A radiant Thursday to you, friend! You should make this sometime soon. Full disclosure, I substituted quinoa for the cauliflower rice because no, but the tofu-cooking method is a keeper. Big plans this weekend? That’s my imitation of a Trader Joe’s cashier. “Any plans this weekend?” Yes, this. You’re lookin’ at it. I got dressed, walked into this Trader Joe’s, stayed focused enough on my list that I’ve managed to get out of here in under an hour, which is a record for me, and now I’m going home with these bottles of wine that you’re bagging up. Those, sir, are my plans.
Anyway though for real, any plans?
Queer as in F*ck You
+ How Karen & the Sorrows Are Making Country More Welcoming for Queer Artists.
+ Has Queer Culture Lost Its Edge?
+ Same-Sex Marriage: Australians Have 14 Days to Enroll to Vote in Postal Plebiscite. And relatedly, Watch Penny Wong’s Powerful Speech on the Harm a Plebiscite Would Do.
+ What Happens When the Person You’re Dating Comes Out as Non-Binary.
+ Healthcare for Transgender Youth Is Taking Root in the US.
+ The WNBA’s Full Roster Will Be Included in EA’s “NBA Live 18”.
+ Take a Page From the South: A Black, Queer, Socialist Practice.
+ Serbia Is Finding Out That Electing a Lesbian Prime Minister Doesn’t End Homophobia.
+ A Lesbian Mother’s Fight for Her Right to Parent.
+ Eli (genderqueer Latinx artist in NYC) (they’ve published two photo essays with us and you loved them) has some cool prints you could buy, which would support their next photography project! Jussst letting you know.
Welcome to the Hellmouth
+ Trump’s Transgender Ban Will Cost The Military $960 Million To Implement.
+ This should be the first thing you read re: North Korea, etc: Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason: They Remember the Korean War.
+ How to Deal with North Korea.
+ Trump Administration Won’t Answer Questions About Obamacare Enrollment.
+ The DOJ Is Chipping Away at the Civil Rights Act, One Amendment at a Time.
+ Trump Administration on the Right to Vote: Use It or Lose It. Oh good, that’s not terrifying at all. Cool.
Doll Parts
+ Here is Sarah Paulson interviewing Billie Lourd.
You’d look so cute in this outfit.
+ Diverse Hiring Practices Don’t Lower The Bar For Employees, They Weed Out The Mediocre.
+ Baltimore Enlists Doulas to Help Bring Infant Mortality Rate Down.
+ Jessie Graff Is a Real Life Superhero and I Will Not Believe Otherwise.
+ ‘Kids Are Gross’: On Feminists and Agency.
+ Would you like a little oral history of the making of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”? YEAH YA WOULD.
+ Sinead O’Conner Discusses Her Mental Illness in a Tearful Facebook Video.
Keep Up
+ A Fake Starbucks Ad Is Trying to Lure DREAMers to Round Them Up for Deportation. This sounds like an incredibly stupid cartoon plot.
Saw This, Thought of You
+ Lessons From a Victorian-Era Cat Dictionary. Every day I live and breathe is a day I miss Cara Giaimo writing for us. Every day!
+ Tyson and Other Meat Companies Linked to Biggest-Ever Dead Zone in the Gulf.
+ MTA Tries a New Tack During Delays: The Truth.
+ The Moon’s Origin Story Is in Crisis.
And Finally
An Illustrated Fictional Day in the Real Lives of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein. Gertrude is sidelined as Alice’s “good friend” in this, but what if you got a copy and wrote “love of her life” over every instance of the word “friend,” hm? Wouldn’t that be cathartic? Also Maria Popova has suggestions for additional, more queered-up Toklas/Stein books, so get on that. I just love this illustration style so much!
I can’t believe summer is almost over (school starts here next week). It never really felt like summer- too much working. But, my family is going on vacation to a YMCA this weekend at a lake so hopefully the weather will be nice enough for some boating! Thanks for asking!
The healthcare stuff is quite depressing.
I love the book Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude. “And Alice is Alice. And Gertrude and Alice are Gertrude and Alice.” I was excited to see a book that included lesbians in the children’s section of our small town library.
What IS it with Trader Joe’s cashiers asking about my weekend plans? Between them and the Dutch Bros kids, sometimes I just can’t rise to the occasion for the chatty banter. And then I feel like an old.
I only see the Dutch Brothers kids when it’s early on a Sunday morning and I thought I had coffee beans in my freezer and I didn’t, and I’m wearing pajamas and grumpy about leaving my house, and their DAZZLING PERSONALITIES leave me utterly mute.
Once I literally HAD PLANS for later that day but when they asked I blanked and made some OTHER PLANS up.
I have only been asked if I like a particular food product they are selling. Somehow it is always the first time I have bought said food item and my statement to that effect stops the conversation dead in its tracks and then it is time to fight with the credit card machine for a solid 60 seconds.
