#sent on 20190211

[booasaur]

Do you think Valentina was also Juliana's first kiss? I mean, I haven't watched the whole show but from everything I've gathered here and there I don't think her life back in Texas would even allow her to hang out with friends and get the chance to explore such thing as kissing some random guys.

And another anon:

I wanted to know if you think that Val was Juliana’s first kiss ever

Heh, you guys asked this right before the Sergio stuff went down, although the the second ask was like, a week before so kudos for wondering before the show even really hinted at it, because I DO think that headcanon became a lot more likely. The way Lupe was like, how do you know, and Juls was like, how do I know? I wouldn’t necessarily say her life in Texas made it easier or harder, as we saw, it didn’t really take much actual friendship or time to escalate, but given she even needed to compare... yeah, this coulda been her first EVER kiss.

[thecourtneychronicles]

“Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given.

This week he talks to Courtney Act. A world-renowned drag queen, the Brisbane-born 36-year-old – also known as Shane Jenek – won Britain's Celebrity Big Brother in 2018 and this year competed in SBS's Eurovision: Australia Decides [...]”

Courtney’s interview for The Sydney Morning Herald - February 16, 2019

BODIES

We know there are wigs and make-up but what else do you need to put your body through to transform into Courtney Act?

Obviously drag has different intentions and my drag has always been about gender illusion. I have a steel-boned corset that pulls my waist in. People think corsets are for looking thinner, but it's more about modifying the shape of your body into an hourglass.

How painful is that?

It's all relative because there are so many other things going on. To me it doesn't feel painful as I've been doing it for 18 years. The most painful parts are the high heels, which can become unbearable. Then I tuck, which is turning my male genitals into something that will look female under a swimsuit

Yes! How do you do that? I can't get my head – or balls – around it.

[Laughs] If you're born with testicles, they descend from a cavity inside into the scrotum. They go back up there when you're cold, scared or if you're lying on your back when you ejaculate.

So when you tuck they're not being pulled behind?

No, that would hurt when you sit down. They sort of just pop up, almost between your skin and pelvis bone. It's natural and doesn't hurt. Then the penis goes between the legs. If I'm wearing a swimsuit or anything revealing, I use two kinds of tape: a delicate paper surgical tape from the pharmacy so nothing slips out the side, and another tape from Bunnings to take things from front to back and snatch it all away.

I love knowing part of your glamour relies on equipment from a hardware store.

It does!

You identify as somewhere towards the middle of the gender spectrum. At the same time, many people insist there are only two genders.

There's biological sex, which is made up of not just external genitals, but your chromosomes and hormones. But when we talk of gender, they're the agreed ideas that societies have for how the sexes should behave. If you look around the world, we see there are completely different expectations for men and women. Times change. People who cling rigidly to gender binaries are more than welcome to. But for a lot of young people, we're seeing that our gender roles don't have to be dictated by a set of rules made by society. We can do whatever feels natural to us.

SEX

Did you feel you had the education you needed to equip you for the world of sex?

When it came to having sex with men, there was no education. There were no queer role models, no gay role models, no gay people on television. Nothing.

Did that mean you had to feel your own way through?

When I first had sex with a man, I was 18 and I thought, "Well, I'm not going to get pregnant, and he's not going to pregnant, so we obviously don't need condoms." It was friends who had to tell me, "Ah, there are things other than babies you can catch from having sex without a condom."

You've gone from someone who was quite naïve about sexual health to a sex educator on social media. How did that happen?

I felt it was incumbent on me to understand and educate others. I was always hungry for information and wanted to know more.

On the American reality TV series RuPaul's Drag Race, you mentioned that you'd had sex in and out of drag. What is it like to have sex in drag?

I've seen attraction manifest itself in so many fascinating ways. Lots of straight-identifying men have been attracted to me as Courtney. I've also had experiences as Shane with men who identify as straight. I've had boyfriends I've dated whom I met as Courtney, but then dated as Shane. Courtney can certainly act as a glamorous stepping stone across the pond.

DEATH

Run me through your will. Who gets your drag?

I wrote it so long ago that I can't remember who gets what. Different people have put dibs on my good human-hair wigs. Possibly, one day – if I keep on this trajectory – there could be a costume exhibition.

If there was a legacy prize set up in your honour, where would you want that money to go?

Education. Something for young queer people who can't afford the education they want. Or it could be about gender and sexual education at large, through different organisations. Many gay organisations focus on liberating gender and sexuality minorities in places where people aren't afforded the same privileges we are in the West. Right now, there are more than 30 Commonwealth countries where it's effectively illegal to be gay, and in one of them you can be put to death.

Are you scared of death?

As I get older, I'm more comfortable with the idea of dying. I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in a heaven or afterlife. I believe that once I die, that's it.

How do you want to be sent off?

Buried in a cardboard box under a tree. Whatever has the least environmental impact. Just return me to the earth. A party would also be fun.

Courtney Act will compete on Network Ten's Dancing With the Stars from Monday.”

[webabybouquetwastelandfan]

A 47-year-old Pasadena man was sentenced to 15 years in prison with all but five years suspended for acting as a bail bondsman and two years for taking victims’ money, according to a press release sent today from the Office of the Maryland Attorney General.

Thomas Christopher Wengert entered an…

from Anne Arundel County – Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/ac-cn-pasadena-bondsman-20190211-story.html Read more here.

[booasaur]

Maca and Bárbara have been clear that the story has been written to avoid labels because of how a lot of Mexican society tries to box in queer people. Val’s comment about how she ‘doesn’t even like women, [she] likes one woman’ was just to make a point to Eva

Hmm, but I feel like by only using the word gay, they’ve already provided a sort of box themselves? I know introductory stories try to keep it simple, but I think if boys are involved in the story somehow, as they were here, then at the least, bisexuality should be mentioned, if just its existence. 

Nobody has to choose an identity, but even that’s worth having the discussion, an “I don’t know” or “I don’t want to pick”. Too often if a character isn’t straight, they’re assumed to be gay and when the show reinforces that then that’s what the audience takes away from it. Someone can absolutely still have a history with boys and be a lesbian, but even then, not being bi is still different from defaulting to gay. 

I like that at the end Val herself said she didn’t want to pick a label, she made her own choice, but it is a choice in itself, as much as any other label. I also don’t think a totally label-less society is some kind of ideal to strive for, I don’t think it means that it all stops mattering and everyone is equal. Bigoted people don’t hate the label, they hate what people are, and that’s still going to continue.