[Female students playing basketball, Western High School, Washington, D.C.] (LOC)

"Georgia Republicans bundled over a dozen measures that targeted the state’s transgender residents into omnibus packages in a desperate attempt to get them passed. In a stunning defeat for the GOP, every single one of them failed.

Legislators gutted bills that had passed through committee and instead stuffed them full of their anti-LGBTQ+ wishlist items.

Bills that would ban transgender students from playing on teams aligned with their gender identity, ban transgender students from bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, opt parents into notification for every book a student checks out of the library, bar sex education before sixth grade, make all sex-ed classes opt-in and expand obscenity laws to make it easier to ban books with LGBTQ+ content all failed.

“MAGA politicians in Georgia tried it all in service to their anti-LGBTQ+ agenda,” said Human Rights Campaign Georgia State Director Bentley Hudgins, “including silencing debate and gutting unrelated, popular bills that had bipartisan support to ram through policies that would have put young LGBTQ+ Georgians in harm’s way. They failed.”

“It’s undeniable that the tides are shifting, both here in Georgia and across the nation,” Georgia Equality executive director Jeff Graham added. “Anti-LGBTQ actors are losing their political power, and more and more Georgians who know and love LGBTQ people are standing up against their baseless fear-mongering.”

In Florida recently, nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ+ bills were defeated in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) presidential campaign implosion, dozens of measures in Virginia were tabled [Note: In the US, "tabled" means "shelved" or "taken out of consideration - the opposite of its meaning in the UK and other places], and Ohio’s governor backed off his attempt to restrict gender-affirming care access for transgender adults and minors. 

Meanwhile, in D.C., Democrats successfully excised 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in the two budget bills passed and signed by President Joe Biden to fund the federal government.

Even Fox News has been forced to acknowledge transgender issues are among the lowest-priority concerns among voters."

I have been reading a frankly absurd amount of Jason Todd fic over the past couple weeks, so here's my rec list the first! My biggest rules of Jason characterization are that a) if he's Red Hood especially early on, he's gotta be willing to twist the knife, b) he has to care, c) he has to be smart. These fics focus on different elements therein, and I enjoyed them all very much!

Grave Pretender by Ghxst_Bird

Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne

Hard to limit my Ghxst_Bird recs considering I systematically read through just about everything they had written for Jason in a very short time. Something I really enjoy in the style they write Jason is that he is allowed to be cruel and allowed to care. It is so important that he twist the knife, and it's really enjoyable when that can co-exist with developing or going back to positive relationships with the Bats. This one has him pretending to be a ghost or something else freshly dead to torment Bruce and yet feeling the deep desire to rest and go back to him.

hungry for strays by Ghxst_Bird

Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne

This is another of Ghxst_Bird's works that nails Jason twisting the knife (with a Pit Madness twist) and being a caring person. Kind and cruel is such a good combo. And the enemy to caretaker element is great. "“So, talking business. Do want the head back first? Or should we start smaller?” Nightwing breaks, throwing himself at Jason, abandoning both escrimas in favor of pulling some impressive punches and kicks. Jason laughs into the cold night air, the sound distorted harshly by the voice modulator, relishing each punch Nightwing manages to hit and paying it back tenfold. “You bastard!” The vigilante roars, twisting around Jason’s elbow to wrap his arms around his neck, legs coming up the same instant to restrain his arms. Jason grunts and lets himself fall backward, closely acquainting Nightwing with the dusty ground."

Paint It Black by TheFightingBull

Harvey Bullock & Jason Todd

Bullock and Jason's friendship is one of my favorites in his Robin run, and this fic is such a beautiful and devastating testament to that relationship after Jason dies.

i think i was (you were) in heaven by blueyeti

Buffy Summers & Jason Todd

This is a crossover with Buffy The Vampire Slayer and makes me SO happy. "Jason Todd meets Buffy Summers in a California graveyard. They can't resist bitching about vampires, the US funeral industry's money-grabbing ways, and the benefits of being buried for cheap."

Terrible Sting, Terrible Storm by airyoubreathe

Catalina Flores/Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick, Grayson & Jason Todd

This is the very intense first fic of a very intense series. I recommend the series as a whole, but this fic on its own is especially good as it leaves ambiguous whether the thing haunting Dick is real or in his head, something the rest of the series solidifies. I did read the first fic in one sitting and the whole series in about five days, and it's long, so take that as a rec on its own. This is a Dick Grayson focused fic, but it is on my Jason rec list because Jason & Dick's relationship here is spectacular. Jason's role is a little smaller in the fic than in the rest of the series, but he absolutely shines. "Dick stood stock still, his heartbeat hammering in his ears. As the rain pattered against his suit, his shoulder throbbed violently. The man in front of him was talking, but Dick couldn’t hear what he’d said. The rain was so loud. He felt something awful crack open inside him that he’d carefully never examined before. Years of pushing every painful thing aside have built up a heavy debt, and it's time for it to be paid. Dick Grayson is due to face the storm."

door, opening by cowboysorceror

Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

This fic is, frankly, brilliant. It's beautifully written with rich prose, incredible characterization, and an excellent Dick & Jason dynamic. There are sections that describe Gotham and Bludhaven that I read aloud to multiple people. There is a conversation between Dick and Jason musing on death, beliefs, and how the world itself has changed, which brings the tonal shift that the comics went through into the text for the characters to have experienced, leaving me chewing on the conversation for weeks after. I will be doing a fanbind of this at some point. And you know a fic's good when it starts with citations. I also love the way this fic explores Jason as a crime lord and the responsibilities therein. "The Red Hood pulls the thread on a mystery big enough to bridge the distance between two cities, two brothers: The plot they unravel is far deeper and darker than a garden-variety drug trafficking scheme. A story about siblingship, hauntings, and rivers. 1. Ostium, osti(i): Latin noun, II Declension: Door, opening; (river) mouth; entrance (to the underworld)."

Gotham; An Outsider's Perspective on Vigilantes by KangaRou

This series has Jason enact his revenge on the public stage in the public persona of the wronged black sheep of the family, Jason Todd-Wayne. I have never seen Jason having a public persona a la Brucie Wayne before, and it is brilliant. And he's smart, incredibly smart and manipulative in the best way. This is not a kind Jason Todd, but it is a deeply compelling one. And the way the outsider povs is used develops the world beautifully.

On His Knees (With a Pounding Head and Heart) by gunpowder_and_pearls

Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

Whump <3 <3 Jason has a wound that's gotten infected, and he really should have gone to the clinic when he could. This fic gets bonus points for me rereading it a day or two after reading it the first time. The way the world gets slippy under Jason's feet and the fever messes with his perception of time and short term memory is fantastically done.

should have just held my tongue by TheGodWith5Yen

Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Original Female Character(s)

A really interesting and compelling look at if Jason brought a little bit of the afterlife back with him. He hears the whispers of ghosts, and they beg him to help in his dreams. This fic also pairs him up (friendship) with an original character who has nothing to do with the Bats, and it works so well. This strange person who is so kind and so disconnected from his world is a wonderful balance and mooring point for him. " Ivory took hold of his wrist. Jason could see her mouth moving in complaint of his lack of body heat, but he couldn’t hear a word out of her mouth over the beat of the music that reverberated through his chest. They reached a pile of coats, Ivory grabbed one- bright pink with little gold colored sequins forming hearts all over it- and draped it over his shoulders with a smile. Despite never being able to feel a change of temperature, Jason smiled back at Ivory and held the coat close to him. When the night began to make itself close to day, Jason walked a few of the women to their homes, still wearing the pink coat Ivory had given him, his mind far away from the whispers of his dreams. "

Aces high and cigarettes by srslvr13

Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Red Hood Henchmen

I love it when Jason gets buried alive again. I may have read through quite a few fics where Jason gets buried alive again. This one has him as Red Hood hiring his goons to bury him alive in an attempt to desensitize himself to it. It doesn't entirely work out that way. It's an intense story, and I especially love his thoughts on becoming desensitized to explosions and his descriptions of Death, excerpted below: "He saw through her lies, he knew the bed she promised was a cold and desolate one, knew that her protection was nothing more than a lie to coax her children back into her womb and never let them out again. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. But damn, if it wasn’t so tempting.  Her trap was inescapable and therein lay its perfection. After all, who was anyone to care about her little white lies, when they lost the knowledge of hurt or betrayal? Even if they did, it wouldn’t matter, they couldn’t change a thing about it, they couldn’t warn another soul of the poison that lay in the honey, the horrors that awaited them in the grave. The moment she snapped her trap shut on them, there was no changing the outcome, no escape, it didn’t matter what it was that led her children back to her, it only mattered that she would never let them go again.  Jason had always appreciated a well-thought-out plan. "

Trigger Finger by GalaxyOwl13

Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

This is what I would describe as perfectly devastating even with the happy ending. "Jason plants a bomb underneath the Batmobile. In most universes, he decides at the last minute that his revenge will take a different, more circuitous path. In this universe, he triggers the explosion…and immediately regrets it. Now, Jason must find a way to navigate this nightmare of his own creation."

A Wizard And A Princess by NazgulWrites

Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd

A really clever meeting of Red Hood and Barbara in which Jason seeks her out as an ally with a story-within-a-story. "“All alone up here in your magical tower for the night?” a modulated voice asked. Barbrara spun, almost dropping her glass. Red Hood flicked the lamp on where he was comfortably lounging on her couch. “It's almost like a fairy tale.”"

Already Dead by GalaxyOwl13

Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne

A fascinating and tragic unpacking of Batman's no killing rule and its exceptions.

the last good thing about this part of town by creatchure

Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Rose Wilson, Jason Todd/Rose Wilson, Jason Todd & Violet Paige, Gan (Batman: White Knight) & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd

This fic explores the consequences and fallout of the "failsafe" Bruce puts in Jason in Batman #138 during the Gotham War (giving him an intense fear response to adrenaline). This takes a very grounded approach to it, imagining it working as Bruce would have intended, keeping Jason from being Red Hood but without being completely debilitating. But, of course, Jason is not going to take that lying down. He begins to look into options. Batgirl became Oracle. Red Hood can become ... something new. A great display of smart Jason and his strengths in planning and coordinating his gang.

̶h̶o̶m̶e̶c̶o̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ and nostos by thetiniestteapot

A very interesting series where Dick and Barbara find out first that Red Hood is Jason and become his allies. My favorite element in this is a conversation Jason has (under the guise of Flamebird) with Bruce, claiming to know Jason. It unpacks the moral conflicts Jason had with Bruce as Robin, which I found really illuminating.

could be, who knows? by thetiniestteapot

Dick Grayson/Jason Todd

I'm not generally one for shipping in general in this fandom, but this is really compelling. I read this right before I read Brothers In Blood, and it's ... it's compelling! A mix of presumed selfcest on Dick's part and a releasing of himself on Jason's. Finally someone who will never leave Dick. Finally someone who wants all of Jason. "Jason's Nightwing, and Dick's Nightwing, and they're doing this together. And it's fine. It's better than fine, it's great. They don't need to talk about it. But does Dick know who he is?"

Work with It by OrangeN_Odd_tiefling

Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd, Duke Thomas & Jason Todd

A whump-ish 5 +1 where Jason has seizures and tries to hide it. "It was probably supposed to be worrying, but Jason didn’t find it very strange. It was routine. He had it all mapped out. It of course being the monthly seizures. Of course he didn’t plan to tell anyone. Why would he, when he was already managing it just fine on his own."

Take me out tonight (Take me anywhere, I don't care) by LoversWrongers for srslvr13

Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

This is not a kind story. It's about Jason seeking out Dick to feel something but all either of them knows how to feel is pain at this moment. So, they inflict some on each other. I am the ONLY PERSON WHO HAS COMMENTED ON THIS AND IT'S PREYING ON MY MIND AND HEART. For the love of god, Montressor, more people need to read this one even though and because it is brutal. "Jason is having a bad night. So is Dick. They'll make it worse for each other. Or the tragedy of feeling old when you're not even 30.

It's a beautiful night. Well, as "beautiful" as nights can be in the foggiest, dirtiest, most crime riddled city in all of New Jersey. Which is not much, but it's still something. It could be Gotham."

Boxed In by gunpowder_and_pearls