A is for asexual, aromantic, agender, and Accomplices not Allies!
“An asexual is someone who does not experience sexual attraction. Unlike celibacy, which people choose, asexuality is an intrinsic part of who they are. There is considerable diversity among the asexual community; each asexual person experiences things like relationships, attraction, and arousal somewhat differently.” –asexuality.org
“The aromantic spectrum encompasses people who feel that their romantic orientation is not within the bounds of what is traditionally considered romantic. They may lack romantic attraction to people, or experience it so rarely or in such a way that they relate more strongly to aromantic experiences than romantic ones.” –asexuality.org
“‘Agender’ by definition means “someone without gender,” and falls under the big, colorful trans umbrella. Just like someone might identify themselves as a man, a woman, genderfluid, and so on, a person who identifies as agender doesn’t feel as if they belong anywhere on the gender spectrum at all.” –autostraddle.com
Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex is a zine — an independently published mini-magazine. “Direct action is really the best and may be the only way to learn what it is to be an accomplice. We’re in a fight, so be ready for confrontation and consequence” (Visit the link below to read online or print one for free!) http://www.indigenousaction.org/accomplices-not-allies-abolishing-the-ally-industrial-complex/
B is for bisexuality, bikesexual, Joan E. Biren, boi, and butch !
Bisexuality is “the capacity for romantic and/or sexual attraction to more than one sex or gender.” –bisexual.org
Bikesexual is one of Melina’s favorite zinesters & is the author of the zine “Learn how to make your own harness!” which you can read & print for free here.
Joan E. Biren (JEB) is “an award-winning documentary photographer and filmmaker who has been chronicling the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals for more than 30 years” and graduated from Mount Holyoke 1966. –mtholyoke.edu
Boi – “A gender identity referring to a younger, butch lesbian in the butch-femme community, possibly taking on the manner and characteristics of a young heterosexual man; A young transman, or a transman who is in the earlier stages of transitioning.” –muhlenberg.edu
Butch – “ a) A gender-role specifier within the LGBTQ community that implies a masculine (or non-feminine) identity, mannerisms, or traits. An individual may simultaneously identify as female, male, genderqueer, or some other gender identity. (Related: Femme)
- b) 1.’Masculine’ or macho dress and behavior, regardless of sex or gender identity. 2. A sub-identity of lesbian, gay male, or bisexual, based on masculine or macho dress and behavior. (See Femme). 3. ‘Butch it up’: To exaggerate masculine behaviors” –edu
C is for consent, cisgender, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Cliteracy, comics, and coming out!
Consent is a fully affirmative and freely given “yes!” (you can print out the zine Let’s Talk About Consent Baby for free here)
Cisgender refers to individuals who identify with the gender prescribed to the sex they were assigned at birth.
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (2012) – “A hilarious date movie for couples of all orientations. Tongue firmly in cheek, Madeleine Olnek’s lesbian sci-fi comedy lovingly spoofs the black-and-white B-movies of yesteryear. Sure to become a staple of festival midnight-movie programs” –Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter (watch the trailer here)
Cliteracy is a mixed-media educational art project about the clit by Sophia Wallace that can viewed here.
comics are a “sequence of drawings” that accompany a narrative. Popular American comic series historically feature LGBTQIA+ characters and examine politics of difference in a way that speaks to queer subculture. Here is a cool video about sexuality and gender in comics!
coming out of the closet is the act of revealing one’s identity as anything other than heterosexual. Darkmatter asks: “… what does it mean to make the onus of liberation on the individual (you! come out!) versus the system (you! eradicate the closet!)?…what does it mean to compel people to come out when we do not have the infrastructure to support them (homeless shelters, radical foster care, finances, emotional support, jobs, etc.)?” Read the rest of this post here.
D is for DarkMatter, demiromantic, demisexual, dildo, drag and dyke!
DarkMatter is “a trans south asian performance art duo comprised of Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian.” You can check out some of their work here.
Demiromantic – “ A demiromantic does not experience romantic attraction unless they have already formed a strong emotional bond with the person.” –www.asexualityarchive.com
Demisexual – is “a sexual orientation in which someone feels sexual attraction only to people with whom they have an emotional bond. Most demisexuals feel sexual attraction rarely compared to the general population, and some have little to no interest in sexual activity.” –demisexuality.org
Dildos – “a vaguely-phallus-shaped device used for sexual gratification. Actually, they come in lots of shapes, from very-realistic penis-shape, to vegetables like corn cobs and zucchini, to dolphins”- lesbianhandbook.net , (check out this feminist sex store Self Serve online for more info & resources; you may also go to the sensuality shop in Northampton, Oh My!, which is run and founded by a Mount Holyoke alum.)
Drag is “the act of dressing in gendered clothing and adopting gendered behaviors as part of a performance, most often clothing and behaviors typically not associated with your gender identity. Drag Queens perform femininity theatrically. Drag Kings perform masculinity theatrically. Drag may be performed as a political comment on gender, as parody, or simply as entertainment. Drag performance does not indicate sexuality, gender identity, or sex identity.” – Gender Equality Resource Center Berkeley
Drag Ball is OUTreach’s annual Chapin party with student DJs, Student Drag Performances, photobooth, bartending services and more! Last spring, we sold out and raised over $2000 towards a Camp Outright scholarship, QPOC week at MHC, and the Lyon’s Legacy Fund!
Our next Drag Ball will take place on February 13th, 2016. If you’re interested in helping to plan Drag Ball, contact Stephanie Corrales at corra22s@mtholyoke.edu
Dyke – “Originally meant to be a slur, it has been reclaimed by many lesbians who might use it to identify themselves of other lesbians. It is considered rude to use the word ‘dyke’ unless you self-identify as one.” –urbandictionary.com
“-a lesbian, frequently one with attitude” –lesbianhandbook.net (see also: diesel dyke –a very truck-driver-like butch)
Melina uses “dyke” as a gender identity. Feel free to contact her with any questions at baron24m@mtholyoke.edu
Dykes to Watch Out For is a comic strip series by Alison Bechdel that ran for 25 years (from 1983-2008). Dykes to Watch Out For is the origin of the Bechdel Test. (The Bechdel Test asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.)
E is for Ecuador: The Queer Edition, Everyone Is Gay, Ellen Page, Eloisa Aquino, Eileen Myles
Ecuador: The Queer Edition is a zine that can be read for free here.
Everyone Is Gay is a website led by Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid, offering advice and education to LGBTQ youth and their parents.
Canadian actress Ellen Page who came out last year, now officially has a girlfriend that she’s “in love” with as of September. Sorry, folks.
Eloisa Aquino is the author of an award-winning zine series: The Life and Times of Butch Dykes!
Eileen Myles is a queer poet who might visit MHC
F is for FAMILIA, femme, Femmepowered, Frida Kahlo, FTM, Fun Home
FAMILIA – “FAMILIA is a closed network of support and activism for LGBTQ+ people of color at Mount Holyoke College” –MHC FAMILIA’s Facebook
femme – “Femme is purposeful, tender, fierce, and belongs to *anyone* touched by it. It informs and is informed by our other identities – including but not limited to race, body size, shape, gender, sexuality, ability, age, class, or community. This can connect into other areas of our life – like our relationships, art, activism, day-to-day presentation, and beyond. But perhaps the best thing about femme is that it’s open-ended, alchemic, and creative – a creative force that gives us great power to draw upon while living in an often painfully racist, cissexist, femmephobic world. For some, femme is intentional, for others, it’s an accident, and sometimes it’s who we were right from the beginning. The point is – if “femme” resonates with you in any way, as a word, for whatever reason right now, then it is yours. It is all of ours. Femme is who we are in our hearts”. – 2014 Femme Conference Steering Committee
Femmepowered – “Creating and Supporting Femme Visibility at Mount Holyoke and Beyond.” –MHC Femmepowered’s Facebook
Frida Kahlo (1907- 1954) – was a Mexican painter who was openly bisexual. She was known to have made love to many other famous artists such as Diego Rivera (her husband), Georgia O’Keeffe and Chavela Vargas. (source)
FTM – “’Female-to-Male’ transgender person; Individuals who have started, are in the process, or have partially or fully transitioned from female to male. The FTM process does not necessarily include sex reassignment surgery.” – muhlenberg.edu
Fun Home – a 2006 graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It has recently been made into a Broadway musical.
G is for gay, gender, genderqueer, gender fluid, Gloria Anzaldúa, Andrea Gibson, Girl In A Coma
gay – “A person who is attracted primarily to members of the same sex. Although it can be used for any sex (e.g. gay man, gay woman, gay person), ‘lesbian’ is sometimes the preferred term for women who are attracted to women.” –umich.edu
gender -”A socially constructed system of classification that ascribes qualities of masculinity and femininity to people. Gender characteristics can change over time and are different between cultures.” –geneq.berkeley.edu
genderqueer – “A term which refers to individuals or groups who ‘queer’ or problematize the hegemonic notions of sex, gender and desire in a given society. Genderqueer people possess identities which fall outside of the widely accepted sexual binary (i.e. ‘men’ and ‘women’). Genderqueer may also refer to people who identify as both transgendered AND queer, i.e. individuals who challenge both gender and sexuality regimes and see gender identity and sexual orientation as overlapping and interconnected.” –umich.edu
genderfluid – “A person whose gender identification and presentation shifts, whether within or outside of societal, gender-based expectations.” –geneq.berkeley.edu
Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2004)- a lesbian Chicana feminist writer, cultural theorist, and feminist philosopher. She is best known for This Bridge Called My Back: La Prieta and Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.
Andrea Gibson – a poet and activist. Their poetry focuses on gender norms, politics, social reform and the struggles LGBTQ people face in today’s society. Watch/listen to her poem “A Letter To White Queers, A Letter To Myself” here.
Girl In A Coma – an all-girl rock band “two-thirds gay, all latina” –npr.org.
Watch their music video for “Walkin After Midnight” here.
H is for Harvey Milk, harnesses, heteronormativity, HIV, Holly Woodlawn, homophobia, homonormativity, and How To Get A Wellesley Girl (2008)
Harvey Milk (1930-1978) – Was a gay rights activist and politician. He was one of America’s first elected openly-gay officials. The movie Milk (2008) is about his life and death.
A harnesses, or strap-on, is a sextoy used to attach a dildo to an individual (more info here).
heteronormativity – “a system that works to normalize behaviors and societal expectations that are tied to the presumption of heterosexuality and an adherence to a strict gender binary” –everydayfeminism.com
(more: Heteronormativity in Queer Relationships)
HIV – “HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Unlike some other viruses, the human body cannot get rid of HIV. That means that once you have HIV, you have it for life. No safe and effective cure for HIV currently exists, but scientists are working hard to find one, and remain hopeful.” –aids.gov
“The global HIV and AIDS epidemic has always been closely linked with negative attitudes towards LGBT people, especially men who have sex with men (MSM); a group that is particularly affected by HIV and AIDS.” –avert.org
Anonymous HIV counseling and testing are available at MHC’s Health Center
Holly Woodlawn (1946-2015) was a transgender Puerto Rican actress and former Warhol superstar who appeared in his movies Trash (1970) and Women in Revolt (1972). Lou Reed’s famous song “Walk on the Wild Side” was written about her. (source)
homophobia – “languages and practices that support discrimination against and fear/ hatred of LGBT people.” – Interrupting Heteronormativity
“Homonormativity is a word that addresses the problems of privilege we see in the queer community today as they intersect with White privilege, capitalism, sexism, transmisogyny, and cissexism, all of which end up leaving many people out of the movement toward greater sexual freedom and equality.” –everydayfeminism.com
How To Get A Wellesley Girl (2008) – is a lesbian drama that was filmed at Mount Holyoke which you can watch for free here.
