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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.

Can you do your political work if Trump is elected?
Think of his indictments, Christian Nationalism, and the climate crisis. Think of how we’ll organize. Trump faces criminal indictments. If you’re an organizer or an activist, this general situation and this specific timeline may affect your work.

A Texas bounty on trans people
Big prizes! Win $10,000 and up for reporting a trans person! Two updates from Texas and Pennsylvania, plus a roundup of five essays on anti-trans bathroom bills. Stop trying to take our money. Stop looking.

I want to see every erased word celebrating our city’s sexual health hotline
I’ll repaint the mural myself if I have to. As a gay and trans adult, I have to show responsibility toward other queer people in this city. If we don’t stand up for each other, who will?

‘Compensation is zero’ in the DOGE working group
It isn’t a real federal department anyway. You’d be the unpaid assistant and loyalist of the richest man in the world, who in turn is a loyalist of Donald Trump, who acts as though he’s the richest.

If you can’t campaign on it, how can you achieve it in office either?
You can’t shove aside an inconvenient group of people during a campaign and expect to be able to address their needs in office. My gender & body aren’t an ‘interest group’ nor ‘tactic,’ aren’t ‘rigid mores and vocabulary of college-educated elites,’ aren’t a ‘set of related issues.’

We’ll need to heal from this years-long torrent of insults
But we don’t need to fix or forgive those who continue to hurt us. It’s each person’s responsibility to choose good, and our choices are our own work to do. No one can redeem or heal anyone else. We can set boundaries.