Lez Hang Out | Lesbian Life & Queer Culture

Ready to get cozy and gay for the holidays? Check out our Queermas designs and support our tiny team by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast where we're grabbing our handy-dandy notebooks, heading to our Thinking Couch, and playing another round of Lesbian Blue's Clues. This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) are lowering the flag to half-mast for G Flip and Chrishell and asking a question we never thought we'd have to ask:  WHERE DID ALL THE LITTLE LEZZIES GO? According to a recent analysis of CDC data, the percentage of ninth-grade girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual dropped from 30% in 2021 to just 17% in 2025. The celesbians are breaking up, the baby gays are disappearing, and we are on the case. Our numbers were the strongest they’ve ever been during the height of the pandemic, but they’ve been dropping ever since. Is long COVID turning teens hetero? If you had all just worn your masks, would you be dating a masc right now??? As two highly qualified lesbian experts armed with nothing but Al Gore's internet and an alarming number of graphs, we're determined to get to the bottom of this. Did Taylor Swift's Eras Tour-to-Travis Kelce pipeline turn an entire generation of teen girls straight? Is JoJo Siwa scaring the youth away from labeling themselves? And can we convince Fox News that HOMO-Schooling is making kids gay so they'll finally start fighting to save public education? We're going to need more graphs. We also take a trip down memory lane to when queer representation was all over our screens and shows like She-Ra, Dickinson, Gentleman Jack, and The L Word: Generation Q were practically handing out sapphic starter packs. Of course, there's also the tiny detail that neither of us was out in the 9th grade. And if you think freshman year of high school is peak lesbian identity, you have clearly never been to Smith College or Mount Holyoke. But seriously, what 14-year-old was going to tell Trump’s government they're a lesbian? Are the teens actually getting straighter, or have they just learned not to tell the feds where to find them? And do the youth even recognize a survey anymore? We’re not entirely sure they’ve been shown how to properly fill in a bubble with a No. 2 pencil. We may not have all the answers, but we do know one thing: The lesbians are NOT going extinct on our watch. Speaking of keeping the lezzies alive, our little independent queer podcast needs YOUR help to keep the chaos coming! Join our Patreon family at any paid-tier at bit.ly/lezpatreon to unlock bonus episodes, ad-free listening, our patron-only Discord, and more. Plus, you can get an automatic discount by choosing an annual membership! Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay and follow along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us at [email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida) and Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Sources mentioned in this episode: Original analysis of CDC data — Generation Tech CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System datasets The Washington Post: Number of teens who identify themselves as gay or bisexual is in “free fall” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help us reach 100 paid patrons by November 1st! Your support helps cover the approximately $800/month it costs to produce Lez Hang Out and keeps our Production Assistant, Kristin, paid for the approximately 700,000 things she does behind the scenes. Join our Patreon for bonus episodes, ad-free content, exclusive Discord access, and more queer shenanigans. One of us! One of us! (Annual subs get a discount!) It's gay Christmas! 👻 Get into the spooky spirit and support our tiny independent podcast by shopping small at bit.ly/lezmerch. Our Gay Ghosties and Brat Skellies are ready to haunt your wardrobe! Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that thinks even your inner demons deserve a snatched waist. This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with artist and author Bill Crisafi (@billsafi) to discuss his new book, The Glam Reaper's Guide to Slaying: Life Lessons for Rebellious Souls. Bill's spooky roots run deep. Growing up around Salem, Massachusetts, he was essentially a spooky gay from birth. By kindergarten, he was already teaching his classmates how to draw witches and attempting to fly around on a mop like Sarah Sanderson. Between Leigh’s own experiences in Salem and Ellie's family hailing from Dorchester, we had plenty of New England nostalgia to bond over. Believe it or not, Bill never even pitched the book! Penguin approached him about turning the delightfully unhinged characters from his artwork into a self-help guide, including the Glam Reaper, a fierce bitch in high heels inspired in part by his mom. When Bill’s mom sadly passed away during the writing process, he found himself working through his own inner demons while creating a guide that could help others do the same. We talk with Bill about the pressures of monetizing creativity, the difference between being a bitch and being THAT bitch, and the absolute horror of accidentally sending a heinous emoji to the ONE straight guy in the Penguin WhatsApp chat. Bill also opens up about coming out at 26 on Christmas Day to his macho Italian family and discovering the joys of the drag community through his partner. If there's anyone we trust to make Halloween a little more slay, it's Bill. With Ellie's wife Bailey dressing as Spider-Man, we needed some help figuring out Ellie's costume. Naturally, Bill's very specific appreciation for certain actresses' teeth leads him to suggest Kirsten Dunst's mouth. I hate gay Christmas. What do you mean you're Kirsten Dunst's MOUTH?! Pick up your own copy of The Glam Reaper's Guide to Slaying and check out Bill's collection of prints, plushies, pins, shirts, and more at billcrisafi.com. What's your spooky root? Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay and follow along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us at [email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida) and Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help us reach 100 patrons at $10/month by November 1st! Your support helps cover the costs of producing Lez Hang Out and keeps our Production Assistant, Kristin, paid for everything she does behind the scenes. Join our Patreon for bonus episodes, watch parties, and more queer shenanigans. One of us! One of us! You can also rep the pod with Lez Hang Out merch. Dearest gentle listeners, welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that would have gotten to the lesbians four seasons ago. This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why Netflix’s Bridgerton Should’ve Been Gay(er). Leigh recently voluntarily suffered through four seasons of Regency heterosexuality, and now we’re making it your problem. With Francesca and Michaela’s romance taking center stage in Season 5, we have a few matters to address before the next social season.  First of all, they are finally giving us a sapphic love story, and somehow it doesn't involve Eloise? Eloise Bridgerton’s closet is literally made of glass. This woman spends season after season rejecting men, marriage, and the entire heterosexual industrial complex, but apparently we're the ones reading too much into things. Whether you’re rooting for childhood besties Eloise and Penelope or the delicious potential of Eloise and Cressida, there are perfectly good lesbians sitting right there. Meanwhile, Penelope has made herself a little anonymous gossip zine to talk shit about everyone she knows. Lady Whistledown is a Regency Regina George with a printing budget. We’re getting into the romance tropes that make us want to flee the marriage mart, the exhausting business of falling for a man when his hot female relative is RIGHT THERE, and why this fantasy version of the early-19th century can re-imagine race but somehow homophobia is the one heirloom nobody is willing to leave behind. The string quartet can play Ariana Grande, yet Eloise dancing with a woman is one historical inaccuracy too far? Benedict is putting the bi in Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury are one royal decree away from a lavender marriage, and Eloise has been ready for her lesbian storyline since approximately her first spoken sentence. We’re thrilled the sapphics are finally getting our own season. We just shouldn’t have had to sit through four straight ones to get here. We know one thing for sure, Bridgerton Should’ve Been Gay(er). Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay and follow along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us at [email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Bellesa Boutique. EVERYONE who signs up to our giveaway will receive a FREE Rose suction toy with Bellesa Boutique order! 🌹https://bbvibes.com/lezhangout #bbpartner ****************************************** Help keep your favorite LGBTQ+ podcast going! 🌈 We're aiming for 100 Patreon supporters at $10/month by November 1st, and we need just 40 more! Producing Lez Hang Out costs at least $800/month, and while we don't pay ourselves, we do want to keep paying our Production Assistant, Kristin, who keeps approximately 700,000 things running behind the scenes. Join our Patreon for bonus content, community fun, and a whole lot of gay nonsense. One of us! One of us! (Annual subscriptions get a discount!) ****************************************** Calling all horror gays! 🦇 Celebrate spooky season with Lez Hang Out and Cruising Pod at Queer Horror Trivia Night on Sunday, October 25, from 9–11 PM ET at NYC’s iconic lesbian bar, Henrietta Hudson! Come in costume, bring your coven (teams of up to 6), and test your knowledge of queer horror, cult classics, and iconic final girls. 🎃 Get your tickets! 👻 Can't make it? Get into the Halloween spirit with our Lez Hang Out merch, featuring gay ghosties and gender-neutral skellies! ****************************************** Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast where supporting lesbian bars shouldn't require a degree in conflict resolution. This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) are talking about late-stage capitalism, the impossibly high standards of being a lesbian in 2026, and the viral controversy surrounding The Last Ditch, a COVID-conscious lesbian bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The Last Ditch discourse has taken social media by storm, and we wouldn't be a responsible lesbian podcast if we didn't talk about it. Leigh actually used to live in Western Mass, and it's impossible to understand what happened without considering the local culture. People move to the Pioneer Valley for a reason, and the viral Boston Globe article (which reads like The Onion but is somehow real) has put this tiny queer community under a microscope that glosses over that context. It's a very specific brand of lesbian and queer person who settles in the area, and the dynamics aren't necessarily comparable to larger LGBTQ+ communities like LA or NYC. That said, there's plenty here that