Recently, my husband and I watched a PBS Nature documentary called Leave It to Beavers (highly recommend!). At one point in the doc, it was explained how adult beavers scan their environment for threats and slap the water with their tails to alert their families. I admire the beavers for many reasons, but a big reason relates to something important I shared at the end of my
I've been using the word "fascism" for several years now and feeling like I'm the only one suggesting the emperor is naked. The word doesn't make me anywhere near as uncomfortable as the circumstances that call for its use.
We have one anti-LGBTQ+ bill active in AK right now--the one about biological gender determining which sports teams a kid or young adult can join. I will do what I can to defeat the bill.
For the most part, I have no reservations about this. I believe that most of the time, sports are just fun, healthful entertainment. Anyone should be allowed to play on the team he/she/xi wants to.
When I was young, we girls were angry when adults told us we couldn't play football or wrestle or play baseball instead of softball. We were proud of the girls who defied the adults.
***Vulnerability Alert! I ask for patience, kindness, and education, please.***
However, at the top level of athletics, where elite athletes compete, and people care about the results (I am not one of those people), I wonder about the differences between bodies that developed with more testosterone vs those developed with more estrogen. This is intellectual curiosity: I've always found gender differences and developmental biology interesting, and personal mid-life health issues put a spotlight on hormones and muscle. It seems to me that early development makes a physical difference. How should this be addressed?
Again, even if this is true, I'm not sure how much it should matter, if at all. And I don't think it should matter at all in elementary, high school, or college sports. Good gravy, there is so much more that does matter at these levels.
I understand the curiosity about developmental differences and hormones, but don't have a good response.
But your comment made me think about this: I am a product of girls sports. I played girls sports through my senior year of high school and here is what it was like: We had the oldest uniforms, worst equipment, practiced at the worst times in the shittiest gyms. Our games were scheduled during the week nights so that the boys could have the coveted "Friday night lights." Durning the summer, our lifting/conditioning time was at 2:30pm- the absolute worst to be outside running drills. We lived as an afterthought and took all of the sloppy seconds from the boys sports. None of these politicians give a damn about what is actually fair to the girls sports teams. If they did, they would take Title 9 seriously, not just as tokenism gender equality. This is about finding yet another way to "eradicate transgenderism" under the guise of "the children."
Since I've ragged on my Fox News-watching mother elsewhere, I would like to acknowledge that as Vice President of our local Little League during my playing years, she led and won the battle to get the girls full uniforms, same as the boys. At the time, the committee wanted to replace the boys' old uniforms while the girls were still buying white jeans and sewing bias tape-stripes down the side.
The boys didn't get new uniforms that year. Girls did. Thanks, Mom!
We also got Friday Night Lights games on the boys' diamonds during that time. The girls' fields didn't have lights, of course.
Kelsey, thanks for framing this how you did. I was not an athlete as a kid, but I observed the girls sports teams be treated just as you said in my small Montana town too.
And and antidote to support this in "modern" times (because I graduated high school 20 years ago): our local high school just tore down their old gym to construct a new one. This old gym has been referred to as "the girls gym." We're pretty close with the high school boy's basketball coach and one night he was talking about how nice the new gym was going to be. So I asked him point blank if, since the old gym was known as "the girls gym", would the girls team would have first dibs on all practice times and game scheduling? Talk about your awkward pause and stumbling response.....
(If you're wondering, the answer is no. The girls certainly won't be the main team that uses that gym.)
Angie, you asked if we had any trans rights organizations we support. I couldn't think of any in the moment, but then I got an email reminder of a Zoom event tonight, part of the Alumni Dialogue on Diversity hosted by my alma mater, Gettysburg College. Tonight's program is about meeting the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. I don't know how much real supporting I do, but I'm in this loop.
Jen, this is awesome. I think real support is listening & learning. Taking initiative to get in the loop (I call this practicing awareness) IS valuable community care.
Jen, you are not the only one! I started using it publicly in 2018, after reading Jason Stanley & Timothy Snyder. I got even more sure it was the correct term when I found the work of Ruth Ben-Ghiat here on Substack. The circumstances are much more uncomfortable, from my perspective, than the word too.
Thank you for doing the One Small Thing & looking up the bills in AK & doing what you can do defeat it.
