Over the last two months, Tagg Magazine has brought you two editions of queerantine media recommendations. Though some states are beginning to reopen, most 2020 Pride celebrations have gone virtual or been altered, postponed, or canceled. For those of you who want to celebrate Pride with LGBTQ-inclusive media, here are my suggestions for the month of June.
Indya Moore as Angel, Ryan Jamaal Swain as Damon, Mj Rodriguez as Blanca. (Photo: JoJo Whilden/FX)
If you haven’t seen Pose yet, you are seriously missing out on some of the queerest television out there. Season 2 of this extraordinarily diverse drama explores ballroom culture and the AIDS epidemic, and landed on Netflix on June 11. Make sure you get your tissues ready.
After The Half of It premiered last month, I found myself wanting to re-watch director Alice Wu’s first film, Saving Face. Now streaming on Amazon Prime, this classic love story between two Asian-American women will definitely make you swoon.
Edie Windsor (Photo by Donna F. Aceto)
During the month of June, I often find myself wanting to commemorate LGBTQ legends that came before me. One such legend is Edie Windsor, whose landmark Supreme Court case struck down the Defense of Marriage Act seven years ago this June. Her memoir, A Wild and Precious Life, which Windsor began before passing away in 2017, has been one of my favorite reads of quarantine, as it shows just how much progress has been made in the last 100 years.
I cannot tell you how excited I am to watch the Netflix original documentary Disclosure, which explores transgender representation on television and in the movies. Launching on Netflix on June 19, this documentary premiered at Sundance earlier this year to rave reviews and features a star-studded cast including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, MJ Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono.
(Photo: Marcie Bianco, Twitter)
Last month, Tagg Magazine and Fairy Gaymother Media hosted a virtual Queerantine Con to raise money to support queer women’s media. And if you missed the con, you can still check it out on our Facebook page. Highlights included a performance from Fun Home’s Beth Malone, a discussion on queer media representation with Orange Is the New Black’s Alysia Reiner, queer comics Dana Goldberg and Bridget McManus giving sex and relationship advice alongside sex educator Tristan Taormino, and a discussion on the state of lesbian bars.
(Scene from Hightown, Photo: Starz)
From Take My Wife to Vida, Starz has really been delivering with its LGBTQ-inclusive content. Last month, Starz premiered a crime drama and queer masterpiece called Hightown, which follows Jackie Quiñones as she gets pulled into a murder investigation in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
(Photo: Netflix)
After her critically acclaimed 2018 comedy special Nanette, Hannah Gadsby returns to Netflix with Douglas, a 72-minute stand-up set that tackles topics ranging from the patriarchy to Gadsby’s autism diagnosis.
In what will probably shock no one, I came to the podcast Thank You For Coming Out because Sara Bareilles was featured on a special episode about allies of the LGBTQ community. But since then, I’ve been absolutely hooked on this podcast, which allows members of the LGBTQ community to discuss their coming out stories.
(Bettye Lane, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, FX)
Last month, the nine-episode miniseries Mrs. America, which explores the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early ’80s, wrapped up on Hulu. While the show has been rightly critiqued by some for its misrepresentations and inaccuracies, I did appreciate its inclusion of queer characters such as Margaret Sloan-Hunter, who helped found the National Black Feminist Organization.
(Photo: Netflix)
The first season of Ryan Murphy’s The Politician follows Peyton Hobart (Ben Platt) as he runs for high school student body president. The second season, out on Netflix on June 19, will explore Hobart’s run for New York State Senate. The series has several characters that just happen to be queer, which felt refreshing to me in a media landscape where queerness often defines a character.
