Hello it is Sunday and yesterday was Saturday! My neighbors had fireworks for some reason and they scared my cats, but per usual, my robot roommate came through. Not to be like a shill of big tech, but as a person who lives alone, very little makes my life feel more tech free than being able to talk to a robot and have it do what I tell it to do. It even sang me happy birthday when I woke up on my birthday! A roommate has never done that for me.
Okay, while you read about the good news, I’m gonna go feed my cats treats for breakfast to make up for last night.
+ Hopefully including tons of facemasks and hand sanitizer, Paris held a Pride parade and thousands came out for what turned out to be, in true historical Pride fashion, hella political.
+ Speaking of Pride, we can’t let it go back to a corporate-sponsored event, which Natalie highlighted earlier this week.
+ The songs our queer elders boogied to in the 70s and 80s.
+ Queer folks in Ecuador are exploring gender identity through drag.
This metamorphosis, from one character to another and back is what’s so striking about transformismo. It isn’t just that RenterÃa changes into Dareyeska, or MacÃas into Destiny, but that they also have to transform the other way around. One complies with the arrangements, rules and expectations of society. The other creates a parallel world of fantasy and possibility where they can decide and rule on their own terms. These split realities aren’t necessarily at odds with each other, but rather emerge as adaptations and strategies for queer life to flourish on difficult terrain. Keeping these two worlds neatly separate, however, isn’t always easy as RenterÃa and MacÃas can attest to. But “easy” would be missing the aim of transformismo which, after all, is breaking free from all the ways being human is confined and constricted.
+ Wales has a new LGBTQ bookstore.
+ Want a documentary about LGBTQ friendship? Check out Jack and Yaya.
+ Hmm, lesbians will turn anything into a dating app including…TikTok?
+ Seven queer folks share the beauty rituals getting them through the pandemic. Speaking of, let me go wash my face.
+ Some Dartmouth sororities rewrite their constitutions to include nonbinary people. Cute if we ever go back to school.
+ Teens and the gender binary.
+ My ancestor was a suffragist.
Okay weirdos and friends, I’ll see you soon. Love yourselves, love your communities, love your enemies into being nice, I guess? I don’t know, still working on that one. You’re always on my heart and mind.
