Zine presales open! Tuck on You’re Wrong About! Live NYC events in June!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. Last week was everything happens so much (derogatory) and this week is everything happens so much (celebratory???). Let’s walk through it all, shall we?

Part I:

As hinted previously, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Marshall about the New York Times (derogatory) for this week’s episode of You’re Wrong About. I originally pitched this episode to Sarah back in January, in a pre-nytletter.com world. My rationality was: very few people are talking about this, and nobody is going to listen to me on my own little trans podcast, but perhaps they will listen if I go on this huge platform beloved by perfectly nice libs?

Of course, over the last few months, way more people have started talking about the NYT’s systemic anti-trans bias, which has been great to see. But we did the episode anyway, why not! And I’m really really proud of how it turned out. I tried to keep it informative and honest while also being fun-seeming, and I think it worked? (Let me know!)

Photo: A screenshot of the You're Wrong About episode "we need to talk about The New York Times with Tuck Woodstock" in the PocketCast app

Frankly, I expected some kind of doxing attempt or at least a bunch of angry emails, but so far people are generally being very kind about it, including Wonder Woman for some reason??? We’ll see if the good luck holds, but in the meantime, I hope that this is a useful resource for all the well-meaning NYT readers in your life! We created a transcript full of citations, too.

One last exciting piece of news about the YWA piece: Sarah and her team have generously pledged to donate two weeks of profits to five trans-focused organizations of my choosing: TASSN, Kind Clinic, Black Trans Women Inc, Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project, and the Gender Reveal mutual aid fund. Given that YWA has 22,408 patrons and counting (lol!), my back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that two weeks of YWA profits = upwards of $50K. That’s so much money!! I'm so thrilled.

[Musical interlude: I’m back at that one coffee shop, you know the one, and the last three songs they have played are Absolutely (Story of a Girl), Stacy’s Mom, and Complicated. I’m absolutely losing my mind (complimentary).]

Part II:

Speaking of thrilled: thrilled 2 say that we finally have pre-sales open for the previously untitled Fast & Furious zine project I’ve been talking about for months. We’re calling it 2 TRANS 2 FURIOUS: an extremely serious journal of transgender street racing studies, and it features contributions by more than 40 trans writers, artists, and freaks of all kinds. As (presumably) a Gender Reveal listener, you may recognize the folks behind the following contributions, which I’m leaking exclusively for patrons because I love you:

• Letty Did Not Trans Me But Maybe She Did by Mckenzee Griffler
• Family Vehicle by Gretchen Felker-Martin
• Fast & Furious 69: TRANSmission by Dakota Hommes (a TTRPG!)
• Ready 2 Race: A Fast & Furious Name Generator by Tehya
• The Real Fast Is the Furious We Made Along the Way by Rebecca Kling (an acrostic?!)
• What Is Fast if Not Furious Everlasting by Niko Stratis
• The Two Genders by Lilith K

I know everyone always says “preorders really help a book” but I’m literally basing our print size on preorder sales, so if you want a physical copy, please grab one now! (That said, we’re currently only shipping to the US — we’re going to try to get sales to Canada going next week, and for everyone else, we’ll have a PDF version available as soon as we finish the book lol.) If nothing else, I feel that Mattie’s cover art is worth the price.

Oh, and I've said this everywhere else, but I do not think you need to have seen all the F&F movies to enjoy this zine. I haven't really even seen all the movies, and I edited it accordingly. 

[Musical interlude: no no no no no they’re playing hellogoodbye’s Here In Your Arms help]

Part III:

Speaking of our good friend Mattie Lubchansky! They are going on tour next month to celebrate the release of Boys Weekend, and every stop promises to be a total banger. I’ll be kicking off the tour by chatting with Mattie at Astoria Bookshop on June 7, and there are only a few tickets left, so I’d grab one now while you can! (TBH I sort of suspect they’ll end up moving this to somewhere with more space — if that’s the case, I’ll keep everyone posted.)

Also, if you're in NYC, I suggest blocking off your calendars on the evening of June 16! I can't say why yet because [redacted person in charge] reads this newsletter haha but... keep an eye out. 

[Musical interlude: thank god I’m almost done with this newsletter because they’re playing a Rob Thomas song that gives me a mild trauma response lmao]

OK, that’s it for now! That seems like quite enough links and stuff so I’ll see you here next week. Thank you for all the support, it means the world!!!!! 

Oh wait, uh, Epilogue: I think I got an apartment????? We haven’t signed the lease yet but they did take a lot of my money so hopefully it’s real. Thanks for everyone who expressed sympathy or suggested possible options, I really appreciate y’all.

[Musical interlude: Ocean Avenue is playing, I need to LEAVE lol.]

OK, that’s really it now. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb — an extra special one for making it all the way down here.

Photo: Ruby hanging out with her best friend, who is a white Westie dog.

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective