Ampersand Gazette #31
Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest …
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Put plainly, the attack on the dignity of transgender Americans is an attack on the dignity of all Americans. And like the battles for abortion rights and bodily autonomy, the stakes of the fight for the rights and dignity of transgender people are high for all of us. There is no world in which their freedom is suppressed and yours is sustained.
from an Opinion Essay in The New York Times by Jamelle Bouie
“The Relentless Attack on Trans People Is An Attack on All of Us”
February 10, 2023
Faced with a political Catch-22, damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t, here are some of state Senator Thatcher’s words:
I said, if God wants me to vote against my conscience, then he has to give me peace with that. How do you say, it’s wrong, but I’m going to do the wrong thing so that I can do more good later? It is my belief that is a slippery slope that you don’t come back from. You take one step down that slope, and you don’t realize how steep it is or that it’s greased.…
And I had this complete and total feeling of peace with walking onto that floor and standing up and saying, I cannot say that left is right and up is down and black is white.…
“I apologize for giving a lengthy explanation of my vote. But as there was no debate, there’s really no other option.” So when I gave that speech, I believed, in my heart, that was the last thing I would ever do as a senator. Not one state that has passed a bill like this has actually had it upheld. So what we’re really doing here, it’s political theater because it won’t go into effect. So we won’t get any of the benefits from passing this bill. But we will get absolutely all of the harms.
“At the urging of several of my closest transgender friends, I considered, briefly, changing my vote so that I could do better at convention, so that I could win with the delegates, so that I can show that I’m conservative. Well, in my world, conservative does not mean turning your back on your principles. It does not mean voting against the Constitution. And it does not mean waffling when you know in your heart what the right thing is to do. Mr. President, I cannot support the veto override.
from an Opinion Interview in The New York Times with Utah States Senator Daniel Thatcher
“Why the G.O.P.’s Attack on Trans Rights Could Backfire on the Party”
March 2, 2023
… what economists call the “sticky floor” of gender norms …
from an Opinion Essay in The New York Times by Jessica Grose
“Imagine What These Women Could’ve Done If They’d Had Wives”
March 5, 2023
The image at the top of the page is Halley’s Comet. What that has to do with the gender wars will be revealed.
I’ve chosen three quotations to prompt this week’s essay, each one meant to steer thought away from the political theatre we are forced to witness if we read or listen to the news, away from the sticky floors, away from that old us v. them, divide-and-conquer strategy that has worked for so damn long. Divide-and-conquer is so last millennium.
Consider this an invitation, Beloved, into the world of Ampersand living—the world that works for everyone, no exceptions. It’s also an invitation to stop the Look, there’s Halley’s Comet approach to what’s really going on which is a constant divisive battering in our culture.
Utah State Senator Daniel Thatcher is a Republican, leaning toward Libertarianism. Okay. Now just stop it! These are short-hand for labels that we think we know the meanings of. Except that Senator Thatcher explains quite sweetly why he’s a Republican; it boils down to wanting a less intrusive government. The end.
Do you like it when the government intrudes in your personal business? Be honest.
He also, unwittingly, paraphrases the oft-quoted sentiment of playwright Lillian Hellman testifying before the McCarthy hearings in 1954, thus: “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”
Neither will Senator Thatcher. In fact, whether I agree with his politics or his religion or his barber or not, he nails what’s actually happening in our country today:
People are turning their backs on their own principles.
We are letting the distraction technique, the one used over and over again to draw our attention away from the manipulations that are really going on, to make us foam at the mouth on subjects that are really, to co-opt a title, much ado about nothing.
Senator Thatcher reveals in the article that the Senate bill meant to prevent trans kids from playing sports targeted the one, yep, one trans girl playing school sports in grades K-12 in the entire state.
I want you to consider Jamelle Bouie’s words very seriously as well, Beloved, because they shook me to my core.
There is no world in which their freedom is suppressed and yours is sustained.
Now have a serious thought about that word “their,” because it applies to any their, anyone from whom you distance yourself for whatever reason. And no, I am not saying that anyone has to cozy up to drug dealers or murderers or terrorists—although they, too, are God’s progeny—or anyone else who, in your view, is doing cruel things. In fact, in the face of what sort of thinking this political theatre is urging, those who are doing bad things seem like toddlers to me. Halley’s Comet is a far more dangerous strategy.
Mr. Bouie is right. There is no world in which the demonization of others of any kind works out well in the long term. Not now. Not ever. Nor, if you’ll read your history, has it ever. Not really.
So there’s a prescription in these words as well as a diagnosis: you know in your heart what is the right thing to do.
And it’s not demonizing trans folk. And it’s not demonizing drag queens. And it’s not demonizing books that tell the truth. And it’s not demonizing the people whose politics aren’t yours. And it’s not demonizing people with curly hair. And it’s not demonizing people with straight hair. And it’s not demonizing people with no hair either.
And it’s not demonizing at all. That sentence should end at demonizing.
