Good news, kids! This weekend, Autostraddle’s Babe-B-Q celebration is coming to a backyard, fire pit, and/or other totally appropriate location near you. Here’s a round-up of all the events our readers are hosting.
It’s absolutely absurd — you know, young people today aren’t stupid. They can read the history, they know that this is not the way it happened. These people can’t let it go! Everybody can’t be white! This is a country of different colors and people and thoughts and attitudes and feelings, and they try to make all of those the same for some reason.
Not like it’s going to work, but damn if they don’t stop trying. It’s bad enough that across the street from Stonewall, they have statues up to commemorate that night. That’s cute, but there’s not a black statue there! The statues look like they’re made from flour and sugar! What is this? Why can’t one of the girls go up and throw up a little makeup on one of these bitches? And I’m sorry, but the last time I checked, the only gay people I saw hanging around there were across the street cheering. They were not the ones getting slugged or having stones thrown at them. It’s just aggravating. And hurtful! For all the girls who are no longer here who can’t say anything, this movie just acts like they didn’t exist.
I’ve lived almost all my life now Muslim and a significant part of it queer, and y’know how many (non-academic) books on queer Muslims I’ve read? None.Zero. So I was really excited to get my hands on Tanwi Nandini Islam‘s Bright Lines, a debut novel about a Bangladeshi-American family in Brooklyn. In a multigenerational, transcontinental tale, Islam weaves together issues of gender and sexuality across cultures, migration, in/dependence, family secrets, conflict and tragedy, and well, botany.
Read A F*cking Book: Tanwi Nandini Islam’s “Bright Lines” Adds Color To LGBTQ Fiction
Riese: We were just really, really honest. If we had become girlfriends, it would’ve had to have been really intense.
Laneia: Oh my god, it would’ve been awful.
Riese: Yeah. Also I think we’re both bottoms, so.
Laneia: Yeah.
Riese: Although if we’d hooked up, I would’ve been the top.
Laneia: Yep! I mean what you do — that’s the thing about you. You see a hole and you fill it, you know? You see a thing and you go ahead and you take charge. So you would definitely take one look at that situation and be like, well she’s never going to do anything.
Riese: Yeah. Well, I always took that role with straight girls, you know? So I’m flexible.
Riese: And I also feel like we both — what we look for or hope for in a partner is the same thing. I think both of us look to be with people who fill certain spots in us that are empty. And we have the same empty spots, you know what I mean?
Laneia: Yes! I need somebody who can go into stores and get things for me.
Riese: And somebody who doesn’t stress out or think it’s a big deal when they have to carry a ton of things from one place to another place. And takes charge when necessary. Yeah, we have the same needs. And our partners probably have a lot in common, in certain ways too.
Laneia: Yeah, definitely.
Riese: We would’ve been just lying there on our backs, waiting for someone to call the pizza guy.
Stef: So we went back to Lindsay’s and we filled a water bottle with vodka —
Mila: It wasn’t vodka.
Stef: What was it?
Mila: Do you really want to know?
Stef: Yes.
Mila: ….It was cooking sherry.
Stef: These were dark times.
It’s not all burgers and hot dogs. Check out these out-of-the-box BBQ recipes and get fired up about something new!
As Janet Mock said: “The names of our sisters shouldn’t only make headlines when we walk a red carpet or lay in a casket.” But that’s what seems to be happening. If you glance at trans women in the media, it may seem like we’re being embraced. Biko told me that if you actually take a closer look, it really seems like they just want to “worship you or (want you) dead, so that they can save you or fund raise off of your legacy.” Trans women of color are constantly asking for donations or help or places to sleep in posts on Tumblr, and usually barely receive any attention. Trans women of color often try to get money for films or books or other projects and are barely able to raise half the money that they need. Yet stories of their murders go viral. It’s long past time that trans women of color’s lives were valued while they are still happening.