I is for identity, If You Should Try and Kiss Her, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, intersex, intergender, Indigo Girls, intersectionality
identity “can be fluid” -Sam
“Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the interest and perspectives of groups with which people identify. Identity politics includes the ways in which people’s politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through loosely correlated social organizations.” –Google
If You Should Try and Kiss Her by Dressy Bessy is a song from the lesbian movie But I’m A Cheerleader (1999) that you can listen to here.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1996) – “Randy Dean (Laurel Holloman), a boyish lesbian who works at a gas station, has trouble performing in high school and is treated badly by bigoted locals because of her sexual identity. She begins an unlikely friendship with one of her school’s popular girls, the affluent Evie (Nicole Parker). But when their friendship blossoms into a romance, the two find themselves struggling with the intricacies and pitfalls of discovering love, and having to reveal their relationship to friends and family.” -IMDb
watch the trailer here
intersex “is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.” –Intersex Society of North America
more info here: Brought to You by the Letter I: Why Intersex Politics Matters to LGBT Activism
intergender – “Intergender people have a gender identity that is in the middle between the binary genders of female and male, and may be a mix of both” –Nonbinary.org
Indigo Girls are a famous lesbian folk music duo that formed in 1985.
intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw that “was used to describe how different forms of discrimination can interact and overlap, and why it was necessary for feminists to take into account the needs of women from a variety of backgrounds when considering social questions and issues to advocate for. Although the term was originally used to describe how race and gender could intersect as forms of oppression, intersectionality has broadened to encompass a number of additional social factors — sexual orientation, nationality, class, disability and others.” –The Washington Post
Watch a short video on intersectionality here
J is for Janet Mock, Marsha P. Johnson, José Esteban Muñoz, Josephine Baker, Judith Butler and Julio Salgado !
Janet Mock is a writer, TV host, and transgender rights advocate.
A popular quote from her is:
“I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community. I hope that my being real with you will help empower you to step into who you are and encourage you to share yourself with those around you.” –janetmock.com
Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) was a trans woman and gay liberation activist who was active in the Stonewall Riots. She also co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Sylvia Rivera.(outhistory.org)
José Esteban Muñoz (1967-2013) was a queer theorist who wrote Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics and Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity.
“In a startling repudiation of what the LGBT movement has held dear, Muñoz contends that queerness is instead a futurity bound phenomenon, a ‘not yet here’ that critically engages pragmatic presentism. Part manifesto, part love-letter to the past and the future, Cruising Utopia argues that the here and now are not enough and issues an urgent call for the revivification of the queer political imagination.” (x)
Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was a bisexual dancer, singer, and actress. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), or to become a world-famous entertainer (x). She also had many “lady lovers,” including Frida Kahlo. (x)
Judith Butler is a gender theorist (whose partner is Wendy Brown) who is most well-known for her book Gender Troubles, in which she argues that gender is performative.
Julio Salgado “is the co-founder of DreamersAdrift.com. His status as an undocumented, queer artivist has fueled the contents of his visual art, which depict key individuals and moments of the DREAM Act movement.” –juliosalgadoart.com
K is for Nia King, K pasa USA, Krudas Cubensi, Kavindu Ade, Alison Kafer and Kate Bornstein !
“Nia King is a multimedia journalist whose work focuses on political art by women, queer people and people of color. She is the author of Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives and the host and producer of We Want the Airwaves podcast.” –artactivistnia.com
K pasa USA – “Queer Activist performance art pop band” –Facebook
Check out their video “No Me Digas Niñ/a/o”
Krudas Cubensi – “Odaymara Cuesta and Olivia Prendes are Cuban Hip Hop MCs, Independent Musicians, Poets, Theater Performers, Educators representing Womyn, Immigrants, Queers and People of Color Action as a Central Part of World Change. They choose the art as a weapon to fight against oppression, for justice, for balance, for our rights, to celebrate the life. They both born & raised in Cuba and began in the Artivism early in their lives” – Krudas Cubensi band bio
Listen to their song “Mi cuerpo es mio” here.