I’m usually with my father so they never really ask questions, unless its about how I like the wine or hard alcohol. I think my father’s accent(middle eastern) sort of puts a barrier over it.
OMG I HAVE DONE THAT TOO.
lol lol lol @queergirl I have definitely blanked and made up plans while being accosted by the Dutch Bros kids.
me: I’m going…. grocery shopping later….
them: Oh that’s awesome! Where are you going? What are you getting? What what why why where how ANY EXCITING PLANS THIS WEEKEND?
I worked as a checker once. I usually asked this innocuous question b/c I was bored.
So now, I usually answer this with as much zen presence as I can muster (not a ton, but it’s something.) It also helps be hone in on something in the near future I can look forward to, so I really milk it for all its worth.
edit>> “…helps me…”
Also that goddam fake Starbucks ad !!! I don’t have words. Fucking people are the worst. I saw an article on it earlier in the week that showed a screenshot of the ad where frapuccino was spelled wrong (small LOL) and where folks pointed out that the dead giveaway that the ad was fake was that Starbucks would never give a 40% discount on anything. Their stuff is always like “get $1 off your drink” or at most like 10% off your purchase. BE THAT AS IT MAY, this is still super fucked up.
It’s 1am here in oz but I’m still seething that the public gets to decide whether I deserve rights or not.
And, bonus! Because it’s a non-binding, voluntary vote being conducted by the ABS rather than the government directly, it’s exempt from laws that will prevent homophobes saying every nasty thing they can to get people to vote no.
It is going to get real awful for us Aussie queers
Ergh I know! I am struggling so hard this week and it hasn’t even properly started :(
Also a postal vote will mean a lot of rural people especially Indigenous will not get to vote because they don’t have a reliable/any postal service. But who cares about what Indigenous people have to say right? /sarcasm
And as you point out it is non-binding so we are going to go through all this and then the politicians are just going to vote how they want anyway.
THIS IS SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS
I’m sorry I just have a lot of feelings about this
I’m struggling hard to guys :( and I’m super distracted and haven’t gotten anything done this week either.
It’s hard when Marriage Equality opponents keep trying to ‘debate’ with me about this. They don’t seem to understand that while they defend their opinion, I’m defending my humanity.
Since y’all plugged Eli, I feel it’s worth mentioning that they have a Patreon too.
https://www.patreon.com/elisleeplessl
Crap. I typo-ed that link. There’s no L on the end there. It’s just https://www.patreon.com/elisleepless
Why yes I do have plans, thank you for asking, because the VANCOUVER QUEER FILM FESTIVAL starts today; with Amber Dawn and Anoushka Ratnarajah as artistic directors ❤?❤
Here’s the opening gala movie playing tonight (which I’ll be enjoying with a theatre full of lovely queermos):
Sueño in otro idioma.
Who wants to join?? I’m so excited!
(also autocorrect changed queermos to quinoa – look at the influence you’re having Laneia!)
Plans! So many plans. A beach volleyball excursion with my derby team, and then a birthday party for our team captain and a team mate (twins).. also this party is taco themed and it has taken all of my willpower to not make endless taco/queer jokes in the event page for it.
Also holy wow that article about when your partner comes out as non-binary, that is pretty timely over here for us. And I am so jazzed that the third account is about a non-binary individual who is they/them and not transitioning. A lot of articles seem to focus on non-binary folks who are seeking to or have transitioned, which isn’t the full scope of non-binary/genderfluid/genderqueer.
Wait, you’re restraining yourself from making taco/queer jokes? I’m pretty sure the event page would be only taco/queer jokes in my league.
So many good links here today. I have a million tabs open, Thanks so much Laneia. Now I have something to do while I wait for my car to get an oil change, tire rotation and multipoint inspection.
Perhaps I am feeling slightly emotional today because I want to get that Alice B. Toklas book, cross out “good friend” and write in “wife” (as you suggest), and then SET IT ON FIRE BECAUSE KIDS DESERVE LITERATURE THAT REFLECTS PEOPLE IN THE WORLD AND THERE IS LITERALLY NO BETTER WAY TO START TO INTRODUCE TO LITTLE GAY KIDS THAT THEY AREN’T ALONE THAN READING ABOUT A COUPLE OF CUTE MARRIED ARTIST TYPES FROM THE ROARING TWENTIES.
Like what if, instead of straightwashing history for kids, we just DIDN’T
Ok I’m done <3
So I finally got into Lumberjanes earlier this year and was rabidly devouring them en masse one weekend until I hit the point where one of the couple pairings kiss for the first time. And it basically caused this chain reaction in my mind.
“Wait I thought this was for kids?”
“Two girls can’t kiss in a kids book.”
“Maybe its not for kids maybe its for grown up queers who never had a chance to read something like this as a kid.”
