#Governors Working Session

[androgynealienfemme]

Breaking news:

New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and California state AG’s are already stating they will REFUSE any Trump effort to do mass deportations, attacks on reproductive rights, or attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.

These states will not allow him to enact any harmful legislation without a fight. Other blue run states are expected to join them.

Sources:

New York: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-and-governor-hochul-commit-protecting-fundamental

Illinois: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/11/07/gov-jb-pritzker-has-warning-for-donald-trump-you-come-for-my-people-you-come-through-me/

Massachusetts: https://www.latintimes.com/massachusetts-governor-vows-refuse-trump-request-help-mass-deportations-absolutely-not-565052

California:

[reasonsforhope]

"The state, which has long ranked worst in the US for child wellbeing, became the first and only in the country to offer free childcare to a majority of families

There was a moment, just before the pandemic, when Lisset Sanchez thought she might have to drop out of college because the cost of keeping her three children in daycare was just too much.

Even with support from the state, she and her husband were paying $800 a month – about half of what Sanchez and her husband paid for their mortgage in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

But during the pandemic, that cost went down to $0. And Sanchez was not only able to finish college, but enroll in nursing school. With a scholarship that covered her tuition and free childcare, Sanchez could afford to commute to school, buy groceries for her growing family – even after she had two more children – and pay down the family’s mortgage and car loan.

“We are a one-income household,” said Sanchez, whose husband works while she is in school. Having free childcare “did help tremendously”.

...Three years ago, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to offer free childcare to a majority of families. The United States has no federal, universal childcare – and ranks 40th on a Unicef ranking of 41 high-income countries’ childcare policies, while maintaining some of the highest childcare costs in the world. Expanding on pandemic-era assistance, New Mexico made childcare free for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $124,000 for a family of four. That meant about half of New Mexican children now qualified.

In one of the poorest states in the nation, where the median household income is half that and childcare costs for two children could take up 80% of a family’s income, the impact was powerful. The state, which had long ranked worst in the nation for child wellbeing, saw its poverty rate begin to fall.

As the state simultaneously raised wages for childcare workers, and became the first to base its subsidy reimbursement rates on the actual cost of providing such care, early childhood educators were also raised out of poverty. In 2020, 27.4% of childcare providers – often women of color – were living in poverty. By 2024, that number had fallen to 16%.

During the state’s recent legislative session, lawmakers approved a “historic” increase in funding for education, including early childhood education, that might improve those numbers even further...

When now-governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her candidacy in late 2016, she emphasized her desire to address the state’s low child wellbeing rating. And when she took office in January 2018, she described her aim to have a “moonshot for education”: major investments in education across the state, from early childhood through college.

That led to her opening the state’s early childhood education and care department in 2019 – and tapping Groginksy, who had overseen efforts to improve early childhood policies in Washington DC, to run it. Then, in 2020, Lujan Grisham threw her support behind a bill in the state legislature that would establish an Early Childhood Trust Fund: by investing $300m – plus budget surpluses each year, largely from oil and gas revenue – the state hoped to distribute a percentage to fund early childhood education each year.

But then, just weeks after the trust fund was established, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

“Covid created a really enormous moment for childcare,” said Heinz. “We had somewhat of a national reckoning about the fact that we don’t have a workforce if we don’t have childcare.”

As federal funding flooded into New Mexico, the state directed millions of dollars toward childcare, including by boosting pay for entry-level childcare providers to $15 an hour, expanding eligibility for free childcare to families making 400% of the poverty level, and becoming the first state in the nation to set childcare subsidy rates at the true cost of delivering care.

As pandemic-era relief funding dried up in 2022, the governor and Democratic lawmakers proposed another way to generate funds for childcare – directing a portion of the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund to early childhood education and care. Like the Early Childhood Trust Fund, the permanent fund – which was established when New Mexico became a state – was funded by taxes on fossil fuel revenues. That November, 70% of New Mexican voters approved a constitutional amendment directing 1.25% of the fund to early childhood programs.

By then, the Early Childhood Trust Fund had grown exponentially – due to the boom in oil and gas prices. Beginning with $300m in 2020, the fund had swollen to over $9bn by the end of 2024...

New Mexico has long had one of the highest “official poverty rates” in the nation.

But using a metric that accounts for social safety net programs – like universal childcare – that’s slowly shifting. According to “supplemental poverty” data, 17.1% of New Mexicans fell below the federal “supplemental” poverty line from 2013 to 2015 (a metric that takes into account cost of living and social supports) – making it the fifth poorest state in the nation by that measure. But today, that number has fallen to 10.9%, one of the biggest changes in the country, amounting to 120,000 fewer New Mexicans living in poverty.

New Mexico’s child wellbeing ranking – which is based heavily on “official poverty” rankings – probably won’t budge, says Heinz because “the amount of money coming into households, that they have to run their budget, remains very low.

“However, the thing New Mexico has done that’s fairly tremendous, I think, is around families not having to have as much money going out,” she said.

During the recent legislative session, lawmakers deepened their investments in early childhood education even further, approving a 21.6% increase of $170m for education programs – including early childhood education. However, other legislation that advocates had hoped might pass stalled in the legislature, including a bill to require businesses to offer paid family medical leave...

In her budget recommendations, Lujan Grisham asked the state to up its commitment to early childhood policies, by raising the wage floor for childcare workers to $18 an hour and establishing a career lattice for them. Because of that, Gonzalez has been able to start working on her associate’s in childhood education at Central New Mexico Community College where her tuition is waived. The governor also backed a house bill that will increase the amount of money distributed annually from the Early Childhood Trust Fund – since its dramatic growth due to oil and gas revenues.

Although funding childcare through the Land Grant Permanent Fund is unique to New Mexico – and a handful of other states with permanent funds, like Alaska, Texas and North Dakota – Heinz says the Early Childhood Trust fund “holds interesting lessons for other states” about investing a percentage of revenues into early childhood programs.

In New Mexico, those revenues come largely from oil and gas, but New Mexico Voices for Children has put forth recommendations about how the state can continue funding childcare while transitioning away from fossil fuels, largely by raising taxes on the state’s wealthiest earners. Although other states have not yet followed in New Mexico’s footsteps, a growing number are making strides to offer free pre-K to a majority of their residents.

Heinz cautions that change won’t occur overnight. “What New Mexico is trying to do here is play a very long game. And so I am not without worry that people might give it five years, and it’s been almost five years now, and then say, where are the results? Why is everything not better?” she said. “This is generational change” that New Mexico is only just beginning to witness as the first children who were recipients of universal childcare start school."

-via The Guardian, April 11, 2025

[handtohandteam]

Hello everyone 🫶❤️

I hope everyone looks at our team and supports us🍉💔

Hand to Hand team overview:

We are a youth volunteer team established in Gaza City - Khan Younis Governorate, including an elite of young men and women university graduates, who gathered under one umbrella to serve our community and overcome the challenges faced by the displaced in the Al-Mowasi area and displacement camps. We started from a deep belief that the spirit of volunteering is not just an effort, but a lifestyle that reflects our humanity and strengthens our belonging.

Our message:

We aim to help those burdened by crises, and we aspire to be a torch of hope that alleviates the suffering of families and children through various programs and targeted initiatives. We not only provide services, but seek to build strong human bonds based on love, compassion, and mutual respect.

Our objectives:

Psychosocial support: Because the good word may be stronger than all solutions, we organise psychosocial support sessions to mitigate the negative psychological effects of crises.

Recreational activities: We believe that entertainment is a right for everyone, so we create an environment of joy through events and open days that give children moments of happiness.

Health education: Health is the basis of a decent life, so we offer workshops and awareness programs that contribute to raising the level of health awareness for families.

Workshops and development: We work to empower young people and women through development training workshops that contribute to enhancing their abilities and improving their daily lives.

Community Initiatives: We launch various humanitarian initiatives, from providing basic needs to needy families to charitable projects that alleviate their suffering.

Our vision:

To be an inspiring model for other youth initiatives, and to leave a lasting positive impact on our society, where volunteering becomes an approach that everyone is easy on.

Our invitation:

We believe that one hand does not clap, and that real change begins when we unite to achieve a noble goal. Therefore, we invite all those who share this faith to join us, because together we are “hand in hand making change”, and together we are re-shaping hope.

Follow us on our pages on social media sites to see our latest events and participate in our upcoming initiatives, because goodness begins with a step... Let's go together.

To be an inspiring model for other youth initiatives, and to leave a lasting positive impact on our society, where volunteering becomes an approach that everyone is easy on.

Instagram:hand.to.hand.team

Our invitation:

We believe that one hand does not clap, and that real change begins when we unite to achieve a noble goal. Therefore, we invite all those who share this faith to join us, because together we are “hand in hand making change”, and together we are re-shaping hope

Follow us on our pages on social media sites to see our latest events and participate in our upcoming initiatives, because goodness begins with a step... Let's go together❤️‍🩹

[theonion]

Hopes for a Midwest peace accord were dealt a severe blow Monday, when a bomb ripped through a toll booth on the I-90 Illinois Tollway. The attack, which killed six and delayed westbound traffic for hours, is believed to be the work of Iowa-based militant Lutheran extremists.

The explosion is the deadliest in the troubled region since Oct. 4, 1997, when a bomb went off in a crowded Kankakee flea market, killing 22.

Illinois governor-elect George Ryan denounced the attack as “the work of cowards.”

“If there is to be any hope of a lasting peace in the Middle West, these sorts of despicable acts of violence must not be tolerated,” said Ryan, speaking before an emergency session of the Illinois legislature. “All sides in the Midwest crisis must demonstrate a genuine commitment to honoring the terms of the Lake Geneva Convention.”

The bombing, which reopened deep historical wounds in the unstable, strife-torn Midwest, sparked mass outrage and protest among Illinoisans. Full Story

[kissesfordaryl]

Ok! Could I please get (fic or shorter) Daryl and Male reader where his boyfriend teaches him how to do bj? Basically instructing Daryl what to do, all soft and kind and sickly sweet.

Thank you~.

your gentle touch.

top male reader x daryl dixon.

summary: a nice surprise turns into a learning experience for daryl.

era: prison.

note: literally before u requested this i was writing something like this so its perfect

after taking in all of the governors people, the tombs and other cell blocks were quick to be cleared of walkers with the extra hands. you figured that with all the space, a room or two could be put to good use.

it took about three months to get it cleaned up and add some decorations- all whilst keeping it a secret from daryl. you had wanted to give the room to him as a surprise. with all the new additions to the group, you knew he was inclined to keep to himself and wasnt as comfortable showing affection to you like he is with rick and the others. the room wasnt just for him, but for the both of you.

hes got a tight grip on your hand, following you deeper into the darkness.

"cant ya just tell me what it is?" he huffs, at a complete loss as to why youve pulled him aside- not that he was doing anything.

"daryl, thats what a surprise is. i promise its a good one."

with him trailing after you, you miss the way he smiles softly, eyes tracing your broader figure. yeah, he'd follow you anywhere, good surprise or not.

he lingers in the doorway, eyes darting all over the room. a mattress in the corner, a mirror on the other end- how did you get these down there without him seeing? and a stack of books and markers.

he glances at you. "when the hell'd you do all this?"

you flop back onto the bed, gesturing him forward. he closes the door behind him and gets comfortable in your strong arms. its one of the things he was crazy about- how they flexed as you helped hershel plant some seeds, how they were almost the same size as his fucking head. it was insanely attractive to him.

"when you werent looking? it took a few months, actually. bringing back a mirror on a run and convincing everyone else not to tell you is easier than it sounds." you chuckle softly, fingers running through his thick hair.

he tilts his head to look at you, the effects of the four walls working almost instantly. he leans in for a kiss, his little beard tickling your chin. its not like you havent kissed before. in fact, you stole one from him any chance you could get. but here: with zero chance of someone walking in on you, you were warranted a make out session.

his lips were always a bit chapped but quick to warm up under your touch. they parted just slightly, allowing your tongue to slip inside. his firm hands come to rest atop your chest, body fitting against yours perfectly.

with blood rushing both to your heart and cock, you pull away to sit up a little. "guess this is perfect, huh? all this room with no one else to hear us..."

daryls eyes seem to widen a bit, a blush coming to his cheeks. he swallows thickly before nodding, his fingers dancing across your skin. every time he touched you, it sent sparks through you- time and time again.

"wanted to ask you somethin'," he rasps out, hair falling into his face. your hand comes up to brush the strands away from his face, showing you millions of expressions hidden away just for you. "i want you to teach me how to do something."

"uh, teach you what?" you reply, forcing your attention away from his open lips, still wet from where youve kissed them.

he ducks his head, and you immediately recognize that trait. hes shy.

"what?" youre laughing softly, trying to match his gaze. "what is it? yknow ill do it, whatever you want. ill teach you."

"i mean," he groans, rubbing at his eyebrow in frustration, "shit, how am i 'sposed to just say it? i wanna... y'know, be able to go down on you. ive never done that before."

you nod, amused by his words. it was so easy to forget how much of a virgin he was next to you; hes never been with a man before. what else could you expect? "alright, ill teach you. you wanna be on your knees?"

he blinks once, then twice, and then a third time. "man, i dunno. i guess.." his voice is quieter now, softer.

"youve gotta speak up around me," you reaffirmed, leaning in to press a kiss to his forehead. "wanna hear what youve got to say."

daryl sighs, always overwhelmed by the gentleness you had for him. "yeah. wanna be on the floor."

hes malleable in your hands, sinking to his knees before you and getting comfortable. just seeing him like this made your cock twitch.

you reached out, a thumb slipping inside his open mouth. and he lets you: his mouth opening wider and wider.

"take my pants off." you instructed, breathless.

he pulls off of your thumb, firm hands at your belt, and then tugging at your boxers. daryl swallows thickly, familiarizing himself with the shape of you so close.

your hand snakes around the base of your dick, guiding it to daryls lips. "open. wider. mhm, like that. now rest your tongue on the bottom of your mouth."

you consider how easy it would be to shove your cock inside that mouth, how he'd take it anyways. a feverish heat blossoms inside your chest, and you want to fill every inch of him.

"go on, take it slowly." you hum out instead, watching your cock slowly disappear into his warm mouth. his eyes fluttered shut in concentration, barely getting the tip down his throat before hes choking.

"alright, hold on," your hand comes up to brush the hair away from his face, letting you see his face more clearly. he was flushed all the way down to his neck, fists balled to the side like he was restraining himself. "youre too stiff. just relax your jaw, and take your time."

daryl nods, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. his mouth falls open again, and he returns with more passion. instead of simply trying to take swallow your cock all at once, hes sucking gently at the head- tongue swirling around you. you have to put all your effort into not bucking into that heat, into suppressing your shudder. daryl notices, his hand guiding your own to his shoulder.

you want to kiss him them, ravage him, tuck yourself into him and hear him cry for you.

"youre doing good, sweetheart," is all you can manage, your touch traveling up his neck to feel his pulse there. the trust he had for you was obvious, and nothing turned you on more than that, "making me feel so good."

your words spur him on, his throat relaxing around you as he breathed in deep before moving down, and down- nose shoved into the dark hair at the base.

you cant hold back now, a firm grip on the back of his head as he struggled to adjust to your size. through a lust filled gaze, you catch sight of his gaze staring right back at you, pupils blown wide and mouth stuffed.

maybe thats what sends you over the edge. or maybe it was his hands gripping onto your thighs, or his own erection pressed against your leg.

here daryl dixon was: cold and rough and strong, learning how to blow a guy for the first time.

"im gonna- gonna cum. cmon." youre gently pushing at his shoulder, trying to get him off.

he pulls away with a loud pop, lips plump and red. "just cum in my mouth." his voice is wrecked, throat sore. but you couldnt deny him.

his mouth is left ajar, tongue resting against his bottom mouth as he watched you jerk off in front of him.

"didnt think youd get this desperate," you mused, just teetering over your release, "this pathetic for a taste of my cock."

and hes whining, something low and soft that you could barely pick up. "but you know im just as fucking pathetic for you too, huh? thats why 'm gonna cum on your face, and then suck you off till youre crying. you want that, angel?"

hes nodding, one eye shut as he inches closer and closer to your twitching cock, a hand closing around the tip as hes teasing your orgasm out of you.

your back arches, breathes falling out of you in ragged patterns, a hand still clenched in daryls hair as you held him in place before jetting your release onto his mouth.

hes licking at his mouth, then at your cock again, cleaning up. a thumb pushes into his mouth again, exploring the wet heat thats been so eager this whole time. you push against his tongue, affectionate and proud, letting him swirl around it like he previously did.

"youre a quick learner," you mumble, tugging him back onto the bed, "but ive still got some tricks to show you."

he swallows thickly, reaching for a kiss. "m'kay. go ahead, mister."

so lets ignore how fast u came i feel like im so bad at writing smut!!

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - March 22-28

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles! This month’s doodles, like every third month, will be free to the public, so take a look!

1. Crucial and heartwarming: see world’s first-ever wild jaguar translocation in Argentina

“Miní[, an offspring of rewilded jaguars,] is the first-ever release of a wild-born jaguar that’s been translocated for conservation purposes. […] Miní has joined two previously captive female jaguars [in a park] where a small, all-male wild population had been dwindling.”

2. Illinois Gov. Pritzker stands up for LGBTQ+ community in fiery HRC speech

“The governor particularly spoke out for transgender youth, saying we must not sacrifice the most persecuted for the most popular. [… “]Bullies respond to one thing, and one thing only, a punch in the face.”

3. The UK’s First ‘Stork Village’ Takes Flight

“For the first time in more than six centuries, white storks are calling Britain home again thanks to a dedicated conservation initiative to save the species. […] At the end of 2024, breeding numbers saw egg-straordinary results with 27 nests and 53 baby storks, doubling the previous year’s numbers.”

4. A quiet shift: The grid is being redefined by household consumers who no longer need it full time

“With rising adoption of rooftop solar, batteries, and electric vehicles, households are gradually altering their relationship with the grid. […] This redefined relationship doesn’t signal rejection — it reflects the growing capacity of households to meet part of their own needs.”

