From the Closet to the Algorithm LGBTQ+ Fabulations, Cult Comedies, and the Ever-Wakeful Pink Market

Abstract

In recent decades, global television has transitioned from relegating the LGBTQ+ community to symbolic margins to giving it a main place in its narratives. With an ironic and metaphorical tone, this article examines the kuir transformations through four contemporary series: “Please Like Me,” “EastSiders,” “Sort Of,” and “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo.” Using a comparative and textual methodology grounded in cultural studies, media theory, and kuir thought, the analysis explores how these productions construct dissident subjectivities through resources such as humor, tenderness, care, absurdity, or intimate realism. The results highlight an evolution from stories centered on the closet to more complex representations of kuir daily life. Patterns of resistance, DIY aesthetics, and new affective grammars are identified, oscillating between the precarious and the fabulous. These productions not only present identities but also create new worlds where kuirness ceases to be marginal and becomes structural. This television does not ask for permission: it embraces irony as makeup, walks forward with aesthetic platforms, and proudly declares: “Yes, this is me, and I’ve got my own script.”