Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender

Banned Books

It’s a blog entry by Jenny Lawson, about one of her books. I haven’t been able to open her WP blog for a few weeks, now; I get the page that says it’s an unsafe connection. I either don’t know how, or can’t get a whole post in the WP Reader, but I did get this whole post in email, so I’ll copy & paste it here. Jenny is funny, but this is not good news about Texas and literacy.

Site logo imageThe Bloggess

Read on blog or Reader

Today they banned my book. It was not the first. It won’t be the last. Here’s what I want you to know

.By thebloggess on March 25, 2026
This is not what I wanted to write. I wanted to write about how I’m about to go on book tour for my new book in a few days. Instead I am writing about the fact that I was just informed that my first book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was banned from the high school library of a nearby town I love and visit often.

Honestly, I’m not that upset about my book being banned. I’ve had so many letters from young people who felt they’d been helped by my books but it does have some profanity and so I can understand the reasoning even if I disagree with it. What I am upset about is the stories about how New Braunfels ISD has pulled more that 1,500 books from their school library shelves after the Texas’ Republican-backed book banning law (senate bill 13) passed. The bill ordered all public school libraries to review books for “profane” and “indecent” content and I guess Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was deemed too dangerous for high schoolers.

Weirdly, my book was not on the original list of the 1,500 books triggered for review on March 13 but a week ago it was added to the New Braunfels ISD website as being removed for being “non-compliant”. (I’ve been called worse.) I guess 1,500 books weren’t enough. But then, it’s never enough for book banners.This is going to happen more and more. It used to be a rarer thing…almost a badge of courage to have a book banned. Now? It’s everywhere…this war against books and ideas and people. Reading is how you fall in love with people different from you, and how you develop compassion for them…because if you love them, you want to protect them. But there are some people who don’t want you to love others. They need you to fear them.

Books save lives. They have saved mine. Books are safety nets for so many of us, and right now those nets are being cut.The list of banned books is incredible in length and includes so many that I adore. Equally upsetting is the fact that so many classics that shaped me have been pulled from the shelves and placed into restricted sections where they can only be accessed by students enrolled in Advanced Placement Literature, because God forbid a normal high school student would want to read the works of dangerous writers like *checks the list* Jane Austen and Emily Brontë (whose name they misspelled).

Sometimes it feels like we’re living in A Brave New World (restricted) and that the book burning of Fahrenheit 451 (restricted) is closer than ever, with no Sense and Sensibility (restricted) about what this will cost. It feels like we’re going through The Crucible (restricted) and are caught in a Catch-22 (restricted) where we can’t convince people how terrible it is to ban books because they either don’t know the power of books or they absolutely know it and fear it. It’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (banned) how book banners go out on some kind of A Discovery of Witches (banned) and fight against Acceptance (banned) and of diversity, while we are losing All The Beauty in the World (banned). America is a Beautiful Country (banned) in so many ways, but we will lose so much of that beauty if we don’t make Changes (banned) to cherish and embrace and grow what makes us Educated (banned) and compassionate. The diversity of voices is necessary…it is a reflection of who we are and who we want to be. A plethora of ideas and voices and experiences…This Is What America Looks Like (banned). We can’t just pretend that Everything’s Fine (banned) and that this is just an overreaction of Anxious People (banned). Do you think this is what the founding fathers like Alexander Hamilton (banned) envisioned? I’m going to stop here because I’m sure you can see that this dumb paragraph is WAY TOO EASY TO WRITE because there are so many books they have issues with and you probably get the picture already but y’all….Jane Eyre? The Color Purple? The Odyssey? Crime and Punishment?? THIS IS WHAT WE’RE SAVING TEENAGERS FROM?

So what can you do? You can buy books that are being targeted, especially those written by the LGBTQ+ authors or authors of color because they are being targeted the most. Supporting those authors tells publishing to keep producing those books because they are needed. Publishers will lose money if libraries become afraid to purchase books and so we need to make sure that they know the audience is there and greedy for diverse voices. Get a library card and start checking out those books and more, to prove to the government that libraries need funding and that people care about reading. Read to your children. Read in front of your children. Talk online about the books that you love so that your passion ignites others. If you’re a parent you can get involved with your school to make sure this doesn’t happen in your school and you can protest it if it happens. You can vote out the people who seem to be obsessed with freedom, but mainly when it’s their freedom to take away yours and your children’s. You can run against school board members who are book banners and show up at the meetings. You can keep updated by following organizations like PEN AMERICA, or the Texas Freedom to Read Project or Authors Against Book Bans.

*deep breath*

This is probably filled with typos and is not really the sort of thing that I should be writing the day before I leave to start my book tour but it’s important. When books and thoughts and people are suppressed, we all lose. Keep fighting the good fight, friends. It’s worth it.


Comment

One Of These Had Been Open For 47 Years!

ETTD, especially his economy. This is a story I’ve been wanting to post, but this and that come up, and it keeps getting buried in my Inbox. I actually got to it today, so I’m going ahead and posting it before it gets to be another month old.

U.S. Gay Bars Are Closing Their Doors at a Heartbreaking Pace

From coast to coast, they play a crucial role in the LGBTQ+ community, and they’re disappearing.

By Mathew Rodriguez

When it comes to the queer bar in the wild, so many threats exist, and it’s only gotten worse in the past few years. Higher upfront costs combined with lower foot traffic have caused a nationwide problem for the service and food industries, which is exacerbated in queer spaces, which deal with smaller demographics than the average bar or restaurant. And of course, there’s the fact that many people, especially younger people, just don’t go out or have a third space anymore.

It’s hard to say whether anything can economy-proof the gay bar. In the past year alone, the U.S. has seen closures of long-running queer spaces, such as the Bay Area’s Ginger’s, which was open for 47 years, or Rochester, New York’s, Avenue Pub, which just inched past five decades of serving queers. New businesses aren’t exactly faring better, with bars such as Michigan’s General Wood Shop and Brooklyn’s Club Lambda having opened and closed within the span of just a couple years.

In some cases, a bar’s public frankness about its financial difficulties can prompt a community response that allows it to stay open. In the last few years, many struggling spaces have turned to sites such as GoFundMe to make ends meet, keep creditors at bay and continue to sling food, drink and community to its underserved patrons. (Efforts on the fundraising platform saved East Nashville’s Lipstick Lounge and Washington, D.C.’s As You Are.) And, of course, there are organizations such as the Lesbian Bar Project looking to not only document queer history, but keep these spaces vibrant. But just as important to fight for new and existing queer spaces is commemorating those that were lost, for a myriad of reasons, in the past year.

Club Lambda (Brooklyn)

After opening Lambda Lounge in Harlem, married couple Charles Hughes and Richard Solomon expanded their brand, and the creation of safe spaces for queer people of color, to Brooklyn with the opening of Club Lambda in Williamsburg in 2022.

“We saw that a lot of urban communities didn’t have a location that they could go to every night of the week,” Hughes told amNY in 2022. “Brooklyn didn’t have this, so we are opening Club Lambda.”

The club announced that it would close at the end of February in an Instagram post.

(snip-embedded Insta post on the page; I can’t grab it. Click the title above to go to the story page)

“The past 5 years have been nothing more than exciting as we have hosted some of the most iconic and memorable events New York has seen!” Club Lambda wrote in the post. “Servicing celebrities, socialites and many from all walks of life within the community has imprinted many memories for us to hold on to for years to come!!”

Upon announcement of its closure, many in the LGBTQ+ community, especially Black LGBTQ+ people, mourned the loss of a space owned by Black people that catered to a Black queer crowd.

Denver Sweet (Denver, Colorado)

After six years of operating in Downtown Denver, Denver Sweet closed its doors in July 2025, citing increased labor costs and less foot traffic in the bar, per the Denver Post. “This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but we believe the time has come,” owners Randy Minten and Ken Maglasang said in a statement to the Post. “Creating and running Denver Sweet has been a dream come true for us — and saying goodbye is heartbreaking.”

(snip-Insta post)

Sweet celebrated its farewell with a bottomless mimosa lumberjack brunch featuring pancakes and unlimited mimosas, as well as performances from two local drag kings, per its final Instagram post. Not only did it feature an upstairs patio, it was, per the Post, one of the only bars in Denver that catered to the bear community.

Ginger’s (San Francisco)

Ginger’s closed permanently after a brief resurrection in 2024. The bar, which had previously closed, reopened for Pride 2024, per Eater San Francisco, but following financial hardship had to close permanently in late 2025, despite being the last LGBTQ+ bar in the city’s Financial District, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

Prior to its final closing, Ginger’s had operated in the Bay Area for 47 years. As with other closures, the owners cited dwindling bar traffic for the closure.

(snip-Insta post)

“The traffic to Ginger’s has not been consistently strong,” Future Bars Group, which operated Ginger’s, owner Brian Sheehy told SFGATE. “Without enough customer support, our staff don’t earn enough tips, and Ginger’s operates at a loss. We have struggled to get people into Ginger’s, despite the valiant efforts of our entire team and the great shows being put on by the performers.” Per SFGATE, Ginger’s first opened in 1978 by owner Don Rogers, who named the bar after actress Ginger Rogers due to their shared surname.

Eagle Houston (Houston)

When Eagle Houston closed this past summer, it took the Texas city’s residents by surprise. It had just hosted a spat of LGBTQ+ pride events in June before news of its close started to spread in local Facebook groups for the bear community, per the Houston Chronicle. What followed was mostly silence: neither the bar’s owner nor its social media pages responded to several requests for comment from the Chronicle. However, at the time of its closing, a notice to vacate had been posted on its front door, which had also been plastered with a sign noting various violations and boarded up with a solid wooden plank. The bar first opened in 1984.

Barracuda (New York City)

Open since 1995, Barracuda was known in New York City as a drag hotspot. (And if you were going to see a diva at Madison Square Garden, you’d walk a few blocks down to an afterparty most likely happening within.) Over three decades, the bar has seen the likes of Sherry Vine, Jackie Beat, Hedda Lettuce and others grace its stage.

“Thirty years is a very long time,” owner Bob Pontarelli said in a statement to Eater upon its closing. Pontarelli cited the opening of a condo project next door, and the accompanying construction, as the reason for the bar’s closure. “The damage from the construction has significantly affected the interior and overall operation of the bar.” The ongoing drilling meant there was “no way to anticipate the additional damage and risks that could arise in the future. It is impossible to conduct business as usual,” Pontarelli wrote.

This Is It! (Milwaukee)

When This Is It! closed its doors in 2025, it wasn’t just the shuttering of a Milwaukee queer staple. It was the closing of the oldest gay bar in the state of Wisconsin: This Is It! Had started operating in 1968. The bar announced its closure on its Facebook page on March 9, citing the COVID crisis as bringing a financial hardship from which the bar couldn’t recover, as well as an 8-month closure of the bar’s street and sidewalk in 2024.

“It’s with much sadness, but with so much love, we bid all of you farewell,” the bar wrote. “Take care of each other, and please continue to support local and queer-owned businesses.” Drag superstar Trixie Mattel even became a co-owner of the bar in 2021; at the time, she said that she bought it because she didn’t want to see it suffer the same fate as so many other queer havens post-COVID.

Under the announcement of the closing, many patrons were confused as to why the bar closed so suddenly, without a chance to either fundraise to keep the bar open or send it off with a farewell event.

Macri Park (Brooklyn)

New Yorkers were shocked to find out about the surprise closing of Brooklyn-based Macri Park in January without much notice. In an Instagram post in January, the bar had announced that it had already closed, giving bargoers nary a chance to celebrate or mourn the space.

(snip-Insta post)

Macri Park did not begin as a gay bar, first starting at a dive bar before ownership passed to the same person who owned nearby Metropolitan, per Greenpointers, in 2015. From then on, Macri became a gay bar with a new aesthetic. When the bar shared news of its closing on social, many local drag icons flew to its comment section to mourn.

“The doors may close,” wrote drag queen Bible Girl, “but i’m still in the walls.”

The Ruby Fruit (Los Angeles)

The Ruby Fruit, a lesbian wine bar located in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood, announced in January 2025 that it would close its doors; though the bar had been struggling financially for some time, business paused and then dropped precipitously during and after the LA wildfires, per Eater. “When we’re talking about being vulnerable, the line is so thin between being able to carry on and not,” owner Mara Herbkersman told the outlet. “It became really clear after two days of being open that if we were to go on one more day, we would run the risk of not being able to pay our employees, a nonnegotiable for us.”

News of the bar’s closure sent shockwaves throughout the Los Angeles sapphic community as well as the queer internet. It also spawned considerable drama. After crowd-sourcing funds to stay open, the bar finally closed, per the Washington Blade, leaving some to wonder where the community aid it had asked for had gone. After its abrupt closing, former employees spoke candidly with the Blade about lingering and long-running financial affairs that predated the fires and alleged mistreatment at the bar. There was also some alleged clash over whether the bar was a “lesbian bar” versus a “sapphically-inclined” bar that was ultimately for everyone, per one employee who spoke to Eater.

Also, several trans and POC patrons reported feeling unwelcome in the space. “I don’t think they purposefully didn’t include them,” Sienna Deadrich, a former line cook at The Ruby Fruit told Eater. “But from the perspective of someone who is POC and trans, it was very clear that they didn’t include them.”

Avenue Pub (Rochester, NY)

Citing concerns both economic and safety-related, Avenue Pub in Rochester, New York, shut its doors after five decades in business. “You know, just the economic times right now. Monroe Avenue and the violence on the weekends,” owner Peter Mohr told WHEC. “It’s just, it’s making a very unsafe place for my consumers.”

(snip-Insta post)

Mohr elaborated in an Instagram post issued on its final day open. “If I had more resources to keep it going, I absolutely would,” Mohr wrote. “But the reality is that I’ve invested my life savings into these businesses — and I may never see that return.”

General Wood Shop (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

General Wood Shop got its name from the furniture store that used to occupy its space in the 1940s. When it opened in 2023, the bar was hoping to bring an LGBTQ+ space to Grand Rapids, Michigan. By the time it closed, it had succeeded.

(snip-Insta post)

“When we opened in July 2023, our dream was to create a place where everyone could feel welcome, safe, and celebrated,” the bar wrote on its social media post announcing its closure. “Together, we built more than a bar; we built a community we will always be proud of.” The bar did not give a reason for its closure on Instagram, nor did it offer one to local news affiliate WoodTV.

City Side Lounge and Kurt’s Place (Tampa)

In an extremely rare occurrence, two separate bars in the same space closed their doors within the same year. After City Side Lounge closed in March, Kurt’s Place opened up in the former venue in August, then finally announced its permanent closure in November, per Watermark Out News.

When City Side announced that it would close in February, local talent bemoaned the loss of the space, which was especially known as a haven for Tampa’s Latinx community. One DJ, DJ Manne, even posted that the bar’s Latin Night would continue in another venue.

Prior to its closure, the Facebook page associated with Kurt’s Place posted a notice from the building’s landlord stating that Kurt’s owed more than $30,000 in rent and past due fees.

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Some Unrushed Lunchtime Reading-

What Was Lost: A Queer Accounting of the NY Times Book Review, 2013-2022

Thirteen Essential Books by Trans and Queer Writers,
Reviewed by Trans and Queer Writers

Sandy Ernest Allen

“Goodbye, Pamela Paul,” was the headline of Andrea Long Chu’s now-iconic, recently ASME-nominated New York Magazine farewell to the former NY Times Book Review editor, when Paul left the paper two years ago. For a little background, Paul was named editor of the NYTBR in 2013 and took over books coverage for the entire paper in 2016, effectively becoming the most powerful editor in literary criticism. In 2022 she moved to the paper’s opinion pages to publish her own ideas about the world, many of which became political lightning rods in a publishing community that had for years been beholden to her editorial decisions.

Particularly infamous was one explicitly anti-trans essay from July, 2022, which was widely criticized at the time. It also had many people wondering how Paul’s politics might have come into play in her decisions as the most important books editor in the world.

So at some point I began dreaming up an idea: to commission a whole package of reviews of books by trans and queer authors, folks whose projects weren’t covered by the NYT under Paul’s reign. I asked Maris Kreizman to collaborate and to my delight, she agreed. What followed became an exercise in thinking through what is lost—and perhaps can never be regained—when transphobes and their enablers rise to prominence as our most powerful cultural gatekeepers.

*

So, to the nuts and bolts of this project. First of all, the volume of seemingly great books published by queer and trans authors between 2013 and 2022, and not covered by the NYT, was intimidating. It took Maris and me a while to work through the many great pitches we received and arrive at our final lucky number of 13. (Funnily enough, in actually trying to commission these reviews, I felt surprising sympathy for book review editors like Paul who are no doubt constantly buried in new titles to consider.)

Our effort here offers reviews of a mere sliver of all those titles we might have covered, many of which would be worthy of inclusion if we had limitless time and resources. I’m immensely grateful to all who submitted ideas, especially to all the fellow authors who wrote to tell us about their books (some were even writers I’d call heroes). My to-be-read pile is now, as ever, impossibly tall.

On a personal note, this entire project has made me feel much less alone. I feel more connected to other trans and/or queer writers, who are doing this work despite the shitty odds we face, despite our society’s continued denial of our full humanity, despite the efforts to ban our words and to decimate our entire lives, despite the media and publishing industry’s failure to actually reckon with—let alone correct for—any of this.

What follows is hardly meant to be comprehensive. I hope it inspires others to write their own reviews of whatever books they’d wish might be covered. I’d love teachers to assign this as a group project to writing classes, as I’ve heard of at least one doing already. I hope this project won’t be perceived as anything except the start of a conversation—one I feel everyone with stakes in this must join us in having.

–Sandy Ernest Allen

(Snip: please go to the page-that’s a link, right here, too–to see the books and the reviews.

A Princeton Boycott:

Op-Ed: Princeton Kicked a Trans Runner Off the Track. Now Athletes Are Organizing A Boycott

The alleged targeting of transgender runners at non-professional events marks an alarming escalation.

Lavender Sound (Max Freedman)

Editors Note: The following article is an Op-Ed submitted by Max Freedman. Max Freedman is a journalist covering LGBTQ+ topics, primarily but not entirely politics and music, from Philadelphia, PA.

When transgender runner Sadie Schreiner was allegedly removed from the heat sheet at Princeton University’s May 3, 2025 Larry Ellis Invitational track meet simply for being transgender, she sued the university and accused it of discrimination—and she’s not the only transgender runner taking action. Winter Parts, a well-known transgender running advocate, is organizing a boycott of Princeton’s two spring 2026 track meets, the Sam Howell Invitational on April 4 and the Larry Ellis Invitational on May 1.

“I want to see [the Larry Ellis Invitational organizers] face visible consequences for excluding someone from their meet,” Parts said. “My hope is that a lot of [athletes boycott]. I think it would send a strong financial and visual message to the Princeton officials if they’re going through the effort of trying to put on this meet, and nobody wants to show up because everyone’s upset with how they treated Sadie.” Notably, Parts doesn’t personally know Schreiner—who ran as “unattached” at the 2025 Larry Ellis Invitational, meaning unaffiliated with a running club or university track and field team but eligible to participate based on prior official race times—but was moved to take action nonetheless.

Although excluding transgender runners is, unacceptably and despicably, par for the course these days at professional running events—current NCAA and USA Track & Field policies ban transgender women from competing with other women—the two Princeton track meets aren’t professional events, making their alleged transgender exclusion an alarming escalation. Just as potentially concerning is that, whereas both track meets have previously been open to unattached runners and runners from clubs, Parts said that a coach from a prominent running club told them that, for the 2026 meets, only runners on university track and field teams are eligible to participate. It is unclear if or how this newly restricted eligibility is related to Schreiner’s pending litigation against Princeton athletic director John Mack and Princeton director of track operations Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick. Mack, Keenan-Kirkpatrick, and a representative for the third defendant in Schreiner’s lawsuit, Leone Timing & Results Services, did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and Schreiner was unable to comment due to her litigation.

Parts has emailed the track and field coaching staff at just under three dozen prominent colleges and universities, including Rutgers University, Temple University, and Columbia University, to demand that they and their runners boycott the 2026 meets. They have also contacted Mack and Keenan-Kirkpatrick to inform them of the boycotts, and some of their friends have joined their boycotting efforts and contacted their alma maters to encourage non-participation.

Avery Prizzi, a non-binary runner who has encouraged eligible runners not to attend the events, said that it feels like an escalation of transphobic rhetoric that a mere track meet, rather than a professional race, has excluded transgender runners. “[The events are] an experience [where] there’s no qualification, there’s no prizes, no first-place trophy,” Prizzi said. “People go to run fast and get a time for themselves. It’s all post-collegiate stuff. There’s no incentive besides running fast. To know that [the event organizers are] just gonna be garbage toward what, effectively, is just a place for people to go and better themselves or race a clock seems completely pointless or outside the mission I figured they were touting.”

Non-binary runner Will Vedder said that “the whole issue that’s been raised on a national level around trans inclusion or exclusion in sports is this, pun intended, trumped-up issue.” Vedder is a 2025-2026 board member of Philadelphia Runner Track Club (PRTC), and although PRTC members are ineligible to participate and the organization does not endorse boycotts, Vedder has told people about the boycotts to nevertheless support transgender runners, saying that excluding transgender people from sports is “based on misinformation. As we know, trans women don’t have any advantage over cis women when it comes to competitiveness in sports. Studies have shown that again and again. The fact that people are acting against what science says and excluding people who just want to run and compete, it’s infuriating.”

A 2023 Frontiers in Sports and Active Living study acknowledges a lack of evidence that transgender athletes are superior in performance and concludes, “Individuals should not have to make a choice between being their authentic selves or being athletes.” Only one transgender person, Quinn—a non-binary Canadian soccer player who uses a mononym in place of a traditional first and last name—has won a gold medal at the Olympics. Additionally, some transgender women runners, including Schreiner herself, have noticed that their performance permanently decreases after starting hormone replacement therapy (HRT). As made clear by the lack of scientific evidence about transgender runners’ supposed athletic advantages, transgender participation in not just running but all sports harms absolutely nobody. It’s the exclusion of transgender athletes that causes harm, and the consequences of this maltreatment reach far beyond the field.

“In the context of the things going on with trans people,” Parts said, “small actions like kicking a trans person out of a track meet build up to the general public thinking lowly of trans people, thinking it’s okay for laws to be passed affecting our lives, demonizing us, trying to eventually result in us being jailed or killed. Trying to push back against that will, hopefully, help increase acceptance of trans people in the public eye.” And with that, the chances of anti-transgender laws being passed — or even proposed — could decrease. A boycott might feel small, but it could help reverse the tides in a big way, and if you know runners on college and university track and field teams, you too can demand that they not participate in the 2026 Sam Howell and Larry Ellis Invitationals.

You just grew up intolerant.

Follow-up On KS Anti-Trans Law

(I need to subscribe to Kansas Reflector, so I get these more timely than my phone brings them to me.)

Clergy-led activists block entry into Kansas Senate in protest over bathroom law

By:Anna Kaminski-March 10, 20265:11 pm

Rabbi Moti Rieber watches law enforcement as they confront protesters March 10, 2026, outside the Senate chamber in the Kansas Statehouse. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Rabbi Moti Rieber sat on the tiled floor, legs akimbo, in front of the arched passage leading to the Kansas Senate chamber with at least 20 people behind him and more lining the walls with handmade signs.

“We are here because when injustice becomes law, then resistance is necessary,” Rieber said. “We are here as moral witnesses.”

Clergy members led a sit-in protest Tuesday in opposition to a recently passed anti-trans law. The Republican-controlled Legislature used tactics to avoid public input and overrode the governor’s veto to pass Senate Bill 244, requiring people in public buildings to use the bathroom that coincides with their biological sex and also mandating driver’s licenses include a person’s sex assigned at birth instead of their gender.

Sergeants-at-arms looked on from behind the group, and Kansas Highway Patrol troopers soon joined. But it wasn’t until the group prevented Sen. Tim Shallenburger, R-Baxter Springs, from entering the chamber that troopers grabbed people by the arms to clear a path.

As troopers hoisted activists up from their seats, encouraging them to disperse, the group sang in harmony: “No one is getting left behind this time. No one is getting left behind. No one is getting left behind this time. We get there together or never get there at all.”

At one point, a trooper knocked a woman to the ground as she tried to pass through the crowd, appearing to mistake her as part of the demonstration. Protesters responded with chants of “Shame!”

The woman declined to be identified or comment but told Kansas Reflector she was OK.

Rieber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, said while sitting on the floor, addressing the crowd, that the process to pass SB 244 was “crooked.” (There is a TikTok embedded on the page, linked in the title above.)

The law has already been challenged in Douglas County District Court, where a judge decided Tuesday not to pause enforcement of the law. The state sent letters to 275 Kansans shortly before the law went into effect, telling them their driver’s licenses were invalid. Some experts say laws targeting trans people can harm their mental health and increase the likelihood of discrimination.

The Rev. Mandy Todd, pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Lindsborg, said SB 244 is hurtful, targeted and part of a culture war. She said the group is “disgusted by this Legislature’s treatment of trans people.”

The bill stokes fear and anxiety, she said.

Todd, the director of engagement for Kansas Interfaith Action, said trans people in her community have felt the immediate effects of SB 244. The closest driver’s license office is in the next town, which Todd said has hamstrung one Lindsborg woman, who now cannot legally drive to sort out her invalid license.

Pastor Charles McKinzie II of Grace United Methodist Church in Winfield is confident the law, which he said was flawed in process and in substance, will make its way to the Kansas Supreme Court to be overturned.

“In the meantime, people are hurting, and people need to know that they are seen,” McKinzie said.

Conversations about the effects of SB 244 aren’t limited to a courtroom. They are taking place in churches, synagogues and other small group settings across the state, McKinzie said, and the sit-in was meant as a show of nonviolence “to shed light on a violent system.”

About an hour after the protest, Master Trooper Scott Whitsell said that no one from the group had been cited or arrested to his knowledge. The only law the protestors broke was blocking an entryway, he said.

Sherman Smith contributed to this story.

Let me explain the lack of posts, and I do feel bad about it.

Since Ron came home we have been very intuned with each other.  Each of us trying to give the other space and as much positive interaction as possible.  Yet I started to get irritable and Ron was noticing so I apologized this morning.  This morning is important, but let’s get back to that.    

Ron needs interaction and attention.  Plus I have gone back to making meals and making sure he eats.  That takes two hours out of my morning at least, but even more when I tell you what happened this morning.    

I got up at five, fed the cat who clings to me even though he is Ron’s cat.  I settled down to “work” putting together the cartoon / meme / news roundup that has not gone out in recent days.   Then Ron surprised me.  He got up early at 6:30 am.  OK.  

TMI to come.  

It is my birthday and knowing how sexual I am he appeared at my office door offering sexual relations.  One of the issues Ron had with the effects of the libido killing medication is he felt pressured some times to meet my needs when he really did not want to or feel it.   I had made a promise to not put such pressure on him when we talked about it when he got home at the same time he was trying to tell me he realized how important it was and wanted to work to be more sexual and he was starting to feel more sexual desire as the medications worked out of his system.  But when he appeared with his grand offer I had to gently tell him I felt that because today was my birthday he would feel pressured to offer me favors.  I did not want him to feel that pressure and because I am hypersexual … Again TMI… I masturbated in my office to porn before he got up… Twice.  When I explained that to him at first he seemed surprised and then I got the reaction I wanted when I explained it.  He blossomed and lite up understanding I was respecting him.  

Then I went back to my posting and and for the next three hours Ron kept coming to my door to talk to me, to ask my opinion on this or that or could I go with him to another part of the house to talk about something.  I guess I started to show irritation because Ron suddenly said this will be the last time I bother you.  

But this is what has been happening since he has been home.  He doesn’t seem to understand I need time and ability to do the posts.  I need to understand he needs and wants my interactions.  I try to divert him to his own projects but he is not easy to divert.   

OK one of the reasons I voluntarily went to therapy was I was lashing out at Ron in irritation of everything.  I have PTSD and according to the therapist, I am OCD.  I use the OCD to try to manage my PTSD.  So when Ron is being himself and is not ordered, not picked up, not… well Ron is a old never reformed youngest child frat boy.  He leaves everything where he last used, he folds towels like if he just gets it somewhat near a shape he can push it on the shelf, or he will root for a towel leaving the rest looking like a possum made a nest of them.  He will leave his socks on what ever surface in the livingroom he takes them off near.  His shoes are all over the house I trip over them.  The end of last year I was exploding and very angry.  I went to therapy.    

Before I saw “Sally Sunshine” I had already figured out the problem and the solution.  I have lived with Ron for 36 years.  I knew and accepted what he was in the first few months.  I thought over the years I could change him but over the last year I was lashing out at him for these things and he was getting very defensive and withdrawing from me.  I realized the truth before I ever saw the therapist, and she was shocked I figured this out.  

The problem was not Ron nor his actions which he always apologized for and said he would correct.  The problem was my reaction to it and how I was letting my irritation build to massive anger.   I got to the point when the towel shelves were messed up I would angrily demand he come back down to the bedroom and refold every towel.  He would do it but he was hurt.  Once I steped back from it all then realized something important.  He was hurt!

Before I went to therapy I realized the simple truth of the situation.  If it bothered me so much I could simply correct it myself.  Why humiliate him and make him feel bad for something he couldn’t help as it was ingrained in him and he couldn’t stop it anymore than I could stop the nightmares at night that leave me screaming that he tries to save me from?  I vowed to change and I did.  Now when the towels are rooted through I simply take them out and refold them my self like I want them to be.  That is what I should have done from the start.  I love him.

Back to this morning.  While he was standing there nude in my office doorway I went to him and hugged him.  I apologized for my irritability the last few days and told him it was wrong of me.  I also told him it was OK for him to call me out on it if I get acting irritable with him again.   Boy did he put that to the test this morning with three hours of needing / wanting my attention.  But it worked out.  I gave him the attention he wanted.

This afternoon he went out.  Did I mention it is my birthday?  He came back with two big steaks, something I have always loved but on our income have not had in nearly a year.  He also had flowers he arranged and put in a vase.  He got all the things I might like such as baking potatoes and the fixing for them.  He had gone out for prime rib but he couldn’t find it, his other choice was to take me out, but sadly I have gotten to dislike leaving my home.  I know I need to change that but even as I offered to go out Ron realized I wouldn’t enjoy it.  I only leave the house now for doctor’s appointments or to accompany him on large shopping trips.  I have developed an anxiety about leaving the house just like I have for voice conversations on the phone.

So Ron is making a large birthday meal complete…

So Ron called me to eat.  He had set up the folding table we use as a dining room table while the remodeling is going on.  He had a vase of flowers and our plates of steak and spiral potatoes.  I could see he was frustrated as he apologized he never got the broccoli with cheese sauce done.  It was a good meal, everything was tasty and good.  I ate my fill of decent steak something I have not had in a long time and Ron cooked them on the grill.  It was wonderful.  

I did ask him what he wanted for his upcoming 71st birthday, and he suggested several things not available in our area that he got in Texas.  But then he said he would think on it.  What ever makes him happy I will do.  

But I had started tomorrow’s cartoons / memes / and news roundup but it is late here after 7 pm, and I am wearing down.  By this time normally I am thinking of bed and to tell the truth I am now.  I will try to do a bit more and get up at 4 am to get it out at a resonable tiime.  Just letting everyone know why posts have been sporadic and not timely.  Thanks in advance for your understanding.   This is our 36th year together and I am not going to jeopardize our relationship.  But I have to get him to find a balance.   I need to find a balance as well.  Hugs

News On The KS Anti-Trans Law

I emailed this to me on Sunday, but have only just gotten back to it to post here. My apologies on that, but it’s been both busy and stormy here! Anyway, I haven’t heard anything about the status of this; I hadn’t heard anything about it at all until I read it in Kansas Reflector. With no further ado:

Kansas AG offers to delay enforcement of anti-trans law until March 26 while judge weighs challenge

By:Morgan Chilson-March 6, 20266:25 pm

LAWRENCE — Kansans won’t know until at least Tuesday if a judge will delay implementation of the state’s new “bathroom law,” but a concession by Attorney General Kris Kobach means key components of the law can be delayed until March 26.

Douglas County District Judge James McCabria heard arguments Friday about Senate Bill 244, the controversial new law that forces people to use bathrooms in government buildings and gender markers on driver’s licenses based on sex assigned at birth.

The three-hour hearing focused on technicalities, including whether the law meets any one of five specific criteria that would lead the judge to approve a temporary restraining order and pause enforcement of the law for up to 14 days.

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Kansas Department of Administration  said the law’s speedy implementation provided no grace period to Kansans needing a new driver’s license and for government leaders statewide to put a system in place for tracking bathroom usage.

The law took effect Feb. 26, a little over a week after the GOP-led Legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto. Kansans who held driver’s licenses with a gender marker that didn’t match their sex at birth were told their licenses were immediately invalidated and government leaders statewide were told they had to immediately enforce the bathroom portion of the bill.

Kobach told McCabria he agreed to give Kansans who needed to update driver’s licenses until March 26 to complete that. He also said he wouldn’t enforce the law’s penalties — which could be as high as $125,000 per day for violations — for cities, counties, municipalities and schools that might violate the bathroom rules, as well.

Harper Seldin, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, talks to reporters after a Douglas County District Court hearing on March 6, 2026. Seldin asked the judge to place a temporary restraining order on the state to stop implementation of a new law that forces Kansans to use bathrooms and have documentation in their biological sex at birth. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Harper Seldin, an ACLU attorney representing the two Lawrence transgender men who brought a case against the law under pseudonyms Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, told the judge the law violates the Kansas Constitution.

SB 244 infringes on the rights of personal autonomy, expectations of privacy, and equal protection under the law, and has other issues, he said.

“The attorney general is incorrect when he says that we’re asking the court to break new ground,” Seldin said. “This is not a novel set of theories that require the government to do anything. The thread through these individual rights claims is that this is about Daniel and Matthew’s right to be left alone by the government.”

Seldin also said the law targets transgender individuals, which can be shown by the results of its implementation even if it’s not stated outright. He said the way SB 244 was implemented violated the Kansas Constitution when the bathroom portion of the bill was “logrolled” into the bill that originally addressed driver’s license and birth certificate gender markers.

Logrolling refers to dropping a bill into an unrelated bill, sidestepping the opportunity for public input. Seldin said cramming two separate subjects into one law violates the Kansas Constitution, which has a “single subject” clause.

Kobach said the two issues are congruent in that they both deal with defining sex within Kansas government.

“It’s this idea that bills should mean what they say and say what they mean,” Seldin said. “There’s a particular perniciousness to a law that hides the law.”

Kobach told the judge that a driver’s license is a government document, used for government purposes, and the state has the right to define the information contained in the document.

McCabria questioned Kobach about briefs included in the plaintiff testimony outlining the negative psychological effects on transgender people being made to use documents that don’t match their gender identity.

“Whatever a person may feel about their need to be perceived by the world in a certain way, what right do I have to compel the government to identify me in that way?” McCabria asked.

Kobach said the driver’s license is a document that records pertinent information, and sex is one of the elements, along with eye color and birthdate, that doesn’t change over time.

Kobach said the bathroom portion of the bill maintains the status quo in Kansas, where he contended residents have always gone to the bathroom that matches their biological sex at birth.

Seldin said trans people in the state have been going to the bathroom without any harms for decades.

Kobach said women who hear a man’s voice or see a man in private spaces could become anxious about their safety.

He acknowledged plaintiff’s assertions about the psychological or emotional harm they may suffer but told McCabria that in a balance of equities, that didn’t outweigh the harms of “99-plus percent of the population.”

When McCabria asked him to substantiate that number, Kobach said he didn’t mean to imply that everyone outside of transgender individuals were harmed by the law.

“Many courts have recognized the fear that ‘biological females’ have when a ‘biological male’ is in the bathroom with them, and that is something that I think any Kansan can identify with, especially a female,” Kobach said after the hearing.

Asked how women would be affected by seeing or hearing a transgender man who now has to use a woman’s bathroom, Kobach said, “All kinds of hypothetical cases are possible.”

McCabria said he had hoped to make a ruling Friday but that he needs more time to study the filings in the case and examine constitutional issues. He said he expects to rule by Tuesday.

“I think most people want to be respectful,” Seldin said after the hearing. “I think most people don’t want to pry into other people’s private lives. I think a law like this suggests the opposite, that Kansans have some prurient interest in other people’s habits and private spaces. And I don’t think that’s right.”

Z Kemp attended the hearing because her partner and many friends are affected. She said the law has caused “a lot of stress and anxiety.”

“That’s just unnecessary because as they’ve stated before, there was — especially with the bathroom situation —- no prior problem,” she said. “It’s only a problem whenever you make it a problem. I don’t think it’s that radical to just let trans people be. Just let them go to the bathroom.”

Avie Fallis said she has been through a lot of physical and legal changes to find herself. She said she is tired of well-meaning people recommending that she leave Kansas, which is her home state where her family and loved ones live.

“I feel like it’s a fire that’s just growing,” she said. “I’m not going to run away from fire. I feel like it should be extinguished.”

Z Kemp, left, and Avie Fallis attended a Douglas County District Court hearing March 6, 2026, about Kansas’ new law because it affects them and their loved ones. The law forces people to use the bathroom related to their biological sex at birth and to put that sex marker on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

It has been a good day but a long day and it just turned sour but I am fighting back.

It has been a good day, let me explain.  Ron set our folding dining room table up to go through all the large filing cabinet, as he ran out of room for new files and some of our files are over 30 years old.  As he worked on that I had made breakfast of thick bacon and scrambled eggs with Ron having muffins and me white toast.  After breakfast we worked together on a really great now that it is cooking smelling recipe for pork chops using two packages of ranch dressing mix, can of cream of mushroom soup,  and some seasonings I helped adjust.  

I was on my way earlier to take my shower and a painful testorne shot when the water was shut down because the phase of the development we are in is hooked to the same water supply as the RV section and when an RVer forgets to unhook their water line and pulls out ripping the pipe apart or they back over and break the water pipe connection for their lot, it shuts down the water supply for both the RV section and the phase 1 homeowner section.  

No real problem, as Ron was doing the filing, and I was doing tomorrow’s roundup post and my shower and the dishes could wait.  But then Ron decided to go take a nap.   I was joined him to help him into bed.  As he got undressed I started to flirt and rub him.  We had flirted and been sexually suggestive with each other all day.  I am hypersexual and that is normal for a person who was abused in childhood as I was.  Sex and the function of it are super important to me and mean far more emotionally than the act should.  Ron understands that.  He accepts that.  But he is 71 yrs old and was put on a medication a decade or more ago that we did not know would kill his libido, his desire.  He has since gotten off the medication but the damage has been done. He is trying to get over the effects of the drug but it is hard.   He struggles to have sexual desires, while I am over sexual desire needing.  He tries to meet my needs when ever he can or I need, which is all the time, but I try to control it.  We do a lot of touching and at night in bed we cuddle for hours at a time.  We simply cuddle pushing our bodies as tight as possible with each other and sleep that way.  It makes the cat jealous though.  

As he was getting ready for his nap without clothing my desire was going close to out of control even as I understood it as not appropriate or the right time.  Ron realized my need and offered and I had a flashback.  I was taken over by a memory from my childhood.  It was painful and shook me.  I started to shake instead of replying.  Ron realized what was happening and instead of peppering me with questions moved back while assuring me it was all OK.  He got into the bed covering himself while continuing to talk to me calmly and reassuringly.   He kept using my name that is different from what my abusers called me.  He asked me if he needed to get up and I said no, that was not good.  I mumbled some sleep well stuff and went to my Pink Palace office and started to cry.

I gradually got my self undercontrol.  I post this to try to explain how triggers work and the minefield my life is even with a loving wonderful husband.  We were on the same wavelength for what I was desiring… but then the memories hit shattering everything.  If this had happened on a first date or such it could have gone really badly and maybe violently.  Ron has lived with me a long time, he understands some of my abuse and he knows how to deal with me to not make things worse.  The fact is I basically have to have two minds / people of me.  The outfacing person who appears normal and has no issues and who cares for everyone.  The second one I try to keep hidden in public life except for here on the blog.  A badly damaged person struggling to deal with day to day stuff and trying some how to understand the issues of what is happening with out letting it tear me apart while my memories struggle to constantly surge to the front of my mind. 

I don’t know if posting this will have the effect I want it to have which is not pity but understanding the minefield I walk daily in life.  It is not just the news about abused kids, it is not the survivor site where people discuss things similar to what I lived through and is still in my mind today.  It is not even when my husband sees my needs and wishes the same that a memory or many memories can sabotage and ruin everything.   I don’t know if any of you have ever needed to retreat to a “safe space”.  It is not a weak person who does that, it is a strong person who knows they are close to breaking.  I don’t care if the right calls it woke, I call it needed emotional health care.  I often get overwhelmed and sometimes share that with you.  But each of you I would think some times reach a point where enough is enough and you need to back off or change what you are doing. 

Very few people are an island.  I am not and don’t want to be.  I love being part of a community and being part of the world I live in.  However, I do admit it becomes difficult for me sometimes.  I struggle and I stumble in ways that the maga would make fun of me for.  I am human.  I get it and have been hurt.  I still stand up for others.  And now I am calm enough that I will go get my shower and take my painful shot.   Thank you for letting me express this part of my life and I welcome your comments.  Hugs

 

Now I Wonder How The New Chiefs Stadium Is Gonna Work Out…

Not worried; I was not in favor of bringing it here, though I have a “whatever” attitude about it. Meanwhile:

California activist urges national boycott of Kansas over new transgender law

by FOX Kansas News Sat, March 7, 2026 at 6:00 AM

(There’s an embedded video on the page that I can’t bring here. Just click the title above to go to the page. Basically, it’s this story, but with comments from Suzanne Ford that aren’t within the story below.)

A California activist is calling for a boycott of the entire state of Kansas because of a new law.

Last month, the law took effect requiring all transgender people to use the bathroom of their sex at birth. The same law also invalidated hundreds of transgender Kansans driver’s licenses.

San Francisco Pride released a statement calling for a national boycott of the state, saying transgender Kansans are being targeted for simply existing.

North Carolina passed a similar law back in 2016, and economic consequences followed. The NCAA pulled the first weekend of the men’s basketball tournament out of Greensboro, and the NBA moved the All-Star game out of Charlotte because of those laws.

FOX Kansas News at 9 anchor Jack Cooper shares more in the video posted at the top of this page.