feature image photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
I’m making pasta for dinner; what are you making?
Librarians Didn’t Sign Up to Be Queer Activists—but This Year, They Are. As someone who is engaged to a queer librarian, this issue is of great personal importance to me. But we should all be paying attention to the work librarians around the country are doing in the face of anti-LGBTQ hate groups and campaigns, like the “Hide the Pride” campaign that targeted a library in Ferndale, Michigan back in June, which this feature in The New Republic opens with. Make no mistake, as the feature states: “The work of library defense right now is unapologetically queer.”
Also from the feature:
As much as fighting book bans is about fighting censorship, it’s also about confronting and demobilizing those who are driving that censorship and the attendant instability left in their wake. Because they are not just coming for the books; they are coming for the library and the people and ideas that make libraries possible. The work of library defense right now is unapologetically queer.
Speaking of banned books: ‘Gender Queer’ Author Responds to Kennedy’s Viral Senate Reading.
Queer Superhero History: Mystique.
I’ve got not one but TWO queer photo essays for you:
Attention Bravo Dykes! In Below Deck news: Below Deck Med’s Captain Sandy Yawn Is Engaged to Leah Shafer.
How Personal Relationships Influence Views on Gender-Affirming Care. 19th News did a massive political survey that resulted in a bunch of features breaking down some of the data. Get into it, nerds.
Partner brag o’clock! My fiancée’s third novel was announced yesterday, and it’s really gay. I think you’re going to love it. I sure did!
The Politics of Chronic Illness Memoirs.
Her Students Reported Her for a Lesson on Race. Can She Trust Them Again? This was a really devastating read.
It’s Now Clear: “Cop City” Is About Democracy.
A poem for you!
feature image photo of Wanda Sykes by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin / Contributor via Getty Images
There are still TEN MORE DAYS OF SUMMER. I love your cozy autumnal posts on social, but I repeat: THERE ARE STILL TEN MORE DAYS OF SUMMER.
LGBTQ Representation in Film Hits Peak While GLAAD, Guilds Caution Hollywood Strikes Can Slow Progress. Just my own personal clarification on this headline: It’s not the strikes that are slowing progress but rather the resistance from the AMPTP to offer a fair contract — which the strikes are in response to — that are slowing progress. But I digress! GLAAD hosted a joint press conference with the actors and writers unions to challenge studio leadership on their commitments to LGBTQ+ representation, which is at its peak in film, according to GLAAD’s latest report. From the report:
“GLAAD firmly stands in solidarity with the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) in their efforts and contributions to fair and accurate storytelling integral to the LGBTQ movement. It is crucial that The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reach a fair deal with striking writers and creators — that these talented creatives can return to work as soon as possible, so that the progress made in LGBTQ representation remains on track.”
‘We Need to Take Ownership of Our History”: Inside Takweer’s Viral Instagram Page. More about this story: “Marwan Kaabour’s Takweer created an online community spotlighting queer Arab pop culture and history. Now, it’s expanded into a book exploring West Asia’s LGBTQIA+ community through language and literature.”
On Finding Queer Community While Incarcerated.
James Frankie Thomas on Discovering His Trans Identity While Writing Fiction.
Here’s Why Taika Waititi’s New Film Is Being Called Transphobic.
Eve Adams Was a Jewish Lesbian Trailblazer and Now There’s a Play About Her.
How Podcasts About R. Kelly Played a Pivotal Role in Elevating Black Survivors’ Stories.
Your periodic reminder that “marriage equality” excludes disabled folks: Marriage Could Mean Losing Life-Saving Benefits for People With Disabilities. So They’re Protesting.
A Four-Hour Phone Call With Erykah Badu.
Ketchup With Those Fries? Sure—as Long as It’s Anti-Woke. This was a BANANAS read.
Ohhhhh I love this excerpt of a poem (full poem is in the caption):
There was a huge storm in Orlando last night, and my WiFi router will no longer turn on as a result! So I’m coming at you live via my hotspot while that gets sorted out. I hope technology is not failing you today the way it is for me.
From the Black Queer South to the World. The Atlanta-based queer Black magazine Venus started in 1995 and ran for 12 years, and you can read all about its history and legacy in this fantastic JSTOR Daily feature. Charlene Cothran started the magazine three years after the death of Atlanta’s Black lesbian activist and community organizer Venus Landin, who the magazine was named after. The feature also touches on broader history of Black queer publishing and media, particularly in the South.
Also from JSTOR Daily, which really is an excellent publication: Searching for Queer Spaces.
Here are two good things happening in California: A New California Law Will Soon Block Schools From Banning LGBTQ+ Books.
California Just Became the First State to Declare a Transgender History Month. Would love if more states followed suit, but this should also come with an expansion of protections for trans people and genuine efforts to combat transphobia.
But also, in bad California news: The “Parental Rights” Fanatics Have Descended on LA.
And in bad news from my neck of the woods: It Sounds Like Florida Is About to Lose Abortion Access.
Ending this section on a lighter note, for my Bravo Dykes: This Is What a Real Housewife Looks Like.
The Summer of the Black Woman.
History! Of! Pockets! How the Humble Pocket Came to Signify Feminist Liberation.
Feminist Film Theory: An Introductory Reading List.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws Are Pushing More Trans People to Run for Office.
It’s still summer until September 24!
I’m having hot dogs for dinner tonight, and I cannot WAIT!!!!!!!
Carmen Maria Machado Is Writing an Erotic Film — and You Could Be In It. Well, I’ve never been more excited for a creative project in my LIFE. Queer porn studio Aorta Films and brilliant queer author Carmen Maria Machado are set to collaborate on a porn film called “Haunted,” which “will explore the shenanigans of a team of documentary filmmakers who respond to a report of a haunting in an apartment,” according to Them. To make things even more exciting: There’s an open casting call for the project right now.
