This Is How We Do It: Making and Canning Apple Butter

Welcome to This Is How We Do It, a series wherein we’ll be discussing projects both inside the home and out and explaining, you know, how we do it.

Canning is one of the best and easiest ways to preserve food. Jams and jellies are just the start; you can preserve almost anything using home canning methods, provided you prepare the food properly. Canning also overlaps with other preservation methods. You can add flavor and preserve food by pickling it, then get a much longer shelf life by canning it in the pickle brine. Learning how to can at home is essential, if you want to save some of the bounty of summer to enjoy in the winter. Canning still feels far away and quaint to most people, like a lost art that died out in our grandparents’ generation.

Most of my canning knowledge comes from just a few books. Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff has been a wonderful source of info. If you are at all interested in canning, buy this book. Her recipes are great, and she organizes them by season, which is helpful when you’re trying to integrate canning into a local food lifestyle. She also emphasizes natural ways to make jellies (as opposed to using boxed pectin), which I appreciate. Ball’s Complete Book of Home Preserving is another great resource to have around. The recipes are not quite as good, but there are a ton of them. I mainly use the book as a way to generate ideas. Plus, it never hurts to have the original bible of home canning lying around. If you want to know more about anything I describe in this post, these books are the best place to start.

How to Not Die of Botulism

There are two basic canning methods: boiling water canning and pressure canning. Most people use the boiling water method at home because it’s easier, it requires less equipment, and it usually gets the job done. Pressure canning is useful for processing lower-acid foods, if you don’t want to get botulism. More on that in a second.

Both canning and pickling preserve food by creating environments that don’t suit the bacteria responsible for spoilage and decay. Those bacteria require oxygen, moisture, not too much acid, and moderate temperatures. Of those four variables, canning mainly relies on a lack of oxygen to inhibit bacterial growth. When processing jars, you submerge them in boiling water. As the jars heat up, the contents expand and the air in the top of the jar is forced out through the lid. When you take the jars out, the food cools and retracts, creating negative pressure in the jar. The pressure seals the lid to the top of the jar, which prevents air from getting back in. The end result is a vacuum. Bacteria cannot grow in the anaerobic environment, so your food is safe until you open the lid.

A lack of oxygen takes care of bacteria, but there are still bacteria spores to deal with. Spores are only killed by very high heat, and they thrive in anaerobic environments. Left alive, Clostridium botulinum spores produce the toxin responsible for botulism, a horrible paralytic disease. To prevent botulism, you have to kill the spores with either heat or acid. Unfortunately, boiling water canning cannot get the jars hot enough to kill the spores. So when using the boiling water method, the final mixture has to have a ph level below 4.6, acidic enough to kill botulism spores. Most fruits are already acidic enough, and vegetables can get there when they are pickled with vinegar. Any modern canning recipe that calls for boiling water processing will have already calculated the ph levels. So you only need to worry about ph if you are using an old recipe or untested recipe.

If you want to experiment with recipes or you want to can a low-acid food (like non-pickled veggies), pressure canning is the way to go. It’s the same process as the boiling water method, but you do it under pressure. Water boils at a higher temperature under pressure, so you can reach the 250 degrees Fahrenheit required to kill botulism spores. I don’t own a pressure canner (yet), so the recipes in Preserved will focus on the boiling water method. But if you want to learn more about pressure canning, the National Center for Home Food Preservation has some good info!

How to Can with Boiling Water: Apple Butter Edition

Boiling water canning is easy. All you really need are some jars with two-piece lids, a big pot, tongs, some water, and of course food to put in the jars. If you want to get fancy (and have fewer injuries), I recommend buying a few extra supplies. At the very least, get a jar lifter, which is a pair of funny shaped tongs to help you take jars out of boiling water. After pouring boiling water on my arm a few times with my homemade version (tongs plus rubber bands), a real jar lifter was a revelation. Canning kits are also great, if you want the whole setup. The smaller versions come with a jar funnel, a jar lifter, a magnetic lid lifter, and several other tong-like things I haven’t figured out yet. The larger set includes a gigantic canning pot and a rack for the jars. This stuff is helpful, but not necessary.

To demonstrate the basic canning process, I’m going to use an apple butter recipe based on one from “Canning for a New Generation.” Because it’s so simple to make, apple butter is a perfect way to try out canning for the first time. Try this recipe with local apples; they are still available in most parts of the US right now, and almost any apple will give you a great tasting apple butter. You can enjoy it all winter and spring long, spread on toast or put into oatmeal.

The first step in any canning recipe is to make whatever delicious thing you’re going to put into the jars. To make this apple butter, you will need:

+ 6 pounds of apple, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks
+ 2 cups of either apple cider or water
+ 1 1/2 cups of sugar
+ 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
+ 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
+ 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

The recipe yields 3 pints of apple butter, so you can cut down the recipe if you need. The difference between apple butter and apple sauce is caramelization, so you the mixture needs to be cooked for a while. Liana Krissoff recommends using a slow cooker, which is by far the easiest method. First, put the apple chunks and the water/cider into a stock pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 40 minutes. The apples should break down quickly, and the peels will separate. Then strain the mixture to remove the peels and give it a smooth texture. I used a nylon straining bag, but you can also use a fine seive or strainer. If you want, you can also puree the mixture using an immersion blender to make sure it has a silky texture.

Next, put the puree into a slow cooker. Add the sugar and spices. Set the slow cooker on low, and the let the mixture cook for 9 to 12 hours. Don’t put the lid fully on the pot; you want some liquid to evaporate. Stir every now and then. When it’s done, the mixture will be a dark brown, and it will taste like, well, apple butter.

If you want to make this on the stove, it’s a bit harder. Put the puree back into your stock pot. Add the sugar and spices. Bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer for several hours. You will need to stir this stuff quite often, maybe every 5 to 10 minutes. The bottom will burn very quickly if you aren’t careful. It’s finished when the mixture is dark brown and relatively firm.

Now you need to prep for canning. Fill your canning pot with water, enough to cover the tops of the jars by an inch when they are submerged. Put your clean jars in the water (make sure you have enough jars to hold all your apple butter). Bring to a boil. Keep the lids in a bowl, to the side. When the water is boiling, ladle a little bit into the bowl to sanitize the lids. Pull the jars out with a jar lifter, pour the water back into the pot, and place them on the counter.

Boil the apple butter again (you may need to transfer it back to the stove from the slow cooker). Ladle the hot apple butter into the jars. You need to leave only about a 1/2 inch of airspace at the top. Wipe off any apple butter that got on the rim of the jar. Then place a lid on top, and screw on a ring just until it starts to tighten. If you overtighten the lid, or if you don’t fill the jars enough, then they won’t seal properly!

Once all the jars are full, put them back in the boiling water. Make sure there’s about an inch of water on top of the jars. Boil them for 10 minutes (err on the long side, a few more minutes won’t hurt). Remove the jars, and set them on the counter. Don’t disturb them for at least an hour. As they cool, you may hear the lids pop. After an hour, check the lids by pushing on the center. If you can pop the jar lid up and down, then it didn’t seal. Put that jar in the refrigerator and start using the apple butter. The sealed jars can sit out overnight to cool, and they will be stable in your pantry for the next few months!

