Vacation Vixen: Shay Mitchell

You might not watch “Pretty Little Liars,” but maybe you should. (p.s. It returns tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC Family)

Lesbians for Ezbian

We’re here, we’re queer, we’re Ezbian lovers! If you love “Pretty Little Liars.” Or if you love Anne Shirley and therefore anyone who looks like Gilbert Blythe. Or if you just love really awesome T-shirts. Man, do I have the deal for you. My genius friend Heather Hogan has made the cast and crew of “Pretty Little Liars” fans of her equally genius recaps. And, as fans of the recaps, they’ve come to know her recap lingo. Risen Mitten = A. Boo Radley Van Cullen = Toby Cavanaugh. Ezbian = Ezra Fitz, the Gilbert Blythe doppelganger with lesbian tendencies. And, you might also come to know that the cast is really responsive to fans. So after Ian Harding, who plays Ezra, gave his stamp of approval to the “Ezbian” label, naturally, a call for a T-shirt suggesting such was made.

Ian and TV lesbian Shay Mitchell provided the action shot.

Heather provided the T-shirt design.

And, voila, the official “Ezbian Loves Lesbians” T-shirt was born.



Not only is it a kick-ass T-shirt, it’s a kick-ass T-shirt for a good cause. Heather is donating all proceeds to The Trevor Project.



Buy your very own T-shirt here. Well, what are you waiting for? Show you Ezbian pride, ladies and discerning gentlemen.



p.s. In case you’re hankering for some TV lesbian on TV lesbian interaction, please relive the most cotton-mouth inducing scene in “Pretty Little Liars” history. How Samara had enough saliva left to utter a single word after that display, I have no idea.

p.p.s. Who wants to draft Heather into starting a T-shirt business? Accepting petition signatures below.

SGALGG: Hanily Edition

Lots of co-stars get along. And thank heavens for that, because not everyone is a good enough actor to fake it through a whole season of TV. But some, they’re especially close. Like Straight Gals Acting Like Gay Gals close. Like Achele close. OK, I can’t think of a close than Achele. But Hanily is pretty darn close. That is Hanna and Emily from “Pretty Little Liars.” Co-stars Shay Mitchell and Ashley Benson are by all appearances great friends on set and off. And when I say by all appearances, I mean by all of the pictures they tweet out. Seriously, those two take more pictures together than most married couples I know. Think I’m kidding? I am so not.



Here they are all splendor in the grass.

And here they are again.

And again.

And, yes, again.

Also, have you noticed Ashley is almost always on the left and Shay on the right? I mean, come on, they even have their own sides. Hell, they even have themes.

With Sunglasses

With Food

With Costumes/Outfits

With Ashley on the Right

Heck, Ashley even ships their characters together. When asked by Just Jared Jr. who Hanna should end up with, she made Hanily shippers hearts go pitter patter.

JJJ: Who does Hanna really belong with?

AB: Caleb! No, Emily, I mean…(laughs)

Look, I liked Maya and I liked Paige and Samara is, well, blonde. But “Pretty Little Liars” should really consider making Hanily happen. Because you can’t fake chemistry like this. Also, no lying, aren’t they just the prettiest little couple ever?

Tank Top Tuesday: Gay it Forward

You know, I’m supposed to notice Stephanie March’s big yellow bandana. Because, you know, it’s yellow. But you know what I notice, well, besides the tank top? Her watch. That’s a big gay watch. Now, of course, I know Stephanie isn’t gay. She’s got Bobby freaking Flay cooking for her at home. But, she does play gay convincingly (as the brilliant plastics engineer slash lesbian on “30 Rock”). And, of course, gives good subtext with one Det. Olivia Benson. So, wait, where was I going with this? Oh right, those who play gay for our pleasure. Sometimes, they also wear pretty gay things for our pleasure, too. Like watches. And, of course, my personal favorite – tank tops.

Elizabeth MitchellElizabeth has earned the honorary hot plate for playing gay not once, not twice but three times. If she does a fourth, I say we have it bronzed.



Penelope CruzPenelope has only done it twice for us – but it was Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johansson, respectively. So, you know, good job.



Charlize TheronFine, so also played a lesbian serial killer. But, you know, nobody’s perfect.



Shay MitchellPoor dear, “A” made Emily a juicer. Though on the plus side, think of the muscle definition.



Patricia ClarksonSometimes I still expect her to talk with a German slur, like Greta from “High Art.”



Zoe SaldanaShe got to make out with Mila Kunis before it was Oscar-worthy to make out with Mila Kunis.



Piper PeraboAlso a twofer, but let’s be honest, we’ll love her forever just for kissing Lena.



Jenny ShimizuShe doesn’t have to play. She just is. My, is she ever.

Thanks for gaying it forward, ladies. And, yes, the tank tops.



EDIT: Looks like Piper and Penelope get their honorary hot plates as well for making the third time the charm. We anxiously await their fourth.