“Kavindu Ade is a 24 year old Wordsmith, Jedi, and Black Boy Extraordinaire. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Afro-Caribbean immigrants his poetry is a dance between cultures. While best known for his gender identity poem entitled ‘IT,’ Kavi’s work centers on his navigation of intersecting identities – among those, the relation of his Blackness to his transcendence of gender.” – awqwardtalent.com
Alison Kafer is a feminist, queer, and disability studies theorist and activist, as well as the author of Feminist, Queer, Crip.
“In Feminist, Queer, Crip Alison Kafer imagines a different future for disability and disabled bodies. Challenging the ways in which ideas about the future and time have been deployed in the service of compulsory able-bodiedness and able-mindedness, Kafer rejects the idea of disability as a pre-determined limit. She juxtaposes theories, movements, and identities such as environmental justice, reproductive justice, cyborg theory, transgender politics, and disability that are typically discussed in isolation and envisions new possibilities for crip futures and feminist/queer/crip alliances. This bold book goes against the grain of normalization and promotes a political framework for a more just world.” – Indiana University Press
You can read Feminist, Queer, Crip for free on JSTOR here.
Kate Bornstein – “Transgender-dyke. Reluctant-Polyamorist. Sadomasochist. Recovering-Scientologist. Pioneering Gender Outlaw.” – Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger
L is for Lesbian (Bisexual) Alliance (LA/LBA), Audre Lorde, Laverne Cox, lesbian,
Lesbian Connection, Lyon’s Pride, and Love & Rockets !
The first official queer student organization at Mount Holyoke was the Lesbian Alliance, which was established in 1976. “The organization was non-hierarchical in nature and its goal was to ‘provide for the emotional and social needs of gay women and women of different sexualities.’”
“Due to a unanimous vote taken at an internalized homophobia workshop held November 10th, 1988, the Lesbian Alliance was renamed the Lesbian Bisexual Alliance (LBA).”
–PERSISTENCE AND EXISTENCE: LGBTQ HISTORY AT MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Some of her best known works include The Cancer Journals (1980) and Sister Outsider (1984). –poetryfoundation.org
Due to a request from MHC alum Mita Radhakrishnan ‘90, you can now find a poster of
Audre Lorde in the Marks House!
Laverne Cox is “an Emmy-nominated actress who can be seen in the Netflix original series Orange is The New Black where she plays the ground breaking role of Sophia Burset… Laverne is the first trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show.” –lavernecox.com
lesbian – “a homosexual woman. The word derives from the Greek island of Lesbos, where the poetess Sappho ran a school for young women, and wrote often erotic poetry about love between women.” –lesbianhandbook.net
Lesbian Connection “is the free worldwide forum of news, ideas and information for, by and about lesbians. We’ve been publishing this bimonthly magazine since 1974, and we mail issues out via snail mail in plain brown envelopes. (The word “lesbian” doesn’t appear anywhere on the outside.)” –lconline.org
You can read the latest issues of Lesbian Connection magazine in the Marks House or sign up to receive your own free copies!
Lyon’s Pride is Mount Holyoke’s queer alumnae/alumni network and is helping OUTreach to plan the Queer Alum Conference. This is their website.
Letter from the editor: “Love & Rockets is objectively the greatest comic book series of all time. Jaime Hernández has been self-publishing his alternative comic Love & Rockets for over 30 years, following the artfully crafted but fictional lives of queer best friends who are also chicanas, punks, mechanics, strippers, wrestlers, super heroes, lovers, teachers, musicians, artists, and so much more. Creating perhaps the most complex women characters, Jaime Hernández’s Love & Rockets series challenges gender roles and pushes the boundaries of the comic book medium.”
M is for masculine-of-center, Mia McKenzie, Chelsea Manning, Mala Mala (2015), Mosquita y Mari (2012), Mita Radhakrishnan ‘91, and MTF!