From earlier this week: Starting Today, Trans Youth In Texas No Longer Have Access to Gender-Affirming Care.
California School District Blocked From Outing Trans Students.
More on the same topic: Inside the Fight to Forcibly Out Transgender Students in California. I know I keep bringing this specific example up in Also.Also.Also, but I think it’s really important to pay attention to the fact that these fights aren’t just happening in the South.
Read about trans youth in schools in their own words: Trans Kids on Coming Out at School.
The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes.
As someone who has lived a lot of my life online, this was an interesting read: How Telling People To Die Became Normal.
A ‘Wild’ and Mysterious Discovery Just Upended Our Idea of Black Holes. I HATE reading about space (that’s none of my business) but I did it anyway, and now YOU HAVE TO, TOO.
Let’s end this section on a slightly more fun though still kind of upsetting note: Why Revenge Fantasies are Normal After a Bad Break-Up.
Abortion/Reproductive Justice is the theme of this section today:
The 19th Explains: Abortion in Florida and What’s at Stake in the State Supreme Court.
Ohio’s Republican Leaders Are Trying to Trick Voters on Abortion.
New State Abortion Mumbers Show Increases in Some Surprising Places.
A poem for you!
I love to make things at home that would be way easier to just purchase in the grocery store, and today’s version of that is: making homemade guava paste.
Whereas mainstream studio releases of rom-coms centering gay men have been quite en vogue lately, there’s still a dearth of contemporary lesbian rom-com films. A piece for i-D magazine — Queer Women Are Still Overlooked in Rom-Coms — looks at this disparity from a bunch of different angles and even brings up the question of whether we should even want lesbian or nonbinary rom-coms when so many of them are in service of promoting and reinforcing heteronormative expectations and standards of marriage and family. I’m not a person who particularly desires Happily Ever Afters from my queer cinema, but I’m also a lifelong lover of the rom-com genre, so I have quite a few feelings about this topic! The article does bizarrely miscredit Alice Wu as the director of Crush, which was directed by Sammi Cohen, but let me just use this as a moment to tell everyone to go rewatch my personal favorite lesbian rom-com of all time, Saving Face.
Brands Actually Can and Should Stand Up to Anti-Trans Backlash.
An Australian Gymnastics Organization Just Approved New Trans-Inclusive Guidelines.
Sex Workers Say Mastercard’s Adult Content Policy Is Making Their Jobs More Dangerous.
A fitting longread for the day after Labor Day: What Happens When Mom And Dad Go On Strike.
Another Labor Day read: Want a Thriving Arts Scene? Build More Housing.
How Inequality Was Redefined as “Poverty”—Letting Capitalism Off the Hook.
California Promised Reparations to Survivors of Forced Sterilization. Few People Have Gotten Them.
Dispatches from California’s tropical storm: ‘It Feels Horrible’: Amazon Workers Delivered Packages During Destructive Tropical Storm.
After Jacksonville Shooting, Some Floridians See Connections Between State’s Education Laws and Anti-Black Racism. (I understand journalistically why the 19th News has to couch this headline this way, but yes, the connections here are undeniable and should be emphasized emphatically.)
And a follow-up, from The Atlantic: A DeSantis Speech Too Dangerous to Teach in Florida.
Is Tradwife Content Dangerous, or Just Stupid?
A Federal Court Ruled That Alabama Republicans Illegally Diluted Black Voting Power. Again.
Happy September.
feature image by Hector Vivas/TAS23 / Contributor via Getty Images
Has anyone tried the freeze-dried figs from Trader Joe’s? Because I did last night, and they’re DELICIOUS. I think it would be fun to dip them into a whipped goat cheese, like a decadent take on chips and cheese dip.
Postcard from Camp Gaylore. What is Camp Gaylore you might ask? Well, it was the first IRL summit of Gaylors, the powerful subsect of Taylor Swift fans who believe she has been leaving breadcrumbs hinting at her queerness for years in her music and live shows. For Cosmopolitan, journalist Frankie de la Cretaz attended the summit — which featured “hours of presentations and deep-dive analyses” — and documented the intimate queer space and experience. They bring their own personal narrative to the piece, adding an extra layer. Here’s a sample:
I didn’t travel far to get here, but I’ve come a long way. Four summers ago, I left my marriage to a straight man, right around the time Taylor released Lover. I had a passing familiarity with her oeuvre but didn’t consider myself much of a fan. I was crashing with friends—a lesbian couple—while searching for a new home and striving to create a more openly queer life for myself. With its pastel cover and pro-LGBTQ+ anthem “You Need to Calm Down,” Lover got a ton of airplay in that two-bedroom apartment. And the breakup songs—“Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “I Forgot That You Existed”—certainly spoke to me. But given everything I was going through, Taylor’s music felt like little more than a fluffy distraction.
I found the piece interesting, even just as a casual observer of Gaylor fandom and not someone who’s all in (anymore…I may have had a brief phase). But the fascinating thing about this summit and this fandom is that…it’s almost not even about Taylor Swift. Anyway, a good read!
The Queer Progressives Helping to Pull Louisiana to the Left. If you’re going to talk a lot about the fucked-up things happening in the South, you also have to talk about the resistance to those fucked-up things imo.
On that note:
G Flip Dishes on New Album ‘Drummer’ and Bringing Nonbinary Representation to ‘Selling Sunset’.
Veterans Discharged Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Are Still Fighting for Justice — And Benefits.
The Confusing State of Legal Challenges to Bans on Transgender Healthcare.
This Vibrant Photo Series Celebrates Black Queer Joy At Carnival.
I feel like we know this, and yet we should still SAY IT, obviously: If Corporations Bore the True Cost of Their Emissions, They’d Owe Trillions.
How Disabled People Are Left Behind in Climate Disasters.
On gun violence: Violence Is Coming? Sorry, It’s Already Here—and Getting Worse.
Found this one interesting as a born and raised Virginian: This Year’s Most Bruising Political Battle Will Be in Virginia.
How Abortion Is Set To Shape the Kentucky Governor’s Race.
Have I been including a lot of seasonal poems because I have melancholy about the lack of seasons where I live? MAYBE SO.
As some of you may know, I’m based in Florida, so my partner and I have been busy with storm prep. We live pretty far inland though, so we shouldn’t get the worst of it. Still, I appreciate any and all thoughts for all the people who will be affected by Idalia, especially on the west coast of the state which is still recovering from last year’s storms.
Music to my gay ears: Bottoms Director Emma Seligman Wants to See “Shitty Gay Characters.” Same!!!! Give me your unlikable dykes, your chaotic queers, your messy gays!!!!! Emma Seligman — director and co-writer of the new queerleader teen sex comedy Bottoms — spoke with Them about the movie and queer representation. “The only queer teen representation I’d seen on screen had been very tame and sweet, and I just wanted to see shitty gay characters,” she tells Them. “I wanted to make something gay and stupid and not have it be so serious. Also, I wanted to make a hero story. Something with fighting and edginess. Something kind of unexpected.”
Sign me up!!!!! Bottoms doesn’t hit my local independent movie theater (shoutout to the Enzian in Maitland!!!) until Friday when the movie releases more widely around the country, but you better believe I already have tickets. I’ll also be reviewing the movie as Autostraddle’s premiere Queerleader expert.
I found this advice column fascinating: I’m A Straight Girl But I Keep Fantasising About MILFs.
Queer History Was Made in ’90s Clubs. These Fliers Captured It. I need to check out the book this feature is about!
Clickbait Conquered Rap Journalism — Megan Thee Stallion Paid the Price.
After Decades of Declines, Lesbian Bars Are Having a Renaissance. (As a side note, the only lesbian bar in FL is in one of the counties currently under a state of emergency for the incoming storm, so let’s keep them in our thoughts, too!)
Hot Union Summer Continues With the Nation’s Only Unionized Strip Club.
Police Have “Strong Leads” Into the Mass Shooting at a Minneapolis Queer Punk House.
A few stories on ongoing transphobic legislation around the country:
The Mystery of Long COVID Is Just the Beginning.
The latest climate crisis horror story: It’s Getting Too Hot for Tropical Trees to Photosynthesize, Scientists Warn.
The War Within the Young Republican Party. This is a followup story to the one I linked a couple weeks ago about a journalist going undercover in the alt-right movement.
A fitting poem for hurricane season:
feature image photo by Marcia Fernandes / 500px via Getty Images
I’m in New York this week, and it is a welcome reprieve from the intolerable heat in central FL right now!!! Especially now that I’m a person who gets “cold” when it’s 75 degrees! I’m wearing a light jacket right now! Feels incredible!
How Queer People Reinvented the Beach. There are some things queer people just do best, and one of those things is BEACH. You might even say…our job is beach. In all seriousness, I enjoyed this feature story at Them about queer folks (re)claiming beaches and carving out community spaces at the shore. From the piece:
Beaches have always struck at the core of this queer understanding of place. In an era in which our only other gathering spaces were usually bars, often with darkened windows to keep police and onlookers alike from seeing inside, the beach was a luxurious reprieve.
Florida’s New Anti-Trans Rule Threatens Jobs of College Faculty For Bathroom Use.
Texas High School Students Subjected to Anti-LGBTQ+ Anti-Abortion Protest.
A win for now: Judge Blocks Georgia’s Gender-Affirming Care Ban.
The Unique Joys and Challenges of Queer Disabled Relationships.
Postcards From Tulsa: A Reporter’s Reflections on the 102nd Anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre.
I have not hopped on the Bama Rush spectator train, but I found this to be a very compelling read: In Alabama, White Tide Rushes On.
The entire Eater Low & Slow series (a collaboration between Eater and the Disability Visibility Project) has been really great! Check out this recent entry: ‘Depression Cooking Zine’ Is a Reminder That Sometimes Eating Is an Accomplishment
Republicans’ Border Policy Proposals Are Sadistic and Would Lead to Chaos.
Climate crisis denial ran rampant at the Republican debate last night. Take a look: The Scariest Lie at the GOP Debate Wasn’t About Donald Trump.
In honor of the fact that I will indeed be walking in Greenpoint in late August tomorrow:
feature image photo via @mountainprovisionscooperative/Instagram
I swam in the ocean yesterday, and I’m feeling it in my entire body today.
Laura Ann Carleton, a California Shop Owner, Was Killed Over Her Store’s Pride Flag. Laura Ann Carleton, a shop owner in the San Bernadino mountains who was a proud LGBTQ+ ally, was shot and killed by a man who reportedly made “disparaging remarks” about the rainbow Pride flag she had up in her store. Carleton did not identify as LGBTQ+ herself, but her daughter Ari told the New York Times that she died “defending something that was so important to her.” According to Ari, her mother had just ordered a new Pride flag as the old one was starting to fade.
This is NOT THE MOVE: At the Swimming World Cup, Trans Women Will Be Made to Compete In a Special Category.
On that note: I Asked ChatGPT to Write an Article About Trans Athletes. It Didn’t Go Well.
I’ll say it before, and I’ll say it a million more times: A lot of librarians are fighting the good fight in the ongoing culture wars. Find ways to support them. A Wyoming Librarian Was Fired for Refusing to Remove LGBTQ+ Books From the Shelves.
