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Tag: LGBTQIA

A Tour of Texas BookshopsThe storefront for Bookwoman in Austin, Texas shows an angel with a halo of curly brown hair, reading a book, her wings outstretched and wearing a golden dress with white stars. She's flanked on either side by female symbols which are in flames or silver electricity.
Bookwoman in Austin, Texas is one of just a handful of feminist bookstores left in America. (Kit O'Connell)
November 28, 2022
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A Tour of Texas Bookshops

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and The Texas Observer

Big-city traffic and a resolution on New Year’s Eve of 2020 led Pflugerville resident Kelsey Black to become a bookseller.

An avid reader, she disliked the hour round trip required to get from  her suburb of 65,000 to downtown Austin to browse a bookstore. “OK,”  she told herself, “I think it’s just going to be easier for me to …  start my own bookstore.”

Turned out, it wasn’t easy at all, “but it’s OK because I have now found my calling,” Black said. The Book Burrow began as a pop-up and online business and finally, on August 6, opened  as a brick-and-mortar store. She said the 200-square-foot space has  become a haven for those who don’t feel like they fit in elsewhere,  drawn by the store’s motto: “Embrace your weird.” For her, the phrase  means cultivating love for whatever makes you unique: “Embrace your  gender identity; embrace your sexual identity; embrace your racial  background; embrace your spiritual path.”

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Are You OK? Visiting With Young Trans TexansC smiles and looks directly at the camera. They have wavy blonde hair with dark roots showing and are wearing a red tank top with a cartoon bee on it, along with blue jeans. C's parents stand behind, each with a hand on C's shoulder.
The "Are You OK?" project features portraits of transgender young people. Jesse Freidin/Are You OK?
November 18, 2022
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Are You OK? Visiting With Young Trans Texans

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

In 2021, Jesse Freidin began traveling across the country to photograph transgender youth for a photo project called “Are You OK?” He’s been to more than half the states in the country, meeting with dozens of trans kids.

In August, Freidin made his second visit to Texas. In the intervening year, legal and policy-based attacks on LGBTQ+ people in the United States have reached feverish heights. Governor Greg Abbott even launched child abuse investigations into parents who seek gender-affirming healthcare for their kids. Though nonprofits like Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union have responded with multiple lawsuits against the policy, which has been partially blocked in court, it still left many families fearing for their safety. Kai Shappley, a trans girl known for her outspoken activism, fled the state with her family a month before Freidin planned to photograph her.

“I want to tell those stories before they disappear, before these families leave the country or state, before these families have to go underground,” Freidin said.

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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.”

Read moreTrans Lives Are Not Up For Debate
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.

Read moreQueer As Folk Reboot Features Groundbreaking Disabled Orgy
Texas Observer: Alex Jones Seeks Bigotry-Fueled ‘Groomer’ ComebackSpeaking at some microphones on a podium, Alex jones holds his hands to either side of his head as he makes an agitated, yelling expression. Added text: via Jared Holt on Flickr under a CC-BY-SA license
Alex Jones in 2018. (Flickr / Jared Holt)
June 8, 2022
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Texas Observer: Alex Jones Seeks Bigotry-Fueled ‘Groomer’ Comeback

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

Alex Jones remains a toxic influence on American politics and society despite an apparently shrinking audience and dwindling sales at his Infowars online shop, plus mounting losses in a bevy of lawsuits. After decades of spreading anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, Jones now wants to stage a comeback by positioning himself at the front of a new wave of hatred—with the help of powerful friends like Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“Alex Jones Broke The Groomer Gate Scandal … in 2008?!” read an incredulously phrased headline on a story published by Infowars in April. The post links an audio recording by Jones— in which he claims elementary school teachers are giving explicit sexual instructions to 6 or 7 year olds—to today’s “groomer” panic. “Grooming” refers to a behavior whereby pedophiles ingratiate themselves with a potential underaged victim. But right-wing pundits, including Jones, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and the viral Twitter account @LibsofTikTok, now seemingly want to expand the definition to include openly LGBTQ+ teachers or anyone who speaks with young people about the existence of transgender people and gender diversity.

Read moreTexas Observer: Alex Jones Seeks Bigotry-Fueled ‘Groomer’ Comeback
Austin Chronicle: Texas Supreme Court Calls Out Greg AbbottTexas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a podium. Added small white caption text reads "via World Travel & Tourism Council / Wiikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license."
Gov. Greg Abbott speaks in 2016.
May 19, 2022
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Austin Chronicle: Texas Supreme Court Calls Out Greg Abbott

Posted in Austin Chronicle, and Journalism

While neither side got exactly what they’d wanted from the May 13 decision, Shelly Skeen, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal representing the plaintiffs, told the Chronicle that the ruling was overall a win for trans young people and their families. The court emphasized the importance of the rule of law, which the state has tried to ignore. “The law is clear and the law says parents have to provide medically necessary care for their kids, and to not do so is child abuse,” she told us. Medical experts overwhelmingly agree that providing age-appropriate care for transgender young people improves their lives and greatly reduces incidences of suicide.

Read moreAustin Chronicle: Texas Supreme Court Calls Out Greg Abbott