Welcome back to the LHO Summer Hiatus where we share episodes from some of our favorite LGBTQ+ podcasts!

This week we’re sharing an episode from the Lesbian Book Club (@lesbianbookclubpod), a podcast that dives deep into sapphic literature (one book at a time) with co-hosts Lauren and Haylie. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to give Lesbian Book Club a follow so you don’t miss out on any great gay reads this summer.

And if you’re missing Lez Hang Out, don’t despair! We’ll be back in your ears with all new episodes in a few short weeks—and in the meantime, you can join our Patreon for instant access to over 25 full length bonus-episodes! Check out bonus episodes and additional perks like mp3 downloads of all our original music and our entire catalogue of episodes in an ad-free format at patreon.com/lezhangout.

---------------------------------

We hope you are as obsessed with this book as Haylie is, because she wants companionship embarking on the painful journey of waiting for Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (they/them) to become a series. Listen in as we talk about egregious miscommunications, smut, and the extremely Taurus way of keeping your living space as a temple - just like Grace Henderson. Also, if you've been dying to find out what Lauren's type is, this is the episode for you.

Please download, share and leave us a review! We want your feedback! You can text us at the link above, send us a DM on Instagram or TikTok, or email us if that's more your style. Thank you for listening!

Instagram and Tiktok: @LesbianBookClubPod

Email: [email protected]

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

Lez Hang Out will be back with our season 9 premiere later this summer. In the meantime, we are excited to bring you episodes from other LGBTQ+ podcasts that we think you will love!

This week’s episode is from Tilly’s Trans Tuesdays, a podcast hosted by Tilly Bridges (@heckyeahtillybridges). You may recognize Tilly from our episode on The Matrix! This episode is so much fun and perfect for kicking off your hot gay summer. It’s all about the trans allegory woven throughout the Barbie movie!

If you enjoy the episode, there’s a lot more where that came from. Subscribe to Tilly’s Trans Tuesdays to hear the rest of Tilly’s multi-part series on Barbie.

----------------------------------------

Do you guys ever think about dying? The BARBIE movie rocked my world, and I instantly connected with it on a fundamental level, even beyond the surface feminist story. Do you wanna know why? Do you wanna know why you saw so many trans people, especially trans women, talking about how much this movie meant to them and the tears it brought? My friends, it's because BARBIE is one hundo percent an intentional (?!) trans allegory! Come along on this 8-week journey as I show you all the inherent, beautiful transness within! This week: context, why it's Funny Pink MATRIX, the film's visual language, and we learn all about Barbie's world of lies!

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

Join our Patreon to unlock 30 full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode. Once we reach 100 PAID tier patrons, we will pick the winner!

You can also support the show by grabbing your #pride365 gear at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that does its little dance on the catwalk. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Lauren Chan (@lcchan), a Canadian model, TV personality, entrepreneur, and former fashion editor. She is also an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ and AAPI representation as well as an expert in the size-inclusive fashion world. 

If you happened to walk by a newsstand recently and took enough time away from petting the bodega cat to peruse the magazines, you likely saw Lauren. She made queer history with her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit appearance as the very first out lesbian to appear on the cover! Can you believe it took until now for an out lesbian to be featured? While we may think Sports Illustrated is a male-gaze aligned space, Lauren says that’s what makes it so perfect for these kinds of stories. By meeting people where they are and introducing them to concepts and perspectives they may not have had a reason to think about, Lauren provides a gateway to nuanced conversations and increased empathy. Sure, straight men may initially buy the magazine for the bikini pics, but if they stay for the coming out stories that can go a long way in changing the narrative toward LGBTQ+ people. 

Lauren came out in 2023, incredibly publicly, in her first appearance in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit where she made history as the first lesbian rookie! She discovered her sexuality in a very familiar way– with the lesbian masterdoc in hand, podcasts about coming out later in life on repeat, and an expanse of free time provided by the pandemic lockdowns. From divorcing her husband to now being engaged to be married again (but, to a woman) the short years since coming out have been a real whirlwind for Lauren. 

We are obsessed with how Lauren takes the media’s long history of objectifying women and flips it on its head. She may look like just another hot girl, but Lauren is a catalyst for change, inclusivity, self-love, body positivity, and sheer gay audacity. 

That’s a wrap on Season 8, lezzies! Thank you for hanging out with us this season, and we can’t wait to see you back for Season 9. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster.

