Hello, my friends! I’m back from my medical leave and full of gratitude for Valerie Anne who kept this column running brilliantly WHILE doing all her recaps WHILE ALSO doing all of our editorial social media WHILE ALSO doing social media for our A+ membership drive. And on top of that, she came to my house to walk me to vote last week because it was too far for me to go on my own and my wife was on-call with clients. Truly that PunkyStarshine is the best friend a girl could ask for. And now — your Monday Pop Culture Fix.
+ It is very important to me that you don’t miss Autostraddle Editor in Chief Carmen Phillips and former Autostraddle Senior Editor Yvonne Marquez in Netflix Con Todo’s Visions of Us.
join us as we give flowers to some of the creatives and stories that pushed Latina lesbian representation forward in TV and film.
Visions of Us episode 1 is now on Netflix Youtube! pic.twitter.com/gSIQKO4UzL
— Con Todo (@contodonetflix) June 25, 2021
+ From Katie Barnes over at ESPN: Player. Parent. Activist. Pioneer. Layshia Clarendon is the WNBA’s first openly nonbinary and transgender athlete.
+ And speaking of the WNBA: Yesterday, Diana Taurasi became the first WNBA player to top 9,000 points. (I reserve the goat emoji for Serena Williams, sorry UConn lesbeans.)
+ What? More sports! That’s right, Natalie and I have been reunited and we have a lot to talk about! Sha’Carri Richardson deserves your undivided attention. (Yeah, she has a girlfriend.)
+ Footballer Li Ying becomes first Chinese player to come out as lesbian. (I won’t be stopped!)
+ WNBA.com has some Pride op-eds you shouldn’t miss out on! Briann January on how Pride starts with yourself. And Amanda Zahui B. on what Pride means to her. This one has my favorite Pride essay quote of the year:
I celebrate my body, my mind and my sexuality. I am confident and open to the fact that I was made to love women. I was created to celebrate the beautiful women on this earth. To love the most powerful creature on this earth, the woman.
+ And finally, USA Basketball went all in with the gays for the Tokyo Olympics.
+ Five queer YouTube creators to know for Pride month.
+ 8 lesbian movies with few to zero sad lesbians. (This is a good list! I don’t usually link lesbian movie lists from other websites!)
+ A podcast that proves all heists are a little bit gay.
+ Inside Disney’s first Pride concert and its troublesome queer history.
+ In this week’s For Your Consideration over at the AV Club, Lauren Coates takes on Buffy’s queerness 25 years later.
+ After decades of tirelessly preserving queer film, Jenni Olson gets her due.
+ The MCU finally confirms Loki is bisexual.
+ Luca proves Disney’s Pixar wasn’t brave enough to fully commit to their first queer animated film.
+ Batwoman boss unpacks Kate Kane’s finale fate and that intense cliffhanger.
+ How TV therapy took on the pandemic.
+ “Senior year, bitches!” It’s the grown-ish season four trailer.
+ Cheryl Dunye learned to play the game.
+ The prescient power of The Rosie O’Donnell Show.
Heather! So glad you’re back! (Though Valerie Anne indeed was an amazing fill-in!)
Glad you’re back and (hopefully) on the mend! I came here hoping to see something about Queen Latifah finally coming out, but was surprised not to see something on Autostraddle.
I am writing it literally right now! I got slammed with other responsibilities today and if you come back first thing tomorrow morning, you will see it. That’s a promise.
(Edit: I’m trying to write something meaningful that isn’t just for clicks, you know?)
YAY! I’m glad someone with writing chops is writing it, because if it had’ve been me, it would’ve been 800+ words of me going YAYYYYYYYYYYY and nothing else.
Whoops let me go delete my current draft that’s just 800+ words of YAAAAAYYYY lol
(I’m kidding. But am I?)
Maybe add a “STEP ON MY NECK MAMA”. Oh wait — that’s my version
In other queer sports related news, Lael Wilcox won the Hope 1000(km) self-supported race in the women’s category. This is after winning a 350+ mile Unbound XL in Kansas earlier in the month. Her wife took all the pics here. https://bikepacking.com/plog/lael-wilcox-2021-hope-1000/
Also also also…Utada Hikaru of Kingdom Hearts fame recently came out as NB.