Met Gala Theme: Camp

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lena-waithe-honors-black-drag-queens-met-gala-outfit-n1002851
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/05/232085/lena-waithe-pyer-moss-jacket-invented-met-gala-2019
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/936jay/why_are_people_writing_moodt_and_periodt_instead/

I don't really pay attention to events and stuff but I know that the Met Gala is a thing. Although I don't know what it is actually for, they always have a theme for the attendees outfits. This year the theme was "Camp: Notes on Fashion" based on Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on Camp.” My friend, who is much more "in" on pop culture and events like these, was showing me the different outfits that people wore, one being Lena Waithe. I noticed the back of her suit, reading "Black Drag Queens Inventend Camp." Curious about it, I looked up more information about her outfit/statement.  I've found many articles that more or less discuss the same thing, Lena Waithe's outfit, designed by Kerby Jean-Raymond, gives black drag queens the shoutout that they deserve. As one person comments, besides RuPaul, the event lacked any black drag queens, who's creation of camp fashion has inspired the event's theme. I was unsurprised as it is a continual theme in mainstream media/pop culture to not give credit where credit is deserved, especially to POC and marginalized communities. 

The second article discusses a little more about the spelling of "invented" on Lena's jacket. Many of the articles pointed this misspelling so I was confused as to whether it was purposeful or not. Lena tweeted that every thing she does is purposeful, saying "First there was “Periodt” ... and Kerby and I wanted to give y’all another one “Inventend”." The article explains this as meaning she is putting an emphasis on the D, like black people did it. I also looked up periodt/using t at the end of words and from this reddit thread, it seems like adding a t on the end of a word is a part of gay/drag culture and AAVE. This made me further appreciate Lena's statement as an acknowledgement and appreciation for the black gay/drag community. It just shows how much thought went into the outfit. The stripes are actually lyrics from black artists. Her buttons are the faces of black "camp" pioneers. The detail the designer put into this outfit is amazing and I love it.

Genderless Voice

Q - a gender-neutral voice assistant

I saw this article a while ago and forgot about it/to read it but knew I wanted to share it with the blog. I think it's super cool and interesting because I have rarely thought about the voice assistants and the way their pitch/tones imply gender or affect the way people take in information. Before I had read this article I assumed that voice assistants are usually female-sounding because of motherly, comforting, and familiar feeling women are associate with. In the article, they discuss that female-sounding voices can be preferred in assistive settings while male-sounding voices can be used as an authority source. Similarly, I watched a John Mulaney bit where he said he heard that people take information from a female's voice but take a warning from a male's voice. Now I don't know how accurate his sources are but it seems to match what was implied in the article. Overall, I found this a really cool way in facilitating discussion and conversation about gender through a different lens and medium, voice assistants/AI, that is just going to get more prevalent with the growing technology.

NYT article on Military Supporting Transgender Service Members

After some searching, I was able to find this article that I read in The New York Times a few months ago regarding transgender service members in the military. In class today I mentioned how in many ways the militarily as been fairly supportive of these soldiers--especially when compared to the current administration. The article explains how transgender service members generally are supported by their comrades and their commanding officer (often to a greater extent than by their own families and home communities). Anyway, I thought it was an interesting read that adds more texture to our conversation today. Let me know what you think!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/us/transgender-troops-military.html 

Pete Buttigieg and his husband have been dubbed the “First Family” on the cover of TIME Magazine

In class we have been discussing the connection between politics and the LGBTQ+ community, talking about the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy by the Obama administration and the dangers imposed by Donald Trump to the progress made by the Obama administration. In news for a more hopeful future than the present being posed by Trump, the Democratic 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigeig and his husband have been named the "First Family" on the cover of TIME Magazine. The image depicts Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, in front of a white picket-fenced home, wearing co-coordinating blue shirts and pants-- a message seeming to align with the conservative argument for gay marriage as allowing it would keep American ideals and tradition intact. Pete Buttigeig is a former member of the Navy Reserve and the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana-- a role he has held since 2012. The piece in TIME explored Buttigieg's rise to fame as well as his relationship with his husband, discussing the fact they met on an online dating app while Pete was serving as mayor. He "came out" while in office in 2015. The pair married in June 2018 and are the first same-sex couple posed together on the cover of TIME since an edition was published dedicated to equal marriage in 2013.

LGBTQ Youth: High Risk of Homelessness and Incarceration

LGBTQ youth are at greater risk of homelessness and incarceration
This research expands on the dire issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness and the racial disparities within this population. The detrimental effects of homelessness and incarceration on people’s physical and mental health, relationships, and social and economic prospects are immense. Experiencing these realities as a young person will likely have harmful effects that last a lifetime. When I wonder why this issue is not being addressed a few explanations arise. First, these youth have no political capital because they are homeless and, thus, generally lack time to meet with and sway the opinion of their elected officials. Second, the racist, homophobic structures that prop up the white, heterosexual status-quo continue to thrive when LGBTQ youth and youth of color are disenfranchised from an early age.

Religion used as Reason to Deny Birth Control

Today in class Professor Selig mentioned the NPR podcast that she just posted on the blog about that discussed recent anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas that uses religious freedom as grounds for denying services to LGBTQ individuals. This reminded me of an experience my mom had recently at a doctors office in Turlock, the small town my parents recently moved to. As they had just moved, my mother needed a new doctor. On her first visit she asked to get a new IUD, her current method of birth control. The doctor told her she probably didn’t need it because she was likely menopausal. My mother told him she knew she was not, to which he replied something along the lines of her still not needing it because the chances of her getting pregnant were so small. My mother pushed back again and asked if there was any reason for her not to get the IUD because wasn’t it better to be safe than sorry….he still refused to provide her with the IUD. So she went to Planned Parenthood instead and had a much more positive experience. Once she made friends with people in town, she learned that that particular doctor is Catholic, and does not believe in birth control, and that was why he refused to give my mom the IUD, not because he genuinely believed, in his unbiased professional opinion, that she did not need it. Although this experience is different from LGBTQ discrimination, it is still an example of an individual’s personal religious beliefs being used to violate someone’s rights. However, the doctor did not explicitly state that he was refusing to give her birth control because it conflicts with his religious beliefs, and as such, this experience makes me think about the anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas because even if it is ultimately defeated, there is nothing preventing individuals from continuing to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or violate reproductive rights, on the basis of religion however informally.

Asia Kate Dillon's Gender Exploration

This is a great interview with actor Asia Kate Dillon on Seth Meyers' show. They talk about their gender exploration as a non-binary person and the ways in which representation is really important, and how there is more than one way to express yourself as a non-binary person.

A really great watch, highly recommend!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p84_xaLZc-g