43 Bail Funds You Can Absolutely Support Right Now
Donate to a bail fund. We don’t have to wait for others to commit to upholding the value of Black life and materially improve the lives of Black people. We can take care of each other instead.
the speakeasy
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: May’s Burst of Light
“I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes — everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
Asian Communities Must Desert the American Empire and Protect Black Lives
We have been drafted to protect white institutions that come at the cost of Black lives. We have been named a “model minority” to convince us that we’ve been saved a seat at the table among white peers — but that table was cut, assembled, and varnished by Black slaves. Asian Americans should look into the face of Tou Thao and see their own brother. It is our responsibility to bring him to justice, because he is not the only one.
Lost and Found in the Fish Sauce: How I Cooked My Way Back Home
Through my mother’s recipes, I’m reminded of the resilience that flows in our blood. Instead of disconnecting from my body to survive, I nurtured it. Like me, cooking is hella queer and fluid. Every time I reimagine a dish, it can taste different depending on my mood.“How spicy do I want this dish to be today? “How sweet do I want this dessert?” It’s never fixed or prescribed. That’s what makes these evolving recipes — and the queer experience — so delicious.
Foolish Child #72: State Your Emergency
“Ma’am, I can assure you that refusing to wear a mask to protect your community… is not the ‘new’ N-word.”
I Am Who I Am: Annalise Keating and the Power of Black Reflection
All I ever wanted to say is, “this thing that happened to me…is why I am the way I am.” But it was easier to deal with everyone else’s disappointment than to speak that truth aloud. I wasn’t strong enough for that. Annalise Keating was.
Stepping Out Of Silence
When love is a matter of desperation, how do you even begin to know what it is you desire? It doesn’t matter what shape love takes. Or does it?
S L I C K: King of Cups
“I distinctly remember you eating my pussy on the banks of the Nile river, ” I say and we both waterfall into each other’s bodies. I climb on top of her, straddle her hips, and she grabs my ass.
Fatimah Asghar’s Got Game: Watch Her New Short on Anxiety at a Queer Sex Party
“You can’t have a rulebook or a playbook for how to connect. When you’re queer, it’s about negotiating your own way, when the blueprint doesn’t work for you.” Fatimah Asghar discusses queerness, intimacy and her new short film Got Game, that you can watch exclusively on Autostraddle.
Honor Trans Elders: Cecilia Chung Is the Mother We All Wanted
Cecilia Chung described three ways: hilarious, survivor, and one of the mothers of the modern trans movement.
Six Queer Asian Artists on “The Half of It” and the Future of Queer Asian Cinema
Alice Wu’s “The Half of It” has been for out less than a week, and it’s already become a classic. We brought together some of Autostraddle’s queer and trans Asian editors and writers — along with some of our writer friends and Generation Q’s Leo Sheng — to talk about the film, Alice Wu, and the current landscape of queer Asian media.
Four Transracial Asian Adoptees on Body, Place, Family, and Race
I believe my queerness makes my Asian-ness and my adoptee-ness stronger. I am more myself when I hold all these truths together than when I try to compartmentalize them.
We Deserve To Be Selfish
I was ready to declare myself and to bring everyone else who was ready along for the ride. I thought, “I’m going to put as many women as I can into one publication, and they’re gonna get to say whatever the f*ck they want.” And Selfish, the magazine, was born.
The Illusion Of Safety
I don’t want to be caught parading around in last generation’s false sense of security. I’m kicking off Autostraddle’s first Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Heritage month by exploring the values my own South Asian and Japanese American parents and grandparents imparted to me, to learn to carry them forward.
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: April’s Arithmetics of Distance
This is dedicated to those who are just trying to make it through every day. It’s been gratifying on an almost cellular level to find that the queen mother Audre Lorde can so frequently speak to the times and places in which we find ourselves. Her final book of poetry, “The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance,” is no exception.
“Vida” Ends as It Began: A Queer Love Letter to Chicanx and Latinx Communities
Much like the Hernandez sisters, Vida is Tanya Saracho’s bar, her nightclub — and no one gets to push her out before last call without a fight. Few get to say that they’ve truly made history. That what they’ve touched won’t be the same after they’ve gone. Television won’t be the same after Vida. That’s just a fact.
What I Wore to Say Thank You
I’m thankful for visibly queer black women like Crystal Anderson who make me feel less alone. Thank you. Thank you for doing the hard work it takes to be who you want and then, on top of that, sharing yourself so we can see it.
Foolish Child #70: Karen
You… don’t know what the word “slur” actually means… do you?
What I Wore to Daydream
“I wanted to stay, but I had to return to my reality. Now I imagine the stillness I felt when I was in the bed that I loved, in the city that I miss, and stay hopeful that I’ll be able to feel it all again soon.”
Finding My Own Chinese American Community Through KTV
I’ve heard so many times that Asian America is about being caught tragically in the space between, never fully accepted in the U.S. and too Westernized to ever be Asian. Listening to my friends, I thought there was something defiant about singing in languages that we were told would never be ours, languages that this country wanted to force us to forget.