Back onstage w/ Mattie! Gender Ordeal playlist! Leigh Bowery!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. I’m back from vacation, and the good news is that nobody did anything weird to me during any border crossing. The bad part (not news, obvi) is that everyone seems to have pivoted to a sort of dystopian future of advanced surveillance technology. Like, on my Delta flight out of the US, I never showed anyone my boarding pass at any point — they simply SCANNED MY FACE and it automatically displayed my SEAT NUMBER??? Based on my face??? Hey… I hate that!!!!!!

Anyway, while I was away, I saw a really excellent Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern. While I sadly cannot teleport you to the exhibit, may I recommend this 1998 Hilton Als piece that I admittedly have mostly not read, but that I assume is very very good?? Also, look, here are some fun pictures.

I’m back at work now. We’ve got a new episode dropping on Monday, featuring a very special guest whose name rhymes with Shmalison Schmecdel :) Happy Pride!

To be honest, I don’t have any guests booked for July and beyond because we’re about to start a “new season” and I have not actually “planned that yet.” We ofc have all your previous recommendations in our files, but if you have any new guest suggestions, it’s a great time to shout ‘em out in the comments. (I’ll also accept Gender Conceal guest requests, why not.)

Speaking of July, though: On 7/29, I will be ~in conversation with~ our friend Mattie Lubchansky to celebrate the launch of her upcoming book Simplicity. The event is at the Hellenic Cultural Center in Astoria, Queens, and tickets are available now. Come hang and get your books signed and listen to me antagonize Mattie onstage!

Hey, remember all those other times that Mattie and I were onstage together? For the Gender Ordeal tour? I was ofc in charge of making a special playlist for before/after the show, and now that the tour is over, I thought I’d share the playlist here. It evolved a bit over the last year, but you can listen to the most recent version in Spotify or an earlier version in Tidal. (The Tidal version includes two very on-theme bonus songs that my friend added at the end.)

Okay, since I’m already linking, let’s do Links & Stuff.

• JP Brammer took the brave challenge of “writing Pride content he’d actually want to read” and it’s so beautiful and I hope you read it!

• NYC cyclists are reviving Critical Mass after a surge of criminal summonses for e-bike riders

• Isaac Fellman wrote about Alan Hart, a trans doctor who grew up in the same place that I did but 100 years earlier.

• PJP on celebrating Pride in prison

• This was sweet!

Tuck’s Creature Corner

• cute little queer story feat. Pelicans

That’s it for this week. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb. She is a bit sick so plz send "get well soon" vibes her way.

Photo: Ruby sleeping in a garden bed in the sun.

Xo,

Yr resident gender detective

PS: Puffin is currently in Cone Hell so say a little prayer for Puffin also.