Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples that give us hope for our own romantic futures and trying to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.
I say “I want what they have” a lot, but it’s possible I’ve never meant it as much as I do now that musicians Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker—two members of the supergroup Boygenius—have confirmed they’re a bona fide couple.
Is this old news to every lesbian I’ve ever met, and especially those of us who call Los Angeles home, and may or may not have spotted Dacus and Baker out and about at Highland Park’s various vegan eateries over the years? Absolutely; the two have been doing couples’ Halloween costumes since 2023, for the love of God! That said, we must practice patience with our straight peers, some of whom just learned about the Boygenius-for-Boygenius romance this week, in a New Yorker profile of Dacus that noted she and Baker are “now in a committed relationship.”
It’s almost too easy to romanticize the (imagined) particulars Dacus and Baker’s relationship, given both artists are so good at writing dizzily romantic queer love songs. (I’m especially partial to Dacus crooning “You gave me your hands, ’cause you didn’t know what to do with them / And I showed you the way, even though I’d never been” on her 2021 song “First Time,” and Baker singing “Let you be the chain that keeps me closer to the ground / I love you all of the ways that I know how” on “Sugar in the Tank” with Torres will forever send a chill down my little gay spine.) Yet I actually enjoy how reluctant the two have been to talk publicly about one another.
“It’s been interesting, because I want to protect what is precious in my life, but also to be honest, and make art that’s true,” Dacus told the New Yorker. “I think maybe a part of it is just trusting that it’s not at risk.” We love a securely attached queen!
Dacus and Baker probably don’t need to cross the famed “meetiing each other’s friend groups” bridge, given they share a somewhat load-bearing bestie in third Boygenius member Phoebe Bridgers. On Tuesday, Bridgers responded to her friends’ relationship being made public by hilariously Instagramming a shot of herself blurred out of a picture of the trio, which I find to be kind of iconic odd-man-out behavior. Clearly, we’re not going to be getting any goss about Dacus and Baker (Bacus? Daker? A third portmanteau idea that I think of?) out of her. But then again, who knows better about the potential pain of famous-couple overexposure than the woman who used to date Paul Mescal?
While the parasitic part of my brain that thrives on homosexual celebrity intrigue desperately wants to know every single detail about how Dacus and Baker spend their time, I’m contenting myself with this description from Dacus of a recent excursion to the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California: “Julien and I are members. Last time, we brought a blanket and snacks and our books, and lay in the garden for, like, two hours, just napping and reading. We have memberships because Phoebe gave them to us for my birthday.” Adorable!!!!!!! Invite me!!!!!!!! In a non-poly-triad way!!!!!!!! Unless you’re into that!!!!!!!!!
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
