Here on the eve of Pride 2025, it’s time to brush up on our queer pop culture history. Pride means copious glitter and unbridled joy. But it also means sly subversion and, when necessary, shade.
Some of the most iconic queer moments on screen happen when a queer character dresses down someone who dared bring hate to the party — or simply shows up visibly and gloriously queer when they aren’t “supposed” to. Whether it’s a quiet kiss or a double-standard-blasting monologue, these are scenes that make sure you’ll never forget that we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not settling for anything less than respect.
Dorian Corey’s ‘shade vs. reading’
The origin story. Dorian Corey breaks down the art of the read in a way that’s scholarly, savage and impossible to forget. This isn’t just vocabulary, it’s survival, and Corey wrote the manual.
Blanca reads a transphobic customer
Blanca Evangelista does not come to play. When a transphobic restaurant customer tries to make her and her girlfriends feel small, Blanca stands tall and burns the whole table down with one withering line.
The kiss
No monologue. Just mouth. When Lil Nas X ended his ancient Egypt-themed performance with a kiss that was so tender and defiant, it sent the internet into convulsions. It wasn’t just hot — it was a mic drop in the face of homophobia in the music industry.
Megan’s cheer for Graham
Megan finds herself and her voice at conversion therapy graduation — and what does she do with it? She cheers. In full uniform. For the girl she loves. This is a revolution with pompoms.
Santana calls out Principal Figgins
Santana Lopez never needed permission to speak her truth. But in this moment, she makes the space. This is teen TV, but the message lands like a gavel.
Eric at the altar
After a season of wrestling with his identity and faith, Eric steps up — literally, in church — and says what too many queer people have had to say to God, family and community. It’s quiet. It’s sacred. It’s righteous as hell.
Catra’s “I love you” to Adora during the apocalypse
It reads an entire system that told them they couldn’t love and survive. It’s a cosmic “fuck you” to heteronormativity, wrapped in sparkles and heroism. Oh, and it’s for kids.
Bartlet vs. Bible bigotry
In one of the sharpest prime-time takedowns, President Josiah Bartlet dissects a right-wing radio host’s selective Scripture quotes with precision. The read heard ’round the rotunda. Side note: This is what allyship looks like. White dudes in power, take note.
Luke and Noah’s kiss
This was the first gay male kiss on daytime television — and it was sweet. Luke and Noah, soap opera’s most earnest gay teens, lock lips and spark a cultural panic that aged like fine boxed wine. An understated read of decades of hetero soap clichés. This clip is older than some of my dildos, but, like said dildos, it still has a lot of life left in her.
Heterosexual enemies to lesbian lovers
Yes, this movie is pure Y2K cheese, but when Lucy Diamond (a gay villainess) and Amy (a straight schoolgirl spy) lock eyes and kiss, it’s a sapphic explosion of camp and defiance.