Inclusivity Thread!!! 💗💗

[lovely_xm07]

Here is some of her work: 🎨🖌️🇲🇽💐

 

 

Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States (1932) by Frida Kahlo

 

This painting depicts her standing at the border between the two countries, symbolizing her complex feelings about her identity and the contrast between the two cultures. Kahlo is shown in traditional Mexican attire on one side of the border, while the other side features industrial, American elements. The painting reflects her personal and political sentiments, highlighting the cultural and emotional divide she experienced during her time in the U.S.

 

 

Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937) by Frida Kahlo

 

A striking work that reflects Kahlo’s political engagement and personal connections. In this self-portrait, Kahlo depicts herself in a formal, dignified pose, adorned with a red dress and surrounded by a backdrop of foliage.

 

 

Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair (1940) by Frida Kahlo

 

This painting shows her with short hair and wearing a man’s suit, reflecting a period of personal transformation and defiance. The backdrop of cut hair underscores the theme of liberation and Kahlo’s challenge to traditional gender norms.

 

 

Still Life With Parrot (1941) by Frida Kahlo

 

This painting features a vibrant arrangement of tropical flowers and a parrot perched on a table. The painting combines elements of traditional still life with vivid colors and exotic motifs, reflecting Kahlo’s fascination with Mexican flora and fauna. The parrot adds a touch of life and symbolism, enhancing the composition’s richness and cultural depth.

 

 

Self-Portrait Velvet Dress (1926) by Frida Kahlo

 

One of her early self-portraits that reflects both her burgeoning artistic style and her personal aesthetic. In this painting, Kahlo is depicted wearing a luxurious velvet dress with intricate details, which contrasts with the simplicity of her direct, introspective gaze. The portrait showcases Kahlo’s skill in capturing textures and patterns, and it is notable for its refined and elegant presentation. The velvet dress emphasizes her sense of self and her desire to assert her identity, even at a young age. This early work reveals Kahlo’s evolving style and her ability to combine personal expression with technical proficiency.

 

 

Self-Portrait Time Flies (1929) by Frida Kahlo 

 

Frida Kahlo created this self-portrait in 1929, shortly after her marriage to Diego Rivera. It portrays Kahlo in a traditional Mexican outfit, a style Rivera admired and incorporated into his murals. This vibrant use of Mexican colors became a hallmark of Kahlo’s artistic career. “Self-Portrait with Time Flies” was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York for $5 million in 2020, setting a record and making Kahlo the highest-selling Latin American artist in history.

[daveb]

Zora Neale Hurston

 

From wikipedia

She "was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays."

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

Today, we are honoring Judith Ellen “Judy” Heumann (1947-2023). She was an American disability rights activist, known as the “Mother of the Disability Rights”. She was recognized internationally as a leader in the disability community and a lifelong civil rights advocate. Her work with governments and non-governmental organizations, nonprofits, and various other disability interest groups significantly contributed to the development of human rights legislation and policies benefiting children and adults with disabilities. Through her work in the World Bank and the State Department, Heumann led the mainstreaming of disability rights into international development. Her contributions extended the international reach of the independent living movement.

 

Heumann was born in Philadelphia, to Werner and Ilse Heumann, who were German Jewish immigrants. She was the oldest of three children and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother came to the U.S. from Germany in 1935 and her father in 1934. Heumann's grandparents, great-grandparents, and many other family members were killed in the Holocaust. Heumann contracted polio at the age of 18 months, and used a wheelchair most of her life. She rejected cliches about disability as a tragic experience, saying, "Disability only becomes a tragedy for me when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives––job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair."

Heumann and her parents had to fight repeatedly for her to be included in the educational system. The local public school refused to allow her to attend, calling her a fire hazard due to her inability to walk. Instead, for three years she was given home instruction twice a week, for about an hour each visit. Heumann's mother, Ilsa Heumann, a community activist in her own right, challenged the decision. Heumann attended Camp Jened, a camp for children with disabilities, in Hunter, New York, every summer from ages 9 to 18. Her experiences at camp brought her a greater awareness of the shared disabled experience: "We had the same joy together, the same anger over the way we were treated and the same frustrations at opportunities we didn't have."

 

 

In 1970, Heumann was denied her New York teaching license because the Board did not believe she could get herself or her students out of the building in case of a fire. She sued the Board of Education for discrimination. A local newspaper ran the headline "You Can Be President, Not Teacher, with Polio". The case settled without a trial and Heumann became the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City, teaching elementary school there for three years.

