The Dish: Kate McKinnon Does Kristen Stewart on “SNL,” Queer Chef Shades Ivanka Trump

Monday Funday!

Hi there! Are you having any Coachella FOMO? Lady Gaga has “The Cure.”

If you like spoilers, you’ll love our new Weekly Horoscopes for Queer Women. It’s scary how true they are, and this week’s offerings are especially important as it’s Mercury Retrograde season and I am FEELING IT HARD.

Krista Burton (of Effing Dykes fame) penned a piece lamenting the loss of lesbian bars for The New York Times. (Interestingly, she says Queen Latifah and Janelle Monae are “openly queer,” which I don’t think is necessarily true, but if the New York Times says so!) The essay is similar to so many conversations queer women have all the time: Why can’t we keep a regular space of our own? We have a lot of answers to this question, all of them seeming to decide that it’s impossible for many reasons, each one more disheartening than the next. But that doesn’t mean it’s completely hopeless, and some lesbian bars (shout out to Henrietta Hudson’s, Cubbyhole, Ginger’s, The Wild Rose in Seattle) are able to stick out the realities of gentrification, generations and identity politics, providing a desired and necessary place for LGBTQ women to congregate. All this to say, the struggle is real.

Out lesbian Jane Meyer is in court today, taking on the University of Iowa for alleged discrimination during her time spent as the school’s associate athletic director. Specifically, she’s calling into question the actions of Athletic Director Gary Barta, who she says did not appreciate her standing up for lesbian coaches, including her partner Tracey Griesbaum, and eventually found a way to eliminate Jane’s job, laying her off. Tracey also filed a suit, which will go to trial in June. Mad props to these women for standing up for themselves and other women.

Partners Alison Castree and Catherine Barlow used the same sperm donor to have babies just weeks apart, so now they have two related newborns who look like twins. Let’s hope that situation works out because the non-biological mother of eight-year-old twins just had to fight for her right to her children after she separated from their other mother. This happened in Italy, where same-sex couples aren’t allowed to adopt their stepchildren, so this win could be a watershed moment. Although the mom in question won’t be able to adopt her children (EYEROLL EMOJI) , “she will be allowed to see the children for one afternoon a week and to have them stay with her two weekends a month.”

Out journalist Nico Lang wrote a great piece for the Columbia Journalism Review about how LGBTQ publications are more important than ever. I shared some opinions on how GO is making sure to be an important voice and platform for queer women, and other editors chime in on how their respective outlets are doing the same.

Cynthia Nixon is making the rounds to talk about her new film, “A Quiet Passion,” in which she plays Emily Dickinson. (BTW, we have an excellent piece on the queerness of Emily D in our upcoming issue!) During a recent interview with Larry King, the out actress shares how incensed she was by the election of Donald Trump: “I’m one of those people who really didn’t think he was electable. I was very devastated when he was elected. I really don’t know what I find my disturbing: his inhumane policy moves or his incompetence. I’m really not sure which is the greater of the two evils.” Larry King also asked her (in his typical weird way) about her sexual identity, to which she answered “Well, this is a thorny issue. I guess if I have to put a label, I would put a bisexual label. But to me there was no change, there was just this person.” LOVE IS LOVE, LARRY KING.

CBS News tackles non-binary identity in a new documentary “Gender: The Space Between.” If you have an hour to dedicate to watching, I highly recommend it. It’s especially important to pay attention to how LGBTQ topics and issues are being framed and produced for mass audiences.

Caitlyn Jenner‘s new memoir is coming out soon, and apparently she expresses some anger toward Ellen DeGeneres for their televised interview in which the talk show host pressed Caitlyn on her same-sex marriage views. “This discussion further alienated me from members of the LGBTQ community,” she writes. “Ellen’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show, where in my mind she even more emphatically took what I said out of context, made it go viral.” Caitlyn’s book comes out April 25, so you can read the rest for yourself.

AdWeek writes about LGBTQ equality being good for business, which seems to be a HOT TREND and I’m here for it, as long as it means we can continue to feel good about where we work and where we put our hard-earned dollars. A friend of mine is visiting her not-so-gay-friendly mom for the holiday and told me that her mom didn’t understand why she wouldn’t support businesses that are staunchly anti-gay. “It’s not like I don’t go places that support the gays,” she told her lesbian daughter. I told my friend, “Yeah, that’s because she’d be limited to church, Chik-fil-a and the Salvation Army. HAVE AT IT.”

If you ever wanted to see Kate McKinnon play Kristen Stewart, “SNL” made sure your wish was granted. This week’s episode had Kate doing KStew for “Celebrity Family Feud: Time Travel Edition.” It is all worth it to hear the host tell Kate as Kristen: “You look like a witch cursed you not to smile, but you’re trying anyway.”

Former VP Joe Biden is asking President Trump to give a fuck about anti-LGBT violence in the Russian republic of Chechnya. He writes in his statement: “I hope that the current administration lives up to the promises it has made to advance human rights for everyone by raising this issue directly with Russia’s leaders. The United States must lead the way to demand an end to these egregious violations of human rights.” If there’s any way to use our Russian connections for, you know, GOOD, then let’s give it a go. (Sadly, I doubt this is high on the President’s priority list.)

Out Chef Angela Dimayuga was approached by a writer for Ivanka Trump’s website, asking to do an interview and a profile of her and her work. Angela’s response (which went highly viral) included “as a queer person of color and daughter of immigrant parents I am not interested in being profiled as an aspirational figure for those that support a brand and a President that slyly disparages female empowerment.” SNAP SNAP SNAP.

 

TTYL!


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