Also.Also.Also: Zendaya Wants to Make “Like a Simple Love Story About Two Black Girls”

Feature photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Harper’s BAZAAR

I am having burgers and a milkshake!! AND I CANNOT WAIT.


Queer as in F*ck You

NO BUT WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS GOING ON!?! Iowa State Senator Wants Teachers Who Assign Books With LGBT Themes Charges With Felonies and Imprisoned.

Let’s go ahead and chase that with some good news, shall we? ‘A Bit of Hope’: Chile Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage. “The vote seen as a blow to conservative presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, who won majority of votes in November’s first round.”

I love Niko Stratis (remember when she wrote about Demi Lovato for us this Spring?). WELL! Niko has a new column called Everyone Is Gay for Catapult which is “a look at 90s artists, gender and queerness and mainstream media.” Here’s the first instillation: The Unsung Queerness of Green Day Lyrics

4 Queer Brown Influencers From the South Asian Diaspora Talk About Kal Penn and Their Real-Life Coming Out Stories 😍 😍 😍

Boos Cruise Is the Queer Skate Collective Tearing up the LA Scene. “We’re all hot. We’re all queer. We’re all just here to vibe.”

Ho ho ho homos. ‘Tis the Damn Season: Phoebe Bridgers Drops Her Annual Christmas Cover

Evan Rachel Wood Says Marilyn Manson Threatened to Harm Her Son
The holiday season can be a difficult & isolating time for folks inside. Holiday cards help to bring moments of joy, connection, & community to our members. Join us in spreading some love this holiday season! Blackandpinkpenpals.org Illustrations by @tianaconyersart

Black & Pink is doing their annual Holiday Card Campaign for our LGBT fam on the inside, and I sincerely hope you consider participating! I did it last year and it can make a real difference — I also know of at least one straddler who did it last year and ended up with a pen pal. This is an actionable, direct, relatively low lift way you can stand up for LGBT incarcerated folks. The holiday season can be difficult and isolating for folks inside. And it’s not just about the cards themselves, sending mail lets guards and other people know that our people have someone who care for them and paying attention to them, which is so important for queer and trans folks especially. Please consider it.

If you’re interested in also encouraging your friends to join, here is the entire Black & Pink Holiday Card Campaign Media Toolkit.


Saw This, Thought of You

Zendaya Wants to Make a “Love Story About Two Black Girls” which is coming from her Interview Magazine piece with one of my favorite actors working, Colman Domingo:

Zendaya: The hope is that I’ll be able to, one day, make the things that I want to see.

Colman Domingo: Like what? Give me an example.

Zendaya: Like a simple love story about two Black girls.

Colman Domingo: Yes.

Zendaya: And I don’t want it to be rooted in anything other than just a story about two people falling in love and that’s it. Something simple and beautiful, that leaves you happy and wanting to fall in love yourself.

And the truth is that Black queer women have been asking for the very same thing for a verrrrry long time now. But I wish Zendaya all the best in her endeavors!

What Media Coverage Gets Wrong About Immigration Reporting

Virgin Royal, Mother, Whore: The Enduring Appeal of Princess Diana Fever. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.

Unrelated, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this too: What We Lose When We Focus On Whiteness In Interracial Relationships

Oh, for sure. The Pandemic Has Spiked Our Blood Pressure


Political Snacks

21 States Poised to Ban or Severely Restrict Abortion if Roe v. Wade Is Overturned

… which comes with a reminder that you should give to an Abortion Fund.

Thank you.

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And 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. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.