Preserved: Five Reasons to Eat Local, Make Amazing Dill Pickles

Last summer, my girlfriend and I started eating local food shortly after moving to New Orleans and instantly falling in love with Hollygrove Market. It combines all the best aspects of a farmers’ market, a food co-op, and a CSA program. Every week, the market features a “box” of local food. For $25, we got the weekly selection of fresh veggies, fruits, and pantry staples — like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription, but without the up-front commitment. The market also sold tons of individual items, including local honey, organic dairy, and humanely-raised and humanely-slaughtered meat.

After about two months of buying the weekly box, my girlfriend started reading more about the local food movement. We read about farming and local food in The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball and in Barbara Kingsolver‘s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Kingsolver weaves in some eye-opening facts about commercial farming while discussing the year she spent getting back to nature on her farm in Virginia. (Beware: she has a very privileged perspective, which makes the farming narrative hard to stomach at some points.)

Inspired by the memoirs we had been reading, we decided to commit to buying all of our groceries from local sources, with just a few exceptions for necessities like flour, and to cut down on eating at restaurants. As excited as we were at the beginning, our little project ended up better than I had even hoped. We had started a local diet for some big picture reasons, but along the way we found a lot of smaller reasons to keep doing it.

Reasons To Eat Local

1. It’s more fun to cook with local produce, and the end product tastes better.

When we started buying local, I instantly noticed that cooking was more enjoyable, we got a lot more creative with recipes, and our dinners were way better. On top of all that, I started to feel healthier, too. As seasons change and local farms provide different produce, your diet shifts, too. All of that variety means that your body now has a lot of different vitamins and nutrients. And of course, a local diet inevitably includes a lot less processed food, which means you’re ingesting fewer chemicals and preservatives. For the non-local things we miss, we try to come up with our own versions, or we just decide to buy it anyway. It’s tough to make your own Dr. Pepper.

2. It can be a lot cheaper than shopping at conventional grocery stores.

Buying locally ended up saving us a lot of money: we didn’t eat at restaurants as often, and we shaved off $30 a week off our grocery bill. Back when the local food movement started, buying local required some cash. You could invest in a CSA, but you had to put down a lot of money up front. And if you moved or took a long vacation, too bad. You might have gotten lucky and found some regional produce at Whole Foods, but it was probably just as expensive as everything else in there. Farmers’ markets were the only real pipeline for affordable local produce. But not every town has a farmers’ market, and they aren’t open that often, even during the growing season.

Luckily, most major U.S. cities now have a lot more options for local food sources and they are a lot more affordable than Whole Foods. You might find a local foods store like the one we found in New Orleans, where a single organization gathers a bunch of items from different local producers. These stores are great because they have everything in one place — you can walk out with vegetables, cheese, eggs, honey, coffee and some fresh pasta, all made or grown within 200 miles. Most cities are also seeing a surge in local food delivery services, such as Good Eggs. You select your groceries online, and then everything is delivered to your door a few days later. Most of these services even have profiles on their website of the farm that grew your food! And of course, farmer’s markets and CSAs are still alive and well. All of these options provide convenient access to affordable local food.

3. It is way better for the environment.

Food production is responsible for a huge chunk of global greenhouse gas emissions. When you add up the energy it takes to raise animals, produce pesticides, build farming equipment, grow plants, and then ship all of those products around the country and the world — well, that’s a huge amount of energy, and consequently emissions. Reducing emissions from the food industry is one major way we can help combat global warming, and eating local can be a huge help.

Besides transportation, livestock create a huge carbon footprint with methane emissions (not to mention the energy required to grow their food). If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, congratulations, you’re already helping! If you’re a meat-eater like me, then cutting back on meat can really go a long way, and eating local helped me do that —almost as a side effect. The sheer variety and quality of local produce meant we skipped the meat a few times per week, and I didn’t miss it. Local, humanely-raised meat is also expensive. I am willing to pay the price for knowing the animal had a good life, and the price has helped me view animal products as more of a splurge.

4. It is way better for your community.

When you buy local, your money goes to the non-profit that runs your local foods store, or to the beekeeper that lives down the street, or to the organic farmer an hour away. All of these people have broken away from the traditional food industry. They put their energy into producing things with care and with a sense of place. Most people I have met in the local food world aren’t in it for the money; they’re in it for the community. And I feel great knowing that my grocery money helps support their vision and livelihood.

5. It ties you in to the rhythm and the culture of the place where you live.

This was more pronounced for us in Louisiana, where farmers can grow a lot of weird stuff. A few times last summer, we got raw peanuts in our weekly box of food. I had no idea what to do with raw peanuts. I didn’t even know they started out green. But my Southern girlfriend showed me how to boil them with salt and spices. Crazy delicious. I had never felt as truly Southern as when we sat on the porch eating boiled peanuts and drinking mint juleps. Local food gave us a window into Louisiana culture that I would never have experienced shopping at the big grocery store down the street.

And while the culture shock might not be as severe in other places, it is still fun to eat food in time with the seasons. It can be a little frustrating to only have fresh berries a few months out the year, but for me, the rewards of eating produce that is in season and appropriate to where you live is worth the inconvenience. A July blackberry will always blow a January blackberry out of the water. And you feel more connected to a place when your diet shifts with the weather. Fall is no longer just about leaf color, it’s also about figuring out what to do with all that squash you have!

Next page: Canning, freezing, preserving local food and dill pickle recipe!

“Hide/Seek,” Crucified Exhibit of Queer Art History, is Back!

Oh hello, do you remember that art exhibit Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture? The one at the National Gallery that caused John Boehner to threaten to defund the institution because the show included a controversial statement about Jesus? (And by “controversial,” I mean one video installation had a 5 second clip of ants running across a crucifix.) It made me want to lock the entire GOP into a room so I could scream about the Bill of Rights at them at the top of my lungs. Oh, and the ironic cherry on top is that Hide/Seek is an exhibit about the systematic marginalization of gay identities in American history. How meta it all turned out to be!

Well, if you don’t remember that whole hullabaloo a few months ago, those were the basic details. Maybe now you’re frustrated all over again and sad you can’t see all that awesome queerio history. But it’s ok because Hide/Seek is coming back, albeit not to the National Gallery. The Brooklyn Museum has been so awesome as to reconstitute the show in New York City. It will open at the museum tomorrow, Nov. 18, and will run until Feb. 12. Then it heads to Tacoma, where it will be at the Tacoma Art Museum from March 17, 2012, to June 10, 2012.

I suggest you go see it if you can! It’s now a piece of the very history it documents. It’s got some good stuff, too, from Annie Liebovitz to the gay couple Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. As the New York History blog describes it:

Hide/Seek includes works in a wide range of media created over the course of one hundred years that reflect a variety of sexual identities and the stories of several generations. The exhibition also highlights the influence of gay and lesbian artists who often developed new visual strategies to code and disguise their subjects’ sexual identities, as well as their own. Hide/Seek considers such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern Americans, how artists have explored the definition of sexuality and gender, how major themes in modern art–especially abstraction–were influenced by marginalization, and how art has reflected society’s changing attitudes.

How can you resist that?

Queer Beer Festival: It Has All The Things

Sarah’s Team Pick:

Today, Toronto is holding North America’s first ever Queer Beer Festival. The event leads into the weekend’s non-orientation-specific Festival of Beer. QBF features 70 brewers all with unique beers.

And refreshingly, the word queer isn’t just there for its rhyming value. The festival actually has something for the whole LGBTQ community, not just the G. There are a few booths focused specifically on women, and the entertainment lineup includes queerio (and Autostraddle) favorites Hunter Valentine and Lucas Silveira of The Cliks.

If you live anywhere in Toronto and don’t have plans tonight, go here! Alternatively, if you live anywhere else and have any festival-planning abilities, please create your own Queer Beer Festival. Preferably in the Detroit area, but maybe that’s just me.

Surprise, Women With Trauma History More Likely To Face Substance Abuse, Mental Illness

The news for womens’ health care this week has been surprisingly good — for once. The Department of Health and Human Services released a bunch of new guidelines on Monday, which included the directive that preventive health care for women be provided without a co-pay. Perhaps the biggest effect of that policy is that birth control will now be free of charge for most women; that aspect of the guidelines is certainly getting the most attention in the headlines.

But “preventive care” doesn’t just mean the pill, it also refers to services that are a lot more relevant to the lives of queer women. For example, the guidelines mean that domestic violence screenings will be free after August 2012. That’s great news, considering a new study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association points to a huge link between gender violence and mental illness.

The study showed that 27% of Australian women had suffered at least one episode of gender violence. (For comparison, Australia has rates of gender violence similar to the U.S.) Gender violence includes sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence, stalking, etc. That statistic sets up the real point of the study:

Fifty-seven percent of the women with a history of abuse also had a history of depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, or anxiety (including panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder), versus 28% of the women who had not experienced gender-based violence.

Among women who had been exposed to at least three different types of violence, the rate of mental disorders or substance abuse rose to 89%.

For those of us who weren’t stats majors, that is a huge correlation. What does that mean, though? Well, the study points out that most of the instances of violence or abuse happen relatively early in a woman’s life, while instances of mental illness and substance abuse happen later in life. So while making causal generalizations about psychology or mental illness can be messy and dangerous, it seems much more likely that exposure to gender violence leads to mental issues, not the other way around.

Obviously, we know that gender violence is a huge problem for women around the world, gay and straight. It’s hard to grow up as a woman anywhere and not realize that. But this study is showing us that the problem does not stop at those instances of violence. It is plaguing women with serious, systemic and ongoing problems — ones that can be difficult to get treated and that often  carry as much stigma as the gender violence that may have caused them. Given the fact that many of the treatment and care options that women can pursue immediately after instances of trauma and later in life when experiencing their aftermath can be very costly, many women may not get care at all. For instance, counseling for domestic or partner violence can cost hundreds of dollars even with insurance; without coverage, it’s thousands. And since women still make significantly less than men – and queer and trans women are disadvantaged in the workplaces, and women of color are near the bottom of the earnings ladder – treatment may be out of reach.

This research suggests that the best overall solution is to minimize gender violence — a problem that’s faced our communities for generations, and seems unlikely to be “fixed” in the near future. It’s an ongoing and worthwhile struggle, but what should we do while fighting that battle? The researchers provide their ideal solution: “Mental health specialists and providers of women’s health services should collaborate and develop a unified approach to more effectively screen and treat mental health problems in women who have experienced violence.”

And the new Health and Human Services guidelines could help health care providers do just that. With a greater availability of preventive services, maybe we will finally see the improvements to women’s health care that we so desperately need. We have to hope so — for many women, there isn’t another option.

VIDEO: Jon Stewart Explains Fox News to Fox News, Fox News Denies Itself

Jon Stewart, that brilliantly funny man, went on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace this week. You can read a version of the major highlights over at the Huffington Post, whose coverage mostly proved Stewart’s thesis about the mainstream media (see their sensationalist headline that doesn’t reflect the real discussion at all). Stewart and Wallace mainly discussed Stewart’s vehement criticism of Fox News as a “relentless agenda-driven 24 hour news opinion propaganda delivery system.” Obvs Wallace thinks that all the other major news networks are just as bad as Fox, just liberal. Stewart’s counterpoint was more nuanced. His basic thesis about the mainstream media is that they are simply lazy and sensationalist, not doggedly pursuing a liberal agenda – in fact, the only reason Stewart has been as successful as he is is the general attitude of lazy sensationalism, in which a comedian can do news reporting without even really standing out. Watch the whole thing here, or if you really want, HuffPo’s weirdly edited version at the above link. (Sorry it’s in two parts!)

I have to say I agree with him. After spending four years earning a journalism degree, I got out of the industry in part because of the sensationalist mainstream publications and programs. When Anthony Weiner is the lead headline for two weeks, something is wrong. Stewart is right, though, in pointing out that it’s a different flavor of sensationalism than the one peddled by Fox News. That network is anything but lazy. Stewart’s point is that Fox’s sensationalism is not driven by a lack of desire to chase the harder story, but by a desire to sell a certain agenda to their viewers.

Stewart is correct when he admits that yes, many many journalists are of the liberal persuasion. But most of them try really hard to keep that in their personal lives rather than indoctrinate their readers. Actually, a professor once gave me a really elegant explanation for the large presence of liberal reporters: journalism is about questioning the status quo. A huge part of the job is being a watchdog, asking why the government is doing what it does, and uncovering situations that require change. The ethos of conservativism is about upholding the status quo, while liberalism is usually about advocating for all the ways the system can be changed. Given that, it makes a lot of sense that journalists are liberals. It’s rather hard to have the right sort of questioning nature if you aren’t. A large number of liberals translates into a “liberal bias” in a sense, mostly in deciding what to pay attention to. But it isn’t the kind of bias that Fox News accuses everyone else of. Stewart argues – and I agree – that at this point Fox’s journalism has become so tied up with their political agenda that they can’t imagine everyone else isn’t doing the same thing. Or as Stewart puts it: “You can’t understand, because of the world that you live in, that there is not a designed ideological agenda on my part to affect partisan change because that’s the soup you swim in.”

Stewart obviously explains his point much more eloquently than I ever could. Can we just pause for a minute to consider how amazing this guy is? My own personal love for him was always pretty strong, but man, he’s making himself almost irresistible with his recent flurry of super intelligent takedowns on Fox’s own airwaves. He might just be the smartest man on television these days.

‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ Blogger Kidnapped by 3 Armed Men, Silenced, Still Missing – UPDATED

Amina Abdallah, a.k.a. Gay Girl in Damascus, is missing. Two days ago, Amina was taken by three men at a bus station.They were armed and in their 20s, according to Amina’s cousin. Her family hasn’t heard from her. They’re not sure which security force the men belong with, if/when they will release her, or if she is hurt or in danger.

