Some cool personal updates:
- I was invited to talk at a fairly large feminist group this Sunday, which is kinda cool.
- I wrote a goofy essay a while back and just learned that it’s going to published in an anthology called The Queer South: Essays and Poems.
- I got some final confirmations about a paper that’s being published in the inaugural TSQ Journal and the paper KJ and I collaborated on for a peer reviewed rhetoric journal looks like it’ll be published as well.
- Dana asked me to take over her anti-hate project, The TERFs. Over the past few days I moved the site and revamped it a bit. This so needed to happen. I also put together a fairly straightforward indictment of TERFs re: their role in the loss of trans healthcare in the US.
- A fairly well known feminist organization contacted me about TERF activity and will be addressing their behavior soon.
- I found out that I, for the 3rd year in a row, was voted OutSmart Magazine’s “favorite blogger” and they told me that I was a finalist for most prominent advocate.
- As silly as it sounds, I’m incredulous that the TransAdvocate FaceBook page just surpassed 10k likes and the TA twitter account is around 15k.
- Buzzfead is writing about trans history and they’re using the trans archive as a primary source. I think that’s just awesome!
- My grandmother was in a bad way not too long ago. We thought she’d had a stroke and was in the hospital. Complicating matters was some family BS but, happily, all is well and the BS was resolved.
Some cool community updates:
- I learned that our CD is coming out. As a fundraiser for the trans center’s building fund, trans artists and allied artists from all over came together to make the largest collaborative trans CD ever. Iconic feminist bands and folks like Lucas Silveira of The Cliks have all decided to support the Houston trans community in buying a permanent home for the community and the trans archive. The CD will be available soon.
- For the past year, a committee I and my governmental counterpart chair has been working hard on a HIV prevention survey for Houston citizens. The survey is finally done and is now live… which is really cool. So much work – by so many people – went into this effort.
- I’ve got so say, there’s nothing more amazing than watching people grow. So many folks I’ve known, have made remarkable progress and are just blooming. There’s too many amazing stories to tell… For instance, recently a girl I’d held after she was bashed for being trans, has absolutely bloomed. She just got her citizenship, fought anti-trans discrimination via the EEOC, prospered in the face of family rejection and is now has a surgery date. Someone I first met as a cis researcher of the trans community is now a full fledged trans advocate. Folks who I, at one time, butted heads with on a regular basis are now friends. Community is really a beautiful thing and I feel enormously grateful to be part of something as amazing as this.
Some sad news: Melanie Rudd just passed away. I’ve known Melanie since the 1990s and she was always very kind to me. She was a trans community member who was really interested in improving the life of all trans people. I’ll miss her quiet presence in this community…