Sunday Funday Wishes Everyone Was More Like Hillary Clinton

Happy Sunday Funday! I finally got my paycheck from February and tried Root Beer Vodka this weekend. I also dug up a previously unreleased track from the one and a half years I spent trying to become a rapper. (Great timing considering the release of Nicki’s new album, if I say so myself.)

This week we should all cuddle and then read a lot of interesting things and continue to create political change in Arizona. You in?

Are You Watching “Girls?”

I’m watching Girls tonight for a few reasons: because I want an excuse to eat ice cream, because I miss my childhood best friends a lot these days, and because Sex & the City has started to make me sad. Also because it looks hilarious.

Jezebel is super excited and would like for you to subscribe to HBO and tell them you love Girls. Similarly, SheWired reported that a lesbian plot arc is on the way – within the first season. What does this mean? In a world of ‘best friends who are women’ it sounds like it might mean watching something similar to my own life unfold on the screen. Bring it on. And pass the mint chocolate chip.

I Love Hillary Clinton

The Texts From Hillary days are over – the meme was born and then died this week (come on, in ONE WEEK?) because, let’s face it, once you meet the Most Powerful And Amazing Woman of All Time you have to pack your bags and let it go. I imagine I would still be unable to sleep had I met Hillary Clinton earlier this week.

But Hillary Clinton is totally and completely still the most awesome person of all time, despite the fact that most people are only realizing this now. Ask Jezebel:

Although Hillary didn’t end up being the Democratic candidate in 2008, she handled the aftermath gracefully, becoming Secretary of State for her former rival, and travels the globe, holding her own, during a time when global power is shifting we are now used to seeing her as a hard-working woman who doesn’t complain or seek the spotlight but quietly gets things done. Not just a survivor, but one who thrives. There’s a magic in her “too busy for bullshit” persona, a mystery. Thanks to Texts From Hillary, much like the dumb dude in a romcom, we’re finally seeing HRC as she really is: Brilliant, capable, fierce.

Check Yr Stereotypes: Latinos Support LGBTs

NOM may have convinced some of us that Latino people, and the Hispanic community within the United States, did not stand alongside the LGBT community in search for our rights. That isn’t true.

A new national study challenges the widely held perception Latinos are persistently anti-gay. Released Thursday by the research group Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS) and the Hispanic advocacy organization National Council of La Raza, it found Latino support for many pro-gay policies at least on par with that of the population as a whole. Latinos in the SSRS study, for example, support same-sex marriage at a rate of 54 percent, compared with 53 percent of those in the general population who indicated such support in a Gallup poll last year. And by even wider margins, respondents in the SSRS study favor policies aimed at protecting gays against hate crimes and discrimination related to jobs, housing and military service.

NYU Is Also Full of Gay People

NYU’s Athletics Department released an “It Gets Better” video focused around the gay captain of their volleyball team:

Jay Hayes, who is also a senior at NYU, has directed and starred in a poignant “It Gets Better” video sanctioned by his school’s athletics department. “I know I can achieve anything I can set my mind on doing, and I can do that while being out, and being proud of who I am,” the Illinois says in the clip for the LGBT youth advocacy groupThe Trevor Project.

SIDENOTE: I wish that this was about women’s volleyball, because that’s sexy.

Good News In Arizona Is Rare

Phoenix now offers a high school for LGBT students, called “Q School.” I’m kind of jealous, except I went to art school in high school and that was kind of the same thing anyway:

Kaedo Stewart is the program director at One-In-Ten, the group that operates the school, which works in partnership with Arizona Virtual Academy to provide online instruction. “They’ve just been like really excited about learning,” Stewart said. Stewart says the majority of the 14 students who currently attend, this school was their last hope for getting a diploma. “About a third of our youth have dropped out of high school, so we have dropouts, and we have about a third who are homeless or have been homeless.” Michael Wheatley hopes that one day there might not be a need for a school like this. “My ultimate goal is that bullying and dislike and hatred for gay and lesbian youth stops, and there’s no need for this school.” 

Geena Davis Is Badass

Geena Davis is taking on the state of California to preserve the Commission on the Status of Women, which she currently chairs.

An Oral History of Gay Punk

You should read this:

Queercore was a call to arms and storming out of the closet. The literature came before the music. It started out as a loose collective, trading fanzines and letters, and evolved to include dozens of bands, as well as the extraordinary friendships and treacherous rivalries that come along with creative intensity. Here’s an oral history of Queercore, from its inky, Xeroxed beginnings until it rendered itself obsolete.

