Holocaust Remembrance Day, Anti-Trans Legislation, and Charlemagne
Today is the International Day Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day where we remember the many, many victims of the Holocaust. Back in 1945, this is the day that the Auschwitz death camp was liberated.
Disabled people were some of the first victims of the Holocaust. The goal of the Nazi Euthanasia Program, as it was first developed, was to kill people with mental and physical disabilities as they were ‘defective’ and ‘burdens’ to society. As many as 300,000 disabled folks were murdered under this initiative, which also served as a sort of ‘practice run’ for developing the most effective killing weapons for the Final Solution. One thing folks may not know is that Richard Kretschmar, a parent of a disabled child, petitioned Hitler asking to be allowed to murder his own son. This was granted and launched Aktion T4. Initially focused on children, this expanded to cover adults across Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and likely elsewhere.
Antisemitism is at an all-time high, meaning it’s even more important than ever for us to honor and listen to the experiences of Holocaust survivors.
This means acknowledging hate and the stepping stones to fascism when we see it.
Earlier this week, a gunman opened fire in a dance studio in Monterey Park. The studio, located in a majority-Asian neighborhood, was full as it was Lunar New Year weekend. The gunman died due to a self-inflicted gunshot. The hospital that the victims went to was called multiple times by anonymous people stating they would like to ‘finish the job.’ More and more shootings continue to happen, especially racially and hate-crime motivated.
COVID-19
The GOP wants to end the COVID-19 public emergency. There were over 470,000 new infections over the last week nationwide - and that’s just the ones that were reported! Ron DeSantis is proposing a permanent ban on COVID-19 mandates in Florida. President Biden keeps talking about it like it’s either over or he’s helpless to do anything about it. Toilet water from airplanes shows that the air travel restrictions aren’t doing anything (because they’re WAY too lax). STAT news covered what they say ‘experts’ didn’t see coming… except if they had talked to disabled experts, a lot of these things were items we highlighted early on.
Oh, and in another fun note, people are being diagnosed with hypermobility post-COVID infection after studies have shown COVID-19 continues to stick around in the collagen. Please be careful and be mindful of possible COVID-19 risk factors. As someone with hypermobility - the main cause of my chronic pain at this point - you do not want this. It basically requires physical therapy for the rest of your life.
You also don’t want to have to reset your jaw multiple times a day.
Also, I really wish more people were having better risk aware conversations - especially in healthcare.
Speaking of healthcare… A Delaware Superior Court judge temporarily blocked an effort to move state retirees to a Medicare Advantage healthcare plan. Janssen (owned by Johnson & Johnson) has ended their HIV vaccine clinical trial after the vaccine failed. Martin Shkreli tried to get back into pharma and is now in trouble (again). Abbott Labs are under federal investigation for shutting down an infant formula plant, which just exacerbated the formula shortage crisis.
The omnibus federal spending bill President Biden signed at the end of 2022 includes language to establish an Office of Autoimmune Disease Research. An initiative of the Autoimmune Association, Let My Doctors Decide, created a new scorecard to assess how much insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers restrict access to medications for patients living with some of the most common autoimmune diseases. A recent study published in Pediatric Rheumatology found that a family history of autoimmune diseases ups the chances of a child developing juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). This should help providers know when to look at possible JIA, since biomarkers aren’t always as prevalent.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued updated guidelines for the treatment of childhood obesity. They’ve added bariatric surgery for teenagers and a number of harmfully restrictive measures to their guidelines. It’s really upsetting.
58 percent of the known 375 human infectious diseases are worsened by one of the 10 types of extreme weather linked to climate change. Finding this is important, but especially in the midst of the Stop Cop City movement.
Atlanta police were in the middle of trying to destroy (with legal blessing) the South River or Weelaunee Forest to create “Cop City,” a place for intense police training. Not only would this erase a large percentage of tree canopy and natural space - a lot of Black families live in the area and would be forced out. Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, a 26-year-old queer environmental activist, joined other protestors to protect the area. Georgia state police shot and killed him during a SWAT operation to clear the protestors’ camp.
This won’t stay an Atlanta-only issue if Cop City is allowed to be built. It will serve as a national training ground, allowing harmful and even illegal tactics to be spread from precinct to precinct - something we do not need more of.
The EPA wants to strengthen air pollution rules, but is it doing enough? Not even close. People are pushing back on that.
Explaining why I am who I am, a CU Boulder and Loyola University study associated childhood trauma to public and civic engagement in adulthood. The same individuals were also much more eco-aware, taking steps to protect the environment. It’s almost like experiencing harm means we have to adapt to focus on how we can change the world for the better. Go figure.
Anti-Trans BS
Pretending like HIPAA doesn't exist, Ron DeSantis is asking state universities for the number and ages of their students who sought or received gender dysphoria treatment, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone prescriptions. He didn’t do what Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did this past summer and request information on people who submitted gender changes with the DMV.
In other anti-trans news, 158 anti-trans laws have been introduced in the first 19 days of this year. It’s gotten worse since then, and is set to be even worse moving forward. Some bills are threatening librarians with jail time if they don’t comply with banning LGBTQ+ books. Indiana is trying to erase LGBTQ+ folks in schools. Mississippi is trying to outlaw trans care for minors. Things there were already difficult, like accessing healthcare in rural areas, are probably going to get even harder. Folks are tracking them here for those interested in learning more. Erin Reed is also tracking them on her Substack:
I’m really worried about how this is affecting LGBTQ+ youth. The Trevor Project ran a recent poll and 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth report that debates around anti-trans bills, specifically, have had negative effects on their mental health. We already know how susceptible this population is to suicide - and that many considered it last year in the wake of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
I’m so grateful, though, that we have people like Laverne Cox who are amazing spokespeople for us:
I’m also very grateful for the colleagues I have doing work to detect and correct misinformation about transgender folks. Heron Greenesmith, a transgender lawyer, recently compiled their list of Annotated Bibliography of Point-by-Point Rebuttals of Anti-Transgender Disinformation.
Let’s shift to some happier news?
Wizards of the Coast, the parent company that owns Dungeons & Dragons, stepped in it hard. Lin Codega covers more here and in an interview with NPR. This is good news because, historically, gaming stuff like this isn’t known outside of the community involved. This time, we might actually see real change with international audiences paying attention.
There’s an anti-trans store here in Athens whose owner just keeps going full TERF - Artifacts. This past weekend, nearly 100 people protested the owner’s transphobia. There is also talk of possible repercussions for her at the city level due to DEIB requirements. I know that people think of more rural states are horrible places for LGBTQ+ folks. Individual cities though are way more progressive than y'all give 'em credit for, and I hope this helps change the way some folks paint all rural areas with the same bigotry brush.
Here are 11 LGBTQ+ movies that the writers at them. are excited to see this year. I know I’m most excited for Strange Way of Life, Rustin, and Knock at the Cabin.
In personal news…
I’ve been writing more poetry recently - not sitting down to focus on it, but just having lines pop into my head randomly. It’s very odd, but fun! Most recently, I wrote about falling out of love and moving on. I wrote another poem about ancestors as well after learning I’m not only related to Philo T. Farnsworth but pivotal characters in the Wars of the Roses, royalty in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and CHARLEMAGNE?!?
I've been sitting with this for the last few days and I just don't know how to process this tbh. It's really weird. My entire life, I have disliked most of my family. To go that far back and see so many well-known names is a paradigm shift for sure.
This helped me also finally purchase something I've wanted for a long time. When the Mormons hit Nauvoo, IL, several of my family members were blacksmiths. This is a horseshoe nail that was made in the forge at their blacksmith shop.
I’ve really been enjoying having this ring as a bit of a fidget tool.
I hope the end of your January is wonderful!
If you have feedback or anything you’d like to share, feel free to reach out to me on social media or by email (all linked here).
Take care of you, lovebug <3
Grayson