Within the last month, the Thai BL (Boys’ Love) series 2gether from broadcaster GMMTV has become a massive hit in the Philippines. Hundreds of thousands of fans across the region and the world, a great many of them Filipino, are glued to YouTube every Friday night, which is when new episodes are uploaded.

In a local market skewed towards straight Korean or K-Drama, this sudden popularity took the older niche Pinoy BL fanbase probably by surprise—though perhaps not by much, considering that the circumstances surrounding the release helped push the show’s visibility more than any prior Thai BL series. People in quarantine continue to look for new material to keep themselves busy at home, while GMMTV has invested more heavily in this show’s marketing than usual.

As a longtime BL fan, I get queries on whether this signals the possibility of more LGBT content in the Philippines. While I think we’ve had good LGBT material in Philippine entertainment in the last few years—we just haven’t been able to always market it well to an existing audience—it’s important to understand what BL is and what it is not in order to gauge the long-term viability of the genre for the local market.