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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.”

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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.

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Don’t be a platform for fascist propagandaA black stencil on a white wall: "Antifascists"
Chris Christian/Flickr, Creative Commons license
March 11, 2025
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Don’t be a platform for fascist propaganda

Posted in Activism, and Journalism

You’ve probably heard someone say ‘Don’t platform nazis.’ It means don’t publish fascist garbage uncritically on your platform. It’s usually directed at journalists, influencers and others with a big audience.

But here, I’m highlighting smaller ways well-meaning people accidentally spread fascist propaganda. These are some ways I see people inadvertently giving a platform to the worst among us:

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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.

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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?

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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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