See, Amina lives in Syria and Amina is a lesbian and Amina was brave enough to start a blog called Gay Girl in Damascus which has gotten a lot of attention lately. Her frank observations about Syria and its government — especially how it feels to be a lesbian under those conditions — are brave, courageous, and artfully rendered. Her reception has been so positive and so enormous that eventually the Syrian government took notice, and clearly didn’t like what they saw.

From Abdallah’s family:

Amina’s writing gives a beautiful voice to the revolutionary feelings stirring in Syria and it’s amazing she’s been able to write this as long as she has. Her perspective is unique and almost every post is worth your time. Go read them. Also join the Facebook group calling for her release.

I will leave you with an excerpt from an April post about the last time she encountered government intimidation and why she chose to stay in Damascus, despite such threats:

“So, when my father says he will not leave until either democracy comes or he is dead, I have no choice but to stay. Not because he is making me, but because he is not making me.

We sent the rest away; any who can, any who will left for Beirut. I cannot go. He’s staying so so will I.”

UPDATE: Questions are now arising about the veracity of the reported abduction and Amina’s identity, as reported by the Guardian. US officials have been unable to confirm her citizenship or anyone by that name living in Damascus; no one has been able to verify her identity in the US or Syria. A London woman, Jelena Lecic, claims that the photos that have been widely circulated as being of Amina are in fact of her.

Bonnaroo 2011: Music Guide & Autostraddle’s Anticipatory Playlist

Autostraddle is going to Bonnaroo! Laneia has already talked about what we are/are not bringing this year, but we need to talk music. That’s what this is really about, right?

So let’s get down to it. Here are the bands we are super excited about, with the occasional interjectional feelings-based input from Laneia. Some artists are old, some are new, some we’ve never actually heard before. But we think they are all worth a listen, whether you’re actually going to Bonnaroo or not.

THE HEADLINERS

+ Eminem
11 p.m. Saturday, What Stage

Let’s start with the big names. Eminem is holding down the top spot on Saturday night this year. It’s a weird choice; rap just doesn’t seem like the type of thing that would suit most of the Bonnaroo crowd. Jay Z was the main headliner last year, though, and everyone seemed to love it. So maybe this will work, but idk, I love Jay Z and I hate Eminem.

+ Arcade Fire
11 p.m. Friday, What Stage

The Arcade Fire has the top spot on Friday, and unlike Eminem, they are an absolutely perfect choice. They’re an awesome band to hear outside, (espesh if you’re in an altered state like 3/4 of the Bonnaroo crowd), they fit the festival atmosphere, and they’re touring with The Suburbs, arguably their best album yet.

The Suburbs won best album of the year at the Grammy’s, spawning that lovely meme. I can’t decide how I feel about this. On one hand, I love the album so much that I want the entire world to hear it. But sometimes it feels like Win Butler let me in on some amazing secret, and I don’t want to share it. Alas, that is not how music works, so at least I get to see them perform it live. Laneia will have to hold me back from climbing on stage and tackling someone out of pure joy.

+ The Black Keys
8 p.m. Saturday, What Stage

These guys have been making the festival rounds for a while now. They were at Bonnaroo last year, then Lollapalooza, and now they’re back, with higher billing. I have loved them for a long time, and they rocked when I saw them a few years ago. But let’s be real, The Black Keys are just not a festival band. They belong in a small, intimate concert hall with wooden floors covered in beer, cigarette smoke hanging in the air. I’ve tried to give them a chance at festivals a few times, but for some reason, their music does not sound as good when they play outside. Give them a try if you want, and of course their albums, including Brothers, are always worth it, but I will be skipping them at Bonnaroo this year.

+ My Morning Jacket
8 p.m. Friday, What Stage

Does anyone have any feelings re: MMJ?

Laneia: “One time in 2002, I made a mix cd primarily focused on Mason Jennings and it included one song by My Morning Jacket. I think My Morning Jacket only exists at festivals. My Morning Jacket is a really good band name.”

SARAH IS EXCITED ABOUT THESE:

+ Lil Wayne
1:30 a.m. Saturday, Which Stage

All right, I’ll admit it, I’m such a hipster that my only real exposure to Lil Wayne is from 500 Days of Weezy. But I firmly believe that album has given me a genuine love for Lil Wayne. Plus, he is playing until 3 a.m. right after Arcade Fire, and I appreciate the epicness of that scheduling. If ever there was a rapper that belonged at Bonnaroo, it’s Lil’ Wayne.

Laneia: “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Lil’ Wayne song. Have I?”

+ Mumford & Sons
6:15 p.m. Saturday, Which Stage

Sigh No More was one of the best albums of 2010, and Mumford & Sons are still going strong with it. Like The Black Keys, they have been hitting the festivals hard. But these guys are actually good in an outdoor setting. I was lucky enough to see them play together with The Temper Trap at an after party at Lolla last year, and they fucking killed it.

+ Freelance Whales
5:30 p.m. Thursday, That Tent AND 4:45 p.m. Friday, Sonic Stage

Weathervanes is hands down my favorite album right now. I can’t believe it took me so long to finally download it. You really need to own the album so you can listen to “Location” on repeat for days, like me. Their talking-really-fast-how-has-he-not-taken-a-breath-yet style is really interesting, and I like the continuous ghost/death metaphors in their lyrics. Surprisingly, it remains a hopeful record.

These guys are playing twice: once on Thursday night and again Friday afternoon. Hopefully, this will be just like my special moments with Brandi Carlile last year, and I will fall even deeper in love with them.

+ Girl Talk
2:30 a.m. Sunday, This Tent

GIRL TALK! I thought I loved Gregg Gillis a lot, but then he released All Day, and the world became shinier and more awesome. It’s absolutely his best record yet; he took his mixes to a whole new level. Are you over I Want You Back + Lil Kim yet? I’m not. Also his concerts are amazing and make everyone feel super high on life. This can only be improved by being outside in a field in Tennessee, under the stars, surrounded by thousands of hippies.

Unfortch, he’s playing at 2:30 in the morning on Saturday night. I guess that means I will be bringing Red Bull and Five Hour Energy to Bonnaroo this year.

+ Florence and the Machine
6:45 p.m. Friday, This Tent

Is Florence and the Machine over, or still a thing? I can’t tell. But I think they are still enough of a thing to go see at Bonnaroo. “Kiss With A Fist” is still a jam, right?

+ Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
12:30 p.m Saturday, This Tent

Oh hey, these guys are going to be so so great. I love their sound, and their live show is supposed to be excellent. They have a soulful, old Southern rock feeling (and by that I mean Chuck Berry/Little Richard, not Lynyrd Skynyrd). Listen to the song below, and also this amazing version of “Bitch, I Love You.”

LANEIA HAS FEELINGS ABOUT:

+ Sleigh Bells
10:15 p.m. Thursday, The Other Tent

They’re a Brooklyn duo, Derek Miller & Alexis Krauss. This stuff is noise pop at it’s finest, punchy and bright. They released their debut album, Treats, last summer. Intern Morgan says they are SO GOOD live, and definitely worth checking out.