5. Europe’s Wolf Population On The Rise

““The recovery of wolves across human-dominated landscapes of Europe has been continuing during the past decade, with their population growing to over 21,500 individuals by 2022—a 58% increase in a decade,” the authors wrote. [… O]n average wolves killed 0.02% of livestock each year.”

6. Hospitals awarded funding for solar power work

“The investment of £8.5m by state-owned Great British Energy will enable rooftop panels and solar car ports to be installed at [several hospitals]. […] "Together, these panels will generate estimated savings of more than £635,000 a year."”

7. Nebraska Boards Sponsor Grain Bin Rescue Equipment, Training for Fire Departments

“[Nebraska Corn and Soybean boards are] donating two grain rescue tubes and two training sessions to fire and rescue departments in Nebraska. [… T]he initiative aims to equip rural fire and rescue teams with the knowledge and tools to respond to grain bin entrapments effectively.“

8. Sugar beet pulp fibers show potential for nutritional supplements and sustainable plastic alternatives

“New technology can separate the fibers in the sugar beet pulp left over after sugar production. Part of the fiber can be used as a nutritional supplement due to its anti-inflammatory properties[… and a]nother part of the fiber, the cellulose, can be made into components to replace, for example, plastic.”

9. Osmotic Power: The Next Wave of Renewable Energy

“Sweetch Energy’s technology could [produce] around 20 or 25 W/m2, a significant leap compared to the 1 W/m2 achieved by previous membrane devices. Moreover, by utilizing a biosourced material readily available within the industry for their membranes, the company anticipates the cost of materials would be reduced to one-tenth of the current price[….]”

10. Renegade Colorado Farmer Pushes Deeper into Unconventional Agriculture

“The grasshoppers stayed in the [pollinator] strips, and that triggered praying mantis to come in and eat. […] An agrivoltaic system […] has reduced moisture consumption by significant levels[….] “Local food nationwide is how to counter the industrial scale food industry.””

March 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[socialistexan]

I know saying "Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same, there is no difference" is the easy, catchy thing to say. But it's short, quipy, and wrong.

Just look at trans rights. Republicans in my state *right now* are trying reverse sex marker changes (because we don't have gender markers on our state documents) that have been in place for years or even decades. Our legislature will be in session in January, and a full on ban on adults using hrt is already in the works. If that ban fails in the legislature, our state executive

Democrats aren't these hyper-progressive leftist, there is no truly left wing party in America (including the Greens because they're just a giant grift now).

But one party would allow me to have basic human rights, rights that I think queers in blue cities in blue states take for fucking granted.

I might have to flee the one state in I have lived my entire 34 years of life in. The one where nearly all of my family lives in. The one I grew up in and love. Where my holocaust surviving great-grandmother found a home in for her final 70 years of life.

And I would be moving to a state controlled by Democrats. Where my rights are, bare minimum, protected. Do they do more than just enough? No! Is there work to be done even in those states? Yes! Do nasty bigots exist everywhere? Of course! But the legal repression in addition to suppression of protest in this state has made it damn near impossible for me to live my life here.

That's the difference. You need the bare minimum to build towards something better. You don't let shit slide into what Texas has become. In my lifetime we went from having a liberal Democratic governor and a 50/50 legislature to a near conservative theocracy where any form of organizing (not even protesting, I'm talking about registering people to vote or organizing mutual aid) is met with police raids, state lawsuits, arrests, and violence.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

A.B. Stoddard at The Bulwark:

1. Trump’s Not Taking the L. . .

The last two weeks—the unveiling of the Harris-Walz ticket, and Kamala Harris’s surge in the polls—feels like some surreal dream state. Everything has changed. Have you noticed Harris has pushed Donald Trump right out of the comfy lead he’s held for an entire year? He’s noticed. From FiveThirtyEight to RealClearPolitics—pick your polling average—they all now show Harris out in front after only two and a half weeks.

Trump is no longer on track to win the election—which he has been for more than six straight months. Instead, the momentum, money, voter registration, volunteering, grassroots organizing, polling, and online engagement all favor the Democrats and it looks now like Trump could easily lose. But that won’t happen, because Trump doesn’t lose. He beat Joe Biden in 2020—remember? So if he’s not the rightful victor on November 5, an entire army of Republicans is ready to block certification of the election at the local level. No need to worry about mayhem on January 6, 2025 when Congress meets in joint session; the election deniers plan to stop a result right away if it looks like Harris is winning. Their goal: Refuse to certify anywhere—even a county that Trump won—and prevent certification in that state, which prevents certification of the presidential election. A Harris victory could become a nightmare.

An investigation by Rolling Stone identified “in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania . . . at least 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists currently working as county election officials who have questioned the validity of elections or delayed or refused to certify results.” Of those 70, 22 of them already have “refused or delayed certification” in recent past elections. Nationwide, Republicans have refused to certify results at least 25 times since 2020, in eight states—the most in Georgia.

The article describes social media posts from the zealots who have infiltrated election administration as showing “unapologetic belief in Trump’s election lies, support for political violence, themes of Christian nationalism, and controversial race-based views.” There are more than enough such individuals in these key posts to bring us to a constitutional crisis. “I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election” in November, Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias told Rolling Stone. “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.” Sit with that.

Then there is this. Trump’s self-destructive attacks on Georgia’s popular governor made the headlines from his Atlanta rally last Saturday, but he also singled out for praise three little-known Georgians—Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares, and Janelle King—calling them “pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.” Who are Johnston, Jeffares, and King? They are three of the five members of Georgia’s State Election Board. Three days after Trump’s speech, this past Tuesday, those three Republicans approved a new rule requiring a “reasonable inquiry” prior to election certification that—while vague and undefined—could be exploited to delay certification and threaten the statewide election certification deadline of November 22.

The law in Georgia, where Trump and fourteen1 others are charged with plotting to overturn the 2020 election result, requires county election boards to certify results “not later than 5:00 P.M. on the Monday following the date on which such election was held”—so this year, by the evening of November 11. The secretary of state is then to certify the statewide results “not later than 5:00 P.M. on the seventeenth day” after the election, so November 22.

Across the country, the November election results will have to be certified in more than 3,000 counties, and all state results must be final by the time electors meet in each state on December 17. Members of county election boards are not tasked with resolving election issues; certification is mandatory and “ministerial,” not discretionary. Disputes over ballot issues are separate from the certification process—investigated and adjudicated by district attorneys, state election boards, and in court. Election experts say the new rule could disrupt the entire process across the state by allowing local partisans to reject results. And Georgia appears to be at the center of Trump’s plans. Casting doubt on Fulton County, which makes up the bulk of Democratic votes in the state, will help him claim he won the Peach State as the rest of the results come in red.

But even without an explicitly permitted “inquiry” like the new Georgia rule provides, Republicans in other swing states still plan on acting at the county level to slow or stop certification. Because questioning the outcome at the very start of the process will create delay. Any doubt and confusion, and perhaps even violence, makes it easier to miss essential deadlines and can threaten the chance that the rightful winner prevails. Election deniers also hope that sowing chaos might prompt GOP legislatures to intervene—in Georgia, Arizona, or Wisconsin for example—a dangerous scenario I wrote about in April.

[...] It’s crucial that these plans are widely publicized. And they can be. Just like Project 2025, which was virtually unheard of and is now in the forefront of the political debate. Putting a media spotlight on this issue will force Republican officials to address what they are well aware of and are refusing to call out. Yesterday CBS News reported Biden said in his first interview since leaving the presidential race he is “not confident at all” there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses. Harris isn’t likely to talk about this in her campaign, so it’s critical that other high-profile surrogates do. President Obama, President Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and others must educate voters about the plot underway to force more public pressure and accountability on the process. Every Republican must be asked about local certification of elections, electors honoring the popular vote of their state, preventing political violence—all of it. Repeatedly. As Elias told an interviewer, there are things we can do, as citizens willing to invest some time, to take action. This isn’t a threat from abroad. This year—and likely for years to come—we will all have to continue to fight against what our fellow Americans are doing to subvert elections. Because without free elections—and facts and truth—we cannot be a free country.

A.B. Stoddard wrote in The Bulwark that Republicans will seek to cause chaos post-election to try to block certification of a potential Kamala Harris win.

[redgoldsparks]

May Reading & Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut. Unfortunately, I must include the usual set of bad news for book lovers :(

Texas SB-13, a senate bill that, according to the Austin American-Statesman, “would require school districts to pull books with ‘indecent,’ ‘profane’ or ‘sexually explicit’ content and grant elected board members veto power over new purchases," passed in the Senate and is now headed to Governor Greg Abbott's desk where he will either approve or veto it. If you live in Texas, or know anyone who lives in Texas, please ask them to tell Greg Abbot they oppose this bill. In addition to the quote above, any new book that a school library wishes to acquire would be subject to a 30-day public review period, after which the school board would have another month to approve or reject the book. This would be such a nightmare headache.

