someone will remember us, i say

Here's some more context for the post above (a generous offer I hope some can make use of!) On Feb 23 2026 trans people in Kansas started to receive letters saying that their driver's license had to match their sex assigned at birth, and that any driver's license with an updated gender marker was not valid. Trans folks were directed to surrender their current IDs at the DMV, where they would be issued a new driver's licence that matched their sex assigned at birth. There is NO grace period to handle this ID change, so even if a trans person decided to comply and drive to the DMV the very next day, they could be caught driving without a valid license, they could face a class B misdemeanor carrying up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Kansas already requires county jails to house inmates according to sex assigned at birth. (Read Erin in the Morning's piece above to see a scan of the letter and more info).

One organization seeking to help trans people leave hostile states and relocate to Colorado (which borders Kansas) is the Trans Continental Pipeline, which accepts donations:

Feb 27 2026- ACLU and two anonymous trans men have now filed a lawsuit against the state of Kansas to try and overturn the driver's license bill! Today would be a great day to donate to the ACLU of Kansas if you are able. I also found this great graphic of other Kansas specific organizations via natezuke.bsky.social; he especially recommends acefoundationict.org and lgbtqks.org.

"A world without trans people has never existed and never will"

Some sources for those who may not know:

for those who do care, Silent Majority is actively fighting against this bill and I do hope people can support them.

Nex Benedict, a 16 year old nonbinary student at Owasso high school in Oklahoma, was murdered on February 8th. They were beaten to death by 3 cisgender girls in the girls bathroom.

Nex was brutally beaten to death and was denied care. Teachers refused to call an ambulance for them.

The news is deadnaming them, describing their death as ‘unexpected’, as a ‘physical altercation’, and saying it was ‘a fight’. The news is erasing Nex’s identity and trying to erase the fact this is a targeted hate crime.

Hey, trans Floridians -- you need to watch this bill. It would require your driver's license to use your gender assigned at birth. With the unofficial ban on Florida birth certificate changes (the department of vital statistics has quietly shunted all requests into legal limbo since early 2023), it's clear the state wants to document us out of existence and force people out.

I strongly recommend all trans people get passports asap, as you can still self-ID there.

Ohio has taken a page out of Florida’s book and is proposing to effectively ban adult transition care via the requirements of numerous specialists - a psychiatrist, endocrinologist, and a bioethicist.

Since most trans people get their HRT from nurse practioners via the informed consent model, this will create undue burden on both trans people and the medical system -- the bottlenecks will effectively ban transition care for adults. This is what has happened in Florida, and Ohio's rules look much more draconian and surveiliance-heavy. All trans healthcare will be reported to the state.

These new rules have not taken effect yet. Trans Ohioans should plan for the worst now.

The rules are open to public comment through 5pm Friday, Jan 19, 2024. The full copy of the rules and how to comment are below:

https://mha.ohio.gov/about-us/rules-and-regulations/rules/draft-rules/gender-transition-care

As a Floridian who saw the writing on the wall and fled his state (my clinic hasn't been allowed to fill HRT prescriptions since May 2023 now) -- do not delay on making preparations. If this is approved, the rules will likely catch everyone by surprise. Start talking with your providers now and plan out your options assuming the ban will take place.

Informed folks to follow on Twitter:

Alejandra

despicable

updates as of 22 oct

Travis Dermott knew that he would draw attention with his actions in the Coyotes’ home opener against the Anaheim Ducks at Mullett Arena on Saturday. The Arizona defenseman just hoped that the spotlight might shine on the issue that he was addressing, not on him.

“You don’t really want to go against rules that are put in place by your employer, but there’s some people who took some positive things from it,” Dermott said. “That’s kind of what I’m looking to impact.

“You want to have everyone feel included and that’s something that I have felt passionate about for a long time in my career. It’s not like I just just jumped on this train. It’s something that I’ve felt has been lacking in the hockey community for a while. I feel like we need supporters of a movement like this; to have everyone feel included and really to beat home the idea that hockey is for everyone.”

“I won’t lie,” said Dermott, who is playing on a one-year, two-way contract. “From the outside, it’s easy to see that I’m putting my career on the line for something. I definitely went through some emotional ups and downs that night, not regretting anything by any means, but I’d love to have maybe done a couple of steps a little different by making sure that everyone was aware of what was going on before I did it.

“I don’t want to put my teammates or my coaches or my GMs or the equipment managers in any kind of bad light when it’s their job to kind of look out for something like this happening. It was definitely something that I did just by myself and was prepared to kind of deal with whatever repercussions the league decides to push towards that. I’m not going to back off and say that this battle is won, but we’re going to find better ways to do it.”

As Dermott noted, LGBTQ+ inclusion is an issue that he has supported for a long time. Without getting into specifics, Dermott said the issue is personal for him because it impacts people close to him.

“I’d be lying if I said I haven’t shed tears about this on multiple occasions,” he said. “So yeah, it’s something I’m definitely very passionate about.

“I’ve met a lot of people that from the outside, it looks like they have everything going right in their life and they have a smile on their face every time they talk to you. But sometimes when we get closer to people and get comfortable enough for them to open up to you, you can see that there’s some pretty dark stuff happening to some good people. It doesn’t take too many times encountering something like that for it to really change someone.

“I’ve been blessed to have some of those opportunities put in front of me to really change my view of what being a good person means; what being a good father and a good example and role model means going forward. You really see how people are hurting and it’s because of a system that maybe no one’s intentionally trying to be malicious about, but until you’ve really had that first-person experience seeing people hurting from it right in front of you, it’s tough to kind of take steps.”

It would be a surprise if the league handed down any sort of punishment. The optics alone would add to the public relations damage that the original ban created. Even so, Dermott reiterated his desire to bring the entire franchise into the fold before he takes similar actions in the future, but he also made it clear that he will not be silenced on the topic.

“It’s not like I’m shutting up and going away,” he said. “I know more questions are going to be coming. We’re just going to be as prepared as we can be to just spread love. That’s the thing. It’s gay pride that we’re talking about, but it could be men’s health. It could be any war. It’s just wanting world peace. Everyone’s got to love each other a little bit more.

“Like my parents said growing up, ‘How awesome would it be to be the guy that people look up to?’ That’s what really hit home when I was a kid, especially from my mom. You want to grow up and be that guy. You want to be the guy that’s having the impact on kids like NHL players had on you. If they had been racist or bigoted, that’s going to have an effect on you.

the first lesbian magazine published in the US, Vice Versa (1947-48), was entirely hand-typed by one Edythe Eyde (better known by her pen name Lisa Ben - yes, that IS an anagram for lesbian). she worked as a secretary with a ton of spare time on her hands, and her boss would tell her he didn't care what she was doing so long as she "looked busy"... so she decided to use her free time to type out copies of a home-made periodical for lesbians, writing most of the content - editorials, book/film reviews, poetry, short stories, and more - herself!

a lot of the issues of the first widely distributed gay publication in the US, ONE magazine (1952-1967), are also available online on JSTOR. there's also this article detailing the magazine's ups and downs and general history, it's v fascinating!