Brie

comic. a person sits at a computer. Text: I got an email the other week

comic. a person sits at a computer. Text: School District in Arkansas banned JO: An Adaptation of LIttle Women (Sort Of), Good afternoon Kathleen,...

text: In it was a link to an article where a man in another country, in a place I have never visited, who does not know me, calls me a [censored] and sinister and a [censored] because 'JO' features a lesbian protagonist.

comic: the image zooms out and the background darkens as the person at the computer says "oh." text: I'm ashamed to admit that I cried. That reading this made me feel scared & small & alone. I felt paralyzed.

Some thoughts on some things I've been dealing with lately. 1/6

December Trans Readathon 2025 calendar December 1-3: For the Love of April French (Penny Aimes) December 4-7: A/S/L (Jeanne Thornton) December 8: Stag Dance (Torrey Peters) Every day, add a picture of the book you read to the calendar! If a book takes you multiple days, add it more than once <3 Reading every day matters more than finishing books!

On to my third book in #DecemberTransReadathon, which has me reading more consistently than I have in ages. Today's new start is Stag Dance by Torrey Peters.

What's the rule on who gets to call you by the incredible nickname "Business Bill", is that just for your mayor friends or...?

December Trans Readathon 2025 calendar December 1-3: For the Love of April French (Penny Aimes) December 4: A/S/L (Jeanne Thornton) Every day, add a picture of the book you read to the calendar! If a book takes you multiple days, add it more than once <3 Reading every day matters more than finishing books!

Day four of #DecemberTransReadathon and I'm finally starting a new book! I finished For the Love of April French last night and am now on to A/S/L by @jeannethornton.bsky.social (whose Summer Fun I greatly enjoyed last month.)

This seems fun. I just started For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes yesterday. #DecemberTransReadathon

Thinking about the trans grad student placed on admin leave at OU. A lot of talk centers around the student, but I suspect the story's rightful center is the instructor. It feels like she is the target of a bad-faith trap. 🧵 1/?

the tendency of cis folks to do this — to sacrifice trans folks' rights and also say, 'oh we're not doing that!': it's added insult to injury. it's gaslighting. the point is: they don't CARE what we think or the truth of anything ... it's all just cover-your-ass style, spineless shameless cowardice.

Vancent Price inspired a magically enhanced van named Van Diesel in the TTRPG campaign I'm running.

I feel like the last couple decades of "is representation good or not?" discourse missed more important questions of "how fragile is representation?", "what do we do when multiple industries eliminate it as an intentional move against us?" and "how can we sustain queer artists when shit goes south?"

Folks in the church I grew up in were super surprised when I came back home in my 20s married. They "always thought ___ was gay". I hate to hand it to them but

Honestly, I low key love doing this. So much time to read, and it's easier to ignore everything else when I'm in airport limbo.

Washington State University Credentials Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM to Teach Medical Providers The Southern Poverty Law Center has dubbed the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine an anti-LGBTQ hate group for its role in proliferating pseudoscience and transphobic policies.

1. Washington State University has credentialed an anti-trans, conversion therapy org SEGM to teach CMEs to medical providers.

The panel is filled with the most vitriolic of anti-trans activists.

Unsuspecting providers may be taught harmful practices.

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This is awful. Of all the destruction going on right now in higher ed, the damage to people's lives is the hardest to take and least forgiveable. I hope something opens up for you soon, somehow.

Of course the WaPo editors think this is dandy. What utter shit the paper has become.

That includes any race-based scholarships and programs, including any promotion of external scholarships that consider race, and DEI trainings and workshops. Institutions were also told they should no longer prioritize “underrepresented groups” for admissions or hiring, and they must prohibit transgender students from playing on sports teams and using facilities designated for women and girls.

The University of Virginia has capitulated to Trump on transgender and race (affirmative action) issues.

The details are currently sparse, but reporting suggests they've agreed to define trans people out of existence and ban trans students from facilities.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Define your music taste with 8 artists:

* Backxwash
* Lingua Ignota
* underscores
* Saya Gray
* Khruangbin
* Massive Attack
* Lucinda Williams
* Judee Sill

What’s wrong with the Cass Review? A round-up of commentary and evidence [last updated 15/10/25] Wednesday 10 April 2024 saw the long-awaited publication of the final report of the Cass Review. This report was commissioned by NHS England, and provides a review of eviden…

So much bad stuff is happening. The Cass Review feels like it got lost in the noise. Yet this incredibly biased £3m project continues to warp discourse around trans healthcare.

I've therefore updated my megapost with 6 new major critiques from clinicians, researchers, and a child abuse survivor.

Academic Staff Need Academic Freedom, Too (opinion) Colleges cannot continue to operate as if all staff work is identical, Aaron Stoller writes.

This. Absolutely this.
"While much has been written about the vulnerabilities of contingent faculty, there has been almost no discussion of the academic freedom needs of one of higher education’s most rapidly growing workforces: third-space professionals." #HigherEd #Staff #AcademicLibraries

Something something spiderman meme

It was strangers who made it work for me too. I started playing with she/they, and most folks I knew went "great, so still 'they' when I remember". We had a tour group at work and they consistently gendered me she/her all day. I came home feeling seen for the first time

Over time I got more comfortable with the "or she/her, if you want" to leading with "ideally she/her, because we live in a binary society and the cognitive load of not just putting people in 1 of 2 bins with an optional sticker on their forehead is too much for most people in their daily lives"

When I first came out, I asked people to use they/them because it was an honest reflection of how I felt about identity "or she/her, if you want". what that looked like in practice was most people updated their mental model from "guy" to "guy who uses they/them" which felt even more wrong.

Big if true

I was looking back at archived versions of our website recently, and our staff today is about half what it was in the early 2000s.

Khruangbin is an April-May band for me. I think because I'm usually on allergy meds and hazy.

It is day infinity of everyone wanting me dead. People are having fun bringing lemon squares and automatic artillery to the anti-trans community meetings. Divorced legislators harangue about pedophile cults and surgeried infants and what ever happened to forever ago. I am more beautiful than you and I would like to be loved. I am getting concerned about the monomaniacs who make their entire lives about deadnaming and transvestigations: obviously it’s working but aren’t you exhausted, don’t you remember when someone loved you without knowing what you were? I am eating shortbread on a patio table overlooking the enormous green ocean. Somewhere an octopus is being eaten by an octopus and not panicking. Black dress to the floor, red acrylic nails, silver teardrop earrings, waterproof mascara. I am excited to do this for the rest of my life and be terrified. I hear a noise behind me and I don’t turn around

Having a Great Time Being Transgender in America Lately, by Jackie Sabbagh
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

Update: appears to have been a technical issue; it's back online now.

Any #medlibs (or others) have info on transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines going offline? Hoping it's a technical issue, but given the times I'm wary.

"Over the last several months, Members of Congress have used increasingly derogatory language to refer to transgender people, including one member repeatedly using slurs on the House floor," said Rep. Mark Takano, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. "Now, Representatives Nancy Mace and Ronny Jackson are calling for transgender people to be locked up against their will and institutionalized. These comments are abhorrent and have no place in our society, especially coming from elected leaders. This demonization of the transgender community must end. Speaker Johnson and Republican leadership have a duty to reign in these extremist Members and put a stop to this vile, hateful rhetoric."

Equality Caucus Rep. Mark Takano calls on Speaker Johnson and GOP House leadership to reign in their party's extreme rhetoric in trans people per this statement that just hit my inbox: