Our Fall Preview ’09 is well underway, already including a massive TV Preview, Autostraddle’s first Terrible/Awesome Grid, and the Glee live-blog/drinking game AND our Reading Rainbow Fall Book Preview (we love literature!) For the whole shebang, we have provided a comprehensive guide to the Fall Preview Issue.
New posts as of yesterday: This October 11th, bajillions of gays will be shacking up in Washington DC for the National Equality March, and now that Glee’s premiere is over, this is easily the biggest Fall event. Katrina looks at the controversy over the march, the marches that came before, and what you can expect this year: We’re going to Washington for the National Equality March and here’s why…
Fall Fundraising! On a more serious but equally fun note, you’ve probs heard that independent media operations are struggling these days to stay afloat, especially without an inherent online profit model, which is why if you enjoy what you read here every day you should consider supporting our Fall Fundraising Drive! There’s lots of ways to participate — for example, go right to Zazzle and buy a $10 fundraising sticker featuring our new Autostraddle logo and slap it on your ass and 50% of the cost goes directly to Autostraddle! Or just donate directly … details at the Fall Fundraising Drive!
DJ CARLYTRON: Where the girls at?! If you’re in New York, stop by Stonewall tonight for the launch of LivingLambda, a new series of women’s events in NYC. If finding out about Lambda Legal’s events and 2-for-1 drink specials aren’t enough incentive to come, our very own DJ Carlytron is gonna be busting out the jams as well. (@go magazine)
RIP: Patrick Swayze has died at 57 after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. The L.A Times has a Patrick Swayze photo retrospective of some of his most memorable roles, and then go check out the Dirty Dancing website and get lost in his eyes.
GAY ‘FREAKS’: In “On freaks in crowds,” a gay Republican writer compares leather daddies, naked obese lesbians and drag queens to right-wing tea-bagger eccentrics and wonders why the media is so much nicer to the gay people (who just so happen to be fighting for love! Perhaps a bit graphically for passing children, but love nonetheless). The comments against what we see as a TOTALLY RIDICULOUS argument are somewhat awesome: “If that aged leather queen or the dykes-on-bikes had showed up with AR-15s slung over their shoulders, promising to water the trees with blood, then you’d have parity.” (@beliefnet)
LADY GAGA + KERMIT: Lady Gaga did a lot of special things last night. The best part? Kermit the Frog was fully her date. I’ve gone from admiring her to being really jealous.
++ Assorted Depthless Celebrity & Entertainment News Items Are In Abundance Today
THE THEORY OF GAGA: Nerve.com breaks it down for you in My Bare Lady: How Lady Gaga Out-Skanks the Competition: “Gaga likes to call herself a performance artist instead of a musician. It might be pretentious, but it’s actually kind of an inspired take on our pop-music universe.” (@nerve.com) Queerty, however, wasn’t impressed.
PARIS HILTON: Paris Hilton is now a gay rights activist sorta, which we suspect is a pretty comon side-effect of canoodling with Kate Moennig.
KELLY CLARKSON IS ‘NOT A LESBIAN’: Is Kelly Clarkson a lesbian? Her song lyrics tell a very sapphic story. (@santa barbara independent)
KANYE WEST: Kanye West issues a second apology after his fantastically drunk ALL CAPS ORIGINAL APOLOGY. It’s too late, though, because Katy Perry already compared his antics to stepping on a kitten, also in all caps. The real story is that he drank a lot of Henessey. Also Obama calls Kanye a jackass, maybe. But here he is on Leno, looking really sad and remorseful, and I think that it’s time to be on #teamkanye ’cause the guy hasn’t taken a day off since his Mom died. Also Taylor should’ve talked when he handed the mike back. Just saying!!
