Queer Media I’m Consuming
#169
Welcome to Third Cultured, a newsletter about Queer people in diplomacy, politics, and war from the perspective of Kyle Borland (he/they). My goal is to highlight all the ways today is different (and not so) from yesterday.
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This edition:
Queer Media I’m Consuming
As always, thanks for reading. (And, don’t forget to “like” this post!)
Kyle (@kgborland)
Queer Media I’m Consuming
7 Most LGBTQ-Friendly Honeymoon Destinations in the World (Traveler)
‘Am I making James Baldwin proud of me?’ Two Black queer authors reflect on his legacy and words (Reckon)
Angry Person: Ketamine-induced reflections on abuse and beliefs (¡Hola Papi!)
A person’s beliefs are not a bouquet. They are a forest, an ecosystem of convictions. Truths aren’t plucked here and there and individually placed in the brain-vase, but instead spring from a common bedrock with roots all tangled up with one another beneath the surface. To pull at one is to tug at them all.
It is in this way a person like me, a person who smiles through every interaction, a person who avoids eye contact, a person who won’t walk into a restaurant if it’s within 45 minutes of closing, and a person whose Airbnb reviews uniformly say “you’ll hardly notice he’s there,” can actually be seething with paranoid rage at all times.
“I should be extremely polite,” can be and often is tangled up with, “the world wants to hurt me.” “I don’t want to bother anyone,” can be entwined with, “I’m angry at everyone.”
Big Songs, Big Emotions: On Glee, Santana’s Coming Out Scene, and Naya Rivera (LitHub)
Body Dysmorphia Continues to Be a Serious Issue Among Gay Men (Everyday Health)
Brandon Taylor Loves to Read Romances and European History (NYTimes)
ChatGPT wrote a Bible verse about Jesus accepting trans people & it’s gone viral (LGBTQ Nation)
And a woman, whose heart was divided between spirit and body, came before him. In quiet despair, she asked,’Lord, I come to you estranged, for my spirit and body are not one. How shall I hope to enter the kingdom of God?’
Jesus looked upon her with kindness, replying, ‘my child, blessed are those who strive for unity within themselves, for they shall know the deepest truths of my Father’s creation. Be not afraid, for in the kingdom of God, there is no man nor woman, as all are one in spirit. The gates of my Father’s kingdom will open for those who love and are loved, for God looks not upon the body, but the heart.
Cyborgs, Decolonialism and Queer Identity (Syracuse)
“I wanted to use queerness—which I interpret as a physical expression and concept that ruptures the system—to subvert and inspire discussion about techno-orientalism,” Tam says. “Architecture can help us understand the spaces and interactions between body and emotion. It has helped me frame bodies, objects and projections to tell a story about queer celebration and rejection of the Western gaze.”
Disney welcomes Gay Days in Florida as the feud with DeSantis rages on (WashPost)
Drag Story Hour is Controversial, but Important – Here’s Why (Book Riot)
Elite Capture in the Los Angeles LGBTQ Community (And Everywhere Else) (LA Progressive)
Gay Bars Aren’t Disappearing; They’re Changing (Eater)
How Black People Won the Battle of Montgomery (The Nation)
The fight broke down along largely racial lines—but I blame white folks for that. There were white onlookers, and riverboat passengers, who could have joined the defense of Pickett. Nobody was stopping them, but they declined to help. As happens so often in this society, Black people had to defend each other because nobody else will.
That is why this fight was so satisfying to so many Black folks: because this time we could help each other. That’s the teachable moment of the brawl; that’s the moral lesson I wanted to share with my children. Black people will stop white violence against us—much more quickly and effectively than law enforcement or the courts, sadly—if we are only given a chance to see the brutality before it’s too late. We will risk the legal consequences of our actions. We will put our personal safety on the line to free a fellow Black person from the clutches of violent white folks. We must. I promise you, every Black person who joined in the fight knew that one day, they might be Damien Pickett. Those folks weren’t defending a stranger; they were defending their future selves, or their children, or their friend.
How the Gay Agenda Took Over TV (The Advocate)
Life Is Drag (Harper’s Bazaar)
Publishing Queer Berlin: Weimar Germany was an improbably safe space for newspapers and magazines by and for lesbians. (JSTOR)
Queer History Detective: On the Power of Uncovering Stories from the Past (LitHub)
Queer Leadership, Stronger Universities (Public Books)
See Photos of Gay Men in Love Dating Back to the 1850s (Smithsonian)
Sperm Fever: The tantalizing business opportunities and disorienting politics of the worldwide decline in man’s most precious bodily fluid. (New York Magazine)
The Birth of the Homosexual Movement and Socialism in Germany (Left Voice)
The Do's and Don'ts of Being a True LGBT Ally (Psychology Today)
‘The Male Gazed’ dives deep into masculinity, Ricky Martin, & more queer heartthrobs (Esquire, Queerty, NYTimes)
The paradoxical queer history of Iran (LGBTQ Nation)
To Solve the LGBTQ Youth Mental Health Crisis, Our Research Must Be More Nuanced (Scientific American)
Trans kids crave acceptance at school in a nation that often resists it (WashPost)
What Is Queer Ecology? Queer theory expands our relationship with nature (Sierra Club)
What It’s Like to Be a Queer Teenager in America Today (NYTimes)
What It’s Like to Drive Cross-Country Trying to Visit Every Queer Bar (LitHub)
Why the Internet Hates Gay People (The Nation)
With Mpox at Risk of Flaring, Health Officials Advise, ‘Get Vaccinated’ (NYTimes)
Yes, Drag Queens are the Reason your Contour Routine is so *SNATCHED* (hypebae)