I moved to California from Shanghai at fourteen and threw myself into learning how to be an American. It’s a lot like doing drag.

We talked to bi+ women about how they express and stay connected with their queerness while dating cis heterosexual men.

“I believe that creating affirming and diverse trans community is literally life-saving work, and I want everyone to stay alive and maybe even flourish.”

Q: What is the L Word** and why are we LARPing about it?
A: If you’ve never seen the iconic, important, drama-infused, and at times problematic** television show about West Hollywood lesbians living, laughing, learning, loving, etc., it’s not too late – and it’s on Netflix! Autostraddle has a helpful guide on how to ease in (https://tinyurl.com/y424w74s). If you’re familiar with the program, you may also know that the series will be relaunched sometime in the near-ish future. We LARP to celebrate and lampoon this vanguard of lesbian representation before it is unleashed upon the world again!

Q: When? Where? How much?
A: Saturday, May 4 | The Starliner – 1446 Myrtle Ave.
5 bux in advance / 10 bux day-of and at the door.
Get yr tickets here: https://tinyurl.com/yys3wzyu
All proceeds go to the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project ♥

Q: What’s gonna happen?
8:30 PM – DJ Disco Bruja + L Word Trivia w/ Lily Marotta and Minnie Bennett
10 PM – Dance party w/ host/comedian/L Word commentator Jess Henderson
+ DJs flipphone, elosi + more
All night: queers, dancing, cruising, larping.

Q: What is LARPING?
A: Technically it means live action role play. In this case, it means come as your favorite L word character, element, or lesbian abstraction (Bette, Alice, a leather cuff, a couple’s therapist, whatever!)

Q: What should you wear?
A: LARP MEANS LARP, Y’ALL! Costumes required! Come as your favorite core cast member, that throwback deep cut cameo from season 2, or that side character you wished made it into regular rotation. Early aughts lesbians in southern California? The possibilities are endless!:
https://www.autostraddle.com/31-most-iconic-l-word-outfits-ranked-by-incandescence-439178/
https://www.pride.com/lesbian/2016/6/09/45-most-unbelievable-outfits-l-word
http://gomag.com/article/i-dressed-as-a-different-l-word-character-every-day-of-halloween-week-this-is-what-happened/

Q: Who is invited?
A: If you love/feel some kinda way about The L Word, you’re invited! (queers, allies, everybody! but please understand and be respectful that this is a queer party, so come correct.)

Q: How can you stay informed/see gay memes until the event on May 4?
A: RSVP on this here Facebook event.
Buy your tickets here: https://lwordlarp.brownpapertickets.com/
Follow us on the gram: https://www.instagram.com/THE_WAY_THAT_WE_LIVE/

Please spread the word to your friends, lovers, and frenemies!!
See you on May 4 ♥

LLLLLLLLL,
The Board of the CAC
—————————————–

**When the L Word began airing in 2004, it was, for some queer women, the first time we saw ourselves writ large. Or, at least, it was one of the first times we saw our friendships, romances, traumas, and heartbreaks on television, with storylines that did not end exclusively in tragedy or a nunnery. It was big and important and over the top and a huge part of some folks’ early queer lives.

The L Word was also highly problematic, heavily focused on a white cis woman experience within an elite socioeconomic class, often complicit in blatant racist and transphobic messaging, and suffered for its exclusion of the queer experience of people outside of a wealthy West Hollywood lesbian community. This event seeks to celebrate the parts of the L word we wish to keep – the LOLs, the drama, the characters and moments that made us feel connected and seen. And to critique and leave behind the parts that made queer folx feel anything less than loved and lifted up. Lez do this ♥

“It would be amazing/hilarious/infuriating if Disney’s first true queer representation was in a movie about lesbian dogs.”

“Don’t c@ me.”

Autostraddle’s editors are eager to continue to learn from our mistakes and keep striving to make Autostraddle a space where everyone under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella feels seen, heard, represented, and safe.

“I found Autostraddle while googling ‘how do you know if you should leave your girlfriend?’ And reader, I did leave her. And then I went to an Autostraddle meet-up and met the lady knight of my wildest dreams.”

“Gay cheerleader of the cosmos, guess I found my desired position for future job applications.”

We have joined with the editors and publishers of Diva, Curve, Lesbians on the Loose, Tagg Magazine, DapperQ and Lez Spread The Word to make a statement on our commitment to trans inclusion, support and advocacy.

Do you remember the first inspiration models or role models in your life? Come chill with me and let’s get hella nostalgic!

Tis the season to celebrate Pride by wearing rainbow gradient t-shirts that let the world know that love is love, love wins, pride unites, equality wins, love makes a family, it’s all love, we need more love, everybody is free to love and love unites!!!

“A million little sweet figs for the person who wrote ‘once I cheated on my life partner with a wall in a jail.'”

Fatventure Mag, a print and digital magazine, seeks to change the narrative about who deserves an adventurous life and who can tell stories about those adventures. The first volume is brimming with the voices of fat outdoorsy women and non-binary folks – and you have 5 days left to donate to its Kickstarter to make it a reality!

“I hadn’t yet come to terms with being a lesbian, so I also spent a lot of time making excuses not to have sex.”

“Petition to call a group of feminists ‘A Simmering Rage?'”

Milk is not a sexy beverage.

“I feel like this camp everyone really got to be their best, most honest and weirdest selves — for instance, and bear with me, when Sam and Riese and I created an intense trivia experience centered entirely around cults, true crime and murder and not only did people show up but many of the questions were TOO EASY FOR THEM.”

A few months ago, some of us took the Enneagram test and felt extremely uncomfortable with the truths it revealed about us. As fun as that was, we thought it would be even more fun to make even more Autostraddle staff do it and also share their results with a large audience. Let’s see if we were right!

How do we want to be seen in our daily lives? How much control do we really have over it? How do we make ourselves visible in a world that often chooses not to see us clearly, and what risks and complications come with it? There’s no one answer, which is why we had all these Autostraddle staffers who identify somewhere under the bisexual umbrella talk about it for you!