The Strange Fate Of Queer Characters On "Westworld"
In a complex, often sexually explicit show that explores the boundaries of human behavior, there sure are a lot of straight storylines — and the few LGBT characters we do see are either coded as villainous or disappear without a trace. (Note: Spoilers ahead.)
The Spectacle Of Lesbian Sex In Prestige Cinema
The Handmaiden is the latest in a string of critically acclaimed lesbian films directed by male auteurs that reduce queer women's bodies to a beautiful spectacle. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)
Hannah Hart Might Be YouTube's First Crossover Queer Icon
After half a decade of dominating YouTube, the My Drunk Kitchen star is determined to show her young LGBT fans that it's possible to grow up and live a big, gay, happy life. In today's cultural climate, when positivity is all too often drowned out by cynicism, can Hannah Hart make it cool to be kind?
These TV Shows Are Finally Giving Queer Women Happy Endings
Two recent stand-alone episodes of Easy and Black Mirror are a breath of fresh air in a television landscape that doesn’t often afford LGBT characters their lives — let alone a happy ending.
Kristen Stewart's Complicated New Appeal
In Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, Kristen Stewart plays the object of queer desire — a role she’s played with increasing complexity for years, both on screen and in real life.
What Does A Queer Pop Star Look Like In 2016?
For queer female celebrities, coming out is only the beginning. Can an artist like Halsey — bisexual, biracial, and transitioning from internet to mainstream fame — avoid the pressure to straighten her image?
Hollywood's Problem With Unfeminine Girls
In Netflix’s '80s-throwback sci-fi horror series, Stranger Things, its young hero gets a girly makeover and wins the heart of a boy. For decades, masculine-looking girls in film and television have been a problem to be solved — or at worst, queer monsters to be vanquished. WARNING: Spoilers ahead!
This Is What The World’s Biggest Gay Rugby Tournament Looks Like
At a time when homophobia and hypermasculinity still pervades men’s sports, the 2016 Bingham Cup brought hundreds of gay athletes to Nashville. Inclusive rugby is working to dispel anti-LGBT sentiment in international athletics — could it do the same in the American South?
Why Queer Bars Matter
"I found a safe place. I found home.”
The Past Hundred Years Of Gender-Segregated Public Restrooms
While anti-transgender bathroom bills have only recently gained momentum, gender-segregated public restrooms have been sites of gender inequity for over a century. Cultural anxieties about bodily secretions, disease, sex, shame, and power — codified into law and reinforced by Hollywood — have allowed the segregated institution to stand. But should we let it?
Movies With Young LGBT Characters You Need To Queue Up Immediately
This year on the festival circuit, many queer films are probing the experiences of young people, with storylines that include transitioning, falling in love, and just plain growing up. Here are three of the best.
When My Oldest Friend Did Something Unforgivable
Thomas was the one person who didn't ask me to be anything other than myself. Until he did.
Looking Back On The First Major Lesbian Movie With A Happy Ending
Thirty years before Carol, there was Donna Deitch's genre-defying Desert Hearts. BuzzFeed News caught up with Deitch in London to revisit the director's classic lesbian love story.
10 Movies With A Shit Ton Of Lesbian Subtext
No homo, though.
The Year We Imagined The End Of The Closet
From celebrities discussing their identities on Snapchat, to a new generation embracing a “no labels” approach to sexuality, coming out looks different in 2016 than ever before. But could it really no longer be necessary?
We Asked Lea DeLaria For Honest Advice And Things Got Real
She did not disappoint.
Our Favorite LGBT Essays We Published This Year
Getting messaged by a childhood bully on a gay dating app. Navigating the dating scene as a black trans woman. Aspiring to motherhood. Saying goodbye to historic queer spaces. These, and more, are the powerful reflections in BuzzFeed LGBT's favorite essays of 2015.
What It's Like To Be A Lesbian Couple With A 20-Plus-Year Age Difference
Queer women who date despite significant age gaps challenge mainstream standards of beauty, rewrite stereotypical relationship power dynamics, and subvert a bunch of social rules regarding sex and love. But it's not always easy.
When Lesbian Films Are Almost Too Stylized For Their Own Good
Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, is a luxurious lesbian period film — so luxurious, in fact, that the women can seem like beautiful symbols just beyond our reach.
Lea DeLaria Revisits Her Career Highlights
From stand-up comedy to Broadway to Orange is the New Black, she's basically done it all.