I also appreciate your vulnerability asking a question & trying to learn more. I hope Notes from a Neighbor can be a "brave" space, meaning we can tolerate some discomfort while we trying to learn & possibly make mistakes together. I'm not sure I know the answer to the question you are asking, but being in perimenopause myself, I do know what you mean about changing hormones & difficulty of maintaining, let alone adding muscle mass. I will try to do a little digging & see if I can learn more about your question. My thought is that male transitioning to a female & playing sports at the level you are referencing would probably have to work harder, like we do in mid-life, to maintain any early muscular development, which might negate any perceived "advantages."
Thanks for sharing all of the FL legislation! I checked and Illinois has no current legislation. We live a stones throw from Missouri, though, and I'm watching in horror as they are getting ready to pass some disgusting legislation. One of the things they are doing is going after the children's hospital in St. Louis that provides transgender care- the exact same center that my nephew is going to for treatment (even though he lives in IL). I'm so angry and appalled. What are your thoughts on how to get involved in legislation in states that we don't live in?
I appreciate you pointing out that we're told that we're not smart enough to discuss this. I can't tell you how many times my own brother has called my intelligence into question when I "step out of line" and discuss politics. Ugh. It makes me furious. (LOL- I went to a public meeting about a local solar panel farm and the old man who I was sitting next to told me "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you understand this only as much as you're able." WOW. Fuck you, dude. So I guess this a pretty common technique.)
I saw your note about having to constantly update this article, so I'm sure this was ready to go before CPAC this past weekend. But did you see Michael Knowles was speaking and said: “For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”? Using the term "eradicated" was at best an irresponsible choice of words and at worst it's a dog whistle call to action.
Kelsey, you could join a get-out-the-vote postcard-writing campaign and send postcards to non-voting, or infrequently voting people in MO, urging them to vote.
How did you respond to the "as much as you're able" old man? We need ready responses to comments like that.
Honestly- I didn't have a great response. I was so taken aback by the comment. I think I stumbled over something like "I understand this thoroughly." I feel like I should have been able to justify my intelligence in a snarky quip, but at the end of the day, I don't feel like I should have to justify my intelligence either. Ugh. I absolutely HATE it when my intelligence is insulted. I'm probably being flooded by past traumas from the proverbial "pats on the head" given to girls when we "get worked up."
Kelsey, thanks for doing the One Small Thing & extending it to next state over! I agree w/ Jen, that one way is to get involved in postcard campaigns to help inform/sway MO voters. Another option is to find the transgender rights orgs working in MO and/or find out who the Reps/Senators are in MO fighting these laws & support them w/ donations. I'll try to look into other options as well.
I hope to return to the "not smart enough" thing in the future. There's more to say about that & it infuriates me. I am so sorry to hear that your brother & some old man speak to you that way.
And finally, yes, sadly, I did see Michael Knowles calling for genocide. I didn't want to add the C-CRAP (did that on purpose) layer into this note, but yeah, horrifying. Again, it is fascism & we have to name it what it is.
Great idea! I found an organization supporting transgender youths and fighting against legislation and sent them a donation.
I really hope you come back to the "not smart enough" topic. I get so flooded when someone makes me feel stupid for bringing up politics. I'm realizing it's a tactic that's been used against me (and likely every girl) my whole life. Society is very uncomfortable with angry/upset women and that conditioning starts with telling young girls to calm down, be polite, and "smile."
Society realllllly wants women not to be angry. It has taken a lot for me to unlearn it & drop "the act" I'm expected to play, but I still handle it better in my public writing than in my public interactions. The flooding makes me stumble too.
While I acknowledge these many proposed legislations in Florida are inappropriate and indeed fascist, the topic, the transexual issue, I think is a manipulated and inserted matter. If we truly are concerned about overt fascism, we cannot ignore media ownership and manipulation, the actual media control of the issues we are directed to react to, to be emotionally provoked by. You are posting on issues that have been brought forward by those with an agenda, those who want the leftists and progressives to get emotionally involved with smaller topics than the near-complete media propaganda control and the near-constant war agenda. The fascist goal is total submission, and when we are directed to hate a lower level enemy, we tend to ignore the larger threat, the actual controllers of our perceived reality.
Not that I am more correct than you, but in my opinion, I sense the real danger to the USA is the "divide and conquer" plan of the fascist controller system. As they continue to bring forward the topics that make people react emotionally, they force an ordinary citizen to identify other ordinary citizens as their enemy. The more we emotionally and viscerally identify with an issue that hurts our loved ones, our pet topic, our sense of righteous justice, then the more we are in the control of those who want to move us in the direction of their choosing.
To go to the topic where we were first acquainted, I am fearful of the push to make us stop eating meat. Farming and land use are under attack, and it is pervasive, dangerous to our health, and almost completely under the radar. As we worry about trans rights, abortion rights, gun rights, critical race theory, we are hugely distracted from the fascist plan to literally control our food, and to make it less and less nutritious, less and less available. The air we breathe is full of pulverized aluminum, the water we drink is no where safe to drink without treatment, the health system is literally creating illness, and the fascists want us to be mad at others who are just reacting to some personal hurt. It is not wrong to want to protect some minority group, but everyone in every group is literally under attack and I think it is valuable to swirl up another level. The beaver tail whack is heard by everyone, everything in the area, not just the beavers. If it is dangerous for the beaver, it is likely dangerous for others.
Thanks, Connie. I need to chew on this (like a beaver?). I agree that control of media and the use of media to manipulate culture wars is a root problem.
Does this take us back to defining and regulating what can be called "news"? And holding people accountable for their actions?
Hey Connie, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree about the media propaganda. I think we have to carefully evaluate whether or not the issues we are angry over are being manipulated by the media or legitimate issues. I do think the transgender issue (btw, just to help you update terms, transsexual is an outdated term that can hurt transgender people we care about) rises to the level of something for us to focus on, because they are a small, vulnerable community & the targeting of them is very overt at this point, to the point of speakers using genocidal language about them last weekend at CPAC in DC. Similar failures to pay attention to the "lower level" groups being first overly threatened is how we ended up w/ the Holocaust.
Your point about "divide & conquer" is actually even more reason to stand firmly w/ other groups who are targeted w/ legislation or violence. We are stronger together. The only thing you need to identify against is targeting minority groups.
As to your fears around the food system, I also agree, however, I think this may be a logical fallacy called "whataboutism," when actually there is an intersectionality of threat here. The most vulnerable are the priority & then we move on to those of us who are currently less vulnerable.
These issues are inter-related, we each have a role to play & pulling on any of these threads will help take the system down.
Hey Connie! I also believe in food security and nutritious food (I'm a regenerative beef farmer and met Angie in my NTP class). I get where you're coming from. Until a few years ago, I saw social issues as a distraction from what I viewed as true health threats. I also believed that those at the top were trying to divide the rest of us and create arguments amongst ourselves so we don't focus on their actions (to be totally fair- I still believe this but in a slightly different context).
All of that to say- I get where you're coming from.
Being up close and personal with the Wellness Industry for a long time now, I have seen an evolution of a duality or an "either, or" to these issues. Like "bro, if you're not posting about chem trails, are you even a health guru?" Where you pointed out that people who are learning left are getting swallowed up by social justice topics, I have also witnessed my right leaning wellness friends get swallowed up by loss of freedom topics.
When it comes to dividing and conquering, I honestly believe we can say no. We can use a "Yes, And" approach. Yes, I can own firearms to protect my farm And I can demand common sense gun laws. Yes, I can stand for reproductive rights And I can demand clean and safe water. Yes, I can build a sustainable food system And I can support trans people in my community. The work does not cancel each other out.
There doesn't have to be an either/or. We all need to be vigilant about the media we're consuming, who the authors are (big corporations or wellness guru alike), and what their motivations might be. And we can stand with all the issues.
I want my first comment to be "thank you for writing this post as a cis-person!" I've been following your work for awhile, since my AIP days--and I've been thankful to watch you speak about community care + issues and realities to organize around.
I'm a trans person in Indiana & several anti-trans bills have made it through committee & are getting their readings in the House & Senate. I'm also an elementary school teacher, & to watch the censorship continuing to happen is staggering. Speaking up has cost me two teaching jobs within the span of 9 months.
I had the honor to attend several rallies at the statehouse & to hear the courage & resilience of trans teens & their parents, but also the anger & sadness of feeling like political pawns in a system that wants to strip them of bodily autonomy & their right to consent to medical care. It's a very difficult time to be trans in this country.
