Virtual Class Today (and other things!)
Virtual Class Today
My friend Ren and I are running a FREE virtual training TODAY - 11/30 - from 1-2:30 pm Eastern, courtesy of MATEC WI. This training is focused on covering the basics of sexual orientation and gender identity. While geared towards those in healthcare spaces, all are welcome. Come join us!
Major Tests Next Week
After a decade of living with dysautonomia and a differential diagnosis of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), I’m finally getting formally evaluated with a tilt table test, QSART, and skin biopsy on the 6th at Cleveland Clinic. Cross your fingers for me?
The 20th was Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience, a day to mourn those lost to transphobic violence. Waking up to hear about the shooting at Club Q… it felt like Pulse all over again - only this time, I’ve figured out my gender.
Though I intend on keeping the new format generally speaking, where I’m writing out sentences, I just don’t know what to say about this fully. Here are some links with more information about this shooting and recent violent attacks on the community:
“I Can’t Stop Hearing the Shots,” Mass Shooting at Colorado Gay Club Leaves 5 Dead, 25 Wounded by Natalie
How You Can Help Victims of the Club Q Shooting Right Now by Quispe Lopez
This Right-Wing Activist Somehow Blamed Trans Health Care for the Club Q Shooting by Samantha Riedel
Alleged Club Q Shooter Changed Their Name After Edgelord Harassment Campaign by mack Lamoureux
There Have Been At Least 124 Attacks on Drag Events This Year by Samantha Riedel
Atlanta Man Arrested for Threats Against Two LGBTQ+ Nightclubs by James Factora
Recent Anti-Trans Articles Miss the Point of Gender-Affirming Care by Kaiyti Duffy, MD, MPH
Finding out the shooter was from a Mormon family gave me complicated feels. As someone from a large extended Mormon family, I know how unwelcoming they can be. Being half of a very queer couple in Appalachia while being visibly trans to boot… we’re talking about how best to protect ourselves and each other. I hope you are, too.
Anti-trans rhetoric - like the harmful things spouted off by Lauren Bobert - push these attacks to happen. Normalizing hate and violence and then whipping your followers into a frenzy over fake news leads to murder, period.
Also? Can we stop only focusing on the cishet vet who helped take down the shooter and also focus on the trans woman - who has been misidentified multiple times as a drag performer - who stomped the s**t out of the shooter? Only recognizing and talking about the vet just lends to a weird cishet savior complex, as though as can’t take care of our own. It’s also trans erasure.
As an aside, Helena Bonham Carter basically came out as anti-trans this week. Imagine saying things like this following Club Q:
“She’s [JK Rowling] allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse,” the actor said. “Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
You can’t keep blaming trans women for the abuse you suffered at the hands of a cis man. Considering how JKR has helped get a ton of people on the anti-trans train across the world and is contributing to violence, I wouldn’t say she isn’t being ‘aggressive’ about it. She’s literally contributing to genocidal actions.
The Senate passed “the Respect for Marriage Act” earlier this week, designed to strengthen federal protections for queer and interracial marriage. The bill isn’t all people think it is, though, and it doesn’t go far enough:
Amy Schneider recently won the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. I don’t watch Jeopardy! that much anymore as I have some major dislike of the hosts, from Balik’s former anti-vax stance to the worship Jennings and his ableism gets in Mormon spaces. Still, I love Amy and am so grateful to see her shine - especially as a fellow Ohioan! She recently testified against a proposed Ohio bill preventing minors from taking any steps toward gender affirmation.
Stand-up comedian and nonbinary human Mae Martin is getting a Netflix stand-up special! I’m still pissed at Netflix for how much transphobia they’ve uplifted in supporting folks like Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, but this is a start.
Have you ever wondered what the history of gender healthcare looks like in the US? A new documentary helps answer that ponderance! Framing Agnes comes out in a few days.
We talk a lot within the LGBTQ+ community about how we need community spaces that aren’t bars. One way to access spaces like that is through tabletop / roleplaying games!
Twitter (UGH) is no longer enforcing COVID misinformation patrolling. So, that sucks. In other COVID news, some folks want to make unvaccinated folks pay more for insurance. I get the feeling, but that’s a bad idea in so many ways. It’s too similar to going back to a pre-ACA mindset - and hurts folks who couldn’t access vaccines due to work schedules, living in a healthcare desert, being tricked by misinformation, or who have health issues preventing them from receiving vaccines.
PS: Here’s your COVID weather report for the week from the People’s CDC.
Monkeypox has been renamed Mpox to remove the racism related to the former name. I’ve talked a bit about this in past newsletters, but James Factora has a great article about the change.
Discrimination in healthcare is widespread. I wish it weren’t the case, but here we are. In a new piece for Archer Magazine, Phoebe Lupton talks about the dangers related to bias in healthcare. Last year, I wrote an article highlighting how medical education leads to these biases. I’m just grateful that there have been moves to improve things once providers get to practicing, including giving space for disabled patients to tell their own stories.
Google is working on developing AI breast cancer screening tools. Since we know that AI tools suck at detecting abnormalities on melanin-rich skin, I’m concerned that this will just increase disparities in screenings. I really hope that they enroll BIPOC folks in this study, as we know research and building tools with communities leads to better outcomes.
A fentanyl vaccine is supposedly coming. While that can be helpful, it also doesn’t address the root causes of overdose from fentanyl - trauma (especially in childhood), pain, and a lack of social support. This is, at best, a bandaid.
New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a directive Tuesday instructing police and first responders to remove people displaying severe symptoms of mental illness from the city’s subways and streets and take them, even involuntarily, to area hospitals. There is SO much wrong with this and it will lead to the mass incarceration of disabled folks, especially without revamping social support.
Both steroid shots for the knee and ibuprofen might actually worsen inflammation and arthritis progression.
Speaking of pain, the DEA shut down a pain doctor recently. This prompted a patient and his wife to commit suicide due to uncontrolled pain levels and the fact that they couldn’t imagine life without each other:
“I just can't live with this severe pain anymore, and I don't have any options left,” he wrote. “There are millions of chronic pain patients suffering just like me because of the DEA. Nobody cares. I haven't lived without some sort of pain and pain relief meds since 1998, and I considered suicide back then. My wife called 17 doctors this past week looking for some kind of help. The only doctor who agreed to see me refused to help in any way. What am I supposed to do?”
It’s heartbreaking, especially since it’s easily preventable.
This year has been the deadliest year (so far, sigh) for mass shootings in the US, surpassing 2019. In other disturbing news, the San Francisco police want to be able to create killer robots. So, uh, that’s fun…
In good news, Stewart Rhodes - the founder of the Oath Keepers - was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He and a follower are the first people to be found guilty of this charge since 1995. That was when Omar Abdel-Rahman and others were convicted following the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
Here’s a delightful video as a palate cleanser:
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