Have a great week! Drink water!
Queer as in F*ck You
Hallmark TV Chief Leaves After Dispute Over Same-Sex Wedding Ad and no one will miss him. Bye!✌🏾
12 LGBTQ Books You Won’t Want to Miss in 2020
After Culinary and Literary Acclaim, She’s Moving to the Woods. According to the NYT Chef Iliana Regan has Michelin star and “last summer published ‘Burn the Place,’ perhaps the definitive Midwest drunken-lesbian food memoir.” I didn’t know that “definitive Midwest drunken-lesbian food memoir” was even a thing, but damn I want to go to there.
Abby McEnany, The Creator of Work in Progress, Just Wants to Pee in Peace. Oh hey, this is a legitimately cute interview!
South Dakota Doctors Could Face Criminal Charges Over Prescribing Puberty Blockers for Trans Teens (and while we are on the subject Puberty Blockers Can Be ‘Life-Saving’ Drugs for Trans Teens, Study Shows)
White House Streams Homophobic Sermon Attended by Mike Pence. Just 285 days until the 2020 election, kids!
Saw This, Thought of You
Yeah, I recommend skipping this one.
This one is for my book nerds. If you’ve been on twitter this week, you probably saw that people were upset over the new Oprah Book Club selection American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. It’s about a migrant family making their way to the border, but many Latinx writers have called the work out as trauma porn and called Cummins out specifically as a white writer taking advantage of a story that isn’t hers to tell. OK! Those basics out of the way, here’s a really good explainer on what’s going on. Here’s an EXCELLENT editorial from queer Chicana author Myriam Gurba on the subject: Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature .
(Also Myriam wrote a strikingly beautiful piece for us last year about anti-Chicanx and anti-Latinx violence, which you should also definitely read if you have time.)
(Last thing on this subject! But if you missed Latinx Twitter completely roasting American Dirt by writing parody tweets about “My Latinx Novel”, The Los Angeles Times has a hilarious round up for you)
In other news…
Afghan Women Journalists Fight for Their Place In the Newsroom
Louisiana’s New State Law Spells Trouble for POC Who Want Abortions
15 Years After Katrina, a Fight Against ‘the Jim Crow of Climate Change’ Rages On in the Gulf Coast
What if Competition Isn’t As “Natural” As We Think?
People said that women had no place in the Grand Canyon and would likely die trying to run the Colorado River. In 1938, two female scientists set out to prove them wrong: The Wild Ones.
A hot tip for our white readers, “You’re so articulate!” is not a compliment. And 5 Other Phrases Your Black Friend Wishes You’d Stop Saying
And finally, This Is the Best Way to Avoid Someone at a Party. You can thank me later.
Political Snacks
McConnell’s Impeachment Plan Is to Make Us All Give Up. He wants us to get frustrated, overwhelmed, and give up hope. We don’t have to let him.
Pete Buttigieg’s Husband Canceled Fundraiser at Gay Bar ‘Because It Has a Stripper Pole.’ I realize there’s a lot of pressure involved in being the first openly gay major candidate for President, but if you ask me, this kind of distancing yourself from your people isn’t a good look.
i am so so glad you shared the Gurba article, i literally almost shared the link to in the A+ box i wanted it included in AAA so badly
Was coming here to say the same thing.
carmen i’m so glad you’ve got the links for this american dirt kerfuffle because despite being an avid book twitter lurker i only vaguely knew what was going on! suddenly a bunch of authors were writing incredibly funny #mylatinxnovel parodies and i assumed it was just a gift from the universe but no! there is drama!
i think the question of ‘who has the right to tell this story?’ is such a fascinating and evolving one. like, stories about every type of person, particularly those who have been historically under- or misrepresented, are vital! but telling those stories irresponsibly in a big fuzzy rush of inclusivity isn’t helpful. i don’t want people to start writing caricatures of disability left, right, and center and going “but now there’s disabled characters! isn’t that better than no disabled characters?” don’t make me choose between no representation and bad representation! let the people with the lived experience tell the story! let the people who’ve researched write the story! let the people who are wholly committed to recognizing and negating their privilege tell the story!
New Samantha Irby book soon, thank you lesbian jesus!
I read that competition article earlier today, and wow is it good!
I have so many tabs open now. Thank you Dr CP