The women reliving January 6 while preparing for Trump’s return

Jan 06, 2025 Mariel Padilla Originally published by The 19th

Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, who was elected to the 118th Congress in 2022, said she was shaped and largely motivated by January 6, 2021 — the day a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of the legitimate results of the 2020 election.

“A lot of the members who ran in the 118th and 119th Congress understood that we were running towards a house on fire and that being honestly democracy itself,” Balint said.

Balint said she vividly remembers January 6, 2021, because it was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life: She was being sworn in as the first woman to lead the Vermont Senate. When her security team popped into her office to tell her that the U.S. Capitol was under attack, Balint said the footage “shook me to my core.”

The attack, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation called an act of domestic terrorism, sparked the Department of Justice’s largest criminal investigation in the country’s history and led to more than 1,500 people being federally charged. Rioters brought firearms, knives, hatchets, pepper spray, baseball bats, stun guns and explosive devices to fight Capitol Police officers and storm the building where lawmakers were actively voting to certify the 2020 election. Five people died during or soon after the riot, approximately 140 law enforcement officers were injured and $2.9 million worth of damage was done to the Capitol.

The day after the Capitol riot, Trump referred to the event as a “heinous attack” but has since promised to pardon those who were arrested in connection with the insurrection. Trump himself was indicted on felony charges in 2023 for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election — a criminal case that was dismissed shortly after he won the 2024 presidential election. The president-elect has since started describing January 6 as a “day of love,” as he did on the campaign trail.

As Congress votes again to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, the country prepares to welcome back to the Oval Office the same man who denied his loss four years ago and threatened the country’s tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.

“It always sends a shiver down my spine when I hear people say ‘Americans don’t care about January 6 anymore — move on,’” Balint said. “I’m not moving on. It was a dark day in our history, and I’m not moving on.”

The 19th reached out to every woman in Congress — just as it did in 2021 and 2022 — to collect reflections on how January 6 continues to impact them and the country. Seventeen Democratic congresswomen and one senator responded and talked about their remaining trauma, their concern about the normalization of violence and their strong sense of duty to combat any efforts to whitewash that day.

‘There’s a record of this.’

Here’s what they said about how the spread of misinformation and disinformation surrounding that day has downplayed the severity of violence and the gravity of what was almost destroyed.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon: I still have seared in my memory the images of Capitol Police officers and other people being beaten. People lost their lives. … It’s not like somebody made this up. There are videos. There are pictures. There are statements. There’s a record of this. And there were people that were convicted by juries of their peers.

Rep. Deborah Ross of North Carolina: I think the most important thing is to be brutally honest about what happened that day. Many of us were there to witness, and we’re here to testify. We cannot allow Donald Trump and his cronies to deny what needs to be preserved for history. The next generation should know how fragile our democracy is and march forward, clear-eyed and ready to fight.

Balint: My grandfather was killed in the Holocaust and so I was raised in a family in which we were taught to be vigilant when people start eroding rights, upending norms, scapegoating people. When up is down and black is white and we can’t agree on basic facts, that is all an indication that we are headed in a very scary direction as a country.

Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey: I think [Trump] is going to do whatever he can to make January 6 be remembered like it’s July 4. In his mind, I think it’s going to be put in the highest regard and glorify the day as much as he can. And he’s going to have four years to try and get the rest of the country to do the same.

Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine: I think it’s very troubling that this incoming president could convince people that he either wasn’t responsible or that somehow all that didn’t matter. But sometimes it takes us a while to process big, complicated changes like this. Maybe there will be a time when we can reflect back and say that this was a mistake, that we overlooked it, that it took us time to realize how serious that movement was.

Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii: As we approach January 6 once again, we all have a responsibility to stand up against the normalization of political violence and disinformation. We cannot forget what happened that day and as Americans, it is incumbent on us to reject violence in any form from infecting our politics and our democracy.

‘Deeply, deeply disappointed.’

Many of the lawmakers said they are still processing what it means about the state of our country that the same man who incited an insurrection could be re-elected four years later. Several emphasized that those involved in planning, executing or inciting the riot still need to be held accountable before the country can heal and move forward.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth speaks on Capitol Hill on in February 2023, in Washington D.C. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois: As deeply, deeply disappointed as I am that that same twice-impeached president who led a coup against our government is headed back to the Oval Office, make no mistake: My Democratic colleagues and I, unlike many Republicans after the 2020 election, will uphold the will of the American people, fulfill our constitutional duty and do our part to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut: As Donald Trump returns to the presidency, I feel an even greater responsibility to ensure that we do not let an election outcome diminish the gravity of what happened that day. His re-election does not change the reality of the insurrection or absolve those who incited and participated in it. It does not erase the trauma experienced by Capitol staff and Capitol Police officers who defended our democracy at great personal risk.

Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin: Donald Trump, a convicted felon and aspiring autocrat, is promising to let loose dangerous rioters into our communities and threatening lawmakers and journalists with imprisonment. Trump’s lawlessness and thirst for political revenge is why I have repeatedly said he is unfit for office.

Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida: People have short memories. People are more consumed with their own lives [when they go to the polls]. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; it’s just an observation. What was probably on people’s minds? Their bank account, their rent, price of food, right?

Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio: We learned a lot of lessons through this last election. The American people know what they want to hear, whether it’s true or not.

Rep. Judy Chu of California: No matter what happens during Trump’s second term, the events of January 6, 2021, will forever be his legacy. He refused to concede or even acknowledge that there was a free and fair election in 2020, and he is still pressuring the Justice Department and intends to continue to pressure the Justice Department.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts: Trump’s return to the highest office in the land, despite his central role in the insurrection, is a gut punch to anyone who cares about our democracy. But it does not absolve us of our responsibility to pursue accountability and continue telling the story of what happened that day.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington: I still put the onus on the Republicans in the Senate who refused to convict him. That’s something I think about all the time being on the Judiciary Committee. I think our founding fathers assumed that perhaps there would be a dictator as president — that’s envisioned in the Constitution. But they also assumed that an entire party would not just enter into a cult and follow that dictator. They assumed that there would be enough people on both sides of the aisle willing to do what it takes to preserve democracy, and that is clearly not the case.

‘I still tremble at the mere mention of the date.’

For many of the women, there is lingering trauma.

Jayapal: It will always be a day that is very, very tough emotionally. I started a gallery group after, a very close support group to process the trauma — it’s something that none of us will ever forget.

Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida: I still tremble at the mere mention of the date January 6, a day that is forever tainted with fear, violence and terror. To have lived it is to never ever forget it. America can never fathom what we experienced. It was like playing a role in a horror movie and hoping that it would soon come to an end.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico: It makes me sick to my stomach that the people who desecrated our democracy will be pardoned and potentially invited back into the Capitol. It makes me incredibly sad to think that there will be Capitol Police — police who were brutalized and beaten by the mob — who will just have to stand there.

Rep. Sara Jacobs of California: I’ve been very nervous thinking about and leading up to January 6. I still have lingering trauma from the first one. I don’t like big crowds and loud noises. And I just keep thinking that they have no incentive to be violent this time, right? But it still makes me very nervous because we haven’t actually done the sort of reconciliation and hard work and accountability work that we need to do as a country. … I know that people’s trust and faith in institutions is a key part of addressing political violence because political violence only happens when people don’t feel like the nonviolent, institutional way of doing things is actually going to create the effect they want.

Rep. Ann McLane Kuster talks to Capitol Police officer Sgt. Aquilino Gonell after he testified before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. — Rep. Ann McLane Kuster talks to Capitol Police officer Sgt. Aquilino Gonell after he testified before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol on July 27, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Rep. Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire said she is still dealing with lasting post-traumatic stress disorder from January 6, one the “most impactful events” in her life. Kuster was also one of the last five lawmakers to be evacuated from the House floor. She could hear the thundering crowds and pounding on the doors and experienced a panic attack as officers snuck them into an elevator and rushed them through an underground tunnel to safety. Kuster later saw security footage of insurrectionists with backpacks, bear mace and zip ties entering the same hallway she had just evacuated 30 seconds earlier.

“I’m haunted by the idea that if the police hadn’t pushed back five seconds here, five seconds there, pushing back on the bicycle racks, pushing back on the people who were crushed in the doors — that the five of us would have been kidnapped, murdered or maimed,” Kuster said. “It was only a five-vote majority and if we hadn’t been there, America might not have woken up to Joe Biden as the lawfully elected president of the United States.”

Kuster decided to retire this year before Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States and attributes January 6 as one of the reasons for that decision. In addition to the lingering trauma, Kuster said she’s received more and more death threats and has noticed a marked increase of violent rhetoric in public discourse.

“He tried to kill me once,” Kuster said. “I’m not available for it again.”

Timely Toon

Bezo’s Sacrifice by Clay Jones

This one’s for Ann Read on Substack

“Democracy dies in darkness” is a phrase popularized by Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward who used it in an article about government secrecy. After billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post and Donald Trump assumed the presidency (sic), it became the newspaper’s first slogan in its 140-year history. Today, democracy is dying.

When Bezos purchased the paper, many felt he was saving the Post and journalism. He stood out of the way and allowed his journalists to defend democracy because there is no democracy without journalism.

After Trump lost the 2020 election by being soundly and squarely defeated by Joe Biden, the Post started to get a little flaky. It laid off and bought out prominent journalists. It started running whimsical New Yorker-like cartoons by Edith Pritchett on its opinion page. It hired right-wing Nixon/Reagan lover Michael Ramirez to draw political cartoons for its opinion page. It refused to make an endorsement in the 2024 election. but it still had Ann.

Herblock Award, Pulitzer Prize, and Rueben Award-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes had been freelancing for the Post for years. She was freelancing for the Post when the excellent Tom Toles retired in 2020. The Post promised to hire a full-time cartoonist to replace Toles who had replaced the legendary Herblock. Many felt the Post would hire Ann full-time as she was the most qualified and deserving. But the Post backtracked (lied) and didn’t hire a staffer. Instead, they brought in a freelancer who worked from Canada.

No offense to Michael de Adder, but this is the legendary Washington Post. The person filling Herblock’s spot should be expected to live in Washington, DC, or at the very least, the United States. I believe political cartoons are better if the person drawing them is actually affected by the issues he or she is drawing about. Ann was living in Washington at the time.

For the past few decades, Ann has been one of the best political cartoonists in the world. The Washington Post never fully respected that, and they disrespected her again this week.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, The Post has been flaky. Bezos issued statements before election day about having high expectations from a second Trump administration. Never mind that Donald Trump has attacked the Post, calling it the “Amazon” Washington Post. Never mind that Trump continues to call journalists the “enemy of the American people.” Never mind that Trump calls legitimate news “fake news” while pushing lies over and over again. Never mind that Trump sues journalism outlets for reporting facts about him. Never mind that Trump threatens and wants to do away with the basic tenets of democracy.

After the election, Bezos and other tech billionaires started dumping money into Trump’s “inauguration” fund with many, such as Bezos, making treks to MAGA-Lardo to kiss Trump’s ass.

As the owner of Amazon, which has government contracts, and with the threat of Elon Musk in a position to make cuts to government spending, it’s in Bezos’ financial interest, or so he believes, to play up to Donald Trump. Jeff Bezos had dinner with Trump, probably sitting in the same spot as all the white nationalists who had dinner with Trump at MAGA-Lardo. Trump was launching a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register for a poll while Bezos was sitting at MAGA-Lardo chomping on his Cobb salad.

This week, Ann drew a cartoon that depicted the billionaires groveling to Trump, and among them was Jeff Bezos. Guess what her editor did with that cartoon? He killed it. Guess what Ann did. She quit.

That’s right. Ann Telnaes got up and quit working for the most prominent publication for political cartoonists. In her substack piece, Why I’m Quitting The Washington Post, Ann, who has been with the Post since 2008, writes, “In all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.”

Ann called the spiking of the cartoon a “gamechanger,” that was “dangerous for a free press.”

She’s correct. When newspaper owners are afraid of presidents to the point they start killing critical political cartoons, a free press is in danger. Bezos and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong both killed editorials endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president over Trump. Why? Because it was bad for business.

Ann’s editor, David Shipley, called her a liar for her “interpretation of events and said in a statement, “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” Mr. Shipley said in the statement, “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column — this one a satire — for publication. The only bias was against repetition.”

As a political cartoonist who’s worked with editors, I smell bullshit. In my experience, editors LOVE it when cartoons coincide with editorials. Now, these are columns but still, they typically like it when they run together or close together. Shipley says one of those columns had already been published and the second is scheduled for publication. Since one of those hasn’t been published yet, then he should have given deference to Ann’s cartoon, that is if he’s not lying. Ann is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Why would he kill her piece for something else?

Shipley said he respects Ann but he clearly doesn’t.

His excuse is nearly as bad as the paper’s when Bezos killed its endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Trump spent his entire campaign promising to weaponize the Justice Department to go after his enemies. Look at his nominees to lead the DOJ. First, it was Matt Gaetz and now it’s Pam Bondi. His pick to lead the FBI is Kash Patel. These are goons.

Ann took a principled stand that will cost her financially. I can’t think of an outlet that would hire her and pay more than the Post. It may have hurt her professionally as I can’t think of an outlet that would hire her and be more prominent than the Post. But she’s established that she’s a badass.

The last time something like this happened was when the Pittsburgh Gazette fired Rob Rogers for refusing to stop criticizing Donald Trump. His replacement was goosestepping Steve Kelley (who was later quietly let go). Someone should tell the Post that Steve’s available, who’s probably already FedEx’ed his resume.

I drew a cartoon in 2015 when Ted Cruz attacked Ann which provoked thousands of death threats and threats of other despicable things I won’t mention here.

I drew a cartoon in 2019 that featured the firing of Rogers. When Rogers was fired, Michael Cavna, who wrote about cartoon issues did a piece about that. He’s not there anymore to write about Ann’s departure.

I drew a cartoon in 2023 about McClatchy laying off three Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonists on the same day.

And last June, I hit the Post’s editor.

This profession needs more journalists with backbones like Ann Telnaes and Rob Rogers.

When I stand up and speak out for my colleagues, I’m not just speaking out for my profession. I’m also standing up for journalism.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go watch!)

New Orleans Attack by Clay Jones

Attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans Read on Substack

I’m from Louisiana, mostly. But I always tell people I’m from the part of the state that’s not fun, which means I’m not from New Orleans because that’s the impression most people get when I say I’m from Louisiana. Yes, I am a Saints fan. Who dat?

It breaks my heart to see New Orleans suffer. While I haven’t been there in over two decades, it’s a city I love. While every city is different and has its own character, New Orleans is special. I read somewhere a long time ago that the four most distinctive cities in this nation are Boston, Austin, San Francisco, and New Orleans. I don’t know if I believe that because I’d throw New York City and Chicago into that mix.

But like New York City, New Orleans knows how to rebound after a disaster. While 9/11 was hard, it didn’t destroy NYC. Katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans and the city was down for the count, but it’s back. And I assure you that an ISIS-inspired terrorist from Texas isn’t going to take the city out either.

And now I want an oyster po’boy.

What New Orleans nor the nation needs right now is Donald Trump.

Trump has blamed this attack on President Biden, open “border’s,” and immigrants. He also trashed law enforcement. But the thing is, this attack wasn’t perpetuated by an immigrant but by a U.S.-born citizen who’s in the military.

Donald Trump probably followed a false news report by Fox News, which they quickly corrected, but Trump doubled down on his lies.

But Trump isn’t just any American citizen. He’s the president-elect. He is receiving an intelligence briefing daily which means he knows he’s lying.

The election is over, so what the hell is Trump campaigning for? He’s scaring America so it’ll go along with his hate agenda, especially when he starts rounding up immigrants along with his enemies.

