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Caressa Lyric Dunn and the Power of Femme
Femmes… They hold a variety of roles and positions in our community as Leather continues to diversify and we continue the process of purging our misogyny. I had the pleasure of getting a small glimpse into the world Femmes in the kink community speaking with Northwest Handler 2017 and newly sashed International Puppy Trainer 2018 Caressa Lyric Dunn.
Totally Unofficial Queer Guide to PAX West 2017
PAX West is coming up quickly! We publish this guide because digging through the list of panels to find LGBTQ-relevant content isn’t the easiest task. And amidst the parties thrown by huge gaming publishers, gaming news networks, and podcasts, there’s a few queer focused offsite events you need to know about. It’s time to fill you in.
Dore Alley – Folsom Without The Tourists
Many experienced kinksters will tell you that Folsom Street Fair has become too big and well-known to enjoy, attracting gawking tourists and ultimately taming down the shock value of the public kink while Dore is more “serious” and “hardcore.” Although Dore is still relatively small compared to Folsom Street Fair or IML, there’s a ton to do and see, whether you just picked up your first harness or if you’re an old pro.
Creating Change: Weathering the Troubles at GeekGirlCon
Championing diversity, and trying to uplift the voices of marginalized and oppressed communities in a field dominated by straight, white, cisgender men, is hard. It requires strength and resilience to persevere. Also, it can’t hurt to make sure you know who’s got the keys to your email server.
The Light and Healing of BlackTransMagick
At the Neptune, in a theatre full of beautiful Black and brown people, words were spoken that allowed many of us to heal. I saw my fellow trans and QPOC community members laugh and cry. I can only imagine that they felt the same chills creep up their spines as I did, as the beautiful truth, the beauty the is being trans and black was laid out before us.
Folding Fans and Canned Chardonnay: CHBP 2017
You’re welcome, readers. You’re so welcome. While you spent the weekend tucked in bed reading Roxane Gay’s new book (or whatever), I was out in the streets, clocking in three full days of Capitol Hill Block Party so I could report back to you. It was long and hot and full of people not-so-subtly doing drugs. Ok, to be fair, it wasn’t all bad, and I did get drink tickets, but still! It was a lot of work, ok?!
Queer Kink and Learning To Play By The Rules
This July, I was at International Puppy Weekend in St Louis, Missouri. I was there as a vendor and interacted with a many spectacular people while I was there. However, there was one individual who clearly did not respect my boundaries, and who violated my consent more than once, even after being warned. This article is inspired by that person in hopes of helping folx like them.
Totally Unofficial Queer Guide to Capitol Hill Block Party 2017
[Editor’s Note] The Capitol Hill Block Party is back once again. Frequently referred to by some as Straight Pride™, or at least as one of the loudest and most public symptoms/causes of gentrification on the Hill, it’s still a great place to hear some great live music.
Queen Victoria Ortega: Building Relationships That Matter
Queen Victoria Ortega was an activist since pretty much the beginning. Growing up in L.A.’s Boyle Heights, a neighborhood characterized by it’s Mexican American population, made it difficult to be trans, says Ortega. But being the child of activist parents taught her a lot of lessons that sit with her to this day.
Kimball Allen’s Ode To Seattle
Kimball Allen, host of the glitz-camp variety show, Triple Threat, slated regularly at Seattle’s Triple Door Theater, has lived in the Emerald City just a handful of years. Yet, Allen is well aware of the talent pool the city has to offer. And the skillful artists that saturate the city move him so that he knew he had to bring them regularly under one roof – and so his show, some two years ago, was born.
Challenging Pride: NW Pride of Color
Pride is a celebration of our identities and our community. It’s a time when we can come together to educate, celebrate, and not give a fuck what mainstream society says about us. Pride is a wonderful time. What if we added another layer? What if we took the time during Pride to acknowledge and celebrate our intersectional identities.
Hardly Boys “Middle School” Jetspace Premiere
My encounter with Hardly Boys begins with a bang. At six-thirty (our appointed meeting time), I sit in Little Oddfellows (our appointed meeting place) and finish the last of my yogurt (not appointed, but satisfying). I watch from my seat across the room as the band walks in, looks around, and then, before I can say anything, sits down with a person who is definitely not me.
A Deeply Satisfying “9 to 5 Inches”
In her most recent theater project, San Francisco drag icon Peaches Christ brought a new show to Seattle last week. “9 to 5 Inches ”— based on the Bechdel Test champion film “9 to 5” — was true to the movie’s theme of sisterhood, empowerment, and dismantling a repressive capitalistic patriarchy from the inside out.
SassyBlack Speaks To You With New Black Swing
“I’m a writer and a storyteller. Different stories need different kinds of voicing.” These are the words of SassyBlack – aka Seattle’s Catherine Harris-White – an artist, producer, writer and all around versatile expressionist who generates work at such a high volume that it can feel at times that she’s doing so that no one genre, label or category can catch up to her.
Totally Unofficial 2017 Queer Summer Music Guide
Technically speaking, summer doesn’t begin until the Summer Solstice on the 20th. That said, Seattle recently experienced a straight week of sun and I’ve already been told by two separate individuals that my shorts are inappropriately short, so for all intents and purposes, SUMMER IS HERE!