'Yellowstone' Shows Lesbian Kiss, Twitter Melts Down

"Yellowstone" has a rep as a "red-state favorite," but the Montana-set drama, now in its fifth season, has a diverse viewership... and, now, a lesbian kiss to its credit. Twitter melted down over the moment, which aired Dec. 18, UK newspaper the Daily Mail reported.

The episode – the seventh of the current fifth season – was packed with the show's signature familial and political intrigue, but, the Mail noted, "the biggest moment of the night came when Clara, took part in the show's first lesbian kiss."

Jezabel dove into more detailed context.
"The Dutton family (and its ranch hands) all take a trip to the fair in town to blow off a little steam," the site recounted. "John Dutton (Kevin Costner) has become governor this season, which seems like an important job, but he's mostly avoided doing anything related to said job and thus is free to join this fun trip to the fair. When his love interest, played by Piper Perabo, tells him that he shouldn't kiss her in public because of the optics, John says, 'My press advisor's behind me, making out.'

"Boom! Cut to new cast member Clara (Lilli Kay) giving us full inverse Brokeback Mountain realness under the stars with a cowboy hat-clad lady whose cheekbones could cut glass. You love to see it. Queer women! On the range! Where the deer and the antelope play!"

Some on Twitter shared Jezabel's celebratory reaction.

Others suggested that the same-sex snog was a throwaway moment typical of gestures toward inclusion that don't turn into anything of note.

Others went full-bore homophobic, calling the show "woke," adopting language that framed the loving moment in terms of violence, and hurling tired lies about "pedos."

A few anticipated the pearl-clutching and lost no time in mocking it.

Series creator Tyler Sheridan has shrugged off suggestions that the show is aimed straight at Trump country, telling The Hollywood Reporter that when he hears people "refer to it as 'the conservative show' or 'the Republican show' or 'the red-state Game of Thrones,' " his response it to "just sit back laughing. I'm like, 'Really?' "

Sheridan noted that the show talks about things that are typically assumed to be of concern to liberals, such as "the displacement of Native Americans and the way Native American women were treated and about corporate greed and the gentrification of the West, and land-grabbing."

Indeed, as Jezabel noted, though the scene showed a same-sex kiss taking place among a crowd of supposedly straight Montanans, no one (aside from Costner's character, who clearly was unruffled) took any notice. Within the world of "Yellowstone," at least, the folks of Big Sky Country are secure enough about human sexuality not to freak out if two women share a smooch.

Still, as Los Angeles Magazine noted, "sexuality-wise, 'Yellowstone' has also made it pretty clear it's interested in playing it straight – even the pink-haired, butch cowgirl Teeter (Jennifer Landon) turned out to be horny for a dude, which makes this revelation about Clara all the more interesting."

That said, the outlet added, "The Clara clinch... isn't the first lesbian encounter a character's had: After all, Beth has talked loudly and proudly – to her dad, no less! – about having at least one threesome in her past." A lesbian journalist was also part of the show's storyline in a past season.