After a stressful year that is getting crazier and crazier by the day, it was a well-deserved breather to celebrate cultural accomplishments in television for a brief moment before we get back to preparing for the 2020 election. The Emmy nominations brought great accomplishments, like a record number of Black people being nominated, but also some problems, like the lack of Latinx nominations. But another important snub not to overlook is the exclusion of trans actors. Despite an incredible year for trans actors,… Read more

The Ellen Show has been a staple of daytime television for years. But now there are allegations of sexual misconduct by the producers, according to a BuzzFeed News report. Several ex-employees have said that there was rampant sexual misconduct and harassment among the executive producers of the show. All of the ex-employees asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation. Dozens of former employees of the show said that executive producer Ed Glavin “had a reputation for being handsy with women” and also made… Read more

We’ve come to the conclusion that even if there is some mass document in the Oval Office with every last detail of the President’s job description, Trump almost certainly has not read it. On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted a statement that had Twitter-goers reeling. Please, read the following with your very best impersonation of Trump: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most FRAUDULENT Election in history,” he wrote. “It will be a great embarrassment… Read more

After winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 and amassing a worldwide following, sensational 27-year-old Israeli singer-songwriter Netta set to work transforming pop music as we know it. Her dance-worthy anthems, often layered with dizzying electronic vocal loops (which she creates live in performances), are brimming with positivity. And so was she when we caught up via Zoom to chat about everything from self-celebration to the power of gibberish. What has life been like since Eurovision? I’m trying to hold on… Read more

According to a report on The Hill, the House of Representatives passed two child care bills on Wednesday. These bills aim to help both families with the financial burden of child care and the underfunded and neglected child care industry. These bills are also intended to help the child care industry and families specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first bill, entitled the Child Care Is Essential Act, would help out by giving $50 billion to the child care industry. This bill also included language to “provide… Read more

Happy birthday JK Rowling! To celebrate the queen of TERFs and Harry Potter author’s birthday, trans folks and allies took to Twitter and started donating money to Mermaids, a UK charity that supports trans youth, in her name. Rowling came under fire last month for her remarks about trans people on Twitter, particularly when she rejected the validity of the term “people who menstruate.” The statement she issued addressing the tweets was equally riddled with transphobia. On her website, Rowling explains why she stood in… Read more

Netflix is adding seven iconic Black sitcoms to its streaming library starting this weekend. The '90s shows being added to the platform include Moesha, its spinoff The Parkers, The Game, Sister, Sister, Girlfriends, Half & Half, and One on One. Netflix’s Twitter announcement of the new additions included some heartfelt messages from stars of the shows, including Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends), Tia Mowry (Sister, Sister and The Game) and Tamera Mowry-Housley (Sister, Sister), Shar Jackson (Moesha), and Dorien Wilson… Read more

We're celebrating the end of the month with a visual album by Beyoncé, several immersive new novels, and Brandy's return to music following an eight-year hiatus. Read on for all our entertainment picks this week. MOVIES/TV Black Is King Beyoncé always seems to drop something new right when we need it most. This time, she’s bringing us a visual album exploring the lessons of The Lion King and celebrating Black culture and excellence through music. Streaming July 31 on Disney+. I Used to Go Here Gillian Jacobs stars in… Read more

Alyy Patel is a LGBTQ+ activist and graduate student living in Canada. Her research includes “'Brown Girls Can’t Be Gay': Racism Experienced By Queer South Asian Women in the Toronto LGBTQ Community,” which was published in the Journal of Lesbian Studies in March 2019. Patel founded the Queer South Asian Womxn’s Network and was the first ever South Asian speaker at the 2020 Toronto Dyke March. She’s an overall badass paving the way for queer South Asians everywhere, and I was excited to talk to her about her research,… Read more

Gucci just released a new genderfluid clothing collection called “Gucci MX,” which dropped on July 22. On their website, they have a men’s, women’s, children’s, and now an “MX” category. Gucci describes “The MX Project” as “collections set out to deconstruct preconceived binaries and question how these concepts relate to our bodies.” As to how they do this, I’m not entirely sure. According to Pink News, the addition comes after creative director Alessandro Michele’s announcement that Gucci would no longer host gendered… Read more