Laneia: “When I need to work nonstop for hours, I play Treats on repeat and when I’m done, my thoughts have sort of flatlined and all I’m left with is a pile of sent emails, cleaned dishes and the lyrics of A/B Machines on an unrelenting loop in my brain. Bliss.”

+ Loretta Lynn
6:45 p.m. Saturday, That Tent

Loretta Lynn is basically a legend. She has more awards than any other woman in country music history. She was married at 13 and had four children before she turned 19, which makes songs like “The Pill” even more interesting and groundbreaking. She released an album produced by Jack White in 2004 — Van Lear Rose. This is gonna be live, uh-huh:

Laneia: “Oh my god you guys.”

+ The Strokes
6:45 p.m. Sunday, Which Stage

They released a new album this year, Angles, after a two-year break from the band.

Laneia: “I am filled with negative feelings about this new album! It’s totally uninspired and stale. Am I supposed to believe that after two years, none of these guys experienced a single thing that made them grow as artists? Under Cover of Darkness sounds like a songwritten by a Strokes cover band, from like five fucking years ago. I don’t know, I’m bitter. If you don’t have anything new to say, why not just wait until you do?”

+ Beirut
6:15 p.m. Sunday, The Other Tent

Musical Intern Morgan describes Beirut as “swelling vocals over Balkan folk and Eastern European-influenced melodies.”

+ Matt & Kim
3:15 p.m. Friday, This Tent

They’ve evolved over the years, getting more polished and more poppy with their latest albums, like Sidewalks. Fun fact: the police in the Lessons Learned video (see below) were real, and Matt & Kim only got out of being arrested by claiming they were filming a mayonnaise commercial.

+ Cold War Kids
5 p.m. Sunday, This Tent

Apparently, Cold War Kids are labeled as a Christian band, but you would never know it. They make fun, punk and soul-influenced rock. Check out their latest album, released this January, Mine Is Yours. Music Editor Crystal is a serious fan of Cold War Kids, and, slightly related, on May 7 they tweeted “Doc Martens have always been my favorite shoe, for guys & girls.” Instant love.

+ Best Coast
7:15 p.m. Thursday, The Other Tent

Best Coast includes former Vivian Girls drummer Ali Koehler. The album Crazy for You is summer in the form of music. Hipster Runoff describes Best Coast as a “fuzzy buzzy band that sings abt dank, California, boys, and kitty cats” SO THERE YOU GO.

ALSO WE LIKE THESE:

+ Justin Townes Earle (@justintearle)
2:30 p.m. Friday, The Other Tent

JTE has released an album every year since 2008, a pace that can probably only be surpassed by The Mountain Goats. His style is polished blues and folk-influenced country. His latest is Harlem River Blues and Laneia says you should buy that right now.

Laneia: “You should buy Harlem River Blues right now.”

+ Ray LaMontagne (@RayLaMontagne)
6:15 p.m. Friday, Which Stage

Ray quit his shoe factory job to become a singer-songwriter, and then won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album with God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise. His voice is soulful and amazing.

+ Hesta Prynn (@hestaprynnmusic)
9 p.m. Thursday, The Silent Disco

Hesta is an Autostraddle favorite! Former member of the all-girl hip-hop group Northern State, The New York Post called her “M.I.A. And Miike Snow’s lovechild,” which is a pretty damn awesome description. Check out her EP Can We Go Wrong.

+ Old Crow Medicine Show (@thelowcrow)
2 p.m. Saturday, Which Stage

These guys caught their break while busking outside a North Carolina pharmacy. Also, they were on the Transamerica soundtrack, which is sweet. Check out their 2008 album Tennessee Pusher.

Laneia: “If you’re gonna seriously listen to OCMS, you have to hear Greetings from Wawa. Everyone loves Wagon Wheel from the self-titled album, but there a couple of amazing tracks on Wawa, like Kitty Clyde and Oh My Love, that were seemingly recorded live at a radio station? Or possibly on a different planet? I don’t even know you guys, it’s so fascinating.”

+ Phosphorescent (@Phosphorescent)
1:45 p.m. Friday, This Tent

They release Here’s to Taking It Easy in 2010, and one of their songs includes the line “naked, swirling like otters (you know how they are).” Sold.

Laneia: “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise is just the most beautiful, haunting song. I would try to explain how much I love it, but I can’t wave my arms around in this post and shout ‘DOESN’T THIS MAKE YOU WANT TO DIE BUT LIKE, IN A GOOD WAY??’ so you’ll have to pretend I did. To Willie is Phosphorescent’s tribute to Willie Nelson, in which they cover the lesser-known, sort of inherently sad tracks, mostly dealing with addiction and loss, like Too Sick to Pray and The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning). Fucking amazing tribute album END OF STORY.”

+ Deerheart

Intern Morgan wants to recommend Deerheart, who she is friends with, so of course we’re doing that here and now. They opened for Against Me!, the Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen a month or so ago. That sounds very exciting!

Next: A special Bonnaroo Playlist just for you!

Sarah’s Team Pick: The Best Graduation Speeches

Don’t you love this time of year? Mosquitos begin to hatch. The winter chill starts to sound nice after a few 90-degree days in a row. And of course, thousands of graduations take place across the country, and each and every one of them has a speech to go with it.

Most graduation speeches quote Robert Frost and say the word “future” a lot and point out that commencement means beginning, not ending, blah blah blah. But some of them are actually original and good! HuffPo has compiled a list of the best speeches this year, and they are definitely worth watching.

We already told you about Tom Hanks talking to Yale, but Amy Poehler wins, I think.

Obama Gives the Gays Their Own Page on WhiteHouse.gov

In preparation for his 2012 re-election campaign, Obama has been sprucing up his web page to highlight his major accomplishments as president. For the first time ever, LGBT issues have gotten their very own landing page. AND IT’S CALLED WINNING THE FUTURE.

The page is also part of Obama’s celebration of LGBT Pride Month. He also made a proclamation about Pride, which ends with “I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.” It’s some good reading, if you’re into that sort of thing.

On WINNING THE FUTURE (all caps necessary), Obama lists the many things he has done for us so far, which Pam over at Pam’s House Blend was patient enough to type out (the list is in PDF format, unfortch). Obama mentions a lot of things, but the main categories are:

+ Preventing bullying and hate crimes against LGBT Americans
+ Supporting LGBT families
+ Ensuring equal access to housing for LGBT families
+ Supporting LGBT health
+ Supporting job creation among LGBT-owned businesses
+ Setting precedents in hiring and business for LGBT people
+ Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
+ Providing global leadership for LGBT Americans
+ Honoring LGBT history
+ Supporting LGBT progress

Check out the individual issues listed under those topics over at Pam’s page (linked above) or by downloading the PDF here.

Obama signing the DADT repeal in December

The comments on Pam’s article about this were almost entirely negative, picking apart Obama’s list of accomplishments, asking why more was not done, expressing disbelief that this actually means anything. Find fault where you want, his record isn’t perfect, but President Obama has done more for the LGBT community than any other president in history. The last guy who was supposed to help us out ended up signing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act into law. Even if Obama had never lifted a finger, it would have been better than Clinton’s presidency.

