Texas leads the nation in book bans. What makes queer identity so frightening to the far right?
🌙 The days are getting shorter, but around here we’re always Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐! Welcome back, my queer stars. Today, I’m thinking about what it means to be a monster, in an age when our culture is censored …
🎃 I’m one of those girlies who celebrates Halloween all month long, from October 1st all the way to our horror holy-day. But this isn’t just the start of spooky season; we’re also closing out the annual Banned Books Week, and Texas holds the current national record for book banning. One of the books that’s touched my life the most, Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel Gender Queer, frequently appears on lists of the most banned books. And I’ve often found myself wondering, what makes my identity so dangerous to the far-right?
👻 Even more than other transgender identities, existing outside the binary creates a threat to the patriarchal status quo which requires us to fall in line in order to function. Nonbinary people know that if you don’t fit into “male” or “female,” you can choose “both” or “nope,” plus infinite other configurations. In a way, we’re a haunting reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way, one which they cannot exorcise.
🫶 Many a thesis, book and YouTube essay analyze the reasons why LGBTQ+ people see themselves reflected in villainous and horrifying fictional characters, so I won’t rehash that here. What I will argue is that if our enemies see us as monstrous, so be it. This Halloween, let’s not just be out of the closet, let’s rampage in the streets. Wherever you fall under the rainbow, let’s unashamedly embrace our strange and monstrous selves, this month and every month. And if it shakes the foundation of this broken world to be that way, all the better.
⚕️ I’ll be back next week with more reporting on HIV in Texas. In the meantime, read on for all the latest headlines from queer Texas and beyond …
😷 P.S. Covid is running wild in Texas (guess who just tested positive? 🥺), so get your booster shot and mask up!
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Supported by The ACLU of Texas
A special thanks to The ACLU of Texas for underwriting our queer Texas coverage. All essays, reporting, and analysis is, as always, editorially independent.
Steers & Queers 🐂
What we’re writing and reading in Texas.
🧇 Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico clarified his position on transgender athletes in school sports, saying he supports “fairness” and will always stand up to those who bully children. He still has not walked back his support for a ban on surgical gender-affirming care for minors (which is very rare, but often life-saving when it does occur). The waffling earned him a spot on Houston Chronicle’s Flip-Flop Tracker.
🦸🏾♂️ LGBTQ Nation’s Chaaz Quigley profiled state Representative Venton Jones, the North Texas lawmaker who is openly gay and openly HIV positive, on how he’s fighting for our rights and his vision for the future of Black queer Texas.
🏈 Gwen Howerton at Chron explains why NFL-fans from Tampa to Chicago were subjected to Ken Paxton’s transphobia.
🍸 Gwen also documents how Meta’s censorship is hurting LGBTQ+ bars in Texas, specifically Rain and Oilcan Harry’s in Austin. It’s deeply troubling to me that so much queer life is centered on a social network that hates us.
🏳️🌈 “Dallas’ LGBTQ+ population is currently louder and prouder than ever,” declared Joel Medina of the Los Angeles Blade after attending Pride celebrations in Oak Lawn late last month.
🧛🏻♂️ Caleb De Casper’s new single “People Don’t Fall” is out on streaming services, with a music video dropping later this month. I interviewed this Texas vampire, for The Barbed Wire, in July.
👑 El Daña, who holds the world record for oldest performing drag king, will have a special appearance next month at Austin's Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. Mention her next time someone claims gender bending is a recent fad…
Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸
What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.
🫏 Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate asked Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson about Democrats abandoning transgender people in the midterms: “You don’t have to sacrifice any member of our community to win.”
🏳️⚧️ New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has allocated nearly $9 million towards gender-affirming care for minors, after major hospitals caved to the Trump administration by halting trans kids’ care.
🌵 A court of appeals ruled that trans people born in Arizona can update their birth certificates, even if they don’t receive gender-affirming surgery, according to Edgar Ramirez at The Advocate.
🟠 Cheetos are bad for you: A study in the journal Psychological Science found that the mental health of parents of trans kids declined after the re-election of Donald Trump.
⬇️ Data from the Trump administration claims young people are less likely to identify as LGBTQ+, but there’s ample reason to question the accuracy of their analysis.
🍃 Mathew Rodriguez of Them reports that Avatar: Seven Havens, the new entry in The Last Airbender universe, features a gay couple.
🔪 Nicole Froio at The Flytrap digs into a topic I haven’t been able to stop thinking about: Camp Miasma’s exploration of queer sexuality. Spoilers ahead … but why haven’t you een it yet?!
🤠 Masked icon Orville Peck once dressed up as himself for Halloween.
Bright & Buzzy📱
Memes and more.
👟 Mascs at the pool, Austin.
🦖 Queer history at Chicago's Field Museum.
🔥 Slay the means of production.
🐺 Bonus: WOLFSTORY (PILOT).
Shameless Merch Plug 🧢
📚 Banned Books Week comes once a year, but censorship in Texas is a year-round problem. Fortunately, our warm climate means you can always rock our Read Banned Books t-shirt, too.
Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or to tell me about your favorite banned books.
🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold,
Kit (They/Them), kit@thebarbedwire.com
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