A Geeky Reader

look up recipes (especially snack recipes) that are child/toddler/baby-friendly

Basically, people are using their key fobs to set off their car alarms when they see ICE.

This is effective for several reasons:

Obviously, it alerts everyone that something is wrong. Given ICE has been terrorizing Minnesota, people are likely to immediately know it is ICE. This gives people time to flee or barricade themselves in their homes.

ICE loses the element of surprise.

Then I saw this today.

this is a sea sapphire!! they are tiny little copepods that have the ability to appear to become invisible to the naked eye!! only the males actually have the ability to flash these brilliantly iridescent shades though! the females are simply transparent!

here are some fun articles about them!!

If you are in a red state, your state either has an abortion ban in place or is rated by the Guttmacher Institute as likely to enact a ban. Your focus should be on protecting yourself and others who need abortions.

stop using electronic period tracking apps or software

educate yourself and others about pregnancy prevention and join groups that are making preventative birth control more accessible

learn the nearest and most accessible routes to states where you and your loved ones can access abortion

contribute to mutual aid funds to help transport people over state lines if they are in need of abortion

consider joining The Satanic Temple so you can claim protections under the Religious Abortion Ritual if you are prosecuted for obtaining an abortion

keep a stock of by-mail abortion pills for yourself and/or others who may need them (you may need to travel out of state to obtain them)

form community provider networks and see if you or someone you know can be trained to use manual vacuum aspiration kits or a Del-Em

all of the above should be done in complete secrecy using verbal communication, end-to-end encrypted apps such as Signal, or a VPN

If you are in a yellow state, you currently have constitutional abortion protections but they are in jeopardy. Get active in local political groups NOW to fight back against constitutional amendments to ban abortion. Your focus should be purely on political action.

If you are in Michigan, you currently have a ban in place which is being challenged, and your governor is working to add abortion protections into the Michigan state constitution. Your focus should be on supporting the work that is currently under way.

If you are in a green state, your state has constitutional protections for abortion that are unlikely to be challenged. Your focus should be on helping others to enter your state for abortion care.

connect with abortion access groups such as Aid Access, Abortion on Demand, the National Network of Abortion Funds, or Just The Pill

volunteer to help people enter your state for abortion care, either with transportation help or letting someone crash on your couch

if you live in a green state with no current or predicted primary routes from other states for abortion access, you can focus your efforts on supporting political action in other areas

So after like... hours of waiting around for stuff to happen, they had us line up. Crowds were starting to form, I was surrounded by huge tall buildings that echoed and turned the street into a wind tunnel.

I'm not downtown very often because despite being an extrovert I'm not a fan of crowds. So the streets being empty of traffic but full of us queers had such an amazing high energy like... it cannot be put into words, it has to be experienced. At one point during the lineup I looked up and cried a little bit because it was a beautiful queer day and I was a beautiful queer and we were all thousands and thousands of beautiful queers.

Then I waited for another hour or so because parade lineup logistics are a pain in the ass.

About half an hour before push-off, the protestors arrived. This time they staked their spot in front of the head of the parade. They had a bullhorn and a loudspeaker and an exhaustive list of Bible verses. I heard Deuteronomy being shouted at over the din of the crowd.

Our drum line makes their way up to the front and starts playing their cadences to drown out the protestors. Drums are the loudest part of the band and you can hear the beat bouncing off the buildings. So you can't hear the protestors. And soon you can't even year the drums all that much because people were cheering so much.

The protestors refused to shut up.

About two slots in front of us was a small convoy of rainbow cars that were cheuffering drag queens. One of them lays on their horn. The rest lay on their horns.

One of the melophones in our band goes 'what is that, A-flat?'

And he starts to match pitch. The other melophones join in, then the trumpets, the tubas, flutes, saxes, tubas, clarinets. Either matching pitch or harmonizing. We start waving our flags.

The other band down the way starts doing the same. The A-flat is heard around the statehouse. The dykes on bikes rev their engines. Some folks on kazoo, tambourine... everyone starts making noise.

The cacophony bounces off the steel and glass buildings like rubber balls loose in food processor. The sound rose up like August heat, the gathering crowd cheered down the street, and the group with their Bible verses put down their words because even the people next to them couldn't hear them.

I can't know if they moved or gave up, but I didn't see them as we passed the area where they were.

But I was so delighted to part of that absolute clown show.

When we say make Pride more accessible we mean don’t pack people in and make it hard to move in mobility aids. 

When we say make Pride more accessible we mean stop having Pride events that only happen on grass. 

When we say make Pride more accessible we mean make sure all bathrooms are easily found and usable. 

When we say make Pride more accessible we mean make sure we actually can sit somewhere if we need to. If all the seats are bar stools that is not helping or helpful. 

When we say make Pride more accessible we mean don’t expect everyone can dance physically. 

Stop using ‘that’s just how it’s always been’ as an excuse. Intersectionality in the community needs to be a thing. 

“Who are you to stand so fearsome

With your wavy locks of auburn hair and eyes of emerald green?”