catnip for literary-minded queer women.

“I have the appetite to know you better,” Vita says at one point, later bemoaning having loved someone for years who couldn’t fully commit.

Based on the love letters Vita and Virginia penned to one another for years, the story also focuses on how Vita became the muse for Virginia’s epic novel Orlando, about a truly gender-fluid aristocrat over centuries. 

The film costars Isabella Rossellini, Rupert Penry-Jones, Peter Ferdinando, and Call the Midwife star Emerald Fennell (who was executive producer and head writer for the current season of Killing Eve). 

Watch the trailer below.

Elizabeth Debicki & Gemma Arterton Are on Fire in Vita and Virginia Trailer 

The Hollywood heartthrob is sick of caring about what people think, and now he’s choosing to own his space.

Tyler Blackburn is ready to be free. It’s a bright morning in Los Angeles, and the anticipation is palpable as he speaks candidly on life, acting, and self-discovery. The young actor knows that today is an important milestone for him, yet he can’t help but feel vulnerable during these emotional few minutes.

It isn’t hard to fall in with love Blackburn, whose breakthrough role as Caleb Rivers in ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars solidified him as one of Hollywood’s brightest talents — earning the actor three Teen Choice Awards (two for Best Male TV Star and one for Best Chemistry, which he shared with PLL costar Ashley Benson) and a considerable number of young fans. 

Blackburn’s fandom runs deep and heavy among teen audiences. His starring role in the CW’s Roswell, New Mexico as gay war veteran and amputee Sgt. Alex Manes continues to push boundaries while highlighting issues seldom seem on-screen — like PTSD, immigration, and queer love. Finding the character was cathartic, and in many ways Alex’s inner struggle mirrors the actor’s own.

While growing up in L.A., Blackburn says he resisted coming to terms with his identity. A self-confessed “late bloomer,” he was picked on for being effeminate — times he describes as dark periods in his life, when “self-hatred and shame” overpowered him on a daily basis.  

“I got bullied a lot by other boys, and I just felt like my soul was slowly being taken from me,” he reflects. “I ended up eating lunch in my biology classroom in 10th grade, and I had no one to talk to. You form a shell around yourself for protection. And you start to make decisions based off of things outside of what you want and who you are. I stopped doing so many of the things that I loved doing because it felt safer. That right there is the outcome of oppression. When you literally have to mute who you are in order to feel safe. That’s soul-crushing.”

But the young star is done caring about what people think. Now he’s building a new kind of role fueled with the intention to be “as happy as possible, as free as possible” and is choosing to own his space after years of avoiding the truth.

“I'm queer,” he proclaims. “I've identified as bisexual since a teenager.” His voice cracks as years of secrets and dodging media questions about his sexuality falls by the wayside. “I just want to feel powerful in my own skin, and my own mind, and in my own heart.”

Embracing the scope of who he was took time and effort. While he had a couple of long-term relationships with women in his early 20s, Blackburn wasn’t entirely fulfilled by them, and he says he always had an “underlying curiosity” about men. But as is the case for many bisexuals, he battled social pressure to remain binary (either gay or straight). Deep down, he knew he was neither.

“I heard so many things from within the queer community about bisexuality being a cop-out or bullshit or the easy way out or something, and that always stuck with me because I felt the pressure from all sides to have [my sexuality] figured out,” he shares. “And I think for the longest time, I suppressed more of my attraction to men. It wasn’t until my late 20s, towards the end of Pretty Little Liars, that I really allowed myself to go there and not just wonder about it or lust over it, but experience that vulnerability and experience the emotional aspect of what it is to be bisexual.”

Blackburn’s role in Roswell, New Mexico came at a perfect time in his life. “I knew this guy in and out,” he says of discovering Sgt. Alex Manes. “I understood feeling oppressed. I understood having issues with my father [wanting to feel] accepted by him. I understood wanting something but being afraid to have it. I understood self-doubt.”

