Also.Also.Also: Forever May Tina Turner Reign

A black and white photo of a young Tina Turner screaming.

Photo by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

I’ve been playing Miss Tina nonstop today.

Wherever you are and however this finds you — sending you all so much love, 💜.


Saw This, Thought of You

“Tina Turner knew her voice had no limitations. It was a tool of liberation and vibration. A tool to connect with the divine. And Turner used her voice to get free.”

That comes to you from: Tina Turner Brought Rock & Roll Back Home To Black Women by Taylor Crumpton for Refinery29, which has been my favorite obituary to read since Tina Turner’s passing. I haven’t found the words yet for the profound sadness I have felt about the rocket to the sun that was Tina Turner leaving this earth, but whew does Taylor come close.

42 Moments When Tina Turner Defined Fashion

Tina Turner: Rock ‘n Roll’s Greatest Showman Was Always a Woman

We, Tina. This is from the Black queer podcast Still Processing from 2021, during the debut of Tina Turner’s HBO documentary Tina (which you should all watch). They rereleased it yesterday.


Queer as in F*ck You

In the Barbie movie, Kate McKinnon offers Margot Robbie's Barbie a choice between a high heel and a Birkenstock.

Ok technically — technically!! — this isn’t gay. But I want you to look me straight in the eye and tell me that Kate McKinnon offering Margot Robbie’s Barbie the red pill/blue pill choice between her Barbie Heels (symbolizing Barbieland) and BIRKENSTOCKS (symbolizing, reality) and tell me that shit isn’t gay. This movie is about to be my Tár and I’m so sorry for everyone that’s going to have to put up with me this summer. New Barbie Trailer just dropped.

With Help From Brandi Carlile and Shane McAnally, Queer Pioneer Brandy Clark Looks Beyond Nashville

Target Removes Some Pride Month Products After Facing Threats. “Target will pull some of its LGBTQ+ merchandise from its Pride Month collection after facing backlash that threatened the safety of its workers, the company said.”

“Trans kids are kids—and they deserve to be able to dress up and dance. And a few of them came to Washington, D.C. Monday to do that, and make a statement in the process.” Trans Prom Is the Reminder This Country Needs (my god, how I love this.)

My Years Behind the Curtain. “Starting a modeling career in America meant hiding I was trans.” — Geena Rocero for The Cut.

Kane C. Andrade’s Empowering Portraits of Trans Men

Google Searches Questioning Sexuality and Gender up 1,300% Since 2004, Analysis Shows. We love to see it!

A poster explaining the upcoming panel for "Telling Our Stories: A Panel on Queer Visibility and Authorship" with panelists Cameron Esposito, Chris Colfer, and Alexandra Billings. Hosted by Sa'iyda Shabazz.

And this is amazing news from our very own Sa’iyda Shabazz — she will be moderating a virtual panel for Pride on queer visibility and authorship. Panelists are star-studded, including Chris Colfer, Cameron Esposito, and Alexandra Billings and the whole shebang is being hosted by Pride and Less Prejudice, which sends queer and trans-inclusive books to classrooms from pre-K to 3rd grade. This is just great all around and you can register here.


Political Snacks

GOP Lawmaker Complains That Biden Isn’t Picking Enough Straight, White Male Judges

Ron DeSantis, A Strongman Who Isn’t Dumb. “For all its errors, DeSantis’s plan to out-Trump Trump can still work.” The prospect of Ron DeSantis becoming president terrifies me, I don’t care how bungled the start of his campaign has been.


One Final Thing

George Floyd & The Enduring Disregard For Black Humanity

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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.

13 Comments

  1. I’m not even American and it makes me ABSOLUTELY furious that since George’s death, nothing has changed. You can’t look me in the eye and tell me otherwise. Police brutality is still a thing. Police killing innocent Black people is still a thing. Gun violence is out of control and there’s no change on the horizon. It makes me sick, furious and heartbroken to think there are Black kids who have the very real thought of ‘I wonder if walking home will get me killed today.’

    RIP George. 1973-2020.

  2. My Mom still has the 45′ record of Tina Turner’s “What’s Love got to do with it” from when she lived in New York in the eighties. I just want to echo what Harmony said-A divine Woman who deserves divine Rest. I love that.

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