Blog
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide about trans kids’ bodies
This fall, it’ll hear arguments over the Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care. For each of us, our bodies mean dignity, autonomy, psychological and physical well-being, and social inclusion. Our bodies should not be politicized.
They are still coming for trans adults
Erin Reed has separate U.S. risk maps for children and adults. Support the people who are doing the work so all of us can survive. Gay and trans freedom is everyone’s freedom, so each of us can help preserve it.
The moon is an adult trans person (and the GOP is coming for it)
Don’t shoot for the moon, please. 2024 audio: Republican leaders in Ohio & Michigan candidly discuss how they’ll go about banning gender transition at all ages
We are the book we’re talking about
And we are what’s at stake in truth-telling. If the interlocutor opposes me because of who I am, will they be impressed that I read a book? No. Even if it is a book they have heard of? No.
Humility: A needed balance
On early modern philosophers and online trolls. In Lewis Carroll’s ‘You Are Old, Father William,’ a young person asks: ‘You balanced an eel on the end of your nose - / What made you so awfully clever?’
What is human dignity?
Where does it come from? How do we know it exists? Does dignity need to be pinned to God, or can it have secular grounding? Is it about humility, pride, or both? What does interdependence have to do with it?
When we disagree on politics and I lose a friend
I have to be a good person, and even then, it’s up to someone else if they want to be my friend. They don’t owe me what I gave as a gift, and certainly they don’t owe me what I never gave at all.
Does ‘woke’ mean saying — or not saying — certain words?
In any case, careful speech—including refraining from speaking — can build trust. When the right wing refers to “woke,” they may want to prevent others from saying certain words—or to reserve certain words for themselves.
It’s not ‘free speech,’ it’s bigotry
If they really believe in free speech, this is how we’ll know. There are many reasons why people have prejudices and why they devote their speech to expressing bigotry. Not high on the list: commitment to free speech.