Creative note: I thought I had my idea for this in my head yesterday. But I went north to Northern Virginia last night and when I started work this morning in a different location, I decided I didn’t like my original idea. But then this hit me.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go watch)

Peace & Justice History for 1/4

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january4

Supt. Ryan Walters Convinced He Knows Things

I was simply reading this, then saw a bit about Supt. Walters. The news, as humorously presented as Wonkette does, is still sickening as to RWNJ logic, and none of us needs that. However. I did promise to update regarding Walters. So, here’s the link to the article, with the snippet about Walters. -A.

If We Can’t Blame Teachers Unions For Terrorism (Yes, Really!), Then The Terrorists Will Win by Rebecca Schoenkopf

It’s all a game of gotcha. With bodycounts. Read on Substack

(snip) “For his part, Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma schools chief who has been trying to Jesusify the state’s entire public school system, was pretty sure that these men committed these acts because the US school system taught them to hate America — to hate America so much that, again, they both joined the Army. Like big America-haters often do.

“Walters said:”

‘What a terrible day when we see terrorist attacks on American soil. It’s absolutely tragic and we’ve got to look as a country on how these things happen. We absolutely have to shut down the border, we can’t allow terrorists to come across the border. We also have to take a look at how are these terrorists coming from people that live in America?

‘You have schools that are teaching kids to hate their country, that this country is evil, you have the teachers unions pushing this on our kids, the radical Left wants people to hate this country. They’ve completely destroyed the integrity of the FBI by making them more concerned about DEI than about protecting Americans. It’s a major part of this.

‘And look, this is a real uncomfortable truth, and I know the Left is going to lose their mind, but listen: We cannot allow our schools to be terrorist training camps. We cannot allow our schools to teach our kids to hate this country. We cannot allow our kids to be taught that this is an evil country.

‘That’s why we’re getting back to the basics in Oklahoma, to make sure that our kids love this country, understand American values, understand the role that the Constitution, the Bible, the Declaration of Independence played in American history. Because we want patriots, and that’s going to be the focus of our schools.

“I suppose it’s possible that these men simply forgot that they hated America for several decades and then went on to commit terrorist attacks against the United States after remembering that they learned that Columbus committed genocide and that many of the Founding Fathers owned slaves in school — but it does seem a tad unlikely.” (snip)

Peace & Justice History for 1/2

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january2

Some Poetry on New Year’s Morning

It is about war. It is a beautiful piece of work about war. Click the title to get the background.

All I can see is nothing Sahar Muradi

^{If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness.
Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence.
—Thomas Merton, from “New Seeds of Contemplation,” 1961}

^{I swear to God, mom, I am exhausted, but praise be to God in all circumstances.
—writing, translated from the Arabic, on the Al-Shifa Hospital walls, April 2024}

All I can see is nothing
Fields of

Hollow
The O that escapes

A pasture of
Mouths

An apartment building
Of locked jaws

The silent weeping
Of rocks

I hear nothing
In the bags of soft limbs sighing

Milk teeth
Sharpening a father’s heart

The cone hat on the small head
Singing to plumes

Iftar in the tents
Flapping pages off the moon

But Your name over and over
On the hospital walls

But Your name stilling
The fire that does not cease

But Your name everywhere
Everything all at once

I see nothing
From this distance

This deepest night
This longest darkness

Fumble at fajr
To loosen my gasps

I repeat Your name
Over and over

Then bow to Your wisdom
To the terror of Your liberation

O that I may not see anything
More

Copyright © 2024 by Sahar Muradi. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 31, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

Maybe Some New Reads for the New Year

The Best Queer Books of 2024, According to All the Lists

Here are the queer books mentioned on the most Best Books of 2024 lists, from graphic novels to literary fiction, romance, fantasy, and more.

Danika Ellis Dec 31, 2024

During the “Best Books of the Year” season, I’ve been going through and picking out which queer books get featured on the biggest lists. My plan was to mash all this information together into a Frankensteined spreadsheet and then share with you the queer books included on the most “best of” lists. Luckily, I was saved a step, because LitHub already made an Ultimate Best Books of 2024 List that includes best-of lists from 39 outlets. I just went through that and pulled out the queer books.

