Your Aunt/Uncle Kit has more deep thoughts for you, alongside the latest in Texas LGBTQ news.
🤔 Welcome back, my beloved queer stars, to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏. Your Aunt/Uncle Kit has more deep thoughts for you, alongside the latest in Texas LGBTQ news. This week I'm wondering … Have you considered the benefits of repeating history?
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♻️ We all know the cliche, but instead of being doomed to repeat the worst parts of history, what can we recreate from it instead? While reading “The Dallas Way,” M. Rhys Dotson’s new history book which I profiled this week for The Barbed Wire, I was struck by how those early LGBTQ+ organizers really played the long game. Some of the strongest grassroots groups that formed around the time of the Stonewall riots were still around decades later to support the community through the AIDS crisis.
💞 We live in a very different era, with new technologies and developments our elders couldn’t imagine. But I see similarities: conservative politicians in power who want to erase us and our culture, who are trying to drive us back in the closet just as we begin to gain a few shreds of liberation. We could stand to learn from the queers of last century about the importance of not just fighting back in the present, but building rock solid communities that can support us through not just ascendent fascism, but also natural disasters, pandemics, and whatever bizarre 💩 the future brings.
👉 Read on for my full review and interview with Rhys, and all the headlines from our state. And since it’ll be a couple weeks before we speak again … 🏳️🌈🌈 Happy Pride Month~!
Steers & Queers 🐂
What we’re writing and reading in Texas.
🏳️⚧️ In a bizarre and unnecessary waste of funds, a $10 million legal settlement between the state and Texas Children’s Hospital will force the facility to create the country’s first “Detransition Clinic” for ex-trans youth. Despite the setbacks, remember you are valid and there are countless Texans who will keep fighting for trans folks of all ages.
🛫 So many LGBTQ+ folks are moving from red states to Seattle that the city may declare a state of emergency in order to free up more resources to support them. Although the crisis was widely covered in the media, it was Chron’s Gwen Howerton who revealed that a massive influx of relocating trans Texans is a major contributing factor.
🏃 Let Them Play! The cover story to the latest Texas Observer magazine, now available online, is a beautifully persuasive essay by Austin historian and investigative journalist Jessica Luther on the importance of including transgender people in competitive sports, with equally beautiful art by Adrià Voltà.
🫏 Eight Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives joined Republicans in voting for HR 2616, which would censor educators from talking about transgender people and force teachers to out trans kids to their parents. The two offenders from Texas are Rep. Henry Cuellar and Rep. Vicente González – here’s their contact info so you can express your displeasure.
⚕️ Even though other courts have quashed similar requests, a federal appeals court allowed a Texas judge to subpoena medical records from a Rhode Island hospital that offers gender-affirming care to minors. It’s part of Trump’s ongoing war on healthcare for trans people but a three-judge panel claimed the government pinky-swear promised not to use the records to cause harm.
🌈 The City of Austin bowed to state pressure to remove its remaining rainbow crosswalks, along with a “Black Artists Matter” street mural. According to Alex Driggars of the Austin American Statesman, the city is evaluating other options such as San Antonio’s painted sidewalks.
💃 A Pride festival that has taken place every October in Seguin since 2018 drew some backlash from residents, who turned up at a city council meeting to voice their objections to the gathering sponsored by local nonprofit Riverside Pride. Even though all-ages drag shows are still legal in Texas (as reported in The Barbed Wire), organizers responded by separating the festival into a “family friendly” morning event and an 18+ evening featuring drag.
🏳️🌈 June is almost here! Both Dallas and Houston have their official Pride celebrations on June 6, with Austin’s Queerbomb coming back on June 7. With so many attacks on our rights, it’s more important than ever for us to show up!
Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸
What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.
📺 A coalition of 40 nonprofits objected to a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to add content warnings on TV programs which feature transgender or nonbinary characters, even if they don’t contain any sexual content.
⚧️ A Kansas judge issued “a scathing 117-page rebuke of the state's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth,” according to Erin Reed of Erin in the Morning. Since the lawsuit is based on the state’s constitution, it’s insulated from SCOTUS’ anti-trans “Skrmetti” decision. Similarly, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that a state children’s hospital must continue offering gender-affirming care.
😷 The Centers for Disease Control deleted a page encouraging LGBTQ+ individuals to protect themselves from Mpox through vaccination and other preventative health measures. One former CDC official told Advocate’s Christopher Wiggins that the move is “high public health treason.”
🏒 The Montréal Victoire took home the Walter Cup, the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s ultimate prize, leading to a “heated” viral moment after teammates Laura Stacey and Marie-Philip Poulin, who are also married, embraced in celebration. Meanwhile trans Heated Rivalry actor and former hockey player Harrison Browne spoke out publicly for trans athletes.
Bright & Buzzy📱
Memes and more.
🎤 If you give an “angry gay kid” a microphone …
👩🍳 Let her cook!
Shameless Merch Plug 🧢
📗 Ever woken up from a dream with a flash of insight, only for it to escape in the light of day? Keep our Big & Bright hardcover notebook by your bedside, and you’ll never lose another bright idea. It even comes with a ribbon to keep your place and a pocket for those little keepsakes.
Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or to share your favorite Texas queer history. (kit@thebarbedwire.com).
🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold,
Kit (They/Them) 💖
