hi! i'm iris

in aotearoa, june isn’t our pride, it’s theirs. marsha p johnson and sylvia rivera are their historical figures, not ours. the phrase that “you owe your rights to Black trans women” is true there, but here we owe our rights to (mostly) Māori historical figures. i have the freedoms i do because of the legacy of an entirely different set of people operating in an entirely different context at entirely different times.

But because of american cultural imperialism, most queer people in Aotearoa don’t even know our own queer history. Carmen Rupe, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, the Dorian Society, Gillian Laundon, Georgina Beyer, and the Wolfenden Association are some of our queer history. We should know their names! we should know what they did for us! but because of the power of the american imperial machine, we don’t.

our national pride month should be july, the month that the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed in 1986. our two largest cities hold their pride festivals in february and march, respectively. american queer history has very little (or nothing, depending on who you ask) to do with our queer history. anecdotally, from my own queries, queer youth in aotearoa know more about american queer history than our own.

The deep love and respect it shows specifically for black culture and black communities. (Mane Attraction's hair. Literally the best)

No Anthro Boobs. None of the ladies were struck with the standard "We gotta give them human sexual dimorphism" shtick

Completely coed sport teams. I cannot express how fucking powerful that is in 2026

The backgrounds feel like an actual living city/settlement. Not the crisp clean theme-park Zootopia wonderland stuff, actually lived in and incredibly detailed to my peasant eye.

No romance. Solid platonic cross gender relationships built on respect and comradery

It's so good and I really wish it became the same level of hit as K-Pop Demon Hunters. It won't because it's a completely different genre of movie but holy cow. As someone who has next to no interest in sports this movie is a gem. Beautiful to look at, solid story, incredible set up and pay off. I wish it could crush zootopia like a fucking bug, it's so much better than zootopia one (I haven't and don't want to see the sequel I don't care).