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Austin Free Press: LGBTQ+ Rights Groups Rally as Texas House Votes on Anti-Trans BillsLGBTQIA rights still matter when resisting tyranny
Flickr / Kate, CC-BY-NC license
May 9, 2025
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Austin Free Press: LGBTQ+ Rights Groups Rally as Texas House Votes on Anti-Trans Bills

Posted in Austin, Austin Free Press, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

Local advocates for equality are fighting back as the rights of LGBTQ+ Texans are under attack again at the Texas Legislature – including by a bill up for a key House vote today.

A bill-tracking site maintained by the nonprofit Equality Texas shows that lawmakers filed more than 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills before the March 14 filing deadline. Most of those bills, which mainly target the rights of trans people, never will reach Governor Greg Abbott’s desk. But a few are marching through the legislature, which ends its current sessions on May 30.

One top concern of the trans community is SB 240, which would restrict transgender people’s use of bathrooms or locker rooms in such public places as schools, domestic violence shelters, prisons or government buildings.

Read moreAustin Free Press: LGBTQ+ Rights Groups Rally as Texas House Votes on Anti-Trans Bills
How Democrasexy Finds Joy In Political ActionPhoto of on stage at Cheer Up Charlie's during Democrasexy's "Carnival of Care", with a huge multi-colored neon smiley face sign behind her. Becky is wearing an outrageous clown outfit, including white boots, a frilly blue miniskirt, orange top and a bright red clown wig shaped into two large buns. The stage is bathed in purple light.
(Kit O'Connell)
April 18, 2025
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How Democrasexy Finds Joy In Political Action

Posted in Activism, Austin, and Journalism

These are dark and scary times, and it can be hard to hold onto joy. But it’s also difficult to motivate people using pure doom and gloom. Activism and action without considering our own happiness leads to burnout.

Since 2021, Becky Bullard has been encouraging playfulness, a spirit of mysticism and even sexiness in political action through Democrasexy, the organization she founded. Her first event was a “Texorcism,” a gathering to symbolically “cast out the demons” at the Texas Capitol who had brought on the state’s six-week abortion ban. 

“We all dressed like witches. I had drag performers. We had a panel on abortion rights and a tarot reading for Texas,” Becky told me.

Read moreHow Democrasexy Finds Joy In Political Action
Austin Free Press: Al Green Calls for ‘Millions’ to Protest TrumpAl Green, wearing a suit and tie and carrying his signature brass-handled cane, shakes hands with a smiling Black woman in a red jacket as a room full of NAACP members applauds his arrival.
Al Green arrives in Austin. (Kit O'Connell)
March 21, 2025
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Austin Free Press: Al Green Calls for ‘Millions’ to Protest Trump

Posted in Austin, Austin Free Press, and Journalism

U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said he didn’t intend to shout back at President Donald Trump during Trump’s speech to Congress earlier this month — but would do it again, despite the consequences, including receiving numerous death threats and being censured by his House colleagues.

Speaking to a packed room at Austin’s AFL-CIO labor hall near the Capitol this week, Green said he wanted to make clear to the president that voters didn’t give him a mandate to cut Medicaid or Social Security. He urged the public to engage in peaceful protest to protect those and other services.

“I want you to know that if the Congress won’t act and if the court can’t act because (Trump) won’t abide by the rulings of the court…there is but one remedy left,” Green said. “We the people. We the people will have the last word…this country was built on we the people. The country wasn’t built on DOGE,” Green said, referring to Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. “The country won’t be destroyed by DOGE.”

Read moreAustin Free Press: Al Green Calls for ‘Millions’ to Protest Trump
Austin Free Press: A U.T. professor and state trooper collideRich Heyman stands in front of a line of state troopers at a protest, wearing a blue button down and khaki shorts. His curly hair and beard are salt and pepper gray. He has a water bottle in one hand.
Rich Heyman at UT Austin on April 29, 2024. (Kit O'Connell)
March 13, 2025
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Austin Free Press: A U.T. professor and state trooper collide

Posted in Austin, Austin Free Press, and Journalism

Reporter’s Notebook: Kit O’Connell reflects on pro-Palestinian protests on UT-Austin’s campus last spring. Their commentary is accompanied by a video of the incident never before released to the public.

On a blistering April day I arrived at the University of Texas at Austin last year, after receiving a tip that more Gaza protests were breaking out at UT’s South Mall. I didn’t know then that a well-regarded professor whom I previously interviewed was about to have a life-changing altercation that would land him in jail and end his UT career.

Five days before, students had gathered in that grassy, open area to oppose Israel’s bombing campaign. Dozens of Department of Public Safety State Troopers, under orders from Governor Greg Abbott and with support of then-UT Austin president Jay Hartzell, had aggressively broken up the protest. Then, on April 29, the students were back; this time, they planned to pitch tents and form a protest encampment.

Read moreAustin Free Press: A U.T. professor and state trooper collide
Kit @ SXSW 2025Kit O'Connell is wearing a purple and white tye-dye style scarf and a dark blue jumpsuit, and looking directly at the camera. They are sitting on a green tiled bench.
Photo by Montinique Monroe
March 6, 2025
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Kit @ SXSW 2025

Posted in Austin, Journalism, SXSW, and The Texas Observer

I’m appearing at a free SXSW event (no badge required) on Monday, March 10 at 4pm at Flipboard House (Speakeasy in downtown Austin). I’ll be talking about how I use alternative, decentralized social media like Mastodon and Bsky to promote Texas Observer and my own journalism.

I recommend checking out the whole two-day slate of events, which features some great speakers like Molly White and Cory Doctorow. Hope to see you there!

Read moreKit @ SXSW 2025
Deceleration: Strong LGBTQ+ Communities Are Key to SurvivalA LGBTQIA+ Pride flag and a transgender Pride flag draped next to each other outdoors.
Unsplash / Cecilie Bomstad
February 28, 2025
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Deceleration: Strong LGBTQ+ Communities Are Key to Survival

Posted in Deceleration, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

In the face of a terrifying crisis, LGBTQ+ Texans must draw on all their decades of experience at mutual aid and building community in order to survive.

Almost every day the federal government seems to launch new attacks on the rights of transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming and intersex people, leaving many of them frightened for their future: their ability to work, attend school, receive medical care and to exist openly in public spaces. At the same time, trans Texans are watching the Texas Legislature with trepidation, as it hashes out its 89th session. The Transgender Education Network of Texas has identified 114 bills filed in the lege which target the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the state, mostly trans folks. Right now, it’s unclear which of these have a chance of hitting the Governor’s desk, noted Landon Ritchie, policy coordinator at TENT.

“We are seeing pretty much attacks on or attempted attacks on queer and trans Texans in every aspect of public life and we’re expecting to see a lot more, but we’re also grounding ourselves and reminding community that not all these bills have equal chances of becoming law,” he told Deceleration.

Read moreDeceleration: Strong LGBTQ+ Communities Are Key to Survival