#queer youth assemble

[jenjen4280]

My friend’s kid asked if I would drive my car with them for their Queer Youth Assemble group in our city’s Labor Day parade. We decorated my car with Pride flags and slogans the kids created. The kids marched and gave out candy (Skittles) and heart-shaped Pride stickers, while I drove the car (a lot of clutch-work when you’re driving a manual transmission, but hey, I am a butch).

The kids got a good reception from the community. In all, a great day! So proud of those kids! 🥹

[queeryouthautonomy]

It's time to fight back!

LGBTQ+ folks and allies, our rights are under attack. The ACLU, which tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the nation, has identified over 400 bills currently making their way through state Congresses and Senates. We must stand together against these horrific policies for the good of all queer people.

On March 31st, 2023, Queer Youth Assemble is planning protests across the nation to center youth voices and allow all queer people and allies to make their displeasure known.

Join us at marches in over 30 states (with more joining up every day!) as well as Washington DC. Turn up in large enough numbers so that legislators know that we will not stand for this.

Read and sign our List of Demands!

Find a march near you! Tumblr masterpost of marches can be found here!

Donate (we are raising money for transportation, organizing expenses, free masks, and ASL interpreters!)

Follow this page for updates and to see state marches featured.

To learn more, send an ask here or email march@queeryouthassemble.org!

Find us on Instagram and Tiktok—@queeryouthassemble!

[queeryouthassemble]

[ID: A light red rectangle takes up the top third of a square post, with a heading reading "We, The Youth, Dissent" in large, black, bold lettering. Below it in small black text reads "Queer Youth Assemble is coordinating a nationwide protest of the recent Supreme Court rulings, which have blocked debt relief, prohibited affirmative action, and weakened anti-discrimination protections for queer people nationwide. Join us at a demonstration near you!". The bottom two thirds of the square is taken up by a light pink background. Inside is a light red graphic of a state map of the United States, with location markers in Washington, Idaho, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post, with a large, black, and bold heading that reads "What are we protesting?". Below this is a rounded light red square with smaller black text that reads "The Supreme Court has recently targeted areas of our everyday lives that impact our finances, education, and our freedom of self-expression. With the rulings impacting student debt relief, lgbtqia+ rights, and affirmative action, we have had enough. Queer Youth Assemble has created Youth Dissent as a way to highlight the impact of these recent Supreme Court rulings especially on minority groups within the lgbtqia+ community. The intersectionality of these rulings is too large to ignore and we the youth, dissent." End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up the left third of the post. There are three location markers in different states. The location marker in Massachusetts has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Boston, MA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "8/4 from 12-3 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Boston Common, by Brewer Fountain, near the corner of Park and Tremont Streets". The location marker in Pennsylvania has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Scranton, PA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "7/29 from 2-4:30 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Demonstration beginning at 310 Mifflin Street, ending at 800 Linden Street". The location marker in Washington DC has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "District of Colombia. Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "7/19 from 10-11:30 AM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the Supreme Court of the United States, First Street NE between East Capitol Street and Maryland Avenue". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up the left third of the post. There is a location marker in Georgia and South Carolina. The location marker in Georgia has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Atlanta, GA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "8/26 from 10-11:45 AM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the Georgia State Capitol building, Capitol Sq SW, Atlanta, GA 30334". The location marker in South Carolina has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Colombia, SC". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "8/5 from 1 - 2:30 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the South Carolina State Capitol, North Ground Steps, 1100 Gervais Street". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up most of the space. There is a location marker in Illinois, Kentucky, and, Oklahoma. On top of the map is a light pink rounded rectangle. Bold, black, all-caps text reads "Springfield, IL", with smaller bold black text reading "TBA" below it. Below this, bold, black, all-caps text reads "Frankfurt, KY", with smaller bold black text reading "7/29 from 5-7 PM" below it. Below this smaller black text reads "Outside the Kentucky State Capitol building, 700 Capital Ave, Frankfort, KY 40601". Below this, bold, black, all-caps text reads "Oklahoma City, OK", with smaller bold black text reading "7/22 from 2-5 PM" below it. Below this smaller black text reads "Outside the Oklahoma State Capitol Building, 2300 N Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73105". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up the right half of the post. There is a location marker in Washington and Idaho. The location marker in Washington has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Seattle, WA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "TBA", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Volunteer Park Amphitheater, 1139-1157 Volunteer Park Rd, Seattle, WA 98102". The location marker in Idaho has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Boise, ID". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "7/31 from 12-4 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the Idaho State Capitol Building, 700 W Jefferson St, Boise, ID 83702". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with a black, all-caps, bold heading which reads "Don't see a protest near you?". Below this is a light red rounded square with smaller black text within it, reading "Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements about protests near you! If you are interested in organizing a demonstration in your state, please feel free to contact us at youthdissent@queeryouthassemble.org We have a complete guide to organizing your own demonstration coming out soon!". End ID.]

[youthdissent]

[ID: A light red square post with a centered, black, bold, all-caps heading at the top that reads "Take action against the Supreme Court with queer and trans youth at a protest near you!" in all caps. In the bottom left corner is a pink text bubble with black body text inside that reads "Swipe to learn about four upcoming We, the Youth, Dissent protests!". To the right are two people. One is tan with brown and blue short curly hair, and the other is pale with a blue curly mullet. They are holding a sign that says "Stand against racism" in all-caps black lettering. End ID.]

[ID: A light red square post with a black, bold, all-caps heading at the top that reads "Join us in San Diego, CA and Colombia, SC". Below this in a centered pink rounded rectangle is smaller black body text that reads "San Diego, CA Waterfront Park/City Hall, 8/5 @ 12-2PM, connorl@queeryouthassemble.org". After a space there is more black body text that reads "Columbia, SC State Capitol - North Grounds, 8/5 @ 1-2:30PM, faithc@queeryouthassemble.org". End ID.]

[ID: A light red square post with a black, bold, all-caps heading at the top that reads "Join us in Atlanta, GA and Austin, TX". Below this in a centered pink rounded rectangle is smaller black body text that reads "Atlanta, GA - State Capitol - 8/26 @ 10:00 AM - faithc@queeryouthassemble.org". After a space there is more black body text that reads "Austin, TX - State Capitol - 9/23@ 6:00 PM - faithc@queeryouthassemble.org". End ID.]

[itgetsbetterproject]

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ INTRODUCING: Our LGBTQ+ Youth Voices class of 2024! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

These are some amazinggg LGBTQ+ youth who are already making our world a better place through their activism, art, music, and storytelling.

Some new faces this round plus some familiar ones! Meet them here.

PLUS while we're at it, take a look at everything (like...a mind-blowing amount of things) that last year's class accomplished, like:

Speaking at the rally at NYC Pride

Being guests on podcasts

Speaking on panels and at conferences on behalf of LGBTQ+ youth

Creating art, zines, and music together

Streaming on Twitch and making TikToks

Getting to meet each other in LA!

See all of their accomplishments here! Truly gives ya hope that youth are making things better. :')

Can't wait to see what the new class has in storeee.

[faithsactivism]

HEY YALL!!!!!!

I’m causing some ✨chaos✨ behind the scenes rn with @queeryouthassemble so I’ll keep you posted on when you can get involved :)) should be within the next few days

Follow @youthdissent for more updates too!!!

[moonysfavoritetoast]

i’m sorry but BRAEDON. does not deserve to be a fucking web leader.

he constantly talks about wanting to r@pe ppl, he asked me to stop wearing my binder bc he didn’t believe that i actually had boobs, he constantly asked on a scale of 1-10 how sped/gay i am, he sexualizes EVERYONE, and goes around talking about his ‘gay phase’ in third grade.

he shouldn’t be in a position where he’s a leader. ‘where everyone belongs’ NO. if they’re letting people like HIM be a web leader, not everyone fucking belongs.

he told me that trans women should kill themselves. he told me that i should kill myself because i’m fucking delusional for thinking i’m not a girl.

he refused to use my correct pronouns, and then he found out i changed my name and was an actual bitch about it.

one time he asked mee what her pronouns were, i was sitting on the floor doing something, he thought i couldn’t hear him, and when she answered, he said “oh well i was just asking because you hang out with…” and he pointed at me.

and so many other kids i saw in web are transphobic assholes.

you’re not a positive thing if you’re letting people who openly call people SLURS. be part of it.

everyone doesn’t belong if it’s only cishet people.

[itsapmseymour]

Spread it, join it, walk in it, do whatever you feel comfortable doing, but, we are standing together 

[the-cimmerians]

a storytime story. Not my story, it's my friend's, but she doesn't go here so I'm sharing for her. We'll call her Mara. Mara is a high-femme, lovely queer girl from a wealthy family in the southern US, but when I met her she'd been living in California for many years, chugging through her postgraduate education in Women's Studies. She rarely went home, because being at home was always a bit of a fraught experience: not unendurable (because to most heteronormative casual viewers the radiant queerness of a high-femme is pretty much indistinguishable from a quirky beauty queen waiting for the right football quarterback to sweep her off her feet), but still--not the most fun. Yet every once in a while, Mara would have a fit of 'dutiful daughter'-itis, and go home to mend some fences and keep some peace.

Mara's mother had often asked her to come with her to philanthropic events, but Mara had always said no. On this trip, however, Mara's mother had purchased a full table as an event sponsor, and she cajoled Mara into going with her. For those of you who haven't ever attended such an event, they are all different, and yet terrifyingly all the same (and I say this not as an attendee, but as an event-runner for various nonprofits; an event-runner who, fair warning, hates everything about these events, and this part of nonprofit work). There is some form of lower-calorie food (chicken or fish on greens with a very light citrus-fruit dressing is de rigeur, along with some sort of fruit-based airy parfait served in the smallest and most elegant glasses imaginable for dessert), usually an emcee (occasionally entertaining, but always inoffensive to the assembled guests), sometimes speakers (high-profile or famous women on a local or national level depending on the 'get' of the organization in question, or extremely well-spoken young people or teens for youth-serving organizations--with the youth in question being very carefully coached), and an 'ask'--the fundraising portion of the event, where the wealthy attendees compete with the rest of their friends and enemies in the social scene to be the most gracious and beneficent person in the room.

And there is gossip. So much gossip.

Poor Mara knew enough to expect some of this (mostly due to listening to me complain bitterly about how awful these events are), but there were aspects for which she was completely unprepared. Her mother had filled her sponsorship table with all of her closest friends, and the 'social hour' before the event started in earnest was a haze of white wine and a constant stream of excessively perfumed women dressed in full southern socialite chic, coming by the table to air-kiss cheeks and say how it's been ages since they've seen each other and what a darling ensemble, where on earth did you get it? and who does your hair now?--you must tell me, it's simply scrumptious--you look incredible, we really must do lunch some time soon--

...and the moment the woman or women in question moved on, the table, as a whole, in excited, urgent-whispered voices, would drag the everloving fuck out of every single lady they'd just been gushing over.

"Did you see how botched her last lift was? I hardly recognized her--I'm surprised she recognized me, with her eyes yanked back like that--" "so terrible, but she did go to the cheapest surgeon in town--husband has money troubles, you know--"

"Didn't expect to see her here, but I suppose you have to go somewhere to show off that large a collection of paste jewels--" "oh, stop, you wicked girl! But you're right, of course--and she gives herself such airs, like we don't all know--"

"Poor dear looks exhausted--apparently keeping up with her pool boy isn't easy at her age--" "Can't say that I blame her; that Carlos, have you seen him? Of course, she's hardly his only client. I've been dying for a pool, but my Henry just won't--"

"Quite a plucky little attitude for someone whose husband just left her for his twenty-two year old secretary--" "And after she put him through college and law school--I heard she's not even going to get to keep the house. She really should have sprung for a better lawyer--"

"I can't believe she still thinks she can fit into that dress, with all the weight she's packed on--" "Truly grotesque--just ghastly! Seems like last summer at the fat farm didn't do her as much good as one would have hoped--"

::giggle:: ::giggle:: ::giggle::

Mara was horrified, sitting there with a bland, polite smile frozen on her face, with her white gloves and vintage pillbox hat and charming little clutch bag, her seamed stockings and her kitten heels and her classic red lipstick and pin-curls (because in true unquenchable femme spirit, she had taken this occasion as an opportunity for dress-up, an opportunity for fun and play and sexy whimsy--a Gene-Tierney-does-pin-up-girl kind of vibe), utterly unable to see how to extricate herself from this terrible situation.