Someone else who understood was the show’s creator, Carina Adly MacKenzie, who Blackburn came out to while shooting the pilot. Not only did she accept him with open arms, but she made a point to nurture Blackburn’s storyline with immense compassion and fortitude.

For Blackburn, the path toward self-discovery is visible both on-screen and off. Even more prominent is the awareness that he no longer needs to be placed in a box.

“Just because you decide ‘I am this thing’ doesn’t mean you immediately feel like you fit into that thing,” he explains. “That’s another part of the journey that I still don’t always know how to navigate, but I’m feeling more courageous and fortified to explore.”

Fans of Roswell, New Mexico have been supportive of Blackburn and costar Michael Vlamis’s on-screen relationship. Michael Guerin (Vlamis) is bisexual on the show while Alex Manes is gay, but one specific scene stands out: Alex and Michael wake up in bed together and Michael puts his hand on Alex’s leg and caresses it downward, eventually touching where his limb ends — a moving act that many amputees can relate to but rarely see on-screen. The fact that Alex is gay also speaks to the roaring debate on LGBTQ people serving in the military.

“It’s little things like that, that made me realize, ‘Wow, this is a big responsibility,’” he reflects, adding that he’s wasting no time on making other people comfortable.

“I’m so tired of caring so much. I just want to live my truth and feel OK with experiencing love and experiencing self-love,” he says. “Yes, there is an element of, I want to feel like it’s OK to hold my boyfriend’s hand as I’m walking down the street, and not worry. Is someone going to look and be like, ‘Whoa, is that guy from that show? I didn’t know that [he was queer.]’ I want to own my space now.”

In every way, Blackburn is exactly where he should be — the here and now.

“Now we’re at a place where fluidity is spoken about in such a beautiful way that it doesn’t make me feel as pressured to have it figured out,” he says. “My goal above everything is to feel as happy as possible. As free as possible. I don’t just mean happy, like, ‘I’m laughing all day, every day.’ That’s actually insane. That’s impossible. What I mean is, I want to feel free.”

The ultra-queer series from out creator Tanya Saracho has sisters Lyn and Emma finding love and figuring out what to do with their mother's neighborhood bar. 

Vida, from out creator Tanya Saracho, is in a class of its own in terms of representation for queer Latinx people on-screen and behind the camera, and its second-season trailer just dropped.

Based in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the series tackles gentrification as two sisters, the fastidious Emma (Michel Prada), who is queer, and the free-spirited and self-centered Lyn (Melissa Barrera), return to their mother’s home after her death to mourn her and to handle her affairs. Specifically, they must decide what to do with the money pit of an apartment building and bar their mother, Vida, owned. In the process, they discover that Vida had a secret life of her own and was married to Eddy, a woman (played by nonbinary actor Ser Anzoategui).

Not only does the fresh and deeply funny Vida feature actors who are LGBTQ, but the show’s writers and crew also consist overwhelmingly of people of color, queer people, and women. The first-season finale saw the oft-feuding siblings Lyn and Emma come together in contemplation about their future, which includes what to do with their mother’s bar. Judging from the trailer, the sisters work to make the run-down bar a gathering place and a “safe space" for the community. Roberta Colindrez of I Love Dick and Fun Home fame joins the cast this season as a bartender at Vida bar. 

Vida season 2 is available on the Starz app beginning May 23 and will air linearly on Starz beginning May 26.

Watch the season 2 trailer below.

Vida's Season 2 Trailer Just Dropped, and It's Queerer Than Ever 

The reboot of the beloved series highlights romantic and platonic love stories between trans, queer, lesbian, bisexual, straight, and queer people.  

"I moved here in 1966. I suppose it was a different place then. But in some ways, not at all," says Olympia Dukakis's Anna Madrigal, the de facto matriarch of Barbary Lane, in the new trailer for Netflix's Tales of the City reboot. The line sets up the connection between past and present for the beloved franchise. 

