Blog

I still have 8,615 unread emails (over 10 years) on a former US president
You know which guy it is. Shall I delete these emails one by one? I want less of this man in my email inbox. That will involve doing my part to write fewer articles like this one. I’m talking about email hygiene.

‘Spiritual Warriors’ documentary on Christian Nationalism at the Capitol riot
Learn about the New Apostolic Reformation. ‘Spiritual Warriors: Decoding Christian Nationalism at the Capitol Riot’ is a short documentary made by the Institute for Islamic, Christian & Jewish Studies.

The $120 million anti-trans joke
We used to call it ‘the one joke,’ but now they’ve gone and spent money on it. Two-thirds of voters want politicians to stop attacking trans people and just talk about the economy. Republicans are most likely to say they want this.

10 problems with the ‘sex assigned at birth’ essay
They’re in what’s said — and not said. This isn’t a cost-benefit calculation. If we really looked at the term ‘sex assigned at birth,’ we might find that the benefits outweigh the costs.

When trans people are cut out of sports in Nassau County, New York
Republican organizes militia. Democratic Party chair retorts: ‘Does he think we’re going to be invaded by Suffolk County?’ Your neighbors are ‘trained’ to serve someone who marks everyone’s sex as a site of surveillance and regulation. This violence affects everyone.

Oh, it’s about sports, is it?
Nope, it’s not. It’s about constraining transgender lives. I don’t judge sports. I don’t pretend to. But I can detect when someone alleges injury and proposes a false remedy to delegitimize a group of people.

Three books that tell us to smash our categories
Recommended nonfiction by Miller, Fox, and Waters. Nonfiction recommendations: A 2020 book about David Starr Jordan, a 2023 book about William Beebe, and a 2024 book about Avery Brundage.

The indispensable history of ‘sex testing’ in sports
Waters keeps the book focused on the 1930s, with the history told in such a way that it’s crystal clear how it’s relevant today. The moral panic over trans people in sports continues not to be about sports.

As Berlin held the 1936 Olympics, these athletes changed their sex
Assigned female at birth, some went on to live as men. Eugenicists, sexists, racists, and fascists held power. Possibilities were disrupted when the Nazis rose. And the 1936 Olympics belonged to Hitler.