Twitter Users Share Their Queer Awakenings Just in Time for Pride

No matter where you land in the alphabet mafia, you’ve had a gay awakening. It’s this pivotal moment where you realize that you’re not as straight as you thought you were. For some, it’s a girl you saw kicking ass and taking names while looking fabulous in a movie you watched when you were young. For others, it’s a boy who charmed his way into your heart with a smile in a TV show you were obsessed with. And for others, it’s a cartoon character that made you go, “Huh,” while swooning.

Whatever your moment may be, it’s valid, monumental, and something you’ll never forget. And it’s the reason why the following tweet got so many responses from members of the LGBTQ community during Pride Month.

Personally, it’ll always be The Mummy for me. And no, I’m not talking about that Tom Cruise disaster. I’m talking about the 1999 movie starring Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser. They were responsible for my bisexual awakening, and there was no turning back as soon as they were on my screen. But they weren’t the only ones. Oded Fehr is and will forever be a dreamboat. And he is joined by the under-appreciated Patricia Velasquez.

They were all part of a gay awakening that left me feeling like I had finally found myself. Yes, it was a movie where a mummy was resurrected and they were on a wild ride to stop him., but the fact remains that this movie was a treasure trove of queer goodness for my little heart at that time. And years later, I still count it as the turning point for who I am as a bisexual woman.

And as I grew older, I started noticing even more signs that I was queer AF. There was Nani from Lilo & Stitch, Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) from The Fast and the Furious, and Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) in every Pirates of the Caribbean movie they did. All of them were bisexual beacons that I’ve revisited years later to only confirm that they still make me feel the way they did when I was younger.

Twitter, as expected, had plenty of answers to accompany this prompt about gay awakenings. Some were about Keira Knightley because of reasons. Others were about Naveen from The Princess and the Frog or Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. And together they mark the moments we knew we were part of the LGBTQ community.

Here are some of my favorite responses:

What show, movie, or piece of media is part of your gay awakening? Let us know in the comments!

(image: Universal Pictures)

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Lyra Hale

Lyra (She/Her) is a queer Latinx writer who stans badass women in movies, TV shows, and books. She loves crafting, tostones, and speculating all over queer media. And when not writing she's scrolling through TikTok or rebuilding her book collection.

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