Another woman glided away from the table, coyly waving heavily-beringed fingers. "Yes, Darling," Mara's mother said, coyly waving back. "See you soon! Kiss-kiss! Love to Laurent!" She sat down and hissed to the cabal at the table: "Ha! Her husband just gave her an STD."

The woman to Mara's left leaned forward excitedly. "Really? Two-door or four-door?--wait, if it was the latest Aston Martin, I'm going to literally perish of envy--"

And that was the tipping point--Mara fled. Walked until she found a suitably divey coffee shop. Had a coffee and a slice of peach pie, and flirted with a soft Butch waitress until the world seemed less dire.

[queeryouthautonomy]

Ways to get involved with the movement:

Attend your local March for Queer and Trans Youth Autonomy on 3/31 (find your nearest march here)

Donate—visit our website or find us on Venmo/Paypal/Cashapp (@queeryouthassemble); we are fundraising for poster and first aid supplies, to pay speakers/interpreters, and transportation costs :)

If you can directly donate services or materials, please reach out to march@queeryouthassemble.org!

Be a marshal in DC—apply here!

Organize a walkout at your school

[queeryouthassemble]

Join QYA's Let Trans Athletes Play Movement!

Send us an ask or see our website for more information :)

[ID: Six illustrated people stand over a beige box. Blue and pink words in large all-caps text inside thee box read "Let Trans Athletes Play" with smaller white all-caps text reading "Visit queeryouthassemble.org to learn more." People are of diverse heights, races, and clothing. One is using a wheelchair, and one holds a progress pride flag, others hold sports equipment. The background has various sports balls and pucks. End ID.]

[ID: Four illustrated people stand facing one another at the bottom-center of the page. They are of diverse heights, races, and clothing, and some hold different sports equipment. Three people are standing, and one is using a wheelchair. Three lines of all-caps text above the people read "This is a nationwide movement to end transgender sports bans by playing sports." End ID.]

[ID: Black text fills the page, reading "As transgender athletes, we have been forced into silence over an issue that affects us personally: our participation in sports. There are some who believe that simply being transgender creates an unfair advantage, others who say that is not the case, and many who do not know what to think. While opinions are divided, what is a fact is that transgender athletes are being unfairly discriminated against through these bills. That is why throughout the summer, we are inviting everyone, regardless of your identity, to play sports with us at Let Trans Athletes Play events across the country." In the bottom right corner, a small illustrated femme person sits with a skateboard in their lap. End ID.]

[ID: Black all-caps text covers the top half of the page. It is a quote from QYA volunteer and athlete Xander Grey, who uses he/him pronouns. Text reads "I've been told I can't compete because I refuse to wear a female swimsuit. It would be amazing to be a part of a community that celebrates and uplifts me rather than refuses to let me compete. I've been so many firsts in my community and I hate having all that pressure put on me. For once, I'd like to be a part of a bigger first." In the bottom left corner, three people of varying heights, races, and clothing face each other. One is using a wheelchair, while the other two stand. Two people hold sports equipment. End ID.]

[ID: Large white all-caps text at the top of the page reads "LTAP Overview." Below, there are four quadrants, each with an illustration. In the top-left, three people of varying heights, races, and clothing face each other. One is using a wheelchair, while the other two stand. Two people hold sports equipment. Below them is the word "sports." In the bottom-left there is a person with blue hair holding a sign that says "I love being trans." Below them is the word "protests." In the top-right, a person with purple hair holds some toys. Below them says "games." In the bottom-right, a person with red hair holds a pamphlet that has a trans flag and binder drawing on it. Below them says "learning." End ID.]