TATU: She made you gay with all the things she said – t.a.t.u.’s Lena Katina has gone solo and launched her own website. It’s all in Russian, but you can visit and bask in the memories of your gay adolescence. (@lena katina)
LADY GAGA: KANYE WEST AND LADY GAGA HAVE TOUR DATES. We will sit and wait and watch them compete for the title of Pop Culture Jesus. Also n that photo she’s hanging out with Madonna, also ohnotheydidnt deconstructs Lady Gaga’s VMA Ensembles and they miss out on a big one, but luckily Autostraddle already took care of the Ascension in “Gaga=Jesus.” (@gagadaily)
WOMYN: What makes a presidency female-friendly? “Considering the diversity of views among American women, it is insulting to assume that there is one ‘women’s view’ and it is represented by liberal feminist activists.” (@jezebel)
RELATIONSHIPS: The racial cop-out: Do we consider race when choosing a partner? (@thenewgay)
DEBORAH SOLOMAN: Gawker even has a Deborah Solomon questions-to-answers ratio graph to analyze this situation. I LOVE THE INTERNET. “Deboroah Solomon’s Seth MacFarlane interview for her NY Times Magazine “Questions With…“ column was a landmark not only of hostility toward a subject, but she has chosen that readers would rather hear what she has to say than her subjects.”
↑ INTERN WEDDING: Gay marriage is coming to D.C. Maybe. ”It’ll be the first time, in a long time, that we’d get a chance to see exactly where our elected representatives stand on gay rights. With a single yes or no vote on D.C.’s marriage bill, we’d know whether the “on the fence” members of Congress are friends or foes.” (@queerty)
? Apparently Health Care is the new gay marriage.
↓ We remember this case. Good for them that they’re suing!: A lesbian couple sued the city of San Antonio and nine police officers Monday for alleged harassment during a fruitless drug raid in April in which the women say officers handcuffed them and made demeaning comments about their sexual orientation.
↓ It is remarkable how little progress gay people have made in securing the basic protection against discrimination on the job: The Rights of Gay Employees. (@nytimes)
↑ Gays in China standing up to police: ”When the police descend on People’s Park and shoo away the gay men gathered there, the men usually scatter to avoid trouble. But recently, about 50 or so confronted five officers who began a sweep and finally forced a police retreat after a heated but nonviolent standoff.” (@365 gay)
↑ That’s so gay: GLSEN is launching a new ad campaign to make the phrase “that’s so gay” look outdated, meaningless, and ignorant…because it is. (@queers united)
Auto-Straddler of the Day
from Intercaine Katrina:
I will never tire of hipster humor. Stuff Hipsters Hate makes me laugh my skinny jeans off.
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from Crystal:
My team pick is Taylor Swift.
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from Carly:
Check out the Yellow Bird Project: T-Shirts and charity to the tune of indie rock! Awesome t-shirts made by bands like Rilo Kiley, Stars, and Little Boots, with profits going to charities of the bands’ choosing. They also have a new Indie Rock Coloring Book, which is genius. Cool bonus fact: EE Storey made their cute logo! (@coolhunting)
Calling Kelly Clarkson gay is soooooooo gay.
See and at my parent’s/accountant’s request I was going to all invest in mutual funds (do you have those in America?), but I think this is the only website that will ever properly refer to the after effects of canoodling with Kate Moennig,and therefore I must give you my money instead.
I’m sure we have mutual funds here but I have no idea what they are! I mean, if you fund us, then that’s mutual, eh? So its like the same thing? ;)
Remember when the Autostraddle Roundtable tackled the generation gap? Yeah, I never felt it until watching Lady Gaga at the VMA’s. I just don’t get the Gaga love and now I know that I am officially old.
And yes, Taylor Swift should have said something after Kanye’s rant but she is 19 and she was stunned. I never thought I’d say this but – I agree with Katy Perry.
I don’t listen to or really care about Taylor Swift or Kanye, but yeah, Katy Perry was right (shudder) and I’m on Team Taylor. Kanye was rude and immature and wrong to steal that poor little girl’s moment like that. Everytime he opens his mouth I feel like he becomes a bigger Jackass.
i just saw the bit when beyonce got her up on stage afterwards and it pretty much made my heart explode with awesome. beyonce is my hero and taylor is just adorable. what an unbelievably classy woman; and when I saw her in d.c she gave the crowd a wee 5 minute lecture about the importance of the sisterhood = amazing.
