The last 2 years were both busy at work and at home. Insane. Thankfully, I’m home, basically retired, and thankful for that. With the advent of COVID-19, our country has been irrecovably challenged and changed. If and when we have an effective treatment, we will be unable to return to December 2019. We can ONLY go forward into our “new normal.”

So, I’m going to strive to be a more consistent writer now that I do not have endless challenges (flaming chainsaws) to address.

The world has irrevocably changed.

In about two weeks I will be stepping down from my administrative role at Rutgers. It’s been informative, and I’ve loved working with students. But the extra hours and particularly the summer work chewed into my research schedule. I have also been slacking on family obligations. So, I will be moving back to regular faculty. This should give me a bit more time to post on my research, as well as contemporary US politics.

Good thing there’s not been much going on there (SNARK!).

On early Saturday, April 14, 2018, David Buckel, a long-time litigator for civil rights and environmentalist, set fire to himself in Prospect Park. He left a note saying his death was a political act to protest the world’s use of fossil fuels.

I had long admired Mr. Buckel’s work as a litigator: From Bradon Tenna’s heirs, to Jamie Nabozny, to marriage equity in Iowa and New Jersey, he constantly worked to make queer people recognizable under the law. He did heroic work, critical work, and both my personal and professional lives are far better for it.

And yet….. I remain appalled that he thought suicide would be a stronger political act than litigation. Especially during a time of conservative assault, when a whole slew of people would happily dance upon our queer graves, suicide seems unthinkable. Perhaps I have been working too long in the field of queer politics, but the last thing I want is to do want the Mike Pence’s of this world want: for queers to vanish, i.e., to die. Our very lives prove that the homophobes are lying.

I remain profoundly sad and deeply angry for David Buckle’s passing.

It’s been a long year, with lots of adventures in adjusting to a new work assignment and a crazed presidential administration (which has had me scribbling away). The work assignment is drawing to a close, so I plan to start posting more regularly. Clearly, queer people, and especially trans people, are deeply hated by the current presidential administration.

And it’s clear that our cult of gun ownership is FINALLY being seriously questioned. So, for as scary and brutal as things are at the moment, I am cautiously optimistic.

Stay tuned….

Finally, Tim Curely and Gary Schultz, the disgraced former Athletic Director and Vice President pled guilty yesterday to the charge of child endangerment. Originally, they were also charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. The plea deal, where they copped to misdemeanor charges, probably means they will not serve ANY jail time–though they could be sentenced to at least 5 years.

But, let’s get real. It’s Penn State football and these guys are white elites. And even though their lack of action meant that poor young boys were raped, these guys aren’t going to jail. Heck, Curley and Schultz aren’t even convicted felons, so they’ll keep their public pensions and any professional licenses.

We’re getting a loooooong lesson on just how is held accountable when those in-charge engage in long-standing felonious behavior. Not.at.all, in the end.

 

Yesterday, the Trump administration reversed an Obama administration’s “guidance” concerning the rights of trans students attending public institutions. Under the Obama’s administration reading of Title IX, trans students were to be permitted to use the bathroom and locker facilities that are congruent with their identity.

Trump just killed all that citing “states’ rights.”

So, using the neo-Confederate reasoning straight out of the White Supremacist reaction to  desegregation, the Trumpsters are throwing trans kids to the literal wolves.

For those of us who care about social justice for all kids, we’re going to be very busy over the next few years, litigating this at the federal level, but also working at state and local levels to pass trans protections in locales that don’t have them, and to be sure they are enforced where we do (like NJ).

BUT, we also need to throw the “states’ rights” justification back in their faces if the feds start demanding information on our undocumented students, etc. etc. If they believe that states *ARE* sovereign in ed, policy, okay. It should cut across every single domain that touches upon public schools.

Stay tuned……

I apologize for the protracted radio silence, but the Trump administration’s foolishness has been keeping me VERY busy with my day job. Let it suffice that we’re seeing the rage of Nixon combined with the brain of Reagan.

As a country, we’re in deeeeeeep trouble. The resignation of Michael Flynn should NOT be a surprise, since he never should have been in that position anyway. He was totally compromised by the Russians….as is Trump.

We live in VERY interesting times…..

It’s not safe for work, but it *IS* laugh out loud funny, if you’re an out queer. Just sayin!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/11/04/rachel_bloom_elizabeth_banks_and_more_sing_anti_trump_song_video.html

On Saturday night, a violent man came to a queer night club with a weapon of war and slaughtered 49 of my queer sisters and brothers. While I WILL have more to say about all of this, right now I am too shocked to say much except homophobia continues to kill. And now, we have machine guns for the haters to use on us.

 

A dear friend just contacted me. It seems her local PFLAG group, for which she was volunteering on their board, decided that she was too queer to belong. In fact, the non-queer folks running the group are really UNCOMFORTABLE with the adult queers who are also part of the group.

So, she has been asked to leave, indirectly. Of course, this has been done in the typical passive aggressive way: “All of the queer adults who come to PFLAG are broken, damaged, ill people who need help, which PFLAG cannot provide, and which makes them inappropriate for board positions. However, the “generous” non-queers opined that. the adult queer “ can serve as a “cautionary tale” for the straight parents who can see what horrors might befall them if they don’t support their kids.”

Right, the “poor tortured queer” meme rides again. And it was AIMED right at my friend.

Yah know, even well-meaning non-queers, can be absolutely toxic, particularly when they dive head first into “respectability politics.” If they think “obviously queer” people set a bad example, I can well imagine how well they understand, care for, and even love their own kids (NOT!)  There’s a long, long, long, LONG way to go before queers are seen as ANYTHING but, “damaged heterosexuals.”

Meh.