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Lee Mandelo

@leemandelo.bsky.social

3.6K followers 550 following 1.1K posts

phd in gender studies - writer of books (gay southern gothic Summer Sons + t4t appalachian historical The Woods All Black + anthology Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity)- he/him

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Lee Mandelo @leemandelo.bsky.social · Mar 22

I hear it’s Trans Rights Readathon week, yeah? Here’s a few options from me, including Summer Sons and The Woods All Black—plus the forthcoming Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity!

Also, for those so inclined: new leather boots 😘🥴

Three books (Amplitudes, Summer Sons, The Woods All Black) in a row on tile with a brick background, framed between two black matte leather motorcycle boots with some Levi’s showing too

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 19h

"We expect veto power over the free exercise of the franchise by those we swore to serve and protect."

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”

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Andrew Blum @ablum.bsky.social · 21h

We had Angela Davis speak at my university a couple of years back. One of the many insightful things she said - protest in the way that aligns with your passion. If that’s poetry do poetry or music etc. Because then you will be able to sustain it. If naked bike rides are your passion, 100% do that.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 21h

Someone in my mentions is upset because these people haven’t suffered the worst at ICE’s hands and therefore they shouldn’t be praised for being out on the streets?

Yeah, no. To push back on these people we need everyone — especially those with relative privilege — to get up and get involved.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Portland, you magnificent weirdos

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Alex Wakeman Rouse @awakerouse.bsky.social · 1d

This is a really important thread for everyone who calls themselves a progressive. We need to challenge the narratives we’ve been told about safety and danger.

alec karakatsanis @equalityalec.bsky.social · 1d

THREAD. Did you know that at about 1/3 of all stranger homicides in the U.S. are perpetrated by police? But there's something hidden here that is important to understand in this authoritarian moment.

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R.S.A. Garcia (BUY THE NIGHTWARD) @rsagarcia.bsky.social · 1d

Unpopular opinion: Billionaires are pyramid schemes foisted on the public by disconnected from reality, growth obsessed stock markets, VCs & 1%ers.

Nobody's business is worth more than the land value of the planet. But they can scam real fortunes out of govs etc if they claim that. That's the goal.

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good hyuck, babe! @markpopham.bsky.social · 1d

I truly believe a big reason why Democrats are failing to appropriately respond to the moment is a pathological refusal to admit that there were aspects of the American status quo pre trump that were extremely fucked up and unjust

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good hyuck, babe! @markpopham.bsky.social · 1d

All we can say is "this shouldn't be happening!!!" - but we can't really say WHY, because almost no-one is brave enough to say "the status quo for undocumented immigrants was exploitative. our immigration system is unjust and non-functional, and these people should have legal protection"

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Lee Mandelo @leemandelo.bsky.social · 23h

I had a great time at the Southern Gothic Festival yesterday — and signed one copy of The Woods All Black in the F terminal of the Atlanta airport for some lucky traveler who finds it first!

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Bailey McCann @baileymcc.bsky.social · 23h

One thing that would probably be more helpful is to make CBS totally irrelevant which means not sharing the constant stream of ragebait and disinformation they’re going to post

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 1d

The Department of Education reportedly fired nearly everyone in the office that focuses on the nation’s children with disabilities in a wave of new layoffs

Special education staff decimated after Trump administration shutdown firings: Sources

The nation’s special education services have been significantly damaged after Fridays’s mass layoffs within the Department of Education, sources told ABC News.

abcnews.go.com

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, hello

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

I interviewed one of these factory workers in Los Angeles. She gets paid three cents to sew a zipper, five cents for a collar, and seven cents to prepare the top part of a skirt.

This is how fast fashion brands like Fashion Nova can put "Made in USA" tags on dress shirts that retail for only $25

"Every day at 6 am, Bilma boards a bus that shuttles her to downtown Los Angeles’s Fashion District. When she reaches the garment factory an hour later, she starts working immediately, without punching in. Like thousands of other garment workers in the United States, Bilma’s wages aren’t tethered to the clock but rather to the quantity of operations she executes. Three cents for a zipper or sleeve, five cents for a collar, and seven cents to prepare the top part of a skirt before she passes it onto the next sewing operator in line. Assembling an entire dress earns her a mere 15 cents. Bilma toils away on garments primarily for fast-fashion labels such as Fashion Nova, Lulus, and Lucy in the Sky, who prioritize quickly stocking on-trend items over the quality of materials. These companies peddle things like $80 maxi dresses, $25 poplin dress shirts, and $5 crop tops, all modeled by beautiful people and bedecked with the tantalizing promise of low-cost glamor."

"This worker payment system, known as “piecework” in the garment industry, is how US-based manufacturers can sidestep labor laws that require companies to pay at least the minimum wage. Rather than compensating Bilma for the exhausting 12-hour shifts—a regimen that, according to LA County’s minimum wage requirement, should yield $202.80—her pay is determined by the individual tasks she performs, which can fluctuate daily. Despite her adept handling of hundreds of garments a day, Bilma’s earnings typically linger around $50 per day. That’s $300 weekly for the standard six-day grind and $350 if she opts for Sunday labor. Doing what she can with this modest income, Bilma spends $400 a month to live in a two-bedroom apartment with six other people, some of whom are day laborers. In this crowded arrangement, two occupants squeeze into each bedroom, while two more lay claim to the living room. Bilma sleeps in the corner of the bustling kitchen."

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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 1d

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

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A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 1d

For my piece today at @zeteo.com i wanted to truly underscore how punishingly stupid american fascism is now. Like, my original proposed headline for this was:

Our Democracy Is Imperiled Because One Old Man Won’t Stop ‘Yelling’ At His TV. zeteo.com/p/trump-addi...

Trump’s Addiction to Watching Fox Is Killing American Democracy

Our country is falling apart because one old man, Trump advisers and former administration officials say, won’t stop ‘yelling’ at his TV.

zeteo.com

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Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 1d

This has been *confirmed*: so not only did this make it through dozens of levels of decisions where no one spoke up to say "this is unethical and looks like shit", it's also so bad it was instantly spotted by thousands of people like me who in a split second said "hey that looks like shit".

Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 1d

Someone tell me Disney didn't just use a bunch of fucking AI slop for the new Wonder Man show

Wonder Man screenshot featuring merchandise which appears to be decorated with AI slop.

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victoria scott @victoriascott.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician even attempt to know this much about my people’s history or art or culture or struggle, and I’ve certainly never seen someone advocate for protecting us so fiercely at this level, ever. God I truly hope he wins.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Lee Mandelo @leemandelo.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you!!

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RavenNemain @ravennemain.bsky.social · 2d

@leemandelo.bsky.social has a special ability to absolutely ruin me. Summer Sons is different from The Woods All Black, but equally brilliant and gripping. Grief, rage, queerness, toxicity, terrible legacies, and found family. Another new favorite southern gothic 🖤

Also, the audio is excellent

The audiobook for Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 2d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2d

The president says there are very few stores left in Portland, Oregon, and the ones that are left are made of plywood.

I know we’re numb to this, but in any other time he’d have been removed by the 25th Amendment by now

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Trump: "Portland, I mean -- every time I look at that place it's burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up."

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rowan kaiser @rowan.monster · 3d

I'd really appreciate if writers these days took a look at their characters doing therapyspeak and whether that's appropriate for their work and their world.

By "therapyspeak" I mean speaking like this: "This is the emotion I'm feeling, and feeling that emotion makes me want to act in a way"

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 2d

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 3d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 3d

Campaigns of symbolic erasure precede campaigns of actual erasure.

The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 4d

Chaya Raichik, better known as Libs of TikTok, was dutifully bemoaning the fact that the city of Houston repainted a Montrose neighborhood crosswalk decked on in LGBTQ+ rainbow colors. Raichik wrote that the crosswalk “must be removed immediately.”

And our governor dutifully complied.

Cool! It Really Looks Like Greg Abbott is Taking Orders From Libs of TikTok

Acting on the orders of notorious cesspool Libs Of TikTok, the governor bravely stands up to the menace of decorative asphalt.

thebarbedwire.com

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David Demchuk 👻 (he/him) 📚 @daviddemchuk.com · 3d

Overseas friends! Waterstones is offering 25% off online pre-orders of the paperback edition of The Butcher’s Daughter for a limited time starting on Tuesday. check out the tasty promo image for more information, including the handy discount code.

The image with the cover of the Titan books edition of The Butcher’s Daughter indicates that Waterstones is offering 25% off on upcoming books: pre-order now with code OCTOBER25 - October 14-17, online only, selected lines only, T&Cs available on waterstones.com

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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 3d

Troubled by how many imagine Machado is a great hero because she's not Trump. She's a hard right former coup sympathizer who calls for military intervention & destruction of socialism. Her opponent, Maduro, is an awful dictator. That doesn't make her a dream, anymore than not being named "Trump."

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🎂 Sydney Screams 🎉 BIRTHDAY MONTH @sydneyscreams4u.bsky.social · 5d

porn is not evil.
sex is not evil.
pleasure is not evil.
kink is not evil.

none of them are things to feel shame or embarrassment about.

none of them deserve the heavy-handed censorship that they're facing.

resist oppression (even if you don't partake in what is being oppressed)

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