Sunday Funday is Wearing Rainbow Chucks to the Frontline Awards

Hello, luxurious 800-thread count organic bed sheets! Life is full of beauty and grace and a frantic amount of babyproofing as our 9-month old tries to destroy everything in her path. At this moment, she is hanging off the TV stand by one arm and trying to reach the cords behind the cable box.

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That’s her standing up in her crib, nomming on the crib rail. We had to install that fabric cover over the rails because she was scraping the (stained, treated, probably totally safe right totally) wood off with her cute little teeth! So sweet! Babies are a joy, y’all! Highly recommend.

Thank all that is good in the world for her adorable, soft, silly face. Also, here’s some other shit that’s good in the world. Soak it in!

U.S. Soccer Going Rainbow for Pride

U.S. Soccer announced on Twitter that the U.S. men’s national and women’s national teams would be wearing these very nice rainbow letter jerseys for Pride month. The jerseys are also available in a customizable rainbow version to benefit the LGBTQ sports organization You Can Play.

For just the low, low price of $124.99 – $199.99, you could own one of these beauties with your or your soccer-obsessed partner! CONSIDER IT.

Corporations Love Capitalism Always and Love Us Queers in June!

+ Nike wants your money for their newest rainbow-bedecked sneakers and apparel in their Betrue line in U.S. stores June 1 through June 5. “The key for us was to create something that people could unite around to show their support for LGBTQ athletes,” said Robert Gorman, leader of Nike’s LBGT Network. I mean, I boycotted Nike in college because sweatshops, but I have to admit some of these are kind of badass.

+ Converse is also getting in on the rainbow action with their annual release of new pride styles. “Through this collection, Converse says YES TO ALL, standing with the belief that whatever your gender, sexual orientation, or identity, everyone is free to be who they are,” the company said in a release. The new kicks are on sale now and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the It Gets Better Project and Miley Cyrus’ Happy Hippie Foundation to support LGBTQ youth.

+ Studio71’s creators have put together a S71 Pride Box that includes a “Love Wins” hat, drawstring bag, water bottle, mini-flag, enamel pin and temporary tattoos for $19.99 with a portion of proceeds benefitting the LA LGBT Center. There’s a gay unicorn pin. Just so you know.

Astraea’s Frontlines Awards Celebrate Badass Leaders and Activists Fueling Our Movements

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice held their fourth annual Fueling the Frontlines Awards on May 25th to “recognize the contributions of leaders and grassroots activists whose work is meaningfully furthering the LGBTQI movement in the United States and around the world.” According to a press statement, the 2017 awards were held in Los Angeles specifically to recognize the importance of art, film, music and journalism in the fight for LGBTQI justice.

The Fueling the Frontlines Awards is an amazing opportunity to celebrate our radical community – our successes and our fight. If we want to maintain and build on the resistance in this current moment then we need to celebrate and support the activists at the forefront of the movement.
– J. Bob Alotta, Executive Director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

The honorees were:

  • Patrisse Cullors, Organizer and Co-founder of Black Lives Matter and Executive Director of Dignity and Power Now, is also a performance artist
  • Jennicet Gutiérrez, Activist and Transgender Latina Organizer at Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement
  • Jorge Ramos, Emmy-Award winning Anchorman for Univision News
  • Paola Ramos, Spokeswoman for New York City Council Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito
  • Bruce Cohen, Academy-Award Winning Producer of American Beauty and Silver Linings Playbook and Executive Producer of When We Rise

The night included a timely performance by Toshi Regan and the cast of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower: The Opera. Channeling the words of Octavia Butler, Toshi Regan reminded the audience, “All that you touch you change. All that you change, changes you.”

Astraea was founded in 1977 by a cross-class, interracial group of woman activists as the first philanthropic organization working exclusively to advance LGBTQI justice.

Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter and Executive Director, Dignity and Power Now

This recognition from Astraea is deeply personal to me as a queer, black, female advocate. Astraea has always understood that the fight for LGBTQI equality is intersectional – it requires fighting for black and brown rights, for migrant rights, economic rights and more. I’m proud to be part of the resistance and ready to continue the fight.
– Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter and Executive Director of Dignity and Power Now.

Here, Queer, Etc.

+ Read this feature in Latina magazine: How Latina Artist Amanda Perez Helped Queer R&B in the Early 2000s

+ The charity album Rainbow Riots features LGBT musicians from countries where homosexuality is a punishable crime and where anti-LGBT violence is epidemic including Uganda, Malawi, and Jamaica. Some of the artists are anonymous to protect their personal safety. All proceeds from sales of the album will benefit the Rainbow Riots charity, a Swedish nonprofit committed to ending anti-LGBT discrimination around the world.

+ Check out this gorgeous photo project by queer Nigerian-American photographer Mikael Owunna, who has traveled North America for over three years documenting LGBTQ African immigrants and communities.