“Masculine-of-center (MoC) is a term, coined by B. Cole of the Brown Boi Project, that recognizes the breadth and depth of identity for lesbian/queer/ womyn who tilt toward the masculine side of the gender scale and includes a wide range of identities such as butch, stud, aggressive/AG, dom, macha, tomboi, trans-masculine etc.” –butchvoices.com
Mia McKenzie is the creator of Black Girl Dangerous, a literary and activist blog. “She is a black feminist and a freaking queer, facts that are often reflected in her stories, which are literary and lyrical and hella quirky, and which have won her some awards and grants.” –miamckenzie.net
Chelsea Manning – a U.S. military whistleblower and democracy advocate who was sentenced to 35 years of prison for exposing unjust in Guantanamo Bay and war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan through WikiLeaks. –chelseamanning.org
“Mala Mala (2015) is a feature length documentary about the power of transformation told through the eyes of 9 trans-identifying individuals in Puerto Rico.” –Facebook.com
Mala Mala is currently on Netflix!
Mosquita y Mari (2012) – “In a fast-paced immigrant community where dreams are often lost to economic survival, two young Chicanas contemplate life when they stir unexpected desires in each other.” –mosquitaymari.com
Mosquita y Mari is also on Netflix!
Mita Radhakrishnan ‘91 was very involved in Mount Holyoke’s Lesbian Alliance/Lesbian Bisexual Alliance in the late 80s and early 90s. Many excerpts from her organizing and activism can be found in the MHC Archives & Special Collections*!
*Some of her files are online! You can view them right from your computer screen! Some of these works include: Record It And Fight Back! a notebook detailing incidents of homophobia at Mount Holyoke, maintained from 1988-2005; a letter demanding safe sex supplies for lesbians from the health center, and her submission to Libertad: (“Self-Love or I Love Myself When I am Laughing and When I am Eating Pussy” part 1, part 2).
MTF– “A person who transitions from ‘male-to-female,’ meaning a person who was assigned male at birth, but identifies and lives as a female. Also known as a ‘transgender woman’” –transequality.org
N is for nonbinary, Meshell Ndegeocello, NativeOUT, Edward Ndopu, gender non-conforming, and Non-Alignment Movement!
nonbinary – “an umbrella term for all genders completely outside of the man/woman binary, or someone who simply identifies as outside of the gender binary.” –genderqueeries.tumblr.com
“Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist who was born in Germany. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock” – Wikipedia.com
Listen to her music here
“The musician Meshell Ndegeocello actually doesn’t have a coming out story: she has always been openly queer. But Meshell hasn’t always been happy with being famous for being queer. ‘I feel like my sexuality preceded my music for a long time,’ she told After Ellen. ‘It was used as a marketing tool in the beginning, pretty blatantly, and I didn’t really get it at the time. I was just out. I didn’t realize it was a selling point and it took a lot of years to get any sense of privacy back into my life, where people didn’t feel entitled to talk to me about who I was having sex with, as if it weren’t a personal question.’ Now she urges young gays to ‘be honest, but protect yourself and your family. It’s a better, safer, different moment, but it’s hard to get things back once you give away too much.’” –thefrisky.com
NativeOUT Two-Spirit Resource Center – “Here you can find resources to research Two Spirit people, both past and present.” –nativeout.com
“Edward Ndopu is a black (dis) abled queer femme Afro-politan living in Ottawa, Ontario. Named by the Mail and Guardian Newspaper as one of their Top 200 Young South Africans, he is a social critic, anti-oppression practitioner, consultant, writer and scholar.” –blackgirldangerous.org
You can read his article “Musings from a Queercrip Femme Man of Color” here
“gender non-conforming refers to people who do not follow other people’s ideas or stereotypes about how they should look or act based on the female or male sex they were assigned at birth.” –Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Non-Alignment Movement– is an organization of formerly colonized countries which, in Fidel Castro’s words, works to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics”. Recently, the organization has also moved towards becoming more inclusive and intersectional by recognizing the need for supporting feminist and queer politics.
