The Republican governor of Arkansas said the bill was “overbroad, extreme and does not grandfather young people currently on hormone treatment.”
The framing of Asa Hutchinson's reasoning, and the news media framing of the issues, are surprisingly good arkansasonline.com/news/2021/apr/…
I am so in awe of @chasestrangio. Like many people, I wrote Gov. Hutchinson a long email based on my research why this was a terrible bill, but I really didn't think anyone's calls would mean much. But the unrelenting Chase kept at it, and it did.
Even if it is overridden, this is a major turn in Republican politics—to have a Republican governor not want to stop in process hormone treatments? To acknowledge the harm of street drugs? To not want to interfere w doctors and patients?
A turning point.
So often civil rights wins are narrow or for the wrong reason or the reasoning is a punt. I see this all the time w HIV.
Hutchinson said all the right things & raised important matters—doctor/patient privacy, care for trans young ppl in care, harms from unsupervised care...
...even the mere complexity of gender.
Activists pressed him to up the game significantly.
The level of discourse about trans ppl became more sophisticated, not more debased, bc ppl like @chasestrangio kept at it when all seemed lost.
And now, there is a potent new paradigm for discussion. It wasn’t only forced there by the left (which has been all over the place with trans issues), but created by southern Republican.
Even w a possible override, this creates powerful new space for activists to work in.
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Yes, I do think there is no space in a newspaper for arguing for the murder of a child, and that it's "never to early" to think they are worthy of murder.
CANCELLED. Took less than 3 minutes. When they asked me why, I said a newspaper that argues for why it's OK to murder a child is not getting one more dollar of my money.
A reminder amidst cancel culture hysteria: You are never under any obligation to fund or ingest any media which debases or wants to harm (or kill) you, people who look like you, or marginalized ppl.
My newest column for @sciam: "Global Vaccine Equity Is Much More Important Than ‘Vaccine Passports.’"
It's much more important to vaccinate ppl ACROSS borders quickly than to make it easy for vaccinated ppl TO CROSS borders. scientificamerican.com/article/global…
Filed this before the Trump export clause was reported.
It doesn't change my central arguments. Upholding any kind of IP or sales contract in the face of mass death (with an airborne virus!) is indefensible + borders have been used before Trump—
Switzerland has high taxes, but they go towards matters of dignity and beauty. Housing. Public access to nature. School buildings that look like architectural utopias, not jails. A dignified funeral when you die.
Imagine a society where death isn't a way to extract more money from your corpse and your family!
Switzerland has a part-time air force, it doesn't operate at night. They had a national vote abt buying a single new jet & voted NO bc it would divert resources from schools!
ABOUT TIME. Had a friend who was his assistant. A frustration I’ve had abt reporting on Hollywood abuse is it has almost exclusively focused on sexual harassment, rarely on any other kinds of labor abuse. But when I worked in film/TV (98-2004) so many of our bosses were monsters.
Appreciate the brave ppl speaking on the record. So much of film/TV/theater work, especially when non-unionized, involves horrendous labor practices. Producers prey on ppl’s personal, vulnerable desire to “make it” by launching psychological & physical warfare on their wellbeing.
While workplace sexual harassment is important to cover, a lot of media interest in such stories bc of US discomfort w sex & less abt worker abuse. Worker abuse (in Hollywood & elsewhere) takes many forms, some physically violent (Rudin in this article), some psychological...
I just heard an activist on Democracy Now saying "we'll have their back" in regards to Delta maybe losing fuel tax credits for being against the Georgia voter suppression bill, and I HATE this dynamic. I hate how corporations get activists to protect their tax breaks. Depressing.
Delta should pay fuel tax! Atlanta is one of the most unaffordable cities for housing in America. Jet fuel leads to climate change and asthma, which harm Black Georgians. I wish activists would stop this Devil’s Bargain, where corporations “help” Black voters w trickle down econ!
Activists shouldn’t sell corporate support for Black voting access by giving cover to corporations NOT paying their fair share of taxes (and thereby increasing Black homelessness and asthma in a city like Atlanta!)
Wanna write something abt my privileged work conditions the decade before the pandemic that I want all office workers to have post pandemic:
I have an office.
I go there for mtgs & to work as I want.
If I need to work elsewhere, I do.
All office workers should get this.
Personally, I don’t like working at home at all (pre-pandemic, I never wrote any of my articles or a word of my dissertation where I lived). But I like having flexibility. The pandemic shouldn’t return to “normal.” Office workers should have a desk AND offsite flexibility.
Mostly, I miss working in libraries and can’t wait to return to them