Lady Gaga is confusing for the first 5 minutes or whatever but you have to try again.
Did you see the thing where Swift was like, “I was really excited that Kanye West was on the stage and then I wasn’t so excited anymore.” That was a real heartbreaker. She’s just so wee!
I’m in a similar boat re: Gaga; I want to love her, and I do, in some ways, but then I see an interview with her and i just can’t STAND her. She will have earned that pretension after ten years of doing what she’s doing right now (which is being awesome), but she’s not there yet.
oh sorry laneia, that reply was supposed to be to Vikki. i don’t care what you have to say. jk pudding etc.
the way the comments stack here can be v pudding sometimes. i understand or whatever.
did you know that for the first few weeks of seeing your gravatar, i thought it was a blonde girl in a brown shirt, sitting in a chair w/ her back facing us and blood/red paint on her head? it’s true. then i looked closer one day and saw that the chair said “Maker’s” and i realized it was a bottle of whiskey.
that’s so weird because it’s actually two faces or a vase.
why don’t you email a larger version of it to me so i can wrap my head around the wtf of it all because now i’m confused.
i want you to know that i got your joke and i thought it was really funny. i actually meant to reply to katrina’s comment about it looking like a gnome. have i mentioned that the way comments stack here is v pudding? i don’t know, whatever. you’re funny.
LOL at “i want you to know that i got your joke.” :) The internet needs more laneais. (doesn’t that look like maenads? scary.)
PS Dear Autostraddle, sorry for threadjacking your daily fix with a discussion of my avatar.
I will buy everyone a round of Maker’s in recompense if I am ever at an autostraddle event. xo bcw.
for some reason, every time i see it, i still think it’s a gnome.
yeah i’ve totally always seen it as a gnome, like its fishing with its back to the camera.
And when she squeaked that she’s a Kanye fan!
twist the knife, little kitten. go ahead.
#GAGA
Also Brooke is 25 and is not into Gaga. And, to Lady Gaga’s credit, she has been doing what she’s been doing for a long time, it’s just no-one noticed until last year. She had been performing and sweating it out for a while, and since she writes and does all of her songs and performances and stuff herself, it’s not that redic that she’s got that attitude. I think.
how long is “a while”? the four years since she started with def jam? i agree that she has every right to hold her head high; but i think she’s operating at pomp level: madonna and should maybe downgrade it to a fiona apple. NOT that i’m comparing.
Every time I read the “How You Like Us Now” links, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to live in Connecticut and reminded that there’s still so much progress to be made.
ohmygod crystal. i listened to that song like ten times and then played it on my guitar forever last night.
taylor swift in nerd glasses and a periodic table shirt <3
i’m a closet taylor swift fan and feel you should know that that is actually her tshirt, and she’s worn it in a few of her video blogs etc.
also is the award she won fan voted? because noone will ever win against taylor swift if its up to her fans.
No it wasn’t fan voted, trust me I checked! I actually thought right after Kanye got up there that he knew something we didn’t; like that it’s somehow rigged or Taylor had somehow paid for that award or something, you know? Then I realized that it would seem that he was just drunk.
Yes Taylor’s award was fan voted, a tween’s loyalty knows no bounds. The video reminds me of Michelle Branch’s clip for ‘Everywhere’, even though the clips are nothing alike and Michelle is way better. I love Michelle Branch, she should win all the awards.
My pick was intended for yesterday’s Fix, when it was a little more relevant, and at first I thought Team Kanye censored me but in reality I was slack and didn’t submit it in time.
Oh, my bad, I thought it was fan voted. On Taylor’s Fan Club website they were all, “Vote for Taylor!”… but I guess that doesn’t actually mean the votes count.
taylor swift is so adorable! #teamtaylor all the way. my sister hates her because she broke up with a jonas brother or something.
the tension at my house is great. my sister’s withholding all the trashy movies.