applies to the greater queer community. We'd be remiss if we didn't discuss the polycule breakdown, the clown college situation, and the white progressive pearl-clutching of it all. When The Last Ditch announced one mask-optional night a week to stay financially afloat, the backlash escalated from an Instagram announcement and a therapist-mediated town hall to hate crime accusations and even a public comment wishing for the bar to be firebombed. Firebombing should not be step one! And we're saying this as people who still take COVID precautions and wear masks in various situations. There were so many opportunities for an open community discussion about accessibility and the bar's financial struggles, but instead we got a perfect example of what happens when we leave absolutely no room for nuance. It sucks that we live under late-stage capitalism, but we cannot ignore reality. The Last Ditch's owner is reportedly living in her car because of the debt she's taken on trying to keep the bar open, yet proposing one mask-optional night has people sending her death threats. Our society runs on women's unpaid emotional labor, and patriarchy doesn't magically disappear within the LGBTQ+ community. Lesbian bars are expected to meet every community need, provide endless care and accessibility, and somehow remain financially sustainable, while gay men's bars aren't asked to shoulder any of that responsibility. A gay men's bar could make the exact same decision without being expected to answer for the failures of an entire society. There are already so few lesbian bars left in the United States, and we'll keep losing them if we don't actually show up and support them. We cannot jump straight to canceling a queer-owned business over one misstep. We're all human, many of us are neurodivergent, and maybe we all need to touch grass and have a little empathy for a woman who's doing her best to serve her community while also trying not to be literally homeless. The people we need to be fighting are not each other. Having this discourse coexist with the Cornell 7 controversy is honestly breaking our brains. The double standard in how society excuses appalling behavior from men while holding women to impossible standards is staggering. Accessible queer spaces are essential, but so is keeping them open. We have to make room for both without expecting lesbian bars to somehow operate outside the financial realities of late-stage capitalism. We want to hear your thoughts! Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay and follow along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us at [email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida) and Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Bellesa Boutique. EVERYONE who signs up to our giveaway will receive a FREE Rose suction toy with Bellesa Boutique order! 🌹https://bbvibes.com/lezhangout #bbpartner ****************************************** Our Patreon family has given us so many incredible memories over the years, from watch parties and trivia nights to getting to meet some of you IRL. Now we’re trying to hit 100 $10/month patrons by November 1st, which means we need 40 more! It costs about $800/month minimum just to produce Lez Hang Out, and while we don’t currently pay ourselves, we do want to keep paying our Production Assistant, Kristin, who keeps approximately 700,000 things running behind the scenes. One of the most direct ways to support the pod is to join our Patreon for $10/month (and choose annual billing for a discount!). One of us! One of us! You can also rep the pod with Lez Hang Out merch. ****************************************** Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast where the gays get to be in the room even when Hollywood would rather hide us backstage. This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the 2017 musical The Greatest Showman Should’ve Been Gay. All circuses are inherently queer and this circus is no exception. We’ve got outsiders finding their people, Lettie the Bearded Lady (Keala Settle) choosing to fully embrace herself, and This Is Me, which may be one of the gayest songs ever put on film. Meanwhile, PT Barnum (Hugh Jackman) is busy exploiting the very people who make his show a success, and somehow Hollywood straightwashes him into the hero he never was. We’re getting into Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) and Charity (Michelle Williams)’s VERY interesting chemistry, the forbidden-love duet that desperately needed a lesbian rewrite, and our theory that PT and Phillip (Zac Efron) are one lingering eye contact away from this becoming a very different movie. Then Jenny Lind arrives, PT is practically levitating over her performance, and she somehow thinks he’s into her. Jenny, babe, he’s looking at you like you just walked onstage at Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. Phillip is right there, but apparently the movie’s gaydar is on airplane mode. For a movie about outsiders, The Greatest Showman sure does spend a lot of time telling PT Barnum’s story while giving us surprisingly little of the people who actually make the circus worth watching. We barely know half their names, let alone who they are beyond the spectacle. Nearly a decade later, we’re still asking: why does the garbage man get the hero edit? We know one thing for sure, The Greatest Showman Should’ve Been Gay. Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay and follow along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us at [email protected]. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices