Gimme A “Q!”

Milo woke up this moring thinking about zir pals who used to be in the Pirate Cheerleaders.  They were a local-to-Milwaukee troupe of radical queer and less-queer women who would perform around the city.  They were angry and funny and feminist and kicked serious ass.  They were also part of a larger movement of radcal cheerleaders at the turn of the millenia.  Lucky for QZAP that we managed to get a copy of their cheerzine before they disbanded to work on other rad projects.

 

MINI GAY CHEER:
gay, straight or rainbow clad
sex is sex and none of it's bad
get god outta my pants
hey jesus, lay off this!

No Apology

No Apology #1 is very much a slice of it's time.  It's a zine that's also a record label catalog.  It's angry and self-righteous and a little smug in equal amounts.  We're not really too sure what to say about it, other than it's new to the digital archive as of this week.

Put the star in Trans*

Here's this nice guy.  He likes to wear skirts and dresses and women's clothes.  It's not kinky for him… not really.  He identifies as a transvestite, one of least talked about *** when we talk about Trans* folk.  In his zine Blue Floral Gusset he talks about it.  About wearing skirts full time, and how the world reacts.  Also, this guy… he like heavy metal, and Doctor Who and hanging with his housemates, as you shall see if you read through…

2QT2BSTR8

Sometimes Monday is nice and easy, and sometimes it's rough and tumble.  This particular Monday is more the latter.  It calls for an extra shot of espresso, some queercore turned up real loud to drown out the traffic, and maybe that special scent of permanent markers tagging the bathroom stall, telling the world that indeed, we are 2QT2BSTR8.  As a distraction, and following with the theme of the day, let's all share in the delight that is 1991's QT#1 by the QT Collective. 

 

Enough!

I'm here drinking my morning coffee and an article pops up in my news feed about another trans kid who was bullied to death.  This needs to stop.  Seriously, adults in these kids lives, if you can't protect them, if you can't keep them safe then at the very least you're negligent and in all probability you're responsible for their murder.  I'm not the first to say it, either.  Here's this… it came to QZAP as a flyer, but is probably from an uncredited zine*.  Please print this and share it like crazy.  We need to stop this epidemic of queer and trans murders, whether by their own hands or someone elses.

 

* If anyone knows where this originally came from or who the creator is, please let us know so we can credit it properly and update the archive record.

The X in Comix

This week/end is pretty busy for us at QZAP.  Chris is currently in NYC at the Queers and Comics conference, hobnobbing with queer zine comics bigwigs like Rachael House (Red Hanky Panky),   Anonymous Boy (Anonymous Boy), and Elvis Bakaitis (Homos In Herstory) among others.   The four of them will be on a panel on Friday talking about QZAP and our residency project.  Meanwhile, back in the midwest Milo and Shannon will be in Chicago at the Chicago Zine Fest on  Saturday, selling zines and t-shirts and generally being adorkable.  If you're in or near Chicago stop by and say "Hello"

Because of Chris' participation at Queers and Comics our zine of the day (#QZOTD – let's make this happen) is Milky Boots #9.  It's a sweet and amusing diary comic.  While we've got a number of comics, comix, and illustrated zines in the archive, there's something about a diary comic that's endearing.  See, we're not always punk rawk and safety pins through the nipples.  We have a sensitive side, too…  Anyway, on with the #QZOTD:

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby

Spinderella cut it up one time…

Seriously, though, let's talk about sex.  Here at QZAP we're often talking about it in it's myriad permutations.  While we're about as sex-positive as it comes, there's one thing that we just can't hang with.  That's this whole "abstinence-only" crap that's been pushed on our young folks, both queer and straight.  It's dangerous in that NOT talking about sex leads to higher rates of STIs and HIV infection, unplanned pregnancies and contributes to and exacerbates both shitty patriarchy and rape culture.  So we say, FUCK. THAT. NOISE.

Among the many zines that we have in the archive that talk about sex and safer sex is Queersafe #1.  Queersafe is mainly focused on the prevention of transmission of STIs, but also very simply and concisely answers questions about queer and trans* identies, how to use condoms and dams as barriers, discusses consent, and has a great page and illustration about masturbation. So let's get it on!

♦♦♦

 

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