25 Famous Women on Their Self-Care Rituals

Ever wonder what Laverne Cox, Michelle Obama, Amandla Stenberg, Dolly Parton, Erykah Badu, and Beyoncé do for self-care? Wonder no more!

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KaeLyn

KaeLyn is a 40-year-old hard femme bisexual dino mom. You can typically find her binge-watching TV, standing somewhere with a mic or a sign in her hand, over-caffeinating herself, or just generally doing too many things at once. She lives in Upstate NY with her spouse, a baby T. rex, a scaredy cat, an elderly betta fish, and two rascally rabbits. You can buy her debut book, Girls Resist! A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution if you want to, if you feel like it, if that's a thing that interests you or whatever.

KaeLyn has written 230 articles for us.

30 Comments

  1. Interesting. Self care of the famous is v bath heavy. Waiting for my own tall girl tub so I can be like them bc rn my baths are only self care for what fits underwater. :/

    • I don’t have time for baths. Also, it would require me to clean my bathtub more often. These celebs must have very clean bathrooms.

  2. Thanks for the reminder! Time to get my Pride Converse…I missed out last year on the beautiful patchwork pair that they offered last year; I will not make the same mistake this year!

    • If you like that, you should follow me on instagram! My formerly cat-activist-selfie insta brand has morphed into shameless baby pics 24/7.

    • I first discovered it when they were selling a small amount of Converse stuff in Nike Town. They told me Nike bought the company in 2003.

  5. The converse I own that I bought when I was but a young bean who thought she was straight are in the bi colors so um I was ahead of the curve!! Also how the living hell did I think I was straight I was bi as hell and still am

    • I remember when the cool thing to do was to draw your own designs on your Chucks. Do the kids still do that?

  6. I’m so happy someone decided to make Converse gayer — sometimes consumerism has its perks.

  7. On my way home from work yesterday, I saw a Kennith Cole poster than had two dudes hugging to market their Pride shoe. Which, essentially is a white shoe, with a pride colors on the back. My first thought was, why they did choose one of the guys to be poc and then thought, one of them should be a gay tmoc(trans man of color). I also thought they are just using as marketing, but still nice to be acknowledged in some ways. As you can see I am little confused on where to stand.

    • It’s a mixed bag. With visibility come marketability? But yeah, there’s a long way to go in terms of who gets represented/targeted in marketing.

    • FWIW, Kenneth Cole seems to be more earnest than most in terms of his ads aligning with his beliefs. He seems to own (or have rented in perpetuity) a billboard on the West Side Highway that I’ve seen contain very strong, liberal political messages over the years.

  8. You know, I usually consider myself pretty critical of capitalism and I try to be a conscientious consumer. But apparently it’s all a lie, because looking at those rainbow Chucks, all I can think is, “Just take my money!!”

    • Don’t look directly at them! Get to the thrift store and get some sharpie markers!

  9. I hate when ppl buy stuff that’s not from their own teams (I support my ancestral land not my birth country but I have no justifiable links to the states). So yanks & ppl w closer links to the USA please get those jerseys cos my chosen country’s from the past & my team both seem to be from times that aren’t the present.

    I really want to get my team to do proper lgbt stuff. Next step in inclusivity. My favourite specialist interest combined w my identity. But I’m not a season ticket holder so idk if that’s my place. A few clubs in uk, one in our league, do that but football is a real identity thing over here. You don’t swap and change and I don’t want to I just want my club to change in this one regard. And you don’t buy other clubs merchandise unless it’s a link between clubs.

    Yeah yanks just get them and be glad you live in 2017.

    • I also only buy stuff from my own team. I only have national team jerseys from countries that I hold citizenship. Since I’m applying for American citizenship, after living here for over 12 years, I will get a pride jersey if they approve my application (well, I still have to
      Ass the test but I don’t think this will be an issue)

  10. I was playing with the custom jersey thing (http://www.ussoccerstore.com/us00m113117fa.html), and I wanted to make a “HOMONATIONALISM” one just to grab a picture of the preview image, but I got as far as typing “HOMO”, and the website returned an error that I had entered unacceptable custom text, which I thought was pretty funny.

  11. Love the Mikael Owunna project on Queer Africans, the interviews are especially powerful. Having just finished up 2+ years of living in Senegal, (where I would’ve jumped with glee had I connected with a queer community of any size- didn’t happen), I’m super interested in non-western same-sex desiring and gender non-conforming identities. Thank you for sharing!

    • It’s a really beautiful photo project in many ways. Glad you took the time to browse it!

  12. So, this is unreal. When coming out, I chose my name because it had deep meaning for me. Turns out my first name, Saga, is a commonly used LGBT term (sexuality and gender acceptance). And now, I’m learning my middle name, Astraea, is this badass foundation for my sisters? Fuck yes.

    • @teachersaga, woah! It was meant to be! Are you The One? The One who will lead all the queers into salvation?! I think it must be your destiny!

      • Huh… I could have sworn my destiny involved a goat farm, and becoming a Disney Princess.

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