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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)

@kitoconnell.com
13K followers 2.4K following 1.9K posts

🏳️‍🌈⭐👏Newsletter Writer & Contributor @The Barbed Wire, formerly Digital Editor @Texas Observer, bylines in Teen Vogue, etc. Austin, Texas. They/Them. Home: kitoconnell.com Get Big & Bright: thebarbedwire.com/subscribe

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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
The American Prospect @prospect.org · 1h
Medicare for All is a far better brand for Democrats than building on the Affordable Care Act. There is an important ideological subtext: Public is not only more socially just than private, it’s also more efficient. buff.ly/rfMA6zY
buff.ly
The Road to Universal Medicare - The American Prospect
The apparent split between advocates of Medicare for All and a more incremental approach is misleading and easily remedied.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 2h
really don't love that nobody considers "tranny" a slur anymore
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 4h
There's a whole genre of X posts which is like "I tried using (bsky/Threads/occasionally Mastodon) and people there are just too cringe, so I'd rather hang out in this nazi bar."
Screenshot of a tweet where the poster (redacted) said "i genuinely tried using bluesky but it just felt like this over there" with a video clip of the band Superorganism, stuffed behind the NPR Tiny Desk, playing a kinda goofy song where some of the musicians use improvised instruments like a bucket of water. The tweet has been retweeted 4.6K times and viewed 8.7 million times.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 29/09/2026
Jesus @jankcurbelo.bsky.social has been doing some fab work over at @texasobserver.org, this latest is no exception.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i hope that men notice how whenever a rape story gets widespread coverage, women use it as an opportunity to vent about how fucking disgusting we think many of you are and how many have made our lives measurably worse, and take a few moments to deeply process that.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
KXAN News @kxan.com · 29/09/2026
An Austin woman says she was removed from Saturday's Austin FC match over an 'Abolish ICE' shirt. www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/aust…  
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In two weeks, Russell Brand goes on trial in the UK on rape and sexual assault charges in cases involving six women. Tomorrow in DC, he's appearing at a MAHA gathering to 'moderate' a discussion with Dr Oz about medicare and medicaid. What the hell?
1:55 to 2:25 pm Reforms at CMS

