Also.Also.Also: I Wanna Be Mad About Bratz Commodifying Pride, but That Coat

I’m eating cold sesame noodles and ice cream for dinner because I am melting!!! 🥵

Queer as in F*ck You

Ok so down with corporate Pride. You don’t have to convince me, but ok. Just ok. Hear me out —

Two Bratz dolls are in rainbow colored long fur coats while holding protest signs and are photoshopped in front of a pink background with gold and yellow sparkles. The dolls look millennial chic, despite being corporate pride.
Speaking of corporate Pride! We got this message from the folks at GoFundMe and Vanessa wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out:

“GoFundMe is supporting and celebrating Pride by making it easy to donate directly to the LGBTQ+ community and people working to create a more inclusive world. Verified fundraisers that support everything from gender-affirming care to local organizations focused on LGBTQ+ youth can be found at www.gofundme.com/lgbtq“

I don’t always include press release info like this, but I appreciate GoFundMe knowing that queer and trans people are often, well, sharing GoFundMe’s as a means of survival. Talk about knowing your market.

Meet Oregon’s Tina Kotek, Who Hopes to Be America’s First Lesbian Governor

I am so irrationally angry about this, LET WILL BE GAY!! HE IS OBVIOUSLY GAY! ‘Stranger Things’ Star on Will’s Sexuality: ‘It’s Up to the Audience’s Interpretation’

Sabotage and Pistols — Was Ellen Willmott Gardening’s ‘Bad Girl’?

On the Top 10 Reasons I Won’t Leave Autostraddle, to be honest having “menstrual leave” as a person with debilitating fibroids is very close to #1 on that list. Menstrual Leave: Some Companies Are Offering Time off for Periods

Saw This, Thought of You

I’m writing you this post while sitting in my underwear, so let’s just say that even though I don’t currently live in New York, this is at the top of my mind: “”Black New Yorkers are more than twice as likely to die from heat as white residents, city data show.” It’s Going to Be a Hot Summer. It Will Be Hotter if You’re Not Rich.

“We asked teachers across the country to describe the last two years for us. Over 1,000 submissions later, it’s clear that teachers feel forgotten, disillusioned and tired.” America’s Teachers Offer Answers to the Education Crisis

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Listen. This is really funny, if you want a good snarky read: Your Personality, Explained by Your Annoying Household Habits

Political Snacks

A reporter at the Uvalde Leader-News lost her daughter in the shooting at Robb Elementary School. She asked the publisher if she could write the obituary.

This is really thoughtful (much more so than the headline implies, to be honest) and smart, but it’s also really difficult. It’s a story about how we tell stories, if that makes sense. Excellent journalism that’s about journalism. From Sandy Hook to Uvalde, the Violent Images Never Seen

Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle’s former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other. During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.