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These last few months, we had more than enough time for indoor activities. So we decided that we want to explore queer books, movies, and TV shows, preferably with a diverse crew and cast. And although many are (too) white for our taste, we also came across fantastic books, movies, and TV shows that include BIPoC artists.

Today, we want to share one movie, one book, and one TV show with you that we particularly love.

Moonlight (2016), an all-black cast movie, was the first movie we watched during our lockdown. This coming-of-age drama follows Chiron through his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, also mirrored in the release poster that merges the faces of the three actors playing Chiron into a single face. Chiron grows up with an addicted mother who calls him a 'faggot,' but finds a supportive father figure in Juan, an Afro-Cuban drug-dealer. In the course of the movie, he struggles with his identity and with his sexuality.

We started reading Girl, Woman, Other (2019) by Bernardine Evaristo with our feminist book club. The author's style is unusual—in an intriguing way. The book portrays twelve lives that are intermingled over various decades. More than once we found ourselves surprised to get to know a person we met before from a completely different angle. At the core of the book: intersectional feminism, sexuality, patriarchy, independence. We won't reveal too much: read it!

After Netflix recommended the TV show numerous times, we finally started watching Pose (2018-)—and we love it! The show is set in New York in the 1980s and 1990s and revolves around Blanca Evangelista, a trans woman diagnosed with HIV. Blanca establishes her own 'house,' a self-chosen family with a mother (Blanca) and her children. Together, they compete for trophies in the Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture against other houses. We can't wait for the third season!

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Else & Ilse | LGBTIQ+ adventurers

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