Sorry this link round up is late today! We’ve been busy celebrating our 14th birthday! Autostraddle. The little dyke site that could.
Queer as in F*ck You
I got a present for you, Inside Sawmill, Florida’s Premier Gay Campground. “I went for a weekend in the woods, but I found queer family instead.” I feel like we get so much hard news that involves Florida, let’s take a minute to celebrate some radical queer joy in the state instead? Queer and trans people are everywhere, in every inch of this country, and we are not leaving our family behind. Period.
Bisexuals Are the ‘Invisible Majority’ in LGBTQ America.
WWE star proposed to her girlfriend, Toni Cassano, just after Valentine’s Day, and she did an interview with Out about it: Sonya Deville Dishes on Her Coming Out Journey & Proposal to Toni Cassano
Zaya Wade Walks 1st Runway Show, Begins Era as a Fashion Girlie (I’m so happy for her)
Students Switch up College Plans as States Pass Anti-LGBTQ Laws. “Students, parents and college counselors say some LGBTQ youth are choosing not to attend colleges in states that have passed legislation targeting their rights.” (On one hand, good? everyone should take into account their basic rights when deciding where is best for them to live for four years at time? BUT ALSO! No one should have to make decisions like this based on their safety, and lots of people don’t have the privilege to “choose” where they go to school in the first place and they are equally as valuable, and this entire country is fucked — we can’t just write off entire blocks of states and pretend that solves anything… it does not. Many thoughts!)
Georgina Beyer, World’s First Openly Transgender Member of Parliament Has Died. Friends shared that Beyer died peacefully in hospice care.
Saw This, Thought of You
No one needs my Chris Rock take, but how is it not a mainstream conversation that he’s made Jada jokes since the 90s, called her bitch multiple times, and did his concert in her hometown of Baltimore — when if it’s about “the slap” Philly was just 90 min away? It blows my mind.
— Carmen Phillips (@carmencitaloves) March 5, 2023
I have been SEETHING. Chris Rock Has More to Say About Jada Pinkett Smith
To quote Natalie, “This is some bullshit.” Girls Hoops Team Beats Boys, Denied Title Anyway
The World Mourns the Passing of Judy Heumann, Disability Rights Activist
Political Snacks
This has left me sick to my stomach for two days now. CPAC Speaker Urges Eradication of Trans Rights and The Odds Are Getting Worse for Trans Americans. “Hundreds of anti-trans bills have been introduced. The few that have become law are laying the groundwork for further discrimination.” (and also this, too: Tennessee Governor Signs First-Of-Its-Kind Bill Restricting Drag Shows)
thank you Dr. Phillips – CRock’s misogynoir was chilling, and it feels like most media is shrugging once again.
The alligator of celebration is everything to me
Rest in peace Judy and thank you for everything you did for us disabled people ❤️
Can someone who’s American and understands these things please explain how drag story times can be banned in a legal manner. If women in dresses can read to children then isn’t it also the case that under title ix men can do so? I’m clearly missing something and I don’t have much knowledge of how laws/rules are set between States and the government so what I need is a very basic explainer.
i don’t have a complete answer to this, but did want to note that title 9 is specific to education.
So Title IX is specifically for schools or education programs, which I believe doesn’t apply to the libraries where drag story times have generally been occurring. The way legislators are enforcing these bans is by expanding the definition of adult activities to include drag, sometimes in concert with large fines in case those performances are viewed by minors. For example in Tennessee they’re specifically amending the definition of “adult cabaret entertainment” to include it, which means drag can’t be performed in public or private venues where it could be viewed by children as they’re essentially considered the same thing as stripping. In some cases the laws just name “drag” in others they use the more specific language of “exaggerating secondary sex characteristics,” which introduces its own set of questions as to whether just being trans in public would be considered an “obscene public performance viewable by children.”
Thanks for the explainer. The idea of drag being adult entertainment by it’s very nature is a bit wild, but I guess that’s the world we’re living in now.
Follow up question, is there no cross dressing in children’s entertainment in the US? In the UK, as well as pantomime always including a pantomime dame, who’s basically a drag queen, on kids TV the presenters will quite often do little sketches and sometimes play characters who are a different gender to them. Does that not happen in the US?
panto isn’t a thing here! a uk friend told me all about it and i was blown away that it was a whole tradition!
I’m sorry, but I don’t have a logical explanation either. It floors me and boggles my mind. I think in this country, the white, straight, rich and powerful, get away with just about anything, and they apply the rules selectively. It’s just like with the police and routine Traffic stops: they will stop a black person for minor infractions, like missing a tail light turning right on red, or something, and chew them out, maybe even attack them, but with a white man, speeding or something, he will probably get away with a warning, especially if a relative, or friend is on the force.
thank you for linking to the article about Judy! it feels so strange going from my personal circles where everyone is mourning and talking about her impact to the wider world where most places have like, a single article that’s mostly the press release from her website.
thank you judy; may your memory be a blessing always
I was so sorry to hear of the passing of Judy heuman. Thanks for covering it.
Also, I can’t believe that sawmill campground is so close to me, and I never knew it! I probably live about three hours away. I wish that someday I could have friends or even a partner I could go there with. I love to perform music, and it would be a dream come true if they asked me to play at women’s weekend!