Emma Specter! Buff lily pads! Trans book list in progress!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. I started writing this newsletter and then somehow spent an hour messing around on Bookshop dot org, trying to make a little trans book playlist (that can’t be what they’re called? but that's the energy?) for y’all. And then… I decided it’s not finished until I read many more books, so here I am, back at the blank newsletter page. Hello!

This week on Gender Conceal, it was such a treat to speak with Emma Specter about Bisexuality 2, Housemates, Vogue, the Conde Nast union drive, the Cis+ expansion pack, the gender meter reader, the reappearance of middle school classmates, and of course Avery Tucker’s iconic “LA is shitty heaven, NY is fun hell.” Oh, and eating disorder recovery! But in a fun way? Emma’s book is out now and I’m so grateful to them for writing it!

(On Monday, we’ll be sharing our typical sort of condensed/teaser version of Emma’s interview on the main Gender Reveal feed, so please share with your non-patron friends if you enjoyed the Conceal ep!)

In other Patreon news, I believe I am entirely caught up on $5+ patron stickers, so if you have still never ever received any mail from us, please feel free to hit me up! We had a bunch of mail returned as undeliverable recently, and while I DM’d everyone I could about mailing addresses, it’s possible that your stickers are still floating around in the USPS system somewhere. (I’m also caught up on 2T2F direct sales, which also include stickers as a treat.)

Otherwise, not too much to report. I am very excited about next month’s Gender Reveal guest — does anyone want to guess which Ru girl we got? Merch sales end in like five hours, and speaking of five (5), there are exactly 5 tickets left for our Union Hall show.

Okay, let’s do Links & Stuff:

• Not to recommend a twitter thread in the year 2024 but this is very cute and those teens (mentioned partway down the story) were like DEFINITELY trans right

• JP Brammer showing off by writing beautifully about writers block

• As always, Luke’s newsletter is really good if you want to make your depression worse

• What’s less bleak? Well, friend of the show Em posted “Which NYC beach are you?” in the Gender Detective slack so report back I guess

Over in Tuck’s Creature Corner:

• Lily pads are creatures to me and you simply must tune into this global competition for the buffest lily pad. (Thanks Soraya for alerting me to these videos.)

• Also: a turtle eating watermelon, why not!

That’s it for this week. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb. She was enjoying the jungle (backyard) for her birthday!

Photo: Ruby lying down outside, mostly shrouded in greenery.

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective

PS: Please feel free to recommend your top choices for trans book (play)list! Any genre is good, and the book does not need to be about trans! Just putting some recs together for fun.