In Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas from Freeform, Kimiko Glenn and Aisha Dee (The Bold Type) play classic holiday romcom best friends with an unexpected holiday romcom problem: Dee's character dies unexpectedly and returns as a ghost. Glenn's Kara is a tea enthusiast who begins to fall for graduate student Mae (Jazz Raycole). As the plot unfolds, their queer romance blossoms and fits seamlessly into the story.
Glenn, who played Soso, a love interest to Samira Wiley's Poussey on Orange Is the New Black for several seasons and who appeared on Broadway in Waitress, spoke with The Advocate about her character's queer storyline. When it comes to LGBT representation in the media, Glenn believes that "exposure is everything."
"It's not so often you see something like this," Glenn said. "It's time we make [queer relationships] more mainstream and a little less taboo. This movie does a great job of normalizing it and they've got a really sweet relationship."
"If one person sees this and it changes their mind, it'll help people see that it's a very human thing. Love is a very human thing," she added.
Queer storylines have traditionally been missing entirely from Christmas movies or relegated to the sidelines, but this year, Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas, Netflix's Let It Snow, and Season of Love from the lesbian-run tello films, all center queer love stories. Even the Hallmark channel, long a bastion of heteronormative holiday love stories, has said it would be open to featuring queer stories in its Christmas movies.
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas breathes new life into the holiday movie, a genre that has historically been not only very straight but also, very white. The film's focus on the friendship between Jess and Kara is another refreshing element of the story.
"My biggest loves in my life are my deepest friendships...that's kind of the most beautiful love story of all," Glenn says of the friendship with Dee's character.
Watch a clip from Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas below. The movie is out on Freeform now.
