Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Laerka’s “Whatever Sprinkles Your Donut” made me laugh because its liberating message with donuts reminded me that ten years and one month before the Stonewall Riots commemorated in #Pride month, the purported first gay uprising took place at a donut shop in Los Angeles. Donuts were thrown! And like Stonewall, it was led by people who are trans and by drag queens. So, let's never forget the letter T in the liberation alphabet.
Speaking of which, the trans community is a crucial and thriving part of the Second Life community, as explored here, with customizable avatars offering people a chance to freely explore their gender identity and sexuality. No surprise that the Second Life Flickr community is posting a riot of images celebrating Pride month.
I love Elaine Lectar coming with all the Pride Pastries! Some say the Cooper’s Donuts Riot in LA never happened, but there are plenty of other uprisings before Stonewall and they usually involved food, such as the Compton Cafeteria and the Black Cat Tavern Riot that launched PRIDE, the acronym (Personal Rights in Defense and Education) and The Advocate magazine, the Black Nite melee in Milwaukee, the genteel sip-ins in Philadelphia and New York, and many more. Gay rights and food seem to go together.
For more virtual world PRIDE pics, click here:
Honey Gladsong reminds us that hate is the wrong answer to our problems. Hate exacerbates our problems, cutting us off from the best and brightest, whether gay or straight, who refuse to live where LGBTQIA people are oppressed. Being gay is not the problem, being anti-gay is the problem. In the real world, US states that have passed anti-LGBTIQA laws are experiencing a brain-drain and homophobia has economic costs for states and countries that pass anti-gay laws. Similarly, virtual worlds like Second Life and VRChat would not be thriving and profitable without supporting the many LGBTQIA communities within them.
Mila says it again, “There’s nothing wrong with loving who you are,” she said, “because He made you perfect, babe.” It’s a lovely way of expressing what should be obvious to anyone with good sense. We are who we are. We love who we love. It’s that simple.
Gross Lizzo gives us a happy, colorful celebration of PRIDE.
Rochelle celebrates multi-generational PRIDE, mother and daughter. They also highlight that throughout gay liberation, Black and Latino women have been at the forefront from Marsha P. Johnson at Stonewall to Nancy Valverde in California. It’s important to remember that when the hammer falls, it hits some people twice. And those who experience one kind of marginalization often are ready to fight for liberation on every level.
I want us to remember the terrible real world history of homophobia, because liberty swings like a pendulum and we are repeating history right now -- and this simmering intolerance always echoes through virtual worlds too.
All images copyright the various artists
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
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