Several Virginia School Districts Simply Said No to Implementing Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies. A reminder that you can simply say no!
Let’s end this section with something to celebrate:
Sha’Carri Richardson has won the 100M Final: pic.twitter.com/5QzcOVjQw3
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 21, 2023
Many States Don’t Require Schools to Teach Sex Ed. A New Bill Would Change That.
The WGA and AMPTP Are Meeting Again This Week. Have you read Carmen Phillips’ queer syllabus for the strikes?
Undercover With the New Alt-Right. A reporter went undercover for 11 months pretending to be a far-right extremist, and this resulting story is, as you might expect, disturbing.
@BooksForMaui is an ongoing literary auction to raise funds for families on Maui, and the auction is now live.
A poem by one of my favorite poets:
feature image of Kat Shevil Gillham via Kat’s Instagram
It was a chocolate croissant morning for me. I hope you get a sweet treat today, too. Maybe a creamsicle?
How the UK’s Metal Scene Became a Haven for Trans People. I’m absolutely obsessed with this feature in The Nation about trans icons in the metal music scene in the UK during a time of brutal and widespread transphobia in the region. “It is so awesome to see more trans metalheads and musicians than ever before who are out, open, and proud,” says metal and punk underground rockstar and transwoman Kat Shevil Gillham. “That was unthinkable 20 years or so ago!” I also love this gorgeous missive from the feature: “Metal opens space for the language of the brutal as beautiful…” Trans people are indeed metal af.
*This next one is tough, especially following that celebration of trans music scene joy and progress, so if you need to skip past this, do what is best for you and scroll past the three-asterisk break.*
On last week’s mass shooting in Minneapolis: Nudieland, a Haven for Queer and Trans Punks, Shattered by Hate-Fueled Mass Shooting.
Extremely disheartening news: Chess Regulator Effectively Bans Trans Women from Competitive Play for Two Years: ‘These Are Dark Days’.
Visiting a Shrine to Walter Mercado at a Puerto Rican Mall. Loved this, by the incomparable Edgar Gomez!
How L.A.’s Young, Queer Latinos Are Redefining Gender Roles.
As Its Workers Move to Unionize, Grindr Unveils a Strict Return-to-Office Policy.
Idaho’s Teacher of the Year Left the State After Right Wing Harassment.
California School District Will Make Staff Out Trans Students to Their Parents. Listen, this is very bad. I don’t want this to be happening anywhere. But if you think that these policies are limited to places like Texas, Florida, the South in general, etc., then you’re not doing enough critical thinking. Everything happening in Florida can and will start to happen everywhere else. Pay attention.
On the topic of students:
Mifepristone access is in danger: Abortion Pill Case Moves One Step Closer to Anti-Choice Supreme Court.
The Sriracha Shortage Is a Very Bad Sign. I know it can be a bummer that pretty much every iteration of AAA includes something about the climate crisis, but it is CONSTANTLY ON MY MIND :/
How ‘Meghann Thee Reporter’ Became the Go-To Source for Information on the Tory Lanez Trial. Support independent journalists!
Should I just rename this section of AAA “Roasting Ron DeSantis”? Why Ron DeSantis’ Campaign for President Is Imploding.
I’m continuing to cope with August by reading poems about August.
feature image photo by Drew Angerer / Staff via Getty Images
It’s so hot outside I could scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Big Trump Indictment Volume Four news: Trump and 18 Allies Charged With Racketeering in Most Sweeping Indictment Yet. The charges come from Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act), most commonly used to target organized crime groups. The indictment — Trump’s fourth — comprises 41 counts and goes after a lot of top Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani. Trump faces 13 criminal counts in the indictment.
Some more updates on the Maui wildfires:
Women Farmers Were Discriminated Against. Now They’re Owed Compensation.
Outdoor Workers Are Climate Victims.
A ‘Frozen War’ in Europe Threatens Sex, Abortion and LGBTQ Rights.
New Study Finds 47% of LGBTQ People Experience Medical Gaslighting.
Baylor University Is No Longer Required to Protect Queer Students From Sexual Harassment.
If you’re in or around Philly, here’s a new art exhibition to check out: ‘They Don’t Come with Rules’: David Antonio Cruz Celebrates Queer Chosen Families.
Jenn Shapland on the Need for “Thin Skin.”Jenn Shapland, the award-winning author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers has a new book out today called Thin Skin. Stay tuned for an exclusive excerpt from the book later today and a review by Stef Rubino tomorrow.
Meet the Woman Who Disrupted DeSantis’ Iowa State Fair Visit.
As well as a headline I love: Ron DeSantis Did Not Have a Good Weekend.
Poetry: Three Poems by Chen Chen. I’m obsessed with all three of these poems, and now you can be, too.
feature image photo by Roy Rochlin / Contributor via Getty Images
The heat index in central Florida is off the charts today. Stay safe and cool wherever you are.
Billy Porter Says He’s Selling His House Because of the Hollywood Strikes. As the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes continue, folks are feeling the financial impact — including huge stars like Billy Porter, who is selling his house as a result. “I have to sell my house,” Billy Porter said. “Yeah! Because we’re on strike. And I don’t know when we’re gonna go back. The life of an artist, until you make fuck-you money — which I haven’t made yet — is still check-to-check.” He continued: “So to the person who said, ‘We’re going to starve them out until they have to sell their apartments’ — you’ve already starved me out.” Porter almost has an EGOT (he’s only missing the Oscar), but the business of acting is so precarious that even he is significantly impacted by the financial constraints of the industry. FAIR CONTRACTS NOW.
Trans Subtext Can Be Powerful. Trans Characters Are Even Better. This is written by Charlie Jane Anders, who we interviewed about trans speculative fiction last year!