The 1993 Tales of the City miniseries, based on Armistead Maupin’s novel, was a revelation of queer representation when it aired on PBS. Now the franchise has stepped into the 21st century with a Netflix redux that honors the original with Laura Linney reprising her role as Mary Ann, whose wide-eyed young woman in the big city circa the '70s was the anchor of the book and original series. 

Dukakis also returns in the role of the trans character Anna Madrigal at a time when there is pushback against cisgender actors playing trans. However, the new series seeks to represent an even wider array of LGBTQ people and has cast several trans actors and actresses, including Jen Richards to portray the young Anna Madrigal. 

The plot synopsis for the new series from Netflix is as follows: 

"Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City begins a new chapter in the beloved story. Mary Ann returns to present-day San Francisco and is reunited with her daughter Shawna and ex-husband Brian, twenty years after leaving them behind to pursue her career. Fleeing the midlife crisis that her picture-perfect Connecticut life created, Mary Ann is quickly drawn back into the orbit of Anna Madrigal , her chosen family and a new generation of queer young residents living at 28 Barbary Lane.” 

Out Orange Is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli is the showrunner on the series, which costars Paul Gross reprising the role of Brian, Ellen Page as Mary Ann’s daughter Shawna, A Fantastic Woman star Daniela Vega, RuPaul’s Drag Race’sCaldwell Tidicue (Bob the Drag Queen), Murray Bartlett and Matthew Risch from Looking, Russian Doll'sCharlie Barnett, May Hong, Garcia, and Zosia Mamet from Girls.  

The new trailer highlights the various kinds of relationships, both romantic and platoni,c from the longtime friendship between Linney's Mary Ann and Bartlett's Michael to Michael's relationship with his young boyfriend Ben (Barnett) to Page's Shawna exploring intimacy with Mamet's Claire and more. 

The new Tales of the City premieres on Netflix June 7. 

New Tales of the City Trailer Shows All Kinds of Love Are in the Air

The landmark series is coming to an end this summer and a new emotional teaser trailer features the cast singing the Regina Spektor theme song. 

Orange Is the New Black is ending its historic run with its seventh season, beginning July 26. A new teaser trailer features cast members who’ve been with the series since it premiered in 2013 singing the show’s theme song, “You’ve Got Time,” while thoughtfully strolling through the soundstage where the show is shot.

Lyrics like “Think of all the roads, think of all the crossings” take on new meaning as Taylor Schilling, whose Piper was the focal point of the show early on, wanders through the set as the show’s end is imminent.

Meanwhile, Natasha Lyonne, who’s played Nicky since the beginning, runs her fingers through a rack of costumes labeled for characters like Big Boo and Yoga Jones who were absent from last season as she sings “Remember all their faces...”

Uzo Aduba (Suzanne), Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Kate Mulgrew (Red), Laura Prepon (Alex), Dascha Polanco (Daya), Adrienne C. Moore (Cindy), Jackie Cruz (Flaca), and Diane Guerrero (Maritza) all feature prominently in the elegiac video that reminds viewers of the journey the series and characters have taken audiences on since its premiere.

Orange Is the New Black’s final season drops on Netflix July 26.

Orange Is the New Black'sFinal Season Teaser Trailer Is a Tearjerker 

Set 10 years after the original L Word ended its run, the reboot will usher in a new generation of LGBTQ characters to join some we know and love. 

The L Word is coming back this year, a decade after the original series ended its run. News dropped earlier this year that the reboot was a sure thing and that original stars Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey, and Katherine Moennig were all returning as actors and as executive producers. Now Showtime has revealed that the reboot will be called The L Word: Generation Q, according to Deadline.

Screenwriter and playwright Marja-Lewis-Ryan (The Four-Faced Liar) was tapped as showrunner to shepherd in a new generation of LGBTQ faces into the world of characters who once congregated at the fictional café The Planet. 

While groundbreaking in its own right, the original L Word made missteps around bisexual and trans identities and was not as racially diverse as LGBTQ-inclusive shows that have come after, like Orange Is the New Black.

Signaling that the new series intends to thoughtfully depict various identities, last month the show put out a casting call for trans actors. There was no indication of how pivotal the roles would be, but it’s an important step for a series that was called out for transphobia during its original run.

Generation Q, which will shoot in Los Angeles this summer, is set to premiere in the fall. The pilot is directed by executive producer Steph Green, who’s directed episodes of The Americans, The Man in the High Castle, and You’re the Worst.

Soon after it was confirmed in January that the show was moving forward, original cast member Sarah Shahi, who played the beloved Carmen, said she would be joining the reboot.

Other original L Word characters, including Tina (Laurel Holloman), Dana (Erin Daniels), and Jenny (Mia Kirshner), may also return for the reboot, although there’s no indication yet of how the writers will handle reincorporating Dana and Jenny, who were killed off in the original series. Grier has said she will not return for the show because she’s tied up with the series Bless This Mess.

Recently, Beals posted a photo of herself standing among a diverse group of writers in The L Word’swriters’ room.

“I cannot even begin to tell you how wonderfully inspiring it was to be in The L Word writers’ room with all these extraordinary, talented people,” Beals wrote. “Y’all are in for a great deep-dive-wild-ride.”

The L Word Reboot Has Finally Revealed Its Name 

Vishaal Reddy stars in Insomnia, a new web series about an Indian-American writer who moonlights as an escort.

Hollywood has until very recently portrayed Indian-Americans as caricatures (similar to its representation of LGBTQ people); there's the man behind the counter at the bodega, a woman with a thick accent, families serving strange food, recurring stereotypes and not a lot else.

But in Bollywood, things are different.

In sharp contrast, Vishaal Reddy, the creator and star of the new web series, Insomnia, was able to see people on screen who looked like him. They were everywhere in Bollywood, in roles big and small. Accessing these films, which existed outside of mainstream American culture, allowed Reddy to see that his Indian heritage was something to be celebrated. "They taught me that our bodies were beautiful, no matter the shade of our skin, size, social status, or sexual orientation."

Reddy also names Mindy Kaling, Kal Penn, Nik Dodani, Kumail Nanjiani, Ritesh Rajan, and Priyanka Chopra as evidence of an industry that is in the early stages of change. Reddy says these actors and creators are "challenging the narrative that South Asian performers can truly be multifaceted and do a multitude of things." 

This multiplicity is present in Insomnia, a darkly comedic web series where Vishaal Reddy plays Nikhil Rao, a bisexual writer who secretly moonlights as an escort to help support his sick aunt. Representation for Indian-Americans, bisexuals, and sex workers is sparse; a single character, especially male, whose identity intersects in each of these areas is an almost non-existent list. 

Talking with sex workers while writing the script, Reddy learned about the types of clients people have, stigmas they face, and how compensation and stories vary among everybody. "They're all entrepreneurs and have to think like business people just like everyone else," he says, also pointing out that it's one of the few professions where women will make more money than men.

It was important to Reddy that this character, Nikhil, have a sexual agency, something that the Indian-American stereotype rarely allows for onscreen. "And let's be real," Reddy says, "East Indians created the Kama Sutra...so it’s not like we’re not having sex."

Reddy, like his character, is bisexual, something he struggled a lot with growing up. He felt like he could be gay or he could be straight. Then he turned 21, moved to New York City, and started down the path of exploring and ultimately embracing his bisexuality. This was part of the story he wanted to tell, and he does so with a charm and intelligence that helps carry the series, which also grapples with racism, trauma, euphoria, and the universal issue of insomnia. 

Watch the trailer and first episode of Insomnia below. New episodes are released every Thursday. 

RELATED | Special's Ryan O'Connell Wants to 'Show the Humanity in Sex Work'