Happy birthday, Rhubarb! Kani Lapuerta! Dean Spade & Morgan & Tourmaline!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. As of yesterday, my whole thing is asking everyone if they know about Dead Horse Bay. Do you know about Dead Horse Bay??? It’s a beautiful trash oasis and it’s Robert Moses’s fault, of course. The beach is currently closed and I would never break a law, but if I had theoretically gone there recently, I think it theoretically would have cured my ills. (While also giving me other ills, probably, due to the leaking battery waste or whatever.)

This week on Gender Conceal, I had the pleasure of chatting with filmmaker Kani Lapuerta about his new documentary feature, Niñxs. Topics include LGBTQ rights in Mexico, Mean Girls-inspired fantasy scenes, spiritual gentrification in Tepoztlán, an update on gender-neutral Spanish, what makes a film trans, and what it’s like to make a documentary with a literal child. And more! A transcript is available now (password: detective) and we’ll have a teaser up in the main feed tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in the main feed, we shared an episode of Dean Spade’s new podcast, Love in a Fucked Up World! Specifically, we shared a chat between Dean, Morgan Bassichis (you know, from last week?) and Tourmaline — three geniuses who happen to be close friends. I just saw someone on Hinge who specifically wrote that you should message them if you have read Love in a Fucked Up World and I’m sure this podcast counts, so maybe if you listen you will get a weird date out of it????? Who can possibly know.

Oh, speaking of books, Sex Change and the City is not doing big presale numbers the way that 2 Trans 2 Furious did, and I’m told that’s because nobody has a job or money :) which is a really great reason, and by the way have I mentioned lately that I’m SO GRATEFUL that you are here employing Ozzy and me!!!!!!!!!!! But anyway, we’re running a 10% off sale in the Girl Dad Press store for Labor Day Weekend, so if you’ve got any friends interested in the book, tell them to save 10% with code STEVE today! Or to save even more money via AK Press! Or to request it at their library and save 100%, whatever works! (You, as a patron, can always save 10% with code PERVERT.)

Sorry if you are already tired of me trying to sell this book, by the way. I am also tired of it, and yet, it is my job! And maybe it will cure you the way that the irradiated dead horse trash beach cursed me? So thank u for your patience and understanding :)

Okay, let’s do Links & Stuff:

• I’m so so sorry to bring this energy but I hope that nobody in New York needs a job because I cannot stop thinking about this graph. It makes me very scared! Thank you again for my podcast job!!!!!!

• Also in New York: one of the nation’s first trans-specific homeless shelters has opened.

• And elsewhere in New York, I enjoyed these dispatches from several free Eventbrite events that range from “Wow, I wish I had gone!” to “I would pay $100 to never attend this event” (according to my personal scale, not the article’s rubric.)

• Meanwhile, in Michigan: what the hell!!!!

• And in Seattle: what the absolute hell(!!!)

• And in the UK: what the hell, also!!!!! (Btw, this one uses Sally Rooney’s support for Palestine Action as an excuse to talk about the criminalization of Palestine support more broadly, so even if you do not personally care about Sally Rooney, it’s still a great read.)

• Over at Xtra, I learned about this scam targeting LGBTQ activists and also enjoyed this sweet little piece about how queer public sex is good for society, actually.

• I shared this last week but I’m sharing it again because we gotta do something.

• I try to always end this list on a fun note so uhhhh maybe just read some webcomic_name strips today ok?

Okay, but speaking of fun note: this week was Rhubarb’s birthday!!!! She is seven years old!!!!! Everyone say hbd Rhubarb or else!!!!!!

Photo: Ruby sitting on the floor being her usual beautiful self.

Photo: A photo of me sitting in the backyard feeding Ruby some stinky fish for her birthday. I am wearing a shirt that is very roughly the same colors/patterns as Ruby.

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective