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C.J. Janovy

@cjjanovy.bsky.social
768 followers 1.4K following 73 posts

She/her. Former Midwestern journalist, now just a Queer Elder Unsettled on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy

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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
What started as a fun quest — typing “Portuguese” and “praia” (“beach”) into my music streamer — quickly turned into an astoundingly beautiful journey of discovery. Playlist included. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Beach songs are better in Portuguese
A playlist for na praia state of mind.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Last week I wrote about all of the reasons Pride month messes with me ... open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Endless Pride
It's June. Forgive me for having too many mixed feelings.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
This was my favorite sign at Lisbon's Pride today but only because I finally know enough Portuguese to understand it: "Só queremos ser felizes" ("We only want to be happy")
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Dad's message from the second day of Pride month.
A progress pride flag hangs from the front of a house.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I'm beyond grateful to have played a small part in making sure Kansas knows what it had in Gilbert Baker, and to the folks in Parsons who keep working to honor his legacy.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Attention all the young queers: Everyone needs to remember how this weekend felt. And love out to all the old queers who were there with me. ❤️ 🏳️‍🌈 ✊🏻 open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
When we marched for our lives
Here are some timely lessons in activism from the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I could spend time in far less productive ways than contemplating Portuguese boat names. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Muses in marinas
What a gal from America's landlocked prairie thinks about in a Portuguese ocean town.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
It’s so striking to read what the president said about trans folks a decade ago vs what he's doing now. But then we’ve been watching all along. Thank you as always to @the-debijackson.bsky.social for keeping such a crucial eye on the past, present and future. open.substack.com/pub/debijack...
open.substack.com
They Finally Said It Out Loud
Trans people, the 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy, the documents that preceded it, and what it means when a government stops hiding what it’s doing.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Everyone should watch this cool story from @nepublicmedia.bsky.social. I'd be saying that even if it didn't star my mom and even if it wasn't, you know, that day. youtube.com/watch?v=San4...
youtube.com
Art Project That Divided a State | Nebraska Stories
YouTube video by Nebraska Public Media
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
I’ve been intentionally listening to Portuguese pop and anti-fascist folk, so I haven’t devoted much energy thinking about American music’s global influence. Until we went to the Portugal Burger Cup. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
‘The burgers were as weird as the music’
A ‘festival de street food’ soundtrack inspires these riffs on American pop in Portugal.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Hello from a blustery Friday night on the Sado River.
A cargo ship with lights on choppy water beneath an ominous sky.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
It's been a while since I've posted on here. This explains it a little bit. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
On leaving home, one year later
We've entered a season of departure-related anniversaries. Here are just a few of the feelings.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Can confirm.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Because I don't really understand this feeling, I just riff on how strange it is to spend so much time looking down at my feet as I spend looking up at the people and the architecture of our new country. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Walking on art with strangers
Our giant leap leads to tentative first steps.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
No Kings action all the way over in Lisbon.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
What a beautiful day this was: our new town's first Pride march open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
'Our struggle is one'
An old familiar ritual welcomes us to our new town.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Basically just an appreciation of British English cussing here open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
A few things we'll have to get used to
Before we arrive, we make some guesses about life in our new country.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Why must the supposedly greatest country in the world so desperately need to keep bragging about how great it is? open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
What we won't miss about America
Here are a few things we know for sure.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
"Lifton described a key psychological mechanism, what he called the 'thought-terminating cliché.'"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/opinion/totalitarianism-robert-jay-lifton.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lU8.ZIXN.eJ7GZJk2DBt9&smid=url-share
nytimes.com
Opinion | Totalitarianism Can Be Terrifying. It Can Also Be Thrilling. He Taught Us Why.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Who else spent the weekend with this painful and necessary reliving of Hurricane Katrina? 20 years ago might as well be today. www.netflix.com/title/816765...
netflix.com
Watch Katrina: Come Hell and High Water | Netflix Official Site
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, survivors reflect on the disastrous storm that forever changed their lives and the systemic inequities it exposed.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
"Portugal teaches patience," someone said. I’m 62 and don’t need lessons in patience. But a summer of waiting to leave the U.S. taught us other things. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Waiting to leave our country
Or, what we did on our summer vacation.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
How my dream of becoming a lesbian elder started vs. going open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Goodbye to Provincetown
This queer heaven is one place in America I'll miss.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
I grew up terrified, justifiably, every day, of nuclear obliteration. Artists had the correct response. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Hiroshima and the End We Refuse to Imagine (Gift Article)
Eighty years after the city’s destruction, we seem to be blundering into a new age of nuclear perils. It is time for culture to rediscover “the courage to be afraid.”
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
I wrote about how, 40 years ago, a song made even small town #Midwest #queer kids feel like they belonged. Also, I had the same hair as John Mellencamp. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
We were all 'Small Town'
Forty years ago, John Mellencamp's hit made everyone euphoric — even though we knew we couldn't really be ourselves in small towns.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
For some of us, Jon D. Barnett is legendary in Kansas City #queer history. For younger folks, he should be. Here's a word of gratitude as he heads into his next adventure. open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Colombia calling
For this Midwestern gay-rights pioneer, home is where the adventure is.
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Gina Kaufmann @ginak.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
“I have forgotten what fruit tastes like” - not sure how many times I reflexively put my hand to my heart while listening to this story theworld.org/segments/202...
theworld.org
'I have forgotten what fruit tastes like': Mass starvation grips the Gaza Strip - The World from PRX
After four months of near-total siege by Israel, people in Gaza are starving. According to the United Nations, at least 1 in 3 people are going multiple days without eating. Death from hunger is risin...
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
In her heroic efforts to be at peace with us leaving the U.S., my mom has asked a lot of questions. One was whether I knew of other LGBTQ people leaving. Yes, I told her. Here’s the story of #Kansas' first #transgender legislator.
cjjanovy.substack.com
From Mexico with love
Kansas' first transgender legislator: 'I didn't flee the country — I moved.'
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 17/07/2025
If I were in charge of PBS or NPR I would be doing 24-7 programming right now about the end of PBS and NPR
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
The entire USA should be required to read this before saying another word about women's sports, especially trans women in sports. @katiebarnes.bsky.social is a national treasure.
Book cover for Katie Barnes' "Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates"
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
I wrote about how to get rid of all your stuff so you can leave the country. Or at least how I did it. substack.com/@cjjanovy/no...
substack.com
C.J. Janovy on Substack
When you start telling people you’re leaving the country, some say they want to leave too but can’t imagine getting rid of all their stuff.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
At the risk of being like everyone else, I went ahead and started this thing ... open.substack.com/pub/cjjanovy...
open.substack.com
Leaving home
I know how it feels to be from a place Americans call the heartland when your heart leans a different direction. I’ve witnessed some history. I'm learning how it feels to leave.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Langston Hughes, #America poets.org/poem/let-ame...
poets.org
Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Thank you to Kate Sosin and @19thnews.org for this on the anniversary of #Obergefell.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Contrary to how it often feels in the publishing world there's a whole literary thing in the #Midwest. Thank you editor Andy. I'm honored to be part of this and can't wait to read everyone's stuff.
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Ann Telnaes @anntelnaes.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Just a reminder going forward... (cartoon from 2003)
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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
“Same as in Iraq and Afghanistan/ And Ahmadinejad say they coming for Iran“ m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lIq...
m.youtube.com
Killer Mike - "Reagan" (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Pitchfork
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Larry Norden @larrynorden.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Sadly, these atacks are part of a wider trend. Last year, the Brennan Center issued a report showing that more than 40 percent of state legislators of all parties experienced threats or attacks within the previous three years. 2/6 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
brennancenter.org
Intimidation of State and Local Officeholders
Left unchecked, abuse harms not only elected officials but also the public they serve.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Alternatively, “Thousands of Americans expected to take to the streets in defense of their neighbors and their democracy” www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
"The answer will not come from above." Another brilliant reality check from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Obama Isn’t Going to Save You
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Who else has read the Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz? Her "Love Song to the Plains," first published in 1961, is a history of how the region was colonized. Here she is making an observation about America 175 years ago. Just saying. #booksky
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"It's better — believe us — to name what’s happening than to look on, speechless, as your country goes to ruin." Thank you @storyevtime.bsky.social and Maria Kuznetsova for this www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Here’s What’s Happening in America, in Six (Mostly) Russian Terms
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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
What separates journalism from stenography is independent reporting, verification and context. Trump calls in the National Guard for LA — note he did not do so for the insurrection. He says no one will spit on law enforcement, note he pardoned those who physically assaulted law enforcement Jan 6.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Thank you @kendrawrites.com. Let's see if #journalism has learned any lessons since 2020 (🙄) ...
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Thank you to @univpressofkansas.bsky.social for letting me say a few things about #pride and to #Kansas Reps. @brandonwoodard.bsky.social, Susan Ruiz and @heather-jo.bsky.social for their wisdom on #queer activism. (Also included: code for half off book orders.) kansaspress.ku.edu/blog/2025/06...
kansaspress.ku.edu
CJ Janovy on Pride Month in Kansas and the Nation – What We Can Do as a Community - University Press of Kansas
For many Americans, this June feels different. It’s the month queer Americans affirm our community in Pride celebrations millions of our friends and loved
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Aww love you back, @claywires.bsky.social @kansasreflector.com and all the other queers of #Kansas kansasreflector.com/2025/06/05/t...
kansasreflector.com
These eight LGBTQ+ Kansans make Pride Month worth celebrating. And all the other months, too. • Kansas Reflector
Us gay people live across all 50 states, in every country around the globe. And we're most definitely here in Kansas.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Good job, #Tulsa www.publicradiotulsa.org/local-region...
publicradiotulsa.org
$105 million trust to be built for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre reparations, city says
Tens of millions of dollars will go toward repairing harms from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
See #America it's not that hard
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
I worry it's an insult to tacos.
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C.J. Janovy @cjjanovy.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Great story, NYT — almost as good as the one by the Midwest Newsroom's @kavahnmansouri.bsky.social and Chad Davis four days earlier: www.kcur.org/news/2025-05...
kcur.org
'Bring Carol home': ICE snatches rural Missouri mom at immigration check-in
A Kennett, Missouri, woman went to St. Louis last month for what she thought was a routine meeting with immigration officials to renew her immigration documents. Instead, they shackled her and are now...
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.
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