The Grammy-winning duo emerged from Atlanta's thriving club scene before breaking through with their 1989 self-titled major label debut, powered by classics like "Closer to Fine" and "Kid Fears." The album launched a remarkable run that included six consecutive Gold and Platinum-certified releases and established their signature blend of rich harmonies, thoughtful songwriting, and social consciousness.

Their influence extends well beyond music. Longtime activists, Saliers and Ray have championed causes including LGBTQ+ equality, racial justice, immigration reform, Native American rights, and education. Their commitment to advocacy has become as much a part of their legacy as their songs.

Perhaps most remarkable is the connection they continue to share with audiences. More than concerts, Indigo Girls performances feel like communal sing-alongs, bringing people together through music, compassion, and shared experience. In a world often defined by division, their songs remain a source of connection, comfort, and hope, proving that their message is as relevant today as it was when they first took the stage.

As Indigo Girls continue to bring people together through music, activism, and storytelling, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray joined us to reflect on their latest tour, their evolving creative process, and the unique connection they share with audiences around the world.

EDGE: What can fans expect from this tour? 

Emily: Right now, Lucy Wainwright Roche is singing harmonies with us, and Lyrics Born is playing violin. Jeff Fielder is also with us, playing a variety of stringed instruments, as well as keyboard and bass. Jeff plays in Amy’s country band, the Amy Ray Band. Lyrics has been playing with us for many years, and Lucy recently joined to sing harmonies—and she also performs one of her own songs during the set. The show is a mix of songs spanning our entire catalog, from our first Epic album all the way through to our most recent release, Look Long, with plenty in between. We like to mix things up with both electric and acoustic arrangements. Amy typically performs a song from her country band or an original piece, and sometimes I do as well. So overall, it’s a bit of a musical mishmash. 

EDGE: With a busy summer schedule, are there certain songs that feel especially suited to summer shows? 

Amy: To me, when everyone’s outside together, it feels right to play songs that people can all sing along to. It’s just fun—like one big group sing-along. That really feels like a summer vibe to me. I mean, it works anytime, but especially in the summer when people are hanging out with their picnics or just relaxing—it’s all about feel-good songs. We still pull from every record, so there’s a range of themes, but I especially like leaning into the songs that make people want to dance around and just have a good time. 

The series was created by Megan Park and developed with Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the producers associated with The O.C. and Gossip Girl.

The drama follows Annie Jacobson, a high-achieving teenager from New York who travels to a Canadian island after inheriting property from a grandfather she never knew.

Annie’s arrival brings her into contact with family secrets, new friendships and romantic relationships while she spends the summer on the island.

Queer Characters at the Center of the Conversation

The show’s lesbian and queer storylines quickly became a focus of online discussion following the premiere.

PinkNews reported that viewers reacted enthusiastically to the series’ sapphic scenes and its inclusion of lesbian characters.

The publication also reported that fans praised the show for combining queer representation with an engaging storyline rather than presenting LGBTQ+ identity as the sole source of conflict.

DIVA described the series as a new favorite among sapphic viewers and reported that social-media users had begun making fan edits soon after the episodes became available.

The series includes Ramona, a queer young woman from the island, played by Amélie Hoeferle.

DIVA reported that Ramona’s queerness is integrated into the character’s life and relationships without becoming the show’s only narrative concern.

That approach has helped distinguish Sterling Point in a crowded teen-drama market, where queer characters have often been required to carry stories centered on discrimination, family rejection or personal crisis.

A Softer Alternative to Darker YA Drama

Mainstream critics have also identified the series’ tone as one of its defining characteristics.

The Guardian characterized Sterling Point as escapist television built around warmth, humor and a compelling mystery rather than the darker mood associated with some recent young-adult dramas.

Time described the series as a refreshing throwback teen drama, pointing to its combination of summer romance, family secrets and emotional coming-of-age storytelling.

The Los Angeles Times similarly described the show as a sunlit drama set in Canada’s Muskoka Lakes, with a focus on conversation, identity and first love.

The setting provides a contrast between Annie’s urban upbringing and the island community where she begins investigating her family history.

The show’s central mystery is therefore linked to questions of belonging, adoption, family identity and the process of understanding where a person comes from.

Representation Without a Single Defining Trauma

The response to Sterling Point reflects a continuing interest in queer teen characters whose stories include romance, friendship, humor and ordinary emotional uncertainty.

The coverage does not establish audience figures, streaming rankings or an official second-season renewal for the series.

What it does document is an immediate fan response, including public expressions of support for the show and hopes that Prime Video will continue the story.

That response arrived alongside generally positive critical attention to the series’ performances, setting and emotional tone.

For sapphic viewers, the show’s appeal lies in its placement of queer young women within a broader ensemble story about first love, family and self-discovery.

The series is currently available on Prime Video, with its complete eight-episode first season streaming as of August 10.

And then, a cut. The documentary, which follows the Blink-182 drummer from 2017 to 2026, is a celebration of Barker's life before and after the life-altering accident, a central event in a career full of them. The film began as a mirror of his memoir, 2015's “Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums,” but became something else entirely after a producer suggested it end with the image of Barker, then still unable to fly due to post-traumatic stress disorder, walking toward a plane.

Ending on that note, “where this thing still has power over me,” didn’t sit well with him. Instead, he boards a plane at the end, but the documentary’s final images are a slide show of family photos, including his wife Kourtney Kardashian and kids.

“I almost died,” he says. It “could be helpful to share my life.”

An elastic artist

Barker's resume is long, and a two-and-a-half-hour documentary can only cover so much of it. The film hits most of the big notes, quickly establishing Barker as a rebellious kid with a supernatural drumming ability from age 4, when he got his first kit, to now, at 50.

And that's with many projects in-between: From the SoCal punks Feeble, which he joined while working as a trash collector, to his stint in the ska band The Aquabats and multiplatinum, pop-punk legends Blink-182 — the band that skyrocketed Barker into superstardom.

Also covered? His love of skateboarding and car culture, his clothing brands, side-projects Box Car Racer and +44, turntable duo TRV$DJAM, various experiments and collaborations in hip-hop (Bun B, Lil Wayne ) and beyond.

But it all began with drumming, and hilariously enough, Animal from “The Muppets” — his first drumming hero — until he discovered cross-genre greats like jazz legends Buddy Rich, Dennis Chambers and Elvin Jones as well as Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee.

“Where drumming got really serious for me was after my mom passed, so it was therapy,” he says, reflecting on his childhood. “It’s like my life. It’s like oxygen to me.”

It's also a kind of sport. Barker has long been a dedicated, athletic percussionist, and he likens it to a boxer's meditative state. “It’s like when you see a fighter and he just goes for broke the first round. There’s sometimes where I just feel like that,” he says. “Something just takes over my body.”

Many events in life threatened that euphoria, but none quite as physically as the plane crash. “I was in a burn center for six months on morphine and I had 30 surgeries,” he recounts. “Seventy percent of my body was burned.” At one point, he didn't only fear if he would be able to drum again — even walking was a question mark.

Lessons from tragedy

Even before the crash, Barker's life — as marked with musical triumphs as it has been — offered lessons in resiliency.

“Whether it was my mom passing away or my plane crash, I learned — and through watching friends of mine and just living life — I’ve seen traumatic experiences either destroy someone or define them,” he says. “Every loss I had, or every everything I took to the chin, it made me stronger. At the time, I can’t realize it, right? I can't like really wrap my head around it. But ... that’s why I went so hard and I was so determined to play music and so determined to succeed. Plan B was only making Plan A work. You know? There was no Plan B.”

The same tenacity can be applied to his sobriety and dedication to flying again — a journey emboldened by his family. “I fly all the time now and I feel turbulence and I can’t even tell you what’s going on in my head. And I just look over and my wife’s perfectly OK,” he says. “My son loves airplanes and plays with airplanes and it’s so innocent. It’s so beautiful.”

