Feature Image via Katie Sowers’ Instagram
Welcome to Monday! I hope your tea this morning was strong, your email backlog is brief, and may your evening tonight be peaceful with a side of chocolate.
Queer as in F*ck You
Introducing: The Tenderqueer, the Softboi of the Queer Community (The subheading on this piece reads “Sure, you’ve heard of the straight softboi. But queer, non-binary and trans folk will recognise a similar aesthetic ‘type’ too.” and our entire team called bullshit. Who’s ever heard of a STRAIGHT softboi?)
Al(aina) included this in yesterday’s Sunday Funday, but I loved it so much, I absolutely had to re-up it. Happy Black History Month ❤️🖤💚 everyone:
His name was William Dorsey Swann, but to his friends he was known as “the Queen.” Both of those names had been forgotten for nearly a century… Born in Maryland around 1858, Swann endured slavery, the Civil War, racism, police surveillance, torture behind bars, and many other injustices. But beginning in the 1880s, he not only became the first American activist to lead a queer resistance group; he also became, in the same decade, the first known person to dub himself a “queen of drag” — or, more familiarly, a drag queen.
The First Drag Queen Was a Former Slave, who fought for queer freedom a century before Stonewall.
Speaking of Black History Month, over at Black Women Radicals they are celebrating with the 2020 theme, #MakingBlackQueerHistory: Black LGBTQ+ Women and Non-Binary Student-Activism at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Including, but not limited to:
- To Be Young, Black, Gifted, and Non-Binary: Moses Bossenbroek on Making Black ‘Their-Story’
- Meet Chi Hughes: The Activist Who Co-Founded the First Openly LGBTQ+ Student Organization at an HBCU, the lesbian founder the now 40-year-old queer students’ union at Howard University
- “Representation and Respectability Will Not Save Us”: Spelman Alum Activist Clarissa Brooks on Hbcus and the Limitations of Black Excellence
What a Queer Lunar New Year Celebration Looks Like
Congratulations again to Katie Sowers, offensive assistant coach to the San Francisco 49ers. We’ve previously talked about how she’s the first woman and the first openly gay coach in a Super Bowl, but perhaps more impressively, she also had my favorite commercial last night:
https://youtu.be/_xPn4DXIj5w
And if you’re crushing as hard as I am right now, here’s five other interesting things to know about her.
As a part of her new cover interview for InStyle, Demi Lovato discussed what it was like to come out to her parents in 2017. (Demi also sang the National Anthem during last night’s game. She nailed it, of course.)
Saw This, Thought of You
The Millennial Jews Taking on ICE. I’ve been following this group for a while now (at least last summer, maybe earlier? What is time in a political hellscape?) and I have SUCH respect for them.
Making Facial Recognition Easier Might Make Stalking Easier, Too by our Rachel Charlene Lewis for Bitch Media
10 Latina Authors on the Books That Changed Their Lives
Every Super Bowl Halftime Show Since 1993, Ranked
Plus, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira!! Excuse me for a moment:
How a KitchenAid mixer and Le Creuset stew pot became The New Trophies of Domesticity. Relatable content; it’s a long term dream of mine to one day own a KitchenAid for my Sunday baking projects. THAT SAID none of us should define our worth based on the material things we own. Just a loving reminder, from me to you!
Out Of Sexting Ideas? Try These
Political Snacks
The Iowa Caucus is happening today, and here’s a sweet lil thing in honor of that. A profile of tween girls that’s full of nostalgic, intimately familiar middle school angst: Iowa 8th-Graders Held Their Own Caucus. Their Results Look Nothing Like the Polls.
And in case you were wondering, here’s How the Iowa Caucuses Actually Work, including live action animation from The New York Times.