There's a reason trans youth are the focus of book bans, banning gender affirming care, sports controversies, bathroom bills, etc. It's a political strategy that riles up white mothers in particular. Last thing I will cite if folks are not familiar is the Trevor Project's 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Mental Health. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/. Gender-affirming care is life-saving care.
Alyssa, thank you so much for commenting & sharing so openly. And thank you for all the work you've done for your community, even when it has cost you. I totally agree w/ you on the political strategy. Thanks for mentioning the Trevor Project!
Wow, what a well researched neighbor note! Florida…wow, that is a lot of terrible legislation.
Slap! Posted and shared the info you shared about ACLU and checked on legislation in Michigan. 1 bill just introduced…. I am pretty sure in response to some positive legislation that was just signed here. I am tracking it!
The legislation is staggering and heartbreaking! I spent part of Sat. reading over some of it on the ACLU’s site. Thank you for including that as one small thing - awareness leading to action!
I am not afraid of the word fascism. I believe we really must face what is unfolding before us. And it’s going to take pushing through the idea (we’re trained to swallow) that “it can’t happen here.” The fact is IT IS happening; and we (together) have to ensure that it stops.
Emelda, thanks for doing the One Small Thing. And, for bringing up the "it can't happen here" idea that we've all been taught. That is a severe and profound stumbling block for many people on both sides of the political spectrum. I think some of the Right don't believe it will get that bad, so they go along w/ the inciting rhetoric, while some of the Left don't believe it will get that bad, so they don't organize like our lives depend on it.
Came across this article from the BBC today. It's about World Athletics banning transgender women from competing in world-ranking events. The issue concerning the banners is the level of testosterone in people who have gone through male puberty, but it also touches on women with naturally elevated testosterone levels.
I've been using the word "fascism" for several years now and feeling like I'm the only one suggesting the emperor is naked. The word doesn't make me anywhere near as uncomfortable as the circumstances that call for its use.
We have one anti-LGBTQ+ bill active in AK right now--the one about biological gender determining which sports teams a kid or young adult can join. I will do what I can to defeat the bill.
For the most part, I have no reservations about this. I believe that most of the time, sports are just fun, healthful entertainment. Anyone should be allowed to play on the team he/she/xi wants to.
When I was young, we girls were angry when adults told us we couldn't play football or wrestle or play baseball instead of softball. We were proud of the girls who defied the adults.
***Vulnerability Alert! I ask for patience, kindness, and education, please.***
However, at the top level of athletics, where elite athletes compete, and people care about the results (I am not one of those people), I wonder about the differences between bodies that developed with more testosterone vs those developed with more estrogen. This is intellectual curiosity: I've always found gender differences and developmental biology interesting, and personal mid-life health issues put a spotlight on hormones and muscle. It seems to me that early development makes a physical difference. How should this be addressed?
Again, even if this is true, I'm not sure how much it should matter, if at all. And I don't think it should matter at all in elementary, high school, or college sports. Good gravy, there is so much more that does matter at these levels.
I understand the curiosity about developmental differences and hormones, but don't have a good response.
But your comment made me think about this: I am a product of girls sports. I played girls sports through my senior year of high school and here is what it was like: We had the oldest uniforms, worst equipment, practiced at the worst times in the shittiest gyms. Our games were scheduled during the week nights so that the boys could have the coveted "Friday night lights." Durning the summer, our lifting/conditioning time was at 2:30pm- the absolute worst to be outside running drills. We lived as an afterthought and took all of the sloppy seconds from the boys sports. None of these politicians give a damn about what is actually fair to the girls sports teams. If they did, they would take Title 9 seriously, not just as tokenism gender equality. This is about finding yet another way to "eradicate transgenderism" under the guise of "the children."
YES! I am a product of this, as well.
Since I've ragged on my Fox News-watching mother elsewhere, I would like to acknowledge that as Vice President of our local Little League during my playing years, she led and won the battle to get the girls full uniforms, same as the boys. At the time, the committee wanted to replace the boys' old uniforms while the girls were still buying white jeans and sewing bias tape-stripes down the side.
The boys didn't get new uniforms that year. Girls did. Thanks, Mom!
We also got Friday Night Lights games on the boys' diamonds during that time. The girls' fields didn't have lights, of course.