“They’ve been my greatest joy,” he says of his children, who grow up on screen across the film's near-decade of filming.

As someone who has lost a lot and thought about what it would be like to lose even more, when it comes to the topic of legacy, Barker has a simple dream. “I think I’d want to be remembered for my music and my drumming and being a great father, husband, and son and brother,” he says.

As for the doc? “Maybe my story helps somebody,” he pauses. “I don’t love how everything happened. I don’t like the losses that happened. But I like how hard I had to work. I like that I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I liked that I had to navigate and find my way. And the journey was awesome.”

Kenworthy, 34, announced the engagement on Instagram on August 5 by sharing photographs of the proposal and joking in the caption, “He said he’d think about it!”

The images show Kenworthy down on one knee while proposing to Rigby at a cliffside location overlooking the water.

The couple separately confirmed the engagement in an interview with PEOPLE, which reported that the proposal occurred on Tuesday, August 4, during their trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca.

A planned surprise in Mallorca

Kenworthy told PEOPLE that he had been planning the proposal for approximately one month with assistance from Luxury Travel Spain.

Rigby believed that the couple was taking a day trip, but Kenworthy had organized a more elaborate outing that included a private boat ride, a hike and a picnic.

The proposal took place on or near Torre de ses Illetes, a small island off the coast of Mallorca, according to reports describing the couple’s account and the photographs from the day.

After Rigby accepted, friends joined the couple on a chartered boat to celebrate the engagement.

Rigby told PEOPLE, “To say I was shocked was an understatement.”

The couple chose matching Cartier 1895 bands, with Kenworthy’s ring in gold and Rigby’s in platinum.

Their relationship

Kenworthy and Rigby made their relationship public on Instagram in August 2024, when they shared photographs from a trip to New York City.

The couple has since posted glimpses of their relationship and travels on social media.

Rigby is described in coverage as an Australian finance executive and fashion-industry professional.

According to PEOPLE and HuffPost, the pair first met nearly a decade ago in Sydney, Australia, before reconnecting in 2024 at a mutual friend’s birthday celebration in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Their renewed connection developed into a long-distance relationship, with the couple later moving in together in New York, according to HuffPost’s account of the interview.

Kenworthy’s sporting career and public profile

Kenworthy is a four-time Olympic freestyle skier and won a silver medal in slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

He has also worked as an actor and has been publicly associated with LGBTQ+ representation in elite sport.

Kenworthy publicly came out as gay in 2015.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon were among the most prominent openly gay American men competing at a Winter Games.

Recent coverage also reported that Rigby supported Kenworthy during his return to Olympic competition at the 2026 Milan Olympics.

A personal milestone

The engagement follows a European trip during which Kenworthy and Rigby attended Pride events in Berlin and Amsterdam, according to HuffPost’s report on their interview.

Kenworthy told PEOPLE that Mallorca had already been planned as the relaxing final stop of the journey and that it became the setting for the proposal.

The announcement was met with public congratulations from fans and people in the couple’s social-media communities.

Neither Kenworthy nor Rigby has publicly announced a wedding date.

According to TikTok, the livestream was detected within minutes of beginning and referred to the company’s U.S. content-moderation team. The platform said the broadcast remained live for approximately 15 minutes, disputing reports that it had continued for about 30 minutes.

TikTok has not publicly provided a detailed technical explanation of the error. Vanity Fair reported that TikTok later characterized the problem as an error message encountered by a moderator while attempting to remove the livestream.

The incident has renewed scrutiny of the relationship between automated detection tools and human review on large social-media platforms. TikTok’s statement indicates that its automated system identified the content, but that the subsequent human-moderation step did not result in an immediate takedown.

What Happened During the Broadcast

The livestream took place Tuesday night and showed Hilton in apparent distress while holding a knife and appearing to harm himself. The video was subsequently removed from TikTok.

The Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed that Hilton was safely recovered from his Miami-area home and transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to a local hospital for medical attention. The New York Times also reported that authorities confirmed Hilton had been hospitalized after the livestream.

Viewers who saw the broadcast immediately contacted emergency services, flooding local dispatch centers with calls while simultaneously reporting the content through TikTok's internal tools. While TikTok maintains that it eventually reached out to law enforcement as well, public dispatch logs indicate that the initial emergency response was entirely triggered by these frantic viewer reports.

Sources close to the family stated that Hilton is currently receiving medical care and that the family's sole focus remains on his immediate well-being [forbes.com]. On Aug. 9, reports citing these close sources described his condition as serious but stable, noting that he suffered significant blood loss and would require surgery for his injuries.

TikTok’s Subsequent Actions

TikTok said Hilton continued broadcasting through several additional livestreams after the initial video. The company said those later streams were removed within 90 seconds.

The platform banned Hilton’s TikTok account for violating its Community Guidelines. TikTok’s policies prohibit content that shows, promotes or provides instructions for suicide or self-harm, as well as graphic or disturbing material.

TikTok’s account of the timeline differs from some viewer reports, which claimed that the broadcast or related material remained available for longer than 15 minutes. The company has maintained that the principal livestream itself lasted about 15 minutes and that separate subsequent broadcasts were taken down more quickly.

Questions About Content Moderation

The episode illustrates the limits of a system that relies on both automated detection and human intervention. TikTok said its automated tools recognized the livestream within minutes, but the content remained online while the moderation process failed to complete the removal.

The company’s public description leaves unanswered how long the moderator encountered the error, whether the failure affected other enforcement tools and what safeguards were used after the initial takedown attempt failed. TikTok had not publicly released a fuller post-incident account as of Aug. 10, 2026.

The company’s response also highlights the distinction between detecting prohibited content and removing it. TikTok said the automated system flagged the stream, but the delay occurred during the human-moderation stage rather than because the content went entirely undetected.

For viewers who encounter content showing a person in immediate danger, emergency services remain the appropriate avenue for urgent assistance. News organizations have avoided reproducing the livestream because of its graphic and potentially harmful nature.

As of Aug. 10, the confirmed facts are that Hilton was hospitalized, TikTok’s automated system flagged the livestream within minutes, a moderator error delayed its removal, the broadcast lasted about 15 minutes according to TikTok, and the account was later banned.

The announcement was made on August 7, placing it within the past three weeks. The event is scheduled to include live entertainment, drag performances, comedians, advocates and opportunities for community engagement. Organizers said the event will bring together artists, fans, creative workers and advocates to support queer visibility and collective action.

A fundraiser built around community support

According to The Midwest Princess Project’s official event page, “The Super Graphic Spectacular” is intended to mark one year of the organization’s work. The page describes the event as a Los Angeles-based charity fundraiser combining live performances, charitable efforts, community engagement and a special performance by Roan. It states that all net proceeds will support the next phase of the organization’s work.

The project’s stated focus is providing care, connection and access to resources for transgender youth and LGBTQ+ communities. The nonprofit’s website identifies its work as a vehicle for directing financial support toward organizations serving LGBTQ+ people, rather than presenting the fundraiser solely as a conventional concert.

Billboard reported that the event’s programming will feature Roan as a headlining performer alongside drag performers, advocates and comedians. The publication also reported that the fundraiser is expected to raise money for the Midwest Princess Project’s continuing initiatives supporting transgender youth and LGBTQ+ communities.

The event reflects a model increasingly visible in music: an artist using a concert audience not only to raise money but also to connect attendees with organizations and information. NME reported that Los Angeles organizations supporting transgender people and LGBTQ+ communities will be present to share resources and information with attendees.

A growing philanthropic effort

The Midwest Princess Project was established by Roan in 2025. At the time of its launch, the organization said it would provide support and resources for transgender youth and LGBTQ+ communities by directing funds to local organizations.