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

Join our Patreon family 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 podcast by buying our original merch at bit.ly/lezmerch. 

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is “back in black-and-white”. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to talk about the 2025 Black Mirror episode: Hotel Reverie, for this Lez-ssentials episode, a recurring segment on the essential movies and TV shows in the lesbian canon. 

Hotel Reverie stars Issa Rae, Emma Corrin, and Awkwafina in a bittersweet sapphic story that centers around a sci-fi style high-tech simulation of an old 1940’s classic film, “Hotel Reverie”. The premise is that Hollywood A-lister Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) will be playing the lead role of Dr. Alex Palmer (in spite of the original actor being a white man) in the remake; and to do so, she will be sent inside a fully immersive simulation of the film complete with “people” who think they are real, but are they? 

Of course as soon as Brandy enters the simulation, she begins to fall for Clara, Dr. Palmer’s love interest in the original. Initially, Clara sticks to the script, but as the movie progresses, she begins to completely break the plot with her uncontainable gayness. The explanation is that the actor who played Clara, Dorothy Chambers, put so much of herself into the performance that “echoes” of Dorothy exist now in the simulated version of Clara. With the influence of Dorothy’s memories and a growing attraction to Brandy, Clara begins to be more and more openly gay and that is actually bad for Brandy– if she doesn’t manage to stick the landing and say the final line of the movie, she could be trapped forever in Hotel Reverie. Plus there’s that sticky little feature that if Brandy were to be killed in the simulation, she would die in real life. But for all the danger, Brandy cares about only one thing, Clara, their love, and the little simulated life they build while the movie is “frozen”. 

We talk about the unavoidable comparisons to San Junipero, the many, many glaring plot holes throughout the episode, and the implications of Black Mirror consistently burying their gays and also only allowing gay characters to exist in simulations, video games, computers, etc. Additionally, we discuss the unsatisfying ending and why it didn’t feel as resolved or happy as it did for our lesbians in San Junipero. 

At the end of the episode, stick around to hear our original song based on Hotel Reverie, titled “A Time You Don’t Remember”, written by Leigh Holmes Foster and produced by Ellie Brigida. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon for instant access to mp3 downloads of all our original songs or find us on Bandcamp to purchase songs individually. 

Remember, you can give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, Youtube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster.

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

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

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode.

You can also support the show by grabbing some #pride gear at bit.ly/lezmerch or picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

*********

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is having a rough night. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the 2017 dark comedy Rough Night Should’ve Been Gay(er). Rough Night stars Zoë Kravitz, Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer, and Jillian Bell in a Bridesmaids meets The Hangover-style romp around Miami.

If you’ve seen Rough Night, you’re probably thinking– but that movie already IS gay. The lesbian couple, Blair and Frankie (#Blankie!), should qualify it for a Lez-ssential! And you’re right, the movie is already pretty gay and we do love #Blankie; but it is honestly impossible for us to ignore Alice’s BIG LESBIAN CRUSH on her best friend Jess. Alice literally murders the first guy we see try to touch Jess. And Jess choosing to marry a straight up diaper man isn’t exactly a strong endorsement for her heterosexuality either. 

We talk about gay magnetism a lot, and it is inconceivable to us that this friend group only has 2 gay girls in it. We’re not sure why the movie is trying so hard to pretend that the whole group is mostly straight women, but we’re not buying it. 

We know one thing for sure, Rough Night Should’ve Been Gay(er).

Don’t forget to give us your Q & Gay answers on Instagram and follow along on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. You can find your favorite smol and tol hosts at @lshfoster and @elliebrigida.

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

Join our Patreon to unlock 30 full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st, 2025 will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode. 

You can also support the show by grabbing your #pride gear at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that still pledges allegiance to Heda Lexa.

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) hangs out solo with Regan Latimer (@thereganlatimer), director of the documentary Bulletproof: A Lesbian’s Guide to Surviving the Plot (@bulletproofdoc). We’ve talked a lot on this podcast about the longstanding BYG (bury your gays) trope in media and the “cancel your gays” version of today. The absolute slaughter of 2016 is what ultimately led us down the path of creating our own queer musicals with guaranteed happy endings and zero dead gays. Regan was inspired in a similar way, after one straw too many– the brutal killing of Denise on The Walking Dead. She decided to turn that outrage and pain into fuel for exploring the BYG trope, learning why these plot decisions are made, and even exploring the psychology behind why lesbian character deaths impact LGBTQ+ viewers so strongly. 