[ID: Large all-caps white text at top of page reads "get involved." Two smaller white all-caps subtitled read "host an event" and "attend an event." Smaller black text below "host an event" reads "We're looking for organizers and organizations to host Let Trans Athletes Play events across the country this summer! Visit our website (queeryouthassemble.org) to learn how," and text below "attend an event" reads "Regardless of if you're an athlete, non-athlete, transgender, or cisgender, we encourage you to attend an event near you. There's something for everyone, regardless of athletic ability!" End ID.]

[ID: Black all-caps text covers the top half of the page. It is a quote from QYA art consultant and former athlete Jesse Young-Paulson, who uses they/he pronouns. Text reads "Even considering the competitive nature of the games, being able to see other people like me on the field was a moment of radical inclusion and visibility—the type of visibility where you don’t feel hypervisible, but seen for yourself and part of a queer sports community." At the bottom of the page are five people, of diverse heights, races, and clothing. One person has visible top surgery scars, and holds a ball. Another person holds a progress pride flag. End ID.]

[youthdissent]

[ID: A yellow square post with a light yellow rounded rectangle taking up the top two thirds, with large, black, bold, all-caps text that reads "California! join queer and trans youth in protesting the Supreme Court". In the bottom right corner there is smaller bold black text that reads "Join us in San Diego, CA." Non-bold black text below this reads "at the San Diego Waterfront Park/City Hall on August 9th from 12:00-2:00PM PST!". In the bottom left corner is a drawing of a person with light tan skin and mid-length green curly hair using a wheelchair and holding a progress flag. End ID.]

[ID: A yellow square post with a light yellow rounded square in the middle that takes up most of the post. Inside there is a heading in all-caps, bold, black text that reads "We, The Youth, Dissent". Below this is smaller black text which reads "The Supreme Court has recently targeted areas of our everyday lives that impact our finances, education, and our freedom of self-expression. With the rulings impacting student debt relief, lgbtqia+ rights, and affirmative action, we have had enough. Queer Youth Assemble has created Youth Dissent as a way to highlight the impact of these recent Supreme Court rulings especially on minority groups within the lgbtqia+ community. The intersectionality of these rulings is too large to ignore and we the youth, dissent." End ID.]

[ID: A yellow square post with a light yellow rounded square in the middle that takes up most of the post. Inside there is a heading in all-caps, bold, black text that reads "What should I bring?". Below this is smaller black text which reads "Here's a quick list of things you might want to bring with you to your upcoming demonstration. Keep an eye out for our resource guides on organizing and protesting coming out this week!" Below this there is a list of checkboxes in slightly smaller text whose items include, "Necessary medications, Water & Small snacks, State ID, cash & coins, Fully charged cell phone, Hand sanitizer & a mask, Hat & sunscreen, Our printable "Know Your Rights" & "In Case of Emergency" cards*, A sign". Below this is smaller text which reads "*These are available on our site alongside printable pages to cut and distribute at your demonstration!" End ID.]

[ID: A dark yellow square post with a light yellow rounded square in the middle that takes up most of the post. Inside there is a heading in all-caps, bold, black text that reads "Find a protest near you". Below this is smaller black text that reads "Please reach out to us at connorl@queeryouthassemble.org if you have any questions! Organizing and Protesting resource guides available in our bio now! Check out our page and website to stay up to date on our latest demonstration announcements.". Below this is smaller, centered text that reads "Currently featuring.... Atlanta, San Diego, Seattle, and much more!" End ID.]

[just-a-queer-fanboy]

Petition against KOSA.

More information under the cut.

This bill hides behind the facade of protecting children on the internet. However, the way it intends to do so is through censoring content such as queer resources, sex education, and with how our government is going, may censor activist content about what is going on in places like Palestine or Congo.

Learn more:

One idea proposed is making it required for most websites to require government ID (ex: drivers license) to make an account. Combined with the many bills framing drag, trans rights, or queer resources as child sexual abuse, queer people online could be wrongfully prosecuted under the basis of being child predators.

Not only is this bill harmful and immoral, it is straight up unconstitutional.

The first amendment of the US constitution grants all citizens the freedom of speech, freedom to petition, freedom of the press, and freedom to assembly. It also grants freedom of religious practice, but that doesn't appear to be affected by this bill from what I know.

This bill completely violates our granted right to the freedom of speech, petition, press, and assembly. This is a thinly veiled censorship bill under the guise of protecting children.

As this bill coincides with the suppression of free palestine protests and activism, anti boycott laws, anti queer bills and laws, and the introduction of project 2025, the United Statres continues to descend into censorship and white supremacy.

US CITIZENS: CALL YOUR LAWMAKERS AND TELL THEM YOU OPPOSE KOSA. FOR SOME OF US, IT IS OUR ONLY FORM OF ACTIVISM.

I know I typically don't make my own posts on large political issues, but as I live in the US, I am closer to the issue and can do more.

[faithsactivism]

When in doubt, I’m causing some shit somewhere 🥰

@youthdissent is in full swing!!!!

[grison-in-space]

Via a conversation on Metafilter about the state of Florida's decision to crush its public institutions, a person I think is particularly wise left a comment about the state of the legislature on higher education in Wisconsin.

The situation in Florida is atrocious, but it's important to be aware of how widespread this movement on the part of MAGA politicians to ban all academic and support programs related to gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality is. I'm a professor in the Wisconsin state university system, where, in addition to my regular fulltime work in my home department I direct the LGBTQ+ Studies Program (a more-than-halftime job I have done for many years in return for zero additional salary, or summer funds, or course buyout, or any other compensation...).

This summer, the Wisconsin state legislature, gerrymandered into permanent Republican control, voted to ban all DEI programs in the state university system, and cut $32 million from the university budget, which it stated was amount of "taxpayer money being wasted on divisive indoctrination efforts" (to paraphrase Assembly Speaker Robin Vos). This comes after years of successive budget cuts and a ten-year tuition freeze and years of faculty and staff taking pay cuts in the form of "furloughs" through which we were expected to just keep working. The situation is now somewhat improved in that Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vetoed the DEI ban, but he cannot restore the funding. Anyway: a few days after the legislative vote to ban DEI , I was giving a talk about the range of state bills attacking trans youth and adults, and there was a Democratic state legislator on the panel. When we were introducing ourselves and I told her I directed the LGBTQ+ Studies Program, she said, "Oh, but that's no longer legal. Well, unless Evers vetoes the ban; we'll see."

After doing some blinking, I responded by explaining the difference between DEI programs and academic programs. DEI programs provide student support services, which is deemed administrative work, in contrast to academic programs. The LGBTQ+ Resource Center and the LGBTQ+ Studies Program at my university are both vital and important. But the resource center organizes support groups and social activities for students, while the academic program teaches classes and sponsors academic talks. Academic programs are not part of the DEI system--and the very same legislature that voted for the DEI ban had spent years prior threatening sanctions against students and faculty for supposedly not sufficiently respecting the absolute value of free speech in academia. Legislators presented instructors as censorious ideologues, students as snowflakes in love with a victim narrative, and the legislature as the champion of teaching and discussing all ideas freely.

The image of DEI programs presented by Republican legislators is some kind of kink fantasy, in which cis straight white men are forced to prostrate themselves, declare themselves to be bad and deserving of punishment, and lick the boots of students who are trans and queer, of color and feminist. The reality is that university DEI programs are providing mental health services and tutoring and social support to college students, at a time when their levels of mental health challenges are very high. They have zero to do with the kink humiliation fantasy, they really are about inclusion, and it is ludicrous and cruel to cut social support to marginalized college students.

But even if the state ban were not vetoed, a DEI ban does not dismantle programs like Gender Studies or African and African Diaspora Studies or LGBTQ+ Studies, because they are academic programs, I explained to the Democratic legislator. But from her response, it was clear that not only did Republican Wisconsin legislators think they'd banned all academic programs examining race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and who knows what else (disability studies? Jewish studies and Islamic studies?), but that the Democratic legislators seemed to believe so as well.

The flip from "we are the party of free speech!" to "we are the party that bans books and entire academic disciplines!" happened with dizzying speed. But take it from me as a trans person--these legislative attacks can burst across the country in the space of months, shifting the landscape radically. The thing about the MAGA movement is that it is made up of people who believe that the situation is desperate, the American project is on the verge of failure, and the time has come to destroy or be destroyed. Most Americans, including non-MAGA Republicans, want to see the culture war cool down and Americans get along, but MAGA-sorts want it to go hot. And I have to admit some despair about what to do about this, because of the unpersuadability of this group. Take a look at Question 39 from this CBS/YouGov poll of Iowa voters last week, and what percentage of Republican voters there believe they are being lied to by various parties. The percentage of MAGA voters who said they said they believed they were being told the truth by Trump was 71%, in comparison to 63% for friends and family, 56% for conservative news sources, and 42% for religious leaders. Only 32% of Iowa Republicans generally believed they were told the truth by medical scientists. (The figures for Joe Biden and "liberal media" were 10% and 8% respectively.)

It is hard to persuade people with facts and logic and calls for empathy when they think you are a liar attacking their great leader with whom 99% say they identify. What we have to do is persuade others to stand up. And I don't want to be doomy, but my experience with resisting transphobic legislation and action causes me a lot of concern. It's not just "the face-eating leopards won't eat my face" problem. The fact is, frankly, that a lot of institutions and people are craven. This past year I was in a working group with medical and social scientists advising the HHS about creating guidelines for research with intersex and transgender populations, and then Libs of TikTok spread lies about hospitals supposedly performing "sex changes" on little kids, and several children's hospitals received bomb threats--and suddenly most of the medical researchers working with trans youth were pulled from the working group by the hospitals they were affiliated with. Hospital administrators are shutting down research on trans youth and clinics serving trans youth, rather than having the backs of threatened doctors and patients, handing a victory to the face-eating leopards who growled at them.

My conclusion is that we need to focus energy on teaching people who have not dealt with serious bullying before how to stand up to bullies. For people like concerned parents considering attending school board meetings to oppose book bans, we could teach basic mutual aid strategies, like forming a supportive group to attend together. But what we are to do about people like college administrators and corporate executives who would like to do the right thing for students and employees, but not as much as they'd like to avoid offending a wealthy donor or receiving negative conservative media attention. . . that's a big question to me.

I have left my own longer comment in the wider thread.

(If you also like longform, thoughtful text conversation, this is my regular plug for Metafilter as a platform. If you DM me an email address, I can send you an invitation link for a free account.)

[firealder2005]

hey all - I don't normally do this but if you want to stop this bill this is an easy way to sign the petition. the current next goal is 35,000 signatures and they are currently at 29,887.

Real quick and easy to do, I promise! I've been skimming the news about this for a bit and finally gotten around to signing.

What I put down as my comment if you're unsure what to talk about:

As a content creator, KOSA is my enemy. As a teenager, KOSA is my enemy. As an older sister, KOSA is my enemy. As a queer citizen, KOSA is my enemy.

I have Zero desire for my sister to have to give out her own personal information just to use the internet. That SHOULD NOT be happening, let alone CONSIDERED.

We. Deserve. Privacy. Should I say it louder?

WE DESERVE PRIVACY! What we do on the internet is OUR business, no one else's - and certainly not the government's! You have no business knowing what sites I frequent, the people I communicate and connect with!

You have no right to censor our voices. That is a DIRECT VIOLATION of the Constitution. It is a DIRECT VIOLATION of the VERY FIRST AMENDMENT!

Do I need to cite it for you?

"The First Amendment…protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-constitution/#:~:text=The%20First%20Amendment%20provides%20that,the%20right%20to%20bear%20arms.)

Taken directly from the White House website^

Communication is how we connect with others! In-person and online! I only have one close friend in-person, but I have many online friends who I converse with on the daily because of our shared interests! Because of the content we create!

KOSA will DENY US this connection! KOSA will DEPRIVE US of forming these relationships! It's BECAUSE of these people that I create content! KOSA will prevent me from doing what I love!

Censorship is NEVER the answer. Censor ONLY HURTS US. Doesn't matter WHO we are - queer, POC, ect - we all have a RIGHT to privacy, and this bill will INFRINGE on that right!

If you REALLY care about us, the youth, the next generation? You wouldn't vote for KOSA.

It's as simple as that.

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Mention the things that mean a lot to you. Mention how KOSA will endanger queer youth. Talk about how it will prevent you from creating and sharing the content you've been making.