“It had me on the edge of tears, and it makes me so upset b/c to me finding content like that 5 minuet video is so rare.” “I watched Hayley Kiyoko’s 5 minuet music video about two girls,” one user posted, after seeing their desires refracted into ceaseless GIF form for perhaps the first time. In a formative example of this trend, back in 2015, Kiyoko found her music career bolstered by queer Tumblr fandom after releasing “Girls Like Girls.” While she’d already accrued a small following thanks to her role in Wizards of Waverly Place, Kiyoko’s popularity grew exponentially after Tumblr caught wind of her ode to other girls. The same happened for Lil Nas X when he revealed this summer that he isn’t straight.

Meme librarian Amanda Brennan, who works on Tumblr’s Fandometrics project to chart fan trends across the site, says she noticed a large spike in popularity for Panic! At The Disco among Tumblr users when the band’s singer Brendon Urie began identifying as pansexual in July 2018. With the rise of queer acceptance came the monetization of it.