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Author: Eva Cheuk-Yin Li, Lecturer in Sociology (Media & Cultural Studies Team), Lancaster University
Original article: https://theconversation.com/how-thailands-tv-lesbian-romances-captured-a-global-audience-248261
While dramas about male same-sex romance (known as “boys’ love”, or BL) have been popular in Asia since 2010, “girls’ love” (GL) dramas are only now seeing a meteoric rise in popularity – and they are coming out of Thailand.
On January 23 2025, Thailand became the first country in south-east Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Although the country is often imagined as a “gay paradise”, Thai society remains largely conservative and homophobia is still commonplace. Against this social backdrop, the rise of LGBTQ+ storytelling is intriguing – perhaps revealing the emergence of more tolerant and progressive attitudes.
In Thailand, these BL and GL dramas are known as series “Y”, an industry estimated to be worth 3 billion baht (approximately £72 million) in 2024. Thailand’s GL dramas now reshaping sapphic storytelling and bringing it to the mainstream.
Besides the central romance plotline, GL stories often explore pertinent issues such as family expectations and societal pressure, coming-out struggles, and age and class differences. Adding depth to the narrative, these issues chime with young queer audiences seeking more realistic, relatable experiences.
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A hub for BL series since the mid-2010s, Thailand only produced its first full-length GL series in 2022. Despite investor doubts, the producer of a then-small production house financed a pioneering series called Gap, telling the story of an office romance between a royal-descendant CEO and a junior member of staff.
Airing on domestic TV and later uncut on YouTube with multilingual subtitles, Gap amassed over 850 million views by January 2025, proving a global appetite for queer women-oriented stories. By February 2025, more than 20 GL series had aired, with at least 30 more in production.
Series like Blank, 23.5, The Secret of Us, Affair, and The Loyal Pin illustrate the genre’s growing popularity, with uncut versions available on platforms like YouTube and Netflix, complete with subtitles in various languages such as English, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish.
Thailand’s GL dramas have adopted successful practices from their BL counterparts: adapting novels, scouting and training actors, incorporating product placement, hosting fan events and appearing on variety shows. One notable practice is the making of khu-jin (imagined couple), where celebrities perform same-sex intimate moments on stage or social media to serve fans’ fantasies.
“Shipping” culture – the practice of imagining or supporting a romantic relationship between fictional or real individuals – is pivotal to GL’s success. The two Gap leads, Freen Sarocha and Becky Armstrong have created the “FreenBecky” ship, and each have more than four million Instagram followers. Actresses of other “ships” such as LingOrm, EngLot, and FayeYoko, command similarly devoted followings. Their fan meetings across Asia regularly draw tens of thousands, blending fiction and reality to create an immersive fan ecosystem.
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Celebrating Girls Love
As we discussed in our recent research, Thai GL series also emphasises joy and resilience, unlike the tragic endings often seen in western LGBTQ+ narratives. US-produced content has been criticised for the “bury your gays trope”, where LGBTQ+ characters are frequently killed off in tragic or unnecessary ways.
Another objection is “dead lesbian syndrome”, where lesbian and bisexual characters are even more likely to be killed on screen. Notorious examples include Killing Eve and The 100.
In contrast, Thai GL stories celebrate love and acceptance, despite the challenges experienced by protagonists. Series like Gap, The Secret of Us, and Mate feature grand wedding finales with the blessing of parents and friends, portraying queer love overcoming obstacles and thriving.
GL series also speak directly to the queer women’s community. Many actresses, such as Engfa Waraha in Show Me Love and Petrichor, and Faye Malisorn in Blank, are openly queer or vocal queer allies.
Although many GL series have male directors, love scenes are respectful, focusing on sensuality and desire rather than being graphic and exploitative. This contrasts with films such as Blue is the Warmest Colour, in which love scenes were criticised as being exploitative, and where actresses have reported problematic practices during filming.
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Opportunities and challenges
From their inception, Thai GL dramas have aired locally but have quickly been made available on streaming platforms with multilingual subtitles for a global audience. Social media platforms amplify their reach, with production houses curating trends and fostering interactive fan experiences.
Recognising the potential for cultural export, the Thai government has partnered with BL and GL production companies to promote Thai culture and products. It is unusual for governments to embrace queer culture as a vehicle for soft power, which highlights the growing cultural and economic significance of these series. Though this development has sparked concerns over the intentions behind such support, it signals a future where queer narratives hold global, cultural and political relevance.
Despite its success, GL entertainment faces challenges. Many series are still adaptations of novels, limiting thematic diversity. While themes like schoolyard dramas and sweet romances such as Love Senior, Unlock Your Love, and Us prevail, some series are pushing boundaries with themes like disability (Pluto), supernatural power (Reverse 4 You), and crime (Petrichor).
GL romances provide a vital space for queer women’s stories, connecting audiences across borders through global visibility and fan culture. Most remarkably, this shift isn’t coming from Hollywood.
As the genre evolves, it holds the potential to continue redefining representation and amplifying underrepresented voices. It’s not just reshaping how queer women’s stories are told and viewed globally, it’s proving to be commercially viable and culturally transformative.
In the face of rising global reactionary politics and growing hatred against the LGBTQ+ community following Trump’s re-election, Thai GL series offers not only a safe escape and fantasy, but also a sense of solidarity through their worldwide fandom.