Chris Klomp Chief Counselor HHS

Mehmet Oz, Administrator CMS

Moderated by Russell BRand, comedian and brodcaster
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
jon christian @jonchristian.net · 28/09/2026
NEW: After we published an investigation into Brown Brothers Media, a company that buys struggling news sites and turns them into AI-powered content mills, we got a tip that completely gobsmacked me: one of the brothers has extensive connections to Ghislaine Maxwell futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
You Know Those Three Brothers Who Buy Struggling News Sites and Turn Them Into AI-Powered Content Farms? It Turns Out One of Them Has Extensive Connections to Ghislaine Maxwell
Ideapod, a cornerstone brand of Brown Brothers Media's AI empire, has deep ties to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 28/09/2026
Like amazing work yall but also im exhausted lol
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 28/09/2026
Jfc
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
jon christian @jonchristian.net · 28/09/2026
Somehow "the guy who buys struggling publications and fills them with fake journalists that publish thousands of articles of AI slop to overwhelm google? turns out he goes way back with Ghislaine Maxwell, the collaborator of Jeffrey Epstein" feels like the ultimate and most exhausting 2026 sentence
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
So yeah, if you suppress all knowledge of queerness, then on some level, you do end up with fewer openly queer people. You get to have more miserable, self-hating stunted people instead. YAY YOU WIN. If you just want us gone, then yeah, that's a victory condition.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The "social contagion" thing drives me screaming angry. When I was young I had no clue trans ppl existed. I'd never met anyone trans. I saw cruel caricatures in pop culture occasionally. When I realized trans was a thing someone could be, it hit like a lightning bolt. My life felt newly possible.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Andrew Schreck @andrewschreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i don't think cis guys realize how much power they can shift in a conversation just by casually telling their friends
"that's fucked up, man" when someone says something
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
the horrific cornell gang rape case has me thinking about emma sulkowicz who alleged she was raped as a student at columbia in 2014 and never got any justice. it has me thinking about the physical and mental weight young women are forced to carry while their safety is subsumed by male potential.
Emma Sulkowicz carrying around a mattress on the Columbia campus in 2014 to raise awareness of her alleged rape and the university's inaction.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Arizona Right Watch @azrww.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Follow LOOKOUT who is doing work that literally no other outlet in AZ will touch. It’s amazing that good journalism is just meeting the goddamn moment so of course it’s the outlet here centering LGBTQ+ voices and writers in a state that has tried for decades to silence these experiences.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 28/09/2026
It really gives the game away when the anti trans orgs are calling the election of the neo nazi party in Germany a "glimmer of hope."
​A screenshot of an online article headline from "Inspecting Gender" by Genspect. The main heading reads: "Germany: A Glimmer of Hope for Sex Realists?" Below the title, the summary text asks: "Is the victory of the AfD in Germany a dark day for democracy or a glimmer of hope for sex realists? By David Allison." The bottom metadata displays the Genspect logo, "5 hours ago," and a "Listen" audio option button. In the top right corner, there is a teal "Subscribe" button alongside a circular profile avatar.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 28/09/2026
For my newsletter this morning, I found a small glimmer of political hope for trans people in the US and wrote about it: www.burnsnotice.com/we-may-have-...
burnsnotice.com
We May Have Just Seen the Tides Turn on Trans Rights
Some conservative PACs have backed off from running anti-trans ads. Is this a sign of what's to come for trans people?
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 28/09/2026
This was an excellent conversation
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.
Ann Pierce
@itsannpierce
20h
I am disheartened by this as well. I already lost a bunch of followers for agreeing with @tautologer, but it's saddening to see local nerdy women being caricatured as Karen-like outsiders and getting pushed out of the scene. This is exactly why you hear so few concrete, names-attached stories of sexual harrassment and assault. I'm told there is a history of discrediting these because the "slut normalization" thing is top priority and these stories get inconveniently in the way of spreading this ideology.
I got roped into attending last year's Saturday Slutcon party because so many local and out-of-town friends were there (to echo sentiments @tautologer expressed about "slut events becoming central to the larger scenes). Mostly I hung out with people I knew and that was great. But in the course of my 3-ish hours there, there were 2 times my "no" was not accepted by a man I didn't know, and I was physically pushing a huge guy off of me who was rubbing his penis on me, who continued to do it despite my physical force against him, and after I finally wriggled away from him, told him I wanted to dance alone etc., he came back and did it again.
This was scary and bad, but it didn't even cross my mind to report this because one of the other people who didn't accept my "no" earlier in the night was the bartender (an officially sanctioned authority at the event), and I knew the event was organized exclusively by women into CNC (who are vocal about how rapey behavior turns them on), so I figured this sort of thing would just get me laughed at. And anyway, I heard there were a lot of other incidents like it. Later though, someone encouraged me to report this story to the organizers, and despite my embarrassment I did, so *they know* that this and other incidents happened. This is why they cut the Saturday night party this year and created a larger training program for the flirt girls - *because* of things like this last year. Yet the narrative bein…People who haven't been to Slutcon are saying "it's just group therapy," "it's just innocent flirting." But the environment is much like a sex party in that many people are nude, there is making out and sex acts happening out in the open. I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect that every nerdy girl who likes rationalist bloggers or is into EA/AI safety should automatically be comfortable with this! That if she's not, there's something wrong with her, we don't want her in our scenes, etc.
Not to mention, it's explictly an event *for men*, where men are the clients and the "flirt girls" are the product. Last year I overheard an exchange where a man felt "led on" by a flirt girl and was trying to get her punished/kicked out. (A dynamic that seems inevitable in this context!)
Anyway- it does sound like they've upped their consent education a lot this year, are more organized, and that's good! As I've told my friends who are attending: I hope they have fun!
I heard several accounts last year of women who had no problems and really enjoyed the event. That's great!
Just... can we live in reality about this? There are real reasons why male-female sexual dynamics are tricky.
Encouraging autistic men who can't yet read body language to go around asking to see womens' boobs is maybe a bit ill-advised. Maybe not everyone should be/identify as a slut; maybe it's not for everyone.
And yeah, filtering the Bay Area Al safety scene down to only women who are super comfy with this eliminates *most* women - including many of the really smart, nerdy, weird women who've been in the larger scenes for years. What a loss for humanity.
I absolutely understand why people with a minority sexuality would want to create belonging, would want to create spaces for people like themselves. But why do it like this/at this cost?
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 27/09/2026
justin balley ------ ------
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 27/09/2026
Blocked for jazz hands
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Transgender World @transgenderreport.com · 27/09/2026
Judge questions Trump policy forcing HIV providers to disregard transgender patients www.advocate.com/pol... #transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
advocate.com
Judge questions Trump policy forcing HIV providers to disregard transgender patients
A Reagan-appointed judge pressed the administration over rules that providers say could upend their relationships with trans patients.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Nor’Easter is heading towards the east coast so reminder that if you have any other option DO NOT put your body in flood water. It has raw sewage, gasoline, chemicals, medical waste, radiological waste and more — anything the water touches. People die from infections after contact with it.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
I have not fact checked the T-shirt, however in general I am in favor of clowns for the record
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Thanks! I got in a nice little conversation about masks and fashion with a masked woman on the bus yesterday and that was a nice reminder too.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Beastie enby @alterkocker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
the Globe article was perfect for the fascists because it got a lot of people agreeing with their premise that the fascism is a necessary and proportionate response to the "excesses" of the left. Those "excesses" amounting to a few Instagram comments on a small bar's instagram page was irrelevant.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Yes... there seems like an overall disinterest in public health as an issue for the American left-of-center, even a hostility on issues like this or disability rights.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Thanks for sharing. I was trying not to look at too much about it so I missed this part. But this is really important context
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Wow I hadn't heard about Hanania either. Yikes.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
DJ Plague Mouse 💎🐁 @rhinestonemice.wtf · 23/09/2026
The Last Ditch lesbian bar mask requirement story was the topic of Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog's terf ass podcast on September 17th last week. Seems likely this is where the Globe is getting the content for the "viral story". Nice work everyone, great media literacy skills.
Screenshot of a podcast episode from the show Blocked and Reported on substack, a platform for Nazis:

