Blog

Do we find truth in stories? In nostalgia? (A contemplation)
‘Beneath the exhausted rubble of our hearts, this miraculous potion awakened something strangely precious’ — Heinrich Böll. Snow falls lightly on the street vendors. He smells cheap tobacco, hears the squeak of chalk on a blackboard, sees a woman scrubbing a front step.

Stoking ‘trans panic’?! We have to create other political narratives
Andrea Pitzer’s video on ‘Ending Trans Panic’. Political risk doesn’t always fall on the side of standing up for people’s rights. Sometimes, supporting people’s rights helps you win elections.

I’m ‘disdainful’ of the latest U.S. court ruling against trans kids
No one asked me, but 🏳️⚧️ I’ll speak up while I still can. Connecting two court cases: US v. Skrmetti and Anderson v. Crouch. We exist, we should have basic rights, we can explain why. They want to stop us.

Why a homophobe displays a rainbow flag
They’re lying to themselves and others. The homophobe continues to share an occasional smirking rainbow and meanwhile gets away with spreading hate, disinformation, and physically violent imagery.

MAGA’s ‘not conservative’?
Well, is Trumpism conservative, or isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like natural order. It feels like state power. Some parts will be dismantled, and yet more monstrous heads will regrow.

The complicated joy of ‘Will & Harper’
Why did I wait so long to see it? The mood alternates between lighthearted and profound. Ferrell and Steele’s joy is complicated, but the film shines all the brighter for it.

How we appear, quivering
On the book ‘Deviant Matter: Ferment, Intoxicants, Jelly, Rot’ by Kyla Wazana Tompkins. We have ‘a wish to look directly at what is facing us,’ the oncoming blob, the mess we travel with and against.

GOP seeks to cut funding to U.S. hospitals supporting gender transition
Reporting by Jael Holzman asks if Democrats will allow it. If Democrats infight (‘bullying’ each other re: ‘cultural’ issues) and stop talking about the economy, they may lose even harder next time, says a pollster.

The anti-trans movement protested outside the U.S. Supreme Court
The Telegraph reports on a 17-year-old’s identity without asking them. Someday they may be ready to talk to sympathetic people who care about them, maybe including responsible journalists. It’s fine if they’re trans.