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Glinda is a Sapphic queen — yes, it's canon
Listen, Glinda the Good Witch is a friend of Dorothy, and it’s canon now!
Listen, Glinda the Good Witch is a friend of Dorothy, and it’s canon now!
Some people on social media did all of us who have been shipping Glinda and Elphaba since the original Broadway play a huge favor by pointing out a fact from the OG Wizard of Oz books Wickedis based on that proves that Glinda is a big ol’ lez.
A post on X (formerly Twitter) is currently going viral that quotes from the Wikipedia page for Glinda, “In Baum’s final book, Glinda of Oz, we learn that Glinda resides in a castle with 100 of the most beautiful women in Oz at her beck and call,” along with the caption “this f—king dyke.”
So we got out our deerstalker hat and magnifying glass to solve this case, and it turns out that this social media denizen is not wrong. There is canonical proof that Glinda likes the ladies!
The fact that Glinda had a group of gorgeous ladies waiting on her comes from Baum’s 14th and final installment of the Oz books, Glinda of Oz, before he died in 1919.
But he’s not the only one who thinks of Glinda as being firmly in the lady-loving camp, Wicked star Ariana Grande, who plays the famous character in the new movie, and Cynthia Erivo, who pays Elphaba, both agree that the sparkly witch is queer.
In the Out 100 cover story as Out's Icon of the Year honor, Erivo — who came out as queer in 2022 — explained that Glinda and Elphaba share a “true love.”
“They fall in love with the person, not just the outside. When Glinda puts that flower in her hair and realizes that all she needs is this tiny thing that goes ‘good with green,’ it is not just Oh, look, she has a flower in her hair. It’s actually...I see you as beautiful as you are," Erivo said. “The story of these two is really, really special. And I think that we underestimate the power of platonic love, true friendship, true love."
Grande agreed with Erivo and took it one step further, saying that her character “might be a little in the closet.” This is a sentiment Kristen Chenoweth, who originated the role in the Tony-winning Broadway play the movie is based on, agreed with. Commenting on an Instagram post featuring Grande’s quote, “I thought so too way back when….”
Case closed: Glinda is Mother, and we won’t hear any argument!
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
