On "Straight Pride" and Hetero Toxicity

Me everytime someone brings up the idea of "Straight Pride," also known as EVERY DAMN DAY IN A WHITE SUPREMACIST HETERONORMATIVE HATEFUL SOCIETAL CULTURE.

Image description: A picture of the right arm and hand of the children's animated cartoon Arthur's main character, Arthur Read. His right hand is clenched into a fist.

I swear hetero cis male people be really in their feelings every June, acting like their existence is diminished because other people are celebrating their lives, resilience, and perseverence in the face of generation-spanning bigotry and oppression and the whims of weak-sauce people who haven't had fun or given their partners an orgasm in years.

How you can be a part of a dominant culture that celebrates your existence and is intentionally structured to cater to your need to feel superior and important yet still act like you're being victimized is beyond me. And doubly beyond me for the hetero cis male people whose skin looks like rotisserie chicken if they don’t wear sunscreen.

[Image description: A picture of the right arm and hand of the children's animated cartoon Arthur's main character, Arthur Read. His right hand is clenched into a fist.]

This Week's Opening Thought: June 9, 2025

This week’s opening thought: A gaggle of y’all are out here raging mad at Sesame Street and Ms. Rachel.

Sesame Street.

And Ms. Rachel.

And why are you raging mad?

Sesame Street and Ms. Rachel are modeling empathy, compassion, and humanity, which I hope you want your children, their primary audience, mind you, to understand and embrace.

But I guess a lot of y’all would rather pass hateful views and rhetoric on to your children in their formative years with the hopes of creating a bunch of future nazis and lynching parties who have no understanding of how beautiful and uplifting it is to be a loving and compassionate human being.

I know a whole lot of y’all gave up on pretending that you’re “on the right side of history” many moons ago, but damn, man. Gangbangin’ on Elmo and threatening the life of Ms. Rachel?

What side of history - Hell, of anything - is that?

What a bunch of dangerous and hateful lil’ weirdos y’all are.

On Pride Month, Performative Nonsense, and Stepping Up or Stepping Out of the Way

It’s Pride Month, which sadly ranks up there in performative pallor energy with Black History Month on the “I’m a Good Person” scale. Months that are equal parts celebration and memorial always hit a certain way, especially if your identities are intersectional with a splash of melanin. With the state of intentionally harmful practices aimed at trans and queer folx currently taking laps through the counties and communities that collectively operate under the United States of America brand, months like this feel more meaningful…which makes it all feel more tenuous and precarious than usual.

As a queer-identifying person who hasn't had to constantly have my sexuality and sexual identities questioned and threatened by "sleuths" who think that have everyone pegged, I have been able to use the little bit of privilege and positionality I have to educate, correct, and chin check “allies,” melanated misanthropes, and alabaster homophones and transphobes without them seeing it coming. I say all of that not to brag or boast. There's nothing to brag and boast about. I have privilege and positionality, and I use them to support others without the need for kudos and cookies. No, I say all of that to amplify one simple idea:

It's easy as f--- to step up, speak up, speak out, call in, call out, and fight for people facing harm, death, and oppression.

And you don't need a special month or brand name merchandise to do that sh--.

We don't have time for y'all pulling us aside after a work meeting to "apologize" for Bill from Accounting being a toxic ghost that none of y'all who share his lack of melanin have the backbone to stand up to.

Ain't nobody got time for your low-key "apologies" when your ashy homophobic and transphobic family members aren't present to hear that you stand with your LGBTQIA+ friends and family members and that their anti-Black bigotry is not a good look.

You either stand with and fight for folx in the now or admit that you don't care about their later.

Performative activism is a choice. It's not and never has been the only choice, but a whole lot of y'all so-called "allies" love to act as such.

Just sayin.'

Happy Pride, my peoples.

On Job Postings and Choices

Everyday I see a new job posting that makes me want to take a nap.

Like, companies, recruiters: y'all still leaving the salary out of job postings, huh? And making candidates go through a whole recruitment process just to have to awkwardly ask for the salary numbers because you don't want to give them this information freely?

Well, well.

That's...a choice.

A REALLY STUPID choice, but a choice nonetheless.

Also looks like y'all are also still makin' sure everyone knows you're lookin' for "unicorns" and "rockstars" too while offering a job posting with so many job functions that it's obviously two jobs you've merged into one, like some kind of Cronenberg experiment.

Again, that...is a choice.

A REALLY STUPID choice, but a choice.

And y'all still making these kinds of choices in this economy? As the world is on fire and people ain't puttin' up with that bullsh-- anymore?

OK.

Good luck with that.

On Working While Black

Maintaining employment while Black, and trying to make sure you're not being mentally, emotionally, and physically harmed by white supremacy and bigotry while doing so, is...exhausting. And I'm going to stick with the word exhausting because other words I would use are considered expletives.

I'm Black and tired. Always.

Even when I'm at my most rested, there's always an underlying tiredness that comes from living and existing in a world that does not care about you and processing the generational and societal trauma in my Black body to be the healthiest version of myself I can be. And employment being a horrible reflection of the world we live in does nothing to abate that underlying tiredness.

Neither does knowing that what I'm feeling in my brain and body is amplified by five for Black queer folx and times-ten for Black women.

Capitalism while Black is [insert expletive here].