“Wait no it is for kids so THEY will have a chance to read something like this as a kid.”
“OH MY GOD I GET IT, two girls kissing ISNT inherently mature content!”
This despite the fact that I was just as outraged and vocal as everyone else over the YouTube thing were they parent filtered a bunch videos that mentioned the concept of gayness. I needed that sideswipe from a place I wasn’t expecting it to find that assumption hiding in my mental landscape to work through it. In conclusion, FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX!
Love this, love Lumberjanes, love the future! <3
Steven Universe is good for rewriting that part of our brains, too. It's lovely how normal all of Pearl's pining over Rose (and moving on to a new pink-haired paramour) is.
Oh great! I got like 10 episodes off and then must have wandered off, I need to get back into it.
It’s my birthday on Saturday! I’m going to spend the weekend on a staycation with my family and eating various sorts of good food and swimming in the hotel pool and maybe also in the sea.
Have a wonderful time! Happy Birthday!
It’s my birthday on Sunday! Happy birthday, fellow leo
The “Has Queer Culture Lost Its Edge?” article was, in several ways, pretty garbage — but HOLY SHIT the comments section made me want to fling myself into the sun.
Maybe I need to recommit to my resolution to literally never read comments sections besides those on AS. Oof.
Oh my god, I knooooow. Like, I’ve been thinking about how to articulate what I didn’t like about it, but then I looked at the comments on it in the naive hope that maybe someone had already found a way to do it and kind of forgot why I had looked in the first place in my blind fury.
I feel like a good general rule is if they’re using fb’s interface to host their comments it’s guaranteed to be a garbage fire.
Like, firstly, I think we young ppl are PLENTY FUNNY but just maybe the author doesn’t get the humor of her students (??) Idk it all just read to me like another version of millennial bashing
aghhhhh gOD that queer culture article!! Can we start the conversation HERE about what was so garbage about it?
Definitely. I don’t understand why being counter-culture or politically active has to equate with being inappropriate. Isn’t that the same argument oppressors use? She had the audacity to talk about the “good old days” while simultaneously pointing out how horrifically violent and terrible it was. It makes no sense. She wants to go BACK to that? Like cishet white conservatives want to go back to before Civil Rights?
Really found that non-binary article relevant as from the sound of things it was mostly if not all amab non-biary folks who are dating women and other non-binary folks. That pretty much me, and it give me hope there is a queer woman and/or non-binary person out there for me to get cats and dogs with.
The “Kids are Gross” article made me want to stand up and shout YES YES YES!! It makes me so angry when adults laugh at children and/or touch children in any way without their consent. My sister has 4 young kids and the number of times I’ve had to tell my brother in law that his kids don’t have to hug me if they don’t want to is ridiculous. I always ask them if I can have a hug and if they look uncomfortable I ask for a high five instead, which they are usually up for, but if not I say “that’s cool, I’m just glad to see you,” and my brother in law almost always tries to make them hug me anyway and then he and I argue about it and it’s a great time for everyone. In any case — kids are people and they should be treated as such.
I really enjoyed the country music article! This lead me to http://www.gayoleopry.com/queer-country-bands/ and seems like I’ll have queer country to last me a while!
a bunch of friends have played with Karen and The Sorrows and have the best stuff to say about Gay Ole Opry! (My friend Shawn and his band Humble Tripe have been there several times that I know of, and they’re the nicest folks!)
I really needed you guys today, I didn’t really notice til I typed in the URL, and here you are for me, thank you for that.
I love this new trend of oral history pieces on popular music. I read a great one about the phrase “bling bling” and then yesterday Vanity Fair published a FIRE one about the Ducktales theme song!
I also have wonderful weekend plans – I arrived in Washington DC this morning to spend a long weekend with three of my A-Camp cabin mates! So far we have gone for Indian food buffet lunch, thrift shopped, hit up the farmers market, and done some yard work. Basically just being as gay as possible out here.
YES queer country music
I don’t know if queer culture has lost its edge and I have no love for Kaitlyn Jenner, but I love a mean, offensive drag queens.
Call me a troglodyte, but I liked the article for bringing up the conversation and recalling a nostalgia for a time gone by.
I miss the days when Lesbian Avengers would proclaim “We recruit!” Not because they really did recruit, but the ironic dare. The feirce humor. The embrace of the idea that we may very well be your worst nightmare… but weren’t going anywhere. Dykes saying, “The balls in your court. Whatever you’ve got, we’ll swat it back.”
But maybe the author just travels in strange circles. Queer culture still alive and as sassy, sex positive and defiant as ever, right?!?
With the activism today following the election, I am frequently reminded of the nineties and the comraderie of that time. I see lots of great model in the work of Act Up and Roddy Doyle and the Gorilla Girls.
I get the sense that the goal posts have just moved: the issues are different, but queer culture is as edgy and vibrant as ever.