Before diving full force into 2025, we want to take time to look back at the year that’s gone. There were a lot of great queer pop culture happenings, so here is David Ferguson’s favourites that he discovered in 2024.
Comics
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I covered comics in a piece at the end of 2024 but two of the books are worth highlighting again in this pop culture round-up – both from Irish creators, too! We had Luke Healy’s latest graphic novel Self-Esteem and the End of the World which deals with the life issues and mental health of the fictional Luke Healy, including a strange film adaptation of an old book of his. Charming and funny stuff from Luke Healy (you should check out his work if you haven’t before).
We also had Clare Foley’s Forbidden Altars. It is her adaptation of two Saki short stories, which changes the genders and creates new stories. It’s a beautiful piece of work.
I’ll also do some self-promotion and include a mention of Journey Planet Issue 85 again, which I co-edited. It includes numerous pieces on LGBTQ+ comics.
Books
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I totally failed in my attempts to read a lot of new novels in 2024, particularly LGBTQ+ ones. I did manage to read Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller, which was released in 2022 and is definitely worth reading if you haven’t gotten to it yet. It also includes the story of one Irish bad gay. There’ll be more on Bad Gays in the podcast section of this article.
I also read a couple of books by and about William S. Burroughs. He is on the pop culture radar at the moment following the film adaption of his book, Queer. I read Wild Boys (1969), which is possibly his most explicitly gay book. It fried my brain a bit – some of his books will do that. I also read a book of essays on his work, Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs, edited by Brian Alessandro and Tom Cardamone. It gave me extra insight into Wild Boys and some of his other work. Worth your time and probably my best book of 2024.
Music
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Chappell Roan. Need I say more? She was one of a number of queer artists to visit our shores in 2024. I am late to the party on her but have become a fan. Her song ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ is probably my favourite song of 2024. Other visitors included Troye Sivan (of course I went, great show), St Vincent and Gossip (I regret not going), to name a few.
TV
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Heartstoppers Season 3 is probably the most noteworthy TV series for a lot of people in 2024. For me, it was Agatha All Along. It was super gay all around and was my favourite show of the year. There are some great queer female characters in it, plus more Joe Locke.
In fact, 2024 was filled with science fiction and fantasy series for me. Sadly, two of them, DC Comics’ Dead Boy Detectives (a Sandman spin-off) and Star Wars: The Acolyte, aren’t getting second seasons. A real shame.
The year also saw the first full series of Doctor Who featuring an LGBTQ+ actor as The Doctor. It took me a while to warm up to Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor but he won me over in the end (check out the episode with Jonathan Groff for some incredible levels of queer chemistry).
I’ll also point to the first episode of the science fiction anthology series Tomorrow and I, which had a very interesting take on… I don’t want to spoil the story but give it a try.
In non-speculative fiction, I really enjoyed the comedy series English Teacher on Disney+. Brian Jordan Alvarez, the series creator, plays a queer teacher trying to balance the demands of parents and students. It’s a very funny show that pokes fun at school politics.
On the other side of the TV spectrum was Baby Reindeer, which is a pretty dark story about a stalker starring LGBTQ+ actors Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning. There has been some controversy surrounding the series, as the person the stalker is allegedly based on is suing Netflix.
Films
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Next in my 2024 pop culture round-up, I definitely need to mention the film Femme (2023). It follows drag performer Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) who gets gay bashed by a group of guys, including Preston (George MacKay). They meet later when Jules is out of a drag and start a sexual relationship. It is full of tension, sexual and otherwise, and raises some interesting questions.
Another film on my list, Unicorns, has somewhat of an opposite story. Ben Hardy plays single parent Luke, who begins to question his sexuality when he unexpectedly falls in love with Aysha (Jason Patel), a drag queen. He first meets Aysha in drag and believes Aysha to be a cis woman. It has a totally different tone to Femme and is quite romantic. I found the characters’ stories to be very believable. It felt like a demisexual story to me.
Of course, I have to mention GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival – how could I not? I got to hear Félix Maritaud talk about his career and see his film, Solo, in which he plays a truly toxic drag queen. I managed to meet him briefly too – he’s a truly charismatic human.
As with books, I have not caught up with everything from 2024. I want to check out the Queer film adaptation and the documentary Will & Harper.
Podcasts
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I discovered a bunch of new queer podcasts in 2024. Well, new to me. I started Shooting the Breeze hosted by Irish queer comedy duo The Wild Geeze. I had caught their stage act a few times and always found them entertaining. Their podcast is a great pick-me-up as they talk about everyday life, mental health and their shows.
Elsewhere, Jake Shears’ Queer The Music discusses different iconic queer songs each week. Where possible, Jake interviews the song’s creator about the track, with guests including Olly Alexander, St Vincent and Beth Ditto from Gossip.
Another big discovery was the Making Gay History podcast (it was referenced in Bad Gays: A Homosexual History). I’m still getting through the older episodes on this. Journalist Eric Marcus wrote the book, Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990, which was released in 1992 with an updated version released in 2002. In the podcast, he plays some of the interviews he conducted in the process of putting both books together. It is just remarkable listening to people who helped the LGBTQ+ cause share their stories, an example being the iconic Marsha P. Johnson. I learned a lot of new names too and a lot more about the history of the LGBTQ+ movement. I can’t recommend it enough, it is very moving in places.
I also want to include This Ends At Prom, another title I covered in 2024. In the show, critic, author, screenwriter and podcaster, BJ Colangelo, a queer cisgender teen movie apologist, makes her wife Harmony Colangelo watch teen girl films that she missed out on because, as a transgender woman, she didn’t watch most of them growing up.
I’m still listening to the Bad Gays podcast. Their newest and eighth season just started with an excellent episode and they are providing some Extra Bad Gays monthly on Patreon, where they discuss recent news and include a “Gagony Guncle” section for those in need of advice. I also need to include I’m Grand Mam, another Irish pick-me-up show. There is always fun back and forth between PJ and Kevin as they cover a range of topics.
That’s it for my 2024 year in review, I’ll be back with more pop culture stuff throughout 2025!
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