There was so much going on in February! We had Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, and National Condom Day. (Yes, it’s a thing.) Follow us on IG or Twitter and then check out these highlights from the busiest, shortest month.
Our tweet about the importance of Black health care providers this Black History Month got a lot of attention! What better way to celebrate February??
When discussing the importance of Black health, we HAVE to talk about and highlight Black providers! (via @Essence) #BlackHistoryMonthhttps://t.co/WQyI2wFw4E
— DC Beings (@dcbeings) February 18, 2019
We celebrated all the reasons to love condoms on National Condom Day. (Let’s start with the fact that they’re not made of tortoise shell anymore.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt4AZK_HLCi/
And in what might be the purest form of celebration, we put Black love first this Black History Month.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt1WugRHLcZ/
And here are our three favorite sex positive culture moments of February:
1. New York politicians moved to decriminalize sex work.
The passage of SESTA/FOSTA last year had a lot of consequences. In addition to more people who were formerly inside turning to street sex work and law enforcement finding it more difficult to track actual trafficking victims, we saw a surge of sex worker political activism.
Now, that activism is coming to a crescendo in New York, where a sex worker-led group called Decrim NY has joined forces with state senators to propose a bill that would decriminalize sex work in New York state. Read more about their nascent political movement in their Daily News op ed.
2. Actor Billy Porter slayed in gender-bending Oscars dress.
Actor Bill Porter, who stars in the TV show Pose, rocked a full strapless gown by Christian Siriano, with a formal tux jacket on top. The actor, speaking with Vogue, made it clear that he wasn’t in drag, nor was he a trans woman.
“We wanted to play between the masculine and the feminine,” Porter said. “This look was interesting because it’s not drag. I’m not a drag queen, I’m a man in a dress.”
Not there’s anything wrong with being either, of course. But Porter’s choice as a cisgender black man to wear a gown was a bold one, pushing back against the strict rules that so many of us hold for masculinity in general and black masculinity in particular.
3. R. Kelly was finally arrested.
After years of rumors and even documented videotape evidence, R. Kelly is finally going to have to stand up in court and answer to the world. While there’s no proof that the documentary released earlier this year about the allegations against R. Kelly influenced the move to arrest him, but the years and years of speaking out and activism by and for black women appears to finally be paying off.
