About two hours into a very long car ride to see Tegan and Sara in Portland, Maine, and one hour into the High School Musical 3 soundtrack, I turn to my friend Sam and say, “You know, when you think about it, Troy’s struggle in the first movie is really emblematic of what I feel like a lot of lesbians go through, like that thing, what’s it called-”
“The thing where Troy’s good at everything the way type A lesbians are when their parents pay a lot of attention to them and they want to distract from their sexualities. I read the article about that. It’s current. It’s potent.”
“And like,” I say, having vivid flashbacks to being nine and seeing a three-quarters profile of Zac Efron in the white jersey and thinking he was an attractive short-haired woman and feeling Weird about it, “and like. How the whole thing with him and Gabriella is about how the world sees them in a way that’s different than who they are-”
“Because of compulsory heterosexuality, yeah. Because they’re lesbians. Is Chad bi in this scenario still?”
“Chad is obviously still bi. But I feel like the first movie becomes a Chasing Amy situation for him.”
“That’s so unfortunate.”
“It all works out. Also, When There Was Me and You becomes a lot more emotionally harrowing if it’s Gabriella mourning the loss of her first real lesbian relationship-”
“Are you talking about your lesbian High School Musical thing again?” (Not me or Sam, but my other friend Sophie who I thought was asleep in the backseat.)
4 months and a lot of transcribing later, here we are.
(POSTSCRIPT: There is no publicly sourced High School Musical script available on the internet so please appreciate that this transcription was done almost entirely by me, Hannah, over the course of a week.)
The Niche 
im only 11 pages in and already having the time of my life
this is amazing, thank you for doing the lord’s work
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hannah i love you and this is god
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this made me cry wtf
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i hated high school musical but i don’t anymore omg
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So, instead of reading my World War One documents like a diligent student, I spent around an hour reading this, the lesbian translation of High School Musical. And “translation” isn’t really the right word, but god, it feels it, doesn’t it? I was, and still am, a huge High School Musical lesbian. I had the board game, all the soundtracks, I even had High School Musical pajamas. And when I watch it now, as a lesbian, I think to myself, “Troy Bolton is undeniably a lesbian.” That’s funny, that’s really good. It makes me feel a little less lonely. But even that stings a little, because I have to take this work, something that is so central to me and so important to my childhood, and say, “It’s really difficult for me to relate to this work as it stands, so I’m going to retell this story to myself in a way that is meaningful to me.” It’s sad. Don’t I deserve to own this? It’s like watching a home movie by looking through a mirror; I have to work to make sense of what I’m seeing, is that my mom or my aunt? Shouldn’t I know? This is my family, after all. I’m tired of having to do it. And Hannah, I know you wrote this, at least partially, as a joke. It’s High School Musical, it’s silly! Troy’s a lesbian! It is funny, at least to me, at least a little bit. But I wasn’t expecting how meaningful it would feel to me. Not to mention that the central themes of the movie lend themselves so much better to Troy and Gabriella being lesbians, it simply felt natural to read this screenplay. It felt easy. You know, you must know how special that is. Nothing feels natural to read to lesbians, or, I guess, next to nothing. No media comes easy, save for lesbian-created content for lesbians (I don’t know if you’re a lesbian, sorry if you aren’t!). There isn’t enough of that. Thank you for creating, thank you for letting me enjoy one of my favorite movies without burden. So! I’m sorry I got too deep on your lesbian High School Musical blog post, and I’m sorry if I articulated my feelings weirdly. But thank you.
What team?
Wildcats!
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im in love with you. my girlfriend said that i can leave her for you so if you’re willing i am HERE. hit me up.
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i can’t stop thinking about this. big fan
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listen i want to be very excited abt Helen and i am bc she’s AMAZING but.
the fact is i have had a crush on Gabriella since 2008 and reading her saying she was a lesbian made me so happy i can’t care abt anything else for the rest of the week. thank you for making this possible for me i will die a happy women.
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You are my icon
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I actually did a project on this for my english class this past year
We had to pick a book that dealt with a social issue in some way and somehow i convinced my teacher to let me talk about this screenplay instead (tbh im pretty sure she was just excited that someone was putting at least some creativity into it) anyway i talked for about 45 minutes and got a 100 so,,, thank you
If you wanna see what I showed my classmates you can find the actual project at: lesbianhsm.weebly.com
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I thought this would just be a direct transcription, but I really love all the parts you added. This was a delight from start to finish. Any chance for the sequels?
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read the whole thing. a masterpiece. it makes so much sense for troy and gabriella to be lesbians, makes the whole thing 100000x better!!!!!
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I’m speechless…😩😩😩this means so much thank you
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I never realized how much of the music in HSM is really… lesbian. There must have been something there that resonated with me on that level that I didn’t even acknowledge yet in myself. My heart was pounding in parts as I was reading. I know the story inside and out, but I felt like I was ten again, only it was actually telling me what I wanted it to tell me.
