Every week, “The Buzz” catches you up on the hip-hop happenings of the wide queer cultural sphere, from film casting news to Kristen Stewart’s musings and more. Another week has come and gone, with more pop cultural delights to dig into!
Here’s what you missed this week in queer and trans pop culture.
→Another RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 queen has come out as trans. In an emotional episode of Untucked, the behind-the-scenes show that airs after the main franchise’s weekly episode, Jasmine Kennedie came out as a trans woman.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said that moment was the first time she ever said “I am trans” out loud.
“I hope people realize that it’s not easy to talk about. No one has the right plan or time to talk about it,” she said. “No one should feel pressured to come out if they don’t want to, but if you want to be open and talk about it, you should feel the freedom to do so…. It was a euphoric moment.”
Fellow contestant Bosco came out as a trans woman last week after being openly non-binary on the show. Kennedie and Bosco join Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté and Kerri Colby as the four openly trans women competing on Season 14.
During Untucked, Kennedie credited Colby with showing her a vision of what she could be. In light of Kennedie’s and Bosco’s coming outs—both of whom thanked Colby—the fandom and the queens have meme-ified the L.A. queen’s influence.
Her influence!
The light-hearted exploration of transness is a sharp change for a franchise that just a few years ago regularly used the phrase “she-mail.” In 2018, RuPaul said he would not allow a trans woman to compete if she was actively medically transitioning.
“You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body,” he said. “It takes on a different thing; it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing.”
He quickly walked back those comments after a wave of backlash from the community.
“I understand and regret the hurt I have caused,” he wrote on Twitter. “The trans community are heroes of our shared LGBTQ movement. You are my teachers.”
Since those comments, the franchise has had its first openly trans winner in All Stars 6’s Kylie Sonique Love, the casting of its first openly trans man in Season 13’s Gottmik and now this landmark Season 14 with four openly trans women competing.
→Openly queer athletes won eight Olympic medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Among them was arguably the gayest of them all: gold for Canada’s women’s hockey team, which is absolutely chock full of lesbians.
→Speaking of very queer sports, a huge victory for pay equality in women’s soccer came this week after years of dispute. U.S. women’s soccer players reached a landmark agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s teams going forward.
→Kristen Stewart and a slew of celebs performed Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” and it is a moment.
→KStew also shared her thoughts about her engagement and future wedding to screenwriter Dylan Meyer in an interview with the L.A. Times.
“There was a time in my life where I was like, ‘No, I would never get married. Like married married, like put a dress on and walk down the aisle married.’ And by the way, I’m not doing that. That’s not going to be the type of wedding that I have,” she said. “The fact that I’ve already said, ‘Hey, let’s get married’ and that we have rings and stuff… we’re kind of already done.”
→Elliot Page is publishing a memoir in 2023 called Pageboy, which is an impeccable title.
“The memoir will delve into Page’s relationship with his body, his experiences as one of the most famous trans people in the world, and will cover mental health, assault, love, relationships, sex, and the cesspool that Hollywood can be,” reads a statement from Page’s publisher.
→Kate McKinnon is going to be in that Greta Gerwig Barbie movie.
→Arthur—a.k.a. everyone’s favourite gay rat wedding show—aired its final episode this week after a 25 year run. The finale shows the characters all grown up, including incredibly dykey vibes for Francine, who we learn has become a sneaker company owner with a Raven Symone undercut.
Really, it’s a huge victory for all of us (cough, me, cough) who crushed on the outspoken soccer player growing up.
→Gillian Anderson’s trend of making historical women hot to us modern gays continues, as her turn as Eleanor Roosevelt in the trailer for the new mini-series, The First Lady, does do it for me in that way.
→A new R-rated musical comedy film from A24 is set to feature Nathan Lane, Megan Thee Stallion and Bowen Yang. Written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, F*cking Identical Twins will follow two business rivals who find out that they’re twins separated at birth. Think The Parent Trap meets gay Twitter with a Nathan Lane/Megan Thee Stallion duet. Honestly, I’ve had that exact dream before.
Why you can trust Xtra
