Fixing the System: Page 5
RAMEN!
Finally, a new setting for the novel, I hope you enjoy!
What a week for transgender news! As I mentioned in a Note, it's been hard for me to decipher the news from Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing of US v Skrmetti. I was very disappointed with CNN's interview of the Tennessee AG Skrmetti, and the lack of pushback the interviewer gave to the AG's "evidence". I think the most hopeful coverage I've heard is this episode of the TransLash podcast where Imara Jones interviewed the co-chair of the National Trans Bar Association. Both were present during the hearing. Justice Jackson made it very clear that the law is about sex discrimination and the AG slipped by saying that the Supreme Court ruling shouldn't be about age. Jackson also drew connections to Loving v Virginia. Another disturbing part of the hearing is that Tennessee AG Skrmetti made a connection to women's bodily autonomy. We expect a ruling in June … which could make for a depressing Pride Month.
But wait, there’s more! Thursday some transgender activists, including Chelsea Manning, staged a sit-in within a bathroom of Congress’s Cannon House Office Building with a sign, “Flush Bathroom Bigotry”. This comes after congress imposed a bathroom ban, which seems to target incoming representative Sarah McBride of Delaware. I really didn’t expect this all to be so well timed with the graphic novel. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, they were arrested. Representative Mace, who created a bathroom ban bill for all federal property (which includes the White House, the Smithsonian, and two airports) got a bullhorn and then wandered lost in the wrong building looking for the protest. Ultimately, she arrived at a police station, which might not even be where the protesters were held, and said an anti-trans slur. Mace’s transphobia is so brazen I have to wonder how her district is going to feel when/if she tries to run again. For more details on Mace’s antic’s check out Erin Reed’s reporting on it.