Also.Also.Also: First Kill’s Sapphic Teen Vampires Will Take a Bite Out of Summer (Sorry, I Had To)

I know it’s been a few weeks since we had a good old fashioned news link round up, but….

In a gif from RuPaul's Drag Race, a black gay man in tan baseball cap says "Baby We Are Back!!" in front of a pink background wall.


Queer as in F*ck You

We don’t always put trailer drops in this column, but look at this?? “First Kill” looks like Buffy had a baby with the good seasons of Pretty Little Liars, and that’s extremely my shit!

How the Reversal of Roe v. Wade Could Impact the Transgender Community (also, not to be biased, but this pairs very well with the excellent and thoughtful explainer that KaeLyn did for us last week, The Fall of Roe Is For All Of Us)

“My barometer for acceptance begins and ends with Black queer femmes because the care, time, and love that goes into our physical appearance is a political act.” How Black Queer Women Are Finding Agency in a Full Set

Demolition of Long-Abandoned Medical Center Could Leave Queer Beachgoers Exposed. “Those who flock to the sands of Bay 1 on Riis beach — including a historically Black and brown community of trans and queer sunbathers — fear tearing down a long-abandoned medical center that acted as a shield will ruin their ‘utopia.'”

Meg wants to make sure you know about this: “Angela Chen (author of Ace) is sponsoring five creative writing scholarships for ace/aro writers”: Aspec Creative Writing Scholarship

WELL THIS IS CUTE! “Pauline and Trixie are in their 80s. Despite enjoying a long-term relationship in their 20s, they parted 35 years ago, because they felt it was impossible for them to live openly as a lesbian couple. Having watched Gentleman Jack, Pauline was spurred into action to track Trixie down.” BBC Factual announces new BBC One documentary, Gentleman Jack Changed My Life

Halsey Opened Up About New POTS and EDS Diagnoses


Saw This, Thought of You

Canada and Mexico Prepare to Accept Americans Seeking Abortions (related: What Latin American Feminists Can Teach American Women About the Abortion Fight)

Researchers Pinpoint Reason Infants Die From SIDS

Leader of Pussy Riot Band Escapes Russia, With Help From Friends

What Should I Be Doing About My Student Loans Right Now? Sometimes I think about when federal loan repayments start back again, and hahahahhaaahahaaa


Political Snacks

The Horrifying Implications of Alito’s Most Alarming Footnote. “A ‘domestic supply of infants’ is exactly what the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment intended to abolish.” This is something that, on top of all the other abject horrors of the last week, I have thought about a lot.

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

11 Comments

  1. I don’t understand the math from the quote for the Gentleman Jack doc, if they were a couple in their 20s and now they’re in their 80s and haven’t seen each other for 35 years that means they broke up when they were 50.

  2. I imagine the pitch for First Kill went like this.

    “What if Romeo and Juliet-”
    “How original.”
    “-but with lesbians-”
    “I’m listening.”
    “And she’s a vampire and she’s a vampire hunter.”
    “Shut up and take my money.”

  3. I love the premise of First Kill and agree the trailer is giving a lot of Buffy/PLL vibes (not to mention Vampire Diaries!)

    But the acting of the two leads looks incredibly flat here, and I say that as someone who usually never notices supposedly bad acting. I hope I’m wrong, though!

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