For Bulletproof, Regan spoke with filmmakers, screenwriters, passionate fans, showrunners, and television industry professionals about their experiences and perceptions on lesbian representation in the media. They wanted to look not only at where representation stands now, but at where it started and where it may be headed. When the pendulum for LGBTQ+ rights and societal acceptance swings in either direction, the media landscape reflects those changes. The few positive examples of queer representation we have on screen right now are as a result of projects greenlit before the pendulum began its broad backswing. Regan reminds us to enjoy the representation we have right now, to cherish the precious happy moments of Ellie and Dina while we still can. 

After all, the pendulum swings as society does; and we are at a particularly scary time for queer rights and acceptance, especially here in the United States. The real worry is about what types of projects may be getting greenlit right now, whose voices and stories are allowed to be told and amplified, and whether that push we saw after 2016 for more diversity in writer’s rooms continues or is abandoned. We’re already seeing more and more shows with prominent queer characters get unceremoniously cancelled– but it is not all doom and gloom. Even with queer rights and representation sliding backward, there remains more lesbian representation than we ever had growing up. With any luck, younger gays will never have to know what its like to not see themselves on their screens, even if the only representation left is, to Regan’s dismay and Leigh’s chaotic delight, problematic queer people on reality television shows. 

Canadian listeners, you’re in luck (for so many reasons). Bulletproof: A Lesbian’s Guide to Surviving the Plot is streaming now. Not in Canada? Follow @bulletproofdoc on Instagram for release updates in your country. 

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster.

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

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

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode.

You can also support the show by grabbing some #pride gear at bit.ly/lezmerch or picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is brought to you by BIG SHARK.

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) hangs out with queer screenwriter, returning guest and friend of the pod, Alix Markman (@markwoman), to talk about why The Meg Should’ve Been Gay. Alix has been waiting to talk about this incredibly queer shark movie for years and we are so excited to fin-ally dive in. Self-aware, comedic monster movies are the best monster movies and The Meg does not disappoint. 

From the gay shark girlfriends (who were roommates!) to the marine biology commune and their shared child (And the sheer presence of Ruby Rose), everything about this movie feels queer. Alix whips out an L Word-style “Alice board” to break down the relationship dynamics of the commune before adding even more research to the mix with unquestionable proof of The Meg’s gayness– a 2016 Autostraddle article titled “The 100 Most Lesbianish First Names, Ranked By Lesbianism”, in which “Meg” is number 16. 

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

Don’t forget to give us your Q & Gay answers on Instagram and follow along on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. You can find your favorite smol and tol hosts at @lshfoster and @elliebrigida.

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

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Olivia, the travel company for lesbians and all LGBTQ+ women!

Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes (including our brand new one on Bros), ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more!

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st, 2025 will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode.

You can also support the show by grabbing your #pride gear at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that wants to wish everyone a Happy Pride Month, because queer joy is resistance. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Jennie Wetter, the Director of rePROS Fight Back (@reprosfb), an initiative that fights for sexual and reproductive health rights and justice issues. Jennie is also the creator and host of the rePROs Fight Back podcast.

Among the many things that rePROS does to fight back is to grade each of the 50 states on access to reproductive and sexual health rights and care (including access to gender-affirming care). They have recently released their 13th annual (fully interactive!) 50-state Report Card and spoiler alert: The United States as a whole gets an F. Fair warning, looking up your state’s grade might make your heart hurt (unless you’re like Leigh and live in one of the 5 states that actually got an A). 

We talk with Jennie about what things have been like for rePROS since the reversal of Roe and whether our Gilead robes absolutely have to be red (it’s just not our color). Although it can be really easy to become overwhelmed by how bad things are, Jennie explains that there’s actually a lot to be hopeful about. Between the abortion funds and local clinics there are quite a lot of resources on the ground to help people access care, even in states with strict legislation. Medication abortion remains available and is a fully safe option. With the recent attacks on trans rights, initiatives like rePROS are fighting even harder to ensure access to gender affirming care for all who need it, including minors. Even though at the federal level, things are bleak (that report card is a real eye-opener), there are ways to fight back at the state-level and getting involved locally can really help keep that feeling of doom at bay. 

