Queer Dystopia, a Queer Veteran Speaks, and Real Queer Lives — Unlocked
Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 5 October 2025
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With Donald Trump threatening to unleash the military on U.S. cities he considers political enemies, I react to a dystopian speech to generals and admirals. Meanwhile, queer people continue to live, love, and tell stories, which we center here every day at Prism & Pen.
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* P&P Highlights *
Are Trans Folks Too Few To Matter?
Every so often, I receive comments and e-mails from people eager to explain why I am wrong in my advocacy for transgender rights or how I’m doing it the wrong way. More often than not, these come from (self-identified) cisgender, straight, white men. And, interestingly, they tend to repeat the same tired arguments in slightly different variations.
This time around, rather than simply rolling my eyes and moving on, I want to use one recent example as a case study, dissecting each of its claims and showing why these arguments don’t hold up under scrutiny.
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A Queer Veteran Listens to Pete Hegseth and Mourns
As a gay man, a former member of Act Up and Queer Nation with very left-leaning ideas about morality, you might not suspect I’m a military veteran. But I am. I joined the Marine Corps Reserves at 17 and served as a machine gunner. (0331, ooh rah!) Later, I served as an Air Force intelligence officer …
Tuesday morning, I listened to a livestream of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth address all 800 or so active-duty generals and admirals (with their senior enlisted advisors), gathered together in one room for the first time ever in U.S. history.
What I heard as a veteran and queer person distressed and frightened me.
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Charlie & Rachel: The “L” in LGBTQ
Rachel: I’ll let you start with this letter! What does the “L” in LGBTQ mean to you?
Charlie: I believed for a long time that the L represented me. I had no inclination that I was trans; I was simply attracted to my own sex. I knew this from a very early age, but fought against it.
Rachel: Would you say that the attraction to women came first, and the need to be more masculine came second?
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* Essays & Creative Non Fiction *
Unpacking Transamerica: Makeup, Roads, and Becoming
I didn’t see Transamerica when it came out in 2005. I saw it four years later, in 2009, after I’d come out as trans myself. Before then, I wasn’t ready. In 2005, I could call myself bi, maybe, but “trans” wasn’t a word I could hold yet. Watching Felicity Huffman’s Bree back then probably would’ve felt like looking into the sun — too bright, too much, too soon.
Now, though, the film lands differently. Bree’s journey — moving from Stanley, tightly wound, into Bree, looser and freer — mirrors not just gender transition but the slow, stumbling, messy emergence of self.
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I Am My Words: Soul Knowledge of a Trans Life
What if your very flesh were made of words? What if every sentence you wrote were not just expression, but existence?
This is the story of how I came to know myself as my very own words in flesh — a truth carried in my DNA, my trans experience, and my lifelong love of reading. From the very beginning of my existence, I have known one truth so strongly it has never let me go: my honest world is my words.
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Trans, 27, and Crying on My Birthday
I used to not get the girlies who cried on their birthdays at all. There were so many Tiktoks and Tweets (yes, the trans bitch is deadnaming X and I’ll do it again) about people crashing out, crying all day, and isolating themselves just because one or two digits of some arbitrary number were changing. I always accepted my birthday with numb resignation. I wasn’t happy about it, but it was just a reminder for me that I do have a future, whether I want it or not, and that time doesn’t stop for anyone.
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Chicago Public Schools Taking the Fight to Trump and Transphobia
Many people are accustomed to increasingly negative news about the state of queer rights. Thankfully, though, some genuinely positive and inspiring news comes up, and that is what I’m going to be talking about today.
You see, public schools in Chicago have been taking the fight to the Trump administration, pushing back on the transphobia they’re trying to force on the U.S.
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A Transgender Woman Finds Hope on the Dance Floor
What happens when, as a transgender woman who is only attracted to other women, you take your granddaughter to a kids disco and by happenstance, see someone attractive? In this case a lovely tall woman with long curly hair, dressed simply in a floral shirt and denim shorts. She’s accompanied by her husband and young son.
And despite the oddness of the location, and her clear signs of unavailability, because I’m who I am, a now persistent question pops up.
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On Blurred Boundaries in a Gay Bar
I was the only non-Québécois worker in that one particular bar, so I attracted attention. To the regulars, I was the new flavor. Whether their focus was on me personally or simply because of my differences, I couldn’t always tell — but it made me stand out. For some, merely looking wasn’t enough. I often experienced unwanted touches, like groping or slaps. These incidents ranged from subtle gestures in crowded spaces to deliberate acts, often accompanied by awkward remarks.
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What Will Saudi Arabia’s Video Game Acquisition Mean for ‘The Sims’?
Electronic Arts (EA), one of the world’s biggest video game developers, has agreed to a deal to sell their company for an astronomical $55 billion dollars to a “consortium” …
The partnering of these players to buy EA left many gamers reeling after the acquisition was announced on September 29, with many concerned about the fate of The Sims, a core EA franchise known for its diversity, equity, and inclusion ethos and significant LGBTQ+ content.
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Riley Gaines Keeps Cashing In on Transphobia
Gaines had accomplished much as an amateur athlete. Far be it for me to take that away from her. Being a 12-time Collegiate All-American is nothing to sneeze at. Being ranked as high as fifth nationally in the butterfly and ninth in the freestyle shows real talent and determination.
But, if not for her determined efforts outside the pool, after her collegiate career was over, few people would remember who tied for fifth place in the 200 meter freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Championship.
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You Call Me Mentally Ill for Being a Trans Woman…
You call me mentally ill because I fight to be recognized as a woman.
You call me mentally ill because I want to triple my risk of r*pe, physical assault, or stalking from 10% (men) to 29% (women).
You call me mentally ill because I want to increase my chance of getting r*aped specifically by 13x, from 1 in 71 or 1.4% (men) to about 1 in 5 or 18.3% (women).
You call me mentally ill because I want to nearly quadruple my chance of being the victim of violence…
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I Am My Silence: A Trans Child, Seeking God Beyond the Walls
What happens when a child’s questions are too large for the room they’re asked in? What happens when you’re born with a nervous system like a radio, picking up every frequency of wonder, ache, contradiction, and mystery at once?
I was that child. I still am. Even now, as an adult, I can trace the earliest shape of my soul by the questions I asked. If God is love, why do we have to fear Him?
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Adolescent Shocker: Gay Teen Loves Handyman in ‘Griffin in Summer’
Nicholas Colia might well be the greatest living gay, Boston-raised director and screenwriter America has ever cultivated. There’s no guarantee. After all, he’s only made one feature and several shorts. But what a feature!
Colia’s Griffin in Summer, a wildly witty study of unbridled youthful hormones, last year walked away with a boatload of awards at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Festival, including Best U.S. Narrative Feature and Best Screenplay, while earning a ‘Someone to Watch’ nomination from the Indie Spirit Award folks.
So what’s this hullabaloo all about?
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Is ‘Waffles!’ a New Anti-Trans Dogwhistle?
A new iteration of the “waffles” joke may have just turned it into an anti-trans dogwhistle.
A couple days ago, Jay Graber, CEO of the social media platform Bluesky, accused trans people of perpetrating the same dynamic. She said “social media doesn’t have to be this way.”
She wasn’t making a general observation about how people interact on Bluesky. She was referring specifically to a common request Bluesky management receives: Would they please apply some commonsense moderation regarding anti-trans agitator Jesse Singal? The CEO declares this request inherently nonsensical and off-topic.
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Trans Woman Cries Before Bedtime, Tea Time, and Any Other Time
I have strong feelings… a lot of them these days, and sadly not all positive. Reading of the awful actions being perpetrated against trans people by some groups in our societies, the considerate attributes I list above appear to be in extremely short supply. Speaking of supply, I’ve read more than one essay suggesting we should put estrogen in the water so others might be able to calm the fuck down!
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Is Hasan Piker Right About Kamala Harris and Trans Rights?
In a September 30 livestream, Hasan said that although he voted for Kamala Harris, he sees her as surrendering trans rights, and he maintains that trans people would face problems under Democratic leadership similar to what they’re facing under Trump. His criticism has caused a stir online…
Hasan accused Kamala and the Democrats of making anti-trans concessions, asserting that trans people would not be faring any better now if Kamala were president.
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* Fiction Shorts *
A Trans Woman’s Diary of Life In Trump’s Third Term
I don’t know who I can trust anymore so I did not tell work that I am leaving or family/friends.
Thankfully I met a few trans women (Mabel and Dawn) before social media got shut down and I am heading to their place in Canada. I am headed towards the Montreal / Quebec area since I still remember some of my French from High School thankfully! Wish me luck Ditty!
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The Greek Myth of Athena and Pallas, Two Goddesses in Love
Pallas glowed in the sunset, the water whispering her contentment as she and Athena bathed with their feet dipped in the sea. The two had trained together for some years, locked in an informal war of achievement, each seeking to best the other.
Yet even goddesses knew exhaustion.
Athena studied a conch shell washed upon the shore. Its gentle grooves. Its sloping curves. Its pink-tinged hue. Its utter perfection.
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* Poetry Picks *
Happy Fat Bear Week: 2025
It’s bracket time, so cast your vote,
For who best wears a winter coat.
From chubby cubs to grizzled kings,
We cheer the jiggle in their swings.But don’t dare miss the other bears,
With leather vests and body hair.
From Castro nights to P-Town streets,
They celebrate their ample seats…
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That’s it for this week! Courage to our 21,000 followers on Medium!
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