Since the early days of horror, the genre has always been a place the LGBTQ+ community has gravitated toward, especially in terms of the stories tackling topics of otherness queer people can often relate to. This extends to the Scream movies, which Courteney Cox is now cheerfully celebrating as Pride Month continues!
Courteney Cox Celebrates Pride Month With Scream Fans
The actress has played Gale Weathers in every Scream movie so far, and is reportedly in talks to return for Scream 7. With June being Pride Month, Cox took to Instagram to share this chaotic, but very spirited, rainbow-filled Scream edit:
Where did she find this? The unhinged Pride graphic has Gale Weathers wearing enough different colors of matching suits to make up the rainbow. And, what’s even better, is Ghostface is in the background rocking a rainbow mask, too. Cox wrote “Gale had a great pride month. Hope you did too 🌈” Check out how fans responded in the comment section:
- “Gale is for the girls and the gays” - @paulitalynn
- “I miss Gale 🌈” - @carolpcgo
- “Gale is a gay Icon!!! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜” - @brendon.nyc
- “I love you in all your colors, Court ! ❤️” - @cc_rules_forever
- “YOUR EVERYONES ICON COURT 😍😍” - @rachshearts
Fans were absolutely living for the LGBTQ+ geared post from Cox. While Neve Campbell, who is set to star in Scream 7 as well, is thought of as one of the best scream queens in horror history, Cox’s role of Gale Weathers is undoubtedly iconic in her own right!
The LGBTQ+ Subtext Behind Scream
The recent Scream movies have had queer representation with Jasmin Savoy-Brown’s character, but even the 1996 original has an LGBTQ+ subtext. Its screenwriter, Kevin Williamson is gay. While he has shared he was “very hesitant to present the gay side” of himself back when the movie came out, he does think he wrote the original Ghostface backstory as “a little coded and maybe accidental.” As he told Pride Source in 2022:
It’s very sort of homoerotic, in the sense that there were these two guys that killed this other person just to see if they could get away with it. And one of the reasons that one could get the other one [to follow] is because I think the other one was secretly in love with him. And it was sort of a fascinating case study on double murderers. If you Google 'Leopold and Loeb,' you will see. And you'll read about it and you'll get, OK, that's Billy and Stu.
The '90s were a different time when it came to gay representation, but as Williamson has shared, he definitely reflects on Matthew Lillard's Stu Macher and Skeet Ulrich’s Billy Loomis being rather “homoerotic.” As he continued:
It's all left up for you to wonder, because clearly Billy's the one who was leading. Billy was the one who had the mother. Billy was the one who was sort of orchestrating it. And Stu was the person who helped carry it out. So it sort of put Stu in that position of, what was his feelings toward his best friend? That we do not know. It’s just left to keep you wondering.
Williamson’s words came over 20 years after the Scream franchise caught the attention of the LGBTQ+ community. Coming up, Kevin Williamson is set to direct Scream 7 himself! We can’t wait for the sequel to join upcoming horror movies once it goes further into development. Until then, Happy Pride from Courteney Cox, Gale Weathers… and Ghostface?!
