Today’s link roundup is coming to you courtesy of hugs from my favorite cousin and a “kick that depression’s ass” playlist coming through the speakers (I wish I could share it with y’all, unfortunately it’s not my playlist! But it’s working!).
Queer as in F*ck You
Left to Right: Janelle Monáe in Glass Onion, Cate Blanchett in Tár, and Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
2023 Oscars: Here Are All the LGBTQ+ Nominations. Highlights include: Everything Everywhere All at Once received 11 Oscar nominations (including Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang); Tár landed six nominations (including Cate Blanchett in the titular role that not a single queer person can stop talking about); and also Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” is nominated from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack.
Of course, queer news aside, the one person I cannot stop screaming about is Angela Bassett’s nomination for Wakanda Forever. They’ve owed her this Oscar since 1993’s What’s Love Got To Do With It (I said what I said), they damn sure better let her collect her things. It’s also hard not to feel some kinda way about all of The Woman King snubs — which was definitely the talk of the Autostraddle slack today — so you can read more about that here: The Oscars Shutting Out ‘The Woman King’ Is a Real Disgrace
(And of course, 5 of the Biggest LGBTQ+ Oscar Snubs of 2023)
While we’re still talking queer film news, Sundance 2023: The Buzziest Queer Films at This Year’s Festival. Am I’m including this so that I can plug Autostraddle’s Sundance coverage? You know I am.
Vanessa found this, and I agree with her that it is incredible!!
Hi everyone, today I'm uploading the first 20 issues of New York Native newspaper scanned off microfiche to archive dot org. Probably NYC's premier gay newspaper in the '80s, they were first reporters on the AIDS crisis. You can find the first issue here:https://t.co/R5y523uC0m pic.twitter.com/jWWJ3JPRAx
— Leah Tigers (@9BillionTigers) January 18, 2023
How Comics Changed Queer Americans’ Lives — And Why Bans Might Backfire. “Artist Alison Bechdel and filmmaker Vivian Kleiman discuss the 1980s rise of queer comics, the importance of representation and creative breast censorship.” All they ever have to say is Alison Bechdel, and I am there!
How Jinkx Monsoon Became a Broadway Star in Chicago, the owners of the Yikes team (the kind tech people who keep our website running) went to see Jinkx in Chicago and Jinkx seemed so sweet in the autograph line after the show! I’m happy for all of their success.
Hormone Therapy Improves Mental Health for Transgender Youths, a New Study Finds. On one hand, duh — but if bad faith journalism and the right wing is going to keep attacking gender affirming healthcare for kids as dangerous or “evil,” let’s keep screaming this from the rooftops.
Storm to Retire Four-Time WNBA Champion Bird’s Number 10 Jersey
Saw This, Thought of You
We Must Respect the Neurodivergent’s Rights. “As a neurodivergent CT policymaker and activist, I want to ensure we all have better education on sensory concerns and considerations.”
TikTok’s Secret ‘Heating’ Button Can Make Anyone Go Viral
Nico brought this to our attention, Solidarity With the Movement to Stop Cop City & Defend the Weelaunee Forest. “We call on all people of good conscience to stand in solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.”
How to Completely Own an Airline in 3 Easy Steps
And speaking of things you can do in “three steps” – I loved this for reasons I can’t quite explain? Good advice here to consider: 3 Steps to Age Exuberantly
Political Snacks
In full honesty, this isn’t a “political snack” — a tittle that’s purposefully quippy and playful — because what is happening with violence and mass shootings in this country goes so, so far beyond any of that. This is a root decay in America that effects us on a core level. That said: January Brings at Least 39 Mass Shootings So Far
And of course, in part this is at the front of my mind because of the shooting in Monterey Park over the weekend, which came right as so many Asian families were celebrating Lunar New Year. The official GoFundMe for survivors’ still hasn’t made their goal, if you’re looking to do some net good today: Monterey Park Lunar New Year Victims Fund
That shooting number is wild since January isn’t even over yet. The Coathangers put it best. https://youtu.be/RhOyxYKnACw
thank you Nico!!! Like Standing Rock, what is happening at Weelaunee in ATL is for allllll of us. keeping it out of mainstream news is part of the strategy of a handfull of billionaires behind this and the cops who work for them. 70-93% of Atlantans (depending on how the question is asked) support protecting the forest and oppose the militarized police city in the middle of black and brown neighborhoods. by keeping it out of the news, they make the land defenders seem “radical.” in fact they are defending our most basic rights for ALLLLL of us – to fresh air, trees, freedom of movement, right to nonviolent protest, right to representation, freedom from statebacked gun violence and surveillance. at Weelaunee, all of these rights are under direct attack for all of us.
Color of Change has a report about the mechanics behind “a handfull of billionaires behind this and the cops who work for them” – Police Foundations funnel millions of dollars of private money per year into militarizing and expanding the police & surveillance. ATL has the 2nd largest of these foundations (after NYC), but all US cities are under threat of these foundations:
https://policefoundations.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Color-Of-Change-Report-Police-Foundations-A-Corporate-Sponsored-Threat-to-Democracy-Black-Lives.pdf
I really appreciate knowing/having all of this. Thank you! Sincerely!
Could not agree more about Angela Bassett and The Woman King. First—Angela Bassett is long overdue, yes they owe her (I said what I said too), and her performance in WAKANDA Forever was phenomenal. Second—It is atrocious they snubbed Viola Davis in The Woman King. Talk about another outstanding performance. With that said, Cate and Michelle in the same category…they really need to break out the acting awards for the Oscars like they do the Globes.