Thank you so much. I’m going to listen to the soundtrack now and shed a few tears.
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Listen, I just read this in its entirety, and as a HSM lesbian who actually dates another HSM lesbian named Gabriela, this is the best thing to ever happen in my life. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d be definitely up for the sequels. This is amazing, I wish I had some background on filming to make this happen? It’s beautiful and I hope it makes you super proud.
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This whole thing is AMAZING. I never thought i’d be crying over high school musical, but your script honestly hits me so hard (what a lethal combination of formative childhood film and lesbian coming-of-age angst). If I had loads of money or were a producer or director or anything at all influential I would make this in a heartbeat. Looking back, if this had been the actual version of High School Musical, it would have saved me approx 10 years of struggling with sexuality, and the ways factors like ‘masculinity’ and other people’s expectations play into it. Everything fits into place so well, now I can’t see HSM any other way – the point you made about the world seeing Troy and Gabriella differently from their true selves made me realise how wonderfully gay ‘Breaking Free’ and all it’s undertones are. (Also that speech Taylor gave to Gabriella about how she perceived some women as merely attempting to ‘integrate into the masculine society of violence and competition’ is the first time I’ve seen that belief acknowledged in anything. It’s usually such an accepted thing that has had loads of ppl giving me grief for ‘co-opting superficial’ masculinity and having ‘more privilege’ or something because of it?) I’m not sure what I was trying to say here but I love this, I love it a lot.
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Thank you sooo much for writing this and thankyou to all the commenters! When I got to Breaking Free I had to lie down & cry puddles into my ears. Also this really is some deep cultural criticism plus emotions! Taylor’s character development away from rigid lesbophobic-transphobic feminism! Chad!!! The fact that Sharpay becomes more obviously Lesbian here too doing the same achievement-to-distract thing as Troy, but being a foil because she doesn’t see it and keeps harming people. A headcannon for this script is that Sharpay Cries very privately during breaking free in recognition. KELSEI!!!! My fave Lesbian Dandy Of The Universe—Godd how much better the whole “you’re the playmaker here” stuff becomes when it’s advice from a fellow Lesbian. I am deceased. Thank you.
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uh WOW i love this?? like i have such a clear memory of watching high school musical for the first time at a sleepover with this girl who i had such confused feelings for and reading this as an adult lesbian felt like coming full circle?
and okay i absolutely adore how much more nuanced and sympathetic sharpay’s character is as a lesbian who’s just desperate to get the attention of this girl she likes and has no idea how to go about it and does it all wrong. thank you so much!
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OMG I was never a big fan of high school musical, but I LOOOOOOOOVE this lesbian version. It fits so well. And amazing writing. It felt like reading a legit script. Totally worth the hour and a half it took to read. I was so excited when Gabriella said she was and lesbian, and when Troy’s dad acknowledged his daughter’s love for Gabriella. It was so good.
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Wow, I just finished reading this at 1am which was probably not a good idea, it’s akteady emOtiOns time ™. But it was amazing and the whole story fits so well!!!! I definitely cried at When There was Me and You, and when Troy’s dad accepts her at the end. This must have taken so much work but this is a modern day masterpiece, lesbian literature, miles above the original. Thank you for writing all this out, when will my own butch basketball girlfriend arrive to collect my nerd ass, please??
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This made my year thank you for writing this oh my goodness it’s so wonderful.
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this saved my entire soul!!! you had this classics fan at “helen”. lesbian HSM 2 when?jk… but also… never realized what exactly resonated as queer abt HSM until now, thank u my childhood makes more sense now. also now im dying to hear all-girl covers of HSM songs
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I’m a big fan of disney channel original movies. They’re nostalgic for one, but my favorite thing to do is to re-watch them with a queer-eye. My friends and I would always do this in college and mourn the way that so many dcoms could’ve easily have been gay in some way. I was never a huge fan of HSM as a story even though I enjoyed the cheesy songs–who doesn’t love Stick to the Status Quo? Reading this script was the first time I could feel myself truly investing in the romance. Thank you so much for this labor of love!
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Can we get a sequel to this? Cuz golly gosh if I didn’t love every second of that.
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thank u for this
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Oh my god I loved this so much! If you uploaded a sequel I’d spend my night reading it in a heartbeat
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Hi! I need you to know that last January, three friends and I did a dramatic FULL reading of this from about 11 pm to 2 am, complete with props, acting, stage directions, singing, AND dancing. It was one of the formative experiences of my college career and I NEED HSM 2 BUT TROY BOLTON IS A LESBIAN!
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Reblogged this on AmalgaNation and commented:
the world needs to see this omg
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well, i’m a few years late it seems. someone so casually mentioned this on tumblr. had to come see what the hell they were going on about. thought it had to be a joke. it was not a joke. it is real and it is here and it is going to live in my head rent free for the rest of my life. hsm makes so much more sense now. thank you for this gift
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