But he did lift a finger. He worked really hard on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It took a while because he spent a lot of his momentum on the health care bill, but honestly, that’s completely fine with me. There are other things I care about beyond LGBT issues, just like there are other parts of my identity beyond my sexuality. When health care was done, he turned to DADT and he got it repealed. I wish that repeal was taking effect more quickly, but he has the House to deal with.

Obama telling Americans It Gets Better

Then Obama started attacking DOMA. In the past few months, his position went from “my office has to defend it in court because it’s my job” to “we won’t defend it in the Second Circuit” to “we actively support its repeal in Congress.” If Obama can advance that far on DOMA so quickly, who knows what he’ll be fighting for by 2016.

Obama is not perfect. There are important things that he has not done, and marriage equality is not the only LGBT issue that matters. But he has gone a long way toward erasing the damage done by Clinton, and he becomes a stronger LGBT advocate every day. Finally, we have a president who is willing to call himself an ally. He has stopped undercutting that with mutterings about religion or with concessions to the religious right. He is on our side.

So yeah, this is just a silly web page that he launched to cater to LGBT voters. But I say, bring on the flattery. What other president has ever been so willing to vocally support us, to tell the country that LGBT Americans are worth his time?

In a world where I am forced to vote for the Democrat every time because the Republican party wants to string me from a flag pole and strip all of my rights, it is nice to be able to vote for a candidate that actively supports my equality. I’m tired of putting up with Democrats who are just less evil than the other guy. Obama is not simply the better choice, he is a good choice.

House Passes Bill Aimed at Slowing DADT Repeal, Obama is Officially Upset

The U.S. House passed a defense bill that includes not one but THREE anti-gay amendments. Hey, at least they’re being efficient with the hate these days. Let’s tackle these one at a time, shall we? (Keep in mind that these amendments would have to pass the Senate before they would become effective.)

Amendment one aims to slow the DADT repeal by requiring all four service branch chiefs to sign off on the policy change. It seems that is a departure from the current plan, which involves a cooperative decision by the Secretary of Defense, the President, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The amendment adds in four other people who are probably less likely to give the repeal the go-ahead. It basically gives the armed services a free pass to say no thanks and keep DADT in place. Once again, let’s point out that DADT does not prevent gay soldiers from serving, it just hurts them once they sign up. There have always been and will always be gay service members, no matter what Congress does.

Amendment two restates that the Defense of Marriage Act still applies to the Department of Defense. You know, in case anyone had forgotten that there is a federal ban on recognizing same-sex couples. Just fyi guys, purely informational, you know! The government still hates the gays, write that down.

Amendment three prohibits same-sex weddings on military property. Ok, seriously? This is just mean. It looks like a backstop measure in case they can’t prevent the repeal of DADT. So instead of letting everyone be equal when that happens, America is going to throw one last “fuck you” at our own soldiers? Classy.

Obama signing the DADT repeal in December

Obama is not happy about this bill. His office released a statement a few days ago objecting to all three of these sections. On DADT:

“The Administration strongly objects to any legislative attempts (such as section 533) to directly or indirectly undermine, prevent, or delay the implementation of the repeal, as such efforts create uncertainty for servicemembers and their families.”

And on DOMA:

“The Administration strongly objects to sections 534 and 535, believes that section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is discriminatory, and supports DOMA’s repeal.”

That’s right, he said he supports DOMA’s repeal, not just that he will not defend it in the Second Circuit courts. Obama has become a stronger gay rights advocate every day of his presidency. I cannot wait to see how those issues play out during the next election. One thing we already know is that the HRC has officially backed Obama already — a move not everybody’s happy about.

For now, this bill moves to the Senate. Let’s be honest, it would have no chance there, even without Obama’s statement. I, for one, am tired of the House taking cheap shots at gay rights that have no chance of becoming law. I don’t understand why they don’t just focus on fixing the deficit or addressing the thing they complain about. At least I could respect that.

Effective Pro Gay Marriage Videos, Demonstrated by Gov. Cuomo & A Guy in Minnesota

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York released a video Monday morning in support of gay rights, asking his constituents to call their legislators and tell them to vote yes on marriage equality. After being shot down in 2009, a measure to allow gay marriage in New York should resurface before the legislative session ends on June 20.

Cuomo sounds like a marriage-equality pro, drawing comparisons with interracial marriage and saying the issue is not one of religion. Check it out:

newyorkstateofficeofthegovernor on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

It is not often that governors directly lobby the people of their state to get a bill passed, which shows just how much Cuomo is willing to stick his neck out on this issue. He has decided to make it one of his top priorities in the next few months, and the switch from behind-the-scenes lobbying to personal support seemed necessary in the final push.

It’s hard to tell where the battle stands right now. One recent poll shows that almost 60% of New Yorkers support same-sex marriage, though the Wall Street Journal has stated that the split is much more even than previously thought. The WSJ also reports that partisan tensions have made it difficult to predict how the vote will go down in the legislature. To pass the bill will require some Republicans to cross the aisle, which they aren’t willing to do until they know that all of the Democrats will vote yes. A handful of Senate Democrats voted against their party last time, roundly defeating the bill in 2009.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, where an anti-marriage-equality amendment will appear on the November 2012 ballot, Nate Moydole, a close friend of Madeline Koch, the Republican who went viral a few weeks ago with her powerful testimony, made what Queerty is calling “the single best ad for marriage equality in recent memory.”

Queerty asked Nate a few questions:

Q: Why doesn’t the video identify any of the speakers?
N: I wanted it to feel like it was one voice without any other distractions. The goals were to make is simple, powerful, and short. The respect to the speakers, I did add all of their credentials and links to their videos within the description.

The White House has released its statement on the vote in Minnesota:

“The President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples or to take such rights away. While he believes this is an issue best addressed by the states, he also believes that committed gay couples should have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country.”

Minnesota Will Vote on Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban in 2012

The Minnesota legislature voted to add to the November 2012 ballot a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Awesome, those have gone so well in the past. Not only do the gays usually lose when citizens are given the power to decide issues — see Maine and California — but 31 states already prohibit same-sex marriage by constitutional amendment (10 more by statute).

Watch this video from the state capitol last night — the whole thing, immediately, some of it will make you feel slightly better. America needs more people like Rep. John Kriesel. He gets it.

Obviously the next step is an 18-month battle for the votes of Minnesotans. Rep. Karen Clark and Sen. Scott Dibble, the Minnesota legislature’s only openly gay members, have a little bit of faith. “We’ve built a movement. We are going to do the hardest thing we’ve ever done. But we’re up to it,” Dibble said.

According to the Advocate, Donald McFarland of Minnesotans United for All Families has said, “Our campaign is hitting the ground running, and we plan on using every resource available to defeat this anti-family constitutional amendment.”

The Minnesota Star-Tribune predicts the fight over this amendment could be almost as expensive as the 2008 presidential campaign. It will certainly rival the fight over Proposition 8 in California, which cost both sides a combined $83 million.

It’s ridiculous to be forced to buy your own civil rights, but that’s America. So please consider donating something to the Minnesota effort over the next 18 months. They’ll need it. MUAF’s website is brand new, so there is no way to donate yet, but you can sign up for their email list. For donations, try OutFront Minnesota, who already have a movement going.