Kudos for fighting that good fight on your mom's part, Jen!
Good for your mom! That is definitely the type of Mom I want to be- for my kids and everyone else's!
Kelsey, thanks for framing this how you did. I was not an athlete as a kid, but I observed the girls sports teams be treated just as you said in my small Montana town too.
And and antidote to support this in "modern" times (because I graduated high school 20 years ago): our local high school just tore down their old gym to construct a new one. This old gym has been referred to as "the girls gym." We're pretty close with the high school boy's basketball coach and one night he was talking about how nice the new gym was going to be. So I asked him point blank if, since the old gym was known as "the girls gym", would the girls team would have first dibs on all practice times and game scheduling? Talk about your awkward pause and stumbling response.....
(If you're wondering, the answer is no. The girls certainly won't be the main team that uses that gym.)
Ugh, this is so frustrating, Kelsey!
Angie, you asked if we had any trans rights organizations we support. I couldn't think of any in the moment, but then I got an email reminder of a Zoom event tonight, part of the Alumni Dialogue on Diversity hosted by my alma mater, Gettysburg College. Tonight's program is about meeting the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. I don't know how much real supporting I do, but I'm in this loop.
Jen, this is awesome. I think real support is listening & learning. Taking initiative to get in the loop (I call this practicing awareness) IS valuable community care.
Jen, you are not the only one! I started using it publicly in 2018, after reading Jason Stanley & Timothy Snyder. I got even more sure it was the correct term when I found the work of Ruth Ben-Ghiat here on Substack. The circumstances are much more uncomfortable, from my perspective, than the word too.
Thank you for doing the One Small Thing & looking up the bills in AK & doing what you can do defeat it.
I also appreciate your vulnerability asking a question & trying to learn more. I hope Notes from a Neighbor can be a "brave" space, meaning we can tolerate some discomfort while we trying to learn & possibly make mistakes together. I'm not sure I know the answer to the question you are asking, but being in perimenopause myself, I do know what you mean about changing hormones & difficulty of maintaining, let alone adding muscle mass. I will try to do a little digging & see if I can learn more about your question. My thought is that male transitioning to a female & playing sports at the level you are referencing would probably have to work harder, like we do in mid-life, to maintain any early muscular development, which might negate any perceived "advantages."
Thanks for sharing all of the FL legislation! I checked and Illinois has no current legislation. We live a stones throw from Missouri, though, and I'm watching in horror as they are getting ready to pass some disgusting legislation. One of the things they are doing is going after the children's hospital in St. Louis that provides transgender care- the exact same center that my nephew is going to for treatment (even though he lives in IL). I'm so angry and appalled. What are your thoughts on how to get involved in legislation in states that we don't live in?
I appreciate you pointing out that we're told that we're not smart enough to discuss this. I can't tell you how many times my own brother has called my intelligence into question when I "step out of line" and discuss politics. Ugh. It makes me furious. (LOL- I went to a public meeting about a local solar panel farm and the old man who I was sitting next to told me "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you understand this only as much as you're able." WOW. Fuck you, dude. So I guess this a pretty common technique.)
I saw your note about having to constantly update this article, so I'm sure this was ready to go before CPAC this past weekend. But did you see Michael Knowles was speaking and said: “For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”? Using the term "eradicated" was at best an irresponsible choice of words and at worst it's a dog whistle call to action.
Kelsey, you could join a get-out-the-vote postcard-writing campaign and send postcards to non-voting, or infrequently voting people in MO, urging them to vote.
How did you respond to the "as much as you're able" old man? We need ready responses to comments like that.
Great idea!
Honestly- I didn't have a great response. I was so taken aback by the comment. I think I stumbled over something like "I understand this thoroughly." I feel like I should have been able to justify my intelligence in a snarky quip, but at the end of the day, I don't feel like I should have to justify my intelligence either. Ugh. I absolutely HATE it when my intelligence is insulted. I'm probably being flooded by past traumas from the proverbial "pats on the head" given to girls when we "get worked up."
Kelsey, thanks for doing the One Small Thing & extending it to next state over! I agree w/ Jen, that one way is to get involved in postcard campaigns to help inform/sway MO voters. Another option is to find the transgender rights orgs working in MO and/or find out who the Reps/Senators are in MO fighting these laws & support them w/ donations. I'll try to look into other options as well.
I hope to return to the "not smart enough" thing in the future. There's more to say about that & it infuriates me. I am so sorry to hear that your brother & some old man speak to you that way.
And finally, yes, sadly, I did see Michael Knowles calling for genocide. I didn't want to add the C-CRAP (did that on purpose) layer into this note, but yeah, horrifying. Again, it is fascism & we have to name it what it is.
Great idea! I found an organization supporting transgender youths and fighting against legislation and sent them a donation.
I really hope you come back to the "not smart enough" topic. I get so flooded when someone makes me feel stupid for bringing up politics. I'm realizing it's a tactic that's been used against me (and likely every girl) my whole life. Society is very uncomfortable with angry/upset women and that conditioning starts with telling young girls to calm down, be polite, and "smile."
Society realllllly wants women not to be angry. It has taken a lot for me to unlearn it & drop "the act" I'm expected to play, but I still handle it better in my public writing than in my public interactions. The flooding makes me stumble too.
While I acknowledge these many proposed legislations in Florida are inappropriate and indeed fascist, the topic, the transexual issue, I think is a manipulated and inserted matter. If we truly are concerned about overt fascism, we cannot ignore media ownership and manipulation, the actual media control of the issues we are directed to react to, to be emotionally provoked by. You are posting on issues that have been brought forward by those with an agenda, those who want the leftists and progressives to get emotionally involved with smaller topics than the near-complete media propaganda control and the near-constant war agenda. The fascist goal is total submission, and when we are directed to hate a lower level enemy, we tend to ignore the larger threat, the actual controllers of our perceived reality.
Not that I am more correct than you, but in my opinion, I sense the real danger to the USA is the "divide and conquer" plan of the fascist controller system. As they continue to bring forward the topics that make people react emotionally, they force an ordinary citizen to identify other ordinary citizens as their enemy. The more we emotionally and viscerally identify with an issue that hurts our loved ones, our pet topic, our sense of righteous justice, then the more we are in the control of those who want to move us in the direction of their choosing.
To go to the topic where we were first acquainted, I am fearful of the push to make us stop eating meat. Farming and land use are under attack, and it is pervasive, dangerous to our health, and almost completely under the radar. As we worry about trans rights, abortion rights, gun rights, critical race theory, we are hugely distracted from the fascist plan to literally control our food, and to make it less and less nutritious, less and less available. The air we breathe is full of pulverized aluminum, the water we drink is no where safe to drink without treatment, the health system is literally creating illness, and the fascists want us to be mad at others who are just reacting to some personal hurt. It is not wrong to want to protect some minority group, but everyone in every group is literally under attack and I think it is valuable to swirl up another level. The beaver tail whack is heard by everyone, everything in the area, not just the beavers. If it is dangerous for the beaver, it is likely dangerous for others.
Thanks, Connie. I need to chew on this (like a beaver?). I agree that control of media and the use of media to manipulate culture wars is a root problem.
Does this take us back to defining and regulating what can be called "news"? And holding people accountable for their actions?
Jen, this is a good point.
Hey Connie, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree about the media propaganda. I think we have to carefully evaluate whether or not the issues we are angry over are being manipulated by the media or legitimate issues. I do think the transgender issue (btw, just to help you update terms, transsexual is an outdated term that can hurt transgender people we care about) rises to the level of something for us to focus on, because they are a small, vulnerable community & the targeting of them is very overt at this point, to the point of speakers using genocidal language about them last weekend at CPAC in DC. Similar failures to pay attention to the "lower level" groups being first overly threatened is how we ended up w/ the Holocaust.
Your point about "divide & conquer" is actually even more reason to stand firmly w/ other groups who are targeted w/ legislation or violence. We are stronger together. The only thing you need to identify against is targeting minority groups.
As to your fears around the food system, I also agree, however, I think this may be a logical fallacy called "whataboutism," when actually there is an intersectionality of threat here. The most vulnerable are the priority & then we move on to those of us who are currently less vulnerable.
These issues are inter-related, we each have a role to play & pulling on any of these threads will help take the system down.
Hey Connie! I also believe in food security and nutritious food (I'm a regenerative beef farmer and met Angie in my NTP class). I get where you're coming from. Until a few years ago, I saw social issues as a distraction from what I viewed as true health threats. I also believed that those at the top were trying to divide the rest of us and create arguments amongst ourselves so we don't focus on their actions (to be totally fair- I still believe this but in a slightly different context).
All of that to say- I get where you're coming from.
Being up close and personal with the Wellness Industry for a long time now, I have seen an evolution of a duality or an "either, or" to these issues. Like "bro, if you're not posting about chem trails, are you even a health guru?" Where you pointed out that people who are learning left are getting swallowed up by social justice topics, I have also witnessed my right leaning wellness friends get swallowed up by loss of freedom topics.
When it comes to dividing and conquering, I honestly believe we can say no. We can use a "Yes, And" approach. Yes, I can own firearms to protect my farm And I can demand common sense gun laws. Yes, I can stand for reproductive rights And I can demand clean and safe water. Yes, I can build a sustainable food system And I can support trans people in my community. The work does not cancel each other out.
There doesn't have to be an either/or. We all need to be vigilant about the media we're consuming, who the authors are (big corporations or wellness guru alike), and what their motivations might be. And we can stand with all the issues.
It's those endless "ands." They're distracting and exhausting.
This is well said, Kelsey!
I want my first comment to be "thank you for writing this post as a cis-person!" I've been following your work for awhile, since my AIP days--and I've been thankful to watch you speak about community care + issues and realities to organize around.
I'm a trans person in Indiana & several anti-trans bills have made it through committee & are getting their readings in the House & Senate. I'm also an elementary school teacher, & to watch the censorship continuing to happen is staggering. Speaking up has cost me two teaching jobs within the span of 9 months.
I had the honor to attend several rallies at the statehouse & to hear the courage & resilience of trans teens & their parents, but also the anger & sadness of feeling like political pawns in a system that wants to strip them of bodily autonomy & their right to consent to medical care. It's a very difficult time to be trans in this country.
There's a reason trans youth are the focus of book bans, banning gender affirming care, sports controversies, bathroom bills, etc. It's a political strategy that riles up white mothers in particular. Last thing I will cite if folks are not familiar is the Trevor Project's 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Mental Health. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/. Gender-affirming care is life-saving care.
Thank you, Alyssa. And thank you, Angie.
I'm so sorry about your job losses, Alyssa. I hope you have found a good place. I don't know what I can do to help, but I care.
Alyssa, thank you so much for commenting & sharing so openly. And thank you for all the work you've done for your community, even when it has cost you. I totally agree w/ you on the political strategy. Thanks for mentioning the Trevor Project!
Thank you for sharing your story, Alyssa.
I checked out the link you shared and learned a lot. Thank you for posting it!
Wow, what a well researched neighbor note! Florida…wow, that is a lot of terrible legislation.
Slap! Posted and shared the info you shared about ACLU and checked on legislation in Michigan. 1 bill just introduced…. I am pretty sure in response to some positive legislation that was just signed here. I am tracking it!
Thank you for doing the One Small Thing, Beth!
Slap!
Thank you Melanie!!
The legislation is staggering and heartbreaking! I spent part of Sat. reading over some of it on the ACLU’s site. Thank you for including that as one small thing - awareness leading to action!
I am not afraid of the word fascism. I believe we really must face what is unfolding before us. And it’s going to take pushing through the idea (we’re trained to swallow) that “it can’t happen here.” The fact is IT IS happening; and we (together) have to ensure that it stops.
Emelda, thanks for doing the One Small Thing. And, for bringing up the "it can't happen here" idea that we've all been taught. That is a severe and profound stumbling block for many people on both sides of the political spectrum. I think some of the Right don't believe it will get that bad, so they go along w/ the inciting rhetoric, while some of the Left don't believe it will get that bad, so they don't organize like our lives depend on it.
Came across this article from the BBC today. It's about World Athletics banning transgender women from competing in world-ranking events. The issue concerning the banners is the level of testosterone in people who have gone through male puberty, but it also touches on women with naturally elevated testosterone levels.
I don't know what the "right" thing to do is.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/65051900
Jen, I appreciate you sharing this. I think Schuyler Bailar's social media, workshops, & writing might be helpful as you consider this topic: https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/24/banning-trans-athletes-schuyler-bailar/
You can find also find him & all his social media accounts here: https://www.pinkmantaray.com/