Also.Also.Also: Shirley Manson Has “Always Really Identified With This Idea of Non-Binary”

Feature image by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images

This is probably the latest the Also.Also.Also has ever run! Which should tell you a lot about how my evening went. Anyway, onward we go!


Queer as in F*ck You

“Being a woman who has got a lot of male traits, I’ve always really identified with this idea of non-binary.”

Rock On. Shirley Manson: ‘We Took a Lot of Chances on That Record – For Which We Were Gloriously Punished’

The Dinah Was Known as ‘the Biggest Lesbian Party in the World.’ Here’s What It’s Like 30 Years On.

Last week we lost a legend of Black cinema and theatre, Melvin Van Peebles, and I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate that into our beat when a friend a friend of Autostraddle, Hugh Ryan, let us know that Peebles wrote what’s very likely the first lesbian love song on Broadway. (This entire Twitter thread is FASCINATING!!!! You should read it!)

Thankfully they’ve already met their fundraising goal, but this is heartbreaking:

You can still give to Familia:TQLM here.

Three Polish Regions Repeal ‘LGBT-Free Zone’ Declarations. “The European Union had previously threatened to withdraw funding from the regions.”

Liz Cheney Says She Was ‘Wrong’ to Oppose Same-Sex Marriage “Cheney said in a 2013 TV interview that she opposed same-sex marriage despite the fact that her sister, Mary, is gay and married with children.” Sorry I almost never report on this stuff (“this stuff” being the bare fucking minimum comings-and-goings of Republicans), but I have also thought about the lesbian Cheney daughter — and confused her with Liz, her homophobic sister — so just indulge me for a quick second here. Also, feel free to laugh if that’s what feels right for you.


Saw This, Thought of You

Simone Biles Chose Herself. Heather says “this is so good” and you know what? hard agree.

No Time to Be a Child. “During the pandemic, teenage girls took on more caregiving at home, extra shifts at work and the burden of organizing racial justice protests. In many instances, it upended their lives.” My must read of the night!

How My Phone’s Most Annoying Feature Saved My Life. “Voice mail messages from my family allowed me to slowly climb out of a state of gloom and self-imposed isolation.”

She Warned Us About R. Kelly. No One Believed Her. “The singer Sparkle has been waiting 20 years for this verdict.”

Latinx Writers Couldn’t Get Hollywood’s Attention. So They Came Up With Another Way


Political Snacks

Anita Hill Wants More Than an Apology from Joe Biden and ‘Believing’ Is A Book Only Anita Hill Could Have Written (Himani recommends pairing these reads with How Did Time’s Up Go So Wrong? and I couldn’t agree more)

A lil’ international good news/bad news situation, rounding us out: Two Transgender Women Win Seats in German Parliament and More Than 800,000 Canadians Voted for a Blatantly Anti-Trans Party

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen is Autostraddle's Editor-in-Chief and a Black Puerto Rican femme/inist writer. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. 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. You can find her on twitter, @carmencitaloves.

Carmen has written 692 articles for us.

13 Comments

  1. I have to say, I am disappointed in the lack of coverage of Switzerland’s historical vote on gay marriage last Sunday.
    I know you guys are an american publication, but this seems like a bit of an oversight.
    Maybe I am wrong and there will be a post on that later? In which case I apologise/thank you in advance.

    • if they aren’t covering, perhaps you could pitch a piece? or share info? it might be that AS doesn’t have anybody available who wold cover this beat, and cold use the help…

      everybody could use a little grace right now. closing in on 2 years of pandemic, still trying to recover from a political nightmare that is actually more of a reprieve than rescue, and catastrophic climate effects, so really nobody is ok right now and we are all having trouble handling all the things we want to.

      peace to everybody.

      • I do understand that. I guess being sleep-deprived made me come across harsher than I meant.
        Sadly I do not have anything to pitch, but the bbc had a small article on the topic: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58696604.amp
        Hopefully it can be included in a link roundup?
        Switzerland has been late to this queer rights movement and is playing catch-up, but it is very tricky because of the specific type of democracy we have: the people really do have all the power, which has its good and bad aspects… and sometimes it means blocking a law for 8 years like in this situation.
        Luckily the vote went our way. The opposition campaign was brutal though, but didn’t alter the final result.

    • I haven’t seen much about it anywhere. Truthfully, I didn’t realize Switzerland was that far behind the curve. I’d like an insider’s perspective on the matter. Congrats on the victory.

    • Hi Lydia! The lack of inclusion isn’t malice on our part — we didn’t know!

      I haven’t seen it covered in (admittedly mostly American, because we are an American publication like you said) any of the press I read to gather these link round ups. Our team has a link sharing system, where we share what we like and include it in this column, and it hasn’t shown up there either! I haven’t seen it in any of the social media I encounter (again, admittedly largely American). Etc etc etc.

      If I had seen it or known about it, I absolutely would have included it.

      Sometimes working from within American media means that things fall through the cracks because Americans are notoriously self-centered. I apologize for that! But it’s absolutely just because we hadn’t seen or heard about it.

      CONGRATULATIONS!!

      • Dear AS, while I totally appreciate that you’re American and write for a primarily American audience, would you ever consider letting us non-Americans submit links or guest blogs or something some way? It would be super cool to have more international queer content, AS is the best queer website I know, so it would be great if that included us too!

      • Hi Carmen, thanks for your reply! I would never suggest you would purposefully omit this story of news, but like some others have mentioned now, maybe a global editor or an “International suggestion box” situation could help feel more of us included?
        I love this website and have been a member for years now, and I know you guys do the best you can. Which is why I brought this up in the first place.

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