Hey friendos! How the heck are you? How’s your weather? Like, not in a small-talk way, honestly, what’s your weather doing? This past week in Austin, it’s been 50º, 89º, and then today we had torrential rains and tornadoes! What is going ON?! Just kidding, it’s the climate change crisis. Like, this crisis has very little to do with you and I personally, and more to do with huge corporations, but please recycle! I don’t know, we’ve got to try, you know! Ride a bike!

+ Janelle Monáe and Lizzo have a perfect discussion for the cover story of them. Every single word and every single image is amazing. You’ve gotta read this.

I mean, to be young, queer, and black in America means that you can be misunderstood. You can be hated. It also means that you can be celebrated and loved. And I think there’s a lot at stake when you’re living out loud in that way. One thing I’ve realized even more was that when you walk in your truth, you can inspire and encourage people to walk in theirs’.

+ I love black queer love. Here are TWO black queer couples loving on each other. Get ready to sob.

https://twitter.com/drkskins/status/1116303703429058564

+ In more Janelle Monáe adjacent news, the live-action film version of “The Lady and the Tramp” starring Monáe, Tessa Thompson, and Kiersey Clemons has a release date!

+ Lena Waithe joins the “Westworld” team, which I guess means we’ve all gotta catch up on what frankly, seems like a terrifying show.

+ Morehouse, an historically Black college for men in Atlanta, GA will begin accepting trans men in Fall 2020. (Warning, not every change they’re making with regards to trans students is positive)

+ Lenn Keller’s photography is keeping the Bay area’s black lesbian history alive.

(Courtesy of H. Lenn Keller)

Keller developed a style that was intimate, yet still full of the energy and exuberance of the events she documented. A photograph included in Queer California, taken at a 1983 Pride parade, shows a woman identified by the image’s title as a “black lesbian glockenspiel player” with the SF Lesbian & Gay Freedom Band. Embedded in the rows of musicians, San Francisco’s City Hall out of focus in the distance, Keller catches the parade marching in formation like an advancing, joyous army. Specifically pinning down the glockenspiel player’s identity, Keller affirms her place in the moment and movement, creating a record for future audiences.

+ Artist Jules Scheele’s new book, Gender: A Graphic Guide can be pre-ordered now!

https://twitter.com/julesscheele/status/1115364036055654400

+🗣️ These feminist punk bands demand that you hear them!!!!!!!!

+ Everybody wants to be Robyn, no one will ever be Robyn.

+ “More queer writing, please.” Please.

+ Amelia Abraham went to Dinah so you don’t have to. Unless you want to, I guess.

+ Madison, WI’s first out mayor is a lesbian, it’s a “big deal,” and the LGBTQ+ community loves her.

+ idk y’all, this is hilarious to me: San Jose’s airport will hang rainbow flags in front of the new Chick-fil-a to show that they are LGBTQ friendly. Capitalism at its best.

+ These are the LGBTQ Mormons doing the Lorde’s work in their church. 🙏🏾

Have a beautiful week. Maybe write to someone important and tell them to stop killing the earth. Definitely take some time and just look at an animal doing nothing, because somehow they’re always the most magnificent when they don’t try?? I’m off for the longest week of my life, but I’m gonna be sure to take time for me every day, and I think maybe you should try also. Okay I love you goodbyeeee!!!