In other Michigan news, the state looks set to elect it's first transgender lawmaker. Joanna Whaley won her Democratic primary and will compete in November for a state house seat, beating a primary opponent who tried and failed to disqualify her for not running under her deadname

For the past five months the only refugees the USA has accepted are white South Africans fleeing equality & safety meanwhile they are disappearing or strapping ankle monitors on any Haitian they can get ahold of. It needs to be understood how thoroughly connected these two things are.

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

on Sophie Cunningham and a trans controversy that doesn't involve any actual trans people: defector.com/the-right-ha...

One day left to leave a comment. Even if you disapprove of firearm ownership this rule is likely being used to set a legal battle that may strip blue states of the ability to change gender markers on IDs and other documents.

IllCaesar@illcaesar.bsky.social · last wk.

I know there's going to be a mixed response to this but there's only one week - until August 4th - left to leave a comment about the ATF's change to background check forms that would de facto single out and ban trans people from legally buying firearms.

the wnba alienating their core audience for the sake of people who wouldn’t watch a wnba game to save their child’s life is a bold gambit, to be sure

He's lived here a month and now he's vaping and reading Italo Calvino, I guess what they say about pets and their owners is true.

Seconding this, it was prescient several years ago and things aren't getting better.

Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans)@iwriteok.bsky.social · 5d ago

Read "The Water Knife"

am i allowed to talk about how weird it is that the main way liberals philantropize trans people is by donating money to liberal nonprofits for call centers that beg us not to kill ourselves, instead of directly funding our material needs which, when deprived, lead to suicidality? is that allowed?

mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️@mady.cat · 6d ago

Sorry i meant to say we need more celebrities to donate $100 million to suicide hotlines so we can call someone who will beg us not to kill ourselves when the state takes away our medication and housing, and then send the cops to our home if we say the wrong series of words. My bad.

Squishiness on trans rights is a dealbreaker for me because (a) it’s a straightforward issue of personal freedom and bodily autonomy much like abortion, and (b) the right is obviously coming after us cis gays next.

ashley 🌹@clearlyashley.bsky.social · 7d ago

trans rights frankly is a top 5, potentially top 3 issue for me despite not being trans and not having any trans family being bigoted against trans folks not only hurts my trans friends and every trans person but is so predictive of further bigotry

Having people who can hyperfocus on weird shit is an evolutionary good for a species. It’s not Cheetos and public school doing this, you dolts.

mcc@dryad.technology · 7d ago

It was never going to stop at trans people.

#sff podcasts should highlight translators and translations more- interview translators, feature #SFinTranslations in your audio reads, actually see what's going on outside the Anglophone world. Inform your listeners. Believe me, they'll love it.

Emerging translators! Check it out: Applications for the 2026/27 round of Emerging Translator Mentorships at the National Centre for Writing are now open (including one in Polish, mentored by ALTA's Director of Membership and Development Sean Gasper Bye)!

Apply for the Emerging Translator Mentorships programme 2025-2026!

NCW Emerging Mentorships aims to develop new cohorts of literary translators into English, particularly for languages whose literature is currently under-represented in English translation. Explore…

nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk

If it's February 31, May 31, August 31, or November 31, it's a new issue of Small Planet: The #SFinTranslation Magazine! www.sfintranslation.com?page_id=16933

Absolutely agree, I honestly feel like this is my chief criticism of like, half the recent queer sci-fi I've read.

@jawless-fish.bsky.social · last wk.

theres this one tumblr post ive seen talking about that phenomenon but w fiction writing that I think about often

Received the greatest compliment of my life yesterday when an older woman stopped me on Market and asked me if I was a librarian because 'you give that impression'.

We used to be a proper civilization

Titania@titaniasrealm.bsky.social · 2w ago

The world needs more bookish gargoyles and grotesques

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

Sardonicus@sardonicus.eu · 8mo ago

'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.' Photograph by Daniel Ibanez

The artist was just finishing this new mural in Hayes Valley as I rounded the corner 😍

Just watched a woman sit down at a cafe and scoop all of the foam off a freshly made latte into her napkin.

I’m sorry, writers are supposed to be messy bitches, not buttoned up careerists

I wrote about the lost decade of millennial creativity www.garbageday.email/p/you-get-wh...

Another beautiful morning in the best city in the world

In February, USA Rugby banned trans women from all levels of one of the world’s most inclusive sports. What happened next was telling. Across the country, teams refused to comply. The story of the Baltimore Ferals, who are pushing back: www.thebanner.com/sports/rugby...

It’s always really wonderful to see people read my book and learn that these revolutions don’t only exist in the past

Becky Robison@rebb003.bsky.social · 2w ago

Book 33 of 2026: AGAINST THE STATE by @jamesstout.bsky.social. I was familiar with much of the Spanish Civil War stuff because I’m a history nerd, but the parts about Myanmar and Rojava were eye-opening, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Jin jîyan azadî!

I just had my first facial and holy shit!

this is great defector.com/trans-girl-b...

Trans Girl Baseball Makes Me A Better Woman | Defector

Taking care to avoid the team-picking system of our schoolyard memories, Lilah Maravi divided us into two sides of about 20. It was a pleasant Sunday in June—Father’s Day—and we had gathered at our us...

defector.com

Really cool that literally every ad in San Francisco is either some AI slop startup or AI that promises to fix other AI's slop startup.

I am not a climate scientist but when I was a kid the number of times we couldn’t go outside because of Canadian wildfire smoke was zero times