SBG 121: Saved! with Giovannie Espiritu

Lez Hang Out | A Lesbian Podcast

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is healing religious trauma through humor.

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Filipina filmmaker, actor, and writer Giovannie Espiritu (@giospirit2) to talk about why 2004 dramedy Saved! Should’ve Been Gay. We do not think it is possible for there to be a more perfect guest for this episode than Giovannie who actually escaped from a biblical doomsday cult as a teenager. She had just recently left the cult when Saved! came out and helped her to process her religious trauma through super relatable humor (and a huge crush on Jena Malone).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the movie, Saved! follows the story of Mary (Jena Malone) as she navigates the consequences of getting pregnant in her senior year of high school after sleeping with her boyfriend Dean in an attempt to “save” him from his homosexuality. Mary goes from being a poster child for walking with Jesus to a social pariah whose old friends try to exorcize the devil out of her for daring to have sex before marriage. Her best friend and American Eagle High’s answer to Regina George, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), kicks Mary out of their girl band The Christian Jewels, and she loses the support of nearly the entire school. Luckily for Mary, the other outsiders, a Jewish girl named Cassandra and Hilary Faye’s disabled older brother Roland, take her under their wing and help her to survive senior year.

Although this movie does technically have gay representation in Mary’s ex-boyfriend Dean, we really do not see much of his experience once he is sent off to Mercy House to be de-gayed. We want to see how he revolutionized the other students at Mercy House, how he and his current “life partner” got together, and how he managed to get everyone to the prom. Basically, they need to give us a parallel movie to this one a la But I’m A Cheerleader that fills in the gaps of what happened after Dean got taken away. Personally we think Saved! could be a lot gayer. Mary is giving off really queer vibes the entire film, kicking the movie off by literally praying for God to give her the strength to sleep with her boyfriend (obviously a super straight thing to do). Then there’s Hilary Faye whose name doesn’t rhyme with ‘gay’ for no reason. There is simply zero heterosexual explanation for that haircut.

We know one thing for sure, Saved! Should’ve Been Gay.

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