Book banning is now becoming more common in Canada. Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides from Alberta, Canada, announced a public feedback process around what he called “extremely graphic and age-inappropriate content” in K-12 school library books. The four books singled out by the government as containing examples of such content are Blankets by Craig Thompson, Flamer by Mike Curato, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and Gender Queer, all of which are comics, three of which are queer. Folks in Alberta, Canada can share their opinion on book banning in this (very biased) survey before June 6. Please share this with your Canadian friends! (source)

This isn't related to books, but please keep contacting your Representatives about the Republican Budget Reconciliation, HR 1. Every single thing I learn about it sounds like a new level of hell. In addition to blocking states from regulating AI for ten years, stripping Medicaid from approximately 21% of trans adults and cutting abortion and healthcare access from millions more people, I now hear there's a hidden provision seeking to limit the ability of courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—from enforcing their orders. "No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued," the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says.

The provision "would make most existing injunctions—in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases, and others—unenforceable," Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told Newsweek. "It serves no purpose but to weaken the power of the federal courts." (source) This is all extremely terrible, obviously. Please call your Senators, especially if they are Republicans, to tell them you oppose this.

I also have some good news! Two of the worst anti-library bills in the nation died earlier this month when Alabama SB6 and HB4—nicknamed the “Jail the Librarians Act”—failed to make it out of committee before the legislative session ended. The victory was the result of months of work by Read Freely Alabama, and the thousands of Alabama residents who rallied to their cause. If you live in a state with active book ban legislative battles, please join a state Freedom to Read group!

Okay thank you for sticking with me, here are the book reviews:

The Prisoner of Limnos by Lois McMaster Bujold read by Grover Gardener

Bujold had so much fun putting Penric in drag and in prison in the previous books, so she decided to do it again! Another fun installment of this series, with some character development that I did not expect. 

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas 

This book walloped me! Set in 2002, which technically makes it historical fiction, this book follows a pair of nerdy queer high schoolers who develop an intense co-dependent friendship which is then destroyed just shy of their graduation by a series of painful emotional mistakes and unprocessed traumas. Nell is the only out lesbian at the small Quaker school in New York City. Fay is a self-professed 'fag hag' (a term which body slammed me back to the early 00s) or someone obsessed with gay men and gay male culture. I immediately clocked and read Fay as a gay trans man who lacked the language to express or definite himself as such. The book supports this reading, but also keeps the majority of the plot in an 18 month stretch of time in which Fay and Nell waltz through school joined at the hip, heckling their teachers, ignoring much of their homework, acting in the school play and musical, writing fan fiction about their classmates, and DMing each other on AOL until 2 or 3am every morning but never talking about their deepest emotional wounds. There were so many feelings and moments from this book which felt deeply, or even uncomfortably, familiar from my own gender confused teen years. But also this is a novel deeply interested in the concept of narrative foils and baby does it deliver on the mirrors, the parallels, and the consequences of layering your own expectations over a real human person in your life. I have some quibbles with the epilogue of the book (part of me wants to cut that part off completely) but overall I had a great time reading this and if you were gender nonconforming and in high school between like 1998-2008 it will likely hit you very hard as well. 

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar read by Gem Carmella 

I listened to the audiobook and it is SO gorgeously well produced; full of singing and atmospheric background sounds of water, rain, and rustling willows. If you like audio and can handle soundscaping I highly recommend that as the way to experience this fairly short but lovely queer fairy tale. One thing to note is that the audiobook is 4 hours long; but that it's actually one 3 hour story called "The River Has Roots" and then a second 1 hour long story which is a teaser for El-Mohtar's forthcoming short story collection. I enjoyed both but the second one doesn't have the emotional impact (in part provided by the music and sounds) of the first. 

Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day by Alex L Combs and Andrew Eakett

A well-researched, thoughtful, engaging look at trans and gender nonconforming people through history and from all around the world. This book is very welcoming to newcomers, but also full of little gems for those of us who have been reading trans histories for years. Combs and Eakett come from within the trans community, but they also pass the mic to many other trans folks of different ages, races, nationalities, and identities to share non-white and non-Western experiences. A beautiful and compassionate primer!

Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games by Samuel Sattin and Steenz 

A brief but engaging history of role playing games, which dips into some of the most ancient forms of recorded human gaming and the diverse development of war games, courtroom games, and board games which directly proceeded the creation Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. I should have guessed that D&D wasn't the first game that Gary Gygax or Dave Arneson created, and that it borrowed many mechanics, rules, and aesthetics of previous games but remixed into a more potently successful package. The back matter includes a short playable adventure! 

Unbecoming by Seema Yasmin 

In an alternate near future so close to our own it hardly feels speculative, two Muslim teens work on a guide on how to access abortion in Texas now that it is completely illegal, with prison sentences for anyone who even aids abortion access. For Laylah this is need is not theoretical- she's over two months pregnant and desperate to end the pregnancy without anyone in her life finding out. This stubborn shameful secrecy is not based in any specific logic, as it was made clear that Laylah's mother, grandmother, and best friend would immediately all support her and offer help if she asked. Meanwhile, Laylah's bestie Noor, a student journalist, is chasing the rumor of stolen donations made to the local mosque and an Iman's wife who might have taken them for her own purposes. There was a lot I enjoyed in this book, from very fun mixed media formatting choices, to the strong female friendship, to seeing two characters different relationship to religion. As an adult reader I was at times somewhat frustrated by the teens making foolish, self-sabotaging choices (please just be honest with your very supportive family!) but as a teen I think this book would have knocked my socks off. 

The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin read by Sarah Zimmerman 

Another home run of a book from NK Jemisin. This one is set in an alternate version of ancient Egypt, a city-state called Gujaareh, in which dreams serve as a source of magic. Sharers take dream-tithes from the citizens which they use to heal wounds and mental illness. Gatherers take a person's dreamblood- their life force- to be used in the service of Hananja, the moon goddess, ruler of the realm of dreams and the afterlife. One of these Gatherers is Ehiru, whose faith in his work and his mission is absolute- until he botches a gathering, accidentally sending a man's soul into the nightmare realm instead of a peaceful eternity. The man's angry spirit warns Ehiru that he is being used for corrupt purposes before it is ripped apart. Meanwhile, a diplomat from a neighboring country investigates her predecessor's probable murder; an apprentice-Gatherer begins his final training, not hiding the feelings he harbors for his mentor; and the Prince of the city, who killed his father and all of his siblings except one to gain the thrown plots a course towards immortality and domination. This book was written before the Broken Earth trilogy, and it's a bit easier of a read, partly because it is shorter. If you want to get into Jemisin but have been a bit intimidated, this is great book to start with. If you've already read Broken Earth, pick up this one too! It's a delightful treat. Re-read (audiobook) in 2025 and enjoyed it very much again!

Firebird by Sunmi 

This is a quiet, gentle coming of age story about two Korean American teens both trying to balance responsibilities of family and school with a search for their own identities and priorities. Caroline is a sophomore whose days are shaped by zero periods, band practice, studying, and reading fantasy romance comics when people aren't paying attention. Kim is a senior failing Algebra 2, possibly because she is in constant motion: picking her younger siblings up from school, working at a mechanic shop, teaching guitar lessons, helping her mom, and showing up at every social occasion even at very last minute notice. Caroline is assigned as Kim's math tutor, and that connection blooms into a friendship which pulls Caroline out of their shell and slows Kim down a little bit. I loved the hand inked line art and the soft way the story unfolded; it felt like real life. 

Watson’s Sketchbook by Molly Knox Ostertag 

The best reading experience of this book would be as a companion piece to a re-read of the complete set of Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, as these sketches and short comics weave in between the canon filling in a compelling love story that can be glimpsed between the lines. As a long time Sherlock Holmes AU enjoyer, I am very happy to add this version to my collection! These comics can also be read on tumblr.

Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Slamet Reis 

Beautiful, but at times baffling, this comic follows Oberon, a trans college dropout living in a terraformed space colony where many people have developed superpowers of some sort, called Ghosts. Oberon has been struggling with burnout and migraines which doctors can't cure or diagnose. He's also the only person in his family without a magic power, which he has a real chip on his shoulder about. But then he starts manifesting things from his dreams, and also manifesting a grown up version of his high school crush, Kon. Oberon knows that this version of Kon is just a manifestation of his own fantasy and thoughts, but he started working with Kon to try and explore and train his new powers. I LOVED the art in this and was wowed by many of the action sequences but will admit I was at times kind of lost as to what was happening. It's a trippy, dreamy book! Pick it up when you are in the mood for a dream logic ride, not when you are in the mood for hard sci-fi.  

The King’s Companion by Hannah Hallman 

A sexy, self-aware fantasy story of an immortal elf lord falling for a human king. This comic was clearly born out of a Legolas/Aragorn fanfiction, but then grew into its own tender meditation on unrequited love and mismatched lifespans in a world of magic, danger, and adventure. It's spicy, it's funny, it's beautifully drawn, what's not to love? 