It’s not demonizing. It’s withdrawing our attention from these Halley’s Comet trickeries and chicaneries. It’s following the bell of truth that lives in our hearts, one day, one moment, one person, at a time. There isn’t a movement for this, although perhaps there could be some day. But today, there isn’t. You can’t pay dues, sign up, and call it good. This is way more than Facebook Likes.
What you can do, what we all must do diligently, is our own spiritual work. Day in, day out, morning, noon, night, and yes, sometimes the middle of the night, especially in the places when your feet find a sticky floor within you.
We don’t have to canonize those who hold our differences. We don’t have to celebrate them either, especially if to do so is to be hypocritical. But what we do have to do, and I do mean have to, is honor them.
So I, with Jamelle Bouie, with Senator Daniel Thatcher, with Jessica Grose am asking: what kind of world do you want to live in because you’re creating that world every single day?
For me, I am so over Halley’s Comet. I am creating an Ampersand world—one that works for everyone.
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“Somebody literally said to me last week, ‘It’s so nice to know that somebody there is seeing my daughter as a person and not as another case,’” Ms. Sutherland said. “That just goes such a long way for somebody.”
from an article on The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office
“Inside the Medical Examiner’s Office, Where Opioids Fuel Surge in Deaths”
in The New York Times, February 20, 2023
I’m no medical examiner, but it makes sense to me that coping with the epidemic of opioid deaths might cause a person to think of their work as a case rather than a person. Otherwise, my heart could easily break into a million pieces.
And, at the same time, that idea, the case idea, is for when you’re doing the actual job of autopsy, recording facts and figures and trends so that maybe, just maybe, you can make a difference to the overall effort to address this ever-mutating, ever-ravenous scourge.
There have been several articles in The Times recently about the so-called drug war and how we need to acknowledge that we’ve lost it. Oooh, but we don’t like to lose. And we have, big time. How do I know?
I know because of the quote above. Thinking of those who overdosed as cases is for statistics, but the real issue isn’t just the peril and ofttimes death of those who use. It’s the fallout that touches families affected by those deaths, sometimes for generations.
“Someone is seeing my daughter as a person ….” Each of the users who have overdosed were souls, persons, like you and me. In fact, given other circumstances, it could just as easily have been you or me.
So let’s, from now on, make a concerted effort, after all the numbers have been tallied, to think of, pray for, care about, and love the persons who have been so devastated by our childish approach to the drug use in our country.
Do I have to say it again? [sigh] I suppose so. There needs not to be a war on drugs any more. No, what we need now is a peace on drugs. A, yeah, it sucks, but it’s so. So now what are we gonna do? About the people who are involved and for the people who are involved, and that, Beloved, means all of us because, believe me, we’re all, each and every one of us, touched by the anguish that causes it all.
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And in publishing news …
Attending Physician, the first book of The Boots & Boas Romances, is in the top five hundred of the Gay Romance category on Amazon! And that’s kinda swell, isn’t it?
If you like reading romance—this is butch-femme romance—the ebook is free here, so go grab it while it stays that way. Plus, there are three more in the series!
I just published the fourth one, Upending Tradition. The whole series can be found here. I’ve already started Book 5, which is called Impending Decision; this one tells Jamie’s and Jayne’s story.
Oh, and may I ask a favor please? If you have read any of The Boots & Boas Romances, and enjoyed them, would you please take a few minutes of your valuable time, and leave a review?
There are lots of promotional opportunities in the publishing world that rely upon a certain number of reviews before one qualifies. I’d really, really appreciate it.
And, if you don’t want to post on Amazon because you want to protect your identity, you can always send me your review in an email, and I can post it in editorial reviews anonymously. How’s that for a win-win?
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Here’s the biggest publishing news …
My chakra compendium is finished! And several folx have asked when you can have it. Well, here you go. There are some things you need to know.
First, the compendium is never for sale. That’s right. It’s a compilation of more than forty years of learning and I cannot source all the material.
Second, I would ask, please, that you go to my Patreon page, where you will find a free daily chakra lesson every weekday, and make a donation of any amount, or if you like, become a patron, and make a monthly donation.
Third, email me where you’d like the pdf sent. Easy-peasy.
It will come to you via a large file-sharing app called Hightail. If I send it via Google, despite the fact that it’s a pdf, the formatting goes all to hell. Don’t ask.
Now, I would ask respectfully please that even though you have downloaded it, you not share it with anyone else. Why? Because the donations go to fund chakra student scholarships, and what goes around, comes around.
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In other fun arenas … I am 54,113 words into Book 2 of The Subversive Lovelies, my speculative historical fiction series about the four sisters who refuse to follow the strictures of society. It’s called Jasmine Increscent, and I’m having a blast!
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We come, again, to the end of another Gazette. Until we meet again, consider forwarding this to a sympathetic metaphysical friend please, and get those eyes off Halley’s Comet, and onto what’s important! Ampersand living—a world that works for everyone. Back in two weeks, S.