Queer Representation in Cinematic Art - A Client Reflection on “Girls Like Girls” Pre-Screening
During Pride Month, Asylum Pride House’s community members were invited to the Philadelphia prescreening of Hayley Kiyoko’s “Girls Like Girls” movie. This is one community member’s personal reflection of that evening:
There was a period of time in the mid to late 2010s, right around Obergefell v. Hodges, where a lot of optimism felt abound in the air. Perhaps it had more to do with my being an impressionable burgeoning gay adult consuming American culture and media my entire life, but for that moment in time, America came across as a gay haven for me more than ever, and I would devour and bask in all it had to offer.
Hayley Kiyoko’s “Girls Like Girls” came out during that time frame, and to me, it was one of the soundtracks of that era. Heck, even terrestrial radio stations in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I was born and raised, would frequently play the song! I suppose this was also prompted by that era’s digital revolution, which meant that more LGBTQ artists broke through the mainstream (the chasm between “mainstream” and “indie” was also increasingly narrower). It was an incredible change of pace as someone who came of age in the 2000s desperately collecting scraps in popular culture and media for anything and everything LGBTQ.
Asylum Pride House supports LGBTQIA+ asylum-seeking immigrants - many of whom come from countries where seeing a movie like “Girls Like Girls” in public would be impossible.
For many of our clients, this was the first time they had ever been in a theater full of queer people to watch a sapphic coming-of-age story. It was a very special moment for our APH community!
I’ve always been a sucker for coming-of-age narratives and Hayley Kiyoko has done a wonderful job with Girls Like Girls. It’s been incredible to see her artistic growth over the years - I remember fangirling over her when 2017’s “Sleepover” came out and she went around saying “20gayteen!” in 2018 when her debut studio album dropped. It meant a lot seeing someone like her, someone of Asian descent, in the mainstream as I was, in my own way, coming of age myself.
There have been so many different versions of myself and so many lives I’ve lived in the ten-ish years between Girls Like Girls the song and the movie. Watching the movie felt like a very fitting full circle moment for me now that we are in 2026 and I am actually in America, working on becoming an American citizen. I keep saying that being in America for me also means healing my inner teenager, past selves that I never got to live or incarnate because I was forced to grow up too soon, because I was navigating a life as an out queer person in a deeply religious and queer-phobic society.
As such, I’m grateful for the opportunity to partake in this pre-screening event. To watch the movie alongside other LGBTQ people in the room was a moment to cherish for me. It reminded me of the screenings of Pride and Love, Simon that I attended in Jakarta in mid and late 2010s, and I saw a number of people, seemingly younger than me, burst into tears during or after the screenings. It made me realize the importance of queer storytelling in cinema, how fresh and relevant it continues to be, as we navigate lives in a world that, by and large, still looks down on LGBTQ people. It made me look back on my younger self, going to this queer film festival in Jakarta, feeling petrified at first before truly enjoying it, finding empowerment through it, and even joining it at the end as part of the programming team.
I’m planning to rewatch the movie as soon as it gets an official release. Once again, thank you very much for this opportunity!
-Anonymous APH Client
A special thank you to the teams at Focus Features and Allied Global Marketing for inviting our community out to the pre-screening! And of course, a heartfelt thank you to Hayley Kiyoko and all queer artists who create space for acceptance and community.
Victoria Sirois
APH Executive Director