While serving as a legislative assistant to the chairperson of the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfarein 1974, Heumann helped develop legislation that became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In 2010, Heumann became the Special Advisor on International Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department appointed by President Barack Obama. She was the first person to hold this role, and served from 2010 to 2017. During her tenure, she tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an international treaty modeled on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

 

Heumann received much mail from disabled people around the country due to press coverage of her suit against the Board of Education. Many wrote about their experiences with discrimination because of their disabilities. Based on the outpouring of support and letters, in 1970, Heumann and several friends founded Disabled in Action (DIA), an organization focused on securing the protection of people with disabilities under civil rights laws through political protest. It was originally called Handicapped in Action, but Heumann disliked that name and lobbied to change it.

 

Heumann's book, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, was published in 2020.

[lilihierax]

On 2/28/2025 at 2:15 PM, lovely_xm07 said:

He justified not using anesthesia with the racist belief the Black people felt less pain than white people, — a false idea that still influences medical care today. 

I'm pretty sure this belief came from Friedrich Nietzsche (massive racist), or at least was propelled by him, based on eugenics theory and the writings of Louis Jacolliot (also massive racist). 

Thank you for that entire post - I knew about none of it. And that metal sculpture symbolising the three women is beautiful.❤️

[lilihierax]

 

Hedy Lamarr:  "Austrian-American actress and inventor who pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems." 

I actually had no idea until today about her life as an inventor, only an actor. As it says in the linked article (above) from WomensHistory.org: "Lamarr’s brilliant mind was ignored, and her beauty took center stage". 
She even worked with aviator and inventor Howard Hughes in designing airplanes. He called Lamarr "a genius". 

Quoting more of the article:

Quote

"She once said [about being married] 'I knew very soon that I could never be an actress while I was his wife … He was the absolute monarch in his marriage … I was like a doll. I was like a thing, some object of art which had to be guarded—and imprisoned—having no mind, no life of its own.'  She was incredibly unhappy, as she was forced to play host and smile on demand amongst Mandl’s friends and scandalous business partners, some of whom were associated with the Nazi party. She escaped from Mandl’s grasp in 1937 by fleeing to London but took with her the knowledge gained from dinner-table conversation over wartime weaponry."

I highly recommend reading that page about her. What a fascinating life she had!

[fragglerock]

I browsed this thread a little and didn't have time to read everything now, but regard to feminist songs wanted to add a few:

 

Lily Allen

 

Dessa

 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!!! 💄💋🗣️🗣️

 

Today, I’d like to honor red lipstick. Yes, red lipstick! Red lipstick has a long history in the women’s movement.

 

 

During the First World War, patriarchal society tried to use cosmetics as a tool to comply with gender norms. Then women gradually began to master those professions where they were not allowed before — they got jobs in factories, worked as tram drivers, postmen, and so on. That is, men were replaced. Therefore, the cosmetics had to emphasize their "duty to remain a woman" and not to admire their temporary pass to the "male world". 

Helena Rubinstein, a well-known cosmetic tycoon of the time, created an advertisement in which women were told that taking care of their appearance was just as important as going to work in the morning. Rubinstein also spread her advertising campaign to housewives, declaring the use of cosmetics a manifestation of patriotism. And she told the Red Cross nurses that their duty to be combed, powdered and blushed was no less important than saving lives. All this brought Rubinstein a good profit. 

During the Great Depression, more and more women went to work and became independent. And cosmetics have become more diverse, more affordable, and more compact. In the mid-1930s, women’s magazines wrote that “beauty is part of your job,” and “brains, diplomas, and ambition are nothing without a good packaging”. Red lipstick became especially popular in those days. More and more women went to factories. And there they had to work in overalls, sometimes in special glasses, and hide their hair under scarves and hats. Therefore, lipstick remained the only thing that could emphasize femininity. To raise morale, the management of enterprises often distributed tubes of red lipstick to their employees free of charge.

 

 

And red lipstick has become one of the brightest symbols of patriotism, struggle, and ultimately, victory over Nazism. This was facilitated by Hitler himself. When he became chancellor in 1933, his Nazi party decided that the perfect German woman should not use cosmetics at all — they said that her natural "Aryan" beauty was enough. Similarly, German women were not recommended to wear jewelry, perfume, fur, and trousers. In this way, they wanted to get rid of the image of the Germans of the Weimar Republic — a democratic German state that lasted from the end of the First World War until the Nazis came to power.

 

Hitler especially hated lipstick. He was a vegetarian, and lipsticks in those days were made from animal fats. Among the list of prohibitions for visitors to Hitlerʼs country residence were the following items: avoid excessive makeup, no red lipstick and painted nails. The Führerʼs ally, the leader of the Italian fascists, Benito Mussolini, also had a negative attitude towards make-up.

The British Ministry of Information, created in the early days of the war, took advantage of this. Officials have launched a large-scale propaganda campaign under the slogans "Beauty is your duty", "Lipstick is your weapon and you are soldiers of the rear". Now such slogans seem sexist, but at the time they worked so successfully that red lipstick became a symbol of disobedience even in the Nazi-occupied European territories.

 

 

In the United States, the Committee on Military-Industrial Production initially decided to stop the production of cosmetics. But it quickly changed its mind and declared that cosmetics "are not just necessary, but also vital". In 1941, red lipstick became mandatory for women who joined the US Army. Then came the heyday of Elizabeth Arden, who 30 years ago, at her own risk, distributed red lipstick to suffragettes. Now the US government has asked her to create a special shade of red for women, and lipstick and blush for military women. This is how the Montezuma Red appeared, which matched the red edging of the military uniform.
 

 

Red lipstick has never been just makeup. It has been a symbol of resistance and remains to be one to this day. It’s a symbol of rebellion, independence, defiance, and power. Red lipstick was a weapon in the fight against tyranny. And it wasn’t just about war, red lipstick was worn in 1912 when suffragettes in New York marched for women’s rights. At the time, red lipstick had inspired many activists around the world in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, using it in their rallies while shouting slogans.
 

 

Rocking their bold red lip as a defiant stand when women were told to be silent, obedient, and invisible. Red lipstick screamed, “NOT TODAY!!” Today, it’s still a symbol of resistance whether fighting dictatorships, demanding gender equality, or standing up for freedom. 

In 2018, women and even men from Nicaragua painted their lips with red lipstick and uploaded their photos to social networks to protest against the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega. It all started with an activist detained at a rally. She offered her roommates in the cellar to apply red lipstick, which was not taken away during the search. In 2019, in Chile, about ten thousand women took to the streets with black blindfolds and red lips — so they protested against sexual violence. Subsequently, similar actions took place in other countries. And in North Korea, red lipstick, makeup and unapproved hairstyles have become one of the symbols of youth resistance to the totalitarian state.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🇵🇸🇵🇸

Today, I’d like to honor the history of Palestinian women! Palestinian women have played an important role in their region throughout many historical changes including Ottoman control, the British Mandate, and Israeli control. Women were involved in the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 and the later establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, working to shape and redefine the roles of women in Palestine and across the Palestinian diaspora. Arab women have been involved in resistance movements in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.

 

Women have been active in the Palestinian struggle since its early days. In the 1920s, they protested side by side with men against British control of their country. They formed charitable organizations and expressed themselves politically. After the state of Israel was created in 1948, the majority of Palestinians were forced to flee into exile, and here too women played a key role as protectors of their families, and repositories of the “national story”. It was vital that Palestinians, wherever they were in the world, did not forget what had happened and continued to insist on their right of return to their homeland. Women passed their memories of Palestine down to subsequent generations.

Flash forward following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel gained control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During this occupation of once-Palestinian land, Israel implemented structural changes that changed the socio-economic lives of the population, resulting in Palestine’s economy depending heavily on Israel’s economy. The women of Palestine now faced a triple form of oppression through class, gender, and nationality. Amid escalating tensions, women like Leila Khaled became involved in the Palestinian Resistance Movement, participating in military and political activities.

 

 

 

Elsewhere, another movement emerged, this one that sought to effectively mobilize those from universities, villages, and refugee camps. Announced in 1978 on International Women’s Day, the Women's Work Committee came to represent an association willing to develop a strategy to combine national liberation and women's liberation. They launched programs promoting literacy, health education, as well as classes teaching embroidery. Further aiding those of a working-class background, they started daycare centers to allow them to continue working as their children were being cared for.

 

In the early 1980s, the Women’s Work Committee would split into four separate committees as a result of differing political agendas and ideologies. The largest of these organizations was the Federation of Palestinian Women’s Action Committees which aligned itself with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. All four of the Women’s committees began to mobilize their members to sustain the Intifada, calling for their liberation if they were to implement a free Palestinian state successfully. Organizing marches, promoting boycotts, and confronting soldiers allowed women of all ages to participate, leading some to become victims, either imprisoned or killed by shots from Israeli troops, gas inhalation, or beatings. 

During the 1988 International Women’s Day march, slogans calling for both an independent state and women’s liberation were used simultaneously. On the same day, a joint effort by all four of the committees participated in a program calling women to join popular committees, trade unions, boycotts, and encouraging a ‘home economy’ built off locally produced food and clothing. Although serving a role in the uprising, the call for women’s liberation was sidelined for the national movement as the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising would exclude women from participating in demonstrations and retained an attitude that was viewed as conservative.

 

[lovely_xm07]

Many Palestinians feel that they have no control over their own lives. Under a harsh Israeli regime, it has been very difficult to exercise agency and Palestinian political parties have seemed weak and ineffectual. The Islamist party Hamas seemed to offer a more assertive form of opposition, and many women were attracted by its grassroots organising and evident ability to confront the Israeli occupation. Some became militants.

While it may be tempting to argue that the participation of women in violence is a sign of a society that has lost its way, the reality is more complex. Many Palestinian womenpoint out that their community is powerless; it has neither the political leadership nor the weapons to fight a conventional war. Instead, it relies on all its members to participate and “tell the world” what is happening to them. 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

Also… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ARETHA FRANKLIN!!! 
 

 

Today, we are honoring the late Aretha Franklin on her birthday! Born in 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, Franklin was a singer, songwriter, and pianist. She was known as the “Queen of Soul” and was named twice by Rolling Stones magazine as the greatest singer of all time. As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, was a minister. At the age of 18, she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. 
 

Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists, with more than 75 million records sold worldwide. She charted 112 singles on the US Billboard charts, including 73 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 96 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles. Her best known hits include I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), Respect, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Chain of Fools, Ain't No Way, Think, I Say a Little Prayer, Call Me, Don't Play That Song (You Lied), and so many more! 
 

Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She won 18 Grammy Awards out of 44 nominations, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975), as well as a Grammy Living Legend Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also awarded the National Medal of Artsand the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her other inductions include the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, and posthumously the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.

 

From her time growing up in the home of a prominent African-American preacher to the end of her life, Franklin was immersed and involved in the struggle for civil rights and women's rights. She provided money for civil rights groups, at times covering payroll, and performed at benefits and protests. When Angela Davis was jailed in 1970, Franklin told Jet: "Angela Davis must go free ... Black people will be free. I've been locked up [for disturbing the peace in Detroit] and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can't get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I'm going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she's a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people." Her songs Respect and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman became anthems of these movements for social change.
 

Franklin and several other American icons declined to take part in performing at President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration as a mass act of musical protest. Franklin was also a strong supporter of Native American rights. She quietly and without fanfare supported Indigenous peoples' struggles worldwide, and numerous movements that supported Native American and First Nation cultural rights.

 

LET’S GO!! I KNOW THAT’S FUCKING RIGHT!! Icon and a legend in every way! RIP to Aretha Franklin. Her music continues to be beloved by all to this day as well as her spirit. She will never be forgotten!

[daveb]

What a voice she had! (literally and figuratively)  

[daveb]

Celebrating Nancy Grace Roman

Quote

in the mid-20th century, a budget-starved NASA and a post-World War II government were hesitant to follow the ambitious ideal of a giant new telescope. One woman, nicknamed the “Mother of Hubble,” pushed the first major space-based telescope from hopeful speculation to pioneering reality.

source: https://science.nasa.gov/people/nancy-roman/

 

That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's much more to say about her, covered well on the NASA site (for now?).

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH!! 🌸🌸

 

Let’s celebrate some Pacific Islander celebrities in which they discuss in interviews their favorite parts about their culture.

Simone Kessler (Māori)

 

"I'll cry if I think about it. See, I'm getting teary. When you're honored with the haka, and when it's the ultimate respect to honor somebody or something with a waiata [song] and a haka, from welcoming them onto your marae [communal meeting grounds], from sports to somebody's tangi at their funeral, or wedding celebration. In the Mãori culture [visibly tears up] see, look, I cry every time I think about the haka. It's so incredible, and it's so powerful, and it's so uplifting."

 

Sasha Colby (Native Hawaiian) 

 

"Oh, I have so many favorite aspects. The food alone [laughs] that's definitely home base for me. But I love the music and the hula, the dancing. As a dancer, I love the idea that we came up with mythology to explain natural occurrences in nature, and then to remember it, we would write it into a poem, and then to remember it and pass it on, we would make it into a mele or a song. And to pass it along again and to reiterate it more into our culture, we would make a hula out of it. So, it was all these things that naturally combined. But that's what I really loved because I love learning about our history, through that flow."

 

Dinah Jane (Tongan)
 

"My favorite part of our culture is the singing and the chanting. I was in Hawaii in December, and I closed off my tour out there. The next day, I was able to go to PCC [Polynesian Cultural Center]. Anytime I hear Polynesians sing together in unison of any type of song without any instruments, it's so chilling to me, and it takes me back home. It makes me feel like I'm back on the islands. It makes me feel like I'm back where my grandparents were walking, where their footprints started. When I was there in Hawaii, I remembered experiencing them singing to us, to me.
 

To this day, I still get chills about it because it was from the heart. The music is what really drives me and makes me cry. If they're singing so beautiful and it's a nice song, I feel like it's such a lullaby when our people sing. That's the type of lullaby I could sleep to, cry to, champion. I would love to listen to us singing before I go on stage because that's what will hype me up. There's just so much power and spirit. You just feel like your ancestors are in the room, singing with them and speaking. They were singing Mãori, and I don't know much of the language, but I feel like that's what makes our people feel like one. If it's Tongan, if it's Fijian, if it's Samoan, whatever language it is, it still feels like home."

[lovely_xm07]

Glad to be back team!🫡 😎

[Picklethewickle]

12 hours ago, lovely_xm07 said:

Glad to be back team!

I'm glad you're back doing this. This is a great thread.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY AAPI HERITAGE MONTH!! 🌸🌸

 

 

This is Kim Coco Iwamoto (b. 1968) and she made history as Hawaii’s first openly trans state legislator, representing District 25 in the Hawaii House of Representatives. Her intersectional approach to leadership is informed by her experiences as a Japanese American trans woman.

 

After her upbringing on the island of Kauai, Iwamoto earned her law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law and went on to become a David Bohnett Foundation LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow at Harvard. Her extensive public service includes two terms on the Hawaii Board of Education and serving as a commissioner on the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, where she championed protections for LGBTQ students and families.

As a Democratic lawmaker and founder of the Chamber of Sustainable Commerce, Iwamoto advocates for progressive policies, including the Green New Deal, increased public education funding, criminal justice reform, and affordable housing investments. Her commitment to civil rights and social justice earned recognition from President Barack Obama as a Champion of Change in 2013, and Newsweek named her among fifty need-to-know pioneers for LGBTQ rights in 2018. Recently, she has been vocal in challenging corporate greed, speaking at rallies against Elon Musk and the Trump administration.

While advancing landmark legislation to protect marginalized communities, Iwamoto continues to build on her legacy of breaking barriers and creating more inclusive institutions throughout Hawaii. Her intersectional approach to leadership, informed by her experiences as a Japanese American trans woman, has established her as a powerful voice for those historically excluded from political power, demonstrating how representation can transform policy priorities and create more equitable systems for all.

 

”I am the first transgender legislator serving Hawai’i, but I won’t be the last.” - Kim Coco Iwamoto

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY AAPI HERITAGE MONTH!! 🌸🌸

 

 

Today, we are honoring Steven Yeun! 
 

Yeun initially rose to prominence for playing Glenn Rhee in the television series The Walking Dead. He earned critical acclaim for the films Burning and  Minari. For the latter, he became the first Asian American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Acting in Minari, a film about a Korean immigrant family starting their own farm in Arkansas, was a deeply personal experience for Yeun, who is himself a Korean immigrant.  

 

Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. For the Netflix dark comedy series Beef, which he produced and starred in, Yeun received Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Limited Seriesand Outstanding Lead Actor.

Yeun has also appeared in the films Okja, Sorry to Bother You, The Humans, and Nope. He has also voiced main characters in animated television series such as Voltron: Legendary Defender, Tales of Arcadia, Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters, Final Space, Tuca & Bertie, and Invincible (love that show). 😝 💛💙

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY AAPI HERITAGE MONTH!! 🌸🌸

 

Let’s honor Margaret Jessie Chung (October 2, 1889 – January 5, 1959)! She was the first known American-born Chinese female physician. After graduating from the University of Southern California Medical School in 1916 and completing her internship and residency in Illinois, she established one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco's Chinatown in the early 1920s.

