Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You cannot shame the shameless.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

White supremacy is terrorism.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

This fight is for everything.

Everybody saw this coming.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

People are complicated. Love is not.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The words do not have to be perfect.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

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The State of Being Trans in America

Open Thread: Too Good Not to Share

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The Gospel according to Benw.

“And the Lord looked out among her people. And saw that gender was a spectrum, and it was good. And that some boys did like other boys and some girls did like other girls; and it was good; and that some did not like either at all, and it was good. And some boys did themselves dress as girl, and the opposite was also true, and it was good. And that some did not wish to remain themselves with the gender they were assigned at birth based on outward signifiers of their sex, and it was good. And the Lord raised herself a great land called NYC, in which she spoke, ‘cometh to this land and fuck around, and ye shall find out.’”

~Benw

Full marks for this, Benw!  Respect.

Totally unrelated, but it made me so happy that this one is too good to share, too!

Just as I was pressing publish on this post, one of our lurkers, Jobeth, sent me the link to this quiz (Politico, I know)

Who said it: Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump?

Or, as I like to think of them, Satan and the other Satan.

Open thread.

Open Thread: Too Good Not to SharePost + Comments (124)

The Gish Gallop: Recognizing and Responding to Bad Faith Trans “Concerns”

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This morning I woke up, and like most mornings, I readied myself for the daily wave of anti-trans rhetoric.

For those of you who don’t know what a gish gallop is, it’s a tool used when debating to overwhelm an opponent with SO MANY arguments, with no discretion for the validity of the argument, that it is impossible to respond. Waves and waves of anti-trans “concerns” flood the news, and by the time you even begin to answer one “concern,” there are a dozen more that have accumulated while you’ve been responding.

Honestly, some days it’s hard to breathe when I get hit by that tidal wave.

The Gish Gallop: How to Stop Anti-Trans Rhetoric in its Tracks

Something I’ve observed though is that most of the “concerns” around trans folks are premised on fundamentally not believing trans people are who they say they are. This pile of problems creates an unnavigable morass to distract from the primary issue: trans people are people who deserve full human rights, dignity, and respect.

I cannot tell you how many times I have stopped a conversation about women’s bathrooms or trans people in sports in its tracks by simply cutting straight to the chase “Do you believe that trans women are real women?” In that moment there is often… a hesitation, and then something like “Well… yes but also they haven’t lived as real women…” or “If someone has fully transitioned, then yes, but if they haven’t then…” This slippery nugget slithers under the majority of trans-related concerns, creating an Otherness in people’s minds, and until it is addressed it will continue to insinuate itself into every “concern.”

It’s okay to not “get it.” It’s okay to be confused, and there will be lots of messy uncomfortable moments as the world adjusts to creating space for trans people. People’s feelings will get hurt. Change is hard! But the first thing you can do as an ally is simply this: believe trans people.

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The Gish Gallop: Recognizing and Responding to Bad Faith Trans “Concerns”Post + Comments (274)

The State of Being Trans in America

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Hey folks, it’s exciting to be here.

My name is Eddie, and I’m not just a long-term lurker on Balloon-Juice, but also your unofficial resident Balloon-Juice artist. Back in 08, I made the original Tunch OBEY shirts and the drawings of Lily and Rosie that are still available in the BJ store. The angelic cat image that so often pops up on this page was a drawing I made for Cole back when Tunch went to kitty heaven in the sky, and it always makes me smile to see it.

I am extremely politically active, which I channel through my art. I’m a full-time artist for a living, primarily working as a director-choreographer, visual artist, and writer. I also teach courses in public speaking, directing, movement, and story-crafting. I have been really lucky to find a way of life where I am always fundamentally giving back to the world. In the last fourteen years, John has offered me the keys to the blog numerous times, and numerous times I have begun to draft something, chickened out, and gone back to lurking. I generally much prefer to be a behind-the-scenes kind of person…

But I can’t just exist lately… because I am trans. My very existence is deemed political. Not a day goes by where I don’t experience anti-trans propaganda. New anti-trans laws are being proposed and signed into law at a hysterical pace, politicians are building their entire platforms on eradicating trans folks, and newspapers like The NY Times and WaPo write furiously about the “trans debate.” Even the Pope decided to take a shot today!

To which I’ll say: There is no trans debate for me. I exist. I can’t “take sides” here, and the way the media is framing transgender issues is deeply harmful and painful.

Last Friday, I had coffee with a friend of mine, a very liberal older gay man who had a lot of concerns and questions about “gender affirming care” for children. I spent the next two hours breaking things down for him about what exactly that process looks like as someone who not only transitioned themselves as an adult, but what exactly we are talking about when it comes to gender affirming care for children. He told me that he learned so much and was surprised at how much the media was misrepresenting these issues, and he wished that more people could just sit down with me and learn from my experience, expertise, and resources.

So here I am! My goal as a poster is to provide more resources for all of you so that you can better understand how to argue when someone tries to “debate” trans rights. I will also field questions that come up in the comments when I have the time, although I really hate your commenting system (sorry, John) so I will likely always answer them within posts themselves. There is SO much information and there is SO much going on right now, that it’s hard to find a place to start, so I’ll begin by simply offering you the TedX talk I gave in 2020 that will give you a rundown of my own story and answer some of the questions people most commonly have about being trans.

I use they/them pronouns mostly, which was first used as a singular pronoun in the English Language by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1390, and was commonly used as a singular pronoun until the Victorian era. However, if you struggle with what you feel is a plural pronoun, you’re also welcome to use xe, xer, xers (pronounced ze, zer, zers, and used like “she, her, hers”). I find that once you offer the grammar police a new pronoun, they rapidly shut up. And for anyone saying, “THESE NEWFANGLED PRONOUNS,” xe has been in usage since the 1970s, so they can either shut the fuck up, or use the phonetically identical pronoun “Ze” which was first used in the 1840s.

I speak four languages and love history, linguistics, and kindly proving people wrong. Let’s dance.

I have some posts planned already, but please ask questions in the comments. I’m very good at providing great answers to “gotcha” questions, so feel free to make requests to boost your arsenal against anti-trans rhetoric. Forgive me as I figure out posting etiquette like how to add a category that is just “trans rights,” and make a “below the fold” link, which I swear I’ll know next time…

Here is also my CAT / ART TAX. His name is Baby, and he’s been around for about 16 years. We’ve had some crazy adventures, including him once escaping from his carrier on a place during take-off. If there is interest, Baby would be pleased to share more pics and stories.

The State of Being Trans in AmericaPost + Comments (212)

Monday Evening Open Thread: Women’s Rights Are Also Trans Rights

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As we know, the bigots never stop; once they’ve managed to erase ‘those people’, they’re already planning how to erase ‘you people.’

Monday Evening Open Thread: Women’s Rights Are Also Trans RightsPost + Comments (70)