this picture is from 10 years ago in October. as students we took it upon ourselves to organize bystander intervention and consent workshops because our institutions let survivors down. it popped into my head this week considering how in some ways students today have worse material conditions
![screenshot of a tweet from Zaid Jilani @ZaidJilani
Jun 11
Ryan Grim says he's glad Platner won because it's forcing progressives to confront bigotry against white men, comparing it to people coming out of the closet to address homophobia.
If he had said this while we worked together at The Intercept, HR would've pushed him into lava.
[image of Ryan Grim in an interview]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tabiejtbwtcxuc2vxmk63uwj/bafkreib5wk6cwylknyyykbwl2yxz2gcjizi5v4hzsssistnmpyn7kji3ce)
![Minneapolis does have an incredible history of organizing going back to the truck strikes of 1934 and co-op movements [of the 20th century].
I grew up on the West Bank of Minneapolis, which is now where much of the Somali community is, but used to be a super hippie community, and so the places around me were mostly anarchist-owned co-ops. It’s not the neighborhood that most American children grow up in. We have a different idea of what’s possible, because we have a city that kind of works a little differently and has a history of collectivism and taking care of each other.
I think also because of what happened in 2020 [with George Floyd’s police murder setting off protests around the world], and even before that, with Jamar Clark and Philando Castile [who were shot and killed by police in 2015 and 2016], we’re reflexive organizers. It’s easy for us to get together and figure out how we’re going to approach something.
But this has been totally different. Back then, people were putting a lawn sign in their yard that said Black Lives Matter. Now people are driving an immigrant person to work every day.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tabiejtbwtcxuc2vxmk63uwj/bafkreigt7tkfsv5gn77hgzgbb4nv7mrmzaqh7qga7zj34pmgayllecsx7i)
![On Feb. 19, State Rep. Mauree Turner, Oklahoma’s only nonbinary representative, held a moment of silence for Benedict on the state house floor. In a video of the moment, Quorum Call reporter Tyler Talley observed that “while many members did quiet, some [members] continued with their conversations.” Last spring, Rep. Turner was censured within the Oklahoma state legislature for allowing a protester at a trans rights protest in the House to shelter in their office.
“Every day I get more angry that we, politicians, no matter your party affiliation are aiding in a transgenocide,” Rep. Turner wrote in a statement posted to their Instagram. “I think about how after I read Nex’s obituary on the house floor, a Democrat came to me and said well we don’t know if they actually died because of the beating… But we absolutely do. Nex’ death is a direct result of a failed administration in a public school that didn’t value the life of a trans student. A failed administration that was empowered by a failed local government who has created open season, and more specifically a transgenocide in Oklahoma.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tabiejtbwtcxuc2vxmk63uwj/bafkreiehj43jumzgg46hpw4lm35iyhfy3kr3bfm3gexaoloc4pay344s4m)
![4. Nex Benedict Has Been Gone a Year. What Have We Learned? / Lex McMenamin
It can be difficult to know what to say in the face of widespread public apathy towards the harm being done to trans youth by the conservative ideological project.
That’s why Lex McMenamin’s story for Teen Vogue marking the one year anniversary of the death of Oklahoma trans teen Nex Benedict last February was so remarkable. The piece captures both what is being lost and the lack of urgency about recapturing it in a brilliant bit of reporting and analysis.
“Over this past year, there [was] this big reaction, and then it fizzled,” Adams tells Teen Vogue. “I was talking to my [Two Spirit, nonbinary] kid yesterday about what has happened over the past year, and what that feels like, what it looks like, and they said something like, 'It's weird that the world kept turning. It's weird that things just kept going after that.' People just tend to forget.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tabiejtbwtcxuc2vxmk63uwj/bafkreia7gdhxaxg52zfwfjflauevlcbnigdmdvfpbd6ar367vbccyjephm)
![Politics
Hurricane Helene Devastated Asheville. A Local LGBTQ+ Organization Is Supporting Youth — With Cash
“We know that [direct cash transfers] are the number one support for preventing youth homelessness.”
By Colleen Hamilton](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tabiejtbwtcxuc2vxmk63uwj/bafkreih25i5jlkwyxj2ht6id23woeu2ycbai75l3lrxj33rkm7bcbocenq)
![Pic of Plestia Alaqad overlaid with text from interview: Plestia Alaqad: I can't believe that it's almost — [she pauses] no, it's not almost, it's actually two years. Okay, I can't believe that it's been two years of this ongoing genocide. When I was reporting in Gaza for 45 days, these 45 days felt like 45 years. And now it's 200 days feeling like 200 years for the people who are actually still on the ground facing bombing, displacement and starvation, which is being used as a method by Israel. Israel is literally ethnically cleansing people in Gaza, and we're watching a genocide unfold live on TV.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tabiejtbwtcxuc2vxmk63uwj/bafkreian45imfkhayprgbdoexwoykj7gy7kwy3a4cy3e3o7mnabwz4fy6e)