In 1922, Chung moved to San Francisco's Chinatown in 1922 after experiencing the city while accompanying two patients, where she opened a private office. She treated the local Chinese American population as well as celebrities. Her practice was one of the few which would provide Chinese and Chinese Americans with Western medical care during a time when hospitals would often turn them away. In 1925, San Francisco's Chinese Hospital opened. Chung led the gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics unit as one of four department heads.

She also treated seven Navy reserve pilots during this time; part of her care was making them meals, and they reportedly soon began calling themselves "Mom Chung's Fair-Haired Bastard Sons" as a tribute to her. An alternative origin story for the "Mom Chung" nickname is that after eight pilots came to her in 1932, volunteering their services for China against Japan, she turned them down and fed them instead because "they looked starved".

A pioneer in both professional and political realms, Chung led an unconventional personal life. As the only woman in her class, she adopted masculine dress and called herself "Mike," but after having established a professional practice she reverted to conventional dress and her female name. Based on personal correspondence, she had close and apparently intense relationships with at least two other women, the writer Elsa Gidlow and entertainer Sophie Tucker, that some writers have speculated were romantic. Although she was briefly engaged, she never married.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY AAPI HERITAGE MONTH!! 🌸🌸

 

Let’s celebrate some more Pacific Islander celebrities in which they discuss in interviews their favorite parts about their culture.

 

Alex Tarrant (Māori, Samoan, and Niuean)

 

"That's a tough question. I am three ethnicities. I am Mãori, Samoan, and Niuean. With that being said, I love the mixture I can feel within myself.

There's certain abilities that I know I get from each culture. But what I love the most about my culture is the sense of a strong community. And I mean it when I say: If one of us succeeds, I'm so proud of them. Coming from New Zealand, it's interesting because I keep on coming back to this idea of when one of us wins, we all win. We're very much shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, moving forward in this big idea of the film and television industry. The end of Moana 2 really struck us, just the idea of all of these islands coming together. We have a beautiful, amazing friend/mentor who says we're not divided by land; we're connected by water."

 

Uli Latukefu (Tongan)

 

"This one might get me choked up a little bit. The singing for me [starts tearing up]. My grandmother was a preacher, and we spent a lot of time growing up in the church. There's something about when you go to church: You hear the voices in 1) in our own language, and 2) the harmonies and all that kind of thing. Just the thought of it moves me a lot. And it's not unique to Tonga, obviously, everywhere across the Pacific.

It's changed a lot [from] when our fathers and our grandparents first came over to America or Australia or New Zealand or wherever. That freedom of expression of our culture wasn't always embraced. It wasn't always understood. But that's very much changed now, where our kids are very proud of who they are and their cultural heritage, proud to represent Samoa, Tonga, wherever. And so, when I see that in our young kids, it makes me feel very warm inside. Mafana is how we would say it in Tongan. When I hear the kids singing like that, it really hits home."

 

Oscar Kightley (Samoan)

 

"One of my favorite Samoan words is va, meaning the set of rules and protocols that dictates your social connection with other people, your relationships. I love that aspect of our culture, that the space between you and someone else is not just empty space — it's what actually connects you. Hau'ofa, a great Tongan academic and thinker, said something like, 'People look at the Pacific Ocean and see these little islands dotted around, and they think [it's] this vast empty space. We look at it and see, no, it's a sea of islands' That is the landmass that connects us.

I think my favorite part of our culture is concepts like that, that are important to us. I love that whole concept of interconnectedness. Pasifika is so many different groups, too, right? There's Micronesia, there's Polynesia, there's Melanesia. And we're connected to each other, whichever one of those nations you fit into. You can be in a room of Fijians and Solomon Islanders and Tongans, Niuean, Cook Island, Micronesian, and you will feel a common thread that I think links us all."

[daveb]

9 hours ago, lovely_xm07 said:

Let’s honor Margaret Jessie Chung

Yay, she had the same birthday as me!   

 

George Takei

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY AAPI HERITAGE MONTH!! 🌸🌸

 

 

Today, we are honoring Auli’i Cravalho! She is an American actress who made her debut as the voice of the first Polynesian Disney Princess, Moana, which released in 2016 and reprised the role in 2024 sequel, Moana 2. Cravalho as born in Kohala, Hawaii, and is of Chinese, Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, and Irish descent.

Cravalho has had leading roles in the drama series Rise, the drama film All Together Now, the supernatural comedy Darby and the Dead, the sci-fi series The Power, and the 2024 film adaptation of Mean Girls: The Musical. She has also acted in several theatrical productions, including Evita in London and Cabaret on Broadway. In April 2020, Cravalho came out as bisexual. 

[lovely_xm07]

Hey guys, I’ll be going on vacation for the next week so we’ll have to a pause on this thread for a bit. We ended this month with honoring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and when I get back we’ll celebrate Pride! 🌈🌈🌈 Yay! But for this first week, I won’t be posting anything! Bye now! 😘 

Edited May 31, 2025 by lovely_xm07
Changed “weeks” to “week”

[daveb]

I hope you have a great vacation!  

[lovely_xm07]

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY PRIDE!! 🌈🌈🌈

Remembering Jonathan Joss (December 22, 1965 - June 1, 2025).

 

 

Best known for his roles as John Redcorn in King of the Hill and Chief Ken Hotate in Parks and Recreation was shot and killed an over week ago by his bigoted neighbor. San Antonio police stated that his murder was not a hate crime despite the ongoing verbal and physical attacks he and his husband were given by his neighbors.
 

A memorial grows for Jonathon Joss, and quiet descends on a complicated street

 

In the day of the shooting, Joss stepped in front of his husband to protect him from the bullets. The man was shouting homophobic slurs at the two while firing his gun. Joss was hit and killed.
 

Less than one day, the San Antonio police concluded that his murder was not a hate crime despite the glaring evidence to the contrary. Many conservatives news headlines denied it was a hate crime with many others running passive defense for his killer.

 

 

Joss was a very talented man who loved acting and music. He was of Comanche and White Mountain Apache ancestry and graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX with a BA in Theater Arts and Speech.

 

In 1994, he appeared on the television series Walker, Texas Ranger and as a musician, he performed as part of The Red Corn Band, a reference to the character he voiced in King of the Hill. In 2011, he launched a line of spice rubs. 

 

Before his death, Joss returned for the King of the Hill revival series and had begun recording. At the time of his death, he was writing a Western graphic novel titled Two Sides to Every Coin.

 

Grim first post, but they burned his house, killed his dog and put his dog's remains in his mailbox for him to find. They murdered him in front of his husband on his property. They lynched a native man for being gay and not one news outlet has reported it as a hate crime. This was such a needless death. RIP Jonathan Joss. 🕊️💔

[Gentle Giant]

That’s horrible!

[Barbio]

I hadn't even seen any headlines about this anywhere! Wow! That is grim.  Thank you for bringing it to people's attention. I guess there's just too much else going on in the world for this to get the attention it deserves. Terrible, but not entirely surprising.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY PRIDE!! 🌈🌈🌈

Let’s celebrate the fathers who stood firmly by their children during their transitions. 

 

 

Marlon Wayans publicly shared his journey of learning and growing as a father after his child, Kai, came out as transgender.

 

At first, he admitted he didn't fully understand and even misgendered Kai out of habit. But over time, he leaned into love and education. He now uses his platform to affirm his son's identity and advocate for acceptance.

"I want my kids to be free... I want them to be happy in their skin," he said. Marlon even said he'd be open to doing a comedy special titled "Skittles" to discuss the journey of parenting a trans child with honesty and heart.

 

 

When Zaya came out as transgender at age 12, Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union made the decision to lead with love. Dwyane admitted he had to unlearn and educate himself. "I didn't know everything, but I knew I had to be there for my child."

He's since become one of the most visible celebrity parents standing up for trans youth. Dwyane has spoken at conferences, participated in documentaries, and continues to amplify Zaya's voice while shielding her from public harm. He moved his family out of Florida due to anti-trans laws, saying, "I have to protect my family."

 

This is what love looks like! 🥰🥰 Wish all fathers were like this!!

[daveb]

Comedian, Colin Mochrie, and his daughter. Colin has been very public about his support for her.  

[Ydobemos]

41 minutes ago, daveb said:

Comedian, Colin Mochrie, and his daughter. Colin has been very public about his support for her.  

Great!