Also.Also.Also: They’re Children.

Feature photo by allison dinner / AFP

Around the time I first went to put together this evening’s round up, I heard the news about mass shooting in Uvlade, Texas. I’m numb.

I don’t know what else to say, but I’m sending you all a lot of love.

Before we do any other links, here are live updates from The New York Times about the breaking news, it’s not paywalled.

Queer as in F*ck You

Amber Heard and the Death of #MeToo

Also, The Daily Wire Spent Thousands of Dollars Promoting Anti-Amber Heard Propaganda

And, The Depp-Heard Trial Is Monstrous. It’s Just the Start.

A Lesbian Mom Raised Her Son for Two Years. An Oklahoma Judge Erased That in 15 Minutes. “Kris Williams was removed from her son’s birth certificate in a case experts say could test the boundaries of marriage equality.”

Police Say if They Cannot Wear Uniforms, They Won’t March in San Francisco Pride Parade

Tomorrow morning, for the first time since she was detained 95 days ago, Brittney Griner’s wife Cherelle will be talking to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America

Saw This, Thought of You

Can Latex Panties Become As Popular As Condoms? “The FDA has cleared an alternative to dental dams. But will people actually use it?”

‘A Black Woman Made This Beer’ — How Historically Black Colleges and Universities Shaped a Generation of Black Women Brewers

Read the entire issue here.

Political Snacks

Do you have someone in your life who’s the parent of a school aged child? Someone who’s been personally close before to a mass shooting? I won’t say “check in on your strong friends” but a reminder text that they aren’t alone (not that you need them talk, just that they aren’t alone) sure wouldn’t hurt tonight.

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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.

11 Comments

  1. before i even read links, please pardon my anxiety-dumping. i work in a preschool. our active shooter training was last month. we learned about all the ways our building in particular could kill us, and to keep the kids off the dry wall because bullets can skate along that path, and that unless our doors are metal they won’t do a thing, and that in an emergency we would have to keep sixteen scared, confused four year olds absolutely silent or the ‘bad actor’ would zero in on us, and that if we got a chance to run we had to do it immediately even if it meant stepping over wounded children and colleagues, and that amped-up police would assume we were dangerous until proven otherwise so make sure to keep our hands up and visible as we fled for our lives.

    i don’t want to know any of this. i was a toddler when columbine happened, and that wasn’t enough. elementary school for virginia tech and that wasn’t enough. high school for newtown when we thought surely that’s enough, they’re first graders for chrissakes, but no. college for msd, on the verge of graduating into a world that keeps proving it doesn’t care about any of us, not even the children. i am so goddamn tired and scared and tired of being scared.

    • i don’t have any words that matter. sending you peace and love, and hoping some small comfort will be of any use.

  2. Thank you for the latex underwear article link — the product is neat and the article was interesting and thoughtful

  3. The cops refusing to march at sf pride of they’re not allowed to wear their uniforms really sounds like a two for one? Sffd or buuust!

  4. I don’t know what to say either Carmen. I’m angry and frustrated but also numb and mournful. They were just about to go on Summer break. They had so much more to do. We’ll never know the adults that they might have become. Uvlade also happens to have a large Latino population-which adds another layer to all this pain. I heard they had ICE there in the aftermath, which probably made it harder for many parents to go there to see if their children were okay.
    Anyway it’s a lot. The others claim they care about children and yet they do nothing to protect them. It’s not fucking fair.

  6. I tried commenting last night and truly couldn’t find the words because I was so tired from grief over those kids. Not only am I a Texan, but my mom teaches at an elementary school of about that size in a small Texas town. I haven’t stopped worrying about her since Sandy Hook. It’s heartbreaking that it’s been a decade and nothing has changed. I’m so tired.

  7. we could all vote like everyone’s lives depend on it – there’s midterm elections happening. look for candidates who believe that guns laws should change, as a start.

Comments are closed.