Premium: Last Ditch Bar And The Never-Ending Accountability Session
Plus, mouthy women get kicked out of an “inclusive” sports bar
Sept 17
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
If Gwen's posting about it then it's legit
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Oh damn
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 26/09/2026
Oh yeah, Singal and Herzog were most definitely whining about this in the media transphobe group chat
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Wow ok I didn't hear about Singal's connection. Do you know where I can read more about that?
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
Given how widespread the interest in the story has been, you can certainly argue that it is newsworthy. But I generally don't consider it my job to air the dirty laundry of vulnerable groups while anti-LGBTQ and ableist fascists control our government.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 26/09/2026
As someone who still wears a mask in a lot of situations (incl. Medical offices, shopping, and shared transit of all kinds), seeing us be the butt of jokes over and over this week has been a lot. That Boston Globe piece really turned a lot of marginalized groups into, um, clowns.
A screenshot of the Brand New Sentence subreddit, showing someone's Instagram post. It's a photo of a t-shirt which reads "Where were you when the Covid-conscious lesbian bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts eased it's stringent mask mandate, splintering the queer community while the owner attended clown school? "
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 25/09/2026
It was relatively quick and easy but I still hated having to tell a random pharmacy tech why I'm sick enough to deserve a covid shot. Fuck you RFK Jr.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 25/09/2026
Have you noticed sponges get that smell? Hella canceled
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 25/09/2026
Wearing more makeup for my Covid booster than I wore to my date this morning. Not sure what that says about me.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 25/09/2026
I watched Lesbian Space Princess last night, and I know there was Discourse (tm) about it recently but I thought it was funny in a deliberately cringey way. The animation style was nice though noticeably low budget in a few places. It was good. Willow, nonbinary baddie, deserves better though!
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 25/09/2026
You love to see it 🏳️‍🌈
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 25/09/2026
Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏, my newsletter for @thebarbedwire.com is out. Are you subscribed?
thebarbedwire.com
Newsletters
Newsletters Three newsletters, one mission. Pick what fits, drop your email, and we'll land in your inbox. No spam, no filler, no selling your address to anybody. The Flagship · Weekly ...
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Always read @kissphoria.bsky.social www.chron.com/culture/arti...
chron.com
'We did it again!': Texas Rep. pressures school into erasing LGBTQ+ site
UNT hosts one of the largest archives of LGBTQ+ history in the South.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Celeste Headlee @celesteheadlee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So, Banksy bought a used yacht, repaired it and retrofitted it to serve as a rescue boat to save migrants in the central Mediterranean. The whole project cost the artist $860,000. Since 2020, the boat has saved more than 3,800 people. londondaily.com/banksy-funds...
londondaily.com
Banksy funds refugee rescue boat operating in Mediterranean - London Daily
Exclusive: UK artist finances bright pink motor yacht that set sail in secrecy to avoid being intercepted by authorities
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Jake Tapper (moderating the 2028 Dem primary debate): Final question. Do you renounce the Western Massachusetts lesbian bar? Pete Buttigieg: I renounce it. Kamala: I renounce it. AOC: I renounce it. Gavin Newsom: I will be deploying the National Guard to Greenfield on day one of my administration.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 22/09/2026
My latest @thebarbedwire.com: Ever taken an HIV test at a nightclub or event? 13 AIDS-related nonprofits in Texas (and more nationwide) are losing millions in HIV outreach funding, thanks to the latest DOGE-like cuts at the CDC. Six nonprofits in Houston will collectively lose ~$2M in vital funds.
thebarbedwire.com
Thanks To CDC Cutbacks, 13 Texas Nonprofits Lose Millions In HIV Outreach Funding
Gulf Coast is hardest hit: The CEO of a Houston-area nonprofit estimated that six organizations in the area are losing a total of about $2 million in funds.
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Reposted by Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽)
pausa de hateration @thatguywasfly.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I hope everyone who jumped on this story today is proud to take their cues as to what's newsworthy and worth condemnation as The Problem With The Left from Jesse fucking Singal.
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Kit O'Connell (🏳️‍🌈Big & Bright Queerdo👽) @kitoconnell.com · 24/09/2026
We actually fucking kick ass
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