Daisy Jones & the Six features a major gay plot twist, and it’s reason alone to watch the show
Nabiyah Be as Simone Jackson in Daisy Jones and the Six. (Pamela Littky/Prime Video)
In a major win for onscreen LGBTQ+ representation, Amazon Prime’s new adaptation of Daisy Jones & the Six has made a lead character explicitly queer.
Based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel of the same name, the new series follows the rise and precipitous fall of renowned rock band Daisy Jones & The Six, fronted by two charismatic lead singers, Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin).
Delving into Daisy’s complicated love life, the implosion of the band, her friendship with disco pioneer Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be) and relationship with drugs and alcohol, it focuses largely on straight characters.
In the book, we know Simone as Daisy’s roommate and best friend. Few details are given about her love life, though, and there’s certainly nothing sapphic about it.
However, in the series, her queerness is front and centre as she navigates the music industry, forms a crush on another TV series original character Bernie (Ayesha Harris) and grapples with her identity.
Although all the characters are fictitious, they are strongly influenced by influential real-life musical figures of the 1970s and 1980s. Simone, for instance, takes inspiration from Donna Summer, whose music gripped the gay community in the 70s and gave us the iconic queer anthem “I Feel Love”.
Given the disco genre’s longstanding relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, Be felt it was natural to make Simone queer.
“I think it was a great addition because gay people created disco music,” she told Insider. “It was part of the movement, it was part of why the music was so relevant.
“So, making Simone a queer character and having her be the pioneer, the face, and one of the fundamental aspects of this genre coming to life, I thought was super important.”
At the beginning of the series, Simone is faced with a sexually aggressive producer, and is asked to stay in the closet. “That was happening to Black queer artists still, ’til not that long ago,” Be explained. “A lot of Simone’s stories are real.”
In the latest episode, Simone went to New York in part to find Bernie, and fans are hyped at the decision to make her a lesbian.
“Simone being sapphic is the greatest thing this show has given me. We are blessed!” one fan wrote. Another added: “Did they make Simone a lesbian? I love it here.”
Other fans, meanwhile, are grateful Simone is getting more screen time.
Given that neither Simone nor Bernie appear in the source material, fans remain in the dark as to how things will pan out in the ten-episode series.
And considering Reid has already written Sunday Times bestselling novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is being made into a film by Netflix, this won’t be the last sapphic plot line from her work that makes it to the small screen.
The first three episodes of Daisy Jones and the Six are available to stream on Prime Video. The next three will drop on 10 March, two episodes on 17 March and the final on 24 March.
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