A winning year for queer people of color
20Gayteen is a movement created by queer youth around the world. It is how many people feel this year is going.This year is showing a queer positive light; and there has been quite a rise in queer content this year.
First was the release of the brilliant and beautiful movie Love, Simon, a positive and carefree movie which queer teens can enjoy. Love, Simon does not show Simon feeling horrible for how he feels, a much needed deviation from the queer content I am used to.
In the past two weeks two queer musicians put out fantastic work: Hayley Kiyoko and Keiynan Lonsdale. You may know these two from “Lemonade Mouth” and “The Flash,” respectively.
Hayley Kiyoko, aka “Lesbian Jesus,” first dropped queer inclusive music with her single “Girls Like Girls” from her “This Side of Paradise” EP. It was the first time in a while that I heard a huge pop song about girls loving girls. I was originally exposed to the likes of singer-songwriters Tracy Chapman and Melissa Etheridge, wo gay/queer icons who first released music in the 80s.
From the outpour of support that came with “Girls Like Girls,” most of which came from queer girls and women on social media, Kiyoko dropped another EP, “Citrine.” This EP gave us great songs like “Gravel to Tempo,” “Ease My Mind” and “One Bad Night.”
When I listened to this album, I felt happiness. I felt happiness that I, a queer person of color, could someday feel the love that is emitted in “Ease My Mind,” and feel powerful as Kiyoko eventually feels in “Gravel To Tempo.” Kiyoko’s full length album, “Expectations,” makes the listener feel so many emotions in its estimated 51 minutes. The album also features a song with Lonsdale, a fellow queer artist.
Lonsdale, who plays Kid Flash/Wally West on the CW’s Arrowverse, dropped a song called Kiss the Boy. The singer, whose pronouns are they/them/theirs, voice is beautifully expressionist on this song about falling in love and loving who you love: “If you wanna kiss the boy, then you gotta kiss the boy right now.”
As a queer person of color I am just happy and ecstatic with the growth in queer content, especially from other queer people of color.
There are other instances of beautiful representation of queer people, such as Detective Rosa Diaz from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” a Latina character who came out as bisexual. On that show, the writers were not afraid of specifically stating that the character was bisexual and actually using the term, which many programs seem to shy away from.
20Gayteen is going to continue with the rise of such content. This year has helped me understand that I need to write something exponentially queer greater. Someone out there, especially young queers, are going to enjoy and love my content. My queerness would never be overshadowed by the world’s heteronormalcy. I have embraced my queerness already, but now I flaunt it wholeheartedly.