Remember that time Rachel ranked the best jewish lesbians for Hanukkah?
The bottom line is we examined the situation we found ourselves in and said, “this shit has got to change.”
Sure, Chanukah kind of doesn’t matter in the hierarchy of high holidays but that doesn’t mean its origin story can’t help your parents see the error of their ways. The Maccabees are the rebel heroes that took down a patriarchy of religious intolerance. The Macabbes fought for…what? Oh, right. Acceptance of who they are: Jews. And what are you doing when you light those little candles? Celebrating those Maccabee heroes. Your parents are literally celebrating the idea of acceptance and tolerance every night of Chanukah. Now is a good time to remind them of that. Besides, the Maccabees look kind of gay to me.
We call upon the legacy of the Stonewall uprising. We call upon the legacy in the fight for our freedoms from the racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ableist, violent system. Tonight we will call out the names of some, not all — the ones that we know have been killed at the hands of the police, or from their neglect in upholding our safety. We cannot name all the names because often we are disappeared and not remembered.
Cara Page, Executive Director of the Audre Lorde Project, via Audre Lorde Project Hosts Vigil and Flashmob To “Free Our Sisters, Free Ourselves”
It’s here, it’s queer, and now it’s grey! Grab our Scissoring Sweatshirt in its latest shade at the Autostraddle Store.
Maddie and her fellow ‘straddlers made cards for queer and trans prisoners at their holigay party! #HappyHoligays
I had lived the privilege of a blackness that was reaffirmed in society, and found myself reflected in every echelon of power, and tale of despair. My experiences had been normalized, rather than nominal. I had walked streets and avenues, surrounded by nothing but brown shiny faces and had never experienced the color of my skin as a coat to be put on outside my home. It is because of this that I spend the first two years in America looking for faces like mine in every public space, finding them, counting them, willing them to multiply so that my skin can feel at ease again. It never happens.
It’s #TBT, so here’s a photo of Senior Editor Yvonne as a tiny human! http://instagram.com/p/weXBVoAld8/
Fuck normal; who wants to be normal? I choose this abnormal, absurd world filled with unashamed characters that have multiplied in me the gift of love, of eyes wide open, of a curious soul and an accepting mind. Who have given unto each other something the world can’t: a sense that this is the norm, that what we are doing isn’t exceptional, or strange, but merely the way things have always been. That’s what home feels like. There is no consciousness of your otherness, you simply are. It is a place that does not seek to define you by the things you are “not,” but rather by an affirmation of your presence and being.
When the ceramic snow village came down from the attic and the tree went up in my living room, everything was going to be okay. Christmas would make it okay. My mom threw dishes, smashed them against the floor and the wall, but she never even chipped her Southern Living Christmas china. My dad wasn’t home very much; he had to travel all the time for work, but he never missed a holiday moment. He chopped down the tree. He untangled the lights. My dad made a “Santa Stops Here” sign for my birthday one time, and he was right: During the regular year, we had to choose between crutches for my broken ankle or cigarettes for my mom, but Santa always gave everyone in my family something so good. My mom bought elves and she bought angels. She displayed them in every nook of our house. Nobody got slapped at Christmas.
Heather Hogan via Hate Actually: Can the Holigays Heal a Gay Grinch’s Heart?
Dating can be a total bloodsport. Lolita Bandita walks you through what to do when sexytimes go red.
I am now 100 percent convinced Archie Panjabi‘s time on The Good Wife is going to end with either Kalinda riding off into the sunset with Lana, in some kind of Olivia Pope island situation, or with Kalinda getting axe-murdered.
When I was first motivated to get sober, I had nowhere else to turn except AA. But eventually, I got exhausted of being told that I was resentful, resistant, miserable, and angry every time I challenged AA’s teachings.
Get out your ugly sweaters, y'all. It’s time for our annual holigay parties, and we’ve got something for everyone - whether you’re a crafter, karaoke expert, or brunch connoisseur. Check out the official list to find a holigay party near you this month, and don’t forget to share photos and other good stuff this season using the tag #HappyHoligays on social media!