In Support of Trans Rights

My colleague, Veronica Pillar, gave a powerful speech last night at the Legislature about supporting people's right to simply be who they are. Please read and share and support trans people however you can. --- I want to speak briefly on trans rights, because recently there has been an alarming sharp rise in anti-transgender rhetoric and policy. I'm sure you've heard of the bathroom bills that require kids to use bathrooms that match their genitals rather than their actual asserted gender. Other laws ban teachers from using their students' preferred pronouns.   I'm a teacher, I have trans students, and I would never call my students by pronouns they don't use because that is a denial of who they are. Several states are banning gender affirming healthcare for minors, essentially requiring teenagers to detransition.   Tennessee has banned wearing clothes that don't match the gender on your birth certificate. Florida is working on legalizing the kidnapping of
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Deserted Valley

"The Hovenweep I had begun to know held its grip on me as I imagined time in solitary confinement might; nothing to break the silence except me. I could scream at the top of my lungs and no one would hear. I could lie in the middle of the trail looking up and lose myself into the blue. I could sing my favorite tunes as badly and loudly as I wanted, without fear of anyone but the coyotes judging me. Sometimes I just sat, looking around, listening to nothing. It was the biggest sound I had ever heard. All that nothing, with nothing but me to fill it. I usually didn’t even try."


I have so much gratitude for the editors at SugarSugarSalt, who recently republished my creative nonfiction essay, "Deserted Valley." Pilgrimage Magazine originally published the essay in 2013 in print, and at the time I was over the moon because it was my first publication. It was the first time I really thought I might actually do this writing thing!


I'm equally excited now, because the essay will be able to live on in a digital format for me to share. I'd be honored for you, dear reader, to click on over and give it a read. 



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