It is my first summer in central Florida, and I was not prepared for it to be HOTTER than South Florida! That ocean breeze was doing the WORK, and I miss her!!!! Hope you’re staying cool wherever you are!
Queer as in F*ck You
How the Indigo Girls Brought Barbie ‘Closer to Fine’. Raise your hand if you screamed for EVERY needledrop of “Closer to Fine” in Barbie! I really enjoyed this story about the cultural legacy of the hit song but also the long history of the Indigo Girls being mocked and disparaged for being lesbians. The band has been forced into this space of being synonymous with a specific brand of stereotypical lesbianism, a lazy joke told far too often. The song’s prominence in Barbie indeed feels like vindication for longtime fans of their music. “You don’t imagine a folk lesbian duo to be in this hot-pink Barbie movie,” comedian and Indigo Girls superfan Tig Notaro told the New York Times. “Kind of just selfishly and personally, I feel like, ‘Yeah, we were onto something all these years,’ you know? It’s validating. Obviously it’s been a huge hit forever, but this is so next level.”
More queer music gems: Boygenius Make Me Feel Like a Queer Teen Again.
I’ve never clicked something faster: I Was a Lesbian Club Promoter in 90s Soho.
They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired. Librarians are at the forefront of the current culture wars!!!!! You should look into seeing how to support your local libraries in these times, especially if your library hosts drag story others or other programming that might require counter measures to right-wing protesting. The way this community in California rose up in the face of an attempted protest against LGBTQ+ books is inspiring.
Grindr Employees Launch Union Drive Amid Tech Layoffs and Anti-LGBT Attacks.
Twitter Claims It’s Combating Hate Speech. But Evidence Says Otherwise.
How the ADA Paved the Way for Workplace Protections for Women and LGBTQ+ People.
Transphobia in New Zealand is Making the Shift From Online to Real Life.
Saw This, Thought of You
An important read for today, July 25: A Dreadful Anniversary: Puerto Rico Has Been a U.S. Colony for 125 Years Now.
How NZ’s Strippers Collectivised Against Allegations of Bullying And Harassment At Work.
Political Snacks
The Brave, Often Lonely Fight of Trans Lawmakers in State Legislatures.
One More Thing
A Chen Chen poem for you!
I really thought I was the only elder into boygenius. I loved that Elle article.
It’s interesting to me that their fanbase is so young when all the boys are almost 30 and their music is more mature — lots of references (in both the lyrics and the music) to songs and artists and poets that are older than they are. I feel like Lucy and Julien’s fanbases skew(ed) older, too. Most of the younger fans probably got into boygenius initially for Phoebe. I’m glad they’re appreciating the music.
That said, there were a fair number of older fans at the show I went to, and the ones sitting near me really seemed to enjoy it.
I am so into our new little twice-a-week poems, I gotta say.
(Also thank you for including the Puerto Rico link!!)
💕
Yes, thank you for the poems!
yes, also love the poems!
That boygenius article definitely made me feel less sheepish about my decision, as an elder millennial academic, to delay a research trip by a month so it could coincide with the boys playing in the town that is also home to the archives I need to consult…
As I told my straight cis brother (a slightly less elder millennial who also adores the boys), I may be the one old person dancing, singing, and crying alone in the nosebleeds, but my heart will be exploding so I won’t care a lick