June 19th, 2016
from Nat
What a hard week! I hope you’re caring for yourself and your communities in the ways that you can today.
- This crowd-sourced #PulseOrlando syllabus contains a huge range of important reading
- Alexander Chee on the courage of being queer
- “There’s not a lot of venues for queer people of color specifically to access, so we created our own. The queer club is so important for us as a community on the margins, an escape from the day-to-day harassment on the streets, in our workplaces, and even our homes.” On the importance of QTPOC spaces, by Kristy la rAt and Precolumbian
- In England, Jo Cox, a Labour MP, was killed by a constituent.
- On the deep and terrible effects of the Tuskegee Experiment
- During the 15-hour Democratic filibuster on gun control in the Senate this week, 48 people were shot in the United States: 12 were killed and 36 more were injured.
- “I’ve learned from Rachel that black culture is a house with a thousand rooms, with windows looking out on so many views. Her writing is like a high-wire act: Can she pull it off? Are these swirling ideas going to cohere? But they do.” This conversation was a gift this week – two of the best writers of our time, Zadie Smith and Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, on the admiration they have for each other.
- #NoWomanEver
- VERY important to some of us: Our Lady of Sensuality, Sarah McLachlan
- Sugary cranberry juices will not prevent your UTIs and the juice industry is trying to fool you! Don’t believe everything Ocean Spray tells you.
- “Straight girls love gay male public spaces because they feel like safe spaces. The Orlando massacre reminds us this safety is an illusion of our relative privilege. Not even gay public space is safe space to be gay.” Melissa Harris-Perry on straight girls and gay clubs
- I didn’t believe this was real at first, but I’ve seen the light: a woman picking mushrooms in the NWT was being followed by a wolf, and she put herself between a bear cub and its mother.
- A beautiful Toronto love story: city councillor Kristen Wong-Tam and sexual assault activist Farrah Khan sharing their engagement with the world
- Powerful, painful, thorough and humane: an interview with a woman who had an abortion at 32 weeks
- @gothshakira is a great Instagram account and this is a good article about it
- “Being bi comes with the double edged sword of “passing.” Because I’m married to a man, and because of my high femme gender presentation, most people will assume I am straight. I do not have to worry that when I hold my spouse’s hand in public that someone will beat me. I do not worry about the state refusing to recognize my marriage.” Biphobia, erasure and the Pulse Massacre
- Are you looking for better porn/erotica? Start searching here
- QTPOC art as self care: a great set of resources
- I’ve been almost exclusively listening to Beyonce and the new Chance the Rapper so far this sunny season, but here are some other songs of the summer
- “I don’t want to belong in this world. I want to end it and make something new, something better.” Creating Something Better with Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
- ICYMI, we published a great new comic this week on the heteronormativity blues. Check it out!
Image: ‘Blanket toss under midnight sun’ Inupiat – Alaska, 1962. Steve McCutcheon, Alaskan Digital Archives via Paul Seesequasis