Jump-Rope Puppy

I’m having a really hard time deciding if this is just cute or really amazing, but maybe it’s both. Either way, I wish I could jump rope but I can’t even eat ice cream without it falling out of the cone, really.

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Carmen

Carmen spent six years at Autostraddle, ultimately serving as Straddleverse Director, Feminism Editor and Social Media Co-Director. She is now the Consulting Digital Editor at Ms. and writes regularly for DAME, the Women’s Media Center, the National Women’s History Museum and other prominent feminist platforms; her work has also been published in print and online by outlets like BuzzFeed, Bitch, Bust, CityLab, ElixHER, Feministing, Feminist Formations, GirlBoss, GrokNation, MEL, Mic and SIGNS, and she is a co-founder of Argot Magazine. You can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr or in the drive-thru line at the nearest In-N-Out.

Carmen has written 919 articles for us.

24 Comments

  1. I’m super excited for Girls because half of the cast from Tiny Furniture stars in it. Lena Dunham is great.

  2. Love Hils.

    My k-8 phys education consisted of so much jump rope; because of “Jump Rope for Heart”. We had to learn so many moves? tricks? techniques?
    Also, unrelated, did anyone have to do cupstacking in gym? Because that was stupid.

    • I totally had years of jump rope for heart.

      I loved it, and skipping rope, but was super bummed because my mom wouldn’t let my brother and I go door to door getting pledges like everyone else (this is back when people actually did that). So we never got any of the “cool” prizes (ha, like frizbees). They totally still do it – the gay teacher I worked with in an elementary school last year organized the event, and played tonnes of dance music. It was awesome, and I totally had skip offs with a bunch of kids.

      Wow, clearly I have a lot of feelings about jump rope for heart. Are you Canadian? Is it a Canadian thing?

    • We had jump rope for heart too, and hoops for heart. Everyone in the school had to participate but they could pick which one they wanted to do. I was the only girl at the school who always did hoops for heart and not jump rope.

  3. That dog is god. I need a dog it does not have to be amazing like this dog but I would love for it to look confused…all the time.

  4. It is my secret fantasy that Hilary Clinton lurks on this website and that one day, she’ll send me a message about agreeing with something I’ve said. That will lead to our being Facebook friends, and eventually hanging out. And before long, we’ll become besties and I’ll be the when she’s sworn into office as President. It could happen.

  5. “SIDENOTE: I wish that this was about women’s volleyball, because that’s sexy.” seconded!

    I played volleyball for 3 years in middle and high school and in hindsight I’m very surprised that it took me until 4 years later to figure out I’m gay. My team captain was dreamy and oh god the spandex shorts.

    We wore spandex short shorts, y’all.

    I’m pretty sure that’s why I could never play well, I was so distracted by all the beautiful spandex-covered asscheeks.

    however that video in general is still awesome and well made and should be mandatory viewing for student athletes.

    • this this this

      my HS team wore baggy shorts and it was a HUGE SHOCK to so many of my, um, systems, when in college we wore SPANDEX for games. omg.

      first of all, i had to get over a whole lot of body image crap, second of all: FEELINGS! feelings that i had never let myself feel before. college was so messed up. i missed all the opportunities. *sigh* but i did get a good view of the spandex. :)

  6. Gina Davis is indeed a badass. Then of course, there’s the matter of her lips. Damn. I can’t even…

  7. Thanks for pointing out the queercore article! I have quite a few thoughts on it, but mostly I want to say that while I thoroughly appreciate the great oral history OUT gave us, I hope they know that queercore is not “obsolete” and will possibly(in the future) feature some new/current queercore bands that are holding it down, moving it forward.
    I’d gladly volunteer to take OUT through Oakland and SF to get to the heart of it. haha

  8. I feel really sad that I can’t watch Girls tonight.

    I was supposed to fly home to New York today but my flight got cancelled. Then my hotel said they actually have HBO and I died of happiness, ALAS–I’m in New Mexico and the hotel only has HBO Latina and I do not speak Spanish.

    My mother suggested we just leave the TV on while I read aloud from my Twitter stream.

  9. I was actually going to meet Hillary Clinton last tuesday. For real. *sighs*
    She was in Brazil for some important meeting with our president and was going to meet and welcome the undergrad students that are in the “Science without borders” scholarship program for studying in the US, including me. I was so disappointed when it didn’t work out!

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