I am limited to the books I recognize, so please let me know if I missed any! As far as I could tell, though, here are the nine queer books mentioned on the most Best Books of 2024 lists, from horror graphic novels to literary fiction to historical sports romance to poetry, biography, fantasy, and more.

If you’ve been paying attention to the best of lists at all, I bet you can guess which titles are tied at #1. Regardless, this makes for a great reading list if you want to catch up on the best queer books that came out in 2024 that you may have missed!

#5 (Tied), Mentioned on Five Lists

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2 by Emil Ferris

We finally have the sequel to this celebrated graphic novel, and it was worth the wait. Intricately etched with full, exciting pages and a bold story, it picks up where the last left off: Karen, a young monster, is investigating her neighbor’s murder in the Uptown apartment where she’s grown up. But the secrets she’s discovered aren’t the ones she was looking for, and in this book, she’ll have to fight hard to avoid coming apart at the seams. This bold coming-of-age tale about queerness, difference, family, and the city of Chicago is impactful, emotional, and bold, and I was both overjoyed and very sad to see the story of Karen Reyes come to its conclusion. —Leah Rachel von Essen

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

This award-winning book follows siblings Greta and Valdin as they contend with an eccentric, multiracial family, queerness, and just trying to figure it all out. Valdin is doing superficially well after having been dumped by his boyfriend a year ago—his colleagues are only occasionally weird about his Maaori heritage, and he has intermittent sad sex with a friend—when work sends him from New Zealand to Argentina, where his ex is. Meanwhile, Greta has her own bubbling sadness. She’s experiencing unrequited pining, and her family is in a state made even more perplexing by her brother’s sudden, secretive move to South America. —Erica Ezeifedi

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

In this M/M historical baseball romance, Mark is a reporter in the 1960s who’s stuck interviewing the obnoxious New York shortstop for his whole first season. Eddie is having a tough enough time on the team, so he’s also reluctant, but neither of them is exactly given a choice. Mark is still mourning the death of his partner, the one no one knew about. He’s vowed never to have a secret relationship again—but now Mark and Eddie are falling for each other…

#4, Mentioned on Six Lists

Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

If you’re looking for a dry, birth-to-death, “here’s an accounting of the events of this person’s life” biography, this book is not for you. If you’re looking for a biographical poem, a multilayered close read of Audre Lorde’s poetry, a book that centers her relationships, an exploration of the ongoing legacy of her liberation work, an ode to complexity and nuance—then you’re going to want to run to this astounding, prismatic work of nonfiction. —Laura Sackton

#3 (Tied), Mentioned on Seven Lists

Bluff: Poems by Danez Smith

Danez Smith is a must-read poet who has been recommended in countless Book Riot lists. This is their newest, and I’ll let the publisher’s description summarize it: “Bluff is a kind of manifesto about artistic resilience, even when time and will can seem fleeting, when the places we most love—those given and made—are burning. In this soaring collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage, and imagination to envision futures that seem possible.”

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Like a lot of fantasy lovers, I’ve read my fair share of King Arthur-related novels. So many of them take themselves very seriously, portraying these majestic and austere knights as the fierce protectors of the land. But Grossman’s version of Camelot is different. It’s funny, delightfully ridiculous in so many ways. Like his take on magical schools in the magicians, The Bright Sword pokes fun at stories of Arthurian legend as much as it also celebrates it. But we, the readers, are in on the joke, understanding that this story is in conversation with the many previous tales of King Arthur and his knights.

If you’re looking for a humorous yet simultaneously heartfelt, funny, and queer-inclusive story from the world of Camelot, The Bright Sword may be the pick for you. —Kendra Winchester

#2, Mentioned on 11 Lists

Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

Alan Hollinghurst is the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty, The Swimming-Pool Library, and many other acclaimed novels. Our Evenings is about Dave, a mixed-race queer child who receives a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school and experiences the opportunities and cruelties of this turn of fate. We follow him from the 1960s through his coming of age, including first love affairs, a career on stage, and a late-in-life marriage.

