Tweet

Sim Kern

Mar 31 • 9 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo

On this #TransDayOfVisibility I have some happy news:

Over the past week, 2,659 content creators from 43 countries participated in the #TransRightsReadathon. We read & made content about trans books, fundraising for >250 different trans-supporting funds & individuals.🧵

Together, we read >7,800 trans books and raised >$234,000 for trans rights!

At least 2 trans authors who had book releases around the readathon saw their books hit bestseller lists. And many, many trans authors reported their best week of sales since their book releases. 2/

The impact of 400+ anti-trans bills goes much farther than the direct harm they do to trans individuals in those states. This climate of hate has a chilling effect across all culture, where every institution & industry may be less likely to support & uplift trans ppl 3/

But the book community this week blasted that chilling effect with fireballs of love!!! Across book-tok, -stagram, -tube, and -twitter, book influencers sent a LOUD message that we demand trans stories! And we made top daily news in Publishers Weekly publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/in…

@realmercurysta1

This campaign initially blew up on t!kt0k, and was inspired by @realmercurysta1's t!kt0k campaign to raise 1 Million dollars for trans healthcare for @pointofpride, also happening on t!kt0k.

secure.givelively.org/donate/point-o…

It is FASCINATING that at the same time the gov't is trying to ban trans people, they're trying to ban the app that is allowing us to organize mutual aid most effectively for our community. 👀👀 Seems like a good story for a journalist to connect those dots. Get @ me.

Finally, I hope this thread reaches outside the book community, because I want to charge YOU, yes, [YOU!!!] What are you going to do to counterract the chilling effect of anti-trans laws in your own niche community? /

Book people are SHOWING. UP. So...what about fitness people? Can y'all do pull-ups for trans rights? Can fiber people knit rows for trans rights? What are teachers doing? What are librarians doing? What are business doing? WHAT THE FK ARE CELEBRITIES DOING? WHERE ARE YOU?!?!

Start something like the #TransRightsReadathon in your community. Ask people to do something they love as a way to fundraise for trans rights. Push back on rising fascism. Whatever you're doing now is what you would've done in Germany in the 1930s. Don't let it be NOTHING.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @sim_kern

Sim Kern

@sim_kern

Mar 20

I encourage leftists to pay attention to the #TransRightsReadathon campaign, even if you’re not a book person. Decentralized organizing, which empowers people to do something that matches their skills & interests in service of a public good, is catching like wildfire 1/

People everywhere are actually pretty desperate to DO something, anything, that makes the world a better place. When we create a way that they can, whilst tapping into what they’re already good at & interested in? That’s clearly powerful. 2/

And I know some leftists will sneer because we’re just reading books & making tiktoks, not marching in the streets, but hey we’re also raising $10,000s if not $100,000s in mutual aid & legal defense funds for trans folk. That’s TANGIBLE AF mutual aid, friends.

Read 5 tweets

Sim Kern

@sim_kern

Mar 19

🔥important🔥 since authors who’ve written books w/trans MCs, but who’ve not disclosed their gender, are being included on lists of trans authors in the #TransRightsReadathon, and this could lead to forced outing, I suggest opening the guidelines to “trans books” generally 1/

So previously my messaging was “let’s read books by trans authors,” but many lists are including books by authors who don’t self-identify as trans, but write trans characters. So if you’re doing that, just say you’re reading “trans books” or “books with trans rep.” 2/

Again, I’m not in charge of this Readathon. I threw out the idea to begin with, but each person is running their own campaign. But for whatever my voice is worth, I’d like to use it to ensure we’re not pressuring anyone to out themselves!

Read 4 tweets

Sim Kern

@sim_kern

Mar 18

Just throwing out that I would love to see more authors participating in the #TransRightsReadathon! Idk if you’re waiting on an invite? Here it is!!! Trans or cis? slow reader? Can’t afford to donate much? It doesn’t matter! All are welcome to join however they’re able!

Because I’m seeing some authors interacting with the hashtag but not throwing their hat in the ring. Maybe you think you’re not allowed bc you’re an author? You’re totally allowed & welcomed!!!

And if you’re a trans author, please feel free to use the hashtag to do book promotion! We are trying to boost your books! Make it easier for us! Make some content and tag it so we can find it!

Read 4 tweets

Sim Kern

@sim_kern

Nov 22, 2022

Last week I made a video thread called “Why do they hate us?”, a brief history of anti-Semitism that went viral on ⏰, and I was overwhelmed by the sheer # of people who commented they had no idea that anti-Semitism goes back millennia or had never heard about Blood Libel🧵

I almost didn’t post the videos because the info seems so obvious to me, but of course that’s because I’m Jewish, and many of us are taught our history through our family. Meanwhile Christians have no clue their history has always been inextricably intertwined w/our genocide. 2/

This erasure is extremely relevant, because Christians justified genociding us for at least the last millennia by accusing us of abducting and harming children—blood libel. They accused Romanies of the same. This has been Christians’ genocidal playbook for 1,000+ years. 3/

Read 13 tweets

Sim Kern

@sim_kern

Oct 28, 2022

My kid is 5. We're a still-masking family. At the beginning of the year, she was one of about 5 kids in her school still masking, so she told me she was going to stop. I said okay. Then she got sick for a month straight. On her own, she decided to start masking again. 1/

Since she started wearing masks again (kn95s), about three weeks ago, she hasn't been sick. So she told me she's going to keep wearing a mask, because she doesn't like being sick. How can a 5yo figure this out but grown-ups really struggle?? Being sick SUCKS?? Like even colds?!?

I'm sure things would've played out differently if she were being bullied for wearing a mask, but we're lucky that the kids in her grade all seem chill with whatever they each want to do.
Again...grownups...struggling with that.

Read 10 tweets

Sim Kern

@sim_kern

Aug 14, 2022

Let’s talk about how the vast majority of white characters written by white authors are super dishonest when it comes to whiteness. A 🧵.

We live in a white supremacist society. Regardless of what they tell you, white people are absolutely aware of their whiteness and their lifetime’s worth of racial biases and understanding of racial power dynamics any time they’re encountering non-white people. HOWEVER… 2/

But most white people were taught it’s wrong to have any thoughts or awareness of race whatsoever. So in a social situation with nonwhite people, there’s one subroutine in their mind running all these racial anxieties, but there’s another subroutine silencing the first. 3/

Read 13 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Share this page!

Sim Kern

People who liked this thread also liked...

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @sim_kern

Sim Kern

Sim Kern

Sim Kern

Sim Kern

Sim Kern

Sim Kern

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Send Email!