I’ve gotta rant here a bit…

I just finished re-watching all of Deep Space 9 a few weeks ago. I’d seen most of the series as it aired, managed to miss a few very key episodes, but never really gave it a ton of thought since the show ended. All the memes about the prescience of the Bell Riots gave me the nudge to go back and give the series a solid second look (after 25-ish years of hindsight).

The introduction of Section 31 was one of DS9’s biggest controversies. The writers behind DS9 were more-or-less arguing that you can’t have utopia without someone having to do a little genocide every now and then. And while our heroes genuinely hate this idea, they can live with it.

This is all super interesting stuff to think about and debate both for the sake of fun fiction and how we should all endeavor to live and rule our reality. And this silly-looking movie appears to want utterly zero part of that complex conversation.

And that’s really disappointing.

Fight, yes, but it’s important to choose your battles.

Rep McBride is in a very precarious position. Flailing at every injustice is not going to serve her, her constituents, or the trans community at large well in the long term.

This is a lesson that the larger trans community needs to learn, and fast: strategic, creative political action that captures attention, makes the public consider our viewpoints and doesn’t harm the people we’re trying to talk to is the way forward. You don’t do that by blocking highways or burning storefronts.

We start by organizing.

Our last, best hope for peace.

To be fair, SB1 addresses medical function. Kids would be allowed to receive puberty blockers to address medical diagnosis of precocious puberty, but not to address gender dysphoria. The foundation of the state’s argument is that precocious puberty is a legitimate medical condition and gender dysphoria (which they repeatedly and dismissively refer to as “psychological stress”) is not.

Never mind that neither lawmakers or “the democratic process” is qualified to, or should be in the business of, determining what is and is not a legitimate medical condition.

What are the odds that the council appoints twice-defeated, nobody-wants-you-here Tanya Woo to fill her seat as a final piss off gesture?

As a District 2 resident, I dare them. I double-fucking dare them.

I listened to the oral arguments on U.S. v. Skrmetti this morning.

I couldn’t express how deeply disappointed I was when Justice Kavanaugh verbally fretted about the “risks” of unintended outcomes as a result of the court’s ruling (either way) and the petitioners didn’t drill deeply into that concern.

If the court strikes down Tennessee’s SB1 law banning gender affirming care for children, there is a risk that a child could receive puberty blockers and later regret it… AFTER specifically requesting it… AFTER getting the consent of their parents… AFTER receiving psychological assessments to ensure that they’re aware of the risks and effects… and AFTER finding a medical doctor or endocrinologist willing to prescribe the medication.

If the court upholds the Tennessee law, there is a risk that EVERY child seeking gender affirming care in the state will be prevented from doing so, categorically, with ZERO recourse, regardless of their own wishes, the wishes of their parents, medical care team, and disregards the preponderance of non-biased research on the matter (the Cass Report doesn’t count, and the author even argues FOR puberty blockers) that points to overwhelming positive medical outcomes.

These degrees of risk are NOWHERE CLOSE to being equivalent and it’s ridiculous to have allowed that reasoning to slide by unaddressed.

If your employer requires you to have a phone for official use, keep it separate from your personal phone; different device, different number, different networks if possible (ie: only let it join your home’s guest network). Don’t do personal things on your work devices, including logging into personal services, social networks or communication tools.

Cutting to the chase:

I propose that on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 (the first day that both the House and Senate are back in session), all of us who are invested in this issue and have a platform (whether it be a blog, newsletter, column, podcast, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.) publish a piece with the shared title: “LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back.” Yes, I know, it’s a cheesy title, but it holds Democrats accountable to their own talking points and makes it clear that backsliding on LGBTQ+ rights is nonnegotiable for us.

So… a blog post and social media campaign.

No fucking wonder we aren’t getting anywhere. This is some tragically weak-ass protest action.

We need to get creative and we need to get into people’s faces.

We need to set goals and consider sidelining a few issues that we’re getting beat on.

We need to show our allies how they can help. Hitting ‘like’ on a social media post doesn’t count.

Over the Garden Wall is pure essence of autumn.

It’s not a movie, but its complete runtime (ten 11-minute episodes) is under 2 hours and has all the eerie, melancholic silliness that your soul needs while dealing with family.

With the mayor and council effectively robbing the JumpStart fund, why not?

That’s just an omegaverse bench that’s received its life mate.

Bathroom design advice: don’t hang mirrors facing toilets.

There was that whole Duck Tales episode about inflation as well…

https://youtu.be/t_LWQQrpSc4

Agreed. It’s a good thing that “no victory laps yet” is not the same as “it sucks”.

“No victory laps yet” means “the work isn’t done yet.” You only get what you demand and are willing to fight for.

MA law doesn’t force insurance providers to cover gender-affirming hair electrolysis, so most don’t. Trans women with facial hair and cis women suffering from hirsutism are all expected to live with their beards and hairy shoulders.

Washington, Oregon, California and other states have laws on the books making it illegal for medical insurance providers to deny coverage of treatment for these conditions.

MA doesn’t get to do victory laps for its progressive bone fides until it gets with the program and takes care of its women.

Answering the unasked question “What if Edward Snowden, but Jack Bauer?”

You got it right the first time: ribbed tanks; still bringing the machismo and big trans-masc energy. :)

Ahh the New York Times, never missing an opportunity to throw trans folks under the bus.

Gov. Beshear talks a big game about vetoing anti-LGBTQ legislation, but the article they even link to about it points out (in the headline no less) that every one of those vetoes were overruled (and that doing so is trivial in Kentucky). He is describing a pantomime of concern for the queer community, wrapped in dog-whistle language (“all children are children of God”), while functionally doing as little as possible to actually help them.

This is a lesson for despondent Democrats in how they can softly give up on protecting a persecuted community to get what they want.

As a trans person, I agree the Democratic party’s messaging on trans issues has been lackluster and easy to counter.

The kids sports talking point was so effective because is brought up a good point that blanket trans acceptance hadn’t considered. Testosterone is literally a performance enhancing drug, so maybe going through male puberty makes someone ineligible to compete on a women’s team. That sucks, but in the same way that it sucks that other medical conditions would also keep you off the team. Being trans is not a disability, but the disqualification can be a point of disappointment as opposed to actual injustice.

I’m a late-transitioning trans lady, and I’m willing to concede that. These are the kinds of discussions that I’ve had with conservative family members that are very compelling, but they get bulldozed by broad, non-nuanced talking points that the media slaps against one another.

I’m also not a politician or an expert communicator. It is so frustrating that the people I literally rely on to do those jobs for my benefit are doing this so poorly.

Any discussion about rights for transgender people that starts with the roster choices on children’s sports teams is a bullshit discussion. It’s incendiary rhetoric designed to unsettle people who have never engaged with transgender people.

The counter-argument for that should be “do you know how many kids that affects? This is not a serious issue. You know what is? Trans victims of discrimination and hate crimes. That’s what we should be talking about, not some kids’ soccer league.”

Start treating this talking point like the ridiculous corner case that it is and pivot to the real problems.

Spoiler: It’s a bunch of embedded twitter posts, without the courtesy of providing screenshots. If you have twitter blocked, nothing is visible.