The Red Cross Says Its New Blood Donor Policy Is More LGBTQ+ Inclusive. Is It?
‘It’s Magical’: Queer Country Line Dancing Makes a Comeback in San Francisco.
Look Back to Look Forward with These 8 Queer Historical Comics.
School is almost back in session in Florida, and here’s what LGBTQ+ students are facing: Florida Schools Try to Adapt to New Rules on Gender, Bathrooms and Pronouns.
At Least 36 Killed in Maui Wildfires: Hawaii Live Updates.
The wildfires in Maui are devastating and heartbreaking. Learn more about efforts to raise funds and mutual aid to support Maui in the Instagram posts below. A spreadsheet of mutual aid resources has also been compiled and is a living document being updated periodically.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvvkcB-P08_/
And for more info on the conditions and contexts fueling these fires: What’s Driving Maui’s Devastating Fires, and How Climate Change Is Fueling Those Conditions.
More news from around the world:
Tory Lanez Sentenced to 10 Years for Megan Thee Stallion Shooting.
Britain’s Hot New Import From America: The Climate Culture Wars.
Climate change. Impacts. Everything!!!!!!! Extreme Heat Could Impact the Effectiveness of Birth Control and Pregnancy Tests.
109-Year-Old Tulsa Massacre Survivor Becomes Oldest Woman in the World to Release a Memoir.
How Blue States Are Fighting for Voting Rights When Washington Doesn’t.
How Ohio Voters Defeated an Effort to Thwart Abortion Rights.
On the topic of abortion, I’ve been really interested in reading things about art and literature as it pertains to ongoing attacks on abortion rights and reproductive justice, like: Writing Characters in a World After the Repeal of Roe v. Wade.
Poem time!
feature image photo by Catherine McGann / Contributor via Getty Images
I spent the weekend reuniting with some friends in Philly, and it was so restorative <3.
Paris Is Burning Icon Carmen Xtravaganza Passes Away At 62. House of Xtravaganza, which ballroom icon and trans activist Carmen Xtravaganza joined in the early 80s, announced Carmen’s passing early this weekend. The tribute posted on Instagram chronicles many of her major accomplishments, including the groundbreaking Village Voice cover story she was featured in in 1988, which was the first mainstream media coverage of NYC ballroom. Carmen famously made a very memorable appearance in Paris Is Burning, but her legacy of course is about so much more than that film. She founded a Spanish chapter of House of Xtravaganza, and she was inducted into the Ballroom Hall of Fame in 1999. As she stated in a 2013 interview with TransGriot, she often called for coalitions between ballroom spaces and trans activism spaces. Last month, Carmen posted on Facebook about her stage four cancer.
Revisit her indelible Paris Is Burning moment:
Revisit her appearance in the 2005 documentary How Do I Look:
Revisit the aforementioned Village Voice cover story:
Rest In Power, Carmen Xtravaganza
A legendary figure in ballroom and in nightlife internationally. In 1988, ballroom was covered in mainstream media for the first time in Village Voice: Carmen’s face fronted that issue. https://t.co/JfdEc1QGhK pic.twitter.com/5qKX7KI4I4
— Mikelle Street (@MikelleStreet) August 5, 2023
This was published back in June, but it’s worth revisiting: From Underground Subculture to Global Phenomenon: An Oral History of Ballroom Within Mainstream Culture. And a related retrospective read: The Historic, Mainstream Appropriation of Ballroom Culture.
Black Trans Activist Dominique Morgan Just Had an Omaha Street Named in Her Honor.
A Family Caught Up in Missouri’s Fight over Transgender Issues Moves Out of State.
In another blow to trans rights in sports: British Rowing Bans Transgender Athletes in Women’s Races.
Becoming Others: Enacting the Transness of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.
As a Trans Woman Sailing Around the World, Storms Are the Least of Her Worries.
The Steamiest Romance Novels Written By Black Authors.
While we’re on the literature beat: Dear Pulitzer Prizes: It’s Time to Recognize Literature by Noncitizens.
The FDA Has Approved the First-Ever Pill for Postpartum Depression.
DeSantis’s AP Psychology Ban: The “Don’t Say Gay” Successor You Were Warned About.
House Republicans Are Adding Dozens of Anti-LGBTQ+ Measures to Must-Pass Bills.
I enjoyed this political cartoon from The Nation, even though it’s a bummer! I Scream.
And now, a poem:
feature image via Sage O. Dumure Versailles/Facebook
Rest in power O’Shae Sibley.
O’Shae Sibley, a Beloved Dancer, Killed After Vogueing at Brooklyn Gas Station. O’Shae Sibley, a 28-year old gay Black dancer, was listening and vogueing to Beyoncé while pumping gas when a group of homophobic men approached and started using slurs and threatening O’Shae and his friend. One of the men stabbed O’Shae, murdering him for daring to live in all his queer Black joy and self-expression. Autostraddle Editor in Chief Carmen Phillips wrote a gutting reflection on O’Shae’s life and the fact that even in an era when vogueing has entered mainstream culture, it still isn’t safe for Black queer folks to be themselves and express joy. O’Shae deserved joy; O’Shae’s deserved to dance.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvb23qzu_nu/?img_index=1
Black Trans Liberation has organized an emergency action this Friday in the form of a memorial ball at the Mobil gas station in Brooklyn. Details can be found on Instagram:
Beyoncé Honors O’Shae Sibley, Gay Man Killed Voguing to Her Song. Words from O’Shae’s aunt in this piece: “O’Shae has always been a peacemaker. All he wanted to do was dance.”
‘A Utopia Is Possible’: These World-Making Photos Envision a Queer Future.
Authors Like Me Are Fighting the Book-Ban Zealots. We Need Help.
