The Cats Meow

A story doesn't have to be tragic or gritty to be meaningful and to teach you something important.

I do! All of this is from LGBTQ Nation's excellent good news tag

^Article date: July 6, 2023

"Only two months after its formation, the “No SB 180” initiative had succeeded at making the city of Lawrence, Kansas a sanctuary city for LGBTQ+ people. Last week, in a unanimous vote, Lawrence became the first city in the state to declare itself as such.

Ordinance 9999 bans the city and all of its employees from collecting or releasing information on a person’s “biological sex, either male or female, at birth” and from helping with any investigation, detention, arrest, or surveillance “conducted by a jurisdiction with the authority to enforce Senate Bill 180, as enacted.”"

^Article date: July 28, 2023

"A federal judge has told a group of anti-trans parents to mind their own business after the group filed a lawsuit challenging an Ohio school district’s bathroom policy.

The attempts to meddle do not “pass legal muster,” he wrote in his ruling, saying that the group has no reason to sue.

“Not every contentious debate concerning matters of public importance presents a cognizable federal lawsuit,” Judge Michael Newman wrote, denying their petition to stop the Bethel Local School District’s policy that allows a single transgender middle school student to use the restroom that aligns with her gender identity."

^Article date: August 8, 2023

"The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the independent federal agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, has released its first-ever “LGBTQI+-inclusive” policy since its founding in 1961.

The four-point policy is meant to serve as a blueprint for USAID staff and partners around the world to champion LGBTQ+ and intersex development and the human rights of all queer people through the agency’s work, said Jay Gilliam, USAID’s senior LGBTQI+ coordinator, in a video explaining the policy...

In simpler terms, the U.S. will try to improve diplomatic relationships with other countries by investing in locally-led LGBTQ+-inclusive programs that are shown to positively impact communities in need."

^Article date: August 3, 2023

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled in favor of three transgender students who were forbidden by their schools from using bathrooms matching their gender identities. The circuit court upheld a lower court’s preliminary injunction that said the schools have to let trans students use facilities associated with their genders...

The case involves three trans boys in Martinsville, Indiana and Terre Haute, Indiana, who need access to the boys’ room at their middle and high schools...

The court took into account the fact that Title IX bans discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal money, which is most of them. Citing the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton Co. that found that job discrimination against LGBTQ+ people necessarily takes sex into account and is therefore prohibited under Title VII, the appeals court ruled that the trans boys are likely to succeed in their case and that preventing them from using the correct bathroom while the case works its way through the court system could cause irreparable harm.

^Article date: August 2, 2023

^Article date: June 21, 2023

"A federal judge has ruled on the side of trans rights after a conservative group tried to overturn an Ohio school district’s anti-bullying policy.

The national conservative group Parents Defending Education (PDE) tried to get a preliminary injunction passed on the Olentangy Local School District’s prohibition on misgendering trans students. The policy includes students, teachers, and parents and it applies to out-of-school hours and social media as well."

^Article date: August 2, 2023

There's literally a bunch more I wanted to include, by the way! Tumblr just stopped being able to load them. Going back to add a few more in the reblogs now.

I know it feels like everything is against us right now. But I promise you: that is not true. The bigots and bastards may usually be the ones moving faster (in large part because they suck and don't care about democracy or due process at all),

"A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order on a Montana law banning drag shows and drag queen story hours from taking place on public property...

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R)  signed H.B. 359 into law in May.

It was the first in the country to specifically ban drag performers from reading to kids. It also says “sexually oriented or obscene performances” – which Republicans have been using as code for any drag – cannot take place in public places where children are present."

^Article date: July 31, 2023

"A federal judge has put a hold on an Arkansas law that would criminally charge booksellers and librarians who provide “harmful materials” to children. The law targets books that include LGBTQ+ characters or themes.

The law, signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), was due to take effect on August 1...

The law also required a new process for people to challenge books and request they be moved to areas children cannot access. The judge’s preliminary injunction puts a halt on the entire law."

^Article date: July 31, 2023

^Article date: July 28, 2023

"When Amy Vance and Martha Martin checked out nearly all of the books [LGBTQ books specifically, I presume] from the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, they had a nefarious plan. The incompetent duo emailed the administrator that they would not return the “inappropriate” books.

The duo thought they had the upper hand with the plan to hold the books hostage, but instead, their plan backfired spectacularly. They inadvertently raised $45,000 for the library to expand its LGBTQ+-themed programming and materials...

“Stacks” of Amazon boxes began to pour into the building as people from around the nation replaced the stolen books – including ones that the system didn’t have already. Thousands of dollars in donations were raised for the library, and the city pitched in with an extra $30,000 to help expand the offerings and programming further – including the drag queen story hour, a particular target for rightwing prudes.

After public condemnation and realizing their plan had backfired, the two women returned the books to the library. They’re currently avoiding the media and have no comment on how their plan blew up in their faces."

^Article date: July 24, 2023

"Japanese pop star Shinjiro Atae stood in front of over 2,000 fans on Wednesday and spoke publicly about “the challenge of my life.” After spending two years performing as part of the hit group AAA, he took some time off to attend school before launching his solo career.

But after spending seven years in Los Angeles and seeing how LGBTQ+ people lived in the States, Atae opted to live openly back in Japan, a conservative country where sexual orientation is rarely discussed. Japan is the only G7 country that has not legalized same-sex marriage...

No other entertainers of his stature and popularity have come out as queer. Now 34, Atae has been in the spotlight since he joined AAA when he was 14. He was the youngest member of the group.

His former bandmates and family joined him at the event to provide support and show their respect.

“I am 200 percent supportive,” his mother told the press, while Misako Uno, a AAA member, added, “I want to be a good cushion” for him."

^Article date: July 26, 2023

"For the first time in history, a drag queen’s album has attained the number one spot on the Christian and Gospel iTunes music charts, and it’s all due to an anti-LGBTQ+ Christian whose attempt to shame her spectacularly backfired.

Last month, Christian musician Derek Webb collaborated with Christian drag musician Flamy Grant for the music video to “Boys Will Be Girls,” Webb’s song about loving queer people who have been abandoned by the church...

In the video, Grant helps Webb transform into a blue-haired drag queen, and the two sing the song’s final verse inside of a church.

[After a Twitter feud with a shitty evangelical,] Grant then announced via social media, “Ok I’m gonna do it. Sean Feucht thinks ‘hardly anyone’ is interested in a worship song by a drag queen. How about we try to get my song Good Day to chart on Christian iTunes?”

She succeeded far beyond her initial goal. Not only did the song become number 1 on iTunes’ Christian and Gospel music singles by Thursday evening, but the September 2022 album the song came from, Bible Belt Baby, also became number 1 among all of iTunes’ Christian and Gospel music albums, helping Grant make history as the first drag queen ever to do so."

Okay, I guess this has to be said, because the people will always claim the same wrong thing: No, Solarpunk did not "start out as an aesthetic". Jesus, where the hell does this claim even come from? Like, honestly, I am asking.

Solarpunk started out as a genre, that yes, did also include design elements, but also literary elements. A vaguely defined literary genre, but a genre never the less.

And I am not even talking about those early books that we today also claim under the Solarpunk umbrella. So, no, I am not talking about Ursula K. LeGuin, even though she definitely was a big influence on the genre.

The actual history of Solarpunk goes something like that: In the late 1990s and early 2000s the term "Ecopunk" was coined, which was used to refer to books that kinda fit into the Cyberpunk genre umbrella, but were more focused on ecological themes. This was less focused on the "high tech, high life" mantra that Solarpunk ended up with, but it was SciFi stories, that were focused on people interacting with the environment. Often set to a backdrop of environmental apocalypse. Now, other than Solarpunk just a bit later, this genre never got that well defined (especially with Solarpunk kinda taking over the role). As such there is only a handful of things that ever officially called themselves Ecopunk.