The Shadowed Sun by NK Jemisin read by Sarah Zimmerman 

NK Jemisin is a master world builder, and there was a lot of sensual pleasure in simply returning to the world of Gujaareh, a city infused with dream magic, ten years after the end of the events of the previous book. This second volume picks up a very minor character from book one (Wanahomen, son of the previous Prince) as well as some completely new characters (including Hanani, the first woman ever to be trained as a healer by the Hetawa) as its leads. This unlikely pair must work together to free their city from the Kisuati occupation which resulted from the last war. While I enjoyed how this book explored some of the indigenous tribes who live in the desert between Gujaareh and Kisua, I have some fundamental questions about the ethics underlying the plot. Gujaareh's justice system includes religious mercy killings, performed by characters who are written as sympathetic heroes. There's also a pretty black and white system for determining whether someone is corrupt, and so merits a mercy killing, or not corrupt, and so is allowed to continue on with their life. Multiple characters express that "intentions matter more than actions", a belief that is directly opposite of what I believe in our real world. Because intentions justify actions, it is okay for Wanahomen to start a violent uprising because his ultimate goal is to rule Gujaareh peacefully. SPOILERS: It's also apparently okay for him to put Hanani in a position where she is probably going to be raped, in order to cement a political alliance and his war plans. Hanani learns that Wanahomen set her up for a sexual assault but forgives him and ultimately falls in love with him. In addition to this, the main "villain" of this story is a disabled child, who is accidentally killing innocent people with her powerful nightmares; nightmares fueled by the abuse she has received at the hands of her father, who is also her grandfather, because she is the produce of incest and rape. This story is set in a world where healers can use magic to cure 90% of all wounds and illnesses, as well as some types of mental health issues. Yet Hanani makes the call the disabled child is too damaged to be healed, and that the best option for her is a mercy killing, since as long as she lives she will continue to kill other people around her unintentionally. Why isn't the dream blood magic strong enough to heal the child? Why is it the right choice to kill the child, who is killing people but without intention, in a world where supposedly intentions are more important than actions? In some ways the ending of this book feels like an echo of Omelas, but instead of keeping the child alive and suffering in the hole, Hanani must peacefully kill the child in her sleep in order for the utopian city life to continue. I don't know man. I'm just really not sure about the values this book seems to be arguing for. 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 7, 2024 (Monday)

People in Florida are evacuating before Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the state’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday evening, bringing tornadoes, high winds, a dramatic storm surge, and upwards of 15 inches of rain. Milton grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in a little over a day, fed by water in the Gulf of Mexico that climate change has pushed in some places to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 degrees Celsius) higher than normal. Veteran Florida meteorologist and hurricane specialist John Morales choked up as he called it “horrific.”

President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Florida, enabling the federal government to move supplies in ahead of the storm’s arrival, but the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has refused to take a call from Vice President Kamala Harris about planning for the storm. When asked about DeSantis’s refusal at today’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that the president and vice president have reached out to give support to the people of Florida.

As for DeSantis, “It’s up to him if he wants to respond to us or not. But what we're doing is we’re working with state and local officials to make sure that we are pre-positioned to make sure that we are ready to be there for the communities that are going to be impacted. We are doing the job… to protect the communities and to make sure that they have everything that is needed." When asked about DeSantis’s snub, Harris answered: “It’s just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish, and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

Before this year, Florida had goals of moving toward clean energy, but in May 2024, DeSantis signed a law to restructure the state’s energy policy so that addressing climate change would no longer be a priority. The law deleted any mention of climate change in state laws. Saying that “Florida rejects the designs of the left to weaken our energy grid, pursue a radical climate agenda, and promote foreign adversaries,” the governor posted a graphic on X that said the law would “INSULATE FLORIDA FROM GREEN ZEALOTS….”

Like DeSantis, Trump and Project 2025, a playbook for the next Republican administration, authored by allies of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and closely associated with Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Ohio senator J.D. Vance, take the position that concerns about climate change are overblown. Project 2025 says the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, whose duties include issuing hurricane warnings, is “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” It calls for either eliminating its functions, sending them to other agencies, privatizing them, or putting them under the control of states and territories.

The U.S. Supreme Court came back in session today in Washington, D.C. It has decided not to hear arguments about whether the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) overrules Texas’s state abortion ban. EMTLA requires that hospitals provide emergency abortion care to save a woman’s life or stop organ failure or loss of fertility. Texas’s ban remains in place.

As legal analyst Joyce White Vance commented: “At least no one can pretend we don’t understand the consequences for women, & others, of putting appointments to the Court back in [Republican] control.”

The Georgia Supreme Court today reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, appointed in 2012 by Republican governor Nathan Deal, decided last week that the law violates Georgia’s Constitution. In his decision, McBurney wrote that “liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.”

McBurney’s decision came shortly after a state investigation revealed that at least two women in Georgia died after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision struck down the abortion protections the court put in place in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. In anticipation of an end to Roe, Georgia governor Brian Kemp in 2019 signed a six-week abortion ban prohibiting the procedure before most women know they’re pregnant. The Dobbs decision allowed that law to go into effect.

The Georgia Supreme Court stayed McBurney’s decision during the state’s appeal of it. Chris Geidner of Law Dork noted that the court did leave in place McBurney’s block on the law’s provision that district attorneys can have access to “health records” where an abortion is performed or where someone who received an abortion lives.

In her attempt to reach new audiences, Vice President Harris sat down for an interview with Alex Cooper of the Call Her Daddy podcast to talk about women’s issues. Call Her Daddy is the second most popular podcast in the country, reaching as many as 2 million downloads per episode. According to NPR’s Elena Moore, Call Her Daddy’s audience is 70% women, 93% under 45.

Cooper began the interview by acknowledging that she does not usually talk about politics, but “at the end of the day, I couldn’t see a world in which one of the main conversations in this election is women and I’m not a part of it…. I am so aware I have a very mixed audience when it comes to politics, so please hear me when I say [that] my goal today is not to change your political affiliation. What I’m hoping is that you’re able to listen to a conversation that isn’t too different from the ones that we’re having here every week.” Cooper said she had also reached out to Trump, adding: “If he also wants to have a meaningful, in-depth conversation about women’s rights in this country, then he is welcome on Call Her Daddy any time.”

On the podcast, Cooper and Harris talked about the prevalence of sexual assault before addressing abortion. When Cooper quoted Trump’s promise to protect women, Harris noted that he was the one who appointed the three extremists to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade and that 20 states now have abortion bans, some with no exceptions for rape or incest. Harris pointed out that the majority of women who receive abortion care are mothers and that every state in the South except for Virginia has an abortion ban. For a woman in those states—and one out of every three American women lives in one—the journey is expensive, hard, and traumatic.

“You don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do,” Harris said. “And that’s what’s so outrageous about it, is a bunch of these guys up in these state capitals are writing these decisions because they somehow have decided that they’re in a better position to tell you what’s in your best interest than you are to know what’s in your own best interest. It’s outrageous.” Harris pointed out that she is the first vice president or president to go to a reproductive health care clinic, and she noted that those clinics perform Pap smears, breast cancer screening, and HIV testing and that they are having to close because of the abortion bans. She noted, though, that since Dobbs, people across the country have chosen to protect abortion rights.

The article in the right-wing National Review about the interview was titled: “Kamala Goes on Sex Podcast to Lie about Georgia Abortion Law.”

On Call Her Daddy, Harris also brought her economic plans for an “opportunity economy” to a younger audience. When Cooper asked her how she was going to help young people “not feel left behind,” Harris agreed it is “a very real issue and we need to take it seriously.” She promised to address housing costs by increasing the housing supply, working with home builders in the private sector to build three million new housing units by the end of her first term; help with $25,000 downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers; and enact tax cuts for 100 million middle-class working people, including a $6,000 tax credit for new parents to help them afford the costs of a child’s first year.

The Committee for a Responsible Budget noted today that a moderate reading of Harris’s economic plans suggest they would increase the U.S. debt by about $3.5 trillion through 2035. A similar examination of Trump’s plans says they would increase the debt by $7.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, today, Trump openly embraced the race science favored by Nazis. In a scattered call to right-wing host Hugh Hewitt’s show, Trump called Harris a communist and lied—again—that she has let 13,000 murderers into the country. And then he claimed that murder is in a person’s genes, and “we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.” He has also noted that “it would be very dangerous” for anyone to admit they were voting for Kamala Harris at one of his rallies because they would “get hurt.”

Hurricane Milton spurred meteorologist John Morales to step forward to take a stand, sharing his thoughts after Hurricane Helene hit. “Something’s shifted,” he wrote. “And it’s not just the climate.” He noted that with Helene on the way, “I did what I’ve done during my entire 40 year career—I tried to warn people. Except that the warning was not well received by everyone. A person accused me of being a ‘climate militant,’ a suggestion that I’m embellishing extreme weather threats to drive an agenda. Another simply said that my predictions were ‘an exaggeration.’

“But it wasn’t an exaggeration,” he wrote.

“For decades I had felt in control. Not in control of the weather, of course. But in control of the message that, if my audience was prepared and well informed, I could confidently guide them through any weather threat, and we’d all make it through safely…. But no one can hide from the truth. Extreme weather events, including hurricanes, are becoming more extreme. I must communicate the growing threats from the climate crisis come hell or high water—pun intended.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[camillasgirl]

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will undertake State Visits to the Holy See and the Republic of Italy from 7th – 10th April 2025

The Holy See

The Jubilee Year On Tuesday 8th April, Their Majesties will visit the Holy See to join Pope Francis in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee. Held traditionally once every 25 years, the Jubilee is a special year for the Catholic Church; a year of reconciliation, prayer and walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, which is the Jubilee’s theme.

