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Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is currently listening to Tequila Knows Me on a loop.

This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Shawnee Kish (@shawneekish), a four-time JUNO-nominated 2 spirit Indigenous alternative country artist from Canada. Shawnee released her debut album, Chapter 1, this past summer and was recently nominated for female artist of the year at the 15th Annual Country Music Awards in Alberta. 

We spoke with Shawnee about her journey toward self-acceptance and embracing her Indigenous roots, the barriers for queer artists in country music, and the experience of cultivating chosen family while navigating her own family’s homophobia. Growing up in Canada, she did not have strong connections to her Indigenous ancestry and hid from her own sexuality. When she began to learn from her elders and understand more about Indigenous beliefs, she was able to reconcile what her spirit always knew was true and fully step into her 2 spirit identity.

Nowadays, Shawnee is loudly out and proud, refusing to shy away from her true self even when confronted by her family’s religious beliefs and intolerant music industry professionals. Ellie bonded with Shawnee over processing emotional, deeply personal experiences through music and Leigh bonded over their shared experience of motherhood. We also talked with Shawnee about how she met her wife (a story that is slightly different depending on whether you ask her or her wife about it) and what it means for her to be 2 spirit. 

Don’t forget to show your support for our tiny independent team by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that needs everyone to drop what they’re doing and watch Heated Rivalry right now.

This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about the worldwide phenomenon that is Heated Rivalry. Whether or not you’ve actually watched a single episode of the show or read the book the series is based on, you’ve definitely heard of these gay hockey boys. Queer shows so rarely make it into the mainstream, and Heated Rivalry has managed to do so in a big way. So big in fact that the lead actors, Hudson Williams (Shane) and Connor Storrie (Ilya) were chosen as official torchbearers for the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony! Even NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani has openly promoted the book series, encouraging New Yorkers to stay home and read the romance during the recent major snowstorm. While we wish lesbians could have our own Heated Rivalry moment, we have to admit that we’re really loving the show and what it is doing for queer representation, especially in the realm of men’s professional sports. 

We can’t talk about Heated Rivalry without talking about the shadow of homophobia that persists for male athletes, causing most to wait until their professional careers have ended to come out of the closet, if they come out at all. The NHL is actually the only men’s pro-league that still has never had a player (current or retired) come out as gay. So, this story centering on gay male hockey players is a really important push for representation in a sport that remains heavily steeped in a culture of homophobia and toxic masculinity.

While one viral series isn’t going to immediately change that culture, it is impossible to overstate the impact that its massive popularity is having on the sports world. Conservative sports podcaster bros are having to watch the show to discuss it with their listeners, because it has become too huge for even them to ignore. Closeted athletes are being inspired to come out publically following the success of the series, including hockey player Jesse Kortuem who was personally thanked for his bravery by none other than Hudson Williams (Shane) himself. We’re amazed seeing all the positive impacts that a series with only 6 episodes has already made in the queer community and beyond and truly cannot wait to see where Season 2 takes us. 

Don’t forget to show your support for our tiny independent team by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

You can also support the show by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is once again making an entire episode based on a single song. You’re welcome.

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the hit Katseye song, Gabriela, Should’ve Been Gay. Personally, we have not stopped singing this song on a loop since it came out (of a closet made of air). Gabriela is basically an even queerer, more Gen-Z version of Dolly Parton’s Jolene. With two out of six members of the group being openly queer, it was only a matter of time before they released the gayest song we’ve ever heard. We’re honestly not sure what they could’ve been going for with Gabriela if not a bisexual anthem. 

We can’t talk about Gabriela without addressing the sapphic fever dream that is the music video. Katseye may spend the chorus singing “back off of my fella, Gabriela”, but there is not one fella to be seen anywhere on the screen. In fact, they go to extremes to use absolutely anything but a fella, casting a mannequin and a self-driving taxi as placeholders for men. The decision to cast Jessica Alba and zero men feels deliberately gay, especially when paired with the least subtle lesbian imagery we’ve ever seen. These girls are literally spitting up flower petals and stroking cats while singing about how much they want to climb Gabriela like a tree. 

The lyrics for Gabriela are equally as gay as the music video, even leaving in the “fella” rhyme. As we did with our Jolene episode, we pick the lyrics apart line by line looking for the gay subtext. In this case, we’re not sure it counts as subtext. It’s just the text at this point. The line, “Skin amaretto / I bet you taste just like the summer / Under the covers” transitioning into a fantasy about a threesome with Gabriela pretty much speaks for itself. This girl is so down bad for Gabriela that she literally passes away with her “heart in the casket” when she sees her. There is perhaps no experience more relatable to lesbians than seeing a woman that is so hot that you just die on the spot. 

We know one thing for sure, Gabriela Should’ve Been Gay.

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that fully supports you U-Hauling with your girlfriend of two weeks. 