The project began with more than $400,000 raised through Roan’s “Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things” pop-up shows, according to reporting published after the nonprofit’s launch. The initiative identified organizations including the Ali Forney Center, The LGBT Center in New York, the Trans Wellness Center, TransLatin@ Coalition, The GLO Center and The Center Project as early beneficiaries.

The organization now reports that it has raised more than $800,000 and supported more than 60 organizations during its first year. Those figures are claims made by the project and were also reported by The Washington Times in its coverage of the new Los Angeles fundraiser.

The reported growth from the project’s initial fundraising total to more than $800,000 indicates that Roan’s fundraising activity has continued beyond the original pop-up series. However, the publicly available event materials do not provide a complete itemized accounting of all donations, administrative expenses or individual grants.

Ticket access and event details

Fans interested in attending were asked to preregister through the event’s Fair AXS ticketing process. Variety reported that preregistration opened on August 7 and was scheduled to close on August 11 at 8:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Ticket purchasing was scheduled to occur in waves between August 18 and August 20.

The event page lists The Shrine in Los Angeles as the venue for both performances. The public announcement does not identify the full lineup of guest artists, drag performers, comedians or advocacy organizations.

The fundraiser is scheduled for October, but its stated beneficiaries connect it to an ongoing need for affirming services and community infrastructure. The announcement specifically identifies transgender youth and LGBTQ+ communities as the populations the project seeks to support.

Roan’s advocacy has also included mental-health issues affecting music professionals. Earlier in 2026, coverage linked her public call for stronger health support for artists with the launch of Backline’s B-LINE, a 24-hour crisis and mental-health support service for music-industry professionals and their families.

Backline says B-LINE can be reached by calling 1-855-BLINE99 or texting 254-639. The service is separate from The Midwest Princess Project’s transgender-youth fundraiser, but together the initiatives show two distinct areas of Roan’s public advocacy: support for LGBTQ+ communities and attention to mental-health access within the music industry.

For “The Super Graphic Spectacular,” the immediate focus is charitable support and visibility. By placing transgender youth and LGBTQ+ communities at the center of a large-scale live event, Roan and The Midwest Princess Project are directing the attention generated by her music career toward organizations and resources intended to serve those communities.

The October event will provide a further public test of the project’s fundraising model: using ticketed performances, entertainment and in-person resource-sharing to generate financial support and community connection. The nonprofit has not yet published a complete guest list or detailed breakdown of how proceeds from the new event will be distributed.

I AM THE PRIZE, the provocative new short from award-winning writer-director Sai Karan Talwar, has recently screened at both the Frameline Film Festival and Raindance Film Festival as part of its 2026 festival run.

Starring Russell Tovey, the drama follows Anthony Selvon, a charismatic self-help guru whose carefully crafted public image begins to crack when revelations about his private life emerge during a high-profile lecture tour. Through his downfall, the film explores modern masculinity, the allure of self-help culture, and the personal cost of living behind a manufactured persona.

"Anthony's journey serves as a metaphor for the ethical questions surrounding influential self-help figures, an industry that's bigger than ever and rarely explored on screen," says Talwar.

A BAFTA Connect member and BBC Writers' Access Group alumnus, Talwar previously directed the BAFTA- and BIFA-qualified short GHANIMAH, which screened at more than 60 festivals worldwide. His most recent film, WHAT MEN DO FOR LOVE, was Oscar-longlisted in 2026.

“Very proud to tackle this problematic man in what appears to now be an epidemic in male culture” - Russell Tovey
Beneath the film's provocative premise lies a deeper interrogation of power, performance, and modern masculinity. We caught up with Talwar to discuss bringing Anthony Selvon's story to the screen.

It’s her first solo album since 2020’s beloved “Punisher” and the return of her supergroup with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, Boygenius. Those intervening years, Bridgers explains in press materials, were also full of personal changes and challenges. One relationship dissolved and another blossomed. And in 2022, her father died. The album is dedicated to him.

