Also.Also.Also: Cherelle Griner Pleads for Brittney, “I Don’t Know if She Has Anything Left in Her Tank”

Photo of Brittney Griner by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

This is coming to you a little late because I got caught up doing what makes me happy — deep diving on which tea leaves might tell us if a character in a movie is going to be gay (this time it’s Michaela Coel’s Aneka, who is gay in the comics, in next month’s Wakanda Forever)


Queer as in F*ck You

“I don’t know if she has anything left in her tank to continue to wake up every day and be in a place where she has no one.” Cherelle Griner sat down with CBS This Morning to talk about BG, and I hope you make time to watch the entire thing. Brittney’s appeal in Russia is slated for October 25th and I know that sharing these updates can make all of us feel small — there is so much out of our control, but if you can please keep Brittney Griner in your hearts. She is not alone. We will not leave her alone.

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In a First, Brazil Elected Two Trans Women to Its National Congress

15 LGBTQ Art Shows That Are Spicing Up Global Museums This Fall

Is that Autostraddle co-founder and CEO Riese Bernard on this week’s Nerdette podcast? Oh I believe it is!!


Saw This, Thought of You

A Visual History of WNBA Kicks

How I Got My Job: Creating America’s First Chic Tinned Fish Company (this is about Becca Millstein’s Fishwife, which is also has a discount available to our A+ members via the A+ Marketplace. You can join A+ for $4 a month, support queer indie media, and also get discounts on trendy, small indie brands that are queer, POC, and/or worker owned! How about that!)

Actually, Black Mermaid Folklore Has Been Around Long Before Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Rest Is Resistance. “How to dream your way toward a radically decolonized future.”

More Than Two Dozen Abortion Clinics Closed in the First 100 Days Post-Roe


Political Snacks

Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law. This opened up a lot of discussion in our workplace today (the consensus, which I agree with, is that this is an important first step — and still not enough), and I think it has the potential to be a very big deal depending on what comes next. I’m so happy for the 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021, and thousands more who were convicted of possession in DC, who are finding peace tonight.

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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.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

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