Feature image by Steve Dykes/Getty Images
Just so you have a snapshot of my day: the floors in my apartment (which flooded in August) have been torn down to the concrete today, which means I now live in my bedroom only. On Sunday, while preparing for the floor people, I fell on my knees and busted up one of them so badly that I’m still icing it days later. Also this morning my phone, which fell in water over the weekend, froze in a green screen that is the color of 1990s Nickelodeon slime. So I spent two hours at the T-Mobile store! Fun! We’re having fun!
Queer as in F*ck You
Russian Court Sets Brittney Griner Appeal Date for Oct. 25, if there is Brittney Griner news, we will share it. Every time. Every single time. Until she is home.
Drag Houses & Queer Parties Offer Sanctuary To LGBTQIA+ Latines
“I’ve been a champion of unconventional office chairs ever since I first tried the famous Varier kneeling chair. So imagine my excitement when I spied a TikTok of someone crisscross applesauce in a wacky office chair contraption unlike anything I’d ever seen. “This is the perfect chair for bisexuals,” I thought to myself (IYKYK), and damn if I wasn’t right. Because if anything was designed to go viral on TikTok, it’s the Pipersong Meditation Chair, and from the moment this bisexual saw it, she needed to try it for herself.” I Tried It: There’s No Wrong Way to Sit in the Pipersong Meditation Chair
This is pretty graphic, but I’m including it because there is a trend of bisexual women (overall in life, but specifically for this very sliver of a moment I’m talking about celebrities) who are in public, domestic abuse situations with celebrity men and they are not being heard or believed. So this is me, holding space, for Angelina Jolie. And wishing comfort and peace to her and her children: Angelina Jolie Claims Brad Pitt Choked One of Their Children
Saw This, Thought of You
Yesterday brought with it some very important, and upsetting, news about the years long abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League. Now I dabble in sports, but this one is important, so I brought in an expert. Here’s Natalie: Yesterday was a seismic day in the world of women’s sports, as the systemic nature of abuse and misconduct — verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct — in women’s professional soccer was laid bare. I’m still working my way through Sally Yates’ report (yes, that Sally Yates) but it is an awful tale…not just of the abusers but of so many people who were complicit in the abuse. Time and time again, victims and their advocates turned to their teams, to their management, to their league for help and each and every time, they were ignored.
- From Meg Linehan and Katie Strang at The Athletic: ‘This guy has a pattern’: Amid institutional failure, former NWSL players accuse prominent coach of sexual coercion
- The Full Yates Report, commissioned by US Soccer
- TL;DR: from ESPN, Yates report explained: Key findings on Holly, Riley and Dames abuse, what’s next for the NWSL
- In short: Abuse in women’s pro soccer league was systemic, report says
- Important Upcoming Dates: 10/4 – E60’s “Truth Be Told” airs; 10/7 – England vs. USWNT; 10/16 – Start of NWSL Playoffs; 11/?? – Results of a NWSL/NWSLPA joint investigation
And adding to Natalie’s list, here’s an explainer I found useful for anyone else who’s new to following sports, but wants to learn more about what’s happening, and looking for a place to start: 5 Takeaways From the Report on Abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League
Abled-Bodied Leftists Cannot Abandon Disabled Solidarity to “Move On” From COVID
Indigenous Women Keep Fighting For Their Land Rights — Against All Odds
I actually listened to this late last week, but it’s such a phenomenal profile that I haven’t stopped thinking about it since: Whoopi Goldberg Will Not Shut Up, Thank You Very Much
There’s a Better Way to Wipe: With a Bidet (from Vanessa, “Muna Mire in NYT talking about BIDETS I DIE!!!!!” And if you want to ponder more about how bidets are queer culture, may I also recommend, written by Vanessa herself, My Girlfriend Installed My Bidet While I Cheered Her On for Autostraddle)
Hershel Walker, the ultraconservative Republican running for Georgia Senator, seems to have paid for his girlfriend’s abortion, despite being strongly Pro-Life. These are things that are not surprises because wealthy and powerful republicans never intended to stop having aboritons, they just want to keep poor people who don’t have their access from having them.
Political Snacks
Let’s have some fun, just for once: In Alaska’s Fat Bear Week Election, There’s No Party Like a Salmon Party. “If hypocrisy in politics turns you off, the election you need is in Alaska, where the candidates are voraciously out for themselves. You can vote beginning Wednesday.”
I know we all like to joke about bisexual sitting but if you don’t feel comfortable unless your legs are tucked up at butt height try and get your blood pressure/heart rate checked, cause it’s a common sign of POTS. My heart rate can vary up to 40bpm between sitting bisexually vs with my feet on the floor, but I had no idea til someone pointed it out!
Totally. Also, as a side note, first make sure chairs aren’t just too tall for you! Chairs aren’t usually made for 5’3” people like me and it makes me crazy. If your feet aren’t firmly planted on the ground with the tops of your thighs level, your chair might be too high!
I thought my need to sit with my legs crossed or underneath me was a comfort thing from being short, not POTS, and it turns out it’s both! I can’t see how that chair is comfortable when your legs are lower than they would be on a standard chair if you sit cross-legged but I’d like to try it out.
Just to be explicit about content so people know what they’re getting into if they read it, literally the very first paragraph of the Yates Report after the table of contents graphically describes a sexual assault. Other parts of the report variously described instances of misconduct and failed responses to misconduct, but be aware the report does not ease into anything.