Entertainment/ Queer Music Club

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Bold, queer, and electric.

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Cheers, Queers: 4 Non-Alcoholic LGBTQ+ Beverage Brands to Try Now

Raise an alcohol-free glass!

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Wake Up with Pride: Queer-Owned Coffee Brands You’ll Love

From bold brews to empowering missions, explore queer-owned coffee brands.

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A Weekend in Madrid: The Ultimate Queer-Friendly Travel Guide

Get ready for some unforgettable bites, sights, and nightlife! 💃

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Slacktivists of the World: Support the Cause, Add to Cart!

5 LGBTQ+ organizations to support by shopping.

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In Life

7 LGBTQ+ Mobile Apps For a Better Life

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From healthcare to travel to education, there’s always an app to help make your life easier, keep you entertained, or better inform you on the go. While plenty of dating apps are geared toward our community, what about the other facets of modern queer life? Here’s a list of mobile apps for the queer community.

misterb&b

Airbnb and Vrbo popularized the concept of staying like a local by helping you rent homes and apartments for your vacation. misterb&b connects you to gay-friendly rentals while donating a percentage of the profit to LGBTQ+ nonprofits.

When the company’s co-founder & CEO, Matthieu, and his partner booked a shared apartment in Barcelona, they found their host uncomfortable renting to a gay couple. The experience inspired him to start a short term rentals site focused on the gay community. misterb&b aims to connect the global gay community and offer a safer travel experience.

GeoSure

Traveling in any of the 71 countries where homosexuality is a crime may be risky, but queer people, especially trans and gender nonconforming, can be at risk in far more places. GeoSure offers neighborhood-level real-time LGBTQ+ safety ratings for more than 40,000 places worldwide. By combining local statistics and data feeds, the app offers safety ratings on a scale from 1 (Very Safe/Cool) to 100 (Very Dangerous/Hot) across seven categories: overall safety, women’s safety, physical harm, theft, health and medical, LGBTQ+ safety, and political freedoms.

Lex

Before the internet and smartphones, many queer people found romantic connections and friendships through personal ads in their local newspapers and zines. Throwing it back, Lex started is a lo-fi, text-based social app for the LBTQIA+ community to discover events and groups to hang out with online or IRL.

Kelly Rakowski, who also founded the lesbian culture Instagram @h_e_r_s_t_o_r_y, started Lex as a way for people to find each other without the frustration of dating apps. While curating historical photos for her Instagram account, she came across an online archive of personal ads from On Our Backs, a lesbian erotica magazine. Intially posting them on @h_e_r_s_t_o_r_y, her followers fell in love with these mementos from lonely hearts so she began soliciting personal ads for a new project that would become Lex.

Kalda

Developed by LGBTQIA+ therapists, Kalda offers self guided therapy programs to help you strengthen your mental health. Studies have found that the LGBTQ+ population is more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and substance misuse than heterosexuals. And LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely than heterosexuals to use mental health services. Co-founder Charlotte Fountaine had struggled with questions around her identity as a bisexual woman, leading to panic attacks. She found group therapy helpful and was inspired to create a supportive space for queers. 

This colorful app offers video therapy sessions, quick meditations, and daily reflection journaling. Therapy can come with an expensive price tag creating a barrier for many, so Kalda offers affordable monthly and yearly subscription options.

Rally

Rally is a social app for LGBTQIA+ sports and fitness communities. While it can often be tough to build connections within the LGBTQ+ community outside of nightlife spaces, Rally offers a platform to connect with new friends, discover local events, and join local sports teams. 

Queer athletes can often face homophobia and discrimination, founder Duncan Campbell created Rally to promote inclusion and help foster safe spaces for queer and trans athletes to practice sports.

Quist

As I’m sure most of you have gathered from being avid readers of this blog, I love music and history. I especially love learning about moments in history that are often forgotten or rarely told, which happens to be the case when it comes to minority groups. Quist is an app that aims to educate the world about the history of LGBTQ+ communities, the struggles we have overcome, and the allies that supported us. Every day Quist presents a notable event in queer history that happened that day with interactive media and links to more information.

Since 2013, the app has mostly been created through the help of volunteers with the non-profit the Quistory Project, Inc. The organization was founded by Sarah Prager, the author of Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World.

Our Bible

While the LGBTQ+ community is usually pushed away by most mainstream Christian religions, plenty of queer people continue to hold deeply religious beliefs. Our Bible is an app that aims to bring the progressive Christian community together. The platform offers the largest collection of devotionals, podcasts, resources, and other media content that are pro-LGBT, pro-women, and encourage interfaith inclusivity.

