I hope you don’t mind, but this evening’s round up is going to be a little quick and dirty (do we still do “That’s What She Said”?) because today has been long, I have probably another hour’s worth of work to do, and I am starving! So!
Here we go, off to the races!
Queer as in F*ck You
‘I Worry I’m Not ‘Gay Enough’’. I recently learned that the entire senior staff loves J.P. Brammer’s writing (yours included!) and now you can, too! This one is all about how people living their fake best lives online should not keep you from feeling inadequate because you are living your very real, even if quieter, gay life IRL. (and if queer advice is your thing, please remember we have an entire You Need Help column right here at Autostraddle, just for your enjoyment!)
Meet Amy Paris, the Trans Woman Working Quietly at the White House to Better LGBTQ+ Lives. Amy Paris is the highest ranking trans official working at the White House, and I had never heard of her until now!
Emma Corrin on Fluidity, Fun, and Dressing Up to Stand Out. “In my mind, gender just isn’t something that feels fixed…and I don’t know if it ever will be”
Raven’s Home Makes History With Disney Channel’s 1st Trans Character
I could not find a corresponding article for this one, so you get it right from the tweet!
Huge! The Episcopal Church has officially adopted that gender affirming care is a matter of religious liberty.
It affirms that access to gender affirming care should be available to all people if they desire it.
It also resolves to support policies in favor of protecting it. pic.twitter.com/xZTU2b3Fw6
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) July 12, 2022
Understanding the Different Rules and Policies for Transgender Athletes. “Between statewide bans and international sports groups policies, there’s a lot to sort through when it comes to trans athletes’ participation in sports.”
And if you didn’t see this incredibly moving moment from the WNBA All Star Game on Sunday: Brittney Griner Is Honored by Her Fellow Players at the WNBA All-Star Game, “We are not going to stop until everyone understands how serious this really is.”
Every player in the #WNBAAllStar Game came out to start the second half in Brittney Griner's No. 42 jersey. pic.twitter.com/SOu4KkE0qh
— ESPN (@espn) July 10, 2022
Saw This, Thought of You
Crying, Shaking, Throwing Up: Quinta Brunson & Abbott Elementary Are Emmy-Nominated!!! Nothing but respect for my queen.
Why Don’t “Size-Inclusive” Brands Carry Plus Sizes In Stores? This pisses me off every time.
The Challenging Road Ahead for Abortion Funds. I’ve posted a lot about abortion funds, so I also want to make sure we cover this too.
Political Snacks
Police are on track to kill more people this year than last year. And for comparison, last year was one of the worst years on record.
AOC Calls on Senate to Formally Say If Supreme Court Justices Lied About “Roe” “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the Senate to clarify whether or not Supreme Court Justices lied about being willing to preserve the precedent set by Roe, saying, ‘We cannot have a system where Justices lie about their views in order to get confirmed.'” And as with many things, AOC is not wrong.
And speaking of which!! THIS PART. Joe Biden’s Dobbs Response Has Been Breathtakingly Awful. “Why can’t the president show some fight?”
Actually, Biden’s response is what I expect for a moderate. He has to tread carefully. Anything he does can be taken to court and then what? There’s a permanent ban. This is not something we can EO out of – we need more bodies in the Senate and we need to retain the house. The seats we can gain are all pro-choice. We will abolish the filibuster. It will codify into law. If you don’t vote because you think Biden’s not doing enough – wait until reality hits you and it’s Nazi Germany all over agin.
I lost family during the holocaust. I heard stories growing up about my grandparents creating a false wall and hiding spot in my childhood home in case the Nazi’s made it to PA so they had somewhere to hide. This is not the time to sow division. Complain, sure, but people listen to this rhetoric and turn away with apathy. Apathy = horror. Apathy in 2016 got us in this mess. Apathy now will end this country as we know it. That’s not outlandish. It will happen if we let them win by sowing division.
L.o.l. You say this as Biden prepares to nominate a LIFETIME appointment for an anti-choice judge, and after the DNC backed and funded Henry Cuellar, an antichoice congressman over his progressive challenger. Which, Cuellar’s campaign/supporters did an eleventh hour slander of her character in the most sexist way.
Fuck this moderate bullshit. The centrists and moderates are the one who sowed division by attacking progressives, leftists, activists, feminists, etc. They ask for more fucking money and more fucking voting without any real plan, without any real numbers of what people need to do, while deriding anyone to the left of them. Not to mention, telling people who live in intensely gerrymandered, voting disenfranchised areas is not just thoughtless, it’s outright malicious. How can anyone outvote their rights being taken away?
Electoral politics will not save us. And before you scold me, I will vote as I have voted for every election since I was 18, but I have zero hope or trust that Democrats will do anything meaningful. They’ll keep bumbling us into the inevitable fascism this country is turning towards.
I too will vote as i have every election since i was 18, and even canvas for an abortion rights balllot initiative, while hating the national Dems with every fiber of my being, and knowing they will not protect us & are happy to sacrifice some of us if they are in power, and happy to sacrifice all of us to the Republicans rather than confront their denial & change their norms, and while knowing allowing Republicans to take full control of this damned nationstate & all the prisons and cops it commands will mean imprisonment, death, destruction far beyond what i think most of us can possibly imagine. being able to hold onto multiple truths and many angles, and not good/bad or us/them binaries is essential rn.
LGBTQ activists and allies keep saying Biden is weak, but if we get the red wave as well as Trump or DeSantis as president, they’ll be one step closer to kissing their rights and representation in media (especially children’s media) goodbye. This growing backlash against LGBTQ people is beginning to succeed. So Democrats and activists better fight like hell these next two years. Cause it will take years to get these rights back if they don’t.
As a “recovering” Episcopalian, I was pleasantly surprised by the action taken on gender affirming care. My hope is that it will strengthen someone’s lawsuit in TX or AL or anywhere that is restricting access.
As current (and lifelong) Queer Episcopalian, I was not surprised by the gender-affirming care resolution in the least. Trans people have been fully equal in the Episcopal Church for ten years now (and before anyone “meh’s”, how does that compare to other not-explicitly-LGBTQ institutions in the U.S. of A.? Pretty damn good!).
Y’know, ladyblanchester, you’re always welcome back! ;-)
i’m so tired of my rights being held hostage by the democratic machine and thinly veiled threats from biden stans. it’s the same machine that signed the 1994 crime bill and pushed to redirect $1.9T in covid funding towards the cops who kill kids and enforce abortion bans. biden cannot “show some fight” because he simply does not want to. he wants to police us, collect a fat check, and go out to dinner with his fascist colleagues. for generations, white moderates keep telling us /exactly/ who they are, and we should finally believe them. they don’t keep us safe. we keep us safe.
thanks for the coverage, though, carmen, i really appreciate it. the whole thing just gets me heated.
While you’re not wrong, I do wonder how the best way to keep us safe *is*. There are days where I can’t shake the feeling that it ultimately all comes down to who has the most guns.