Feature image of Megan Rapinoe by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images

It’s 97 degrees. 97!!!!!!!!!

Queer as in F*ck You

From Megan Rapinoe on trans sports bans 👇. This is a longer excerpt than I usually include, but trust me on this — you want to click through and read the entire thing. It’s so worth it.

“I think people also need to understand that sports is not the most important thing in life, right? Life is the most important thing in life. And so much of this trans inclusion argument has been put through the extremely tiny lens of elite sports. Like that is not the way that we need to be framing this question. We’re talking about kids. We’re talking about people’s lives. We’re talking about the entire state government coming down on one child in some states, three children in some states. They are committing suicide, because they are being told that they’re gross and different and evil and sinful and they can’t play sports with their friends that they grew up with. Not to mention trying to take away health care. I think it’s monstrous….

So, we need to really kind of take a step back and get a grip on what we’re really talking about here because people’s lives are at risk. Kids’ lives are at risk with the rates of suicide, the rates of depression and negative mental health and drug abuse. We’re putting everything through God forbid a trans person be successful in sports. Get a grip on reality and take a step back.”

Megan Rapinoe Discusses Title IX, Transgender Sports Bans

Familismo Kept Me From Exploring My Queerness: 4 Latines on Coming out Later in Life, from Autostraddle’s former Managing Editor and one of my favorite humans, Yvonne Marquez!

An Exploration of Queer Arab Identity. “In celebration of Pride Month, we talk to queer Arabs and asked what it means to be queer in a community that’s already othered in this country because of their race, religion or ethnicity. ”

Queens of a Certain Age Deserve All the Flowers. “With Legends of Drag, Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus compile a living history alongside phenomenal portraits of drag icons.”

26 Tabletop Roleplaying Games by Queer Game Designers

From Sally, “This documentary about The Gateways Club I’ve been wanting to see since it did the festival rounds is going to be on BBC4 this Tuesday (editor’s note: that’s today!) for UK viewers.” Life Inside the Wild London Club Where Lesbians Were Free to Be Themselves

And just a quick lil update on my favorite lesbian sports bar, At the Sports Bra in Portland, Women Athletes (And Their Fans) Take Center Stage

Saw This, Thought of You

Juneteenth was last weekend, and whew boi do I have a lot of feelings about how it’s catching on in popularity and how that is directly related to the holiday ironically losing its Black community roots: The Good, the Bad and the Cringe of the Juneteenth Gold Rush. “Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, and this year, big-box stores like Walmart and Party City are going all out with themed merchandising. Some of it has caught the wrong sort of attention for its seeming tone-deafness.”

Speaking of Juneteenth, this is from March but very relevant: The History of Policing in the United States Is About Controlling Black Lives. “Police departments are descendants of U.S. chattel slavery.”

Political Snacks

The January 6 Hearings Aren’t Acknowledging the Elephant in the Room. From Himani, who I always trust on political media reporting: “Undeniably one of the best articles I’ve read about this mess.”

“It is possible for Democrats to feel profound gratitude to Biden for vanquishing Trump and even to love some of his work as president (Ukraine, vaccines, Ketanji Brown Jackson) and at the same time to retain an intense feeling of unease about a visibly aging 79-year-old whose Republican opponents are only growing more extremist.” Democrats Quietly Search for an Alternative to Biden in 2024. I spent a lot of time with this one on Sunday.

And then, once you’ve read that, this is definitely on theme! Is the Neoliberal Era Over Yet? “The current political order may have proven a failure. But neither party has presented an alternative yet.”

And One More Thing

This is actually from last week, but I just saw it and laughed so hard.

I saw this a few times in the replies so I looked it up. You're all grounded. https://t.co/yuHIoCEIFi

— Lynda Carter ☮️ (@RealLyndaCarter) June 16, 2022

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