Nature and Sustainability The King and Queen will have an audience with Pope Francis. Their Majesties will also attend a Service in the Sistine Chapel, focused on the theme of ‘care for creation’, reflecting Pope Francis’ and His Majesty’s long-standing commitment to Nature.

Ecumenical Relationships In an historic first, His Majesty, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, will also visit the Papal Basilica of ‘St. Paul’s Outside the Walls’, with which English Kings had a particular link until the Reformation. ‘St Paul’s Outside the Walls’ is recognised as the Papal Basilica where reconciliation, ecumenism and relationships across the Christian faith are celebrated. Members of the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal and the Choir of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, will perform in both the Sistine Chapel and at ‘St Paul’s Outside the Walls’. In the Sistine Chapel, they will be accompanied by the Sistine Chapel Choir.

The King will also attend a reception with Seminarians from across the Commonwealth and the British Vatican community. Meanwhile, Her Majesty will meet Catholic Sisters from The International Union of Superiors General, who are working around the world at grassroots level to promote female empowerment, through girls’ education programmes, improved access to healthcare, climate action and the prevention of sexual violence and human trafficking.

Italy

The Bilateral Relationship The strong bilateral relationship between the U.K. and Italy will be celebrated with a series of ceremonial engagements during Their Majesties’ State Visit. In Rome, on April 9th, as well as His Majesty’s audiences with President Mattarella and Prime Minister Meloni, The King and Queen will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The King will be the first British Monarch to address a joint session of the Italian Parliament. Their Majesties will also attend a State Banquet at the Palazzo Quirinale, hosted by The President.

Defence As NATO Allies, the U.K. and Italy share common defence interests, collaborating on initiatives such as the Global Combat Air Programme. This relationship will be marked during the visit by a joint flypast over Rome by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, ‘Frecce Tricolori’ and by the Royal Air Force acrobatic team, the Red Arrows.

In Ravenna, Their Majesties will attend a reception in the Town Hall, marking the 80th anniversary of the province’s liberation from Nazi occupation by Allied Forces, which took place on 10th April 1945 (80 years to the day of Their Majesties’ visit).

Sustainability The two countries’ commitment to sustainability will be also reflected in Their Majesties’ engagements. In Rome, the Foreign Secretary will chair a roundtable on Clean Energy Supply Chains, with business leaders and others involved in the sector, and The King will then join to hear a report of the outcomes. Meanwhile, at a regional festival in Ravenna (10th April), Their Majesties will celebrate traditional Emilia-Romagna cuisine, Slow Food, and the region’s excellent produce. As part of this engagement, The King will meet local farmers, whose land and crops have been severely affected by devastating floods which have hit the Ravenna region in recent years.

Literature, Culture, Community and Heritage Their Majesties’ visit will also provide an opportunity to highlight the common cultural heritage shared by Italians and the British, whether that be a love of great Literature, or a desire to preserve Ancient Roman and Byzantine architecture and heritage crafts. It will celebrate the many ways in which culture brings the people of the UK and Italy together, creating a common bond.

In Rome, Her Majesty will meet school children who have been taking part in a competition to mark the 80th Anniversary of the British Council, describing or imagining a day in the life of their favourite literary characters.

In Ravenna, The King and Queen will view Dante’s tomb and Her Majesty will tour the Byron museum, uncovering the secrets of the great Romantic poet’s life in Italy, and attending a reception for local book clubs, libraries, book shops and representatives from Her Majesty’s charity “The Queen’s Reading Room”. His Majesty will visit the Basilica di San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, viewing their impressive mosaics from the 5th and 6th centuries and meeting artisans who are keeping this ancient art form alive.

[ecoustsaintmein]

ghosts (part i of ????)

part two here

pairing: paddy x eoin; rating: M. slow burn.

this was the first time they'd had this conversation as eric and killian. but it was as if they'd had this conversation, many years ago, many times before.

(or, paddy mayne and eoin mcgonigal, reincarnated as eric love from 'starred up' and killian from 'angel'. they meet again, during the heights of the pandemic -- but they don't remember - until much, much, much later).

the next quack he saw after oliver was dr wilson, who was a no-nonsense scottish lady who struck fear more than deputy governor haynes ever did. she was young but wise for her years, with curly dark hair and spectacles and a soft dundonian accent. turned out she knew oliver baumer from some forensic psychiatry conference but it wasn't like eric to show that he's interested to know more. no, he didn't miss oliver, he said to her in their one-to-one session. he missed his dad, though.

--

seven years later, eric is allowed parole on the grounds of good behaviour. the world around him has changed, and so has he. is he fully rehabilitated? has that bloody posh quack oliver baumer cured him of his violence?

dr wilson told him she knew about haynes and cardew and the comings and goings of the previous corrupt prison regime. oliver blew the whistle and there had been a massive investigation and as a result, most of the inmates' cases were reviewed, including eric's.

'what would you do, then,' eric once asked, 'if you manage to rehabilitate me? then you'd be out of work, won't ya?' but now eric realized that there were worse evils out there in the world that subsumes the hearts of men.

subsumes.

ha.

there was once a time when eric would laugh in the faces of those who would use big words like that. but since he spent more time with tyrone, hassan, ashley, dr wilson, he'd started reading and expanding his vocabulary. he's even started reading poetry.

sublimation was a word he recently learnt. dr wilson was drawing a timeline of his life and a map of his thought processes and how he came to be the way he was. some things in his past can't be changed, she said, but the way he responds to things, can be altered.

neville died of stage four prostate cancer five months ago. dr wilson fought for eric to be allowed to attend his dad's funeral. he even has a social worker now, nate, who is about the same age as he is, but is a tall, strapping bloke from liverpool with a heavy scouse accent. they talk shite about football and how neither of their teams were doing well in the prem.

then oliver visited him in prison, only to tell him that he's moving to new brunswick. where the hell's new brunswick? nova scotia, oliver said. new scotland?

canada, oliver nodded. because he said they needed psychologists there and the nhs pay was shite and for all his pains oliver wasn't a saint.

jews don't have saints, eric said. oliver looked at him for a moment before they both broke into laughter. well, eric shrugged. you're a saint enough for me. you've performed a miracle. i don't punch people when they smile at me wrong now.

five months later his parole application was accepted and he was free.

except. two months later the whole country went into lockdown.

and this was how he met that irish waif, killian, with the dark curls and the dark eyes and the accent no one can understand, especially when he spoke, words swallowed underneath that blue mask that everyone's got to wear.

he never got to witness that wide, easy smile of killian's in real life, until six months later, but then, that's another story.

--

they met as hospital volunteers in south london, during the height of the pandemic. they both live two flats apart on the same floor, in the same council tenancy building, just ten minutes walk from st george's.

but they weren't friends, not straight away. there was nothing memorable about killian apart from that shocking mop of unruly curls on his head and that awful accent, though eric's learnt to keep quiet and let killian repeat himself several times to the staff and patients on the ward; 'it's killian with a k, not a c like cillian murphy,' he'd said, pulling at his ID badge and pointing at his name. 'this is how i look like under this mask, by the way,' he says, and the patients will laugh. it's a terrible photo, worse than eric's own prison mugshot.

they were wary of each other just as eric was often wary of strangers. he's sublimated enough by being kind to patients and their relatives on the wards -- he doesn't need to continue wearing the same mask with other people.

his new social worker, subodh, once chided him for this.

--

everyone seemed to struggle with lockdown, but eric thrived. he's so used to isolation that he never ran out of ways to entertain himself.

the internet is a beautiful thing.

--

he didn't realize who it was, not at first. eric has his allowances and benefits and saves them up -- he's got no need for new trainers or clothes; and even with food he's rationing them up like he did in prison, he's not a glutton for mickey d's or domino's or that chinese takeaway across the street.

but eric's got urges, sometimes -- an urge that started out as a curiosity, ever since he found out that neville and ashley were together.

the internet is a beautiful thing.

--

eric's watched too many of those videos, now, but to say that he has a favourite or a type would be a stretch too far. he's even tried jacking off to them, but he couldn't even get hard -- not when all he could think about when he heard the men on screen moan was to think of ashley and his dad, together.

no.

he slammed his laptop shut (yes, the same laptop that he got for free from that scheme subodh signed him up for). he learnt how to use vpn. just because he spent his formative years in and out of prison doesn't make him a technological heathen.

but the next night he decided to watch some solo videos instead of acted porn, and this was how he ended up clicking on the profile of user @/cuchulainn1995.

he never shows his face, and despite the irish handle he speaks with an english (sussex?) accent. the first thing eric noticed is he's got a low, deep, growling voice, and such big hands, long beautiful fingers. one of the videos started with cu chulainn (that's how eric calls him now) wearing a white button-up shirt and slacks, but slowly he unbuttoned it and palms at his slacks, deft fingers unbuckling his belt. the hand motion on screen was slow, steady, confident. eric was utterly mesmerised by the way those hands floated across, like butterflies, as cu chulainn stripped down oh-ever-so-slowly.

he's wearing a lacy bra underneath the shirt, flat against his chest, and a lacy thong that could barely hold in his entire length. he's well hung, slim, but he hasn't even grown into his full girth yet, as he begins to pump himself through the lacy fabric.

against eric's will, he got hard too, as he watches this stranger tweaking his nipple under the bra and whispering filthy things about wanting to fuck a bad boy and wishing to destroy something beautiful. this man who talked of not wanting to be fucked, but to fuck. all while wearing that lacy bra and lacy thong that eric wanted to rip up with his teeth.

eric's never come so hard in his life.

maybe that's why all of those losers raided the tescos for toilet paper. for wanking to videos this good.