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i need to tell you that i am abnormally sad about Patrick Swayze’s death.
i assume you’ve seen this?
http://www.celebjihad.com/images/kanye_west_patrick_swayze.jpg
oh god. that’s good
I am pretty sure Paris Hilton held that sign because she was fearing for her life. She went to a party organized by a Milan-based gay association and they asked her to hold the sign right away, which she refused. At her refusal the party-organizers asked her to leave the premises, and everyone was boo-ing and screaming at her. (VIDEOS here: http://gaynews24.com/?p=3631 )
She got really sad (I read somewhere she even started crying) and kept asking what was going on, and when her assistants explained, she finally apologized and accepted to hold the sign. Full article here: http://gaynews24.com/?p=3624
Personally I think she should not have been boo-ed and screamed at right away, and that she was in good faith. But it’s a really bad time in Italy, we suffer homophobic attacks every day now and we don’t have an iota of a law that protects us in any way (the Vatican, remember?). So we’re all pretty pissed off, actually.
News in English explaining what actually happened: http://cli.gs/u97L4
why didn’t she want to hold the sign? maybe it didn’t go with tinkerbell’s outfit or something.
Tinkerbell? Does Autostraddle have a foreign correspondent to Italy? Anyway, Paris Hilton probably thought “I don’t like this sign, the red is too orange-hued”. Or something.
Quick show of hands- does anyone else think Lady Gaga is really sexy? Even smeared with joke blood. I refuse to believe I am the only one. Please don’t say it is just me and Perez Hilton.
ALSO. I read this on textsfromlastnight and it make me laugh:
i hope kanye doesn’t show up to patrick swayze’s funeral. ” i’ll let you get back to your funeral in a minute…but michael jackson had the best death of the year. just sayinnn’
Dear Kelly Clarkson,
We get it. You can stop telling us how straight you are now.
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
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Miles of Smiles,
Dawn
I am so torn about Lady Gaga. I like her music, her refusal to lipsynch, her ‘OMG WTF’ onstage and offstage outfits, her outspoken interviews and general spunky attitude. Her life is a one long attention-grabbing performance.
BUT! One thing really gets to me and that is her friendship with Perez Hilton. I auto-disrespect anyone fame-desperate enough to kiss perez ass in exchange for promotion. With Gaga, I don’t understand how you can be passionate about supporting LGBT rights and be BFF’s forevs with Perez Hilton. Don’t clutch Ellen Degeneres’s hand on national television and get misty about her what she has done for gay visibility when your friend Perez Hilton is trashing Lindsay Lohan’s out lesbian relationship ‘SaMAN’ ‘LEZlo’ to 4 million readers a daily. His particular brand of casual homophobia is so damaging to the LGBT and it seems really hypocritical to me for her to be so tight with him.
I’m not particularly well-read on Lady Gaga’s rise to fame and personal history, but i love her music and i think her performances are crazy entertaining and smart. for those that don’t know what to make of her, this is how i see her: i get the sense that her “performance” isn’t just about her music or what she’s doing on stage. Lady Gaga is about the whole process / “The Fame” — what it’s like for the modern pop superstar… the ascension as he/she panders to a material-driven media & society, money (honey) and the beautiful, dirty, rich.
take another look at those performances and listen to her music… Lady Gaga is playing at the Madonna/Britney/etc level, because that’s what she’s interested in negotiating with her art. modern pop culture. how ridiculous it can be (escort kermie), how brutal it can be (scary/sexy/bloody Gaga), etc etc….
i don’t read too much into what Lady Gaga says or does or who she hangs out with (although her pro-LGBT statements are much appreciated). i think perez probably fascinates her and certainly plays into the whole concept of her album — as much as he’s a douchebag, he’s tapped into the internet and remade the way we DEVOUR news.
what i’m really curious about, is where Lady Gaga will go from here. “the fame” seems to be a one-record, self-contained statement on celebrity/fleeting pop culture… what to do once the frenzy has run its course?! another album-and about what? any thoughts from others….