lesbian drama, new queer movies, FIFA sucking and pinky-holding

Lesbian drama is the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve got to start today’s digest with some of the juiciest lesbian drama we’ve seen all year. Last week, queer singer Fletcher dropped a new single called “Becky,” which is off her upcoming Girl of My Dreams album. Fans were pretty quick to pick up on the song’s meaning, but Fletcher went ahead and made its origin story even more explicit in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. Fletcher revealed that she wrote the song after stalking her ex’s new girlfriend on Instagram, seeing a picture of her wearing her ex’s vintage t-shirt (which she used to wear), and accidentally liking the photo. This news is so juicy because we know who her ex-girlfriend is – YouTuber Shannon Beveridge, the subject of Fletcher’s The S(ex) Tapes EP, which Shannon filmed all of the videos for following their breakup (and while they were still quarantined together.) We also know who Shannon’s new girlfriend is – Becky Missal, the sister of queer singer Donna Missal. (Apropos of nothing, the mysterious writer of this newsletter may or may not have written an entire peer-reviewed journal article about Shannon’s breakup with her previous girlfriend, YouTuber Cammie Scott.)

The drama doesn’t stop there. If you go on Instagram, you can actually find the picture of Becky that Fletcher liked back in 2020, which she never un-liked. Fans were immediately shook upon hearing the song and Fletcher’s explanation of it, especially since the lyrics are about how she wants to know how Becky “tastes” and also that she wants to hit her because she’s so hot. Some fans on TikTok began wondering if it was a PR stunt involving both Fletcher and Shannon, but Shannon quickly put those rumors to bed in her own Tik Tok, making it clear that not only was it not a PR stunt, but that she (nor Becky) were given any heads up that the song was going to be released. Shannon and Fletcher’s post-break-up collaboration on The S(ex) Tapes made it seem like they were in a good place following their split, but this new development makes it seem like there might be bad blood between the two at the moment. Meanwhile, Becky, who isn’t really a public figure and did not ask to be a part of this lesbian internet drama, went on a gay picnic.

Human Rights Watch called out FIFA for blindsiding Barbra Banda, the Captain of the Zambian women’s team. The football authorities announced she was ineligible for competition in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, violating her dignity and right to privacy after a “gender verification procedure” (whatever the hell that is) that determined her testosterone levels were “too high” to compete as a woman. The International Olympic Committee and FIFA have different eligibility standards for gender verification, hence Banda’s appearance in the Olympics but not the Cup of Nations. It's clearly time to revise those policies.

Pinky-holding is for the gays. Our favorite “down low” lesbian couple keeps giving us more to chew on. USWNT players Christen Press and Tobin Heath, who have been especially gay lately, attended the ESPY awards together, and they did not disappoint. They stood on the red carpet together not holding hands, but, get this, holding pinkies. When a photographer tried to get them to move closer together on the carpet, Christen confidently responded “no, we’re good,” and kept smiling. Later, an interviewer made reference to the fact that the event was their red carpet debut, which she maintained was not the case, and also referred to them as a “power couple,” which she didn’t exactly refute. Meanwhile, Tobin posted a photo of them snuggling up after the event. As someone commented on the post, “y’all i think the internet just broke.” We’re obsessed with them not caring about explicitly “coming out” and just doing adorable stuff like this instead. Pinky-holding for life.

New queer movies on the horizon. We’ve just learned about a new film from Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, director of Someone Great, which will star Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes. It’s called Do Revenge, and is about two teen girls who team up to take revenge on their nemeses. Hawke plays Eleanor, who was outed because of an unflattering rumor, while Mendes plays a popular girl who’s had her sex tape leaked. Hopefully they get together in the end, but we’ll just have to wait and see. In other news, the first trailer for the queer slasher film They/Them (which, importantly, is pronounced “they slash them”) has just dropped. It looks pretty silly but it does star the very hot and talented Theo Germaine and Arlene from True Blood (Carrie Preston, for the uninitiated).

Other dispatches from the little gay people inside the internet:

Until next time,

That hot tattoo artist who called you a ‘good girl’ one time

S/O to digest reader Wendy Ginsberg who really likes our sign-offs, and correctly noted we forgot one last week, this one is dedicated to you.

Written by Kira Deshler (with support from GayJoy Founder, Nicole Ripka)