C.J. Janovy

Renda-se, Dorothy!

Walking on art with strangers Our giant leap leads to tentative first steps.

Because I don't really understand this feeling, I just riff on how strange it is to spend so much time looking down at my feet as I spend looking up at the people and the architecture of our new country. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

Reporting from Lisbon Is it too late?

Here's more context on this image from another expat in Portugal: substack.com/@expatinport...

Yes

No Kings action all the way over in Lisbon.

'Our struggle is one' An old familiar ritual welcomes us to our new town.

What a beautiful day this was: our new town's first Pride march open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

A few things we'll have to get used to Before we arrive, we make some guesses about life in our new country.

Basically just an appreciation of British English cussing here open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

James McBride's Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

What we won't miss about America Here are a few things we know for sure.

Why must the supposedly greatest country in the world so desperately need to keep bragging about how great it is? open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

Opinion | Totalitarianism Can Be Terrifying. It Can Also Be Thrilling. He Taught Us Why.

"Lifton described a key psychological mechanism, what he called the 'thought-terminating cliché.'"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/opinion/totalitarianism-robert-jay-lifton.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lU8.ZIXN.eJ7GZJk2DBt9&smid=url-share

Watch Katrina: Come Hell and High Water | Netflix Official Site Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, survivors reflect on the disastrous storm that forever changed their lives and the systemic inequities it exposed.

Who else spent the weekend with this painful and necessary reliving of Hurricane Katrina? 20 years ago might as well be today. www.netflix.com/title/816765...

Waiting to leave our country Or, what we did on our summer vacation.

"Portugal teaches patience," someone said. I’m 62 and don’t need lessons in patience. But a summer of waiting to leave the U.S. taught us other things. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

Goodbye to Provincetown This queer heaven is one place in America I'll miss.

How my dream of becoming a lesbian elder started vs. going open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

Hiroshima and the End We Refuse to Imagine (Gift Article) Eighty years after the city’s destruction, we seem to be blundering into a new age of nuclear perils. It is time for culture to rediscover “the courage to be afraid.”

I grew up terrified, justifiably, every day, of nuclear obliteration. Artists had the correct response. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

We were all 'Small Town' Forty years ago, John Mellencamp's hit made everyone euphoric — even though we knew we couldn't really be ourselves in small towns.

I wrote about how, 40 years ago, a song made even small town #Midwest #queer kids feel like they belonged. Also, I had the same hair as John Mellencamp. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

YouTube video by So True with Caleb Hearon Confronting a Gay Historian

Also for the record, so much queer KC history is accessible thanks to Stuart Hinds of the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America, who is not on social so it's pointless to send him love here. But Caleb Hearon recently gave him lots of love here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CMh...

Colombia calling For this Midwestern gay-rights pioneer, home is where the adventure is.

For some of us, Jon D. Barnett is legendary in Kansas City #queer history. For younger folks, he should be. Here's a word of gratitude as he heads into his next adventure. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

'I have forgotten what fruit tastes like': Mass starvation grips the Gaza Strip - The World from PRX After four months of near-total siege by Israel, people in Gaza are starving. According to the United Nations, at least 1 in 3 people are going multiple days without eating. Death from hunger is risin...

“I have forgotten what fruit tastes like” - not sure how many times I reflexively put my hand to my heart while listening to this story theworld.org/segments/202...

From Mexico with love Kansas' first transgender legislator: 'I didn't flee the country — I moved.'

In her heroic efforts to be at peace with us leaving the U.S., my mom has asked a lot of questions. One was whether I knew of other LGBTQ people leaving. Yes, I told her. Here’s the story of #Kansas' first #transgender legislator.

If I were in charge of PBS or NPR I would be doing 24-7 programming right now about the end of PBS and NPR

Book cover for Katie Barnes' "Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates"

The entire USA should be required to read this before saying another word about women's sports, especially trans women in sports. @katiebarnes.bsky.social is a national treasure.

C.J. Janovy on Substack When you start telling people you’re leaving the country, some say they want to leave too but can’t imagine getting rid of all their stuff.

I wrote about how to get rid of all your stuff so you can leave the country. Or at least how I did it. substack.com/@cjjanovy/no...

Leaving home I know how it feels to be from a place Americans call the heartland when your heart leans a different direction. I’ve witnessed some history. I'm learning how it feels to leave.

At the risk of being like everyone else, I went ahead and started this thing ... open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...

Same

Let America Be America Again Let America be America again.

Langston Hughes, #America
poets.org/poem/let-ame...

An honor to join you and huge thanks for reading No Place Like Home! Love to all!

Thank you to Kate Sosin and @19thnews.org for this on the anniversary of #Obergefell.

Any theory why he didn't do much for me but I had a crush on David Cassidy?

Contrary to how it often feels in the publishing world there's a whole literary thing in the #Midwest. Thank you editor Andy. I'm honored to be part of this and can't wait to read everyone's stuff.

Just a reminder going forward...

(cartoon from 2003)