The new year is a time for reflecting and looking forward.
To close out 2021, Xtra’s Thomas and Tranna looked back on the top pop culture moments of the year. But what does 2022 have in store?
This week in “The Buzz,” instead of looking at recent queer pop culture happenings, we’re looking ahead to what could be. Some of these probably will happen (hello KStew Oscar!), while others are a bit more far fetched (but we can still dream). Some are very serious, others are a bit more abstract. But in the game of making predictions, truly anything is possible.
From breakups to makeups to awards and more, here’s a list of 22 queer pop culture predictions for 2022.
- Kristen Stewart will win an Oscar for Spencer. It would make Stewart the first openly queer actress to take the Best Actress statuette. Expect many queers (a.k.a. me) to be tweeting endlessly about what she wears on Oscars night.
2. Elliot Page will direct a film featuring an up-and-coming trans star. Since coming out as trans in late 2020, Page has been a vocal advocate for his community and a visible icon, with appearances at the Met Ball and the cover of Time magazine. In 2022, Page will further that work, producing a film featuring at least one trans artist of tomorrow.
3. Comedians will keep defending Dave Chappelle, even if it never goes well. Patton Oswalt got this one started on New Year’s Eve, appearing on a show with Chappelle before spending a lot of time arguing with trans folks on the internet about whether or not he is an ally. Expect, unfortunately, a lot more of that in 2022 as we are reminded that there are truly no consequences for being transphobic.
4. JoJo Siwa will evolve into Gen Z’s Cara Delevingne and invest in a vagina tunnel. The breakout queer star of 2021 will only keep growing up in 2022, and will leap into her early 20s as a messy queer with several high-profile breakups, makeups and makeouts throughout the year. The world will be better for it.
5. Demi Lovato will go to space. The non-binary pop star will hitch a ride with some billionaire and pitch it as part of their whole alien obsession.
6. An actual gay season of The Bachelor. Whether it happens or is just greenlit this year, expect gay dating reality TV to reach new heights in an offshoot of the popular franchise. There will be boys. There will be roses. There will be problematic relationship dynamics. And we will eat it up.
7. Amy Schneider will come for Ken Jennings’ Jeopardy crown. Currently ranked fourth all-time in games won, the trans trailblazer is going to keep on winning in 2022, eventually spinning her success into hosting some sort of queer-focused trivia show that we all will adore.
8. Dan Levy will announce a new TV project focused on queer youth.
9. Karlie Kloss will tell all too well about what happened with Taylor Swift back then, and it’s juicy. Give the lesbians what they want!
10. Michelle Visage will leave Drag Race in a shocker that signals the decline of the franchise as we know it.
11. But before that, we will hit a period where there are several weeks with at least four different iterations of Drag Race airing at once.
12. Lil Nas X will make some sort of NFT and, unfortunately, it will actually be cool looking. With Matt Damon shelling crypto and Top Chef stars hawking awful pizza cartoons online, many celebs will inevitably fall into the blockchain in 2022. We predict not only that Lil Nas X will join in, but that he’ll also real the rest of us in by somehow making NFTs something the gays care about.
13. In addition, Lil Nas X will enter into a high-profile relationship and break up during the course of 2022.
14. Yellowjackets will get some Emmys love. The Showtime series was a breakout hit over the holidays, and concludes its first season this January. The series’ casting has rightfully gotten big kudos, but in 2022 we’ll see Succession-level awards buzz for the buzz, buzz, buzz team.
15. Jonathan Van Ness will run for public office. The Getting Curious and Queer Eye star is quickly evolving into the sort of celebrity that thinks their destiny is government, so we predict a run for minor office in 2022. Hey, at least they’re marginally better than Caitlyn Jenner.
16. Rachel Weisz will make yet another prestige lesbian drama.
17. Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker will reunite to give the gays what they want: a boygenius sequel.
18. J.K. Rowling will fully embraces the alt-right, and will take her anti-trans crusade to the U.S., with appearances on Fox News and Breitbart.
19. The L-Word Generation Q will be renewed for a third season, dooming us all to another cycle of hate-watching.
20. Despite the Omicron surge, the Beijing Olympic Games will happen, and there will be more openly queer and trans competitors than ever before at a Winter Olympics.
21. A famous kid will come out as trans. One of the highest profile celebrity children—we’re talking a child of a big celebrity—will come out as trans in 2022 and kick off a wave of positive activism from their famous parents.
22. More queers than ever before will continue to not only survive, but thrive. We’ll see record years for representation across all categories in music, TV, movies, social media, theatre and more. And we are here for it!
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