Legendary filmmaker David Lynch may not have been queer, but his work holds a special place in this community. As a storyteller who invested deeply in the stories of outsiders, misfits, lovelorn philosophers, and outcasts, his work hit us where we lived. Whether we grew up watching the original run of “Twin Peaks” or discovered Lynch’s work later in life, we’re all in collective mourning right now for the man who gave us some of the most seminal, haunting stories of all time.
Without Lynch, cinematic vocabulary would be so much poorer.
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We’ll certainly never see his like again.
Before queer characters were included in mainstream media, Lynch gave us heartbreaking, deeply-lived portraits of queer lives. When “Twin Peaks'” trans character Denise came back for “Twin Peaks: The Return,” Lynch gave us one of the most powerful battle cries in the fight for trans acceptance with “fix your heart or die.”
We’re so grateful we got to spend some time with him, even if it was briefer than we’d like.
— austin_walker (@austinwalker.bsky.social) January 16, 2025 at 10:26 AM
He gave us the queer love story The Elephant Man, the iconic lesbian murder-mystery Mulholland Drive, and so much more.
This is a hard day inside of a hard week inside of what’s shaping up to be a very hard year, but there’s one thing we can’t forget. One day, the sadness will end, somehow.
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