The month of June brings promises of summer to those who live in the Northern hemisphere and ominous omens of winter approaching for those in the Southern hemisphere. June is a month of contradictions. It is then fitting that June brings with it the celebration of pride in the LGBTQ+ community. Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson have enjoyed many significant events in June throughout the past eleven years. From playfully flirting on Twitter in 2011 to an animated fanfiction televised in 2019, the month of June contains many significant events throughout the history of Larry Stylinson.
It is 2011, One Direction have moved forward from finishing in third place on The X-Factor the previous year to selling out arenas and playing their first shows on The X-Factor tour. Harry Styles has transitioned from a sixteen year old boy singing in his band, White Eskimo, at local weddings to performing in front of thousands as part of an up and coming boy band in just the span of a year. The excitement of living out a dream is something that very few people will experience in their lifetimes.
With the X-Factor tour wrapping up in April of 2011, Harry should be reeling from his first experience of singing to a crowd of thousands on his first tour with his bandmates. Instead, Harry took to Twitter to post a foreboding tweet stating, “I’m being forced into it…” on June 10, 2011[1]. It is impossible to know exactly what prompted Harry to post this tweet. However, since this was posted two months after the end of the X-Factor tour and at least six months after signing their recording contracts with SyCo Records solidifying One Direction as a band, it is reasonable to conclude that Harry is not likely referring to being forced into the band. While this tweet remains vague and eerie, those in the LGBTQ+ can easily identify with this verbiage as it relates to closeting. Closeting can occur through both internal and external means. Most individuals within the LGBTQ+ have experienced self-imposed closeting, which occurs before an individual has “come out” to those around them. Many LGBTQ+ individuals in the public eye have also experienced closeting from external forces. This can occur when an individual in a position of power dictates that a person must present themselves as heterosexual or must supress public displays of non-heterosexual behavior. Just four months after Harry posted this cryptic tweet, he was seen publicly with rumored fling, Caroline Flack, for the first time.
Additionally on June 13th, 2011, Harry took to Twitter to post, “@Louis_Tomlinson Your eggs Benedict are ready sweetums :)”[2]. Looking past the misuse of capital letters, this tweet indicates that Harry was cooking breakfast for Louis. It can therefore be inferred that Louis and Harry were in each other’s company at the time this tweet was posted. Harry went out of his way to publicly notify Louis that his breakfast was ready, instead of notifying him by texting, calling, or simply shouting out to him. Harry had the desire for the public to know that he was cooking breakfast for Louis and felt comfortable publicly referring to Louis by a term of endearment. The theme of enjoying eating breakfast with another person is seen throughout Harry’s latest album, Harry’s House, which was released on May 20th, 2022. On the track, “Music For a Sushi Restaurant,” Harry sings, “I could cook an egg on you” which is a metaphor for calling someone hot[3]. On the track, “Keep Driving,” Harry croons, “Maple syrup, coffee, pancakes for two. Hash browns, egg yolk, I will always love you”[4]. These lyrics seem to indicate that Harry enjoys the domestic feeling contained in sharing breakfast with the person he loves and identifies that feeling with increased affection and lustful thoughts for that individual. The simple task of having breakfast with Louis reminds Harry how much he loves him.
In 2013, One Direction were traveling the world on their Take Me Home Tour as their popularity continued to grow. On June 13th of 2013, an audio was released of Harry singing solo on a track he wrote titled, “Don’t Let Me Go”[5]. This is the first song publicly released by any member of One Direction that was written and sung solo. The opening lines of the track that read, “now you were standing there right in front of me…all of a sudden these lights are blinding me,” had fans speculating that the individual Harry is referring to is Louis[5]. Imagery of sudden bright lights being in front of Harry are akin to One Direction’s fast rise to fame and the only individuals standing there in front of him were his bandmates. In 2013, Harry and Louis also began to face pressure from their management team to limit their interactions with one another in public as speculation grew that the two were secretly in a relationship. This is shown as Harry sings, “seems like these days I watch you from afar, just trying to make you understand”[5]. Even though Louis and Harry were together all the time, they were often only allowed to watch each other from a distance. This song was also written and recorded during the height of Louis being seen in paparazzi pictures with his “girlfriend” at the time, which many have speculated to be a publicity stunt. This may be the reason Harry feels that he can only watch from a distance as Louis is obliged to participate in many public appearances for this publicity stunt instead of being with Harry.
