The Garden of Shadows

I am interested in complicating your definition of maleness and of boyhood. I was born into that shitty town, maleness, in the remains of outdated ideals and misplaced machismo and repression and there are some good people stuck living there. They are not in charge. They did not build it. And I don’t feel okay just moving out and saying “fuck y’all — bootstrap your way out or die out, I was never one of you.” I want to make it a better, healthier place—not spend all my time talking about how shitty it is and how anyone who would choose to live there deserves it. And to me that means considering them with charity, even when they make it difficult to.

This is the third state to pass this felony ban on trans care.

On the same day, Alabama passed another bill banning trans youth from gendered public spaces (like bathrooms), and a third bill banning any discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in schools.

Half of all U.S states are moving these exact same bills through their legislatures at lightning speeds, including my home state where I transitioned as a minor.