#1 (Tied), Mentioned on 21 Lists

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

It’s always nice when one of the biggest literary fiction titles of the year is queer. This is a bestseller that comes highly recommended by authors like Tommy Orange, Lauren Groff, John Green, Clint Smith, and more. It follows Cyrus, a twentysomething queer poet who has been numbing his pain with drugs and alcohol. His mother was killed when her plane was shot down over Tehran in a senseless act of violence by the U.S. military. His father recently died of a heart attack. As he becomes sober, Cyrus goes looking for meaning, and he finds it by researching martyrs. When he hears about an artist dying of cancer in an exhibition at a museum, he is determined to meet her.

All Fours by Miranda July

In The New York Times Notable list, they categorize this literary fiction title with a bisexual main character as “Sexy Perimenopause Fiction” and recommend it for fans of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. The top 10 list describes it as “the talk of every group text — at least every group text composed of women over 40” and “the first great perimenopause novel.”

Somber News

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Passes Away at 100

Dec. 29, 2024

ATLANTA (Dec. 29, 2024) — Jimmy Carter, 39^th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.

President Carter is survived by his children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Rosalynn, and one grandchild.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”

There will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private interment in Plains, Georgia. The final arrangements for President Carter’s state funeral, including all public events and motorcade routes, are still pending. The schedule will be released by the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region at

www.usstatefuneral.mdw.army.mil.

Members of the public are encouraged to visit the official tribute website to the life of President Carter at www.jimmycartertribute.org. This site includes the official online condolence book as well as print and visual biographical materials commemorating his life.

The Carter family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Carter Center, 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307.

We Did Get Some Stuff Done

because we did the work.

It wasn’t all bad: Despite election defeat, progressives scored big wins in 2024

Organizers tell Salon how they pulled off major victories in a year marked by the rise of the far-right

By Tatyana Tandanpolie Staff Writer

Snippet:

For many on the political left, 2024 was disappointing.

Even as inflation ebbed, Americans still struggled with housing costs and necessary expenses. The U.S. role in enabling Israel’s war in Gaza sparked protests in the streets and on college campuses. The far-right continued to target marginalized groups, most notably immigrants, transgender people and women. To top it off, the mid-summer excitement at Vice President Kamala Harris’ entry into the presidential race following President Joe Biden’s eleventh-hour exit petered out with the election of President-elect Donald Trump — again.

But even as the political landscape appeared to grow bleaker, Americans still fended off at least some of the efforts to encroach upon their rights. At times, they even helped pass policies that not only protected core freedoms but could genuinely improve quality of life.

As they reflected on 2024 and looked ahead to 2025, when the Trump administration’s ultraconservative agenda is poised to make their work harder, advocates behind wins in LGBTQ+, labor and reproductive rights shared with Salon how they successfully organized against legislative efforts to roll their rights back and planted hope for a better future.

Abortion rights enshrined in seven states

Ballot measures seeking to establish or protect abortion rights were on 10 states’ ballots this year as organizers fought to protect access and reverse bans enacted in the wake of the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. Seven of those states — Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York — would indeed pass measures to enshrine a right to abortion access in their respective constitutions.

Proposition 139 in Arizona provided a legal means to upend the state’s 15-week abortion restriction and established state constitutional rights to abortion access until viability and afterward if a healthcare professional deems it necessary for the pregnant person’s physical or mental health. The proposition also barred the state from penalizing any individual or entity “for aiding or assisting a pregnant individual in exercising the individual’s right to abortion.”

Arizona for Abortion Access, a seven-group coalition of reproductive health, rights and justice organizations, including Reproductive Freedom for All and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, led the campaign supporting the proposed amendment, which took effect almost immediately on Nov. 25.

“The passing of Proposition 139 speaks to the broad support — across the entire state, across all political parties, and across voters of all different backgrounds — for reproductive freedom,” Erika Mach, Planned Parenthood Arizona’s chief external affairs officer, told Salon. “People want the freedom to make medical decisions with their doctor and family, without government involvement.”

To place a constitutional amendment on the state’s ballot, the coalition had to obtain signatures from 15% of registered voters in the state — just under 384,000 signatures — and file the petition by early July, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s website. (snip-MORE)