The World Trends Up
While there are plenty of stressors around us, this week has held many major victories around the world. Plus: A free resource announcement!
Hello again, my lovely readers, and welcome to those of you who've recently joined the party. I'm so glad you're here. I hope you've all been taking care of yourselves and holding space for the lyrics of defying gravity (jokes aside, I would highly recommend seeing Wicked in theaters if you can. Somehow… Wicked counts as Good Queer News)
One quick thing before we jump in: I have another free resource to share! I’ll be hosting an event in a few weeks (Monday the 16th, to be specific) called "Resource Mapping and Resilience Building for LGBTQ+ folks and Allies". It's a free webinar that'll focus on all the things we can do to prepare ourselves for January 20th so we are able to feel a bit more ready to handle what may come our way. Feel free to share it with anyone you think might benefit!
I know with today’s Supreme Court hearing on gender affirming care, many of us here in the US have been pretty on edge. I don't have much to report on today about that hearing—To take care of myself, I didn't watch the livestream of the arguments—instead I rely on trusted journalists (in particular, Erin Reed, Law Dork, and Uncloseted Media) to give me the rundown of everything I need to know about how today’s oral arguments went.
This is an important reminder for all of us: staying informed is a balancing act. We shouldn't stick our heads in the sand, but that doesn't mean we should drink from a firehose of debates and bad news 24/7. I cannot control what happens in the Supreme Court, it is not my job to react immediately, so I have to let myself have some peace today knowing that I will learn more later about what happened and what needs to be done.
While the Supreme Court ruling is certainly dominating LGBTQ+ airwaves at the moment, this week has actually held some major positive stories that I want to highlight. I'll start with what might sound like a small one, but to me feels like the biggest deal of all: In honor of World AIDS Day, Joe Biden displayed panels of the AIDS memorial quilt on the White House lawn.
I know your first reaction might be "that's performative", or "what does that really do?" but I want us to take a second and use this moment as a benchmark. During the height of the AIDS epidemic, queer folks and advocates were absolutely begging anyone to even say the word AIDS. It took the Reagan administration 4 years to acknowledge that anything was happening at all. The protests, the die-ins, all with the goal of getting the world to acknowledge that AIDS was real and was decimating our community. The AIDS memorial quilt was born as a way to remember all those who were lost to the epidemic.
If you had told those advocates that 40 years later the president would display that very quilt on the white house lawn, they wouldn’t have believed you. Many of our queer elders would be flabbergasted by such a public show of solidarity, a direct result of the world they fought to build.
I agree it feels, in some ways, like a small act. But even that reaction is a sign of just how far we've come. This moment and these feelings show us that there is no finish line. No moment of complete and utter victory. There will always be more that we can dream of, more that we can fight for. This also means that we have to remember to pause and celebrate the victories of any size whenever they come, otherwise we're going to feel like we aren't getting anywhere.
The world trends up, folks. There are ups and downs, major obstacles thrown in our way, yes, but despite everything I firmly believe that we're trending towards good. Let's look at a few other quick examples.
Legislative News
Montana: Montana Republicans attempted to Ban trans representative Zooey Zephyr from the bathrooms, but they overwhelmingly failed. Multiple Republicans voted against the measure, sharing they felt the issue was a "distraction" and would "not contribute to the effective conduct of our business." Another legislator added that restroom access wasn't an issue for the female legislators he spoke with in the last legislative session. Read more via NBC.
France: The French Society for Pediatric Endocrinology released the "first French national medical consensus on trans youth care". The extensive guidelines stand firmly in support of access to gender affirming medical care, and had a rigorous process for analyzing available data. For a deeper dive, check out Erin Reed's article on the report.
Human News
For the first time, a trans model has won the "Model of the Year" award. Alex Consani received the award at this week's British Fasion Council Fashion Awards, a highly prestigious ceremony. Better watch out...looks like trans people have a biological advantage at being very, very pretty. Go us ;) (Read more Via NBC)
And last, but certainly not least: Libs of Tiktok (a popular far-right twitter account with a history of starting hate-storms against transgender people, inclusive schools, and gender affirming healthcare providers) joined Bluesky and seems to have been banned after just 9 days! I departed Twitter for Bluesky after the election, and boy howdy am I glad I did. It turns out, when you maintain and enforce policies around hate speech, your social media platform becomes much, much nicer to use. (Read more via The Advocate)
Okay folks, that’s all for this week! Keep looking for reasons to be joyful and opportunities to be kind, and please let me know about positive, hopeful stories you see in your own communities so I can celebrate those too.
Much love,
Ben
Thank you for what you do!