--

killian's the one who approached him first, at the canteen, while eric was flicking through the copy of 'oxford book of war poetry' he found amidst the old magazine stacks of hello! and ok! in the nursing office.

the blt sandwich was a bit dry, and the coffee stale. this was eric's excuse for coughing up his food and spluttering them all over the table, when killian sat in the chair in front of him and asked, 'what passing-bells for these who die as cattle?'

'what the fuck?' was eric's only illustrious response.

'-only the monstrous anger of the guns,' killian replied, voice muffled under the mask. 'wilfred owen.'

'i prefer robert graves.'

'of course.'

this was the first time they'd had this conversation as eric and killian. but it was as if they'd had this conversation, many years ago, many times before.

killian tore up his roll and dipped it in his golden vegetable soup. he pulled down his mask and ate voraciously. like he hadn't eaten in months.

it was the first time eric saw killian's face, in full.

killian smiled, as he licked soup off his fingertips, inadvertently making kissy noises as his lips left each finger. 'i prefer yeats,' he said, oblivious.

eric tried not to stare, he really did. there was something about the movement that was so familiar to him.

but he couldn't place it.

he also thought, that birthmark on killian's left hand looked familiar too --

but surely not?

--

eric's throwing money he doesn't have to cu chulainn, subscribing to his live videos and in his head thinks that he's having a parasocial relationship with this faceless man with a beautiful body, like one of those marble statues the brits pilfered from ancient greece.

his colouring was dark, gingery, and eric wondered if they were as coarse as his own hair. eric wondered if he was as dark, or darker in real life.

in the busy chatbox filled with filthy comments from horny subscribers, eric once gathered the strength to type, 'if ur english why the name cu chulainn?'

eric watched the slight pause in the body language, face unseen from the neck above. and then, for a split second, the sussex accent switched to a soft irish lilt, 'who says i'm english?', and eric thought, 'i've heard this voice before.'

but eric forgot everything when cu chulainn started his show, and when he called his audience a 'good boy'.

eric thought it was a private message just for him.

--

they bumped into each other, at the aldi queue for the self-service checkouts, a metre apart. eric eyed the shite killian's got in his basket -- bananas, spinach, macaroni, yorkshire tea and a bar of dairy milk. eric eyed his own -- pot noodles, crisps, rich tea biscuits. then killian waited for him outside, humming mindlessly, a foldable umbrella in hand. it's started drizzling -- then raining, hard, unheard of for tooting, before walking up to their flat together.

eric pulled up his hoodie and made a point not to stand under killian's umbrella, although he's getting drenched like a wet soppy dog and killian called him out for it. 'stop being an eejit and get under the brolly,' he said, without raising his voice, and eric acquiesced.

--

it's only natural that when the government announced that 'members of a household could be part of another household' as a 'support bubble', that eric became killian's.

and killian eric's.

subodh told him that it's good that he's found a friend, though under no circumstances did eric admit that killian was 'a friend'. they had nothing in common, he said. apart from the poetry and the football (why does he support liverpool? he's irish, for fuck's sake).

eric's been in killian's flat, which was a mirror image of his own, except that they were filled with the most bizarre trinkets when eric's was more spartan. killian never let him inside his bedroom, though, and eric's never pressed further.

killian grew herbs in his flat. a pot of chilli, too. there was a time when he grew up on a farm, he'd said, and everything he ate was from the land around him, because he learnt how to grow them. he learnt how to forage in the wild, he learnt how to slaughter animals. he's good with a machete and an axe too, he'd said, before he realized he'd said too much and fell silent.

this was when eric knew that there was more beyond the softness of killian's visage - there were dark secrets there, hidden behind those eyes, underneath those long, dark lashes.

eric spent more time at killian's flat than at his, since the support bubble rule was introduced. killian can cook. and for some reason, despite saying that he's living on benefits too, he's got subscriptions to all the streaming services and has the latest games on his ps.

eric wondered where he got the money from.

--

it didn't take long for him to find out.

--

in eric's defense, it was killian who told him to fetch his phone charger from the bedroom.

killian's bedroom, which for the past three months had been off limits to eric, because the door was always shut and killian had never invited him in, not even for a casual 'this is my room' tour. boundaries. if there's one thing he's learnt from oliver and dr wilson and the likes of 'em, it's to learn how to respect people's boundaries.

it's the grey wall and the bedspread that caught eric's eyes first. his first thought was, surely not. his second thought was, surely not.

it wasn't as if there were toys splayed across the room for eric to see. the room was pristine, unlike the mess that was the living room, but eric had just seen one of cu chulainn's videos yesterday and this was where he had sat.

and the laundry basket was in the corner of the room. there was no weird smells, no bras, no lacy thongs - but he noticed the slacks and the white button down shirt. killian had never worn slacks and a white shirt to work, he was always in his casual stripey t-shirt before he changes into scrubs, and then, oh then, there's his belt.

the belt.

the images of killian's fingers, on the ps controller, or when he picks up a brown roll and dips it into soup during lunch hour, come rushing back. the birthmark on the back of killian's left hand, as he unbuckles his belt and unzips his slacks and touches himself. the way his knuckles disappear as he works his fingers up into himself.

and he hears killian's irish lilt, now, in cu chulainn's forced english voice. eric realizes now that he's one of the men who's paid for the way that killian's living.

eric doesn't feel anger. he doesn't feel panic. he's floating, in this room, because he's always seen it through the pixels of his laptop screen, but never like this. he doesn't even know whether he wants to hate killian or hate himself, because at the end of the day eric was the one who had been searching for it, again and again, like a man obsessed; addicted. killian was just there, doing his thing.

killian had been here, last night, doing his thing. and eric had fantasised of doing more, imagined that he could be touched the same way, on this very same bed. eric leans down and touches the ikea bedspread, clean - it's as if killian's washed all the stains off of it from last night, and the room itself smells woody, citrus-y. it smells like killian.

it smells nice.

killian barges in and asks what's taking so long, wooden spoon in hand, flour dust on his nose and cheeks. he's attempting to make sausage rolls from scratch, he says.

eric's eyes glaze over, like he's neither here nor there. he only ever had sausage rolls from greggs and his own mum was a terrible cook, so homemade pastries were out of the question.

the phone charger is still plugged in at killian's bedside, where he's dumped his camera and lighting equipment in a storage box. eric pretends not to see it, and hands the phone charger to killian, careful not to let their fingers touch.

'you ok?' killian asks, concerned.

'yeah,' eric lies. 'it's just that, i've never been in your room before. it's nice,' he says --

-- which isn't a lie.

killian softens, as he tilts his head to one side and squints at eric. 'aye, because you never asked, ya daftie.'

it's almost fond.

--

some nights eric will wake up, alone in his bed, grouching. he remembers the night he was about to be executed by the prison guards, to make it look like he's hung himself, before neville saved him.

he dreamt of walking out of prison, with no one to greet him but a dreary, empty council flat near tooting broadway.

some nights, eric will wake up, alone in his bed, grouching. but this time, he doesn't remember that night when he was about to be executed the prison guards, to make it look like he's hung himself, before he ended up walloping all of them, before walking out into the hot desert sun.

he dreamt of walking out of prison, but this time killian is there, saying, 'the dead arose and appeared to many,' -- except this isn't killian and he isn't eric, and eric struggles to remember the name of this man who looks so much like killian and yet just isn't.

his mannerisms are still the same, though, from the way he stretches and yawns and grins like a cheshire cat, and he is as generous with his touches as killian was. this man laughs at his unfunny jokes about sweating in hospitals and nightclubs and getting someone's goat, and serves him soup from the gazelle that eric-who-is-not-eric has allegedly shot.

killian-who-is-not-killian smiles, as he licks the soup off his fingertips, inadvertently making kissy noises as his lips leave each finger, and eric thinks, oh.

oh.

--

paddy, he says.

eric wakes.

--

at lunchtime, killian shows him an empty notebook that one of the elderly patients had gifted him, on late shift last night. it's worn and battered, faded ink on the yellowed pages.

'she stopped me in the corridor and told me i had to have it,' he says, 'and then she was gone.'

'which ward was this?' paddy asks. 'maybe she's just a bit off, ya know, with delirium.'

'aye, it was off rodney smith ward,' killian nods, before leafing through the pages again, carefully.

a note falls out.

'from paddy, to eoin,' killian reads out loud, squinting to make out the words.

'eoin,' eric says, weighing the word on his tongue, before deciding that he enjoys the way his lips have moved, the way his throat has closed, to form the lovely sound ringing between them.

'paddy,' killian agrees.

--

'so, the sand of the desert couldn't keep your soul buried, eh eoin?'

