Announcements! Everyone is allowed to drink before sunset today and here’s why: within the last four days, Autostraddle’s own Intern Vashti and Intern Emily came out to their parents (and it went really well!) and TODAY IS OUR CHIEF OF SERIOUS STUFF BROOKE LEVIN‘S BIRTHDAY, SHE IS 25 YEARS YOUNG!
Television Article! This is the best Tuesday Televisionary that has ever happened: Madmen, Better Off Ted, Weeds, My Life on the D-List, Nurse Jackie, Toddlers & Tiaras, Intervention, Drop Dead Diva, and True Blood.
Music Article! Katrina went to the Kaki King art show and all you get is this AMAZING article about lesbian hipsters. And Autostraddle counts down the Top Ten Lesbian & Bisexual Fashion Icons.
+Top Stories
SOCIAL CHANGE STARTS WITHIN:
In a Queerty piece entitled, “There’s No Repealing Prop 8 Until Gays Repeal Our Own Self-Importance,” writer Nakhone Keodara declares: We all want and demand change, but CHANGE in and of itself is not some ethereal concept floating out there in space. Before we go demanding that people change their convictions, we have to change ourselves. That means that the gay culture has to change. Can we give up our tendency to be insulated and become a part of the larger society? … and we agree and feel it deserves to be considered by the lesbian community as well. (Autostraddle Roundtable: What’s Next, Post Prop 8?) He also makes some really interesting points about racial relations within the movement.
Meanwhile, we’re making some related progress. Here’s Gawker: “Oh, hey, you know how Obama’s Justice Department keeps filing briefs in support of the Defense of Marriage act equating gay marriage to incest and pedophilia and all that? They don’t actually mean it!”
Here’s what the Justice Department is saying now:
Government lawyers continued to assert that the law passes constitutional muster, but they pointed to narrow grounds in seeking dismissal of the California case, Smelt v. United States. “The Justice Department cannot pick and choose which federal laws it will defend based on any one Administration’s policy preferences,” department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.
THE L WORD MOVIE: Jenny Forever
Diane Shipley at The Guardian UK notices that we loathe The Chaikenbake, and don’t wanna see her movie: “While Sex and the City fans flocked to cinemas out of loyalty to a programme they still had fond feelings for, the last episodes of The L Word were so awful that former fans are unlikely to go back for more.” Shipley points out, as we so passionately have ourselves, that starting with Season Three and following the death of Dana, “the show’s writers had quite literally lost the plot.” She also adds that there is no guarantee the movie will be made.
+Arts & Culture
VOGUE EVOLUTION: In The Advocate, “Crew chief Devon Webster agreed that Vogue Evolution’s sexuality will likely affect how long the group remains on the show. Judges weigh in, but viewers largely determine who’s popular, who isn’t, and who should go home. Webster, however, said it could go either way. ”
COMING OUT … AS STRAIGHT: Mia Martina met her first girlfriend in high school, and then, at 26: “I left my girlfriend, our one-bedroom house in City Island and our troubled relationship in search of something new. I was curious about a lot of things, even men, but didn’t put “have sex with a man” on my to-do list. I figured if I was open to it, it would happen. And it did.” (@nerve.com)
PRESIDENT LADY GAGA: The questions you have been asking will be answered: Which Lady Gaga Song Are You? (@out.com)
VISUAL ART: Photoshop Free-For-All: “a portfolio of images that helpfully showcases before and after with a roll of the mouse, and while some of the transformations are simple (wrinkles and skin smoothed out, curves reduced or enhanced), some of them are absolutely gobsmacking. It’s an easy way to lose half an hour” (@ampersand duck)
FEMINIST TEEVEE: 10 Things I Hate About You‘s Teenage Feminist: “I can’t remember the last time a teenage TV character proclaimed to be a feminist — and wasn’t making a joke.” (@jezebel)
+News & Politics
CHURCH & STATE: Texas School Begins Bible Classes and they aren’t the objective kind they’re supposed to be teaching. Oh, that agenda! (@the bilerico project)
ADOPTION: Sometimes fair things happen, like when North Carolina Upholds Second-Parent Adoption. (@q notes)
PINK TITLE: A look at companies with weird policies on gay language. Like at Continental, asking “GLBT travel?” gets “Hey, let’s keep this clean. Is there something about contential that I can help you with?” (@queerty)
COLORING GAY: A New Page in the Lesbian Coloring Book (see, left!) (@illustrocity)
TRANSAIR: New TSA Laws Make It Harder For Transpeople to Fly. In its valiant efforts to ensure passengers are safe from terrorism, the TSA has made it hard for transmen with documents that don’t match how they currently identify to get on the plane at all. (@feministing)
Auto-Straddler of the Day
Jennifer Garner is Alias Autostraddle
from Intern Laura:
The Moth, a live storytelling series, has launched a radio show. You can listen to a hilarious story about sleepwalking by Mike Birbiglia on This American Life and then you can call your local radio station so that the pilot will be picked up!
