feature image from Hong Kong’s Petticoat Lane/Facebook

I’m keeping the energy from Mj Rodriguez’s Emmy nod and last night’s WNBA All-Star Game alive to carry me through the rest of this week. Only a little while to go until the weekend, Straddlers… we’ve got this!

Queer as in F*ck You

+ Drew says Drag Race is queer woman culture and who am I to argue?: Inside Hong Kong’s drag scene: RuPaul’s Drag Race turned an underground LGBT subculture mainstream – but are Asian drag queens getting enough recognition?

+ See, it’s not just you that’s in love with your best friend: 85% of LGBTQ+ Relationships Started Out as Friends, According to Study

+ Hayley Sudbury Had No LGBTQ Role Models at Work. So She Built Werkin to Model and Scale Employer Diversity

+ How to Find an L.G.B.T.-Friendly Pediatrician

+ LGBTQ art shows are lighting up galleries from Boston to Berlin

+ Arrested, abused and accused: wave of repression targets LGBT+ Ghanaians

+ Judge Orders Release of Women Jailed in Cameroon for Being Trans

+ A local story but it’ll be interesting to track the movement of the LGBT community to the Progress Pride Flag: Castro cultural district to have survey on Pride flag

+ Young and LGBTQ in rural North Carolina: Isolated, tough, but changing

Saw This, Thought of You

+ Gaymers Unite: Netflix To Offer Video Games on Its Streaming Platform

+ #FreeBritney: Britney Spears Gets Court Approval to Hire Her Chosen Attorney in Conservatorship Battle

+ Relatedly: What ‘Free Britney’ shares with ‘Justice for Jenny’

+ A Love Letter to the Hopeless Bad Girls of ’90s Teen Soaps, Who Never Got the Stories They Deserved

+ I’m not sure we’re prepared to grapple with the grief of the last year: Drug overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year

Saw This, Thought of You: ⚽🏀 Sportsball Edition 🏀⚽

+ WNBA’s Candace Parker of Chicago Sky to be first female basketball player on cover of NBA 2K

+ FIBA forces Nneka Ogwumike to be loyal to USA Basketball even if her loyalty isn’t returned: Let Nneka Ogwumike play for Nigeria: FIBA’s bad decision is bad for basketball

+ How Washington Mystics Point Guard Natasha Cloud Became the WNBA’s Unofficial Minister of Social Justice

+ Betnijah Laney’s remarkable yearlong journey from waiver wire to first-time WNBA All-Star

+ The NWSL takes no days off during the Olympics: NWSL Star Power Index: Four players who will shine in league play during the Olympic stretch

+ Salute to the Lionesses: GB Football team to take the knee

+ Former Man United boss Casey Stoney joins NWSL expansion side San Diego

+ Apparently, the WNBA isn’t the only league who relishes a gameday fit: Behind the NWSL’s gameday fits and the power of self-expression

+ Imagine loving homophobia more than you actually love soccer: How allegiance to an anti-gay fan chant at Mexico soccer games might sink El Tri’s World Cup fortunes

Political Snacks

+ Perhaps one of the most crucial appointments for the LGBT community in the Biden Administration, given right-wing attacks on trans students: Senators Grill Civil Rights Nominee on Transgender Students, Sexual Assault Investigations

+ Someone learned absolutely nothing from RGB: Justice Breyer says he hasn’t decided on retirement plans

+ Hungary to Face EU Legal Action Over LGBTQ Rights Next Week

+ Caitlyn Jenner’s anti-trans harassment at CPAC shows the power of deadnames