Oprah Winfrey is one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, and it’s impossible to think of her magazine without thinking of her face on the cover. Every issue of O Magazine has featured Oprah as the cover star — that is, every issue until the magazine’s latest. In the newest (and historic) cover, Oprah gave up her spot in order to honor Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old EMT who was shot eight times and killed by police after they came to her house with a no-knock warrant. As of several months after… Read more

Meet Rina Sawayama, a Japanese-British triple threat: she can do it all as a singer, songwriter, and model. Not to mention, her self-titled record Sawayama was hailed by those at Metacritic and the like all the way to the revered Sir Elton John. Not too shabby at all. Looking back, she recalled a time when her record label, Dirty Hit, asked what she wanted to achieve with her forthcoming album, and she casually replied, "I want to win a Mercury Award." I've lived here 25 YEARS (most of my life) but I am not British… Read more

California Senator Kamala Harris has long been talked about as one of the frontrunners for Joe Biden’s Vice President pick. Other notable contenders include Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Tammy Duckworth, Susan Rice, Stacey Abrams, and more. The picks have been discussed a lot, as Biden still hasn’t made his decision on who his running mate will be, but some supporters strongly feel it shouldn't be Harris — and their reasons are suspect, to say the least. According to Politico, Chris Dodd, one particular Biden ally… Read more

Over the past week, you might have seen a ton of women posting black and white Instagram photos with the hashtags #ChallengeAccepted and #WomenSupportingWomen. The viral campaign is a way for women to show off their support for one another. In a landscape that has traditionally pitted women against each other, this is meant to break the stigma that women cannot be supportive of other women. Many celebrities have taken part in this challenge, including Khloe Kardashian, Bella Thorne, and Demi Lovato, among countless… Read more

“We want complex characters with multifaceted experiences.” These words are the resounding call of 2020 as the confluence of the Black Lives Matter protests and queer POC activism make plain our fundamental need to redesign our media—and Maisie Richardson-Sellers is making her own wish come true. An Oxford graduate, actor, writer, and queer WOC activist—is there such thing as a quadruple threat?—Richardson-Sellers is reshaping representation within the film industry. Although many know her as Charlie on DC’s Legends of… Read more

In the 1970s, a gang of activists made history as the first—and–only American terrorist group founded and led by women. They bombed the Capitol, broke their friends out of jail, and, 40 years later, some are still at large. It was 1981 and Marilyn Buck, Susan Rosenberg, and Judy Clark had spent days casing Co-Op City, a housing complex in the Bronx. Hours passed as they watched people and businesses, including the armored trucks that ferried cash to and from a bank. They were there to help “the Family,” a group of… Read more

Charlize Theron has been at the forefront of changing how women are portrayed in action films for almost 20 years. During Friday’s San Diego Comic Con, Theron took the time to sign in from home and speak to online audiences. She discussed women in action films, how women fight, and how fear helps push her to achieve her goals. Over the years, a lot has changed about how women are portrayed in action films. Many times, women are depicted as trophies while the men get to do all the butt-kicking. Theron has played a major… Read more

On Monday, a Tea Party Patriots-backed group known as "America's Frontline Doctors" held a press event in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. A doctor claimed that she had "cured" COVID-19 by using a combination of Hydroxychloroquine, Zithromax, and zinc, a claim not supported by any strong scientific research. She also said that wearing a facial covering and social distancing were unnecessary. Breitbart News, the right-wing news site, published the video which was viewed millions of times before it was removed from the… Read more

It’s official: we are less than 100 days away from the 2020 presidential election. And while the prospect of finally ousting Trump in the very near future is comforting to say the least, that doesn’t mean the next few months of having a racist cheeto in the oval office is going to be easy. As for the prospect of him getting re-elected? Let’s not even go there. Everyday it seems like there are a dozen new articles and clips of the Trump Administration trying to do everything in their power to spew more conspiracy… Read more

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it will not be taking any new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and that officials will be trying again to close the program, according to Vox. DACA is a program started by President Obama in 2012 which allows immigrants who were brought to the United States as children by guardians to have “deferred” or delayed deportation and apply for work permits. This order protects immigrants whose decision to immigrate was made for them… Read more

This past Monday in California, publicly funded child care providers voted overwhelmingly to form a union in collective bargaining with the state. Organizers believe that this is the biggest U.S. union-organizing election victory in recent years. It seems to be the largest unionization election since 2011. The union, Child Care Providers United, was a joint effort between labor groups the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The local affiliates of… Read more

