You will win and I will help you :)

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. I leave for Gender Ordeal tour tomorrow and I am stressed about getting everything ready, but wow, it’s so nice to feel stressed about something fun instead of the ongoing government takeover/societal collapse! :)

We talked about Literally What Can We Even Do last week, and there’s really only so much to say about that, so I’m going to mostly talk about the podcast, if that’s ok? But two quick things:

• It has been very very cool to see coordinated actions popping up on behalf of trans kids, and they seem to be having some effect, so keep at it !!!!!

• If you’re an ally (to any group) looking for what to say in these times, “you will win and I will help you” is my favorite by a mile.

Anyway. Assuming Society and Planes and The Weather all hold it together for like four more days (we’ll see!), I’m excited to see many of you soon! As of this morning, we had eight tickets left in Seattle and 20ish in Portland, so this is essentially your last chance for those. San Francisco will have 30+ tickets at the door on Monday — the venue asked us to do this, idk why — so just get there early and you’re golden.

By the way, Suzette at the Portland Mercury wrote this really cute little profile of the show, and it contains minor spoilers but also really captures our vibe well :)

Next week on the show, I am really really excited to share our conversation with writer Vera Blossom. Vera has a wonderful essay collection out now called How To Fuck Like a Girl, as well as a free blog/newsletter of the same name. We explore such questions as:

• Is Shrek low-key the ideal man?

• How much of your gender is about how u wanna fuck and be fucked?

• What did estrogen teach Vera about the life cycle of pigeons???

• Pokémon boarding school online role-play: which Pokémon did Vera play?

• How is the ghost of the gay guy who previously owned Vera’s bread machine doing??

• What does it feel like to be the hottest girl at the mens-only bathhouse?

• What magic spells did Vera include in her memoir/grimoire?

• Are straight roommates queer-coded?

It’s a fun one as you can tell :) but Vera did say we had an “Oprah Winfrey moment” so we get serious for a minute too! Also, the phrase “sex slime” is used. :)

Okay to be so real it’s 11:45pm so let’s get to Links & Stuff:

The news, unfortunately:

• The US government is openly stockpiling data on all of us (Wired)

• Medical schools & healthcare research forced to shut down due to NIH cuts (WaPo)

• They also just shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (NYT)

• The names of CIA agents are just out there loose now (NYT gift link)

• Is it legal for the US to deport its citizens to this dystopian mega-jail in El Salvador?

• In better news, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota are suing to attempt to end Trump’s trans healthcare ban (OPB)

News-adjacent:

• Luke O’Neil on how the Democrats are useless lol

• Sarah Hagi found all those racist Karla Sofia Gascón tweets and then slayed her Variety interview

• I was late to this interview with incarcerated firefighters but it’s still worth your time

Nice and chill:

• It’s time to order trans girl scout cookies !

• To be so honest I didn’t even read this article I just played the little game embedded in it.

• This video is sort of funny but it’s mostly just the context for this video which absolutely kills me

Tuck’s Creature Corner:

• I hope you’re ready to cry!

That’s it for this week. See you soon, I hope! Here’s your weekly Rhubarb.

Photo: Ruby laying on the couch like 20 minutes ago. Her pupils are big and round and she looks alert because she heard my roommate walking around.

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective