Adventures of a Gonzo Journalist
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.
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 Unfortunately, I see many of them relying on outdated, unsustainable strategies that already lost their effectiveness before Donald Trump reclaimed the presidency.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?
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.
Murder, assault, bomb threats, and verbal threats were some of the worst anti-LGBTQ+ hate incidents occurring in the greater Austin area over the last three years, according to data that the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD documented as the basis for a recent report on such incidents nationwide. Austin Free Press used GLAAD’s Texas data to analyze incidents in the Austin area.
Even as violent crime falls nationwide, threats against the LGBTQ+ community are on the rise nationally, in Texas, and in Austin. In explaining that contradiction, experts say anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is helping to drive those trends.
“We’re seeing this really massive rise in anti-LGBTQ incidents all across the U.S.,” said Sarah Moore, GLAAD’s senior manager of news and research. Moore’s research shows that between Pride Month in June of 2023 and that same time this year incidents increased by 112% nationwide. In Texas, the increase was 44% during that period.
Posted in Austin, Journalism, and The Texas Observer
Some theater experiences are dignified and serious, exploring the depths of human emotion with gravitas and solemnity. On the other hand, there’s “Young Greg Abbott: A FuQusical.”
“This ain’t a subtle show, just thought you should know,” sang the band leader, King Amy Blackard, at the beginning of “Young Greg Abbott,” a satirical show which saw its first two full performances on October 18 in Austin. “Please save your thoughts and prayers. It’s just Sondheim with swears.”
At this “FuQusical,” the audience was encouraged to sing along, shout, and curse at the cast—especially at the actor, Brently Heilbron, playing the youthful version of our now third-term governor. Heilbron also wrote the script and music. Many middle fingers flew during the performance I attended, among the packed crowd at the downtown State Theatre.
Before dawn on a Sunday morning in April, the bars in Austin had just closed. Joshua Ybarra started walking to his Uber. Then he heard an anti-gay slur hurled at him from behind. Three men leapt on him, pinning Ybarra to the ground and thrashing him so severely that he fell unconscious. The beating was so vicious that a friend of Ybarra’s “tried to defend him by covering his body on the ground, and she was also beaten by the attackers,” according to research from the nonprofit GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. Even the alleged attackers’ own fraternity brothers tried to stop the assault, to no avail.
Ybarra’s assault was just one of 93 hateful incidents of anti-LGBTQIA+ bigotry in Texas tracked by GLAAD’s new ALERT Desk (Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker). The tracking project — which went public last week — serves as a central hub to count both non-criminal and criminal acts of hate towards the queer community since 2022. Using a wide variety of sources, from mainstream news outlets to social media and verifiable firsthand accounts, the GLAAD ALERT Desk attempts to paint a comprehensive picture of the threats against the larger queer community. (Editor’s note: GLAAD is using the term “incident” over “hate crime” because many of the events did not meet the definition of a criminal act.)
And that picture is a grim one that reflects a disturbing rise in attacks nationwide. The lead at the ALERT Desk and GLAAD’s senior manager of news and research, Sarah Moore, said across the country from June 2022 to June 2024, “we saw a 112% increase in incidents just looking at that two year period.”
For Texas, that includes at least one murder.
