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Also.Also.Also: Kehlani Rides Hard for LGBTQ Starbucks Workers, and We Ride Hard for Them

I have to admit, today has been a long one. But I have Mean Girls on the television while I write this, and I have box of Annie’s chocolate bunny grahams. And my friend? That’s not nothing.


Queer as in F*ck You

Kehlani Explains Viral Interaction with Influencer Christian Walker, Says He Harassed Starbucks Workers. Kehlani rides hard for LGBTQ+ Starbucks baristas, and we love an icon who supports queer workers. I really don’t know who this supposed “influencer” Christian Walker is, and I had legitimately never heard of him before earlier this week, when Kehlani went viral across Thee InternetsTM for keeping their cool in a Starbucks parking lot after Walker fully lost his shit over them. I originally didn’t think much to the story to be honest — until today when Kehlani took to their social media to explain that the whole entire mess started because Walker had harassed the local Starbucks workers for their Pride flags!?! Kehlani stepped in, and then Walker turned on Kehlani.

So! I still don’t know who this supposed “Christian Walker” is! But in this house we stan Kehlani (and workers) forever and ever.

EXCUSE ME IS THAT OUR MANAGING EDITOR KAYLA KUMARI!?!?

If you want to read more about Kayla and her partner Kristen, we’ve published: Things I’ve Never Asked My Girlfriend of Three Years About Her Childhood and High School Years and Things I’ve Never Asked My Girlfriend of Three Years About Age Gaps, Topping, and Our First Date (to access those articles, you’ll need to be an A+ member. A+ memberships start at $4 a month and you get access to not only content like this, but the good warm feeling of knowing that you are keeping Autostraddle here and queer for the readers who need us most! 💜)

Enjoy podcasts? Can I interest you in Wait Is this a Date? 

After four months of dating, Grimes and Chelsea Manning Are Reportedly Over

Updates on Brittney Griner’s trial in Russia: Russian Teammate, GM Support Griner in Court. “UMMC Ekaterinburg teammate Evgeniya Belyakova and Maxim Ryabkov, the team’s general manager, spoke during the brief afternoon court session while Griner sat in the defendants’ cage not far away. Their appearance is believed to be the first in-person contact Griner has had with anyone she knows — other than the Russian attorneys hired for her case — since she was arrested Feb. 17 and charged with trying to smuggle drugs into the country.”

“A library in Iowa has closed after nearly all of its employees quit due to anti-LGBTQ harassment against-staff, complaints about LGBTQ titles, and whipped up controversies. The town now has no library.” What’s Happening With The Vinton Public Library


Saw This, Thought of You

Amazon Gave Ring Doorbell Videos to Us Police 11 Times Without Permission

Sending so much love to Constance Wu today. Constance Wu Opens Up About Attempting Suicide

“Once a teen star and half of a sister act, Chlöe Bailey is lending her distinctive voice to an essential story about sex, race, and Black women’s bodies.” Chlöe Bailey on Why It’s OK Not to Be a “Confident, Bad Bitch” All the Time (this profile was written by the one and only JOAN MORGAN!!! Her book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down is fundamental to who I am as a writer and a feminist and why I’m here today.)

When Brands Got Horny. “From dick pics to anilingus to impregnated mascots, social marketing has entered its carnal era.”


Political Snacks

Why They Still Support Trump

30 Years Ago and Today: History Repeats Itself. “Archival photos of Pro-Choice demonstrations, Washington DC and NYC, 1990-1992.”

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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.

7 Comments

  1. I hate that I know this but Christian Walker is the gay son of Conservative football player turned politician Hershel Walker. The one child he would claim anyway. This kid’s entire schtick is that he’s “not like other gays”.

      • Yes. And knowing the type of man his father is it seems very obvious that he’s been desperate for his love and attention his entire life. Being a TikTok Republican is apparently a whole grift now. Republicans are always desperate to claim any minority who agrees with them to hold up as their token so it’s easy to get famous and make money going that route.

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