JK Rowling's transphobic tweet earns a 'like' from Mark Hamill
I have a bad feeling about this. Plus: Right-wingnuts express outrage over a report that trans activists want to ban an Aretha Franklin song. And: My essay in defense of pronouns leads to mean tweets
Thanks for rising up with me. It’s Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Actor Daveed Diggs turns 40 today! You know him from Hamilton, of course, but did you also know he played Andorian Commander Tysess in Star Trek: Prodigy?
Here Now The News
ANOTHER DEADLY MASS SHOOTING IN CALIF: Sunday it was Monterey Park, east of Los Angeles, where the death toll currently stands at 11. Monday it was Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. The shootings yesterday claimed 7 lives and the gunman is in custody. More from NBC News
FOUR MORE OATH KEEPERS CONVICTED FOR JAN. 6: They were convicted of seditious conspiracy. — Associated Press
A.G. GARLAND DEFENDS JUSTICE INVESTIGATION OF BIDEN DOCUMENTS: Politico
DEMOCRATS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER DOCUDRAMA: The Hill
2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE INVESTIGATION: A judge in Georgia will hold a hearing at noon today to determine whether a grand jury investigation into alleged interference by representatives of the Trump campaign in the 2020 presidential election should be made public. Rudy Giuliani and others from Team Trump could face criminal charges. What’s not clear is whether the former president himself will be indicted. — The New York Times
FORMER FBI GUY ON THE TAKE: Charles McGonigal was busted at JFK. — NYT
Politicukoos
DEMS DARE GOP ON COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS: House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is testing Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) by re-appointing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to serve on the House Intelligence Committee. While Jeffries can do that, McCarthy, who has vowed to remove them as political payback for the Dems removing Republicans in the last Congress, he has the authority to also kick them out. However, to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), a vote by the full House is required. — NBC News
CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR PROPOSES GUN CRACKDOWN: Gov. Ned Lamont (D) wants to ban the open carry of firearms in public, but continue to allow concealed carry with a permit. Permit holders currently can open or close carry in public, except for certain places such as bars and other gun-free zones. He also wants to limit the number of handgun purchases to one per month for residents in an effort to discourage straw purchasing, which is when someone buys a gun for a person who is prohibited from owning a gun. — Patch
World Watch
TANKS A LOT! Germany now says it won’t stand in the way of Poland donating Leopard 2 tanks it makes to Ukraine. — BBC
HOW BROKE IS PAKISTAN? So broke, they turned off electricity to save money and now they can’t turn the lights back on. — CBS NEWS
THE IRISH DID IT, NO MUSS, NO FUSS: TAKE THAT, U.K.! Long before the Brits stomped on the rights of Scotland to approve what’s called “Self ID” for trans and nonbinary citizens to live their authentic lives without unnecessary gatekeeping, the Republic of Ireland went ahead and paved the way. — The Times of London
OMG News
ARE TRANS ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGNING AGAINST ‘NATURAL WOMAN’? Right-wing media is all abuzz about an alleged campaign to get song streaming services to ban Aretha Franklin’s seminal hit, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. The song was originally co-written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. But it’s all a hoax, perpetrated by a parody site. —iHeart Radio
LISA MARIE PRESLEY DIED A GRANDMOTHER: Read all about her daughter’s secret daughter in People and TMZ..
THE ONLY DIRECTOR WHO’S HELMED THREE $2 BILLION MOVIES: James Cameron has this credit to his name for the first two Avatar films and Titanic. — TMZ
PAMELA ANDERSON CLAIMS TIM ALLEN ONCE FLASHED HIS PENIS AT HER: Variety
PINK FLOYD ATTACKED FOR ‘WOKENESS’ BY IGNORAMUSES: Pink News
THE EARTH’S CORE IS SPINNING BACKWARDS!? Apparently so! — Vice News
SKIPPING EXERCISE COULD RUIN YOUR… YOUR, UM… HANG ON: Scientists say choosing to sit on the couch instead of working out negatively affects our memory. — NBC News
LGBTQ Review
CONNECTICUT’S OWN EQUALITY GROUP LAUNCHES: The state-wide, queer-led social justice organization Equality Connecticut is dedicated to building LGBTQIA+ power and joy in every corner of the state. “We recognize that queer people in Connecticut face multiple various forms of oppression,” said Matthew Blinstrubus, the group’s executive director, at Monday’s news conference in Hartford, flanked by State Rep. Jeff Currey (D-East Hartford), State Rep. Dominique Johnson (D-Norwalk) and advocates Kia Baird of Out CT and the National Council of Negro Women of New London, Tony Ferraiolo of Health Care Advocates International and Gretchen Raffa of Planned Parenthood. “We fight against systemic racism, gender discrimination, criminalization, violence, poverty, health disparities, as well as for reproductive justice, as all are inherently queer issues that we will fight for.” — WTIC-TV and WVIT-TV
CBS NEWS PROFILES ANTHONY RAPP: Vladimir Duthiers talks with the Off-Broadway star about Without You, his moving one-man musical and his role on Star Trek: Discovery. Rapp was also interviewed about being a new dad in People.
