Dwelling in Probabilities

Well, June has been quite the month. On a personal level, I co-taught a workshop at Clarion West (online) and was on a small press panel at the Library of Congress. I did my first Twitch event for GeekGirlCon and wrote a new article on what goes into publishing small press books forDream Foundry. I kicked off a new TikTok channel for Queen of Swords Press. And finally, the Pride StoryBundle ends on Friday 7/1 and right about now, I'm hoping for a big final lift as the result of the anthology We're Here edited by C.L. Clark and Charles Payseur (Neon Hemlock, 2021) winning the Locus Award for Best Anthology last weekend; it's been a struggle this year, what with everything, and I would so prefer not to add financial stress to everything else. Sigh.

A bit of good news today: I finally, after months of trying, got a copy of Jana's birth certificate, which means that this weekend I can apply for Social Security for her! And then, wait. I also got in touch with a local company that assists families with elders in negotiating everything from getting PCAs to assisted living. They helped me build a plan for my mother when we were moving her around so I'm going to throw more money at them and have them help me with some of that as well as setting up an emergency support for J so I can actually be away occasionally to teach, etc.

Other than that, it's been about work and releasing Mike's new book and being very tired and very angry. How do I feel about the loss of Roe? Well, I was active in a lot of prochoice reproductive rights stuff for a very long time and for most of that time, I think a whole bunch of prochoicers did a lot of screaming into a vacuum. So here we are and the terrorists have won and we've lost and people are angrily demanding magic fixes and ignoring all the work that has been done to date and kind of being idiots, sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes less so. Ironically, after years of "Listen to Black women and women of color," etc., we've got right back to ignoring them in favor of babbling about a whole bunch of things that not only will not get any rights back, they will make things much, much worse. I need to spend less time on Twitter, for sure.

And also, get more sleep.

Jana's good friend Sue Bjerke died this month too. She was a very talented box maker and woodcarver, two things she took up while working in IT. By all acocunts, she was an excellent teacher and she was also a good friend and colleague to Jana. She was quite sick for the last couple of years, unfortunately, so her passing was not unexpected, but I think we'll still miss her quite a bit. :-(((

Ooops, I almost forgot! I was invited to a friend's birthday party last week and actually went. I don't know him and his housemates very well, but I thought it was time to go bond with some new folks. As it turned out, I had a lovely time and knew several of the other guests, either from other circles or from online. It made for a lovely Pride weekend kickoff. Pride itself was fun, if hot and crowded and we wrapped up the weekend with a Sunday matinee Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society show.

Another bright spot for this week: Give Out Day is Thursday, June 30th. It's the largest day of giving for LGBTQ nonprofits around the country and they're doing to need it, especially in places that are hardhit. If you can toss a coin or two to your Witcher, now would be good.

Onward!

Today is Give OUT Day in the U.S., the only national day of fundraising dedicated to LGBTQ+ nonprofits. At the best of times, organizations run by and for queer folks are wildly underfunded. That's programs that provide trans folks with legal support, LGBTQ+ kids with anti-bullying resources, support for queer safe spaces, food banks for folks with AIDS/HIV, suicide hotlines, scholarships, housing for queer elders, legal advocacy for employment discrimination, support for queer immigrants and refugees, the list goes on and on. And under the current administration, all these programs and organizations are expected to double down and provide more support and more services. I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but one of our larger local straight-run nonprofits just dropped its entire queer youth support program because they wanted "to bring their focus," which means that any help those kids were getting has to come from elsewhere. Which is turn translates to LGBTQ+ communities and better allies stepping up. I donate what I can every year and tonight, I'm going to go do a volunteer training for the Aliveness Project's Dining Out for Life benefit next week, which raises money for advocacy and support for folks living with AIDS/HIV.
in the meantime, I also donated to the PFund Foundation, which gives scholarships and funding to LGBTQ+ folks who are leaders in their communities throughout the Upper Midwest; Outfront MN, which does advocacy and support for LGBTQ+ folks here in Minnesota; Third Wave Fund, which funds queer youth and feminist activist groups; Charis Circle, which sustains Charis Bookstore, Atlanta's fabulous feminist and queer bookstore and its many events and groups; and BiNet USA, the umbrella organization for national groups run by bisexual folks.
there's lots to choose from! Please check out the site, donate what you can and post!

 It's #NationalGiveOutDay today (and for the next 15 hours or so). Nonprofits that support and nurture LGBTQ people and other sexual/gender minorities are often vastly underfunded. Every dollar you can donate does actually make a difference, so please boost and give what you can. 
donate to support your favorite LGBTQ nonprofits and community organizations - https://www.giveoutday.org/c/GO/