A Light Shining to the Ends of the Earth

She was so selective about dogs that the shelter was at somewhere under a quarter capacity, maybe closer to an eighth, and swarming with volunteers daily (by swarming I mean there were at least 6 of us that I knew of taking care of about 40 animals, both dogs and cats, and that’s just on the 3 days a week my mom and I volunteered).

She was also intensely selective about potential homes, demanding things like 6 or 8 foot fences and sometimes privacy fences. It lead to the reason I left.

A dog, less than a year old, came in and was named Dirty because he came in covered in mud. Super cute, looked like a real Scooby Doo if Scooby was a yellow lab cross. I was I think 13 or 14, which is important to the rest of the story. My aunt, who also volunteered there with a cousin, found Dirty a home. Single guy, just bought a house with a fenced in yard, loved Dirty and wanted him desperately. Great fit, right?

Wrong. Director says Dirty is an escape artist and he needs to put in a taller fence (I don’t remember how tall it was to begin with). Then she amends it must be a privacy fence because Dirty was teased by children (how we knew when he was a stray I don’t know for sure unless someone caught the kids) and therefore because dude has neighbors who have children Dirty is going to rip their faces off.

Remember how old I was? At 13 I looked more like 10 or 11 because I’m short and have a rounder face. I’d been taking Dirty for walks to the run yard (with a 4 foot fence, imagine that) for weeks and had never had one incident with him being at all aggressive, not even with visitors coming up to greet him. He was a typical dog.

So dude says “let me think on it” because installing a new fence is fucking expensive much less privacy fence. He comes back four or five days later and says he talked to all his neighbors and got a date to have it installed, he’d still love to have Dirty but its just going to be a week maybe until the fence is replaced. But Dirty isn’t there anymore.

Did he get adopted by a family that wanted him and already had the means? Nope.

The director took him to the county shelter, told them he was completely non-adoptable, relinquished him to them, and had them put him down on the spot.

She relinquished him so that the “no-kill” part of their reputation was intact, technically it was county who had possession of him before she had him put down.

When we visited the shelter later, overcrowded and with employees doing their best with a scattering of volunteers, they said this wasn’t unusual for the director, that she had brought animals to them before to relinquish and euthanize.

I did a school report maybe a year later about adoption volume vs euthanasia or “relinquishment” by both shelters. I don’t remember the results aside from sheer numbers being drastically different but I remember the no-kill director asking me to volunteer again as she printed off a single page of hand typed results (ie not printed from a spreadsheet or other database, but she typed up the page while chatting to me), volunteers swarming over the half empty building.

The director of the county shelter? I sat on the floor of her tiny office helping bottle feed a box full of abandoned kittens she’d been taking home with her while she printed me something like 10 pages of statistics from a spreadsheet and fielded phone calls.

California is the most populous state in the country. We make up more than 10% of the US population, fully a third bigger than Texas which is the next most populous state. We are also the biggest contributors to the US economy and get back almost nothing of what we pay in federal taxes. But politicians get elected not by listening to us and our needs, but by actively dismissing us as those crazy hippies who don’t understand what “real” Americans are like. Instead they focus their efforts on Ohio and Michigan which have smaller populations than the LA urban area alone.

Someone twisted this Jewish family’s menorah into the shape of a swastika

Naomi Ellis and her her husband Seth spent Friday morning — the morning after the sixth night of Hanukkah — trying to explain to their three young sons why someone had vandalized the menorah the family had put out on their yard by twisting the metal pieces into the shape of a swastika.

Ive tried to google it but i usually only find christian bullshit

She told me that story after a man came in and asked for when an employee, who recently quit, would be coming in. I told him she doesn’t work here anymore and he said to me “Okay, well I’m her dad so if you see her tell her I’ll be across the street at the gas station.” He left and my boss IMMEDIATELY came out and scolded me for it, then told me that story.

She gave me some advice on what to say or do in that situation:

Don’t just deny knowing anything, deny the person asking. Example, “When is ____ coming in?” “You can’t know that information.” or “Can you tell me when ____’s shift is?” “Schedules are only for employees.” Additionally, saying “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” can usually work, it may piss them off but it can work.

Continue on with the customer service. “I can’t help you with that, do you need help (with clothes, finding a product, ordering)?” or “Can I take your order?/Can I help you find (a product)?”

If they persist, insist they leave the store. “If you’re not going to order, please leave the building.” or “I can’t help you, have a nice day.” and, if you can, leave. If you can’t leave, call for or help the next customer.

If they still persist (by now they may be aggressive), threaten to call the police on the basis of them becoming aggressive and refusing to leave the premises. Some people will leave at that point, others stay. When the police get there, explain the situation but still do NOT confirm the existence of the employee they’re looking for to the police until they have been escorted out of the area.

Regardless of if the customer know the employee’s name, description, or daily (not hourly) schedule, even if they look like the same race and claim to be family, you NEVER confirm the employee’s existence.

The only exceptions are if the employee tells you themself they’re expecting someone to come in for them (ASK FOR A DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON), and if you personally know who they are in relation to the employee. When anyone I know has to come in because I asked them to come in, I describe what they look like and what they usually wear. I go into deep descriptions, even including how they walk.

If youre in the US it is against federal law to give out anyones personal information (this includes numbers, names, and schedules) without writen and signed permission.

https://twitter.com/fancy_foxtrot/status/1205747696813756416

but it’s not a “lesbian” relationship because lesbian = woman who is exclusively attracted to women, not “any woman attracted to or in a relationship with another woman”

it is inappropriate to label our relationships as lesbian at all, but especially when we are telling you to acknowledge we’re bi. It doesn’t make sense to refer to two bisexual women as lesbians for any reason.

