Hi there! I have to tell you, I have been having an amazing Pride month thus far. Hope you are, too–unless you are Donald or Ivanka Trump.
Netflix canceled “Sense8” yesterday, which was really poor timing and also terribly sad news for everyone who loves the super queer and inclusive show that was created and directed by two out trans women. Sigh. We’ll always have Amanita.
David Lynch makes some really queer shit, so I’m basically waiting for “Twin Peaks” to have some lesbian action before I fully commit. Keep me posted if you’re watching the reboot on Showtime.
Everyone I know who has seen “Wonder Woman” has loved it, so feel free to support it in theaters despite WW and the amazons being super hetero.
Some schools are lucky enough to get an education from History Unerased, a Lowell, Massachusetts-based organization that provides “lesson-ready curricula covering LGBT issues” to high schools. So far, public school districts in New York City, San Diego and Broward County, Florida are considering implementing these lessons into their curriculum next year. More! More!
Another day, another lesbian in court trying to fight for the right to her own child. Chris Strickland filed an appeal with the Mississippi Supreme Court yesterday, asking them to recognize her as the legal parent of her child born during her marriage to a woman (now her ex-wife), as a lower court decided otherwise. Beth Littrell of Lambda Legal is repping Strickland, so hopefully this will end in her favor.
“Fun Home” musical creator Lisa Kron talked with her hometown paper in Lansing, Michigan about the gayest parts of the show, including “Ring of Keys.” “I thought from the very beginning that I have to figure out how to portray butchness. It’s different from maleness,” Kron said. “If you’re part of that culture, it’s very recognizable, but if you’re not, it’s very elusive. Butchness felt very integral to the story, but I was scared about it. It was going to be hard to not trigger a set of associations for a straight audience that are minimizing.” Well, Lisa, ya nailed it.
Health authorities in Malaysia are holding a contest to see who can come up with the best way to “prevent” homosexuality and transgender identities. The guidelines require that submissions “must include elements showing the ‘consequences’ of being LGBT, as well as how to ‘prevent, control and seek help’ for them.” Winners will receive a couple hundred bucks cash, which seems totally worth attempting to denigrate, humiliate and violate an entire community of people, right? Oh, and BTW, IT WON’T WORK.
Atlanta’s Police Chief, Erika Shields, is totally gay, the first-ever out chief and only the second woman in her position. Her job could end when a new Mayor is elected, but she’s living it up in the meantime, focusing her efforts on gun violence and youth, especially teens who are already repeat offenders, hoping “to help break the vicious cycle of arrests and jail.”
A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that everyone’s at least a little queer, but societal pressure has made it not so OK to admit it, especially for “straight” dudes. But when it comes to women, Ritch C. Savin-Williams, the Director of Developmental Psychology and the Director of the Sex and Gender Lab in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University, says that they’re much more open to exploration. “We’ve always recognized mostly straight women, that is, women who mostly are straight but if the right woman comes along, well maybe she’ll try it out,” Savin-Williams said. “We used to think that was only a female phenomenon. … There are aspects [of male sexuality] along a continuum, just as we have always recognized with women. Men have gotten so much cultural crap put on them that even if a man does have some sexual attraction to guys, they would never say it.” But they’re thinking about it. Oh, are they thinking about it.
I’m sad to report that Fergie is no longer with the Black Eyed Peas, so that group is now 100 percent less bisexual unless the guys in the band decide to read the above study and figure out otherwise.
Milla Jovovich said she almost quit the “Resident Evil” series once Michelle Rodriguez was brought on, because she didn’t like how she felt like her character, Alice, was then being written as “the girl” and Michelle’s character, Rain, was “the guy.” “She got all of my big action scenes, and she became like Alice,” Jovovich said. “And then Alice became this tag-along.” But she demanded a re-write and got her way, so both women had equal amounts of badassery in the actual film.
Moon Charania shares what’s like to be an immigrant who is also Muslim and queer and (gasp!) a woman. “I think coming out stories get further complicated when you’re a person of color and when you’re a person who is seen outside of the U.S. context, as an immigrant, in my case a Pakistani, and in my case also a Muslim,” she told USA Today. “I think what sustained me, especially because I was a young mother at the time, was that I had a very strong and very collective feminist vocabulary and community that carried me emotionally and nurtured me as I figured out what it meant to be a queer woman of color in the U.S.”
Ruby Rose is on fire! The out actress/model is now lending her hot look to Swarovski for their Urban Fantasies campaign, alongside supermodels Jourdan Dunn and Fei Fei Sun.
Meanwhile, queer model Caroline Vreeland is the new face (foot?) of Steve Madden.
ESPN profiled WNBA star Diana Taurasi, where she shares some tidbits about her relationship with new wife Penny Taylor. This quote was cute: “When things get tough, you see who people really are. And we have been tested over and over again. I couldn’t have hoped for a more loyal, caring or attentive person,” Diana said. “All it showed me was what I knew about her already — that she was always going to be there for me, and I hope I showed her the same thing.”
Have the best weekend ever!
