I had a lot of fun making this page. When I started The Gold Ceiling I wanted the characters to be more realistic than in Fixing the System. What I found with Akira’s hair and Eliza’s face is that sometimes simplicity looks better than the fine detail I was striving for at the start.
When republicans decided the second amendment should no longer apply to transgender folks I was glad to see the NRA stand up for us. While I have no interest in owning a gun, and I believe we need better gun control, singling us out is dehumanizing.
I think it’s a tragedy that Charlie Kirk was shot. While I see his views of trans people and women as problematic, violence is not the answer. I’m very impressed with the forgiveness Erika Kirk has shown. Charlie Kirk wanted to end cancel culture and protect freedom of speech. Erika is showing her beliefs truly align with her Christian faith.
Republicans are taking this moment to call the transgender community violent extremists who need to be monitored. At the same time our president continues to push to reduce free speech by trying to silence people like Jimmy Kimmel via cancel culture. Giving his billionaire friend control of TikTok is going to further erode what little free speech we have with only 6 sources of media.
This morning I had a bit of an epiphany realizing that the kind of monitoring of trans folks that the Republicans want to do is what Muslims have faced here since at least 9/11. Obviously in writing Cyber Revolution I was publicly opposed to monitoring of Muslims.
Our president released violent insurrectionists, put a violent offender who held girls down for pedophiles into minimum security prison, yet fires prosecutors who won’t go after his political enemies who have no evidence against them.
This is absolutely the time for a federal government shutdown. Tariffs and immigration crackdown is increasing costs. Healthcare cuts are raising health insurance costs. Our head of HHS wants to ban SSRIs amid a mental health crises, Tylenol, and vaccines. Troops are being sent to cities that have historically low crime. Trans members of the military have been betrayed by the president and the secretary of defense. Our country is doing nothing to stop genocide in Gaza or end the war in Ukraine (which Biden was also guilty of). We’ve destabilized countries by defunding USAID. Now is the time to stop the autocrats and billionaires who are profiting off the federal government.