This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about the lesbian divorce rate discourse. If you spend any time on Reneé Rapp’s internet you likely have seen some variation of this so-called “fact” going around about married lesbian couples having a 70% divorce rate. You may even have taken this fact at face-value. We’re not statisticians and we won’t say we did all that much deep research for this episode, but the claim is absolutely a myth. And it very much misrepresents the findings of that study. The world of statistics is a mess and it’s challenging to get a clear analysis of lesbian divorce rates when women have only been legally allowed to marry each other in this country for like a decade. It’s only natural that it will take time for marriage and divorce rates to stabilize, especially with LGBTQ+ rights in constant flux. With all this confusing back-and-forth, we wanted to take some time to look into some of these studies and give our two cents on what the reasons may be for lesbian couples having a higher divorce rate (if true). 

Through our super professional research we discovered a few factors that might be at play. First off, lesbian couples get married at higher rates than gay male couples and tend to be more monogamous. That coupled with the fact that women of all sexualities are more likely to initiate divorce than men leads us to believe this statistic is likely true. Next, time moves differently for queer couples. We have to consider things that straight couples simply never have to worry about, like whether we’ll legally be allowed to get married if we choose to wait. This can lead to lesbians jumping into marriages faster and discovering incompatibility afterward. We also are shown to be less likely to “stay for the kids”, probably because queer women are more inclined to co-parent equally after a divorce. However, we can’t completely ignore the flaws in the existing studies. Many include queer women who have divorced men in the past or include such a disproportionate sample size of queer couples to straight couples that it invalidates the results.

While there are obvious issues with the way the research has largely been approached (mainly because the straights do not understand how we operate), we will concede that everything seems to be pointing to it being true that lesbians divorce at a higher rate than both heterosexual and gay male couples. However, we also choose to believe the studies that show that lesbian couples have higher rates of satisfaction in our marriages and lower rates of cheating than other couples. Plus, lesbians who do U-Haul prior to getting married have lower rates of divorce. So really, we’re still the best and the straights can just keep crying about it. 

Don’t forget to show your support for our tiny independent team by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

You can also support the show by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is just too good to be true.

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with queer actor, writer, and comedian Olivia Levine (@olivialevine19) to talk about why the 1999 cult classic Drop Dead Gorgeous, Should’ve Been Gay. If you’re unfamiliar with the plot, it focuses on a small town beauty pageant that turns deadly for the contestants. As with many movies from the 90s, there are a lot of things in the script that just do not hold up in 2026. We still enjoyed this movie overall, but please be aware there is a period-typical amount of ableism, racism, and homophobia. 

One thing that Drop Dead Gorgeous does get right is the casting. This cast is STACKED. If you’re a millennial like us, you’ll recognize so many people in this movie, including Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie Alley, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy, and Amy Adams. The acting is impeccable and the characters are delightfully unhinged in the campiest of ways. Being an SBG, the characters aren’t openly queer, but we can honestly say we do not think there is a single straight character in this movie. Unfortunately, interpreting these characters as queer means there is quite a bit of BYG (bury your gays) trope throughout. For a romcom, there is a shocking amount of murders, but they are done in really over the top, comical ways (so it isn’t scary to watch!). 

We know one thing for sure, Drop Dead Gorgeous Should’ve Been Gay.

Check out Olivia’s monthly comedy show “Strapped” at the legendary Stonewall Inn in NYC. Keep an eye out for upcoming dates and locations for Olivia’s solo comedy show “Unstuck”, which focuses on the intersection of OCD, anxiety and queerness. 

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

You can also support the show by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that really hopes 2026 is “the year that it happens”. 

This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about highlights and lowlights from 2025 as we look ahead to our hopes and dreams for 2026. As far as queer media, it has been a year for the gay boys. From Will’s coming out on Stranger Things to the widespread success of Heated Rivalry, the gay boys are thriving on our screens. Sadly, lesbians have not been quite so lucky. Our biggest rep this year was probably Hunting Wives and we’re not really sure how to feel about that. 

On a personal level, Leigh spent 2025 picking up hobbies like camping now that the girls are old enough, tennis, and crochet. Ellie has had a whirlwind year of travel, working on her upcoming EP with Leigh, and getting engaged. As we look ahead into 2026, we have a few dreams. Firstly, we want the lesbian version of Heated Rivalry. How is it 2026 and we still don’t have a modern Imagine Me & You? On a more personal level, we’re working to find more ways to foster queer community with in-person events and starting to think about our next musical venture. Overall, we really just are focused on finding little pockets of joy in between the constant state of horrors that we are all currently living through. 

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

You can also support the show by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is always down for a DCOM. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Olive Okoro (@digital.olive), content creator and founder of the nonprofit organization Queer Motherland (@queermotherland), to talk about why the 2009 Disney Channel Original Movie, Princess Protection Program, Should’ve Been Gay. We would argue that all DCOMs are queer culture, but it was PPP specifically that served as a queer awakening for baby gay Olive. 