Essay: How One L.A. Club Became a Sanctuary for Queer Latinos.
This Instagram Account Spotlights Lesbian and Queer Fashion.
The Ultimatum’s Mal Wright Can See Your Thirsty DMs. Everybody Calm Down. TBH one of my main takeaways from this profile of Mal Wright from The Ultimatum: Queer Love was: maybe don’t send thirsty DMs to a real person who you don’t actually know! I get thirsting over reality stars (and, I definitely understand the specific appeal of Mal!), but it’s one thing to fangay on the sidelines and another entirely to take it to the DMs. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I really do love hearing about Mal’s experiences in their own candid words.
Is Barbie Peak White Feminism? Does It Even Matter? My pal Jourdain wrote this, and it’s super smart!
‘No Better Present’: Henrietta Lacks’ Family Celebrates Historic Settlement over Stolen Cells.
Dawnie Walton on American Concert Culture and the Summer of Love or Hate.
Read the First Reviews of Every James Baldwin Novel.
Atlanta Officials Push to Build Cop City Without a Public Vote.
Yesterday was James Baldwin’s birthday.
Hello from the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, where I am currently a writer in residence! I love being surrounded by brilliant gay writers!!!!!!!!
Them launched a new series called TransGenerational: Trans Lives Across Time, and it includes seven interviews with trans elders. One of the interviews is with actor Lea Robinson, who plays the beloved Uncle Bertie in A League of Their Own: “Beyond Anything I Could Imagine:” Lea Robinson on the Joy of Bringing Black Trans Lives to the Small Screen. “I know there are elders in my life who have been there and done it. I thought of myself in the middle ground, but Bertie’s definitely an elder,” Lea tells Them. “Bertie has paved the way, someone who has knowledge and love to give. And now I feel a responsibility to keep that way paved, whatever that looks like.” I love this quote from the interview as well:
“I’m very proud to be a trans person — to be all of my intersecting identities, my race and gender being a few of them. I’m proud to get up, to be visible, to be vocal. It’s powerful. It hasn’t always been that way. There’s been fear. When I was much younger, there was some shame and confusion. I didn’t have the resources around me. I didn’t know anyone who looked like me or sounded like me or lived like me. But that’s where I am now, and I’m very grateful for that.”
Two Texas School Teachers Were Fired After Attending a Drag Show.
‘Lesbians Did Not Exist’: Growing Up Gay in Russia.
LGBTQ Asylum Seekers Fleeing Violence in Africa Are Sleeping on Canada’s Streets.
I know the word “included” is used in this headline, but make no mistake: This decision does not directly confront the fact that trans athletes are being excluded from major sporting events. Creating a new category of competition is NOT it! But to catch up on the latest decision by a major sports governing body, read: Trans Swimmers to Be Included in an ‘Open Category’ at Competitions, World Aquatics Says.
Credit Hurdles for Transgender and Nonbinary People Could Be Cleared Under Proposed Bill.
A chat on anti-gay violence in 1990s NYC, true crime, and the docuseries Last Call: ‘We Can Choose to Not Create More Damage’.
How Many Margaritas Does It Take to Write a Queer-Affirming Bop?
For Years, the FBI Investigated Manhattan Project Workers for Being Lesbians. I gotta say, I didn’t expect there to be a lesbian angle to Oppenheimer, but here we are.
The Future of Design Is Designing for Disability.
And more reading on disability (in)justice: Senator Duckworth Took Her Daughters to See ‘Barbie.’ Because She Uses a Wheelchair, She Had to Wait Outside.
Learn more about long COVID: Fatigue Can Shatter a Person.
Hollywood’s Fight Against A.I. Will Affect Us All.
Voting Rights Are Still Under Assault. Sen. Raphael Warnock Has a New Plan to Protect Them.
And now, a poem.
feature image photo by Maskot via Getty Images
I went bowling yesterday, and I bowled a turkey!!!! We played several games, and my highest score was 168, which I tried SO HARD TO BEAT but ended up matching in a later game. Next time, I’ll get that 169 (nice).
Come Join the Party! Lessons from Visiting Every Gay and Lesbian Bar in the Country. I was delighted by this conversation in Lit Hub between two different queer writers who traveled all over the country to visit LGBTQ+ bars for their respective book projects. It includes Krista Burton, who wrote Moby Dyke, and Greggor Mattson, who wrote Who Needs Gay Bars?: Bar-Hopping Through America’s Endangered LGBTQ+ Places. Mattson traveled 10,000 miles for the book, visiting 300 queer bars in 39 states. Burton specifically visited every remaining lesbian bar in the U.S. The convo gets into not just the positive aspects of queer bars but the negative parts as well, Mattson particularly aware of the racism, misogyny, and transphobia that can exist in these spaces. While she says she liked every place she visited, Burton specified the following watering holes as some of her favorite dyke bars throughout her travels: The Back Door in Bloomington, IN; Herz in Mobile, AL (which has closed 😩); Sue Ellen’s in Dallas; Alibi’s in Oklahoma City. I myself recently visited a new lesbian bar in Largo, Florida — the only one in the state!
Chicago’s Labor Movement Is Looking Very Queer These Days. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Queer resistance and the labor movement go hand in hand!
Ts Madison and Angelica Ross Are Calling Out a Comedian’s Transphobic Rant.
Keke Palmer Reminds People That Yes, She’s Queer. WHO ARE PEOPLE? WHO FORGETS THIS?
This is unconventional as it’s a throwback piece, but I think in the wake of the tragic death of Sinead O’Connor that this 2021 NYT profile is a necessary read: Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently. Also read The New Republic‘s piece from yesterday: The Iconic Moment Sinead O’Connor Was Banned From SNL for Calling Out the Pope.
