Pop Culture Fix: Queer Athletes Are Taking Over Sports and Social Media, Rejoice!

Hello, my friends! I’m back from my medical leave and full of gratitude for Valerie Anne who kept this column running brilliantly WHILE doing all her recaps WHILE ALSO doing all of our editorial social media WHILE ALSO doing social media for our A+ membership drive. And on top of that, she came to my house to walk me to vote last week because it was too far for me to go on my own and my wife was on-call with clients. Truly that PunkyStarshine is the best friend a girl could ask for. And now — your Monday Pop Culture Fix.


+ It is very important to me that you don’t miss Autostraddle Editor in Chief Carmen Phillips and former Autostraddle Senior Editor Yvonne Marquez in Netflix Con Todo’s Visions of Us.

+ From Katie Barnes over at ESPN: Player. Parent. Activist. Pioneer. Layshia Clarendon is the WNBA’s first openly nonbinary and transgender athlete.

+ And speaking of the WNBA: Yesterday, Diana Taurasi became the first WNBA player to top 9,000 points. (I reserve the goat emoji for Serena Williams, sorry UConn lesbeans.)

+ What? More sports! That’s right, Natalie and I have been reunited and we have a lot to talk about! Sha’Carri Richardson deserves your undivided attention. (Yeah, she has a girlfriend.)

+ Footballer Li Ying becomes first Chinese player to come out as lesbian. (I won’t be stopped!)

+ WNBA.com has some Pride op-eds you shouldn’t miss out on! Briann January on how Pride starts with yourself. And Amanda Zahui B. on what Pride means to her. This one has my favorite Pride essay quote of the year:

I celebrate my body, my mind and my sexuality. I am confident and open to the fact that I was made to love women. I was created to celebrate the beautiful women on this earth. To love the most powerful creature on this earth, the woman.

+ And finally, USA Basketball went all in with the gays for the Tokyo Olympics.

+ Five queer YouTube creators to know for Pride month.

+ 8 lesbian movies with few to zero sad lesbians. (This is a good list! I don’t usually link lesbian movie lists from other websites!)

+ A podcast that proves all heists are a little bit gay.

+ Inside Disney’s first Pride concert and its troublesome queer history.

+ In this week’s For Your Consideration over at the AV Club, Lauren Coates takes on Buffy’s queerness 25 years later.

+ After decades of tirelessly preserving queer film, Jenni Olson gets her due.

+ The MCU finally confirms Loki is bisexual.

+ Luca proves Disney’s Pixar wasn’t brave enough to fully commit to their first queer animated film.

+ Batwoman boss unpacks Kate Kane’s finale fate and that intense cliffhanger.

+ How TV therapy took on the pandemic.

+ “Senior year, bitches!” It’s the grown-ish season four trailer.

+ Cheryl Dunye learned to play the game.

+ The prescient power of The Rosie O’Donnell Show.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

8 Comments

  1. Glad you’re back and (hopefully) on the mend! I came here hoping to see something about Queen Latifah finally coming out, but was surprised not to see something on Autostraddle.

    • I am writing it literally right now! I got slammed with other responsibilities today and if you come back first thing tomorrow morning, you will see it. That’s a promise.

      (Edit: I’m trying to write something meaningful that isn’t just for clicks, you know?)

      • YAY! I’m glad someone with writing chops is writing it, because if it had’ve been me, it would’ve been 800+ words of me going YAYYYYYYYYYYY and nothing else.

        • Whoops let me go delete my current draft that’s just 800+ words of YAAAAAYYYY lol

          (I’m kidding. But am I?)

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