This looks an awful lot like the Google search results for “worst school mascots” doesn’t it? Actually, it’s a search I just made (in an incognito tab, because that’s where any blogger worth her salt does their investigatory Google fiddling) that does not include the word “worst” at all. Turns out, enough people out there still casually use “gay” as a blanket pejorative term for pretty much any kind of thing that Google’s algorithm also thinks that it’s a pejorative term. And Google doesn’t seem inclined to do anything about it.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor the United States can award, created to recognize “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” In a ceremony yesterday, President Obama announced that he will be posthumously awarding the Medal to Sally Ride, the third woman, and first American woman, in space.

Rebecca told me it was okay to make that the title of this post, so blame her. This was apparently left in the hotel room of Simon Pegg by the hotel’s services, and yes, it is entirely chocolate. (That’s Nerdalicious!)

According to Jezebel’s translation, these young ladies are charging $2.50 for easy cases, $6.25 for medium, and $12.50 for hard, but they won’t work on their own birthdays. I’d say that’s a good deal.

I love Star Trek. I don’t think there’s any franchise more central to my geek life. There’s a lot of unreal universes out there that I enjoy learning about, but I’m sure there’s none that I would more like to actually live in than the optimistic idea of our future that is Star Trek.

The ’60s-produced original series included a woman of color bridge officer who was cited as an inspiration by Mae Jemison (who became the first black woman in space) and Whoopi Goldberg (who ended up a Star Trek star herself). The more recent series’ increased speculative-science focus led Stephen Hawking, on a visit to the Next Generation set, to say “I’m working on that” when passing the warp core prop.

There’s so much to feel positive about in Star Trek, and over the decades it’s generally done a fine job of showing us how we could, and should, be. But there’s one particular area of social justice that the franchise has failed to live up to its standards on, and it remains a blight on the series in my estimation. I’m talking about the fact that there has never, despite years of promises and false starts, been an openly gay or lesbian character in the canon Star Trek universe.

But I have a proposal to change that. J.J. Abrams, if you’re listening, I think you should make Sulu gay.

Mondo, you strain our wallets and our wall space. This one is by Mouse Guard creator David Petersen!

Batwoman #17 came out yesterday, and in some of its last pages had a… thing… that happened. It’s a spoiler, sure, but it’s not a plot spoiler, it’s just a surprise. And before you get worried, it was a cool thing, an exciting thing, a bit of a cliffhanger thing, and I’m just puzzled as to why DC didn’t make a bigger deal out of it beforehand. It’s the kind of thing they could probably use right about now.

Okay, I’ll stop beating around the bush and put a jump cut here so that I can actually say what happened. Batwoman #17 spoilers from here on out.

I know lots of folks were excited to see Amethyst (of Gemworld, natch) make her television debut, but Thunder and Lightning, the two super-powered daughters of Black Lightning, also started their own series of shorts at the same time. One particular nod to fans of the characters appeared in their first video (you can just see it in the best quality recording of it I could find on YouTube): Thunder’s using her ever-present cellphone to text “Grace,” in a likely reference to Grace Choi, the half-Amazonian superhero that she grows up to fall in love with.

Thunder and Lightning return this weekend with another short. You can check out the preview above!

Hey, it’s not yellow spandex. (Blastr)

Yesterday the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation published the nominations for their annual awards honoring mainstream works of television, cinema, comics, and journalism that they consider to have done an outstanding job of depicting the LGBTQ community and the lives of those within it. Some of the nominees are, unsurprisingly, very close to our hearts.