O is for Oh My!, OUTreach, Open Gates, Octavia E. Butler, outing someone, openly gay, and OPEN CHESTED: A QUEER LOVE LETTER TO BJÖRK!
Oh My!..a Sensuality Shop is a woman-owned, women-run sensuality boutique located in downtown Northampton since 2003 and was started by a Mount Holyoke alum.
More info: http://www.ohmysensuality.com/
OUTreach is a student org at Mount Holyoke that aims to promote unity in the LGBTQIAP+ community and beyond through connecting with various groups in and outside of campus.
Open Gates is a student-run group dedicated to the full inclusion of trans women at
Mount Holyoke College.
This is their Facebook & their tumblr.
Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) – “Ms. Butler was black and a woman writing science fiction in a context in which black women weren’t supposed to write, and certainly not science fiction. There’s an image of sci fi as a genre of the white man, going out and exploring, conquering, the universe. She took these elements of striving for other futures and turned them to social justice. She took the alien other and confronted us, her readers, with the otherness in our experiences.” –bitchmedia.org
There is some contestation over whether or not she was out as a lesbian.
outing someone – “Disclosing someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity to others without permission (i.e. “He was outed at work”.)”-pflagatl.org
openly gay “describes people who self-identify as lesbian or gay in their personal, public and/or professional lives. Also openly lesbian, openly bisexual, openly transgender.” –wearefamily.org
OPEN CHESTED: A QUEER LOVE LETTER TO BJÖRK– This is an anonymous perzine (personal zine) tracing the author’s autobiography through their love for Björk’s music. Interweaving personal testimonies about love, queerness, class, gender and geographies with reminiscences and recollections about Björk’s live shows, records and art, it’s sad and beautiful. – from “The queer zines that should be on your radar”
P is for pansexual, Paul B. Preciado, pegging, PFLAG, polyamory, protection, and pronouns!
pansexual – “roughly means ‘someone who is attracted to all sexes and genders of people.’” –Pansexuality 101: It’s More Than ‘Just Another Letter’ by Kaylee Jakubowski
Paul B. Preciado “has become one of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and sexuality. A professor of Political History of the Body, Gender Theory, and History of Performance at Paris VIII, he is also the author of Manifiesto contrasexual, which has become a queer theory classic, and Pornotopía: Architecture and Sexuality in Playboy During the Cold War…” –feministpress.org
He’s from Barcelona, Spain and also the author of Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era, an experimental testosterone-fueled essay-made-scholarly text, which you can read an excerpt from here.
pegging “a gender-flipping sex act in which a [cis] woman has anal sex with a [cis] man via a strap-on dildo.” –Cosmopolitan.com
PFLAG – “Uniting people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) with families, friends, and allies, PFLAG is committed to advancing equality and full societal affirmation of LGBTQ people through its threefold mission of support, education, and advocacy. ” –pflag.org
polyamory – “Polyamory is the nonpossessive, honest, responsible and ethical philosophy and practice of loving multiple people simultaneously. Polyamory emphasizes consciously choosing how many partners one wishes to be involved with rather than accepting social norms which dictate loving only one person at a time…” –polyamorysociety.org
protection – “Hooray for barriers! Not the crummy kind that keep us from things we want, the kind that can protect us from pathogens that can be passed from one person to another, resulting in in illness and infection. Safer sex barriers do a great job reducing our STI risks, so we’ve got the best chance of enjoying the good things sex can offer without big risks of transmitting (giving) or acquiring (getting) infections in the process.” –All Barriers All the Time: Condoms, Dams, Gloves
Here are some cute illustrations by Isabella Rotman from the above article:
pronouns – “A ‘personal gender pronoun’ (or PGP) is the pronoun that a person uses for themself.
For example: If Xena’s personal pronouns are she, her, and hers, you could say “Xena ate her food because she was hungry.”” -umkc.edu
Never fear / ask people’s pronouns!