If you are Black and transgender, you are five times more likely to experience homelessness than the general U.S. population. This is a reality that activist Kayla Gore fights against every day in her work with My Sistah’s House, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Black trans women and nonbinary people access safe housing in Memphis, Tennessee. There is so much wisdom, clarity, & vision in this profile of Kayla Gore, Co-Founder & Executive Director of @MySistahHouse. So moved by all that she is doing with My Sistah's… Read more

LOOKING AT ANNIE MONTGOMERIE’S pieces for the first time can be a bit disturbing. Her dolls—figures such as cats, dogs, cows, and bears—have such realistic-looking faces, you may think they are taxidermied. “I’ve had people ask if they were real quite a few times,” confirms Montgomerie. The mixed-media artist living in Dorchester, England, has been creating these pieces, displaying them in galleries, and selling them on Etsy, for the past six years. They can cost anywhere from $850 to $2,500 each, and are frequently… Read more

While countries like New Zealand are having farmers markets, frolicking around with Kiwi birds and are basically Covid-19 free, Americans are still debating whether the disease is a conspiracy theory. Considering America has the largest percentage of cases of any country in the world, you would think people wouldn’t be so resistant to wearing something that could help prevent catching a disease and dying. But some people are dumb, like really, really dumb. If you’ve seen any of the countless videos of people throwing… Read more

The WNBA’s season kicked off this Saturday by not starting at all. Instead, players from the Seattle Storm and New York Liberty walked off the court during the national anthem in an act of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Following their walk-off, the players held a 26-second moment of silence in memory of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old certified EMT who was shot to death by police officers while asleep in her Louisville apartment on March 13. “We are dedicating this season to Breonna Taylor — an… Read more

A legendary stand-up comedian, Judy Gold was one of the first out lesbians in the business and she has been making people laugh on stage, on TV, and as an author for almost 40 years. She won two Daytime Emmys for her work as a writer and producer on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, she’s had stand-up specials on HBO, Comedy Central, and LOGO, and she’s had two hit Off-Broadway shows. Now, Gold is hosting the podcast Kill Me Now and her new book, YES, I CAN SAY THAT: When They Come for the Comedians We Are All In Trouble comes… Read more

The women in congress are kind of on a roll, and we’re pumped about it. After an incident that went viral over last week—in which Republican Florida Rep. Ted Yoho allegedly called Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “f*cking b*tch”—AOC made a historic speech on the House Floor. Although Yoho denied the incident, he issued an apology on the House floor on Wednesday, claiming that since he has been married for 45 years and has two daughters, he is “very cognizant” of his language. “The offensive… Read more

TikTok pretty much has it all. Over the course of the past few months, the video-sharing app has become one of the most used applications in the world. While most of the app’s users are between the ages of 13 and 24, TikTok has recently broken into the mainstream news cycle, making the world notice just how much power and influence this app has. In June, it became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, working as a platform for young activists to organize protests and acts of passive resistance. While the app… Read more

A new wave of Black trans talent is breaking through the music industry. What started with a desire to provide free beats to Black trans people has developed into a historical music-industry collaboration. Record label, Trans Trenderz, has partnered with renowned New York recording studio, Studio G Brooklyn, to pair Black trans musicians with Grammy caliber industry professionals throughout the entire process of producing their projects. Not only will resources for artists be free of charge, all production decisions… Read more

Strap in, fellow dykes. In the midst of quarantine, Taylor Swift came out of nowhere and said she was dropping an album only 16 hours after announcing it. Her eighth studio album, Folklore, is not only a collection of songs she poured her “whims, dreams, fears, and musings into,” but a sapphic masterpiece. Surprise 🤗 Tonight at midnight I’ll be releasing my 8th studio album, folklore; an entire brand new album of songs I’ve poured all of my whims, dreams, fears, and musings into. Pre-order at https://t.co/zSHpnhUlLb… Read more

The Internet’s doctors are posting photos of themselves lounging around in bikinis with alcohol, and frankly, we’re living for it. Today, a 2019 study from the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery was posted on Twitter. In the study, three male doctors sifted through 480 vascular surgeons’ social media profiles and detailed the “unprofessional content” they saw on the accounts. The study concluded that half of recent or soon-to-be graduating vascular surgery trainees had an identifiable social media account, and of… Read more

