Do you listen to Girl in Red?

At this point in the year, if you’ve spent enough time online, you must have heard the coded question: do you listen to girl in red? 

For me personally, the answer is yes. Both literally and implicatively. 

If you don’t already know, the question is a covert way the womxn-love-womxn (wlw) crowd use to find out if another girl or femme is attracted to women. On social media platforms, it has become a rather cute way sapphics show solidarity and pride.

Before diving into girl in red, I want to call attention to a really cool phenomenon within the queer and trans community as well as other marginalized communities globally. Because of the lack of visibility we get, we often find ourselves championing the few who break into the limelight. Specifically within the arts realm, we rally around musicians, actors, and creators of all kinds who stand and make themselves visible despite all the factors that constantly strive to erase them. 

When I was younger, the queer icons I looked up to were artists like Troye Sivan and Hayley Kiyoko. Back then, I remember people leaning away from their music due to its unavoidable themes of LGBTQ+ pride. So seeing them now being main pop acts, hearing their queer anthems blast at dances and on Southern radios has felt… refreshing. They’re finally being more widely accepted and embraced as their full selves. Many may not see how truly impactful this is. To them I say this: societal change can only occur where an issue is inescapably visible. Girl in Red in particular has been an unexpected catalyst in bringing forth this visibility.

As someone who started listening to girl in red early last year, watching her develop into a icon of the queer community has been incredibly fun and interesting. It warms my heart to see queer and straight people alike rally around her songs centered on sapphic love. But, what makes me even prouder to be a listener/fan of hers, is the direction she chose to take her explosive internet popularity. 

More recently, girl in red, or Marie Ulven, has started a worldwide campaign that has plastered the question in alleys, billboards and windows. In big bold black letters, everyone is being asked: do you listen to girl in red? I assume the intention is that those who are curious will simply google the question. They’ll be led to Marie’s new website, doyoulistentogirlinred.com, where she has taken a meek question asked in various niches of the internet and turned it into a campaign on LGBTQ+ visibility and rights. 

Upon opening the site, we are greeted with the same question in the same bold lettering, but, once we scroll to the bottom of the short page, we see two donation links to amazing queer and trans uplifting organizations: one to the Trevor Project, the other to the Marsha P. Johnson institute. The Trevor Project is an organization that focuses both on suicide prevention and crisis support for LGBTQ+ youth. The Marsha P. Johnson Institute guards and advocates for the rights of the black transgender community. Online many people are hearing of these institutes/projects for the first time, and honestly it’s better late than never. This newfound awareness of the abundant intersectional problems LGBTQ+ folk face can be attributed to an activism pipeline that was relatively untapped until the BLM movement this summer.

In the past few months, many celebrities, regardless of the origins of their fame, have been asked to use their platform to uplift the voices of various marginalized groups. While I personally believe that any help can ultimately aid in bringing forth substantial change, it is undeniable that many are in a position to institute more change. Marie has already been vocal about her support for multiple causes on social media, however doing something this large scale to support all the identities within the LGBTQIA+ community is nothing less than admirable. She has cemented this internet craze in a renewable form of support for the queer community. For that she has truly earned my respect as a sapphic/queer icon.

So, the next time you hear the inevitable  do you listen to girl in red? I hope you can challenge yourself to uplift queer, non-binary, and trans communities in any way you can too. I trust that together we can create an inclusive future. Sometimes it starts with a simple question.