“I don’t know a single gay guy who isn’t either on Ozempic, wishing they could be on Ozempic, or taking some weird shit and wishing it was Ozempic,” 33–year-old Malachi, an events manager from London, tells GAY TIMES. “I’ve been on it myself for a few months now after a friend recommended it. I’m not looking back.”
It seems no weight loss drug in history has garnered quite so much attention as Ozempic has. Working by suppressing the user’s appetite and expelling a significant amount of fat from the food you eat as waste, Ozempic has become a part of the cultural zeitgeist. Between celebrities’ chiselled cheekbones being dubbed as “Ozempic face” and accusations flying at stars for “cheating” weight loss with the drug, Ozempic is absolutely everywhere.
It was by no means the first weight loss drug to hit the market. Semaglutide, the scientific name for Ozempic, belongs to the latest generation of a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) “receptor agonists” which is sciency-talk for a drug that triggers responses from your brain’s receptors. This has been followed by dulaglutide, sold under the brand name Trulicity, and liraglutide, sold as Victoza and Saxenda, and more recently, tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro.
Ozempic is by far the most talked-about of these drugs, though, and has not only quietly entered the LGBTQIA+ community, but taken over.
While there is limited research into Ozempic’s impact on the LGBTQIA+ community (shocker!), the connection is obvious when we look to queer pop culture. Celebrity drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova discuss the rise of queer Ozempic on their podcast, , poking fun at the drug being “gay now” and, including lyrics like “I don’t care about my face, just a little tiny waist, put that shot in me” with the hashtag #prideanthem.