The newest STEM star taking the biotechnology industry by storm isn’t some Silicon Valley bro. She’s a Harvard University sophomore named Kavya Kopparapu and she’s literally changing the world. First introduced to the intersection of medicine and technology by a group of women scientists who came to her elementary school in Northern Virginia, Kopparapu was inspired to make her own breakthrough discoveries. “Being a student, you don’t have any stakes,” the 19-year-old says of inventing two precision medicine platforms… Read more

From social distancing to staying in quarantine, COVID-19 has hit many foundational structures in our society. During the beginning of the pandemic in March, the country came into a panic-fueled frenzy, buying copious amounts of toilet paper and other household goods, leaving shelves empty and barren—and most importantly, leaving other folks and families without basic needs. And now with states like California officially closing for the second time due to COVID-19 spikes, where do we go from here? How do we care for… Read more

Happy Leo season (and end of the month)! Here’s what we’re listening to, streaming, and reading this week, including a sex-positive comedy, new essays by Zadie Smith, and a surprise drop by Taylor Swift. MOVIES/TV Radioactive Rosamund Pike is Marie Curie in this biopic about Marie’s marriage to fellow scientist Pierre Curie and their Nobel Prize-winning 1903 discovery. Available to stream July 24 on Prime Video. Yes, God, Yes Natalia Dyer, Alisha Boe, and more star in this dramedy about a Catholic teenager who… Read more

Spirits company Bacardi Limited just released a new vodka, called Plume & Petal, which is reduced-calorie and reduced-alcohol. And surprise, surprise: the advertising was initially aimed exclusively at women. A restaurant editor, Khushbu Shah, took a screenshot of the press release and put it on Twitter, sarcastically adding, “just what I need in 2020! gendered drinks with half the alcohol.” The press release says that the vodka was made “by women, for today’s modern woman, intended to be enjoyed with other women.”… Read more

THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWNTemple(Ribbon Music) On their fifth studio album, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down explore what it means to be whole. Hell-bent on owning her identity, Thao Nguyen looks within and opens up from every jarring angle. In turn, the San Francisco-based group arrives at its most personal and complex work. Gooey beats melt into bellowing riffs creating a lively sound, but in a trip-hop, heavy way. Temple is a direct embrace of the front-woman’s defining parts, particularly the ones that never fit… Read more

In 2019, Taylor Swift dropped her long-awaited seventh studio album, Lover, and less than a year later, she just announced that she’s releasing her eighth studio album called folklore. On Twitter, Swift described the record as “an entire brand new album of songs I’ve poured all of my whims, dreams, fears, and musings into.” The album will be released at midnight tonight. Surprise 🤗 Tonight at midnight I’ll be releasing my 8th studio album, folklore; an entire brand new album of songs I’ve poured all of my whims, dreams,… Read more

Brooklyn activist Emily Gallagher just defeated one of the longest-serving members of the State Assembly, Joe Lentol. Gallagher will be representing the 50th District. The defeat came almost a month after the election, as they were still counting the votes in New York. Gallagher ended up taking the lead with the help of absentee ballots, which were higher than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lentol, who had been a member of the Legislature since 1973, conceded and stated, “It’s decided: The voters in the 50th… Read more

It was early April when I stumbled upon the fresh and spirited images of Brooklyn-based photographer Meg Stacker King on Instagram. Her feed offered up a much-needed infusion of fun and hope for a brighter, better future amidst the COVID crisis. A series of black and white photos that highlight the love and connection between parents and their children are part of Stacker King's quarantine inspired project titled We the Mamas. Stacker King is a woman whose passion for both her craft and humanity presents a positive… Read more

Burger Records, longtime home to many scrappy and charming garage bands, has come under fire for fostering a culture of sexual misconduct among both its artists and staff. The label announced on Monday that they intended to make “major structural changes” in order to address “a culture of toxic masculinity” that they have long perpetuated, though they have since made the decision to shut down completely. Bands like the Growlers, the Black Lips, SWMRS, and the Buttertones have been implicated. Multiple artists came… Read more

