Blog

A hinge that opens the heavens
A small reflection on my daily reading. You’re at an apparent end due to a failure of wit. You can’t imagine what comes next. But you’ll recover wit, you’ll find horizon, and universe won’t end.

6 things mystified me in the trans film ‘I Saw the TV Glow’
This 2024 movie is tough to crack, but finally I think I get it. In art, opaque describes a substance you expect to see through but can’t: paint, glass, a thin layer. Metaphorically, it’s something you can’t understand.

Why are you trans?
Will they be mad that they were given a reason? If so, why did they ask? Trans people didn’t invent gender stereotypes. Collectively, we don’t reinforce them any more than anyone else. We navigate societies that stereotype us.

Secretamos la concha / We secrete the shell
Un ensayo ilustrado sobre el conocimiento / An illustrated essay on knowledge. Mini-illustrations about not grabbing too tight and instead growing that which we’ll carry with us. In English (plain text) and Spanish (in images).

Why do politicians ‘swear in to office’ on a Bible?
Doing so is supposed to appear solemn, but it can’t really bind them to their promise. The politician may not believe God holds them accountable for promises on a Bible. Swearing in on a Bible only shows the cultural power of Christianity.

Two Duggar memoirs: Jill and Jinger as adults
Neither their abusive older brother nor the IBLP Christian fundamentalist organization is part of their lives now. The IBLP not only opposes women’s rights and no-fault divorce, it also promotes the idea that husbands are the leaders of their wives and children.

LGBTQ: What’s at stake for us in a Harris–Trump election
Gay marriage! Trans existence! No-fault divorce for straight people! The Republicans want to end it all. Harris is the correct choice.

Who paid $3 million for the January 6 riot & election overthrow
A reminder: The coup was planned, and many people organized it. Sounds like it was Julie Jenkins Fancelli, who has money. These issues are related: anti-LGBTQ attacks & Trump’s anti-2020 election efforts.

Trans people need to ‘exist on our own terms’
Jessie Gender talks to us about acknowledging our stories, setting the terms, and framing our success. In this YouTube video, Jessie Gender acknowledges that ‘we constantly fight under the terms set by systems that were never built to enable us.’