In Princess Protection Program, Princess Rosalinda (Demi Lovato) is just about to be crowned Queen when her coronation is attacked, triggering a rescue by an elite protection agency. Now disguised as ordinary American teen Rosie, she is sent to live with the agent who rescued her and his tomboy daughter Carter (Selena Gomez). Carter and Rosie’s enemies-to-lovers dynamic grows as the girls are forced to share their lives and Carter’s bedroom. Unfortunately for us, instead of leaning into Cosie and the ‘and they were roommates’ of it all, we get totally unnecessary high school boy drama. 

We know one thing for sure, Disney’s Princess Protection Program Should’ve Been Gay.

Learn more about Olive’s nonprofit, Queer Motherland at queermotherland.org. 

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

You can also support the show by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that actually got Leigh to watch an entire season of a show the same year it was released!

This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to discuss one of the most talked-about new shows of 2025, Netflix’s The Hunting Wives. This queer-baity murder-mystery novel turned actually-queer TV series, starring Malin Akerman (Margo) and Brittany Snow (Sophie), has completely taken over the gay internet. Whether you’ve seen a single episode of The Hunting Wives or not, you’ve 100% seen gifs of Margo and Sophie that are decidedly not safe for work. We had so many people reach out to us about this show that we simply could not leave 2025 behind without first talking about the Sophie and Margo of it all. 

We don’t have wildly different opinions on shows all that often, but this one had Ellie absolutely obsessed and Leigh feeling deeply uncomfortable 80% of the time (although she still plans to watch the next season!). In Leigh’s defense, the characters are all largely unlikeable hot messes and there are way too many creepy, gross men for any one show. Sophie is an alcoholic that could not make a good decision if her life depended on it and Margo is a predatory sex-addict– oh, and did we mention these wives basically all end up being murderers? Bonkers plot aside, the chemistry between Malin Akerman and absolutely anyone on screen with her at any given time is off the charts. Even if you can’t buy into Margo’s performative sexuality, there is no denying the chemistry between her and Brittany Snow. In season 2 we’re hoping for a lot less of having to watch Margo sleep with high school boys and a lot more of Sophie taking ownership of her choices (and choosing to make gayer ones).

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

You can also support the show by shopping small for all your holly-gay apparel at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that hates gay Halloween– what do you mean you’re Chaguilera?

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with self-described “professional lesbian”, writer, podcaster and public sociologist, Erin Brown (@iamerinbrown), to talk about why the 2010 “musical” Burlesque, Should’ve Been Gay. If you’ve been a listener for a while, you know that we’ve had this movie on our SBG list for a very long time. And who better to talk about Burlesque, but an actual burlesque performer? 

As a burlesque performer, Erin is quick to point out that for a movie titled “Burlesque” there is quite literally no actual burlesque to be seen. The performers don’t even take off so much as a glove during their dances, let alone channel the politically charged, feminist, queer energy that is so essential to the art form (And there is absolutely no excuse for the laughable quality of the wigs). While we do find the movie enjoyable, mostly due to the star-studded cast and our undying love for Chaguilera (Cher and Christina Aguilera), it is not an accurate representation of burlesque and feels unnaturally sanitized. Where the movie does get things right is in its RuPaul level campiness, the lesbian-coded male love interest, and the familiar queer storyline (banding together to save a lesbian bar from getting bought out by a terrible straight man– The Flame anyone?). 

Don’t forget to subscribe to Erin’s podcast, The Lesbian Peepshow, a living archive of what queer women are doing right now.

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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This episode of Lez Hang Out is brought to you by Wet For Her. 

Can’t get enough Lez Hang Out? Join our Patreon family to unlock 27 full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support our little podcast team by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch. We have cozy gifts for everyone on your list and free shipping on orders $100 or more. 

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that still would not sleep with a man even to avoid the outrageously high cost of IVF. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to talk about 2025’s The Wedding Banquet, for this Lez-ssentials episode, a recurring segment on the essential movies and TV shows in the lesbian canon. We both thought this movie was going to be a lighthearted comedy, but after sobbing on a plane Ellie would beg to differ. 

The Wedding Banquet stars Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, and Kelly Marie Tran in what is technically a remake of a film from 1993 (which we have not seen). The story is a bit out-there, but the characters resonate all the same. If you haven’t seen it, the basic plot is this: a gay man and his lesbian bestie decide to help each other out by getting married in exchange for a green card for him and free IVF for her. Honestly with how expensive IVF is (and the general state of immigration), we 1000% get it. There may be nothing more quintessentially 2025 than the gays teaming up to defraud the government and get free healthcare. From the intergenerational trauma and classic mommy-issues to the chosen family and ‘be gay, do crime’ of it all, we think The Wedding Banquet is a must-watch.

At the end of the episode, stick around to hear our original song based on The Wedding Banquet, titled “Pieces”, written by Leigh Holmes Foster and produced by Ellie Brigida. This and all of our original “Lez-ssential” songs are available for purchase on Bandcamp. 

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @[email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).

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