The First Spark: A Brief Herstory of GL Media in Thailand

Before “GAP: The Series” gave us boardroom sapphics and steamy kisses in 2022, Thai GL wasn’t even on the map. BL had been thriving since the early 2010s, with billion-baht success and fandoms screaming from Bangkok to Bogotá. But sapphic fans? We were surviving on crumbs—side-eying supporting characters and praying for screen time.

Spoiler: Those crumbs have a history. Thai GL didn’t just pop out of nowhere; it’s the love child of nearly a century of sapphic storytelling, global fandom chaos, and an industry willing to gamble that women-loving-women could sell just as well as their BL brothers.

So let’s roll the tape back—chronologically—and trace how we got from lilies in Japanese literature to lesbians smoldering on Thai TV.

An old-fashioned typewriter with a sheet of paper showing the word “HISTORY,” symbolizing the journey that led to today’s thriving Thai GL industry.

1920s Japan: The Original Spark

Meet Yoshiya Nobuko—a pioneering Japanese author who basically invented sapphic storytelling before the word “lesbian” was even in mainstream use. Her 1920s novel “Two Virgins in the Attic” is widely considered the prototype of Yuri, a genre that romanticized Class-S relationships—sisterly “friendships” that were, let’s be honest, sapphic love stories hiding in plain sight.

Nobuko wrote iconic series' like “Sailor Moon” and “Revolutionary Girl Utena”—mainstream hits dripping with queer subtext. At a time when queerness was globally frowned upon, to say the least, Nobuko empowered sapphic readers with a voice that refused to be erased.

1950s–1970s: Shojo & Lily Culture Take Root

After Nobuko’s groundbreaking beginning, sapphic-coded shojo manga (girls’ comics)—primarily inspired by her stories—kept the flame alive with schoolgirl romances that leaned heavily on emotional intensity and longing gazes. Around the same time, Sinophone baihe literature in China and Taiwan (literally “lily” stories) paralleled Japan’s Yuri—from “yurizoku,” which means “lily tribe”—reinforcing the lily as a pan-Asian symbol for queer women.

These narratives weren’t always overtly lesbian, but they set a template: sapphic desire portrayed as intense, emotional, and just a little tragic—a blueprint GL would eventually circle back to both borrow from and push back against.

1970s–2000s: Femslash & Fandom Fire 💻

By the 1970s, sapphics in the West were getting restless, too.

• Femslash fandom: “Star Trek” fans kicked things off, writing stories that paired women together long before TV dared to, beginning with the fanfic “Kismet” featuring original characters Chapel/Uhura.

• “The L Word” (2004): The first mainstream sapphic drama gave global audiences proof that lesbians could anchor a hit series.

• Tumblr & fanfiction (2000s–2010s): Gifs, shipping wars, and femslash fandom around shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Glee” primed sapphic audiences to expect—and demand—representation.

Western advances like these, combined with anime fansubs and K-pop shipping culture, allowed sapphics to become a global fandom force, proving they would rally, trend, and spend for #WLW content.

2010s Thailand: BL Breaks the Dam 💥

Cue Thailand. In 2013, the teen drama “Hormones” slipped in a BL side couple. Fans went wild. The spinoff, “Love Sick,” became Asia’s first series with a same-sex couple as leads—and the blueprint for Thailand’s BL empire.

From there, BL snowballed: high ratings, fan meets, international streaming, and merch sales that proved queer stories could be a goldmine. By the late 2010s, BL wasn’t just a genre—it was an industry. And sapphic fans, already organized and global thanks to decades of fandom culture, were waiting for their turn.

2022: GAP Starts the Party 🌈

Finally, in late 2022, Thailand pulled the trigger with “GAP: The Series”—the country’s first official GL drama. It was historic: A mainstream sapphic story front and center, complete with fan meets, merch, and a global fandom hungry for more.

The show’s international availability made all the difference. Unlike earlier sapphic shows locked to one market, GAP was instantly accessible on YouTube and streaming platforms, catapulting it into international fandoms overnight. For production companies, GAP was more than representation—it was a test. Could sapphic stories pull the same ratings and revenue as BL? The answer: Absolutely.

Why This Timeline Matters

Thai GL isn’t BL’s little sister. In just three years, GL productions skyrocketed from a single show in 2022 to more than 30 by 2025—a staggering 3,000% increase that shows no signs of slowing down. Its DNA is stitched together from Yoshiya Nobuko’s pioneering writing that later inspired manga and baihe stories, Western fandoms and sapphic milestones, global shipping culture, and the Thai BL juggernaut that all culminated into the leap of faith that was “GAP: The Series.”

Together, these sparks ignited an industry that’s still finding its voice. But after a century in the making, sapphics are no longer background characters — they are the story, and the world is finally watching.

What’s Next in This Series?

This was the first spark. Next up in our “Firsts” saga: the duo who turned GAP into gasoline—Freen and Becky. Because if GAP lit the match, they were the flame that ignited the wildfire.