Happy Sunday Funday, crown jewels! I hope you’re having a great weekend, I also hope you didn’t find yourself riding a stationary bike and trying hard not to let anyone see you crying because you were worried they’d think you were in physical pain when actually you were in emotional pain at any point in the last few days or really ever. I mean unless crying through a spin class is your style, I dunno maybe we don’t know each other as well as we thought.
OKAY HERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS!
Hillary Clinton is Fern-Adjacent
Laneia was right. I’m here to show this to you again. Did you watch this yet? Do you dream about whispering sweet nothings to Hillary Clinton ever? Do you sometimes imagine she’s secretly been in love with you all along? Me neither. Also, remind me to tell you about the time I met Zach Galifianakis but didn’t wanna say words to him because all I could think to say was “I really liked The Hangover 2” and that honestly seemed embarrassing for us both.
It’s Pride O’ Clock Somewhere, As Per Ushe
+ Pride in the Quad Cities was popular!
Sorry that there’s a man wearing a fedora in this picture, blame it on Memphis
Obama Really Really Likes You
As if calling for LGBT rights during his last-ever speech to the UN wasn’t enough, Obama also brought LGBT people up at the opening of the Smithsonian’s African-American History Museum.
For President Barack Obama, US history is a story of connections. Today, 24 September, during a speech at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the president reminded that LGBT history is part of the larger US past.
While describing the history of the new Washington, DC museum the president noted the country’s overall history contains many stories that can speak to each other.
‘Hopefully this museum can help is talk to each other,’ the president said. ‘And more importantly listen to each other. And most importantly see each other; black, and white. Latino and Native-American and Asian- American. See how our stories are bound together. And bound together with women in America. And workers in America. And entrepreneurs in America. And LGBT Americans.’
Good News at Light Speed
+ Virginia is for Lovers, even gay ones!
+ A fire truck pull in Burlington, VT raised thousands of dollars for LGBT youth. Also, what is a fire truck pull.
+ Rosie O’Donnell supports the San Antonio Four.
+ Anti-LGBT pastor Steven Anderson is not welcome in Botswana.
+ The States of Guernsey in the Channel Islands finally has marriage equality.
Unlike most of the rest of the British Isles, until now Guernsey did not have civil partnerships or any legal protections for same-sex couples.
Ellie Jones, vice chair of Liberate, the LGBTQ charity fighting for same-sex marriage in Guernsey, said: “We are ecstatic that Guernsey is now a more equal place to live and that the States have demonstrated their support for LGBTQ islanders, some of whom have waited a very long time to be able to get married.”
Jones added: “We would like to thank all of those in the States and the wider community who have worked so hard to bring this about, and we wish luck to all whose who will be hearing wedding bells in 2017!”
Parents Being Good to Their Trans Kids
This shouldn’t be special, unique, or noteworthy, but it is so here is a collection of parents not being shitty to their trans kids.
Best Birth Announcement ever. Today's CM. What a wonderful family. pic.twitter.com/Zz4NkssKHD
— Lisa Dart (@frostyagnes) December 2, 2014
We’re All Winners, But Especially Gay People
+ Debra Messing is presenting Titus Burgess with the NewFest Voice & Visibility Award and that’s amazing to me because I love them both and I love “Pinot Noir” even more.
+ OutFest is honoring Jill Soloway. (Freeform, too!)
Soloway is receiving the Visionary Award, which recognizes artistic and creative contributions to LGBT media visibility, for her Emmy-winning series “Transparent” from Amazon Studios, the first scripted TV show to feature a lead transgender character, and for her contributions to “Six Feet Under” and “I Love Dick.”
Freeform will be honored with the Corporate Trailblazer Award in recognition of its groundbreaking programming for young adults, people in high school, college and the decade that follows which includes such LGBT-friendly programs including “Pretty Little Liars”, “The Fosters” and “Shadowhunters.”
“Jill Soloway has elevated the current transgender conversation like no one else and presents another facet of the LGBT family with dignity, honesty, and humor,” says Christopher Racster, Executive Director of Outfest. “There is no other network in the current landscape that is doing more to represent the current attitudes and philosophies of younger viewing audiences than Freeform. Their programming reflects that the path forward for so many young people today is not straight but one full of choices and options and recognizing that gives us all more equality and understanding.”
“Also, what is a fire truck pull.”
lol not even going to lie, my thought process reading that part was exactly “Yay, thousands raised by a fire truck pull! … What’s a fire truck pull.”
It’s when a bunch of people get together to pull a fire trucks. … Do… do they not have those everywhere??
Never heard of it tbh
Never expected to encounter a situation where “how many lesbians does it take to pull a fire truck” would be a question I’m genuinely pondering rather than the start of a joke, but here we are.
Just lesbians or do the rest of us get a piece of the action? ;)
I would never stand in the way of anyone’s fire truck-pulling aspirations.
Equal opportunity fire tucks
New to me too!
I also forget that not everyone knows what a fire truck or tractor pull is. Same thing with meat raffles and pull tabs…oh, small town Midwestern life…
Truck pulls, tractor pulls, etc… are very popular in rural areas and usually involve the aforementioned vehicles pulling a weighted trailer. The goal is to see who can tow it the furthest. I loved them when I was a little girl. I haven’t been to one in at least twenty years now because they’re usually held in areas I no longer feel safe. :P
Also, yay for parents being awesome to their children! If only it wasn’t such a novel concept. :(
Obama’s speech was lovely. Hillary and Bernie have been so optimistic. I didn’t want to believe the U.S. was as bad as it apparently is to be so close between Hillary and Trump. I want progress, prosperity, and peace to win. I don’t understand why people want to live in world of Mad Max and call it “freedom”.
Oh, so it’s a fire truck/tractor/what-have-you pulling something? The image in my mind was of a group of people banding together on a rope or chain and seeing how far they could pull the vehicle as a collaborative effort.
That could be it too! They’re also a thing. :D
This isn’t a disparaging remark, I promise, but small towns tend to get very inventive with events and things to do! I always used to joke that all we ever did was watch the grass grow or watch the paint dry, but on Friday nights look out, we painted the grass! ;)
I am so excited to hear about marriage equality in Guernsey! I mean, I’m sad that it took this long. But yeah! That’s where I was born! And almost no one has heard of it or knows where it is. But they do have some serious work to do in terms of equality. Twenty something years ago when my parents were getting married, it was required by law for a woman to take her husband’s name when they got married. She couldn’t keep her maiden name. He couldn’t take her name. They couldn’t hyphenate. (well, they could pay to do any of those things after the marriage, but part of the legal ceremony was that the wife had to take the husband’s name) My mom being the feminist bad-ass that she is, took umbrage at that… She and my dad decided to create a new name together, which he legally changed his name to at the last minute before the wedding so she could dutifully take “his” name when they got married :)
So, last night I binged watched Transparent season 3, and without giving out spoilers(at least not ones that if you saw commercials for really gave away), but I have to really give them thanks for using correct and moderns language when it comes to the trans community. They even went to the Oxwood Inn, which on Saturday nights are queer women and trans night(I think other nights are for trans women who are into men, but I only follow their lbtq ladies night page on FB). Also, Jill’s sister Faith, as aforementioned on Friday, is Jewish lesbian folk singer. Faith introduced the amazing Hari Nef to Jill and why we had her on the show season.
With a review like that, Al, I’ll have to check it out.
Carmen, I hope you are ok! It sounds like you could maybe use a hug and/or some homemade soup and a tub of ice cream. Unless the stationary bike anecdote was not about you, in which case I still hope you are getting all the hugs/soup/frozen dessert that you want in life.