Suddenly Everyone Wants Allan. I’m actually very interested in the Allanaissance. Related: An Ode to Allan, The Quietly Queer Heart of Barbie.
Get your daily dose of serotonin: Lesbian-Owned Doggy Daycare Cultivates Community.
It’s still Disability Pride Month! Read these gems:
The Creators of Florida’s Black History Standards Get an F on Their Homework.
The show didn’t give me nightmares, but THIS WILL: “The Last of Us” Is Fictional, but Scary Fungi Are Real.
How Student Loan Debt Has Fueled the Pay Gap for Black Women.
The Rich History and Underestimated Political Clout of the Black Working Class.
You know what time it is!!!!! Poem o’clock.
Also, this is simply way too goofy of a topic and headline to actually include in the regular sections of Also.Also.Also, but I do personally just have to give a shoutout to bisexual Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix for her surprise appearance on Love Island USA: ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star Ariana Madix Enters ‘Love Island USA’ Villa To “Deliver The Drama” & Gets Slow-Mo Bombshell Treatment. I hope to one day get a slow-mo bombshell treatment.
It is my first summer in central Florida, and I was not prepared for it to be HOTTER than South Florida! That ocean breeze was doing the WORK, and I miss her!!!! Hope you’re staying cool wherever you are!
How the Indigo Girls Brought Barbie ‘Closer to Fine’. Raise your hand if you screamed for EVERY needledrop of “Closer to Fine” in Barbie! I really enjoyed this story about the cultural legacy of the hit song but also the long history of the Indigo Girls being mocked and disparaged for being lesbians. The band has been forced into this space of being synonymous with a specific brand of stereotypical lesbianism, a lazy joke told far too often. The song’s prominence in Barbie indeed feels like vindication for longtime fans of their music. “You don’t imagine a folk lesbian duo to be in this hot-pink Barbie movie,” comedian and Indigo Girls superfan Tig Notaro told the New York Times. “Kind of just selfishly and personally, I feel like, ‘Yeah, we were onto something all these years,’ you know? It’s validating. Obviously it’s been a huge hit forever, but this is so next level.”
More queer music gems: Boygenius Make Me Feel Like a Queer Teen Again.
I’ve never clicked something faster: I Was a Lesbian Club Promoter in 90s Soho.
They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired. Librarians are at the forefront of the current culture wars!!!!! You should look into seeing how to support your local libraries in these times, especially if your library hosts drag story others or other programming that might require counter measures to right-wing protesting. The way this community in California rose up in the face of an attempted protest against LGBTQ+ books is inspiring.
Grindr Employees Launch Union Drive Amid Tech Layoffs and Anti-LGBT Attacks.
Twitter Claims It’s Combating Hate Speech. But Evidence Says Otherwise.
How the ADA Paved the Way for Workplace Protections for Women and LGBTQ+ People.
Transphobia in New Zealand is Making the Shift From Online to Real Life.
An important read for today, July 25: A Dreadful Anniversary: Puerto Rico Has Been a U.S. Colony for 125 Years Now.
How NZ’s Strippers Collectivised Against Allegations of Bullying And Harassment At Work.
The Brave, Often Lonely Fight of Trans Lawmakers in State Legislatures.
A Chen Chen poem for you!
feature image photo by Simona Granati – Corbis / Contributor via Getty Images
Sorry this is a bit of a downer today!!!!!! Go outside, eat a popsicle or another sweet treat, and do something nice for yourself today, that’s my Thursday advice for you!!!!
Italy Begins Stripping Lesbian Mothers of Their Parental Rights. I hesitated to make this the lead story today, because every times I read about it or think about it, it fills me with overwhelming despair. I’ve been thinking a lot about lesbian motherhood, pregnancy, family, what my own future might hold, what my options might be. But if this news is stirring something in me, I should listen to it, not push it down, so I finally landed on leading AAA with it. Some context leading up to this moment: Back in March, Italy’s new right-wing leadership under prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s announced it would be stripping parental rights for same-sex couples. Access to starting a family for queer parents is already strictly limited in the country: Same-sex couples cannot adopt; surrogacy is illegal; IVF is only available to straight couples. Some LGBTQ+ couples travel out of country to seek fertility treatments. In this latest crackdown, queer parents who are not the biological parent of the child will be removed from their children’s birth certificates. It took me so long to just type out that sentence. Italian law officially does not recognize the possibility of a child having two mothers. In the city of Padua, 27 parents have been notified they would be erased from their children’s birth certifications, and other families in Milan, Florence, and Fiumicino have received similar letters, though the mayor of Padua is going against government orders and still issuing birth certificates to two-mom families. I’ll be clinging to any and all stories of resistance on this front.
More dispatches from abroad, this one from Hungary: A Bookstore Got Fined For Selling Heartstopper.
How Solitary Confinement Is Used as a Weapon Against Trans People.
Montana City Allegedly Withholds Pride Parade Permits over Anti-drag Law, Lawsuit Says.
Okay, let’s transition into some more uplifting stuff:
Mikki Kendall Remembers the Indelible Work and Full Complexity of bell hooks.
Stonewall Veteran Miss Major Is on the Road, Urging Trans People to ‘Stand Up and Fight’.
Meet Four Queer Artists Helping to Shake Up Country Music. And then read Em Win’s piece for Autostraddle’s Pride package about EIGHT queer artists shaking up country music 🥰
How Fannie Lou Hamer’s Disability Informed Her Fight for Voting Rights.
https://twitter.com/bekah_soul/status/1681754931701731335?s=12&t=NPXnc512YlmS4m4rQrPusw
Hollywood Bosses Are Trying to Scare Striking Workers Into Folding. They Won’t Win. My buddy Josh wrote this, and it’s a really excellent primer on the two simultaneous strikes happening right now, but I especially love that it ends on a note of steadfast solidarity, hope, and determination in the face of the AMPTP’s bullshit.