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from Laneia:
Whichbook is a site that helps you find the perfect book based on search criteria you’ve provided. Choosing the “Character/Plot/Setting” search allows you to specify the sexuality and age of your main character(s), as well as what country they live in and key plot points, among other things. As with any search, leave it somewhat broad and you’ll get more results! Very neat!
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from Riese: Why Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is so great. Really it is you guys.
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Happy Birthday, Brooke!!
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Also, Vashti and Emily, you are so amazing. Congratulations!
Thank you! It was Autostraddle that made me do it.
Thank you Bren!!
Thank you! Autostraddle definitely helped.
Perhaps Autostraddle should modify its mission statement to include providing hot young things with the courage and confidence to be their hot young selves.
That’s in the business plan!
thanks for the link to whichbook, i’d never heard of it (and it’s apparently been around since at least 2002! seems they haven’t changed their layout much since then :)) one thing i thought was interesting: their drop down menu for a character’s race lists “black, white, asian, mixed race, other culture, non-human.” lol.
Non-humans are people too, bcw! ;) (and if you can tell me what guilty pleasure movie I just vaguely referenced, you’ll be my new best friend)
District 9
Nope! It’s Stick It, actually. “Dogs are people too, Hayley!” Yeah…
I <3 Stick It.
What I found interesting about the photoshop thing was that I didn’t think the models looked half bad before being airbrushed. Like, I think they all looked great beforehand.
Is it weird that I want to make that Brooke Levin picture my wallpaper?
kidding (no really though…)
Birthday hug for Brooke!
Giant lesbo hug for vashti and emily!
#hugitout
Nice daily fix.
-IC needs to just let it go and let it die.
-Loved the coming out as straight article. You guys find the best stuff.
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My number one feeling today is Tegan & Sara + Tiesto. I feel in in My Bones
CONGRATS EMILY AND VASHTI!
You did a very brave and life-changing thing for yourself. I wish you all the happiness in the world!
Thank you so much. I definitely feel a GIANT weight lifted off my shoulders.
Yay, thanks! I feel a giant weight lifted off Vashti’s shoulders.
lolwut?
Fact: I just started listening to The Moth podcasts the other day. COINCIDENCE!
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Also, apparently I’m “Poker Face” which was kind of a let down. WANTED TO BE PAPARAZZI.
#ladygagabrainwashing
Yay for being out and proud! Scary and exciting.
I subscribe to the moth podcast already because I am determined to share every one of Ira Glass’s cultural influences, be sure to listen to ‘The Burning Of Atlanta’ for guranteed LOLs.
Yay ^3 !
Wholly crap! My site blew up (not really) thanks for the coloring feature! You gals rock, oh! And Happy Birthday Brooke and Happy Coming out to your parents day Vashti and Emily!
i love the erotic lesbian coloring book! thank you for giving birth to it.
This thread makes me want to come out to my parents. I want in on the outness.
glad to see more out chefs on the new season of top chef! =]
I BETTER GET AN L WORD MOVIE! I DONT CARE HOW SHITTY IT MAY BE!
A bit late but congrats to Vashti, Emily, and Brooke!
And like Thorton said, it makes me want to come out too!