BREAKING: Actress Taylor Schilling Has An Actual Confirmed Girlfriend, Happy Pride To Us All

We knew, but we didn’t know know, you know?

Yesterday, a very specific portion of the queer internet exploded as multidisciplinary artist Emily Ritz posted a tribute to apparent girlfriend Taylor Schilling in her Instagram stories:

In a classic VERY GAY move, Taylor reposted the image an hour later with red hearts of alternating shades of red. This is the classic queer woman’s language of love in the times of 2020. You don’t have a friend hike up a mountain with you and your girlfriend to photograph you in your comfortable pants and sensible hiking boots, embracing in the mist (from a respectable distance, and hopefully wearing a mask) unless you gals are SERIOUS.

Wait, you may be thinking, didn’t Taylor Schilling come out a million years ago? The answer is no – Schilling is notoriously quiet about her private life. While this very website did speculate about her predilection for showing up to black tie events on the arm of quintessential famous person girlfriend and angel of the morning Carrie Brownstein, the relationship was never really discussed publicly and we were left to assume these two were just really good friends. Schilling has also been linked to costar and confirmed heterosexual arm candy Zac Efron and a mystery artist who lives in Gowanus, but has never really spoken to the press about anyone she’s dated.

According to JustJared, Emily Ritz and Taylor were introduced by mutual friends last year and the relationship grew into a romantic situation last year. Ritz is a visual artist and musician based in Hudson, NY whose work is described as “tender [and] exploratory,” which is gay. Her paintings feature “intricate organic forms­, inspired by coral reefs, flora, fauna, and other natural phenomena, resembling surreal botanical drawings,” according to this 2019 piece in Chronogram; she refers to this imagery as “Lumpland.” Ritz’s instagram story highlights also include a series involving her sticking her fingers into assorted coral-based sea life at an aquarium, which also seems pretty gay.

Pride is a popular time to come out; Hairspray’s Nikki Blonsky just announced her queerness via TikTok in easily the gayest way possible (with the music of Diana Ross, obvs).

Everyone is gay. Congratulations, you crazy kids.

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Stef

Stef Schwartz is a founding member and the self-appointed Vapid Fluff Editor at Autostraddle.com. She currently resides in New York City, where she spends her days writing songs nobody will ever hear and her nights telling much more successful musicians what to do. Follow her on twitter and/or instagram.

Stef has written 464 articles for us.

10 Comments

  1. good for them, and also good for me because i just got to read a story featuring two phrases that delighted me:

    1. “a mystery artist who lives in Gowanus”
    2. “‘tender [and] exploratory,’ which is gay”

    i live the second point and now kind of aspire a little bit to the first just based on the thought that sometime, somewhere, in a reality that probably isn’t this one, i might enjoy being described in this manner

  2. Ah Stef,
    “Her paintings feature “intricate organic forms­, inspired by coral reefs, flora, fauna, and other natural phenomena, resembling surreal botanical drawings,”.
    Always happy to see you and your eye for relevant detail back for VSC, very special content.

  3. Love it! I’ve gotta say though, as the designated gay marine biologist….. Those are sea anemones she’s poking! One story has a type of marine snail (a chiton), but the rest are anemones :)

    • Em, WHERE were you when I needed to consult with a gay marine biologist?!?!?!? Thank you for your expertise.

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