13 Sapphic Moments That Totally Stepped on Our Necks This Year
From gay footballer Megan Rapinoe becoming a World Cup victor to The L Word's highly anticipated revival finally landing on Showtime, 2019 was a damn good year for lesbians, bi women, and queer women.
ICYMI, here are NewNowNext's favorite sapphic moments of the year, listed in no particular order because they all basically destroyed us.
Three words: Megan. Frickin'. Rapinoe.
Rapinoe, an out soccer star and co-captain of the 2019 United States Women's National Team, led her fellow footballers to victory at this year's World Cup. The purple-haired goddess also broke the internet with her winning trio of badass athletic skills, undeniable charisma, and unabashed advocacy for women and marginalized people in sports.
St. Vincent and Dua Lipa's super-sultry Grammys duet
February's 61st annual Grammy Awards were jam-packed with queer moments, but we're still reeling from these lovely ladies doing a sexy AF duet.
Lori Lightfoot, Chicago's first black lesbian mayor
The Chicago-based politician made history in May, when she officially became the first black lesbian to helm the city's government. She shared the moment with wife Amy Eshleman, who kissed her after Lightfoot's historic swearing-in ceremony.
The world's first… *checks notes* lesbian space criminal?
Dyke drama reached new heights over the summer, when queer NASA astronaut Anne McClain was accused of identity theft by her ex-partner while on the job at the International Space Station. (And, yes, Lesbian Twitter™ caught on and promptly meme-ified the entire story.)
K-Stew and Kate McKinnon serving spot-on Tegan and Sara on SNL
The actresses made us feel both seen and roasted with this ace Saturday Night Live parody of indie rock's reigning queer sister act, Tegan and Sara. Bonus: Kristen Stewart made Charlie's Angels history as the first openly queer actress (and queer character!) to star in the action movie franchise.
Zendaya doing anything and everything
You might be wondering, Wait, isn't Zendaya straight? Sure, as far as we know, but the Disney Channel alum gets major props for playing a cis queer woman in a relationship with a trans queer woman in HBO's hit drama Euphoria. She also gets points for this sleek suiting, which we have not stopped thinking about since we saw it, and which may or may not have been the background image on all of our iPhones for two months.
Tegan and Sara taking an angsty trip down memory lane
Speaking of Canada's greatest contribution to gay culture, the Quin sisters looked way back—twice!—with 2019's Hey, I'm Just Like You, an album full of songs they'd written as teenagers and rerecorded as adults, and High School, their co-authored memoir. *cries in gay*
Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson's iconic sex bench
The confirmed celesbians invaded headlines and Twitter time lines when the paparazzi snapped a photo of them carrying a sex bench into their shared Los Angeles apartment. Love to see it!
Lena Waithe, unstoppable screenwriting queen
The Emmy-winning actor and screenwriter (Master of None, The Chi, Boomerang) did not slow her roll from #20GayTeen. In 2019, she became one of the busiest, most in-demand lesbians in Hollywood. Not convinced? Have you seen her IMDB page?
Ruby Rose's queer Batwoman
The Orange Is the New Black alum stars as the titular superhero in the CW's new series, which premiered earlier this year, and let's just say the caped heroine has a lot of baggage.
The Bachelor franchise's first same-sex proposal
Bachelor Nation stans were over the moon when Bachelor in Paradise star Demi Burnett proposed to her GF Kristian Haggerty on screen. It was the first same-sex engagement to air on the popular reality TV series.
King Princess finally dropping an actual album
The 20-year-old "Pussy Is God" songstress teased her debut studio album, Cheap Queen, for what seemed like an eternity. Then, in October, it finally showed up, complete with a new anthem for bottoms.
The L Word: Generation Q premiere, a.k.a. the 2019 Lesbian Super Bowl
The minds behind the iconic early-2000s Showtime series confirmed a revival of The L Word all the way back in 2017. Now it's coming into fruition, with showrunners introducing a fresh-faced cast of queer and trans actors while bringing some OG L Word stars back to the small screen. Bette Porter for mayor of Los Angeles, anyone? Also, how the hell has Shane McCutchen's haircut remained exactly the same over the course of 10 years?! We don't know, and we don't care. We're already dead.