They say time flies when you’re having fun but they neglect to tell you that time also flies faster and faster the older you get, and apparently turning 44 this year has flipped my internal clock to double time because here we are with another Watermark annual Year in Review.
In these pages you will find a time capsule of 2023 curated by myself and Managing Editor Ryan Williams-Jent highlighting all of the stories that made headlines in the LGBTQ+ community in Central Florida, Tampa Bay and beyond.
For my final desk of 2023, I want to countdown 23 things that happened in 2023 that I loved, fangirled over or was obsessed with.
23. While I have mocked adult Disney fans over the years, I discovered in 2023 — with the help of some friends — that I am, in fact, and adult “Disney Gay.” I not only embraced it this year but celebrated it.
22. I’m a fan of cheesy horror films and I saw two fantastic flicks that fall into this category: “M3GAN” and “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” both of which have sequels coming.
21. Thanks to queer goddess Ariana DeBose, I found out this year that “Angela Bassett did the thing.”
20. The trainwreck in me loved watching Jada Pinkett Smith continue Lady Macbething her way through Will Smith’s career with the release of her memoir “Worthy.”
19. The United States Congress held a hearing that confirmed the existence of UFOs and it seemed like most people didn’t care at all.
18. Smarmy ass hat Tucker Carlson got fired from FOX News.
17. Social media lit up with the mugshot of our 45th president, Donald Trump.
16. Brendan Fraser won the Best Actor Oscar for playing a morbidly obese gay man in “The Whale.”
15. “Spider-Man 2” was released on the PS5 and it did not disappoint.
14. HBO premiered the first season of “The Last of Us,” the TV adaptation of one of my favorite videogames, and again I was not disappointed. I have personally watched the Bill and Frank episode of the show dozens of times.
13. As editor-in-chief of Watermark, I managed to get Lego on the cover of one of our publications — the 2023 Holiday Guide.
12. Speaking of Lego, I reached peak obsession with my favorite toy this year with the purchase of the Lego Batcave shadowbox, based on one of my favorite films of all time, “Batman Returns.” It wasn’t every Lego fan’s cup o’ tea but for me it is the most beautiful set I have ever seen.
11-6. Starting in May, singer/rapper Jake Hill started releasing singles from his queer country music persona, Dixon Dallas. Most of the singles he released contain intense sexual lyrics such as “He’s bouncing off my booty cheeks, I love the way he rides, I can hardly breathe when he’s pumping deep inside. I kiss him on his neck and then he kisses on my bussy, call him Daddy while I holler, man that boy so damn good looking.” Over the course of 2023, Dallas released six singles — “Something To Feel,” “Better Without You,” “F-150,” “Sleeping All Alone,” “Good Lookin’” and “Like Whiskey” — everyone of them is a bop that slaps so hard.
5. “Red, White & Royal Blue,” the film based on the 2019 queer rom-com novel of the same name and starring Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine as the bisexual son of the U.S. president and gay prince of England, respectively, who fall in love, is released on Prime Video and became my whole personality for months.
4. Continuing with my “RW&RB” obsession, I got the chance to interview the film’s director, Matthew López, and I mean no disrespect to any of the amazing people (and Andy Cohen) that I have had the opportunity to chat with, but López was the most amazing person I have ever interviewed. He indulged my silly questions about things I obsessed over in the film and was the nicest person. When they say “Never meet your heroes,” they were obviously not talking about him.
3. I had not one but two amazing “work trips” this year, one in Dallas and one in Philadelphia, the latter of which was so amazing that I am already working on another visit.
2. I moved into a new house this year which had the space for me to have a room solely dedicated to displaying my Lego sets.
1. Publisher Rick Todd and I started a Watermark podcast: “Wine, Wine Not: A Queer Podcast.” We talk about queer media while I get to “Mad Men” it up by drinking at work and Rick watches me do it. We have a lot of fun doing it and I hope everyone reading this checks it out, if you don’t already.
