Selena Gomez to Star as Vanguard Gay Mountaineer Silvia Vásquez-Lavado

Vasquez-Lavado is the first gay woman to complete the Seven Summits.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

Read Full Bio

Tracy E. Gilchrist

November 12 2020 10:19 AM EST

November 12 2020 10:27 AM EST

Sorry to interrupt...
But we wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading. Your support makes original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Help us hold Trump accountable.

One-time Monthly

$19.67 $50 Other

$5 $19.67 $50

The story of Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, the first Peruvian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first out gay woman to scale the Seven Summits, is getting a biopic with Selena Gomez in the lead role. Elgin James (Little Birds) has been tapped to direct the film, based on Vasquez-Lavado's forthcoming memoir In the Shadow of the Mountain, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Vasquez-Lavado completed the Seven Summits, a challenge that requires reaching the peak of the highest mountain on each continent, when she summited Denali in June of 2018.

"As I summitted Denali, I became the first openly gay woman who completed the 7 summits, and thus my very special dedication to equality around the world and to love is love!" Vasquez-Lavado wrote on Instagram upon completing the challenge.

See on Instagram

In addition to her accomplishments in mountaineering, Vasquez-Lavado, a survivor of childhood sexual assault, launched a nonprofit to help survivors of sexual abuse in 2014, according to a release. Her advocacy work includes organizing mountaineering trips to Mount Everest's base camp for survivors.

The film is being produced by One Community, Scott Budnick's company that focuses on social impact projects, and by Donna Gigliotti (Shakespeare in Love, The Reader, Silver Linings Playbook, Hidden Figures) with Tempesta Films.