holey gussets, watson!!

Bobby Witt Jr, whose ability to hit and throw a ball has brought the Royals substantial amounts of money from fans going to games to see him, buying his jersey, and otherwise participating in their Royals fandom;

This distinction matters to them. It means they have rights!

MLB team owners have twice been told in legal rulings that their labor practices were illegal and a violation of common law rights to labor and contract (1914, 1975) in lawsuits filed against them by their players. MLB players in 1975 essentially created professional sports free agency by consistently pushing back on their league’s unfair practices.

Being an employee is a point of pride for them and is fundamentally nonnegotiable because most of them, historically, weren’t.

They fought relentlessly for a century and a half to be considered employees. Several players were blackballed and publicly smeared for pushing back against the owners for this. The least we can do as fans is acknowledge the work that’s been put in and consider them as the employees they are.

Beach day 🍒🌊

off-season 2025/2026

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!