As the co-founder and CEO of Autostraddle, Riese Bernard is the flamekeeper of one of the only independent media companies created by and for queer women. Autostraddle is flip, funny, and sometimes serious, but always presents queer women’s issues and culture in our own language and on our own terms.
Bernard has overseen Autostraddle’s growth from a beloved little blog to an award-winning media fempire with over one million unique visitors every month, a super-cute line of clothing and accessories, and even a summer camp. A-Camp, founded in 2012, is a yearly gathering of queer and trans women, nonbinary folks, and trans men that transforms a California forest into a utopian queer world, complete with lesbian comedians and queer rock stars and an appropriate amount of tofu.
Despite the corporate world’s puzzling reluctance to buy advertising in lesbian media, Autostraddle has managed to survive using a subscription model, creative merchandising, community fundraising, and a whole lot of dedicated bloggers. The world needs Autostraddle. And for making it all happen, Riese Bernard is our Queero.
What's your Queer Superhero name?
Laneia!
What's your Queero superpower?
I connect LGBTQ+ people to other LGBTQ+ people who they can become friends with or make art with or fall in love with or change the world with. I deliver advice to lovestruck lesbians in a single bound and write things that are more powerful than a locomotive. I can type and cry at the same time and I am very tall if you need something to be retrieved from a higher shelf. I have a lesbian and bisexual television encyclopedia inside my brain.
Tell us about a time when you felt most like a Queero.
Probably on April Fool's Day 2018 when we transformed the entirety of Autostraddle.com into a Shenny Fansite (Shenny = Shane + Jenny, The L Word's least popular 'ship.) I felt like a hero because I was sharing an important story that everybody desperately wanted to hear / not hear, and I feel like we really made a difference that day.
Who are your personal Queeros?
Eileen Myles, Jeanne Córdova, Sally Ride, Dorothy Allison, and also Kristy, founder of The Baby-Sitter's Club.
Tell us about a time a Queer hero changed your life.
Once upon a time I lived in a house in rural Michigan (long story how I ended up there, lol) and after bad things that shall go unmentioned, my friend Erin came to live with me for a minute and I had to get the house "fixed up" so I could sell it and move on with my life. Erin painted the barn out back and the dining room floor and the porch and she organized all the tools and when the washing machine broke she tried to help me fix it. Erin is my queer hero because she is so handy around the house, and also gay. Furthermore, earlier this year she wrote a post about the movie Carol on Autostraddle every day for 30 days. That's the kind of hero that America needs!!!!
Tell us a story about a time you inspired someone to be their best queer self.
So Autostraddle runs this annual event called A-Camp, and once upon a time a camper wrote this in their survey and it sort of made me cry and I feel like it counts as an answer to this question: "This is very odd to say but Riese is a very awkward person, and I love that so much. It made me feel comfortable, as a person who is also very awkward, 'cause here was this awesome, badass person, that could probably run for president, or something, being just like me in some ways, and I think that spirit kind of describes camp. It's like, you don't have to fit into this idea of who you should be to live your best life. You can be your authentic self. I don't know. It was dope."
What are your words of advice for young queer people who aspire to be Queeros?
Read books. Know your herstory. Be authentic and open and be nice to your friends and open-minded to your not-friends. Don't get too caught up in The Discourse or Twitter/tumblr infighting or Facebook out-fighting. Damn the man, save the Empire. Join A+. Be authentic. Love against all odds, and there will be odds! Incredible odds! Your friends are more important than anything. You can dress however you want, it's fine, you look great. Eat vegetables.
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