Also.Also.Also: Lesbians! Feeding the Queer Rights Movement, One Potluck at a Time!

I cannot believe… it almost never happens this way… but tonight I will be celebrating TACO TUESDAY WITH MARGARITAS AND FRESH GUACAMOLE AND I AM HYPE ABOUT IT!!!

Wishing you some joy in your evening, too.

Queer as in F*ck You

How Lesbian Potlucks Nourished the LGBTQ Movement

This feels related in that warm, fuzzy way: ‘Togetherness in a Virtual Space’: LGBTQ Students Create Community Online

The Mothers Leading the Battle Against Trans Student Athletes “Their tactics mirror those employed by white mothers who fought school integration: disguising bigotry with pleas to protect children.” I will yell about how racism, homophobia, and transphobia are tied together until I am hoarse and spent! These mothers are upsetting, but please, in addition, let this also be a reminder for any white gays who have racist white gay friends (you do) — it’s the same beast.

And continuing in I Hate It Here! A Gay Campground Announces They Will Ban Trans Men So They Can Manage the “Atmosphere”

Pride and Less Prejudice is an organization working to provide age-appropriate LGBTQ books for Pre-K to 3rd grade classrooms. They are hosting a panel called “See Yourself, Be Yourself: A Panel on LGBTQ Media Representation” on March 20th that will have Nicole Maines (Supergirl; Bit), Theo Germaine (The Politician; Work in Progress, Eboné Bell (EIC of Tagg Magazine), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies), and Darryl Stephens (of the iconic Noah’s Arc). Tickets are $20 and you can register by following this link.

Saw This, Thought of You

Halle Berry Reveals Her First Kiss Was with a Girl’: “My first kiss was a girl. I had this boyfriend named LaShawn Boyd and I wanted to French kiss him… But I didn’t know how to French kiss, so I got my best friend at the time to show me how to French kiss.”

Everyone is still thinking about Britney Spears, and y’all I realize I have talked about this very subject in this column at least once a week all month (and during Black History Month, no less! So you know I am u.p.s.e.t. over the treatment of this white woman) but two exceptional pieces dropped today and you absolutely must know about them:

  • “It’s absurd to discuss Britney’s image from that time… as though she was figuring out her sexuality on her own terms, rather than in an economy where young women’s sexuality is rapidly commodified until they are old enough to be discarded.” Britney Spears Was Never in Control by Tavi Gevinson for The Cut
  • “People had been asking me, ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ in interviews since I was 6. Reporters asked me who I thought the sexiest actor was and about Hugh Grant’s arrest for soliciting a prostitute. It was cute when 10-year-olds sent me letters saying they were in love with me. It was not when 50-year-old men did. Before I even turned 12, there were images of me on foot fetish websites and photoshopped into child pornography. Every time, I felt ashamed.” The Lies Hollywood Tells About Little Girls by Mara Wilson (friend of Autostraddle, you might also know her as Matlida, but now an adult) for The New York Times

Martha Stewart Is the Original Influencer — to quote Christina, “Catch me absolutely vibing to this allllll day.” (Y’all, I AM SORRY. But I am who I am.)

This one goes out to my Kathryn Hahn and Teyonah Parris Army who’s been spending the last seven weeks watching WandaVision… if one of y’all didn’t know that Elizabeth is the third Olsen sister, do me the favor of never telling me so that I can live the rest of my life in peace: I Officially Feel Old Because People Are Just Discovering Elizabeth Olsen Is Related To Mary-Kate And Ashley

And speaking of WandaVisison/Monica Rambeau, The Lightning and the Storm: How an Imperfect Past Shaped the Rise of the Black Superhero (Y’all ALREADY KNOW how much I loved this)

As the Pandemic Rages Abortion Access Nearly Flickers Out

And also.also.also, The Most Likely Timeline for Life to Return to Normal (haha what IS normal? But you know what they mean)

‘This Crap Means More to Him Than My Life’: When QAnon Invades American Homes

Political Snacks

Oh what’s that!?!? Megan Thee Stallion Interviewing Maxine Waters!! Yeah, I thought you might like it: Megan Thee Stallion and Representative Maxine Waters on Misogynoir, Saying No, and the Genius of WAP “Now that’s audacity.”

And now much more seriously, this was both excellent and pragmatic and really, just so many other really great things — It’s Bigger than Fox News: Time for Mainstream Journalism to Reckon with Monetizing Disinformation and Eroding Truth

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the sweeping LGBTQ rights bill The Equality Act this week, have you called your representatives yet?

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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.

5 Comments

  1. the mental image of Rep. Waters taking careful notes on WAP to prepare for this interview and do her due diligence is likely 90% fictional but 100% delightful

  2. Are people honestly just discovering and learning about Elizabeth Olsen because of WandaVision?? I’m probably biased because I’ve been head over heels with her since Martha Marcy May Marlene. But I gotta say this reminds me of the waves of people that suddenly learned Moira Rose was also “the mom in Home Alone.” It kills me that so many don’t know that Catherine O’Hara is a goddamn legend! Here’s hoping all these new fans delve into the backgrounds of these powerhouses 😎

  3. Not surprised that there’s a gay trans exclusionary campground in Michigan. This was the state that also used to have a trans exclusionary “Womyn’s” festival that worked very hard to exclude trans women. Absolutely disgusting and horrifying, and it shows that the Queer community needs to call out its own and hold them accountable when they attack and exclude other queer people.

    • while there’s no surprise about assholes being assholes, i am lately surprised by what an insufficient motivator survival-related self interest can be. there is so much to worry about right now, it’s not like we can afford to disenfranchise anyone from the general alphabexual community. smaller, divided numbers make us so much more vulnerable. i feel like i understand trans-excluders like i do trump voters – somehow hate sustains them despite the lack of security or prosperity. but i think i feel more anger towards the former because they know what it’s like to be discriminated against because of who and how we are intrinsically.

      i went to a women’s college (it was the dawn of the internet), and it’s the first place i regularly encountered trans people. i remember us talking about the staff member who had transitioned and the faculty member who started to. i am sure, having no context, we lacked sensitivity, but i don’t remember anyone expressing hate or values that discounted them as women or as people. more so i remember some folks noting that it would be a lot to go through if it weren’t biologically imperative. it’s clumsy today, but the internet is now old enough to run for president, so. that school was early in practically and procedurally including trans students and it’s still a women’s college. just mentioning to end on a thing that while imperfect, is trying to be better.

  4. repetition is a thing many people underestimate, but there’s a lot of info about how persuasive it is. it’s a principle in graphic design*, and apparently in music**. it’s also an effective tactic for misinformation***. i was thinking about that when looking at a couple of your links.

    that Tavi Gevinson piece is an interesting counterpoint to the Britney documentary. what happened to her was an evolving, systemic function that probably can’t be boiled down into one coherent narrative. i appreciate that you repeat the coverage, Carmen, because to me those events feel like a roadmap for misogyny redirecting attention from how women were treated that Anita Hill’s senate testimony brought in to focus.

    that Farai Chideya piece on media accountability is so important; media really needs to recognize how they repeat false points for an appearance of equal coverage or fairness, but really amplify racist, antidemocratic agendas.

    * https://99designs.com/blog/tips/principles-of-design/
    ** https://twitter.com/Lyrikris10/status/1364231602436526080
    *** https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/lies-damn-lies-and-media-right-wing-repetition-debunked-narratives-reshapes-reality

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