Writer and activist Crystal Cheatham felt devastated when she was told she couldn’t be gay and Christian. She started Our Bible to offer the LGBTQ community a space to pursue their spiritual practice without sacrificing any part of their identity.

What are your favorite mobile apps? Is there one you wish had a gay friendly equivalent? Share your favorite queer mobile apps with me!

August 22, 2024
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In Entertainment

Discover the Gayest Sci-Fi Flicks in the Universe

Science fiction has a unique ability to reflect and reimagine our world in fantastical ways to explore complex and sometimes taboo themes. I personally love that the genre can delve into stories that reflect the struggles of minority groups, especially queer people. To celebrate this stellar intersection of LGBTQ+ stories and out of this world adventures, I’ve scoured the galaxy for a list of queer-themed sci-fi flicks for your streaming pleasure. Join me on this journey and let’s explore some captivating queer stories together!

Space Station 76

Synopsis: In a 1970s version of the future, the closeted gay commander of a space station clashes with his new second-in-command.

Why you should watch it: If you’re not big into sci-fi. The film may feature a science fiction setting, but the core story is about the relationships of a small isolated group. It’s also set to a soundtrack of hits from the 60’s and 70’s.

Where you can see it: Amazon Prime, YouTube, iTunes, Google Play

V for Vendetta

Synopsis: In a dystopian future, London is under fascist rule. A masked vigilante, V, enlists the help of a young woman to overthrow the government.

Why you should watch it: The film deals with homophobia and homosexual persecution by the fascist tyrannical government. In these trying times, the film’s themes are as important as ever.

Where you can see it: Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play

Sense8

Synopsis: 8 strangers discover they share a special psychic connection that lets them share experiences and skills. They soon discover their kind are the target of a sinister research group.

Why you should watch it: If you’ve been living under a heterosexual rock, you’ll have missed this Netflix series by the Wachowskis (the final season is a feature length movie). The series has gained gay buzz for its numerous pansexual orgy scenes, gay romances, and its trans lead character. But you should also watch because it’s instantly bingeable.

Where you can see it: Netflix

Bloody Mallory

Synopsis: With a strikeforce of misfits, including a drag queen, the titular heroin must take on an army of undead monsters to rescue the Pope.  

Why you should watch it:

Where you can see it: YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Play

Nimona

Synopsis: In a futuristic medieval world, a knight is framed for a crime and must rely on the help of a shapeshifter named Nimona to prove his innocence.

Why you should watch it: This is the queer Disney movie you’ve been dreaming of! Nimona combines stunning animation with a seamless blend of sci-fi and fantasy genres to create a captivating story for the whole family. Featuring a gay romance and a storyline that reflects trans experiences, Nimona brings meaningful depth to the genre.

Where you can see it: Netflix

Riot Girls

Synopsis: A mysterious virus has killed all the adults, leaving behind teenagers who’ve formed into rival gangs.

Why you should watch it: Riot Girls leans more post-apocalyptic than traditional sci-fi, with a sapphic, teen comedy twist that packs in plenty of campy, gratuitous violence. Based on a graphic novel, the film nods to its origins but never fully commits to developing those elements into something greater. The storyline is definitely familiar but the world is fun enough to make it an enjoyable watch.

Where you can see it: Tubi, Prime Video, PlutoTV

Flaming Ears

Synopsis: Set in the city of Asche in the year 2700, this sapphic sci-fi story follows three women, comic book artist Spy, the alien being Nun, and performer Volley, in a story of love and revenge.

Why you should watch it: While I couldn’t follow the plot 100% of the time, I did enjoy it for the lo-fi aesthetic. Shot on 8mm film, this art house flick makes creative use of miniature sets, stop-motion effects, and fun low budget costumes and set design.

Where you can see it: Prime Video

Did you discover a whole new queer world? Tell me about your favorite sci-fi films! And if you’re a fan of spookier stories, be sure to check out my list of queer-themed horror movies.

July 24, 2024
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In Entertainment/ Life

Get a History Lesson from These Queer Podcasts

Chances are very high that your history education skipped over a lot of queer history. Probably all of it. I’ve blogged extensively about my passion for history and podcasts for which I’m not sorry. To add to the list, here’s a collection of podcasts sharing tales about LGBTQ history.

