This is part of why it’s so important to have trans people on your team when you’re making shows about trans people. Every time I think about the fact that it’s going to air tonight it gives me a knot in my stomach.
GLSEN recognizes and celebrates the incredible work of people in the indigenous and two-spirit communities! Check out these 12 people you should know, put together by our friends at Autostraddle!
The Feminist Utopia Project: Fifty-Seven Visions of a Wildly Better Future is a brave book, both in what it asks its contributors to speak to, and in what it asks its readers to take away. Its strength comes from its breadth of perspective and the incredibly hopeful visions of all 57 people who contributed short stories, essays, interviews, comics, poems and photographs to build a composite view of how we would create — or what we would need to create — a “wildly better world.”
57 Feminists Riff on What the World Could be in “The Feminist Utopia Project”
Although she now identifies as queer, when Fitzgerald was younger and realized that she was attracted to both boys and girls, she came out as bisexual, a process that takes up some substantial space in the book. Reading about how much she struggled to identify with the term bisexual is so devastating. She does a brilliantly excellent job at showing how society puts pressure on bisexual women to “pick a side” and either be gay or straight. Young Meags feels pressure from TV, her parents, lack of role models and even her own internalized sense of biphobia. When she comes out to her friend as a teen and tells her that she has crushes on girls, she tells her that she’s afraid of being bisexual because it means she won’t have a soulmate. That took all the air out of my lungs.
Drawn to Comics: Meags Fitzgerald Explores Bisexuality, Celibacy and Make Believe in “Long Red Hair”
They stumble all over each other and themselves to say that it did, of course it did! Of course! Of course men can be bisexual too! Of course it’s not true that all women are bisexual and all men are gay or straight like they say it is on television! Of course not who would ever think a thing like that WHO WOULD EVER? So, welp: props to Faking It for introducing a male bisexual character. Seriously, that’s very cool! However, it does not replace my need for Amy to have a nice relationship with a lady, maybe with Emily Fields. They can just lie to each other all day and then tongue kiss. Anyhow, Wade somehow likes both Shane and Karma, but would like some time to decide who he’d rather take to Lauren Junior Prom.
Faking It Episode 217 Recap: Maybe I Should Get A Date Just In Case
Crafts and coffee with #indystraddlers 💖 Happy coming out day everyone! Take some time it for self-care 🌈🌟🎉 (at Thirsty Scholar)
There are a lot of articles about various mental health topics at this link. Autostraddle is a website focused on queer women including many trans women writers.
Happy National Coming Out Day! #queer #nationalcomingoutday #indystraddlers #autostraddle (at Thirsty Scholar)
There are definitely people in my own family who think of me strictly as ‘the one who got pregnant in high school, moved off to California, became a lesbian, and now lives a life of sin in the desert of all places,’ and while all of those things are true about me, they’re certainly not my entire story. It’s just tough titties for them because little do they know that I’m also getting into herb gardening and one time I made a quilt! I can recite all of Dirty Dancing, my wife is the most selfless human on earth, my kids are brilliant, Brittani Nichols is following me on Twitter, AND I’m really, really good at making mashed potatoes! Like I frighten my own self with how amazing my mashed potatoes are. Those poor motherfuckers will never know, ever.
I think it’s true for a lot of our readers that Autostraddle was the only space where they could engage on whatever topic was being discussed with only other queer people, and talk to people about their stuff. I don’t think people ever max out on having conversations with other people who are like them. Everybody craves it and needs it, and we’ve been really honored to make a space for that.
Hi friends! I’m writing a year-long series of articles about periods for 2016 and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Like blood, not like punctuation! Each month is going to have a different theme (food, language, anatomy, and so on) and there is just so much I just don’t know. As a white person. As a cis woman. As a queer woman. As a mostly able-bodied person. My experience is so limited. While I can teach myself the relatively-objective things like how the uterine cycle works, I don’t want to rely on books written by old white dudes to talk about cultural aspects of menstruation. Instead, I want to highlight you, dear queer and trans readers, as primary sources and people who experience periods in all different ways.
I’ve got all kinds of questions and am hoping that you want to participate. If you want to write something brief, I want to publish it! If you want to be interviewed, I want to talk to you! If you want to make art, I want to show it! If you have ideas to share, I want to amplify them and credit the sh*t outta you!
Here’s what I’m looking for specifically:
If you’re a person who has, had, or will have periods and is queer and/or trans, I want to hear from you in whatever way suits you. I want to compensate everyone for their work, so we can negotiate what that means for you. I make body products, sew, grow plants, cook, do calligraphy, woodworking, digital design, papercrafts, and teach all those things, so I can almost guarantee there’s something for you. I’d especially like to highlight the experiences of people of color, trans people, disabled people/people with disabilities, and Deaf people. Whether you’re a writer or a talker, send me 1-3 sentences about any topic you have thoughts about. I’ll get back to you so that we can talk about whether your piece looks like a paragraph you write, a drawing or photograph, or an interview that I have with you over the phone or gchat.
In the interest of both accessibility and signal-boosting, I’m willing to credit you however you’d like or keep you totally anonymous. Ideally, I’d like to get whatever email, website, other other links you want featured and a picture of each contributor so that I can draw a picture of you kinda like these posters I made (although obviously without the IDNYC business):
Submit here! Or send me an email at paperrroot@gmail.com, a tweet at @laurrrrita or send me a facebook message at https://www.facebook.com/laura.wooley. Sooner (before November 1, 2015) is better, but that can mean that you just send me a quick message saying “I want to participate but don’t have time to send you something longer yet!” If you’ve got doubts or questions or suggestions or want to see the first post to get an idea of the tone of the series, feel free to send those my way too.