In June of 2018, Harry was touring his first solo album in North America for Harry Styles Live On Tour. Harry had a show at Madison Square Garden on June 22nd, 2018. The opening act for this show was Kacey Musgraves. During Harry’s set, he sang a duet with Kacey, the Shania Twain hit, “You’re Still the One”[6]. Kacey was wearing a rainbow colored dress during this performance. The song discusses a love that has persisted over a long period of time, even though many doubted it. It was also rumored that Louis attended this show due to many pictures that surfaced of an unidentified individual sitting alone in one of the VIP boxes at the venue during the concert. Many have speculated that Harry stared up at that VIP box multiple times throughout the duet. Harry has also recently covered “You’re Still the One” with Shania Twain at Coachella in April 2022 while wearing a rainbow sequin jumpsuit[7]. Harry also mentioned during the Coachella performance that Shania Twain’s music taught him how to sing and that he has many personal memories attached to the songs they performed. During the 2018 Madison Square Garden performance, Harry was shown to look at the same VIP box at various times throughout his emotional performance of the One Direction song that he is credited for writing, “If I Could Fly”[8]. “If I Could Fly” has been rumored to be written about Louis since the time of its release on the album, Made In The A.M. by One Direction. This rumor sparked as the song discusses a love that is only for their eyes and that the individual Harry is referring to is the only person who knows who he really is. During his performance, Harry also pauses for 54 seconds to shush the crowd right before singing a section of the song that was originally sung by Louis.
Euphoria aired an episode on June 30th, 2019 containing an animated scene that depicted Larry Stylinson smut fanfiction narrated by Zendaya[9]. TRIGGER WARNING: this scene is graphic in nature, depicts sexual content, and partial nudity. The scene refers to both Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson by their full names, One Direction by name and branding, as well as the Take Me Home Tour. Louis later responds to questions about whether he had given consent for his name and likeness to be used by HBO for this Euphoria scene stating, “I can categorically say that I was not contacted nor did I approve it”[10]. No legal action has ever been taken by either Louis or Harry on the basis of their names and likeness being used by HBO for this scene without their consent. This episode was released at the end of pride month and depicted a homosexual relationship through fanfiction. Fanfiction is often written about queer relationships and is considered a safe space for writers and readers to view a wide variety of queer literature, something that can be difficult to find outside of the fanfiction space. Many felt that the use of this content in the context of the Euphoria episode was an invasion of this queer safe space.
The month of June has brought many important moments in Louis and Harry’s relationship throughout the last eleven years. To learn more about Larry in June, check out the “Larry Timelines” playlist created by cosmic leeds[11] or this Larry timeline tumblr masterpost created by br1t1sh-sh0wer[12], which assisted in creating the above timeline.
July in Larry History has promises of first meetings in the bathroom and steamy tour bus incidents.
References
- @Harry_Styles. “I’m being forced into it….” Twitter, 10 June 2011, 7:13 a.m., twitter.com/Harry_Styles/status/79144271667658752?s=20&t=yU8HiAAOVPqzsW387GPewA.
- @Harry_Styles. “@Louis_Tomlinson Your eggs Benedict are ready sweetums :)” Twitter, 13 June 2011, 11:38 a.m., twitter.com/Harry_Styles/status/80298033388060672?s=20&t=w_oaiPKbKOlPKYBPpN4DuA.
- Styles, Harry. “Music For a Sushi Restaurant.” Harry’s House, Erskine Records Limited, 2022, track 1. YouTube, (https://youtu.be/r5m6ScpU0yY).
- Styles, Harry. “Keep Driving.” Harry’s House, Erskine Records Limited, 2022, track 10. YouTube, (https://youtu.be/qbcmsEIHWeE).
- Styles, Harry. “Don´t Let Me Go- Harry Styles (Lyrics).” YouTube, uploaded by Fernanda BetaG, 15 June 2013, https://youtu.be/bEBzek5Hi_s.
- Styles, Harry, and Kacey Musgraves. “You’re Still The One(Shania Twain cover) – Harry Styles & Kacey Musgraves 6/22/18 New York, NY.” YouTube, uploaded by Liz P, 23 June 2018, https://youtu.be/2LYU2MhSgnw.
- Styles, Harry, and Shania Twain. “Harry Styles & Shania Twain – You’re Still the One (Coachella Festival, Indio CA 4/15/2022 -Week 1.” YouTube, uploaded by Brian James, 21 April 2022, https://youtu.be/oAWe087LZVE.
- Styles, Harry. “If I Could Fly – Harry Styles | New York, NY.” YouTube, uploaded by Allison, 23 June 2018, https://youtu.be/RKLObLEE8PU.
- “Euphoria (01×03) – Harry Styles Fan Fiction Scene [HD] | Spotlight.” YouTube, uploaded by Spotlight, 3 July 2019, https://youtu.be/6UvWOd-lIhw.
- @Louis_Tomlinson. “I can categorically say that I was not contacted nor did I approve it.” Twitter, 1 July 2019, 1:57 p.m., https://twitter.com/Louis_Tomlinson/status/1145753419447177218?s=20&t=S-5ql5i4rQUO9rYKV40NKQ.
- “Larry Timelines.” YouTube, uploaded by cosmic leeds, 15 Jan 2022, https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-DPUmunHw1SL7eGpDHG7z6lifL6C9bVc.
- br1t1sh-sh0wer. “Larry Timeline 2010-2020.” Tumblr, 10 Nov 2020, https://br1t1sh-sh0wer.tumblr.com/post/634418609336238080/larry-timeline-2010-2020.