It is erasing their bisexuality because people have been calling them lesbians and they are not lesbians. They are two bisexual women in a same gender relationship.

https://teamtrees.org/

The Tensorate Series - JY Yang: four fantasy novellas about the guild of Tensors, magic users who can control elemental forces known as the Slack. V political, v beautifully written. Gender is a key theme but also there are dragons (naga), so there’s something for everyone tbh. 

Love Beyond Body, Space And Time - anthology: a collection of indigenous sci-fi / spec fic stories with LGBTQ and two-spirit characters and themes. Stories include narratives of transition, love stories, and just good ol’ space romps. 

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror - Daniel M. Lavery: a collection of fairytale retellings with a spooky and disturbing twist. Some of these are darkly comic, and others are just plain dark. All are beautifully written, because Lavery is just That Writer. 

The Spirits Series - Jordan L Hawk: a very spicy paranormal romance trilogy about Henry Strauss, an inventor, and Vincent Night, a psychic, whose differing approaches to communing with the dead cause (I’m so sorry) friction. These ones ain’t for the kiddies, but they’re so good and spooky.

The Mechanical Universe - EE Ottoman: a romance series (w a trans male protag!) set in a sort of steampunk universe, where spellcraft and mechanical animation are vying for equal respect. Tbh, everything by EE Ottoman is Very Good And Trans - The Doctor’s Discretion is my personal fave. Recommend 100%.

Peter Darling - Austin Chant: a trans retelling of Peter Pan, where Peter returns to Neverland to find that his place there is now much less certain than it was before, and he no longer belongs anywhere. There is also a romance with Captain Hook, but it works! I promise! 

The Danielle Cain series - Margaret Killjoy: a duology of novellas following Danielle Cain, a queer punk rock nomad, as she solves spooky mysteries. The first book is set in an anarchist settlement, and the theme of found family + community is prevalent throughout. 

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon: on board the spaceship HSS Matilda, the last of humanity make their journey towards the Promised Land. Conditions on board are akin to the Antebellum South, and protagonist Aster is driven to find her way off the ship - if she can. 

I Wish You All the Best - Mason Deaver: a non binary teen, Ben, comes out to their parents and is kicked out. Their sister takes them in and they start a new school, where their life begins to change for the better. This one is v sweet and deals well with mental illness. 

Resilience - anthology: a collection of poetry and prose by trans women and amab trans people, featuring work by Casey Plett, KOKUMO, Magpie Leibowitz and many more. 

Small Beauty - jia qing wilson-yang: a mixed race Chinese trans woman returns to her small town Canada home after the death of her cousin, and she deals with her trauma and grief. Beautiful and sad, and absolutely honest about grief. 

Little Fish - Casey Plett: a trans woman begins to believe that her late Mennonite grandfather may have been trans, and while her own life starts to cave in, she attempts to connect with him through those who knew him. This one is A Lot but it’s phenomenal.

A Boy Called Cin - Cecil Wilde: a romance novel (so it’s SPICY) about Cin, a young trans man, and Tom, an older genderqueer billionaire. This is not your typical billionaire romance AT ALL; healthy relationships are depicted beautifully here alongside the reality of transition.

Confessions of the Fox - Jordy Rosenberg: a retelling of Jack Sheppard, the famous jailbreaker and thief. It’s told as though a trans man has discovered a manuscript about Jack (who is trans) and Jack’s story unfolds alongside the personal narrative of the manuscript discoverer. 

Nameless Woman - anthology: a collection of fiction by trans women of colour. There’s something for everyone here - romance, sci fi, personal narratives and more. A lot of the topics covered are very heavy but they’re treated honestly and sensitively. 

Maiden, Mother, Crone - anthology: a collection of fantasy stories about trans women and femmes. You want a story about a dread trans chthonic goddess? Of course you do. It’s right here. Enjoy. 

Caroline’s Heart - Austin Chant: a romance between a trans man (a COWBOY nonetheless) and a trans woman (a WITCH). Cecily has been trying to bring her lover, Caroline, back from the dead via magic, but when Roy gives his life to save her, she has a choice to make. 

The Queen of Cups - Ren Basel: a novelette about Theo, who’s about to set sail on their first voyage. As per their village’s custom, they ask the Oracle to bless their voyage, and she agrees - if she can come along. A great treatise on bravery, loyalty and independence. 

Amateur - Thomas Page McBee: not fiction, but OH WELL!! You gotta read it!! The autobiography of a trans man who learns to box and asks questions about what kind of man he wants to be; can he avoid repeating the toxic masculinity he fears? 

Trans Power - Juno Roche: also not fiction! Oops! Take me to court!! Roche interviews multiple trans people about their relationships with their transness, their sexuality and their bodies, and the result is a super empowering and beautiful book. 

The Shape of My Name - Nino Cipri: a novelette about time travel. I really can’t say much about this one because it’s better to go in without knowing a lot, but the main theme is self discovery and acceptance, especially within the context of a neglectful / abusive family. 

Pet - Akwaeke Emezi: the children in the city of Lucille know that there are no more monsters. They’ve been told so. So when Jam meets Pet, who definitely seems to be a monster, she has to face the problem of saving the world from something that it refuses to admit exists. 

There are obviously many more trans fiction authors out there, but these are the ones I’ve read and can call to mind immediately. On my to read list are Juno Dawson (who writes YA primarily), Kai Cheng Thom (whose story in Maiden, Mother, Crone was my favourite), Meredith Russo (also writes YA), Leslie Feinberg, and Sybil Lamb.

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