At the same time, though, the same sort of thought was picked up in the Brazilian science fiction scene, where the idea was further developed. Both artistically, where it got a lot of influence from the Amazofuturism movement, but also as an ideology. In this there were the ideas from Ecopunk as the "scifi in the ecological collaps" in there, but also the idea of "scifi with technology that allows us to live within the changing world/allows us to live more in harmony with nature".

Now, we do not really know who came up with the idea of naming this "Solarpunk". From all I can find the earliest mention of the term "Solarpunk" that is still online today is in this article from the Blog Republic of Bees. But given the way the blogger talks about it, it is clear there was some vague definition of the genre before it.

These days it is kinda argued about whether that title originally arose in Brazil or in the Anglosphere. But it seems very likely that the term was coined between 2006 and 2008, coming either out of the Brazilian movement around Ecopunk or out of the English Steampunk movement (specifically the literary branch of the Steampunk genre).

In the following years it was thrown around for a bit (there is an archived Wired article from 2009, that mentions the term once, as well as one other article), but for the moment there was not a lot happening in this regard.

Until 2012, when the Brazilian Solarpunk movement really started to bloom and at the same time in Italy Commando Jugendstil made their appearance. In 2012 in Brazil the anthology "Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável" was released (that did get an English translation not too long ago) establishing some groundwork for the genre. And Commando Jugendstil, who describe themselves as both a "Communication Project" and an "Art Movement", started to work on Solarpunk in Italy. Now, Commando Jugendstil is a bit more complicated than just one or the other. As they very much were a big influence on some of the aesthetic concepts, but also were releasing short stories and did some actual punky political action within Italy.

And all of that was happening in 2012, where the term really started to take off.

And only after this, in 2014, Solarpunk became this aesthetic we know today, when a (now defuct) tumblr blog started posting photos, artworks and other aesthetical things under the caption of Solarpunk. Especially as it was the first time the term was widely used within the Anglosphere.

Undoubtedly: This was probably how most people first learned of Solarpunk... But it was not how Solarpunk started. So, please stop spreading that myth.

The reason this bothers me so much is, that it so widely ignores how this movement definitely has its roots within Latin America and specifically Brazil. Instead this myth basically tries to claim Solarpunk as a thing that fully and completely originated within the anglosphere. Which is just is not.

And yes, there was artistic aspects to that early Solarpunk movement, too. But also a literary and political aspectt. That is not something that was put onto a term that was originally an aesthetic - but rather it was something that was there from the very beginning.

Again: There has been an artistic and aesthetic aspect in Solarpunk from the very beginning, yes. But there has been a literary and political aspect in it the entire time, too. And trying to divorce Solarpunk from those things is just wrong and also... kinda misses the point.

So, please. Just stop claiming that entire "it has been an aesthetic first" thing. Solarpunk is a genre of fiction, it is a political movement, just as much as it is an artistic movement. Always has been. And there has always been punk in it. So, please, stop acting as if Solarpunk is just "pretty artistic vibes". It is not.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, I guess.

Perhaps one day the folks behind this blog will write the history of Solarpunk - as we understand it - because its way weirder than you'd expect! lol

For now tho, for those interested, you can find a (more or less complete) history of Solarpunk media online from 2008-18 at the reference guide we put together.

The first Solarpunk post on Tumblr ever was our 'The initial equation' posted by Admin Adam Flynn, June 2012.

Concurring with Alpaca, Solarpunk has always been about more than pretty aesthetics: Check out Adam's July 2012 essay 'On the Need for New Futures' republished here with a forward which was written after the IRL/Online Solarpunk meet-up at WeirdShitCon Portland 2012. Post which, many of the other early admins on this blog got added and involved.

It's worth mentioning that 'Need for New Futures' ends with a bunch of open political and social questions asking what Solarpunk could become? (as it wasn't anything at all at the time) the last two being:

What is the visual aesthetic of Solarpunk?

Who’s with us?

Solarpunk as it's known today originates in Brazil!

When 'Need for New Futures' went online 'Histórias ecológicas' was yet to be published, but novelist JesseaPerry was aware of it, and said the word 'Solarpunk' to Adam - and the rest is history.

Subsequently, Solarpunk had parallel development in the Anglosphere and in Brazil with NO contact between the two scenes until after the publication of the Kickstarted translation of Histórias ecológicas in English by Sarena Ulibarri at Worldweavers in 2017. We (folks behind this blog) have had our lives enriched immensely by contact and dialogue with Solarpunks in Brazil since this happened! The Solarpunk movement at large is in great debt to Sarena!

The first self described Solarpunk story in English was “Sunshine State” written by Adam Flynn and Andrew Dana Hudson - also the winner of 2016's Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction short story competition.

Sunvault and Wings of Renewal, Biketopia etc all came out in subsequent years.

For some early Solarpunk thinking which clearly demonstrate that its about more than just aesthetics: check out Adam's massively viral Solarpunk: Notes toward a Manifesto from 2014 and Andrew's 2015 essay 'On the Politics of Solarpunk' - also the reference guide.

Many of the early Solarpunk voices were interviewed by VICE a few years ago and we explicitly say Solarpunk is about the end of capitalism lol.

As for me (@thejaymo) you can read my pretty viral 2019 essay: SOLARPUNK – Life in the Future, and this more recent one Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures which is about what Solarpunk means to me.

Being involved in Solarpunk and its community of - kind, motivated people, who are concerned with the struggles en route to a better world, the solutions to live comfortably without fossil fuels, how to equitably manage scarcity and share abundance, to be kinder to each other and to the planet we share - for the last decade, has been one of the biggest and most meaningful experiences of my life.

Thank you Solarpunks 🙏.

I'll close with our groupblogs tagline since the beginning:

Solarpunk: At once a vision of the future, a thoughtful provocation, and an achievable lifestyle. In progress...

No one tells them their bowels are going to lose strength and coordination, so it gets more and more difficult to have bowel movements. No one warns them about obstipation, much less bowel obstructions. I have a saying I repeat often in clinic: “Proper pooping prevents problems!” I say it because it makes people chuckle, because it destigmatizes needing to poop. Everyone poops. And it turns out pooping requires both a complex network of nerves to create peristalsis, and stools soft enough to move through the bowels, and I have watched more than one elderly patient die because their bowels stopped working right.

No one talks about hemorrhoids, so I have patients coming in terrified by blood in their stools–and listen, blood in your poop is definitely a good reason to see a doctor; if you’re over 50 and you haven’t had a colonoscopy, get one. It’s the best health screening we have evidence for, in my opinion. Colon cancer is a bitch. But more commonly, people have bloody stools because they have either hemorrhoids that are bleeding or because they have an anal fissure after straining on a hard bowel movement. Do you know what a hemorrhoid is? I didn’t, until I was well into medical school. Everyone has them. They’re venous columns that surround the rectum and anus. Internal ones can bleed; external ones can itch. Most people will get them eventually. Be kind about them.

Everyone is going to have trouble peeing if they live long enough. Men can’t start, women can’t stop. Because people with prostates will often have benign enlargement of the prostate–it’s not cancer, but it gets bigger–and the urethra, the tube that lets urine leave the bladder, goes through the prostate. Bigger prostate = compressed tube, less flow. Meanwhile, people with uteruses have much shorter urethras, which means that when we lose that beautiful collagen and elastic, we also lose it in the two sphincters that help us keep from leaking urine, and so we leak urine. Especially when something triggers an increase in intra-abdominal pressure, like a sneeze or a cough or a laugh.

All these things people are taught to be ashamed of and embarrassed about–they are so common. They’re normal parts of having a human body and doing the things one does with a human body. Poop trouble? Welcome to the club! People have been writing about their cures for constipation for as long as written language has existed. Listen, you are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone. And that means that when someone else has a gross problem, you must be kind to them, because that is going to be you. There will be a day when you have diarrhea, because viral gastroenteritis spreads like wildfire every winter. There will be a day when you cough a huge glob of mucus comes out, because mucus is a natural defense mechanism and kind of miraculous but also nasty. Every gross thing a body can do, yours is likely to do, if not now then later.