Laurie Hernandez—a gold medal winning gymnast from the 2016 Rio Olympics, tv host/commentator, Broadway dancer, and forever queen 👑of my heart—mentioned Heated Rivalry in her instagram post celebrating Pride:
“In 2016, at 16 years old, I was on an Olympic stage for gymnastics. I was quickly thrown into the public eye, so the world had a specific idea of who I was before I had the time or chance to find out.
As a teenager, I used to look at those pride posts on instagram and cry at the ones that said, "Happy Pride! For those who aren't out yet, we see you! We're still celebrating you!"
I believe they may have saved my little mind, because at some point, I was the only one in the world who knew such a secret about myself: that I was queer. I am queer.
I was homeschooled for most of my life, so queer stories in books and media are the reason I was eventually able to understand myself, and eventually be brave enough to tell others about it. To say it was perfect would be dismissive of the lived experience, but right now, everything is more than okay. I am loved.
I owe my life to these characters, worlds, and authors that were the center of a journey I never realized that, until much later in my teen years, I would be a part of.
They are the reason I graduated in drama and creative writing. They are the reason my own stories exist, with the hopes that someone out there sees themselves reflected, and realizes they are already home.
I look at Joan & Vanessa in the book Atmosphere and suddenly I too, am an astronaut with a love of the sky, and a knowing that maybe all answers to any existential questions lie here, on earth, next to someone who loves you.
I look at Priory of the Orange Tree and Bloom Town and am reminded of what it's like to fight, against all odds, for what you believe in. And if there is no other road seen for your love to exist, then one must be carved.
And of course ... Shane and Ilya in Heated Rivalry. Two Olympic lovers that are hyper-aware of the pressure the world places upon them. It's not until they meet each other that everything slows. Expectations of perfection and power are removed.
With one another, 'they do not have to be good ... they only have to let the soft animals of their bodies love what they love' (Mary Oliver).
How can queer love be wrong if it looks like this, if it is so kind and beautiful? Is love not what we all deserve? How freeing, to decide I deserved it anyways.
So in honor of every cryptic pride post I've made over the past few years, here is a very real one. One that begs you to remember love is a universal language we dare to be well-versed in.
And to those who aren't out yet, there is no rush. No pressure. You are always included in the celebration.”
via lauriehernandez | instagram
🔗: https://t.co/Yc4HcqNoxk
Poetry 🔗: https://t.co/BeT9zSiU41
I hope we get sappy lovesick hollanov in unrivalled. I want them so nauseatingly in love that everyone can’t stand to be around them, I want them glued at the hip at all times, just disgustingly obsessed with each other
Lo so che sono 15 giorni che mi lamento solo del caldo ma per me questa non è vita.
Non dormo, non mi viene fame, la mattina mi sveglio già senza forze, durante la giornata non riesco a combinare nulla e per le pulizie in casa faccio dopo le 21 (e fa comunque oltre 30 gradi)
“Connor and I had chemistry instantly, but then we had to find a way to have get shane and ilya to have chemistry which is different than our own…for sure”
the fact that the instant chemistry was between Hudson and Connor, and they had to create a different kind of chemistry for the characters…