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Martin Padgett

@martinpadgett.bsky.social
970 followers 143 following 679 posts

“A Night at The Sweet Gum Head,” “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick,” and "The Queer Revolution Was Televised" (coming 2027). Generation X.

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Reposted by Martin Padgett
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 24/09/2026
Breaking News: A sheriff in California was ordered by the state Supreme Court to return about 650,000 ballots to election officials after he confiscated them for an investigation into voter fraud that state officials said had no basis in fact. nyti.ms/4hejTBu
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco walking between SUVs parked in the street. A headline reads: "Republican Sheriff Illegally Seized California Ballots, Court Rules." Photo by Noah Berger/Associated Press
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Horrifying title for anyone who remembers the 1980s.
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
There is something so unbelievably bleak about an article that calmly walks readers through how to navigate being laid off after 50, losing your health insurance, and somehow surviving the years until Medicare. What a broken country.
nytimes.com
Laid Off After 50, and No Health Insurance? Here’s What to Consider. (Gift Article)
At best, older workers will struggle to find health insurance that bridges the years before they qualify for Medicare at age 65.
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Reposted by Martin Padgett
Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 20/09/2026
From banning partisan gerrymandering to giving citizens a chance to sue for voting rights to expanding the U.S. House of Representatives, here are eight solutions to protect every eligible U.S. citizen’s right to vote in free and fair elections. bit.ly/4j4uGiG
brennancenter.org
Eight Solutions to Protect Voting Rights and Improve Representation
Congress must make voting fairer and more accessible for U.S. citizens and mitigate damage done by states, the executive branch, and the Supreme Court.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Just....put it all out there girl
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
found a new naming convention for my writing drafts
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Reposted by Martin Padgett
The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 08/09/2026
“Shame is one of the ways that groups of people mediate their norms without state intervention,” Jay Caspian Kang writes. “This, of course, is not always a good thing. But any community without shame must have moral consensus.” newyorkermag.visitlink.me/oOtftg
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
The Death of Shame Is Tearing Us Apart
Increasingly, people are ignoring social norms in favor of a narrow self-interest. The results are disastrous.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Oh, and that week, temps in Detroit fell to -50 and I called home on a satellite phone from the jungle, where it was 85 degrees.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I flew down a day early to Belize City and was warned not to leave the hotel by myself. Then I saw the TV news from the U.S. about the Northridge earthquake and found out half the attendees would be a day late when they figured out how to get them out of LA. Fun times.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This was the trip where I hung from the "door" in the back of an RAF chopper tilted sideways so I could shoot overhead photos of a Mayan ruin. Right leg wedged between the two seats in front, no belt, just a left foot on the runner to brace me.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The editorial Internet is ceasing to exist.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Uber quiet, but for dental hygienists
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Indexing, the big tell that your Gen X mind is distinctively warped.
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Tom “T.M.” Wolf @tomtmwolf.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Shocking story in here of Byron White and his clerks shredding his papers… www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...
nytimes.com
How the Supreme Court Locks Away Its Own History (Gift Article)
After Justice Scalia died, the justices held private negotiations about locking away their papers. We may not see the ultimate record of the Roberts court for decades.
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Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 31/08/2026
I’m sure most of you aren’t watching the US Open right now which means you missed this instantly iconic moment, now available in gif form
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Those were wigs?
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 25/08/2026
Breaking News: Dolly Parton, the country singer, songwriter, entertainer and entrepreneur known for her outsize persona and prodigious vision and talent that placed her in a class by herself, has died at 80. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/a...
A black-and-white portrait of Dolly Parton with big blonde hair, sitting in a chair and smiling. A headline reads: "1946-2026: Dolly Parton." Photo by Jack Manning/The New York Times
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Go out how you want, leave a comet trail of good behind.
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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I think that Dolly Parton was, for a lot of people, an ambassador of the "good" values people think of about the South: kindness, hospitality, can-do spirit, sharp and witty and down to earth. I think for a segment of people, too, she was theantithesis of a lot of noxious masculine country stuff.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Well I failed
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Jen Rubin @jenrubin.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
John Roberts is Natalie Harp in a robe. A cringeworthy handmaiden
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250 to 250 @250to250.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Wes Siler is an independent journalist who has spent the last 24 years writing about the intersection of public lands, conservation, and politics. He tells the story of the brief battle that forced Native American displacement from most of modern-day Ohio. #WeAreAmerica250
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Most transphobia, or so it seems to me, is about wanting culturally contingent hierarchies and identity scripts to be Inscribed in Nature in some deep way that obviates the need for reflective examination, and getting very anxious and angry about anything that makes it clear that’s a fantasy.
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CNN @cnn.com · 17/08/2026
A new study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, found a 15% increase in traffic fatalities on the days major new albums are released, compared with the days immediately before and after. cnn.it/4g2Sl1d
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Time to train on avoiding gunfire in classrooms.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
My tailor!
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Patrick Ness @patricknessbooks.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Such a shame. He also did a remix of Erasure’s cover of Supernature, the opening sixty seconds of which are among the most exciting in electronic music. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...
theguardian.com
William Orbit, pop producer for Madonna, All Saints and more, dies aged 69
Musician’s projects included Madonna’s Ray of Light, Blur’s 13 and All Saints’ chart-topping singles Pure Shores and Black Coffee
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/s...
nytimes.com
The Bears Are on Ozempic
An annual celebration of bears — gay men on the bigger and hairier side — feels different in the age of GLP-1s.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Herpes: "I want to be in every body."
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-queer-re...
rutgersuniversitypress.org
The Queer Revolution Was Televised
The 1980s were the decade in which the gay rights movement came to understand the narrative power of television, and how it could be deployed as a tool for political organization as well as one that e...
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | What Do the Words ‘Gay’ and ‘Queer’ Really Mean?
Readers respond to a guest essay about the labels used to describe those in the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
In today's cameo appearance I talked to the NYT about how badly we've fumbled the ball here. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/m...
nytimes.com
The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It?
The largest U.S. automakers have backed away from electric vehicles, even as global sales are booming. The decision may make them obsolete.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Was not prepared for how much I’d dislike Hair (movie)
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Live a life that doesn’t get ratioed in death.
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Sue Landers @slanders.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Please indulge my Gen X Bicentennial nostalgia. As a child in Philadelphia in 1976, the 200th bday was a big deal. 🧵
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 10/06/2026
"Susan Rogers worked with the legendary singer-songwriter before earning a PhD in her 50s on auditory memory and how we listen to music throughout life." The neuroscientist formerly known as Prince’s audio engineer:
nature.com
The neuroscientist formerly known as Prince’s audio engineer
Susan Rogers worked with the legendary singer-songwriter before earning a PhD in her 50s on auditory memory and how we listen to music throughout life.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
TL,DR: Not good that only 5 justices thought Trump’s EO facially unconstitutional. Here as in so many other places, Trump has moved the Overton window.
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I am stunned that the constitutional question was so close. I thought it would be 6–3 or 7–2. It is profoundly disturbing that four justices would allow either the president or Congress to rewrite the plain text of the 14th Amendment. This is obviously a good outcome, but the margin is alarming.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 19/08/2024
One of the real radicals of television during the onset of the epidemic. He and Oprah made space and had time for anyone who needed treatment or visibility or empathy. (Here with Michael Hardwick and Kathy Wilde in 1986, post Bowers v Hardwick.)
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Rough Draft @roughdraftatlanta.com · 02/06/2025
‘The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick’ recalls a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ activism and the Supreme Court Courtesy Norton Author Martin Padgett has a way of summoning back an Atlanta that now only exists in memory, historical archives, and YouTube videos. In his first book, “A Night at the Sweet…
roughdraftatlanta.com
‘The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick’ recalls a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ activism and the Supreme Court
Courtesy Norton Author Martin Padgett has a way of summoning back an Atlanta that now only exists in memory, historical archives, and YouTube videos. In his first book, “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head,” Padgett tapped into the intersection of the gay rights movement and the drag scene that flourished in the city in the 1970s.  Now, in his new nonfiction book…
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Philip Baldwin @philipcbaldwin.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
“They marched because they were dying. They marched because the law said they were criminals. They marched because they no longer wanted to remain silent.” Fascinating read about Michael Hardwick and the LGBTQIA+ rights movement, as well as HIV. #PrideMonth #HIV www.queerty.com/before-marri...
queerty.com
Before marriage equality: How Michael Hardwick's Supreme Court loss paved the way for LGBTQ+ rights - Queerty
In 1982, Michael Hardwick was arrested for "sodomy" in the privacy of his home. He took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that was just the beginning.
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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
‪@martypadgett.bsky.social‬ recounts how Michael Hardwick helped overturn sodomy laws in Georgia.
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Courting Fatal Passions: How Michael Hardwick Helped Overturn America’s Sodomy Laws
Michael Hardwick and Dwight Sawyer stood before the judge in Atlanta Municipal Court on August 4, 1982 during a preliminary hearing and pled not guilty to charges of sodomy and solicitation, then b…
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Reposted by Martin Padgett
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
NEW: Before marriage, there was the nearly 20-year fight over sodomy laws. In 2003, the Supreme Court overturned its 1986 decision upholding sodomy laws. Both cases have a lot to teach us in and about this moment. Today, at Law Dork:
lawdork.com
Before marriage, there was the nearly 20-year fight over sodomy laws
In 2003, the Supreme Court overturned its 1986 decision upholding sodomy laws. Both cases have a lot to teach us in and about this moment.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Time for … Blackwater? Maybe a credence of Clearwater Revival? Humiliating.
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
going to tell my kids that this was Andrew Jackson's inauguration
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kim @kimmymonte.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
omg ffs we just want healthcare
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Martin Padgett @martinpadgett.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
"can you think of another reason other than a dead body to have 800 active air fresheners in a car?" #overheardinthefrenchquarter
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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 10/06/2026
An overburdened, underresourced, and gridlocked Congress has contributed to executive abuse, Supreme Court overreach, and public discontent. Our set of solutions confronts these challenges. bit.ly/4vCq2eR
brennancenter.org
A Wake-Up Call for a Moribund Congress
We have a plan to restore our national legislative body.
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Lawprofblawg @lawprofblawg.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Breaking: Senator Collins: "The allegations against Graham Platner are extremely troubling and serious." Also, she plans to vote for him to be on the Supreme Court. #Satire
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