Comedian, journalist, and musician Lane Moore and her band It Was Romance released a music video for their latest single, “Hooking Up With Girls.” The new video is a shot-for-shot remake of the Fiona Apple’s iconic music video for her song “Criminal” in the 1990’s, but It Was Romance remakes it from a queer perspective. It Was Romance’s video has caught the attention of several leading outlets, including Billboard, Nylon, Jezebel, Out, After Ellen, Refinery 29,and Curve. 

Moore’s career has taken her in many different directions, from comedy and acting, to music and writing. However, no matter what creative medium she is working in, she incorporates queer advocacy in almost everything she does.  

“Some of it is conscious, but a lot of it isn’t,” she said. “My band’s debut album, It Was Romance, which this song [‘Hooking Up With Girls’] is from, has songs on it that I wrote about men and some I wrote about women. When I wrote these songs I wrote them because I was feeling the same feelings any other song writer feels when they write a song.”

It was also important to the band to add queer elements to their remake of Fiona Apple’s video.

“I’ve always been obsessed with ’90s music videos and Fiona has been a lifelong musical inspiration for me,” Moore said. “The Criminal song and video are both so evocative of something sexy and frustrated and angry and confused, all of which were themes in ‘Hooking Up With Girls,’ so to recreate that and tie in the queer element of the song just seemed like the most exciting thing to do!”

The video was also created entirely by a diverse crew of queer people and people of color, showing the importance of diversity both in front of and behind the camera. Moore explained that because the band is already made up of people of color and queer people, it made most sense for the crew and actors in the video to reflect that.

Outside of her music career, Moore recently served as the Sex & Romance editor of Cosmopolitan when the magazine won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage this past May, where she helped to achieve greater visibility for the LGBT community.

“Winning that award meant everything to me,” Moore said. “When I came to Cosmopolitan I wanted to make it LGBT-inclusive and body positive and to talk about gender and sexuality and love and all of these things I wish I’d been able to see in a mainstream magazine. We’re all just people who have crushes and feelings so there’s no reason there should be ‘Oh, this is for straight people, and this is for queer people.’ I’d love to see that gap continue to narrow.”

As for the music industry, Moore believes that the best way to promote queer visibility is to support queer artists.

“It’s so important for queer people to support their own,” she said. “Buy music by LGBT artists, watch films by LGBT people, go like Facebook and Twitter pages by LGBT performers. I’ve started a Patreon for that reason, to allow people who like what I’m doing and want to directly support it to be able to do that. There are a lot of queer people and people of color doing things like this and I think it’s so valuable to lift each other up any way we can.”

Watch It Was Romance’s new video for their song “Hooking Up With Girls” below! The band’s new album can be purchased or streamed on iTunes, Bandcamp or Spotify.

GLAAD

GLAAD continues its Southern Stories Summer Tour next week in Texas. Throughout the trip, GLAAD will be facilitating conversations with local advocacy leaders about accelerating acceptance and amplifying the voices of LGBT people in the South. We will share resources, and listen to the stories of everyday LGBT Texans.

The Summer Tour begins in Houston on August 9, with a teaser preview of the upcoming short documentary “GLAAD Presents: State of Change – Texas” at the Montrose Center. We will also hear from a panel of LGBT leaders in Houston who are featured in the film. Panelists include Fran Watson, President of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus; Lou Weaver, Statewide Transgender Programs Coordinator for Equality Texas; Andrea Molina, Director of the Organización Latina de Trans de Texas; and Janet Quezada, Senior Strategist, Spanish Language and Latino Media at GLAAD. Panel will be moderated by Ross Murray, Director of Programs, Global and US South at GLAAD. RSVP for the event here.

GLAAD staff will also unveil a new resource guide for journalists and media organizations and LGBT leaders, “Southern Stories – A Guide for Reporting on LGBT People in Texas.” The guide provides a timeline of LGBT highlights, terms and definitions, pitfalls to avoid, organizations and experts on given topics, as well as story ideas for innovative, fair, and inclusive reporting. GLAAD collaborated with Equality Texas in the creation of the resource guide.

On August 12, GLAAD will visit the youth living in Pride Home in Edinburg. We’ll share a sneak peek of “State of Change – Texas” and talk to the residents about their perception of being LGBT in Texas. Pride Home has just opened home that will provide emergency housing for LGBT youth in the Rio Grande Valley. Joining us for conversation would be Amanda Robinson, the founder of Real Live Connection, a non-profit based in Dallas that is dedicated to providing positive development and life-enhancing programs to LGBT teens.

Finally, GLAAD will end the tour at the Aquí Estamos Conference in McAllen. In addition to attending the conference, GLAAD will screen a teaser of “State of Change – Texas”, followed by a panel of LGBT leaders who were filmed at the 2015 conference for the documentary. Panelists include Anel Flores, author of Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas; and Robert Salcido, Regional Field Coordinator for Equality Texas. GLAAD’s Janet Quezada will moderate. RSVP for the event here.

The Southern Stories Summer Tour is part of GLAAD’s Southern Stories initiative, which aims to positively showcase the lives of, and build acceptance for, the LGBT community in southern states. This is done through sharing the stories of people from a wide array of backgrounds, including faith-based organizations, sports teams, military personnel, and more. Partners on the Texas tour include Equality Texas, The Montrose Center, Youth Pride Home, and the Aquí Estamos Conference.

To view the full schedule in detail, click here.