Speaking of the strikes, is anyone else following this tree-cutting saga?! Universal really proved themselves to be CARTOON VILLAINS: SAG Files Unfair Labor Practice Against Universal After it Trimmed Trees on Picket Line Without a Permit.
The Humiliation of Ron DeSantis.
A poem for you:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnSwoLtIfws/
feature image of Sarah Schulman by Arturo Holmes / Staff via Getty Images
I JUST GOT MY BARBIE TICKETS I’M SO EXCITED!!!! 🎀 Also, I really want to watch a movie tonight — what movie should I watch? Preferably something that came out in the past year.
Gentrification of the Mind: Revisiting Sarah Schulman’s Book on NYC’s Queer History and Community. In an interview with Teen Vogue, iconic lesbian author and thinker Sarah Schulman talks about the ongoing relevance of her book The Gentrification of the Mind, but even more interesting are the parts of the interview about just how hard it was to get this book out in the world at all — a symptom of some of the systems of homogenization the book itself critiques. It took her a decade to get it published, and she also had to remove a chapter (which eventually went on to become its own book). Schulman talks about the evolution of gentrification, why we should all be reading queer history, the fact that we need to be TAXING THE RICH, and the problems with MFA programs. She also zeroes in on the importance of engaging with the history of queer literature to undo assumptions about the literary canon then and now, which I personally find very interesting! I do want to push back a little bit on the lines she draws between her generation and now, particularly when it comes to the idea of her generation growing up in the context of illegality, which I believe is still true for trans queer folks, which seems missing from that analysis, but it’s a short magazine interview so I understand it’s not going to cover everything fully!
This Florida Activist Makes “Build-a-Queer” Kits for Trans Folks. He Won’t Let DeSantis Scare Him.
Chongis Have Always Been Queer: 6 Miamians on What the South Florida Subculture Means to Them. Looooved this for a lot of reasons! If you’re gonna cover the fucked up shit happening in Florida, you also should be balancing it out with LGBTQ+ stories of resistance like the above and human-interests stories, like this one, which celebrates queer and trans chongi culture and aesthetics in South Florida. I loved these words from Christina Abanto, a nail technician who contributed to the piece:
“Despite the current sociopolitical climate of South Florida, specifically attempts to censor and erase queer culture and to control our bodies, it’s important to note that we are still here. Chongi culture isn’t a caricature. It’s who we are. It’s the art, the history, and the embodiment of our aesthetics. It’s the confidence and audacity to be who we are despite what others may try to do to take it away from us.”
How Queer Restaurants Keep Their Money In Their Community.
How the Complicated Tank Top Became the Unofficial Queer Going-Out Top. As a complicated bottom, I appreciate a complicated top, but I prefer my tank tops simple tyvm.
Hair Care Company Bans Transphobic Salon Owner From Selling Their Products.
The FDA Just Approved the First-Ever Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill in the United States.
Why Regency Romance Needs to Give Its Characters of Color Greater Agency.
I know we all saw this coming but 😩: A Texas Judge Is Citing the Supreme Court’s 303 Creative Decision to Refuse Same-Sex Marriages.
Shield Laws for Abortion, Gender-Affirming Care Need Better Protections Against Extradition.
I like ending these with a poem, so I’m going to keep doing it!
Also, this is all I have to say about the “girl dinner” discourse:
girl dinner? oh do you mean the show yellowjackets
— Kristen Arnett (@Kristen_Arnett) July 17, 2023
feature image by SBenitez via Getty Images
Supreme Court’s Anti-LGBTQ Ruling Has Already Incited Discrimination. A hair salon in Traverse City, Michigan, which is not far from where my mother grew up, is explicitly forbidding anyone from seeking services at the salon who doesn’t identify as a man or a woman. Be warned: The language used by this bigoted salon owner that’s quoted in the piece is very queerphobic, transphobic, and full of harmful lies about the LGBTQ+ community. But the final paragraph is exquisite:
“While Geiger purports to have concern over the safety of children and stability of society, she herself has in the past actually and repeatedly flouted those concerns. In 2009, for instance, the hair salon owner was charged with third-offense drunken driving and second-offense operating a vehicle with a suspended license; records had shown her driving drunk twice the previous year. In 2021, 13,384 people died in drunk driving-related incidents. No one has died as a result of an LGBTQ person getting a haircut.”
Trans-Inclusive Barbie Photo Series: ‘The Parts Don’t Matter’.
This Is How I Navigate Pleasure As A Black Asexual Person.
These Students Are Switching Schools Based on the State’s Anti-LGBTQ Policies.
New Lesbian Bars Spark Hope Amid Disappearing LGBTQ+ Spaces.
Soccer Gays, let’s go: USWNT’s Kelley O’Hara on Her ‘Special’ Year Getting Engaged and Making Her 4th World Cup Team.
Brittani Nichols’ words on being nominated for an Emmy in the midst of the current Writers Strike are necessary reading:
https://twitter.com/BisHilarious/status/1679158279652651009
Doing the Work While Doing the Work. “How can social justice organizations prioritize mental health issues while finding ways for their staff and members to stay in solidarity with each other?”
What Does It Mean If You’re Dreaming About Being Chased? I’ve been loving The Cut‘s ongoing series about dream interpretation, which often taps Autostraddle contributor Autumn Fourkiller for expertise.
How the Negro Leagues Shaped Modern Baseball. The in-depth review of the new documentary The League knocks it out of the park.
Liberal LA Has Become an Epicenter of Violent Culture Wars. Here’s How.
The Importance of Staying Angry at the Supreme Court.
What if I just start putting poems here?