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Author: Kit

Kit is a gonzo journalist from Austin, Texas.

Getting Vicious With Dallas Punk RockersA black and white photo of a stage diver leaping into a crowd, who have their hands outstretched to catch the diver. In the background, a band plays hardcore music.
Stagedivers at a Turnstile concert (Vicious Velma)
October 3, 2022
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Getting Vicious With Dallas Punk Rockers

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

In Vicious Velma’s world, concerts are primal and raw, rich with immediacy and spattered with bodily fluids.

Photographer Vera “Velma” Hernandez got her start shooting concert  photography in 2014 at a Tulsa punk festival called “Fuck You We Roll  OK.”

She recalled, “I took some photojournalism in high school, never  really did anything after that.” She’d been working at a mall  photography kiosk, but didn’t even have a camera of her own. Hernandez  (Instagram: @vicious_velma)  had to borrow one from her friend Jenni, who’d invited her to the show.  It was at that weekend festival where she realized she’d found her  calling: “I just kept it going after that.”

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Honor the Sandy Hook FamiliesAn Infowars flag and a Dont Tread On Me flag hang from the same flag pole above a right-wing protest in Washington, D.C.
The Sandy Hook families deserve praise for opposing Infowars and Alex Jones. (Flickr/Anthony Crider, CC NC)
August 9, 2022
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Honor the Sandy Hook Families

Posted in Journalism

“A lot of folks are centering Alex when they should be centering the  bravery and catharsis of Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis,” said Dan  Friesen, cohost of the Knowledge Fight podcast, which has devoted more than 700 episodes to critically examining Jones.

This is a tall order, because making himself the center of attention  is one of Jones’ most carefully honed skills. He’s an expert at saying  and doing things so outrageous that the progressive left can’t help but  share them—always in horror and disgust, but reaping him new viewers and more clicks nonetheless. (Even the Texas Observer is not immune from dwelling on Jones’ antics.)

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Trans Lives Are Not Up For DebateA close-up of a white person's closed eyelid and nose, with the eyelid painted with the transgender flag.
Mainstream media articles like Emily Bazelon's New York Times article hurt transgender people. (Unsplash / Kyle)
July 22, 2022
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Trans Lives Are Not Up For Debate

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

On June 15, the New York Times Magazine published “The Battle Over Gender Therapy,” an investigation into gender-affirming care for young people by staff writer Emily Bazelon. Since its publication, transgender-rights advocates, medical experts, and other journalists have condemned the article for inaccurately portraying such care as controversial, misrepresenting scientific research, and quoting anti-trans activists without proper context.

Now, the state of Texas is using it as evidence in an ongoing attempt to investigate trans-supportive healthcare as “child abuse.”

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Queer As Folk Reboot Features Groundbreaking Disabled OrgyEric Graise (A Black man with short bleached hair in a wheelchair) looks back at the camera as he sits outside an urban looking building, two people behind him are talking on the stoop.
Eric Graise as Marvin on 'Queer as Folk' (Courtesy of Peacock)
June 30, 2022
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Queer As Folk Reboot Features Groundbreaking Disabled Orgy

Posted in Journalism

Everything is ready for the orgy. The snacks  and drinks are prepared, the disco ball is hanging, and there are  mechanical lifts to help people in and out of their wheelchairs. As a  few guests mingle and a go-go dancer gyrates, Marvin (played by Eric  Graise) rolls onto the stage in his wheelchair to act as emcee. With the  help of a sign-language interpreter, he kicks things off by announcing,  “I know you’re all dying to tear each other’s clothes off, or to have  your attendants take them off for you.” This is no ordinary orgy; it’s  “#F*CK Disabled People,” the titular orgy from Episode 4 of Queer as Folk.

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Austin Marches Over End of RoeActivists sit in the streets of downtown Austin, holding up their middle fingers towards the Texas Capitol, under a bright summer sun.
Austin took the streets to protest the end of Roe v. Wade. (Kit O'Connell)
June 25, 2022
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Austin Marches Over End of Roe

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and The Texas Observer

More than 1,000 people marched through downtown Austin on Friday, June 25 to express their anger and sadness over the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe V. Wade and the impending, widespread erosion of abortion access as a result.

Organized coalitions like Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights and others called for protesters to gather at the federal courthouse and in the surrounding Republic Square Park on the night after the Supreme Court decision came down. Word spread rapidly via social networks and posters affixed to lampposts throughout the city.

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Austin Chronicle: Low-Income Austin Renters Negotiate For Better DealA photo of the Austin downtown city skyline. Added text: "Public domain image by Jeremy Banks via Unsplash"
As high rents cause displacement, one group of renters negotiates. (Unsplash / Jeremy Banks)
June 10, 2022
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Austin Chronicle: Low-Income Austin Renters Negotiate For Better Deal

Posted in Austin, Austin Chronicle, and Journalism

Low-income residents of a North Austin apartment complex are putting pressure on a developer intent on demolishing their homes, and they’re having some success in getting concessions. The Old Homestead, located on Clayton Lane near the intersection with Cameron Road, is set to be rezoned for vertical mixed use – meaning developers JCI Residential, an affiliate of the Journeyman Group, will be allowed more height and building size in exchange for affordable units. While the new property will have more units than the current 16-unit complex, residents say they’ll struggle to find apartments as affordable – or with a community so closely knit – amid Austin’s surging rental prices.

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