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YOUR LIBRARY SUMMONS YOU
Mori: Well, today sure been exciting and I ain't even hit the marching band festival yet! (That... might have to wait til tomorrow. Too much excitement.)
I stayed up till 3 AM working on Madgic #4--not advisable, but deadlines are deadlines and that book needs to be done, printed, and on a book fair table in two weeks. I was like, it's fine, Saturday I can be nice and chill and just catalog for the sci-fi library all day, give my neck and shoulders a break.
That is not how my Saturday went.
So, me and Biff get up, need to do grocery shopping and pick up my reserved lesbian books from the library, newly arrived. Nice normal easy human things, right? We go to the library, get the books without incident, buy what looks to be an old 1973 trans multi book (possibly predating Sybil!) and notice a circle of rainbow-ed people outside, clearly having some kind of meeting. When I wandered in and asked, they explained that drag story hour was getting protested by transphobes and Nazis, and would I like to join the counterprotest so kids could just have their goddammned story hour without transphobes screaming at them they were being raped?
I was armed with lesbian books, a rainbow galaxy plague mask, and Sneak's home-drawn queer trans multi pride shirt. It was obvious the library had summoned me to its defense, and I done answered the call.
The transphobes came. One wielded a big Thin Blue Line flag; another had a loudspeaker and a Pray For Trump shirt. Signs read HOW ABOUT PIMP STORY HOUR and [LIBRARY] GROOMS CHILDREN and DON'T EXPOSE KIDS TO PREDITORY [sic] BEHAVIOR GO HOME. The rainbow horde acted like macrophages, surrounding them with rainbow flags and prayer shawls, hiding them from view. We drowned out Loudspeaker Lady with singing and chanting. One brave punk danced around them, wielding a rainbow fan. (I joined the dance briefly.)
"Why are you so intimidated by middle-aged women?" One asked me.
"Why are you so intimidated by us?" I asked.
"I'm not. I'm not intimidated by you."
"Neither are we."
Another said, "You leave the children alone!"
I responded wistfully, "I was a child once," which proved an excellent conversation-killer.
A bogus bomb threat was called in. The cops and the fire department came. The library was evacuated. We were all flushed out across the street. We kept chanting ("Hey hey, ho ho, transphobia has got to go!" "2-4-6-8, don't assume that kids are straight!"), kept dancing, kept singing. There were only a handful of transphobes, and a whole rainbow crowd of us.
Eventually, a scuffle broke out. I'm not clear what happened exactly, but no one seemed to be hurt, and whatever it was, it got the cops to descend on the transphobes and remove them further away. (EDIT: according to Reddit photos, looked like Loudspeaker Lady, who was very redfaced the whole time, grabbed the dancer. The cops and queers descended, hastily separated the two, and the dancer we saw later, probably rattled but physically fine, far as I can tell.) They left as we sang "Naa naa na na, hey hey, goodbye," at their backs and cheered. A little too late, a trombonist and a mellophonist arrived from the local marching band festival; they at least got to serenade the remaining protesters with When The Saints Go Marching In.
I am never so grateful for our hearing impairment as at a protest. I heard enough about what those transphobes were saying to be glad I couldn't hear it myself firsthand. Also, it meant I wasn't tempted to get sucked into a one-on-one conversation, and ain't no way I'm delivering my sob story about trans queers protecting us from all the straight normal incest-rapists in our family to people who don't care and have already decided I'm a monster. Once you hit that point, only thing to do is to dance and sing and drown them out.
Man, and this ain't even getting into the shit me and Rawlin done in headspace at 3 AM! Today is really shaping up to be a banger! But at least now I'm safe in the sci-fi library where nothing worse is going to happen besides Harlan Ellison being rude to some guy.
I stayed up till 3 AM working on Madgic #4--not advisable, but deadlines are deadlines and that book needs to be done, printed, and on a book fair table in two weeks. I was like, it's fine, Saturday I can be nice and chill and just catalog for the sci-fi library all day, give my neck and shoulders a break.
That is not how my Saturday went.
So, me and Biff get up, need to do grocery shopping and pick up my reserved lesbian books from the library, newly arrived. Nice normal easy human things, right? We go to the library, get the books without incident, buy what looks to be an old 1973 trans multi book (possibly predating Sybil!) and notice a circle of rainbow-ed people outside, clearly having some kind of meeting. When I wandered in and asked, they explained that drag story hour was getting protested by transphobes and Nazis, and would I like to join the counterprotest so kids could just have their goddammned story hour without transphobes screaming at them they were being raped?
I was armed with lesbian books, a rainbow galaxy plague mask, and Sneak's home-drawn queer trans multi pride shirt. It was obvious the library had summoned me to its defense, and I done answered the call.
The transphobes came. One wielded a big Thin Blue Line flag; another had a loudspeaker and a Pray For Trump shirt. Signs read HOW ABOUT PIMP STORY HOUR and [LIBRARY] GROOMS CHILDREN and DON'T EXPOSE KIDS TO PREDITORY [sic] BEHAVIOR GO HOME. The rainbow horde acted like macrophages, surrounding them with rainbow flags and prayer shawls, hiding them from view. We drowned out Loudspeaker Lady with singing and chanting. One brave punk danced around them, wielding a rainbow fan. (I joined the dance briefly.)
"Why are you so intimidated by middle-aged women?" One asked me.
"Why are you so intimidated by us?" I asked.
"I'm not. I'm not intimidated by you."
"Neither are we."
Another said, "You leave the children alone!"
I responded wistfully, "I was a child once," which proved an excellent conversation-killer.
A bogus bomb threat was called in. The cops and the fire department came. The library was evacuated. We were all flushed out across the street. We kept chanting ("Hey hey, ho ho, transphobia has got to go!" "2-4-6-8, don't assume that kids are straight!"), kept dancing, kept singing. There were only a handful of transphobes, and a whole rainbow crowd of us.
Eventually, a scuffle broke out. I'm not clear what happened exactly, but no one seemed to be hurt, and whatever it was, it got the cops to descend on the transphobes and remove them further away. (EDIT: according to Reddit photos, looked like Loudspeaker Lady, who was very redfaced the whole time, grabbed the dancer. The cops and queers descended, hastily separated the two, and the dancer we saw later, probably rattled but physically fine, far as I can tell.) They left as we sang "Naa naa na na, hey hey, goodbye," at their backs and cheered. A little too late, a trombonist and a mellophonist arrived from the local marching band festival; they at least got to serenade the remaining protesters with When The Saints Go Marching In.
I am never so grateful for our hearing impairment as at a protest. I heard enough about what those transphobes were saying to be glad I couldn't hear it myself firsthand. Also, it meant I wasn't tempted to get sucked into a one-on-one conversation, and ain't no way I'm delivering my sob story about trans queers protecting us from all the straight normal incest-rapists in our family to people who don't care and have already decided I'm a monster. Once you hit that point, only thing to do is to dance and sing and drown them out.
Man, and this ain't even getting into the shit me and Rawlin done in headspace at 3 AM! Today is really shaping up to be a banger! But at least now I'm safe in the sci-fi library where nothing worse is going to happen besides Harlan Ellison being rude to some guy.
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OH MY GOD TE ADORO YOU ARE MADE OF AWESOME
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Being heroic can interfere with plans, true. Btu she and I are looking forward to the day you go mushroom hunting together.
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