To bring things around to the bigger picture, even a leader of Focus on the Family has admitted that in the long run, the fight about gay marriage is over. And we won. FoF’s Jim Daly told World Magazine, a Christian publication, the following:

World: We’re winning the younger generation on abortion, at least in theory. What about same-sex marriage?

Daly: We’re losing on that one, especially among the 20- and 30-somethings: 65 to 70 percent of them favor same-sex marriage. I don’t know if that’s going to change with a little more age—demographers would say probably not. We’ve probably lost that. I don’t want to be extremist here, but I think we need to start calculating where we are in the culture.

He then went on to talk about how maybe this was God telling Christians to re-evaluate marriage in their own communities and maybe get rid of divorce. Ummm … that sounds fine, actually! If people don’t want a Christian marriage that is more restrictive than what the government offers, then they shouldn’t get one. See how easy that was? You guys do you, we’ll do us.

Rhode Island House Approves Civil Unions, But With Restrictions

Yesterday, the Rhode Island House approved a bill legalizing civil unions with a 62-11 vote.

The Rhode Island Senate will now vote on the bill. Most news stories about this aren’t concerned about its chances there or on the governor’s desk, so it is hard to tell what the odds are that civil unions will actually become available. The Advocate reports that the Senate leader supports the bill, and a 62-11 vote in the House is clearly across party lines, so maybe it will pass.

Unfortunately, a very restrictive religious exemption was included in the bill. Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, a New England LGBT rights organization, has come out against the bill.

“The religious exemption amendment goes much further in allowing religious charitable and educational organizations – such as social service providers, hospitals, and educational institutions – to treat legal civil unions, authorized under Rhode Island law, as invalid for any purpose,” GLAD wrote in a news release today.

Openly gay Rep. Frank Ferri told the Providence Journal: “I believe that it is a step forward… There are many couples that need these rights and, today, they know now when they go to the hospital, when they go to a nursing home, their property is protected, they have rights that they didn’t have — as soon as the Senate passes it and the governor signs it.”

If it does turn into law, then Rhode Island would be the fourth state to enact civil unions, behind Hawaii, Illinois and New Jersey. Some lawmakers, such as Rep. Ferri, have made it clear this is just a step along the way toward total equality. They hope to make Rhode Island join the five U.S. states that have legalized gay marriage.

And on the federal front, things look much better for gay marriage than they did a few years ago. Obama’s refusal to defend DOMA in a federal court a few months ago is a big step forward. U.S. Rep Barney Frank thinks the president might take things even further: “This is just my intuition, but I think the President will be supportive of marriage in the states that offer it before the 2012 election,” Frank said.

That’s a pretty qualified statement, but it would be much better than Obama’s stance on marriage equality in 2008 and would at least silence a few critics. Maybe it could pave the way for same-sex marriage in states like Rhode Island, the ones on the brink  of equality.

Photoshopping Lesbians into the Great Depression, In the Name of Art

Artist Debbie Grossman has created a queer photo project called “My Pie Town” — albeit without taking any of the photos in it. It features Depression-era photographs of American families, photoshopped to include only women. She altered the facial structure of men in some photos to have more stereotypically feminine features, and removed them completely in others. The show will be at the Julie Saul Gallery in New York until May 21, but you can check out the full gallery of images at the above link.

Grossman told The Morning News about the purpose of her project:

“I thought it would be fun to remake the whole town in a way that reflected my own family, and I imagined a Pie Town filled with women. The main reason for doing so was to give us the unusual experience of getting to see a contemporary idea of family (female married couples as parents, for example) as if it were historical. But I am also very interested in using Photoshop to create imaginary or impossible images — this is something I have done in other work as well.”

I first read about the Pie Town project on The Hairpin. The comments on their article started to convince me that maybe this was weird; if maybe editing the historical record of real people in the name of art and representation was an interesting investigation or an overstepping of boundaries. Of course, there’s the ever-present discussion of whether Photoshopping historical photographs is “art” at all (more on that later). Beyond that, retroactively changing someone’s gender identity without their permission seems a little, well, appropriation-y, for lack of a better word.

But the more I look at this stuff, the more I like it. It’s an interesting thesis, using modern technology to make a revisionist version of history that reflects a queer reality. Grossman has won me over, as it turns out.

My first problem with The Hairpin comments is that I am sick and tired of people asking, “Is this art?” That question is more destructive than useful. People have used it for centuries to cut “othered” expression out of the conversation because of gender, race, sexuality, class, whatever. The Western, masculinized conception of the artist as a tortured male who cuts his own ear off has excluded a lot of awesome people. Maybe I have a broader definition than most people, but if someone says a thing is art, then it is. That’s all it takes, one person who finds artistic value in something. That something does not have to be a painting, it does not have to be an example of some well-developed skill, it does not have to be created by some tortured soul. If Carolee Schneeman wants to stand naked in a room full of people and read from a scroll she’s pulling from her vagina and call it art, then it IS.

In my (relatively informed via my undergraduate degree) opinion, Grossman doctoring old photos to reflect a new idea of family is definitely art. She is trying to express a very specific message; she’s addressing a genuine gap in our collective memory, a lack of any kind of record of queer families (which have always existed, regardless of time period). She wants to invoke (and provoke, for some people) a certain feeling in her audience. There was once a time when people did not consider any photography at all to be art because it was a technical process. That is happening all over again with Photoshop, but it’s no different than the collage works that have been part of the Postmodern movement for decades.

And I don’t have much of a problem with her taking old photos and making the people into someone new. We should really be over the sanctity of the photograph at this point, shouldn’t we? If the fashion industry is going to use Photoshop to destroy our notions of normal women, then I don’t have a problem with Grossman using it to highlight a new conception of what family means.

What do you think? Is this an interesting look at a faux queer 1930s, or does this make you feel weird?

Sarah’s Team Pick: Beautiful Women Falling Down

The first time I heard of the Bechdel Test, it made me rethink every romantic comedy/movie with a female in it I had ever seen.

Nerve’s Beautiful Women Falling Down: A Short Film isn’t quite that life changing, but it’s still made me look a bit differently at the female comedy genre. It plays off this quote from The New Yorker:

“‘To make a woman adorable,’ one female sucessful screenwriter says, ‘you have to defeat her at the beginning… It’s as simple as making the girl cry, fifteen minutes into the movie.’ Relatability is based on vulnerability, which creates likeability. With male characters, smoking pot, getting drunk, and lying around watching porn is likeable; with females, the same conduct is hateful. So funny women must not only be gorgeous; they must fall down and then sob, knowing it’s all their fault.” — Tad Friend in The New Yorker, April 11, 2011

Gotta love those clichés.

100 Michigan Law Students Walk Out Of Graduation: LGBTs Winning Hearts and Minds

Hey, maybe you have heard about this controversy over a graduation speaker at Michigan law? Or maybe not, because although this is the kind of thing Autostraddle would’ve talked about a few weeks ago, we didn’t because this story is a little complicated. Because of me. See, I go to Michigan Law, and in December, I became the co-chair of the school’s LGBT organization. I’ve been on the front lines of the graduation speaker controversy from the beginning, and this seems to be the most optimal place from which to tell this story.