Content warning for sexual assault of minors and coercion Former Miss Kentucky, Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, has been sentenced to two years in prison for sending sexually explicit photos to a teenage boy. The 29-year-old was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release and ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender. Bearse admitted to exchanging the photos between August and October 2018, when she was working as a schoolteacher in West Virginia. The boy was one of her former students and his parents reported Bearse… Read more

Welcome back to another episode of unnecessary period products that should probably never go near your nether regions! Menstruators on Twitter this weekend were confused, and even concerned, about a new period product that seems not only unnecessary, but potentially harmful. And after the news on this product made the usual rounds around feminist Twitter, gynecologists agreed that it is almost certainly a no go. The product in question is called the Blossom Brush, a vaginal cleansing brush intended to “remove lingering… Read more

It looks like Colin Kaepernick—who still doesn’t have a job, by the way—was onto something with the whole kneeling thing. “America’s Favorite Pastime” came back this week after the coronavirus shutdown for a shortened season. At this time, it’s not entirely clear whether or not audiences will be able to come and watch stadium games—if so, stadiums will most likely only be filled to 50 percent capacity. On Monday, San Francisco players, coaches, training staff, and team manager Gabe Kapler took a knee during the… Read more

A Black woman named Lanisha Bratcher is facing 19 months in prison for voting in the 2016 election in Hoke County, North Carolina.. The 32-year-old mother was on probation for a felony assault charge when she voted in the election. Though Bratcher states that she was never informed by a judge that she was denied the right, the district attorney of Hoke County charged her with a Class I felony for voting while serving a criminal sentence. “I had no intention to trick anybody or be malicious or any kind of way,” she said… Read more

Los Angeles is about to get a new professional women’s soccer team, thanks in part to Natalie Portman. On Tuesday, June 21, the National Women’s Soccer League awarded a group led by Portman the rights to form a franchise in LA. The team has not yet revealed the official name although it is tentatively named Angel City, and is still in early stages of development. The NWSL only has about nine teams throughout the United States. The group that’s led by Portman also has some other notable names such as America Ferrera,… Read more

WHEN COMEDIAN JABOUKIE Young-White steps into his BUST photoshoot, I clumsily exclaim, “You’re much taller than I expected!” He squeals with laughter and asks if the interview is an “exposé,” because as the social media influencer who coined the term “short king”—to challenge the height shaming of men—he’s often glorified himself in this way alongside names like Kendrick Lamar, Donald Glover, Bruno Mars, and Dr. Martin Luther “Short” King Jr. “Short kings are the enemy of body negativity,” the 25-year-old once tweeted,… Read more

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is known for being outspoken and progressive. She’s been dubbed as part of “The Squad,” an informal title for a group of four progressive women who were elected in 2018. Other members include Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. It comes as no surprise that Ocasio-Cortez’s views aren’t popular with everyone, especially her colleagues across the aisle. But what did come as a surprise was when Florida Representative Ted Yoho accosted Ocasio-Cortez on the steps… Read more

Right now the future is so uncertain, but if nothing else it most definitely is in the hands of Black and Brown girls. Monday night, PBS POV, in its 33rd season, aired the 2019 documentary We Are Radical Monarch. The documentary showcases the humble beginnings of the Radical Monarchs—formerly Radical Brownies—an Oakland-based, social justice and service alternative to the Girl Scouts. The film opens with newscasters stating Latinas have a lower rate of graduating high school than any other major subgroup and that Black… Read more

WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS: A DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT MIGRATION RECLAIMS HER ROOTSBy Morgan Jerkins(Harper) Growing up, Morgan Jerkins “felt like an outsider among my blood, a feeling that would stay with me until I was an adult.” In this memoir, she tries to connect to the places in America her family first called home by visiting those sites. Jerkins knew that what her family couldn’t remember—or had chosen to forget—“can be found in people you have yet to encounter and places where you have not yet traveled.” So she… Read more

With everything going on in the world, hopping on Twitter in the morning can sometimes feel exhausting: you know, what with all the police brutality and racist politicians and celebrities like J.K. Rowling not knowing when to stop tweeting. And, of course, the pandemic. Anyway, if you were looking to learn what you missed while sleeping in this weekend, here are a few quick points to catch you up. via CDC/unsplash Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Has Successful First TestWith research facilities worldwide racing to find a… Read more