Featured in the Advocate’s July 2019 issue as one of the country’s “Champions of Pride,” Jen Deerinwater introduces herself as “a bisexual, multiply-disabled, mixed race Tsalagi, two-spirit, and hard femme citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.” She is also the founder and executive director of Crushing Colonialism, a collective of multi-media Indigenous artists. In the Advocate, she says, “We have a lot of work to do within the queer community to create equity and justice for all of our people. The issues of biphobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, abelism, elitism, colonialism, fat antagonism, and ageism are far too prevalent within our organizations and community spaces. If we’re not working for the justice of all our community members, then we’re not effective as agents of change. LGBTQIA2S+ rights mean the inclusion of the rights of all our people, not simply the most privileged.”
Deep Gratitude to Jen Deerinwater for her activism and truth-speaking; her fearless and necessary articles such as “How White Feminists Fail As Native Allies in the Era of Trump” “Weeding Out the Allies from the White Saviors at Standing Rock” and “Our Pride: Honoring and Recognizing Our Two-Spirit Past and Present”; for her generous and fierce work with Crushing Colonialism (I love Crushing Colonialism’s statement: We are our ancestors hopes turned into photography, art, film, and the written and spoken work); and for being a hard femme of such brilliance and scope!
https://www.jendeerinwater.com/
Every Friday, I showcase a queer femme goddess. I want to feature you! Write to me at thetotalfemme@gmail.com and let me shine a spotlight on your beautiful, unique, femme story! If you’ve written a femme story or poem or song, oh, please let me post it! New Femme Friday feature starting fall 2018: Books from which queer femmes can draw inspiration. What are your trusted sources of light and love? Please share!
At the Total Femme, my intention is to post three times a week: Meditations for Queer Femmes on Monday, Pingy-Dingy Wednesday on Wednesday and Femme Friday on Friday. Rather than play catch-up in a stressful fashion on those weeks when life prevents posting, I have decided to just move gaily forward: if I miss a Monday, the next post will be on Wednesday, and so on. Thank you, little bottle of antibiotics for inspiring me in this! (“…if it’s almost time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and continue your regular dosing schedule. Don’t take a double dose to make up for a missed one.”)
The Total Femme 