The Story

Sen. Rob Portman

So what happened? Well, three weeks ago, Michigan Law announced that Ohio Sen. Rob Portman would be their graduation speaker. Almost immediately, members of the graduating class began expressing disappointment in the choice because of Sen. Portman’s abysmal record on gay rights. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and for a ban on gay adoption in D.C., to name a few votes. His record on many other issues has been consistently conservative. But students focused almost exclusively on his votes against gay equality.

The movement against Sen. Portman grew from there. We held a bunch of meetings and exchanged countless emails. More than 300 students and more than 200 alumni signed letters to the law school dean expressing their opposition. Many more sent the dean personal messages. The efforts were about as effective as these things usually are: the administration listened and apologized for causing a rift in the class, but made it clear that Sen. Portman would remain the graduation speaker.

Our next step was to design a protest that would be visible at graduation. We started taking orders for rainbow tassels and buttons to be worn at the ceremony, and about thirty faculty members and 150 students ordered some rainbow gear. The more controversial option involved a walkout during Sen. Portman’s speech.

Graduation day finally came this past Saturday. Before the ceremony, some students and I handed out pamphlets with rainbow pins on them, explaining the protests. Some people refused them or ripped them up, but for the most part everyone was supportive. For every person that handed it back, there was a student that took a handful of pamphlets, shoved them into their parents’ hands and told them to put on the pins.

photo by Andrew Potter, Between the Lines

The walkout was scheduled to start when the senator got ready for his speech. We had estimated that maybe 40 students would join in. There was always the fear that in the heat of the moment, people would decide not to rock the boat. Instead, people decided they should join their classmates. In all, over 100 students (1/3 of the class) walked out of their own graduation. Check out this video from PrideSource, which shows the mood in the lobby during the protest:

The Point

I have had my qualms with the It Gets Better campaign. Things don’t get better for some people. Not everyone can go to college or move to San Francisco. Not everyone has the option of coming out or of avoiding bigots. Growing up and reaching your 20s does not automatically make life as a queer person any easier.

Still, in the big picture, Dan Savage has a point. That liberal rallying cry — the arc of history bends toward justice — is true in many ways. It can be difficult to see that sometimes, through all the disheartening elections and the hate speech and bullying and suicide and the Tea Party and Fred Phelps. But I think we are making progress.

To my generation, LGBT equality is not a political question anymore; it is an issue of basic human rights. Even people far beyond the boundaries of the queer community are starting to understand our cause. The protests at Michigan Law’s graduation are just a small example of the generational shift we are witnessing right now.

Don’t get me wrong, I realize that Ann Arbor, U of M, and in fact most law schools are uniquely liberal places. Queerness is much more accepted here than in most towns in America. And Michigan students have been protesting conservative speakers for decades, like Henry Kissinger in 1975; the undergrads protested Republican Gov. Rick Snyder as the commencement speaker this year. In other communities, people protest because their schools give honorary degrees to President Obama (and not because it took him so long to overturn Don’t Ask Don’t Tell). Catholic organizations chastise Catholic universities for honoring people who have expressed support of limited access to abortion.

The difference between those protests and the one at Michigan is the message. Students made it clear from the beginning that their objection was not political, even though Sen. Portman has made plenty of other objectionable votes. It was not about liberal vs. conservative. Their objection was deeper. As one of my classmates put it on his blog: “For the next generation of lawyers, this is not even a debatable issue.” It means something that such a large group of people at Michigan cared so much about a symbolic slam against LGBT people. Communities like Ann Arbor are canaries in the coal mine; when we reach a critical mass of people who will not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation, maybe the rest of the country isn’t so far behind.

Of course, there will always be places that hold out and resist tolerance at all costs. The fight never ends; we still grapple with racism and sexism on a daily basis, and I suspect we will still be dealing with homophobia for decades to come. The point is, though, that the people who walked out of Michigan Law’s graduation are the people who will be in charge in ten or twenty years. It may be elitist, but the fact is that lawyers are one of the groups that have a lot of power to make laws and set agendas for the country. Winning over the legal profession is a really great step for the gay rights movement. We will have to work a lot harder to fix the small-scale instances of homophobia, the stares when you walk down the street holding your girlfriend’s hand or the raised eyebrow from the hotel clerk booking a one-bed room for the two of you. But fixing the laws of this country and creating an environment where the government does not sponsor discrimination against LGBT people goes a long way toward achieving equality.

A few weeks ago, a friend emailed me to say that no matter what happened at graduation, she already felt like she won, and it sums up my feelings perfectly: “For the first time in my life, I’m in a place where I know that the majority of people support my rights, and that is a new and beautiful feeling.”

Sarah’s Team Pick: Don’t F*ck With Otters

No, seriously. Don’t.

Yesterday, an Irish otter turned on the farmer who rescued it from a crisps bag, which I am quite certain means potato chips. Rather than be grateful, the otter bit this guy and chased him around the yard. Normally I like my otters cute and cuddly, but this guy is actually kind of badass. Check this out:

And to make yourself feel better about otters generally, watch this video. You’re welcome.

Sarah’s Team Pick: Lady Journos Fight the NYT’s Sexism With Fire

This team pick is about two things I love: journalism and ladies. I’m not gonna say much about the content, because I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.

A few days ago, the New York Times wrote about the burgeoning online media elite of Washington, D.C. (You should read that article now so you know what’s happening.) That’s cool, it’s kind of nice that they’re writing stories that are relevant to readers under 30. Except that every person in the story was a dude.

Enter Ann Friedman, an editor at GOOD magazine and the force behind Lady Journos. In short, we like her immediately. She read this NYT article and felt feelings very similar to mine. But instead of responding with a long feminist dissection of the reasons why this article sucks, she did something better. Satire!

Now you should read her satirical copy of the NYT’s dudely story. It includes relevant/awesome paragraphs such as this one:

“There is precedent for such women being ignored as attention focuses on packs of smart, self-important young men in capital cities. It’s called all of history.”

Sarah’s Team Pick: Idyll Dandy Acres, a Queer Collective In Rural Tennessee

Do yourself a favor and watch this beautiful documentary short by Tim Hussin and Noah Hussin about Idyll Dandy Acres, a queer collective in rural Tennessee. This piece is part of the America Recycled project, which brothers Tim and Noah started in order to tell the stories of Americans making local change. The brothers are basically going around the country on their bikes, documenting different people who are “yearning to rebuild space, community, and local culture, each in our own way.” It’s basically about local revolution, and the formation of an all-queer community on a 200-acre farm in the middle of southern America is definitely that.

I absolutely love the statements these people are making about individual activism. It’s all about creating a space uniquely your own, where you can comfortably be yourself, and then sharing that reality with the wider world so that people realize all the variety of existences that surround them.

Eventually, the Autostraddle editors will be creating something very much like this where we can all disappear and live in the woods and hang out with a bunch of queers and make things with our hands. That’s the dream, right?