Also.Also.Also: Elliot Page Welcomes Trans “Umbrella Academy” Character to the Queer Chaos Family

I’m actually going outside on this warm spring evening to eat tacos and drink beer and I’ve maybe possibly never been happier?? (I kid. But… maybe?)

Queer as in F*ck You

I know less than zero things about The Umbrella Academy, but I know this Elliot Page tweet introducing world to the show’s new trans character Viktor Hargreeves sent the Autostraddle slack into flames.

Gender-Critical News Outlet Shuts Down Due to Lack of Support and Advertising. “Anti-trans news outlet Lesbian and Gay News has been shut down,” DJ play my favorite song!!

My Disability Made It Hard to Accept My Gender Identity. Here’s How I Made Peace. “When my gender dysphoria sparked a desire for change, I learned a lesson in acceptance that I didn’t expect.” BY OUR VERY OWN A.ANDREWS FOR THE FREAKING WASHINGTON POST!!!! I CANNOT AND WILL NOT STOP SCREAMINGGGGG

‘Where I Can Be Me’: Inside Britain’s First LGBT Retirement Home

Texas Attorney General Says Austin School Pride Week Celebration Breaks State Law. 🎵LALALALAA Burn it all down 🎵 (but seriously, this is a great time to revisit I’m Trans and I’m Not Leaving Texas by KB Brookins for Autostraddle.

In this house we stan AN OSCAR WINNER!!! Ariana DeBose’s Chic Country Cottage Is Just as Charming as She Is

Saw This, Thought of You

If you’re going to read or talk about The SlapTM, the least I can beg of you is that you read Black queer voices: The Slap Wasn’t the Only Astonishing Thing About the Oscars by Wesley Morris and Jada Pinkett Smith Shouldn’t Have to ‘Take a Joke.’ Neither Should You. by Roxane Gay, both for The New York Times.

I keep forgetting that Daddy Yankee, one of the first global reggaeton superstars — wanna talk about defining a generation? — is retiring. It makes me feel so old! Daddy Yankee, Reggaeton’s First Global Star, Steps Aside‘

BuzzFeed Doesn’t Deserve Its Newsroom. “Much of the News staff has been written off as dead weight on the payroll. What, after all, is a Pulitzer worth on a balance sheet?”

From the author Amil Niazi, “The pandemic crystallized something for me I’ve been grappling with for awhile: the end of my ambition. For The Cut I explain why I’m finally saying ‘good riddance, bitch.'” Losing My Ambition

Political Snacks

Welp, as we all knew would happen Ron DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill (full name: Florida’s HB 1557, the “Parental Rights in Education” bill)

On a related read, Is Ron DeSantis the Future of Trumpism?

And while you’re here, it’s a great time to give to the Zebra Coalition, which is a Florida based ntwork of organizations, that provide services to LGBT young people ages 13 – 24.

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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.

12 Comments

  1. Thank you for the two articles on The Slap! Roxanne Gay is so amazing.

    I didn’t watch the Oscars but I did randomly tune in for 2 moments – Ariana DeBose’s acceptance speech and The Slap. So go me, I guess?

  2. I’m really jazzed that the showrunners worked with Elliot Page to change the gender identity of Vanya. But, I think there’s a missed opportunity here by changing the character’s name to Viktor. In Russian culture the diminutives of male names are typically feminized. So, Mikhail becomes Masha. Alexander becomes Sasha. Sergey becomes Seryozha. Ivan becomes Vanya. So, Vanya as a name is actually a masculine one. I think it could’ve been a cool opportunity for the showrunners to educate viewers about Russian names as well as be a cool way to kind of give a subtle middle finger to Putin’s repressive regime by having a trans character with a masculine name like Vanya. But, we’ll see how it all shakes out. The writers may come up with an interesting backstory for the name change.

    • I was actually quite hopefully that naming the character Vania initially meant that Elliot’s character had anticipated transness written in. Now that his name is changed to Victor, it seems it was just an initial
      mistake in understanding Russian diminutives.

      • I had the same initial thought! When Elliot was cast as Vanya I was like, “how cool! They’ve got a queer actor playing a Russian character with a masculine name. How gender inclusive!” And then the news came out today about the character’s name change. I’m Russian myself and have spoken to some of my other Russian friends and everyone is equally as baffled by the name change of the character. I’m curious as to what the decision making process was like for the showrunners, writers, and Elliot. I wonder if this was a point that they considered or if they’re just straight up not aware of how Russian diminutives work. If Autostraddle ever gets to interview Elliot Page about this role please fit this question in! Inquiring Russians are genuinely curious and would love to know!

    • Wow, thanks for that. I just wrote a comment praising the show for working Elliot page in, but the whole name thing went entirely over my head.

      Thanks for the education! That is what I love about the community here, I am always learning………

  3. Thanks for the link to the Zebra Coalition !

    I know that the bill is far more dangerous than “Don’t say Gay” but I’m all for being subversive with language. I’d love it if we appropriated his name somehow.

  5. I am a big Umbrella Academy fan (read the comics and watched the Netflix show) and was not sure how they would deal with the Vanya character. I was afraid they might cop out, hollywood style, and either ignore it or drop the character or the show.

    This is great news…not to mention Elliot Page is such a wonderful actor, I was hoping he would get more screen time. Ever since Juno he had me hooked.

    Something to add to incredible Riese compilation!!

  6. The world is on fire but we still have hot talented queers to save us.
    (I have some extra links if anyone wants them, there’s some really good + important stuff here!)

    https://oestrogeneration.org/articles/all-hail-devin-halbal-princess-of-the-dolls

    https://oestrogeneration.org/articles/trans-stories-are-magical

    https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/christina-lee-murder-housing-policy-failures

    https://msmagazine.com/2022/03/25/melissa-lucio-reconsider-death-sentence/

    https://19thnews.org/2022/03/national-womens-conference-1977-undone/

  7. I’ve already lived so many lifetimes of Discourse since Sunday that when I saw “The Slap” I thought you meant the fake social media from Victorious (hashtag jori 4 life)

Comments are closed.