Ellen Squared and Friday Lesbian Stuff

I think back to my life growing up as a lesbian and, specifically, my feelings of isolation in the world, and, well, this video of Ellen Page on Ellen DeGeneres' show makes me really happy.

The video is as adorkable as it sounds.

I have to admit I had no inkling at all that Ellen Page might be a lesbian before she came out. Sure, with attractive famous women, I sometimes engage in a fair amount of wishful thinking that they maybe just maybe might possibly be bisexual or lesbian, even though I'm civil union'ed and would have absolutely no chance with them anyway.  My point, I guess, is that my "gaydar" is quite awful.

And, on a much smaller scale, I can relate to the panic-attack-like feelings of that moment right before coming out, that Page refers to.  In my case, the first time I said out loud that I was gay was to another young woman I had a hunch might also be gay. We were sitting in my car and, after 20 minutes of silent courage-building, I blurted, "I'mgayandIthinkyouaretoo, soareyou?"

So, that's wasn't at all awkward. It turns out she was gay, too, but didn't admit it that night. So my gaydar isn't that horrible, I guess.

In other queer lady news, I watched the movie Fingersmith again for the first time in like 6 years.  Have you seen this - (or read the novel by the brilliant Sarah Waters)?  Anyway, maybe I'm just at a different point in my life now, but I don't remember the movie being so campy the first time I watched it.  I think it's a great movie, but also kind of hilarious, perhaps unintentionally.

The two female main characters show a lot of lesbian feelings. The "Gentleman" character was so very villainous, and we knew this from the menacing music and his leering looks that accompanied his every scene. When I got to this part, featuring all three of them, I could not stop laughing (note: For context, if you haven't see the movie, the two up against the tree are pretending to be in love and meanwhile the two women actually are in love, so the scene isn't as sinister at it looks). It was the culmination of all the campiness, and I loved every second of it.

Lastly, I've been noticing that movies and TV shows with strong lesbian themes are consistently among the most popular on Netflix, including Blue is the Warmest Color.  

Now, mathematically speaking, the people who are making these films and shows so popular must surely be more than just LGBT people.  Which of course makes me wonder how many bigots and opponents of LGBT equality are closet-watchers of LGBT media, leering at what they abhor and oppose, from the safety of their own living rooms.

Basically, I picture them as being like Gentleman, in the clip, above.