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Tag: Donald Trump

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
Gonzo Notes: What’s Up, Kit? March 2025Kit O'Connell is leaning with their hands clasped on the railing of a boardwalk, the Austin city skyline behind them. They are a white nonbinary person with wavy, graying brown hair wearing a purple and white scarf, a cactus necklace, a deep blue jumpsuit and a rainbow steel bracelet. Their nails are shiny green.
March 14, 2025
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Gonzo Notes: What’s Up, Kit? March 2025

Posted in Gonzo Notes, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

As we slide into Spring, I find myself at a bit of a turning point. I’ve been out of work and freelancing for just over a year now, without luck at finding a permanent position to replace the Texas Observer. Unemployment just ran out. So it’s time for me to take stock of myself, and the industry.

Over the past year, I’ve found success as a freelance reporter, and grown my readership on sites like Bluesky. At the same time, my job search has been fruitless; the closest I got to being hired over the past year was at an environmental nonprofit, not at a press publication. Despite all my accomplishments, I’ve averaged less than one job interview a month. Unemployment helped me make ends meet between assignments, but it also forced me to spend time applying for jobs I didn’t actually want.

I still hope that someday I’ll find a home at another publication that values queer, opinionated voices like mine. However, I’m starting to feel like that role might not exist right now. In the meantime, there are still stories I need to tell.

Read moreGonzo Notes: What’s Up, Kit? March 2025
February 13, 2025
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Podcast: Protesting at Empty Buildings (VisuNews)

Posted in Audio, Austin, Journalism, Occupy Wall Street, and Video

Last weekend, I talked with photojournalist Zach Roberts of VisuNews about my recent essay on why we need to stop protesting at empty buildings and become more strategic about our activism.

We also talked about our work as journalists, and our involvement with past movements like Occupy Wall Street.

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Stop Marching on Empty Buildings: Strategic Action in the Trump EraA protest sign reading "They confiscated this sign at the airport :( :( LOL :( :("
A protest sign Jason Pier/Flickr CC NC license
February 5, 2025
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Stop Marching on Empty Buildings: Strategic Action in the Trump Era

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, and Journalism

The reelection of Donald Trump is a crisis decades in the making that presents activists with challenges the likes of which we’ve likely never seen in our lifetimes. If we are to rise to the occasion, we must engage our skills with caution and creativity in order to help each other survive until whatever comes next.

Trump’s destruction of vital services has occurred at a dizzying pace and our government is now controlled by an unelected tech billionaire. Frightened and angry people are starting to take to the streets. Unfortunately, I see many of them relying on outdated, unsustainable strategies that already lost their effectiveness before Donald Trump reclaimed the presidency.

One question I’m not alone in asking: Why do we keep marching on empty buildings?

Read moreStop Marching on Empty Buildings: Strategic Action in the Trump Era
Texas Observer: Counting Hate in 2024A Pride flag held aloft above a march, waving in the breeze.
A pride flag at a march Raphael Renter | @raphi_rawr on Unsplash
February 5, 2025
Kit
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Texas Observer: Counting Hate in 2024

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

A national project tracking anti-LGBTQ+ hate found dozens of homophobic and transphobic incidents in Texas during 2024, ranging from physical assaults to stolen Pride flags, though the most common type of incident were protests by right-wing extremists, often outside of drag events. The database, compiled by the Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism Reporting Tracker (ALERT) Desk, a project of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD, also recorded a wave of dozens of bomb threats, including several in Texas. 

In all, the ALERT Desk logged 918 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents nationwide last year, of which 61 took place in our state. Only New York, with 61, and California, with 125, had as many or more hate incidents. 

Nationally, that averages out to about 2.5 incidents per day in 2024. Almost half of the incidents (48 percent) targeted transgender, nonbinary, or other gender-nonconforming people. The ALERT Desk compiles incidents from mainstream and independent media, as well as through direct reports, social media, and monitoring of extremists’ online communications. The Texas Observer was granted access to a full list of incidents reported in Texas.

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Deceleration: Disability Rights Organizers in Texas Get Ready to FightA group of activists in wheelchairs holding signs about disability rights in the Texas Capitol rotunda. Bob Kafka is in a red ADAPT of Texas t-shirt, an older white-haired man, seen in profile as he speaks to another male activist next to him.
Bob Kafa (second from left) with other ADAPT of Texas members at the Texas Capitol. (Kit O'Connell)
January 23, 2025
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Deceleration: Disability Rights Organizers in Texas Get Ready to Fight

Posted in Austin, Deceleration, and Journalism

For the past 40 years, ADAPT of Texas has advocated for the world to be more accessible, so that more disabled people can live in their communities, rather than in institutions. The progress this community has made in that timespan, which includes the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, is remarkable. At 78 years old, community organizer Bob Kafka has been there to witness those changes. Like many in the rabble-rousing organization, he’s not afraid to throw his body, and his wheelchair, in the way of the machinery of injustice; he was present at key moments of nonviolent direct action like the Capitol Crawl and the subsequent occupation of the Capitol rotunda which forced Congress to pass the ADA.

Today, the disability rights community is looking at the incoming administration with trepidation, preparing to fight attempts to dismantle their hardfought gains. In a state where the governor is himself disabled yet often seems actively hostile to their cause, ADAPT organizers are prepared to ramp up pressure on Texas lawmakers to improve the state’s treatment of disabled people and their caregivers.

Read moreDeceleration: Disability Rights Organizers in Texas Get Ready to Fight