Also.Also.Also: Pregnant Dancing Lesbian and Other Stories for Your Week

By

Excuse me this is very important and exciting so I need you to SIT DOWN and tell everyone around you to shhhhhhhhh. Turn your phone over so the screen is facedown, clear your throat and turn off any desktop notifications.

THE CAT

MY CAT

DARLING

LET

ME

PET
HER
HEAD.

The selfsame cat who used to run away when I so much as peered out the window of my front door. The very cat who hid behind the shrubbery while I put a bowl of food out for her and stayed there until I went back inside, closed the door and she could hear the locks slide into place. The cat who was once spooked by the strings on my hoodie. This dodo bird cat let me pet her head — multiple times for several minutes??! — while she ate?!

She was so warm! So fluffy and soft! I’m crying just thinking of it!

Readers, friends, I hope you feel today the joy that I felt in that moment. I hope you hold your breath and think, “this cannot be happening!!” while it is fully and completely happening. I HOPE YOU DANCE.

Queer as in F*ck You

+ Oh oh ok speaking of dancing, BLESS THIS. Pregnant Lesbian YouTuber Dances in Response to Complains About How She Dresses.

https://youtu.be/qGgD6lxifPA

Aaaaand just for good measure:

+ Chicago’s DIY Club Scene Offers a Collaborative Queer Community.

+ Brandi Burgess, Bisexual Daughter of Rick & Bubba Host: ‘I am praying for my father.’

+ White House Sends “Strongest Signal Yet” That Chelsea Manning Will Be Freed.

Welcome to the Hellmouth

+ Help Us Map Trump’s Global Businesses and Associates. We’re fine! Everything’s fine!

+ How Much Do We Need Obamacare? Just Take a Sad Tour of GoFundMe.

+ Ways to Raise Inclusive Kids in the Tough Times Ahead.

+ What Pro-Choice Organizing in the Reagan Years Can Teach Us for the Trump Years. Will never get over typing “the Trump Years.” Not ever.

Doll Parts

+ How Doctors Cross the Line in the Delivery Room.

+ Why We Fight With Them (What I’m Thinking About Before the Women’s March).

+ ‘Death After Death’: California Institute for Women Under Scrutiny Following Rash of Suicides.

Keep Up

+ Lesbian Latina Politician Takes On Texas’ Transgender Bathroom Bill.

+ The Rights of Nature: Indigenous Philosophies Reframing Law.

Saw This, Thought of You

+ To Understand The Rust Belt, We Need To See Beyond Whiteness.

How many bright kids of color living in the Rust Belt today are currently hatching their escape plans? Another question I get asked a lot at lunch, when people hear about my family and where I grew up, is how I managed to “get out.” And I know that a big reason I got out is because I was never really allowed in.

+ John Lewis’s Books Sell Out After Trump Does Trump Thing.

+ This is satisfying, you’ll like this. A Brief History of Conservatives Rejected by Musicians They Love.

And Finally

If you’re feeling tight or trapped or overwhelmed, maybe take some time to look at these images captured by the Hubble telescope. Bookmark this gallery and remember that you’re made of the same things we’re all made of, and we’re here right now in this exact time that they’ll write about — people whose grandparents haven’t even met yet — and here you are, still. Remember you’re literal stardust and isn’t that hilarious? Isn’t that everything?

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has trained its razor-sharp eye on one of the universe's most stately and photogenic galaxies, the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). The galaxy's hallmark is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This brilliant galaxy was named the Sombrero because of its resemblance to the broad rim and high-topped Mexican hat. At a relatively bright magnitude of +8, M104 is just beyond the limit of naked-eye visibility and is easily seen through small telescopes. The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is located 30 million light-years from Earth.

“The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is located 28 million light-years from Earth.”

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Laneia is the Executive Editor and founding member of Autostraddle, and you're the reason she's here.

Laneia has written 915 articles for us.

17 Comments

    • Between the title and first paragraph of this post, and your comment in the sidebar, this was not the news that I was, shall we say, expecting.

      But anyway congrats Laneia on this, the occasion of your first kitty head-pets, yay!!

      Reply to This Comment

  7. There’s nothing sweeter than winning the trust of a cat. Congrats.

    My cat / avatar pic was a skeptical shelter cat who was scared of ceiling fans and who’d bite anyone foolish enough to pet her. 12 years later, she will never be a lap cat, but she head butts my hand for petting and crawls under the covers to spoon me in the middle of the night. /end cat story

    And the dancing video is great. I had no idea that the baby momma dance was a thing, but they’re too cute.

    Reply to This Comment

  8. ok well you just made me cry.

    “remember that you’re made of the same things we’re all made of, and we’re here right now in this exact time that they’ll write about — people whose grandparents haven’t even met yet — and here you are, still.”
    yep.

    Reply to This Comment

  13. In case you would like info for future kitten taming efforts (I know this cat is not kitten, but who knows what your future holds? I do. It’s kittens).

    Also, thanks so much for the article about doctors in the delivery room. Am currently in the process of completing pre-requisites for midwifery school. This is the kind of shit I wanna prevent.

    Reply to This Comment

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