Cat Fitzpatrick! A sword! Questions for YOU!

Hey friends,

We’re back, baby! Gender Reveal Season 10 entered the world on Halloween, which does in fact make her a Scorpio. We’re kicking things off by chatting with the delightful Cat Fitzpatrick, cofounder of LittlePuss Press and author of the new novel The Call-Out. (Have I said already that I was initially skeptical of a book written in verse? Reader, I was WRONG. More books should be written in verse! It rules! Especially when the rhymes are about, like, estradiol.)

In case you missed it, Cat later pulled up reference photos for some of the circa-2001 trans stuff she mentioned, most notably this store whose express purpose was to transgender you!!!!! 

As it happens, Cat is currently touring around the East Coast right now in support of her book as well as Cecilia Gentili’s Faltas. Mckenzee and I will be at her reading with Casey on the 7th — maybe we’ll see you there?

Speaking of this week's episode, we also hear from Rosemary, who waited so long for her name change that she got an entire sword about it.

Photo: Rosemary holding a big sword!

Ok, before I forget, a couple of questions for my beloved newsletter readers:

1. I was going to put the merch shop on hold for a while, but then realized I should wait until after the holiday shopping szn so everyone can get good gay gifts for each other. That means that I need to put something in there! Are there any designs you’d particularly like me to restock?
2. I’ve clearly just been winging the Gender Conceal bonus episodes, which I’m happy to continue doing, but! Are there any past guests or friends of the show that you’d especially like to hear more from?

Thanks in advance for your feedback! And now, time for Links & Stuff:

• Harron’s profile of Cecilia Gentili just came out in Vulture, and I love any piece that opens with “Big Mistake! Big! Huge!”
• Ozzy and friend-of-the-show Rose Eveleth put out a Choose Your Own Adventure podcast in the Flash Forward feed!!! (Legally they can’t call it a “choose your own adventure” thing because it’s copyrighted but whatever.) I’ve never heard of a CYOA podcast before and I’m so impressed with their team for making it happen.
• This article about voter ID laws includes a handy chart with every state's voter ID + name change laws! 
• That’s actually all I’ve got this week because everything is about, like, Elon Musk and I refuse to link to that. 
• Go Phillies!!!!!!!!!!

Next week on the show, we’ve got Howie Echo-Hawk talking about… look, we talked for like 85 minutes and for some reason I can only remember the part at the very end where I asked if pronoun circles and land acknowledgements have similar Ally™ energy. But I remember Having Fun throughout, so I gotta assume it’s a good chat! I’ll find out any minute now when I jump into the draft.

In the meantime, here’s your weekly Rhubarb.

Photo: Ruby mischievously standing on top of a closet door to climb onto a very tall ledge. 

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective