From: OUTspoken
Date: June 19, 2020
Subject: Head Empty. No Thoughts


a blue cone on a rainbow gradient background. Text on the image says: Tired of gender? Try cone today!! Ô£ô no hair Ô£ô no organs Ô£ô no skin Ô£ô no dysphoria Ô£ô no gender Ô£ô nothing Ô£ô you're literally just a cone! Ô£ô don't even have to wear clothes! Ô£ô quit your job

Are you joking right as I get this open my mom calls me for dinner. Be right back guys.

I hath returned. Did you miss me? Yeah, I wouldn't either. Especially since this is an email.

Events

If you're in the RIT LGBTQ+ discord, then I'm sure you're sick of me sending all sorts of events, but hey, I've finally found a place where I can learn of accessible LGBTQ+ events so I'm not about to just let that slip by. 

On a brochure like flyer, on the left side displays a pale pink background with hot pink margins. From top to bottom reads On top a green paint smear
That Deaf Asian LGBTQ+ event I mentioned in the last email is tomorrow at 5pm PST/8pm EST! I'm fairly sure it's an open event, so even if you're not a deaf queer asian, you can go. (Again, I'm fairly sure. Like 99% sure.) Intersectionality is important, and learning about how these identities intersect and manifest is a valuable lesson no matter who you are. IMHO (In my hearing opinion). You can get to the Facebook event by clicking on the picture or through this link, and you can register here.
Brown hands, heart-shaped with text, "Black Deaf LGBTQ+ Healing Space". There is a rainbow in the background and text underneath the hands, "June 20 2020 | 1 PM PST." Deaf Queer Resource Center's "super" logo (barely visible)
Earlier tomorrow, Deaf Queer Resource Center is hosting a Black Deaf LGBTQ+ Healing Space at 1pm PST/4pm EST (moderated in ASL). Now this is a closed event, aka if you're not black, hearing, or cishet, this isn't for you. Go play a sports ball or look at memes instead. Here's more of a description from their Facebook event: This is closed-space for Black Deaf, DeafDisabled, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing, and Late Deafened LGBTQ folks to connect, share and heal. (If you are not Black, hearing, and/or straight.. this space is not for you.) Here's the registration link.
Drawing of five books on a bookshelf forming the trans pride flag with their colors (blue, pink, white, pink, and blue) on a purple background. Cream colored text below says Transathon.

I'm about to just copy the text I wrote to share this event in discord because I think it's good enough and also nobody can stop me. So hah.
HhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY bookworms, someone is organizing a trans readathon (transathon if you will. And you better because that's the official name) for July! The entire point is to support and enjoy trans authors while also getting funky fresh representation! They're on Twitter (and maybe instagram? I don't know, I haven't searched them up yet) and the only requirements are that the book has to be by a trans author. If you don't know where to start, they compiled a recommended reading list. I know that we are all chugging our love trans people juice (YOU BETTER BE OR ELSE WE'RE GONNA HAVE A PROBLEM) and that we're gay nerds who like reading (maybe I'm projecting) so figured some people would be interested! There's more information on their Twitter, but here's the form to sign up.

I want to acknowledge that today is Juneteenth, the day when the last slaves got news of the Emmancipation Proclaimation, AKA their freedom. There's a lot more to it than that, and honestly there should probably be an asterisk after "freedom" that redirects you to a footnote with additional fine print, but that brings me to my main point: I suggest reading about it, because I don't want this to be your only information on Juneteenth. It's extremely simplified, and it's not my place as a non-black person. I'm not going to write something deep and meaningful reminiscing on this history, because, again, it's not my place, but I at least wanted to mention it. RIT's own OAS (Organization of African Students) made a post on Instagram giving some basic info about Juneteenth, if you're looking for a good place to start/something not too dense and easy to read.

Also, Supreme Court ruling on prohibiting employment discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, amirite?????? Pretty cool. Especially cool for teachers, because I've seen many testimonies from queer teachers who can't be out at work for fear of losing their jobs. Y'know, because people come in with the whole "WhaT AbOuT thE ChilDReN!!!!" like kids can't be LGBTQ+. God, I can't believe that was less than a week ago. Is it just me, or did this past week feel like a month?

Elizabeth Sherrock (she/her)
Director of Marketing
Tumblr post by user vampire-wannabe saying

Okay, you know what, I started this newsletter at seven something, and now it's almost nine. I'm tired. No sidebar book highlight today, you just get two memes. But because I'm drained, I don't want to write up any more alt text. Does that mean I'll post the images without the alt text? NO. I can't find any memes with image descriptions already, so I'm just going to repost some I posted to our social media and just use the alt text past!Elizabeth wrote. Also I feel like I can justify not including a sidebar book highlight because there's a bunch of books in that Transathon recommended reading list. 
Yeah, this meme is kinda squished. Sorry. GOOD THING THERE'S ALT TEXT TO DESCRIBE IT TO YOU IF YOU CAN'T READ IT!