Making Gay History

I’ve mentioned my love for Eric Marcus’ Making Gay History podcast and project many times on the blog before. You haven’t subscribed yet, in each episode Eric reaches into his vault of first-person interviews for some queer retellings of history.

Bad Gays

You’re not gay if you don’t love the villains in your favorite Disney movies. That’s because most villains have been queer coded but you might be fascinated to learn that many of history’s actual villains have complicated sexual identities. Bad Gays tells the stories of evil and complicated queers. But unlike your favorite Disney villains, you might not be dressing in drag as these bad guys.

Closeted History: LGBTQ Stories of the Past

Destiny Clarke is an educator with a passion for LGBTQ+ history. The Closeted History podcast came out of sharing LGBTQ+ History Trivia on Fridays with the community. The episode embedded above is one of my favorites, chronicling authentic tales of real life cowboys. As a small town Texan, cowboy culture is innately part of my identity and something I’ve struggled with being queer and Mexican. Learning about the reality of the old west has been really comforting and affirming for me.

Lost Spaces: Memories from Gay Bars, Lesbian Clubs, and LGBTQ+ Parties

Much of queer culture has existed in bars and night clubs, some of the only queer only spaces. While not a traditional history podcast, I’ve really enjoyed listening to these first person interviews documenting lost queer spaces and their impact on the people who danced and drank there.

Gay History 101

One of the things I love about history podcasts is hearing honest reactions to the hosts’ research. I’ve only listened to a few episodes of Gay History 101, but I loved hearing John and Conor learn along with their listeners and offer hot takes. It’s fun commentary to go along with the lesson.

Queer as Fact

Queer as Fact features a panel of history buffs taking a more international look at historical events and more of a queer discussion. You can also follow their social accounts to dive deeper into their research.

History is Gay

History is Gay features fun conversations between hosts Gretchen and Leigh, self identified queer nerds. Every episode includes a segment where the two rate how gay notable people in history were, which is one of my favorite parts of this show.

One From the Vaults

While most of the other podcasts look at events and people from throughout the LGBTQ spectrum, One From the Vaults takes a look specifically at trans individuals. The host Morgan M Page does a great job uncovering little known stories from even very recent history. I loved diving into stories about Andy Warhol’s muses, Lou Reed, and Marsha P. Washington and Sylvia Rivera.

Gay of the Day

If you’re looking for some bite size history lessons, Gay of the Day is perfect. Each episode focuses on one queer person in history and tells their life story in under 20 minutes. I especially love the host Frank Howard’s dramatic storytelling style.

Got any favorite history podcasts to share? Let me know!

June 25, 2024
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In Entertainment

Turn Up the Pride: The June Gays & Confused Playlist is Here!

To celebrate Pride month, I’ve put together a playlist of dance tracks I’m loving these days. We have to kick things off with Padam Padam by my diva Kylie. I’m so happy to see her winning with this viral hit. While every Kylie single is a hit to me, I know she still goes relatively unknown by most in the US.

From there we dance off to the movie of the summer with Dance the Night from the Barbie soundtrack. I love Dua and this song is so fun, even though it feels like a gay version of Justin Timberlake’s Troll song. Some other stand outs for me are: These Lips by Jessie Ware, while I do enjoy her latest album I find it a bit camp and this song recalls the sultry disco of the What’s Your Pleasure album. Voices by Jake Shears featuring Kylie Minogue, a fun dance track that gives us a chance to see these two BFFs joining forces. And lately I’ve been obsessed with both Feel About You and Boom Boom.

Enjoy Pride month and I hope this playlist gives you as much to dance about as it has for me.

June 3, 2023
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In Entertainment

Get Your Groove On: The Gays & Confused March Playlist

Kicking things off for the spring, I put together a playlist that brings a mix of disco, house, and lo-fi indie. I’ve always been a fan of disco, since it is the music of our people, but recently I’ve felt a nostalgic call for lo-fi indie rock reminiscent of my wayward youth in the recession. It’s rare to find a queer scene where you can stomp around to that sound, so I’ll probably have to settle for sidewalk strutting with my AirPods.

Aside from the indie rock, I’ve recently been playing Jessie Ware’s Pearls and TQG by Shakira and KAROL G on repeat. Jessie Ware’s transition to a disco diva has been so exciting and I cannot wait for her new album. I’ve also been a huge fan of Shakira for decades now (wow) and I’m loving her most recent singles.

You can always find the current playlist under the “Hot Jams” link on the homepage, on the side bar to the right on desktop, or in the footer on mobile.

March 6, 2023
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