Those are the dominant experiences Bridgers examines across the record, which sees her pair her signature lyrical style with enthralling, complex sonic arrangements. The journey she brings listeners on is not linear, but feels instead like a sort of road trip. Some experiences are lingered within; others merely drift past. Bridgers visits a mall on “Liberty Tree,” as a relationship sparks. A van breaks down in the title track, just before she acknowledges the breakup of a proposed marriage. On “Panorama,” ambient beats pulse and mix with a guitar track for over a minute before the listener arrives at Bridgers' verse, and a hotel room. It's a resting place, giving listeners space to absorb some of the more intense lyrical revelations surrounding the track.

In classic Bridgers fashion, the images evoked send listeners lurching from euphoria to heart-wrenching melancholy.

Screams undercut the opening of “Bobby,” about how the intensity of a love can be felt in the mundane details of a shared life. Banjo played by co-producer Jack Antonoff peeks out from below the heavier drum and guitar track — a wistful, carefree, sonic thread. “Bobby, this could be the end of wanting,” she sings, as the instruments soften. When the track resurges, that refrain is repeated: “This could be the end.” Endings remain a Bridgers motif, but the hope imbued in this one makes it feel like an antidote to her apocalypse-anthem “I Know The End.”

“Still Standing” sees Bridgers reflect on a different kind of ending. Acoustic guitar builds as she recalls moments from her childhood, and considers her relationship with her late father: “I wasn’t too young to understand / I just didn’t think it was so bad,” she sings. “And it wasn’t in a way / And now there is nothing.”

Across the project, the intentionality displayed is stark. Space is not wasted. “Never Going Back!” is lyrically simple, for example, but complicated by that voicemail. Throughout, those collected clips are grounding — like intercepted signals from reality, breaking into the soundscape Bridgers has crafted to help herself (and us listeners) understand it.

In early June, Bridgers played a selection of hits and songs from the album at Madison Square Garden, the cap on a series of pop-up concerts. Phones were strictly prohibited. Even pencils were banned. The limited distractions didn’t silence the gasps and cries of reaction, but the lack of electronics allowed for more careful listening. Those shows were a signal for how this album should be absorbed: carefully, deliberately. And the experience was meant to be fleeting — just like feelings.

On the beautiful “Haunted,” Bridgers gets on the road again. “I have no secrets, only feelings,” she sings. “And I know those go away.”

___

“Lost Weekend” by Phoebe Bridgers

Four stars out of five.

On repeat: “Bobby,” “Still Standing," “I Can’t Wait”

Skip it: “Lost Parade”

For fans of: Road trips without a destination, old home videos, ambient music

Of the 225 films reviewed, 46 included at least one LGBTQ+ character, representing 20.4 percent of the total. That figure was down from 59 of 250 films, or 23.6 percent, in the previous study, and from a reported high of 28.5 percent in the 2022 film year. GLAAD describes the decline as a third consecutive year of reduced representation among the distributors it tracks.

The number of LGBTQ+ characters also decreased substantially. GLAAD counted 112 LGBTQ+ characters in the 2025 films, compared with 181 in the prior study. The organization reported that 34 of those characters, or 30 percent, were people of color, down from 36 percent previously. GLAAD said that the 2025 figure was the lowest proportion of LGBTQ+ characters of color recorded in the nine editions of the study that measured this category.

Transgender representation disappears from the sample

The report’s most pronounced finding concerns transgender representation. GLAAD counted zero transgender characters in the 225 films reviewed and zero films with transgender-inclusive characters. The organization recorded two transgender-inclusive films in each of the previous two studies and 12 in the study covering 2022 releases.

GLAAD characterized transgender inclusion in the films studied as “non-existent” and criticized both harmful portrayals and the exclusion of transgender characters and stories. The organization’s report argues that authentic representation should involve nuanced storytelling and meaningful participation by transgender people, rather than relying on stereotypes or inauthentic casting.

