I was pleased to get to speak to Senator Tammy Baldwin for a brief minute last night – in a gender-neutral bathroom, no less – who gave me a thumbs up when I mentioned that I taught gender studies. That was cool. She spoke while introducing historian Dick Wagner, who was receiving an award from Fair Wisconsin. She told the story of seeing Geraldine Ferraro accept the US VIP nomination in 1984, and it was pretty incredible. From what I hear, she has told that story before, but I had never heard it, and it brought me back to watching that myself – and the same feelings for me, at 15, thinking “anything is possible now.” It was a big, big, audible crack in the glass ceiling — as is Senator Baldwin’s current seat.
I also had a nice talk with Zach Wahls about the terms ally, queer, queerspawn, and the like. He is a pretty remarkable guy, and his talk was the right combination of serious, sad, frustrated, and full of love. We should be very, very glad to have him in these queer communities. And that he speaks on behalf of equality – not just marriage equality, mind you – as an Eagle Scout is pretty damned cool. Hopefully I will do an interview with him in the next couple of months.
Finally: I am not disappearing altogether from blogging. I am taking a huge break from FB, specifically, because I have too many ongoing misgivings with the site, for various reasons – and now seemed like the right time. In some ways, what I’m frustrated by is the odd merger of personal and professional life that FB encourages; here at my blog, it’s a little easier to stay at arm’s length, which is what I need right now. But there is nothing wrong, per se; I am not depressed or angry or hurt or anything like it. A little tired of the shallow ways of connecting that FB also encourages, perhaps, but that is all.
I am happy to have people send me a heads up about interesting things going on about gender or transness or all of the other stuff you know I’m interested in. Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you want to say hi.
A huge THANK YOU to those of you who have written expressing concern or good luck or just to say: you earned a break. It’s very, very much appreciated.