Hello, Autostraddle! It’s that time of week again when I bring you the things we didn’t have the chance to bring you individually over the course of the last seven days, because it’s the thought that counts. Here’s the stories we missed this week!
Let’s Talk Politics
I’m hoping the election ends soon, because the last debate melted my brain and was completely awful. But the game of politics has a lot left to curse us with! Like more images of Mitt Romney’s face.
This week, more endorsements for Obama rolled out – including the Salt Lake Tribune, which is “the paper of record in the eye of the Mormon storm.” That means Mitt Romney actually stood a chance at this endorsement and blew it! Nah, JK, he never stood a chance at shit. Here’s his record on women in a helpful flow chat format:
It isn’t just Romney constantly fucking up, though. Other people have and will make mistakes, bad choices, and tacky decisions in their political careers. For Daniel Bowan, this seems to be an overriding campaign strategy, since the Alabama Democrat is basing his entire campaign on not being his opponent, whom he claims is a closeted “homosexual voting against all homosexual legislation.” For contrast, Bowan is a straight dude with a “neutral” gay rights record.
But regardless of the, um, awkward behavior of one politician, LGBT americans obviously skew Democratic. But now there’s statistics!
And did anyone catch the evil anti-lesbian innkeepers from Vermont in the anti-gay marriage ad for Maine? It goes a little something like “boo hoo, I didn’t want to host a lesbian wedding,” and then another guy goes, “OMG don’t let this happen in Maine!” Good times.
I’m more into the in-depth analysis of who Obama supporters and Romney supporters call their favorite celebrities. Also, Slate talking about the perfect timing of gay rights is an interest read.
Have you seen this amazing grandpa who supports same-sex marriage in Maine? He does. It’s deeply moving.
Meanwhile, Governor Bloomberg has pledged up to 500,ooo dollars in challenge grants – donation-matching – to same-sex marriage campaigns in Maine, Minnesota, and Washington, all in the hope of raising one million dollars.
“Government has no business denying marriage licenses to a whole class of couples in Maine, Minnesota, Washington or anywhere else,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The 14th Amendment guarantees us all equal protection under the law, and marriage equality is the next big step in America’s long march of freedom. The barriers to it are bound to fall; the question is not if but when. I was proud to help support the successful effort to achieve marriage equality in New York State, and I’m proud to stand with supporters of marriage equality around the country this November.”
One million dollars is so much money.
Things I Hope You Saw, Or Will Look At Now
+ The Makers profile of Beverly Guy-Sheftall, “Pioneer of Black Women’s Studies.”
+ Ten Badass Genderfuck Cosplays.
Join us on our first episode as we talk about Girls and Lena Dunham, how you should never eat cake in the shower, and how we have never in our lives yelled at a girl like this. LEARN SOMETHING FROM THIS!
+ Cats Who Look Like Pinup Girls.
+ The Amazon reviews for binders written post-Bindergate:
As a woman, I’m always on the look out for a suitable and comfortable binder to ride in – I especially liked the hot pink one! I purchased these because I wanted my captivity to be colorful and flexible. Unfortunately, while I could fit in well enough, putting my friend alongside me didn’t work out very well. I need a binder for multiple women – not just one binder for one woman. These binders don’t cut it. Next time, Filexec, maybe think about being able to fit more than one women into your binders. Also, I could go for some flowers and glitter. You know what they say – nobody puts baby in a binder. Unless that binder is located in the kitchen. – Mari
Weirdo Happenings In The Queer Universe
Sometimes, life gives you lemons. And sometimes, life takes bizarre twists and turns that require you to sit still and ponder your own feelings.
Take, for example, the school board in Illinois that passed a transgender inclusiveness policy last week, and then rescinded it within the next five days. Five days, you guys! That was approximately how long it took members of that same board to realize that since trans* inclusivity isn’t legally mandated in their state, they can continue not to give a fuck about it! Hate groups had been attacking the board’s decision, which asks teachers to use preferred names and pronouns for students and makes physical education a safer class for trans* students.