Tank Top Tuesday: Summer TV Edition

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And a child shall lead them

Gay teens on TV are kicking the ass of gay adults on TV right now. Like, it’s a serious beat down. No contest. Throw in the towel, grownups. In the past week alone, lesbian storylines on “Glee” and “Pretty Little Liars” have struck a resounding chord with gay viewers young and old.



Watch Santana’s plaintive plea to Brittany: “Please say you love me back. Please.” Didn’t you flash back to the first time you handed someone your exposed heart and asked them to be gentle? Or look at Paige’s confession to Emily: “If I say it out loud, if I say I’m gay – the whole world is gonna change.” Remember when speaking those words seemed like the end of the world as you knew it?



These moments, these confessions – they’re as close to universal as it gets for the GLBT community. Sure, we all have differing ways out, ways in, first loves, last loves. But we’ve all had (or will have, youngsters, take heart) the first time we were finally brave enough to tell someone we loved them and hoped desperately they’d love us back. And we all had the worry that simply admitting our undeniable truth would change everything forever. And it did, but for the better.

The thing about the gay teens on TV right now – from Brittany and Santana to Emily and Paige to Kurt and Blaine and even poor dear Tea – is that, like it or not, their stories feel honest. They’re about discovery and heartbreak, confusion and acceptance. They’re not about just the static afterschool moment: See Jane. See Jane become gay. They’re about what it’s like day in, day out – especially at the start. There’s no perfect way to be gay or come out or understand yourself. Life has no script, yet we all still fumble our lines. So the complexity of their experiences, it’s important to see on TV. It helps people. It helps me even today.



Entertainment Weekly recently wrote about the gay teen revolution on TV and it’s true, there are more than before. But it’s not just that there are more gay teens on TV all of a sudden. It’s that there are more gay teens acting like real gay teenagers on our TV all of a sudden. This isn’t about sweeps month kisses or ripped-from-the-headlines storylines. They’re not just there to jazz things up for an episode or two. They’re in it, we hope, for the long haul.

Certainly, there have been good gay teen characters on TV before. Rickie Vasquez on “My So-Called Life.” Jessie Sammler on “Once and Again.” Willow Rosenberg on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Spencer and Ashley on “South of Nowhere.” And they’ve all made a difference. But to have so many right now, with so many varying experiences right, is kind of special.



The reason these teens are touching people, making a difference, mattering so much is because their stories are really everyone’s stories. When you’re older, truly universal moments are fewer and far between. We won’t all become pregnant lesbians (regardless of what TV writers seems to think). We won’t all become adoptive parents (or wear clown costumes at our child’s first birthday). We won’t all get married (or civil unioned, which, gosh doesn’t that sound romantic). We won’t all work for law firms or the FBI or cranky yet brilliant doctors. And unless I’m greatly mistaken about reality, none of us will become vampires. Sure, many of us will want those things (OK, perhaps not the vampire thing), but they won’t necessarily happen.



But aside from the tiny little difference of sexual orientation and the enormous difference of societal acceptance, we all – gay, straight and everything in between – go through adolescence. The teen experience will always be a more relatable. We all grow up. We all have firsts. We all stumble our way towards adulthood.

In the end, what we want from our gay characters – teen or otherwise – is simple. We want to see a little bit of ourselves, our lives, our loves. And, just as important, we want the world to see our lives and our loves and that in the end we really aren’t so different after all. Because if there’s one thing the entire universe can agree on, it’s that being a teenager sometimes really sucks. And then there are other times, even when it hurts, it’s beautiful.

My Weekend Crush

I didn’t start watching “Pretty Little Liars” until this season. I’d shied away because a) it’s on ABC Family and b) it’s about teens and c) I am an adult and already watch way too many shows about teens. But its lesbian storyline and the consistent insistence by friends that it was great, goofy fun convinced me to give it a try. And it is fun, like a live-action episode of Scooby Doo each week without the stoner comedy. I can’t say I’m an ardent devotee. I mean I watch it weekly, but sometimes I wonder if I wouldn’t have just as much fun watching a rerun of Scooby and the gang zoinks it up on some haunted island. Also, the Aria-Ezra/student-teacher thing kind of weirds me out. There, I said it. Go ahead and call me a prude on this one.



But, then I get my own May-December (OK, not really December, more like May-July to Augustish) feelings about Shay Mitchell. That girl is ridiculously pretty. Like not normal, possibly from another planet, definitely not like anyone I went to high school with pretty. Wow, is she pretty. And I know she is 23, which is perfectly legal and not entirely out of the sphere of age appropriateness for me (and probably smack dab in many of your wheelhouses), but whenever I look at her I feel like a skeazy mouth-breathing old lady. I think it’s her skin, that delicious, delicious olive. And her hair, that shiny, shiny black. Also, she kisses girls on the show. I can’t help myself. She makes me think very good, very bad things. I should probably just watch more grown-up shows so I don’t have keep having these fictional moral conundrums with tiny Chris Hansens on my shoulder. So to summarize, “Pretty Little Liars” is pretty fun, Shay Mitchell is insanely pretty and it all makes me feel pretty pervy. But, mostly, in a good way. Happy weekend, all.