Announcements: accepting submissions and a pride sale

Plus, a special, free, dispatch from the lesbian internet

This is the Sunday Edition of Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, subscribe, and share it with your friends. A paid subscription gets you more writing from me and will help me keep this newsletter afloat. Consider going paid!

Hello all, and welcome to Pride Month. I wanted to use today’s Sunday Edition to share with you what I’ve been thinking about regarding ~the future~ of this newsletter. I love writing this newsletter and I hope to continue doing it for as long as I can, but I’m also under no illusion that my voice is the only one worth hearing in regards to lesbian and queer pop culture. I’m also aware (from my own experience) that it remains difficult to get published if your beat is mainly queer stuff, though I do think it’s getting slightly better in that regard.

With that in mind, I wanted to make an official announcement that I am interested in hearing pitches from other writers who have something to say or want to get their work out there. (I’ve published a couple of guest columns on here before – from Becca and also from Jasmine.) Anything that is at all related to queer or lesbian pop culture is an acceptable topic – I once wrote a whole essay about Patrick Swayze, after all. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to pay writers at this time, but I’m hoping that I will be able to so in the future once I build up a larger subscriber base. If you’re not a writer yourself, I also welcome any ideas you might have for future topics to be covered in this newsletter. Leave a comment below if you have any suggestions – I would love to hear from you! If you would like to pitch me, you can reach me at kira.deshler@gmail.com

Speaking of subscribers, I’m doing a special Pride Month sale. If you sign up for a paid subscription by the end of June, you will get 18% off your subscription for a whole year. That’s right – a whole year! You can subscribe here. Your monetary support will have a huge impact on my ability to keep building this newsletter and collaborate with other emerging writers. Support your local queer businesses (me) this Pride Month! You can also buy Paging Dr. Lesbian stickers if that’s your thing.

Before you leave, I thought I’d give you a special treat and take this week’s dispatch from the lesbian internet out from behind the paywall. (It normally goes out to paid subscribers on Wednesdays.) This one really made me giggle. Happy Pride!

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dispatch from patricia arquette owning pride now

and something about dakota johnson's nemesis retiring

Welcome to this week’s dispatch from the lesbian internet, a mid-week news roundup from Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, tell your friends to subscribe.

I’m actually hyperventilating. She is the moment.

Happy Pride Month to all. I hope you have lots of fun this June and remember to buy from your locally own queer buss instead of Target, if you can. To celebrate Pride Month, Variety put Che Diaz (aka Sara Ramirez) on the cover of Variety, and the pictures are abso-fucking-lutely insane. I literally have no commentary on this besides the fact that I think it’s hilarious. (Also note the Ellen reference with the title.)

It’s only June 1st, but one of the most bananas Pride commercials I’ve ever seen has dropped. It’s for a THC soda called Caan, which is partnering with the brand Weedmaps. The 4-minute advertisement features a wild group of people including Gus Kenworthy, Hayley Kiyoko, Patricia Arquette, and a cameo from Sarah Michelle Gellar where she says “gay rights!” The Patricia Arquette verse is sung by none other than Kesha, and Patricia is wearing a crazy skin-tight pink spandex getup. (She then transforms into Kesha herself.) I’m assuming Patrica is in the video because her sister is trans, but it’s hilarious nonetheless. (Allyship!!!!) I’m actually struggling to describe the video to you so you’ll just have to watch it yourself.

In other news, the self-proclaimed queen of kindness is officially out of a job. Last week, the very last episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show aired. Ellen took the opportunity to remind audiences that she wasn’t allowed to say the word “gay” when her show was first airing nor was she allowed to reference any partner of hers, prescriptions that have unfortunately become relevant once again. Ellen also used her last show to reiterate her message of “kindness” – trodding out famous guests to sing her praises – even though we know her supposed geniality did most certainly not apply to members of her staff. If you’re interested in learning more about her pop cultural impact before she sullied her own legacy, the coming-out episodes of her sitcom, Ellen, (“The Puppy Episode” and “The Puppy Episode, Pt. 2”) are definitely worth watching. I can only hope Dakota Johnson is enjoying this moment.

Some gay people kissed on TV this week. The first kiss came in the form of a cartoon. Two girls kissed on the animated children’s series The Owl House, which is a fantasy show that centers on a Dominican-American girl named Luz. The series airs on Disney Channel, and the most recent episode makes it the first animated Disney show to feature a same-gender kiss. As Polygon wrote last month, The Owl House is proving itself to be too good for Disney, but I’m glad creator Dana Terrace has decided to fight the homophobic mouse anyways.

In other TV news, Grey’s Anatomy aired its 400th (!!!) episode last week. For our purposes, the most important thing that happened in the episode was that Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) got back together with Kai (E.R. Fightmaster) even though Kai doesn’t want kids and Amelia happens to already have one. This scene was important because, one, E.R. Fightmaster is extremely hot and because, two, a cover of “Chasing Cars” plays as they make out in the parking lot. You can obviously watch all of Amelia and Kai’s scenes on YouTube. We still miss Callie & Arizona, tbh.

New music video alert: Kehlani has dropped the video for her song “melt,” which is off her recent album blue water road. The video features her real-life girlfriend 070 Shake and sees them being wonderful and sweet together as they vacation in some exotic location. It’s an apt song title because our hearts are literally melting. If you want to learn more about the album, check out Kehlani’s blue water road documentary series where she talks about, among other things, how dating exclusively women has improved the quality of her relationships.

You need to see this photoshoot JoJo Siwa did with Paper Magazine. The James Dean, soft butch of it all is a lot. It’s also an ad for Google, of course, because that’s what Pride Month is all about.

papermagazine

A post shared by Paper Magazine (@papermagazine)

Other things:

• In response to people walking out of her new film Crimes of the Future, Kristen Stewart replied “The way I feel, it is through really visceral desire and that's the only reason we're alive. We're pleasure sacks.” Comment below if you also identify as a “pleasure sack.” 

• Mattel will be releasing a Laverne Cox Barbie doll in honor of her 50th (what???) birthday and as part of their Tributes Collection. Wig! 

• Cara Delevigne was seen canoodling with Sabrina Carpenter at Cannes.

• Meg Stalter has a new Pride video for your enjoyment.

• King Richard’s Aunjanue Ellis came out as bisexual this week.

• Lucy Grace Barrett (basically) confirmed she’s dating The Bold Type’s Aisha Dee in her pride post. They’re so stunning together.

That’s all for this week, folks! Stay tuned for more. I will leave you with two more pictures of Sara Ramirez because they’re really making me laugh today.