The absence of transgender characters is distinct from the report’s count of seven nonbinary characters. GLAAD classified those characters as nonbinary but did not identify them as transgender within the films’ narratives. The study counted characters based on what was stated or shown in the films, rather than on an actor’s real-life identity, source material, or outside reporting.

Family films remain a major gap

None of the 19 animated or family films in the study included an LGBTQ+ character. GLAAD defines the family category as animated and children’s films rated PG or below. The organization said that the complete absence of LGBTQ+ characters in this category overlooks LGBTQ+ young people and families who also watch mainstream family entertainment.

The report also found that LGBTQ+ characters remained more likely to appear in supporting or background roles than as central figures. Eighteen of the 112 characters were leads, 27 were significant supporting characters, 37 were supporting characters, and 30 were background characters. Taken together, supporting and background roles accounted for 60 percent of the characters counted.

Thirty-six of the 46 inclusive films passed the Vito Russo Test, a measure GLAAD uses to assess whether an LGBTQ+ character is identifiable, significant, and connected to the story rather than included only as a marginal device. That result means that most inclusive films in the sample met the test, although the overall number of inclusive films and characters continued to fall.

Mid-budget films and horror provide a different picture

The report does not portray every part of the film business as moving in the same direction. GLAAD identified mid-budget films and horror as areas where LGBTQ+ stories achieved notable visibility or financial performance. Among the 19 inclusive films with publicly reported budgets, 11 had production budgets between $15 million and $90 million.

GLAAD also reported that every theatrically released LGBTQ+-inclusive horror film in the study with available budget information earned more than twice its production budget at the box office. The organization highlighted films including The Parenting, Companion, and Weapons in its discussion of horror’s performance. The report’s financial analysis applies only to the films and budget information covered by its methodology; it does not establish that LGBTQ+ content alone caused a film’s commercial result.

GLAAD cited Hedda, Blue Moon, and Sorry, Baby as examples of films that placed LGBTQ+ characters prominently in their stories. It also pointed to Fairyland as a film that included two characters living with HIV, following two consecutive studies in which the organization counted no LGBTQ+ characters living with HIV.

What the findings mean for the movie business

GLAAD President and Chief Executive Officer Sarah Kate Ellis said that the industry risks losing younger audiences if studios do not invest in films featuring LGBTQ+ characters. GLAAD Senior Director of Entertainment Research and Analysis Megan Townsend similarly argued that studios cannot afford to disregard LGBTQ+ moviegoers when developing films and marketing strategies.

The report connects representation to audience demographics, citing Gallup’s finding that 23 percent of Americans under 30 identify as LGBTQ+. That statistic is presented by GLAAD as part of its business argument for inclusive storytelling, not as a direct measurement of film attendance or box-office spending by LGBTQ+ audiences.

GLAAD recommends that studios increase the number and narrative importance of LGBTQ+ characters, restore representation of LGBTQ+ people of color, include transgender people authentically, and develop LGBTQ+-inclusive animated and family films. It also calls for continued investment in theatrical releases, streaming titles, independent productions, mid-budget projects, and original stories rather than relying only on established franchises.

The study is limited to films from 10 major distributors and does not represent every LGBTQ+-inclusive film released in 2025. GLAAD noted that smaller distributors released films it considered significant, including The History of Sound, Mother Father Sister Brother, The Wedding Banquet, Plainclothes, and A Nice Indian Boy. The report therefore documents a contraction in representation within the major-distributor sample, while also acknowledging that LGBTQ+ filmmaking continues beyond the largest studios.

For LGBTQ+ audiences, the report presents a mixed picture: major-studio inclusion declined, transgender representation was absent from the sample, and family films offered no LGBTQ+ characters. At the same time, the report identifies evidence that films centering LGBTQ+ people can receive critical attention and, in selected genres and budget ranges, achieve strong commercial results. The immediate business question is whether major distributors respond to those successes with broader, more consistent investment—or continue narrowing the range of stories visible in mainstream cinema.