End your Week with some Good Queer News!
Happy Friday, lovely people! I am slowly but surely coming out of my post-pride hermit cave. This pride month was fantastically full of about 35 events, which was both incredibly wonderful and deeply exhausting.
I’ve been spending the beginning of July checking in with myself, figuring out how to start recovering my energy and setting up some new boundaries so I don’t stretch quite so far past empty again.
While the official announcement is still pending a finished contract, this summer is going to be spent largely focusing on hitting the deadline for my next book!! I’m attempting to put together a modified “sabbatical” to allow me to prioritize writing and re-building my dwindling energy reserves.
I’m figuring out what, exactly, my publishing schedule will be for Good Queer News during that time. I’d like to still be publishing somewhat regularly, but tbd what exactly that will look like. We’ll figure it out together!
Just because I haven’t had the time to sit and write about it doesn’t mean good news isn’t happening constantly! Let’s get into it!
Onto the Good Stuff!
In the courts:
Florida has been blocked from enforcing the 2022 Stop WOKE act, which will protect the free speech rights of university professors and students!
Yet another federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to subpoena the medical records of trans youth who received gender affirming care!
A group of professors, along with Lambda Legal, are suing Texas Tech University over their outrageous curriculum censorship policies
The elephant in the room on court rulings is, of course, the awful BPJ ruling on trans athletes. The ruling does not enact new bans in any states without sports bans, but it does allow existing sports bans to continue. I have found this piece by Sebastian Barr to be a gentle bolster as I react to this painful, but expected, ruling.
In the statehouses:
New Jersey is the latest blue state to pass a shield law protecting the healthcare and privacy of patients and providers of gender affirming care and reproductive healthcare.
Illinois has passed additional robust protections for trans and queer residents, and they continue to lead the charge in showing what creative ways blue states can defend their people. Hell yeah midwest!
State legislative sessions continue to end, giving advocates room to breathe. Hundreds of proposed bills are left dead on the floor, and our total number of bills passed nationally is far lower than it’s been in previous years. The goal is zero bad bills, but I’m proud that our skills and manpower for fighting back just keep getting better and better.
Gavin Newsom has finally signed the proposed California budget that includes $26 million dollars for protecting transgender healthcare! There is also a $30 million dollar line to protect access to reproductive healthcare. This is in large part due to extensive lobbying efforts from trans rights orgs on the ground like trans family support services!
And don’t forget: I’m not the only source of good news out there! For a more robust “stack” of hope-forward news, check out:
Trans news that doesn’t suck (and the page KB is partnering with for this article, called “Amplifying Trans Joy”!!!)
Jess Craven, who posts short daily actions you can take to make a difference plus a weekly Sunday roundup of wins all over the country
Run for Something, an organization helping recruit and elect young progressives in local races, has a weekly “Feel Good Update” with their most hopeful wins!
Good Climate News, which is exactly what it sounds like!
Of course all time reigning hope-champs: Good, Good, Good who have a daily newsletter of good news stories as well as a monthly physical good newspaper with reasons to be hopeful! I cannot recommend them enough.
Okay, keeping things short and sweet today. Do you have any hopeful stories from pride month that are getting you excited? I am always eager to hear about what’s happening (the more locally the better!) in your world.
Keep looking for the joy, folks. It’s always out there!
Thank you! I always look forward to your posts.