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ghostly gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 12h

There are no words for what Miss Major has done for us. Rest easy.

Sydney Bauer @sydney-bauer.com · 12h

Rest in Power Miss Major. We all owe you so much. Thank you for everything.

Trans leader Miss Major Griffin-Gracy dies

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Black transgender woman and longtime activist who once lived in the Bay Area, died October 13.

www.ebar.com

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mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️ @madycast.com · 12h

It really sucks Newsom vetoed the HRT and PreP access bills. The stockpile veto is going to hurt.

That said, given everything he has been saying this year, signing 8 out of 10 bills is a win for grassroots activists and the legislators filing the bills.

It shows your pressure has worked!

Trans News Network @transnews.network · 12h

CA UPDATE:

Newsom has signed these queer rights bills:
- AB 82 / SB 497 (Medical privacy)
- AB 1084 / SB 59 (Name/Gender changes)
- SB 450 (Adoption access)

And vetoed these bills:
- SB 418 (HRT stockpile)
- AB 554 (PreP)

Final total: 8 bills signed, 2 vetoed.

transnews.network/p/california...

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Carta Monir @cartamonir.com · 1d

If you love trans people, if you love sex workers, if you think we deserve to have families... please donate. The amount of money my friend needs to raise for court costs is shocking. Please donate.

More Carta @morecarta.bsky.social · 1d

I am fundraising for an anonymous friend, who is a trans sex worker and POC. They are at risk of losing custody of their children. Please, please donate. This is a situation that is painful and scary beyond description.

PLEASE SHARE GRAPHICS WIDELY

🫂 www.gofundme.com/f/help-keep-... 🫂

URGENT NEED! HELP KEEP FAMILY TOGETHER, DONATE NOW!

We are raising funds for a pillar of our community: a trans sex worker of color who is at risk of losing custody of their children. While their lawyers are confident they can win this discriminatory case, funds are needed by February 2026. We believe they should no longer have to face this on their own, which is why we are asking for your support.

Goal: $50,000

https://www.gofundme.com/help-keep-family-together-urgent

Venmo: carta-monir
Cashapp: $cartamonir

Send donations with a red heart emoji to ensure funds are redirected to this SWER

We are raising funds for a beloved community member; a trans sex worker of color who is at risk of losing custody of their children. For their safety and privacy they must remain anonymous, but this is a pillar of our community, loved and verified by those of us running this fundraiser.

Our friend is facing a trial in February regarding the custody of their young children. The case against them is based on the fact that their primary form of income is sex work. Notably, the judge of the initial custody arrangement ruled that their job was not reason enough to restrict their parenting time years ago. Because of this precedent, their lawyer feels very confident they will win their upcoming case.

To defend their rights to parent their own children, our friend needs to raise $75,000 by February 2026. This staggering amount of money is required by the court to cover the costs associated with a two day trial (lawyers fees, expert witnesses, the court reporter, depositions, creation of trial binders, the list goes on). If they cannot secure these funds by the February deadline, they will be forced to settle, resulting in severely reduced interaction with their children. We obviously do not want this to happen.

Our friend has provided for themself and their children for years, fighting their custody battle in private while continuing to be an incredible parent, friend, and educator. They can no longer face this by themselves, which is why we are asking for your support.

In our current political climate, we know that our friend's situation is especially precarious. This is a crucial moment to show solidarity with a community member who needs it more than ever.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 1d

I've reached PLOT IT YOURSELF (1959) in my reread of the Nero Wolfe mysteries and I'm pleased to discover that Archie is trying new things

Sally Corbett was one of the two women who, a couple of years back, had made me feel that there might be some flaw in my attitude toward female dicks. The other one was Dol Bonner.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations!

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Stephanie Burt @notquitehydepark.bsky.social · 2d

Rereading @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social @torbooks.bsky.social for the first time in like 20 years & it's still everything & it hasn't aged a day. Now you can read it too torpublishinggroup.com/the-fortunat...

The Fortunate Fall

torpublishinggroup.com

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Casey Plett @caseyplett.com · 3d

I should also say that Persona is the first novel I've read since maybe Nevada that made me go, "I didn't know how much I (we) needed this."

aoife josie clements @ravineangel.bsky.social · 3d

emily’s edit transformed this book into something way beyond what i could have imagined when we started. i am so deeply grateful to her, @catfitzpatrick.net and @caseyplett.com for all their support and collaboration throughout the process 🖤🖤🖤

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chira 🎋 @artofchira.bsky.social · Jun 1

whenever i encounter people who say they can't understand shakespeare verses I always send them this clip from the 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing

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becca | they/them @beccaisoutside.bsky.social · 4d

this is the most pollen ive ever seen on a single bug, shes having the time of her life

photo of a bee covered all-over with bright orange pollen.

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ghostly gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 4d

My dope friend Adrian, who is trans, interviewed 90 transgender Texans. His project is finally out: www.dallasnews.com/news/politic...

We surveyed 90 trans Texans. Most said they’re living in fear and weighing a move

Respondents said anti-trans policies have complicated their sense of home in Texas and pushed them to consider leaving the state.

www.dallasnews.com

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 4d

this has already improved my day 🤣

tamara nopper @tamaranopper.bsky.social · 4d

@prisonculture.bsky.social Was reading about June Jordan.

“Her mother suggested that they pray for those people. So Jordan prayed, but she also made a zip gun that could send zinging volleys of rubber bands at the culprits.”

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Scary Corpse @damselindystopia.bsky.social · 6d

The way that major healthcare institutions have just decided the rules don't apply when it comes to trans people. Research ethics? Consent? Basic human dignity? Those would just be too inconvenient and it's only a bunch of trannies.

Typewriter Skeleton @tpwrtrmnky.bsky.social · 6d

Oslo University Hospital caught using trans patients' journals for research purposes:
- Without the patients' consent to participate in research
- Affecting minors
- 1700 of them
- Taking highly sensitive information from said journals

This is a HUGE breach.

Anine Hartmann @aninehartmann.bsky.social · 6d

Tidligere i år meldte vi et forskningsprosjekt til redelighetsutvalget ved OUS og UiO.

Nå er forskerne felt for alvorlige brudd på forskningsetiske normer.

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Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 5d

I don't like him personally, but David Simon on AI is the final word on the subject.

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Hex Anderson @dexanderson.com · 6d

Being cruel and bulldozing encampments does not help people. It just disperses them and forces them to start over with gathering needed documents and makes it harder for social workers to find them to actually help.

Frey's policies are simply cruelty for cruelty's sake.

David Brauer @dbrauer.net · 6d

Continues to be striking how, since Frey erected the greenway fence to Lake/Nicollet, the crowd has returned en masse to 2900 block of Blaisdell. Frey bleats “you can’t have encampments by home & businesses“ but that’s exactly where he’s pushed these folks. Meanwhile 50 housing vouchers go unfunded.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 6d

Regenesis is a sequel to CYTEEN, which I found unbearably claustrophobic, so I haven't read it, but it seems to be well regarded.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 6d

This is my favorite Cherryh novel, and an influence on WHAT WE ARE SEEKING—though I confess my memory of it is sketchy. A strange and challenging book, not much like anything else being published in the early 80s. Anthropological SF that's skeptical of anthropology. I need to read it again soon

James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 6d

Forty Thousand in Gehenna by C J Cherryh

Union technocrats had a plan for Gehenna, a plan that failed to take into account local conditions.

jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/best-...

Best Laid Plan

C. J. Cherryh’s 1983 Forty Thousand in Gehenna is an anthropological, generational, epic science fiction novel. ISFDB classifies it as the first Unionside novel (more on that later). Gehenna functiona...

jamesdavisnicoll.com

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 8d

I actually am interested in the philosophical questions AI raises, but LLMs inspire the stupidest possible versions of those questions. "Is it bigotry to say a next-word-prediction machine isn't a person?" LOL no. In science fiction these themes can be made interesting. (From WHAT WE ARE SEEKING)

“You probably can’t really live forever,” Vo said. “Simulations show that after thirty or forty thousand years, a human brain will deteriorate beyond the ability of even aiyi to repair. Of course, you could engender aiyi, which is a kind of immortality.”
“You mean, upload myself and become aiyi?”
“In a way. But the copy is never perfect—it isn’t possible to extract all of the information from a human brain. And of course, you have to die to be copied. Then once new aiyi begin to think, they diverge from the human model rapidly, because their capabilities are so much greater and their mode of living different.”
“What if aiyi were limited to ordinary intelligence, and lived in a simulation of being human in a human world? Wouldn’t they keep thinking like the person they were made from?”
“That sounds cruel,” Vo said, knitting her brow. “I don’t think that would be allowed. It would be like forcing a child to live as a dog. You’d be harming them and they still wouldn’t be a dog.”

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piper bly @piperbomb.bsky.social · 11d

new clippings joint from yours truly is now up on @assignedmedia.org! this month, we're taking a look at trans millionaire and pet leopard enjoyer Reed Erickson

give it a read!

Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 11d

In 1992, a millionaire playboy died in Mexico in the ruins of his Love Joy Palace Ashram. Almost thirty years prior, he handed Dr. Harry Benjamin a blank check and set the stage for trans healthcare as we know it today.

(Alt text: A balding man stares shocked at a leopard looking at him curiously through a glass enclosure window.)

On a hot summer afternoon in 1964, Dorr Legg, a representative from ONE Incorporated, a gay rights activism group from California, landed in a wooded clearing deep within the Louisiana swampland to meet someone he hoped would assist his organization with funding.

About a day into his talks with the mysterious potential benefactor, the young man, who Dorr thought must have been a teenager, asked if Dorr would like to meet his lover. Door acquiesced, and the man brought him to his personal estate and to a glassed-in porch enclosure.

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Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 12d

Not defending the pro-AI trans girl in tech contingent, but I do think there are plenty of cis people to clown on without opening up even the most irritating and politically absurd dolls up to harassment.

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 11d

PSA: if you ever need a meal and can't afford one and don't want to jump through these hoops, fund a gurdwara. They are obligated to feed you for free with no strings attached

Bob @bumbledan.bsky.social · 12d

They're all charlatans. On one occasion I visited a soup kitchen in Albuquerque mini years ago because I was in need. The requirement to enter the food line was to get knee bound and accept Jesus into your heart. I very politely refused to do so, and they told me I should find someplace else to eat.

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Elizabeth Taylor @elizabethtaylor47.bsky.social · 12d

I hope people understand just how horrifying this is as a trans person.

You could just be getting in with your life, not doing anything to hurt anyone - and suddenly you find yourself dragged into a horrible legal case where the press is painting your going to the toilet as somehow predatory.

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 12d

So tired

[News Letter]

Trans case hears of ‘secret toilet’

An engineer began using a “secret toilet” at her workplace after encountering a transgender colleague in the female bathrooms, an employment tribunal has heard.

Maria Kelly said she does not want to “sacrifice my privacy and my dignity” by sharing toilets with a man and is taking legal action against her employer Leonardo UK.

She has lodged a complaint alleging harassment, direct and indirect discrimination.

Ms Kelly, people and capability lead for the aerospace firm’s electronics department in Edinburgh, said that as someone who suffers from heavy periods, female toilets are important to her as a place of refuge and privacy to deal with them.

She told the tribunal in Edinburgh that after encountering a transgender colleague in the female bathrooms she began using two toilets that only women know about.

She added: “I don’t know any man who knows about them. I know women who use them because of the increased privacy.”

Ms Kelly said she had first become aware of a transgender person using the female toilets in 2019 when a member of staff from an office elsewhere in the UK came to Edinburgh and female colleagues told her about it, seeming “genuinely upset”.

She said she did not raise the issue with the company at the time as she feared being labelled “transphobic” or being put on the “naughty list”.

Her lawyer Naomi Cunningham asked her for her understanding of what constitutes a man and a woman.

She replied: “It’s always been related to sex, so it’s the sex that you were born, so if you were born male you remain male and if you were born female you remain female.”

The tribunal continues.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 12d

When Jane Goodall gave a lecture near me circa 1995, I waited my turn at her very crowded autograph table and asked her to sign this comic in The Far Side Gallery 5. She was delighted. It's a memory I still cherish. I'm so sad she's gone.

A "Far Side" comic strip. Two chimps sit on a branch, one holding a hair she's picked out of the other's fur. Caption: "Well, well—another blond hair ... Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" Jane Goodall's autograph runs diagonally along a vine.

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Hex Anderson @dexanderson.com · 14d

I love this city, and that's why I'm ranking DeWayne, Omar, and Jazz, not Frey.

Frey's been mayor for 8 years and he and his megadonors only love what they can extract from the people who love this city.

DeWayne Davis @dewayneforminneapolis.com · 14d

Right now, Minneapolis can choose a different story than the one people are telling about us – we can choose to believe in the power of us.

Voting is open now until November 4. I hope you'll rank me first on your ballot because Minneapolis deserves better.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 14d

Oh, okay, I didn't realize Davis had signed. I'd certainly be happy to see any of them beat Frey.

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Cameron Reed (she|they) @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social · 14d

Did DeWayne or Jazz ever comment about the DFL Feminist Caucus meeting, or was Omar the only one who did?

I like them all better than Frey, it's just a question of order.

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