Hey there. Hope you are holding up OK!
Yesterday was a rough one for many of us, and the powerful message of pride and community that was seen and heard and felt around the world was a beacon of love and light that we could all use right now. And one way to do that is to help LGBTQ youth like The 49 Fund is doing with their scholarships, and the University of Kansas is doing with their all-new LGBT dorm wing for queer and trans students.
The reality is that a lot of people are still using religion to try and keep LGBTQs down and out, but things are slowly changing.
If you are single and ready to literally mingle (in Los Angeles), you should come to Le Mingle this weekend. It benefits JQ International, an org that provides opportunities and community for Jewish LGBTQs, and the whole thing is full of music and drinks and fun. I’ll be there! So will all of these other fine folx!
Your summer reading list can and should include several winners from last night’s Lambda Literary Awards. I had so much FOMO watching social media from the event last night, which also honored Jeanette Winterson.
OK, so Canada isn’t perfect. These six queer Canadians share their experiences as LGBTQ in different parts of the northern country. (Spoiler: Homophobes exist everywhere!)
Historian Samuel Clowes Huneke looked into what life was like for lesbians in 1940s Germany and found that they were less of a target by Nazis because women were seen as non-threatening. “Gender is perhaps why lesbians weren’t persecuted in the same ways,” Huneke said. “But simply because there was a tolerance for female homosexuality doesn’t mean that these women led enviable lives.” I wonder if he’s seen “Aimee & Jaguar.”
A woman going through the dreaded LBD asks Dan Savage for his help, because she’s thinking of leaving her wife. And at the end of his column, he makes sure to note: “If writing this column over the last quarter of a century has taught me anything, it’s taught me that bed death isn’t an exclusively lesbian phenomenon. You could’ve married one of those straight boys who adored you back when you were a 25-year-old baby and be writing me the same letter today.”
Dating as a queer woman in India is more than a little challenging, even online. Mostly because men suck and ignore what’s right in front of them.
Fortune talked with British Lloyd CEO Inga Beale about her decision to come out about her bisexuality. “”I can now be much more myself; I can be my own personality,” she said. “Coming out, just being natural at work is going to be the winner.”
Lauren Jauregui agrees with that sentiment: “It’s hard to accept yourself when you live in a world where nobody is like you,” she told the Sun. “Or you feel like nobody is like you because there’s no representation. For me, coming into my own and being comfortable with myself really changed me as a person. And made me more confident and vibrant.”
While Facebook is full of pride rainbow options for the month, it is still not all that awesome for trans people who want to use chosen names but aren’t allowed. Facebook tells the Daily Beast they are working on making things safer and more user-friendly for everyone, trans people included.
When Kate McKinnon doesn’t stop dancing, it’s a good day.
And an even better one when she’s on the cover of Elle! And she’s interviewed by Tina Fey!
Pearly Martin has been sentenced to nine years in a California state prison after threatening a group of gay men in San Francisco last year. She was convicted with a hate crime after evidence showed she “made derogatory and offensive statements towards the victims and the gay community, and then threatened to kill the victims. She chased them down the street, attempted to slash the tires on a vehicle and at one point cornered one defendant in the lobby of his apartment building nearby before he escaped.” Martin’s attorney argued that she identifies as bisexual and that she should therefore not be accused of a hate crime. The jury, however, disagreed.
Ellen Page is wearing a sports bra in the new “Flatliners” trailer. You’re welcome.
See you tomorrow!