Jennie reminds us that no one person can do or know everything (even if Ellie’s ADHD really wants her to try). Figure out which one cause you want to put your energy toward and focus solely on that. Even Jennie doesn’t know everything, but she makes herself a trusted resource by knowing what direction to point people in when they come to her for help. Take a deep breath and remember, you don’t have to take on everything yourself! Find your lane and follow it and know that others are doing the same in the lanes you didn’t choose. Burning yourself out trying to do it all won’t help anyone and certainly won’t help you feel any better. We see you, we appreciate you, and we want you to remember: no act of resistance is too small. 

Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster.

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

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Olivia, the travel company for lesbians and all LGBTQ+ women!

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!

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers– so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode.

You can also support the show by grabbing some merch at bit.ly/lezmerch or picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp.

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that would probably be down to f*ck a dragon. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the 2024 Netflix dark fantasy film Damsel Should’ve Been Gay. Damsel stars Millie Bobby Brown and is perhaps the only movie that dares to ask the question, what if the princess’ love interest is a dragon? It’s like if Fiona got thrown into that tower in Shrek and then fell in love with Dragon instead of the ogre that rescued her. Shrek 2 would’ve gone A LOT differently. 

If you haven’t seen Damsel (and even if you have), you do not want to miss Leigh’s recap where it takes us approximately 12 minutes to get 4 seconds into the story because (in our defense) the movie starts with what is essentially a thirst-trap of Millie Bobby Brown’s character Elodie chopping wood in the frozen tundra with the most jacked arms you’ve ever seen. She may not be wearing a flannel, but that is a whole lez. And you’d be surprised how important it is to the plot that Elodie be freaking jacked. Honestly the level of suspension of disbelief we would have to employ to watch this movie without that wood-chopping scene is nearly insurmountable. Elodie survives not only a 125 foot drop into the dragon pit, but then gets set on fire like 1000 times, hauls her body up solid rock walls with nothing but a knife, and is able to eventually reach freedom (for all of 5 minutes before having to go back to the pit to rescue her sister). But she really does make it out, a feat that was impossible for the previous princesses that had been tossed to the dragon (because only a lesbian could survived any of this!) 

The best thing about this movie is that it doesn’t do that obnoxious redemption arc for the prince where the obviously lesbian-coded princess gets stuck with him in the end. Instead, Elodie rides off into the sunset on the back of the dragon, enemies-to-lovers style, and we straight up watch that milk-toast man get burned alive.

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

Don’t forget to give us your Q & Gay answers on Instagram and follow along on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. You can find your favorite smol and tol hosts at @lshfoster and @elliebrigida.

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

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Olivia, the travel company for lesbians and all LGBTQ+ women!

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!

Right now, we’re retiring our lower tiers—so all new patrons who join at $5/month or higher (or upgrade!) by July 1st will be entered into a raffle to guest star on a bonus Patreon episode!

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

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that wants to take you to, “Bermuda, Bahama, Come on pretty mama.” 🎶

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Tisha Floratos-Silano, Executive Vice President and Cruise Director at Olivia Travel (@oliviatravels), the company that’s been making lesbian and all LGBTQ+ women’s travel dreams come true for over 35 years.

We dive into the history of Olivia, from its roots as a women-run record label in the ’70s to the full-blown lesbian and LGBTQ+ women (trans and nonbinary inclusive!) travel company it is today. Olivia offers everything from small group adventure trips to full-ship cruises and all-inclusive resort takeovers, with themes like gay prom, pajama night, and under-the-sea (mermaids!!!), plus affinity groups for trans and nonbinary travelers, people of color, solo travelers, and more.

Whether you’re looking for a quiet connection or full-blown sapphic chaos, Olivia’s all about creating spaces where everyone can show up as their authentic, unedited selves. Tisha has been on 105 Olivia trips and she even met her wife on one of them about 20 years ago. Now they have a beautiful life together with their daughter and their color-coordinated cruise and resort outfits. As far as we’re concerned, Tisha is literally living the ultimate dream lesbian life thanks to Olivia Travel and someday that could be you!

If you’ve ever dreamed of a completely sapphic vacation where you can just be you (Hawaian shirt and all), you’re welcome– we totally found it for ya. And if you're ready to start planning, check out all of Olivia’s upcoming cruises, all-inclusive resorts, and adventure trips at olivia.com.

Remember, you can give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. You can find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster.

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