Also, Vice published “a transgender trip into heteronormality” this week, an introspective piece looking into the relationship of Marco, a trans* man, and Sadie, a lesbian. Nothing could possibly make your queer heart feel any weirder than Vice, right?
Are We Equal Yet
The New York Times has suspended columnist Andrew Goldman for douchebaggery and general sexism. Now, I wish someone would get in trouble at the University of Arizona for the newspaper’s decision to publish a violently homophobic cartoon in a recent issue, but you can’t have it all.
At least sports are more gay-friendly than ever! Also TV. And guess what. “High-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when placed with gay or heterosexual parents!” There were even studies that pointed to that conclusion!
I wish they could make breast cancer advocacy a little less stringently “pink” and ultra-straight-person-y. Do you think they’re ever gonna free Pussy Riot? Like ever, I mean.
Standin’ On A Chair Like I Don’t Really Care
You should submit to the Kopf-Kino visual magazine for queers. The theme of the first issue? Don’t give a fuck. And if I remember correctly, y’all got a lot of fucks that you don’t give:
The theme for our first issue is DGAF (don’t give a fuck). DGAF is entirely open to artistic interpretation.
If you are interested in submitting
Upload 6-10 images of your work in JPEG format at 72 dpi to ge.tt and email – kopfkinomag[at]gmail.com the link.All Submissions due by Friday, October 26th, 2012.
didn’t they free one of the pussy riot chicks?
sometimes at the end of these what we missed things I feel a little overwhelmed, it’s a lot of links yo. I’ma drink a beer.
Beer is the appropriate response to all the things.
One of them … the other 2 are being sent to two of the furthest away & harshest camps :-(
Carmen – the breast cancer advocacy link is actually a duplicate of the Pussy Riot link. If you can find the real link I’d love to read it though :-)
I came here for the Han Solo cosplay pic and.. well.. I stayed for a little while. Yes. Wow.
han(nah) solo also drew me in. and agreed. Wow.
That was the best.
I’m dressing up as Han Solo for Halloween. I will not look nearly as awesome.
Oops, my bad. It’s under the second part of the sentence. The first part only (“I wish they could make breast cancer advocacy”) is linking to pussy riot.
That grandpa…I can’t even. #feelings
I REALLY wish I could have taken a class with Dr. Guy-Sheftall when I was at Spelman but she wasn’t teaching intro when I had to take it. “Gender Talk” was probably one of the best things I read when I was at Spelman, I failed a chem assignment because I couldn’t put it down. I remember one class we went around the room and read the quote that resonated the most with us from the chapter we were assigned. There were like 20 people in the class and everyone read a different quote and everyone had a different reason. That woman is AMAZING and I’m proud to call her my Spelman sister.
OMFG I WANT TO BE/DO THAT HAN SOLO GIRL SOOOO HARD.
I dressed as han as a clueless 10 year old for halloween, with red electrical tape & everything, but gottdamn does she outclass me!
Shit. Now I gotta find a Commander Shepard costume.
Carmen, this was definitely one of my favourite Also. Also. Also. editions. That Pin-up Cats tumblr is now my favouritestestestest, and that cosplay article and EVERYTHING.
Omg I have SO SO SO MANY FEELINGS re: breast cancer, pink ribbons, and the LGBT community.
Many of the Autostraddlers I know in real life have already heard some of this, so yea. Whatever, full disclosure.
Breast cancer has hit every generation of my family. Every. My mom, my grandFATHER, my great-grandmother. I tested positive earlier this summer for a BRCA2 gene mutation – which gives me an 84% lifetime chance of breast cancer, along with a lot of other shitty things. Now, personally, I don’t like fucking around with chances that high, and when my two options were 1) get a preventive mastectomy and reduce my risk of ever getting cancer to about 2% and really pretty great-looking boobs or 2) actually get cancer, get a mastectomy, have chemo, have radiation, lose my hair, lose my career, drag a potential family through a whole hell of a lot of shit, and possibly die… Hmm, I think I’ll choose option 1. So I had a mastectomy 9 weeks ago, at age 23. I finish my reconstruction next month.
I did the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in New York last weekend (39.3 miles in two days) to honor my family and myself and celebrate feeling better from stage one of surgery. The heteronormativity there is ridiculous. There are pink ribbons everywhere, which really pisses me off already given that I got this shitty ass gene from my grandfather, an 18year breast cancer survivor, and people selling tshirts and buttons on every goddamn corner that say “Boob Guy”, “I’m a Breast Man”, etc. Would it kill them to make a “boob girl” shirt or the like? There’s an entire freaking Avon Pride contingent of LGBT employees. It can’t be that hard. I had to settle for a stupid “I <3 boobs" pin.
Also, having mid-reconstruction tissue expander boobs that feel like basketballs and mastectomy scars is really fucking awkward when you're hooking up with girls with real ones.
On the bright side, a number of the organizations I've looked into are thinking about the LBTQ community a bit more. Bright Pink, an organization aimed at education, awareness and support for young women with hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer (yes, I'm fucked on that one too), puts out a guide for LB (didnt notice anything really about T :/ ). women. It includes things like the fact that hormonal birth control can actually be great for women with no necessity of contraception due to its ability to lower ovarian cancer risk by up to 50% (which, for the general population is only something like 1-2% anyway, but for BRCA mutations is more like 27-44%). So it's getting better in the younger population, but it has a long long long way to go. Ps anyone in Boston, there's a Bright Pink benefit at the Fairmont Copley Plaza if you want to support awesomeness and bitch about support for LGBTQ persons.
In all the people I've talked to about this though, I rarely run into another lesbian at all in my situation, and the ones I do have been coupled for 5+ years. I would just like to find one other single lesbian on the goddamn planet stuck in my shitty situation.
//end rant that was not so much of a rant and more of a feelings dump sorry.
Bright Pink benefit is tonight, as in like 3.5 hours from now.
Sorry I tend to do this awkward thing where I share way too many details of my life on the Internet, but yea. This has been issue #1 of my life for the past four months and the feminization of a disease that affects 2,100 males a year (25% of whom die of it) and the assumed heterosexuality pisses me off so so so much.
And I will talk to the founder of Bright Pink tonight regarding including information about trans* men. I’m looking through their literature now and there’s not one mention of it. I’ll see what I can do :)
Hiy autostraddle!
I wanted to have a word, and it’s something I wanted to ask you about for a long time, but I’ve been worried you’ll take it the wrong way. I don’t want you to get upset, because I’m worried you will think I’m criticising or, even worse, breaking up with you. Know how much I love you, and how much I appreciate you and how I’ll still be here reading your queertastic carnival of words whenever I can.
I trust you to hear what I’m saying to you now and know that it’s exactly what it is in the words I’m saying, and not passive aggressive, or anything negative at all. I am wondering if you have any suggestions for another lesbian themed website, similar to this, but based in the UK. BECAUSE WAIT A SECOND OK I totally, completely, understand that this is an American website. There is no but. I also understand that you TOTALLY do cover other countries happenings that are queer relevant. I’ve seen it and you do such a fantastic job and I love you so don’t be upset with me!! It’s just, I have to believe there is also a website that is queer relevant and uk based, where I could read more about British politics and big steps forward and sad steps back and events and authors etc. etc. etc. from this side of the pond, you know? I know America is a super power, and you guys are American, so there is no part of me that is questioning the updates on American politics and gay marriage in America! I read it! It’s interesting! I just, also, want to know about bumbling British big shots and their blunders, too. Any suggestions for where I could find this?
I did some googling, but “Google is so strange. It promises everything, but everything isn’t there. You type in the words for what you need, and what you need becomes superfluous in an instant”
Big love from an every day reader who probs wouldn’t have come out if it weren’t for you.