If you’re planning any big gay road trips this pride month, the soundtrack should definitely just be Hayley Kiyoko’s latest banger, on repeat until you arrive at your destination. Pop’s “Lesbian Jesus” just dropped the summer anthem “What I Need” with bisexual singer Kehlani. Kiyoko shot the video herself, and has structured it like a short film about a road trip gone wrong but also gone so, so right. It starts with Kehlani storming out of her house with a duffel bag after being verbally abused by her anti-gay aunt, and jumping into Kiyoko’s car. The two girls proceed to take shots and shoot pool at roadside dive bars, nearly total their car after drunk-swerving into a ditch, and hitch a ride with a random dude with an affinity for Kehlani’s ass — just generally being extremely cute while also very irresponsible. But mostly cute!
The video comes just weeks after Rita Ora dropped her own feature-packed bisexual anthem “Girls.” While “What I Need” isn’t an overt dig at “Girls,” Kiyoko was one of the first to call out Ora’s jam for appearing to reduce same-sex romance to wine-fueled hookups. “It’s important for us artists to move the cultural needle forward, not backwards,” she said at the time. “There is a new song that came out today featuring a handful of well-known pop artists that has me overwhelmed with thoughts. I literally have a knot in my stomach right now.” While there’s no lack of liquid courage in “What I Need,” the video is certainly a more nuanced depiction of queer love. #20GayTeen could not be more here!