--

killian thinks, when he was growing up, his real da used to say: 'coincidence was god's way of being anonymous.'

but this isn't what he chooses to believe.

he believes it's more like poker: life won't always give him easy hands, but it'll be down to killian how he chooses to play it.

so he chooses to believe that it was out of his own free will that he chose to sit at that table and quoted wilfred owen at eric love.

he chooses to believe that it was out of his own free will that he chose to wait outside aldi in the pouring rain, umbrella in hand, to walk eric love home.

he chooses to believe that it was out of their own free will that they became friends, despite the dreams that he had been having lately: of quiet conversations in flimsy tents, of secret trysts under the desert moon.

'when it was the desert, and you, and me,' killian thinks --

only those words weren't his, nor were they eoin's, but from a fragment of eoin's soul that paddy's carried with him.

from egypt to sicily to normandy.

from dublin to ballymena to newtownards.

and now, to fucking tooting, of all places.

how poetic.

--

he couldn't find the woman again. she was, he thinks, not of white-european descent, and her accent was foreign, but killian had thought nothing of it when she handed him the notebook--

-- and disappeared.

the nurses had never seen her before, when killian attempted to describe her. and with everyone wearing masks, it became even harder to identify who killian was talking about, and the nurses looked at killian as if he was still hungover from whatever he'd smoked the night before.

killian will call her 'eve', he thinks,

and the notebook his forbidden fruit,

these phantom memories are akin to a serpent.

'take a bite,' they call out to killian;

-- and so he does.

this way, at least, he'll live.

--

tbc.

part two here

[mariacallous]

Six months after Missouri voters approved an abortion-rights amendment, Republican state lawmakers on Wednesday approved a new referendum that would seek the amendment’s repeal and instead ban most abortions with exceptions for rape an incest.

The newly proposed constitutional amendment would go back to voters in November of 2026, or sooner, if the Republican governor, Mike Kehoe, calls a special election before then.

Republican senators used a series of rare procedural moves to cut off discussion by opposing Democrats before passing the proposed abortion-rights revision by a 21-11 vote. The measure passed the Republican-led house last month.

Immediately after the vote, protesters erupted with chants of “Stop the ban!” and were ushered out of the senate chamber.

The senate then blocked further Democratic debate and gave final approval to a separate measure repealing provisions of a voter-approved law guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers and cost-of-living increases to the minimum wage. That measure does not go back to the ballot. It will instead become law when signed by Kehoe, who has expressed his support for it.

After taking the sweeping votes, the senate effectively ended its annual legislative session – two days ahead of a constitutional deadline to wrap up work.

Democrats were outraged by the legislative actions and vowed to retaliate by slowing down any senate work next year.

“Our rights are under attack,” the Democratic state senator Brian Williams said during debate. He accused Republicans of “trying to overturn the will of the voters”.

Republicans contend they are simply giving voters a second chance on abortion – and are confident they will change their minds because of the new rape and incest exceptions.

“Abortion is the greatest tragedy in the world right now,” the Republican state senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman said while explaining her efforts to repeal the abortion-rights amendment. If someone’s fine with “taking the life of an innocent, then probably you can justify whatever you want”.

Some GOP lawmakers said they needed to repeal the paid sick leave requirement , which kicked in on 1 May, because that it was adding costs that threatened the financial viability of small businesses. Republicans had been negotiating with Democrats over an alternative to exempt only the smallest businesses before scrapping that and opting for the full repeal.

Missouri lawmakers have a history of altering voter-approved policies. They previously tried to block funding for a voter-approved Medicaid expansion and authored changes to voter-approved measures regulating dog breeders and legislative redistricting.

Missouri’s abortion policies have swung dramatically in recent years.

[bambamramfan]

What If They Win

Too much has been written about the horse race of this election, but not nearly enough analysis about how either administration will govern. There's some fearmongering about Project 2025 or courtpacking, but that's propaganda not actual predictions.

(FWIW, I think Trump has this race in the bag, but can understand people who still hope think this is a coin flip.)

If Harris Wins...

Harris has held together a remarkable coalition of people against Trump. Mainstream Democratic politicians, YIMBY pundit technocrats, far lefters holding their nose, and Republican neoconservatives. This is no criticism, it's pretty impressive how they are coming together to defeat a common enemy, and I really really would like them to win.

But what happens to a coalition defined by a common enemy, after they win? Let's assume the best case scenario and she gets a Democratic Senate who confirms her cabinet and some SCOTUS judges.

Who supports Harris in the press, or is vote-corraling for her in Congress? Not those Republicans who hope to turn a page on the Trump era. Not a far left who has decided to hate her as a centrist sell out. Not moderate dems who will run away from any hint of weakness. Maybe a few of those YIMBY pundits who hope she's actually committed to more houses and nuclear power. But that's no political hyperpower.

What would her first major bill be? Who would support it? It will be just one scandal plagued administration with little support from any quarter that makes its ground breaking "first" for subaltern identities a disappointing token. The David Dinkens of the White House.

I predict that President Harris would have the lowest approval rating in her first year of any President we have polling for. It's gonna be brutal, and an easy 2028 win for Republicans (who hopefully won't be running 82 year old Trump.)

If Trump Wins...

This is the interesting one. I've heard a lot of people say that a second Trump term will be even worse than the first because he's fully unleased now and no one can stop him from doing what he really wants. And I think this is partly true.

I just don't think what he wants is "Republican authoritarian rule." Sure, he will probably let the Fed Society still pick the judges (which he never cared about besides thinking they should be loyal to him) and there will almost certainly be a tax cut/extension. But besides that?

In the first Trump term, he had VP Pence, Jeff Sessions as AG, governors like Chris Christie, and three establishment figures at State, Defense, and Treasury making a pact that if Trump fires one they all resign. It was an actual coalition of Republicans and Trumpists who need each other. Even Jared Kushner was pretty establishment friendly (he's the one who approved Pence.)

Jared and Ivanka are gone now, replaced by Eric and Donjr. The VP is a Thiel-acolyte who isn't anti-Republican but sure is "from the blogs." And the endorsers Trump touts are RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk (while more and more mod Republicans endorse Harris.)

This isn't a Trump face over a body of Republicans - this is a Trump leader over all the fringe outsiders of American weirdo culture. I think Trump *actually does* want to appoint RFK to Secretary of Health, and indulge in every conspiracy, organic hippie, crunchy nonsense - which actually has a lot of believers across the country, but extremely little following in DC itself.

I think this will be hilarious beyond our wildest dreams of entertainment. It will not be a functional fascism - it will be closer to Jill Stein and Richard Branson and Andrew Tate. He'll try to pass laws that every kid in America needs to eat healthy and also work in a McDonalds.

[loveerran]

Utah Bathroom Ban

In an effort to protect women and children from a problem that does not exist, Utah legislators recently passed, and the governor recently signed into law, HB 257. Among other things, this bill defines criminal penalties for improper use of a binary, sex-designated (male or female) restroom in a government owned or controlled space that does not correspond to one's assigned sex:

"Going into a bathroom that is not consistent with your birth gender, or your birth sex, you are putting yourself at greater risk. I think that’s the best way for everybody to look at it and say, ‘How do I avoid risk? How do I avoid risk of arrest?'" - Senate sponsor of HB 257 Dan McCay

As a trans woman who has been out and about for 20 years, what I hear in this quote is very specifically: "We want you to be scared when you use a bathroom that doesn't align with your assigned sex at birth. You already know someone may report you just for being there and the criminal justice system is horrible for trans women, so maybe you'll think twice before trying to pee when out in public."

And it works. I am reminded I am different and should be scared of what will happen if the wrong person is having a bad day, reports me to the bathroom monitoring authorities, and some cop starts making choices that put me in a difficult or dangerous situation. Stories of abuses suffered by trans women in the system are legion.

But I don't think my situation is the real problem here. In practical terms, this bill means a trans kid can't use a school restroom that aligns with their gender identity and/or presentation. Instead, they have to develop a 'privacy plan' with the school and use separately designated facilities or a faculty restroom, etc. - reinforcing that they are 'other'. This is very dangerous and will create victims and we have actual data and studies to back up that assertion.

Let me restate: There is data demonstrating that bathroom restrictions hurt gender non-conforming kids, with a reported increase in the sexual assault rate of nearly 50% when bathroom restrictions of this type are in place.

My wife points out "I would be safer in a men's restroom than you. Most men will actually try to protect women, but that doesn't apply to trans women. Quite the opposite."

The sponsors of the bill could not name a single instance of trans kids being a problem in spaces aligned with their gender identity. Not one single incident for them to rely on. And they ignored evidence indicating there are actual harmful effects. This bill makes a small, marginalized group of people more likely to be victims of violence.

This issue was so important to the Utah legislature that they devoted a substantial portion of the 1st two weeks of the legislative session to HB 257, including significant changes after the public comment period passed.

When the bill went live on May 1, the Utah State Auditor's office began being flooded with false reporting (I love you all :)!). The Auditor's office responded by publishing what can only be described as a scathing indictment of the situation:

"the Office created the complaint form to comply with a statutory mandate – a role we did not request. Indeed, no auditor sets out to become a bathroom monitor... Like many in the public, we learned about our role under this bill shortly before the bill was rushed to final passage. I recognize that many Utahns feel trampled by an invasive and overly aggressive Legislature that too often fails to seek input from those most affected."

Thank you to everyone who continues to fight for us on this issue. There aren't enough of us to win this on our own. We need your help.