SPEAKING OF STAR TREK AND QUEERNESS: A new crewmember will be joining the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) in season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! It’s not known if their character is queer, but Noah Lamana of Toronto is a genderqueer actor. They’ve been in several productions as a Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts graduate. — TrekCentral
Catch season one of the series on Paramount+.
Trans World
MARK HAMILL’S DONE IT AGAIN: Back in 2019, the actor most famous for his role as Luke Skywalker liked a tweet by J.K. Rowling and then apologized, saying he wasn’t aware it was transphobic.
On Monday, Hamill did it again, liking a tweet by JKR that featured prominently in yesterday’s RiseUP newsletter. Erin Reed was as shocked as I was!— Into
Despite many pleas begging him to once more turn from the Dark Side and unlike Rowling’s tweet, Hamill has not responded as of press time. Maybe he had to run over to Tosche Station to pick up those power converters? — We Got This Covered
THE NEW YORK TIMES SWITCHES GEARS WITH A (MOSTLY) PRO-TRANS OP-ED ABOUT KIDS: NYT
TRANS WOMAN IN YMCA SHOWER SETS RECORD STRAIGHT: For the past few days, I’ve been monitoring stories from San Diego that started with a teenage girl testifying at a city council hearing that she witnessed a “naked male” in the women’s locker room at the Y, showering. There was outrage and Pink News reported it led to a riot that required police to intervene. Yeah, well, the truth is now being reported by The Daily Beast: Christynne Wood has had gender-affirming surgery. The Daily Beast examines how right-wing media like Tucker Carlson blew this story way out of proportion.
YOUTUBER COMES OUT AS TRANS: Congratulations to Charlie McDonnell! — Pink News
MISSISSIPPI CONSIDERS NEW MORE HORRIBLE ANTI-TRANS BILL: As Erin Reed reports in her excellent Subtack Erin In The Morning, this legislation would classify gender affirming care in Mississippi as child abuse, would ban gender affirming care under 21 years old and would make “consenting to providing or administering” gender affirming care “to a person” illegal. It would define the crime as “gender disfigurement” and would provide a 5-year prison sentence for those who violate it.
NOW WE’RE TO BLAME FOR CANCER?!? Matt Walsh is at it again. — Media Matters
TRANSPHOBE INVITES ESSAYS DEBATING PRONOUN USAGE: When Colin Wright (whom I had blocked for the nasty things he wrote about me) reached out to invite me to contribute to his Substack with other writers, opining on the use of what he calls “preferred pronouns” and I simply call “pronouns,” I said “Yes.” Not because I want to give him clicks, or support his harmful rhetoric. I figured if I reach even one person with an open mind, it’ll be worth it. You can read the entries for yourself; mine is the only one advocating respect and kindness. The rest argue for freedom of choice and other far right, anti-trans and anti-nonbinary talking points.
I expected to be hammered by the anti-pronoun people, and I was! But I was caught off-guard when trans activist Niko Stratis came at me, angry that I would associate with Wright. Fortunately, despite deciding to unfollow me, and block me, she ultimately deleted her tweets in reply to mine, for whatever reason. In our private conversation, she let me know she was offended by our interaction. I apologized, both publicly and privately. Stratis told me she won’t forgive me, which is her right. But while I regret getting defensive when she challenged me, and feel awful that I offended her, I stand by what I originally set out to do: Make the case for respect and kindness. Here’s one tweet that made my day.
Sophie Labelle On Transitioning From Web Comics to Novels
HOW DOES SHE DO IT? Last week, I had the pleasure of asking cartoonist and author Sophie Labelle of Assigned Male comics the first question at the Q&A portion of her talk in Hartford, hosted by the Metropolitan Community Church and organized by PFLAG. She told the crowd her work started when she was a child, drawing her brother’s 5th grade teachers. My question was: How did you make the leap to novels?
“My comics were well adapted to social media,” Labelle told me. “The fact that my comics became popular and social media really impacted the way that I write the comics, because before that, you know, I was always writing for my friends. I had to change the way I told a story to make you forget how people were reading media. Just the four boxes. I couldn't have very complex storylines because people were not reading pages. The main reason why I started making comic books that weren't featured on the internet was just so that I could deepen the characters relationships between each other.”
Learn more about Labelle’s work and purchase your own copy at this link.
Thanks for rising up with me today! There’ll be more tomorrow, and until then, may your news be good news!
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