Hey, can we talk for a second?

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Music.
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Hey folks, as some of you may have noticed, it's been a while since I've uploaded an episode.
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I wanted to make just a quick announcement check-in video to talk with you all
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about everything that's come up since my last posted episode,
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everything currently affecting me, and a little bit on the general state of things as well.
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About two months ago, my ability to record was severely impacted when a water
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main broke in front of my house, and destroyed my driveway,
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flooded my basement, and has generally thrown my home life into disarray ever since.
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My basement is still only in the early stages of repair, so it's going to be
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a while until things are more or less back to normal.
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I have to admit, this has dealt a big blow to my creative momentum,
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my mental health, and a number of other aspects in my life as my basement was
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my recording space, my studio, my home office, and my main social area for hosting company.
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This has been especially difficult since we were coming off my trip to FlameCon
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and all the great connections I made there,
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as well as the Iowa Podcast Awards and everything that was coming out of that,
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and this has just halted my ability to record.
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Now, thankfully, I've got an interim recording space set up in the meantime.
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I don't know if my sound quality will be quite the same, but hopefully there's
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not too much of a notable difference.
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But I wanted to set some expectations going forward just to let you know that
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I'm at the moment not going to be able to maintain the same schedule I was before with my podcasts.
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With Transcending Comics, I was trying to post an episode every other week.
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With Giant-Sized Violence. It was about whenever I had a good opportunity or
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a good guest lined up, but I'm going to need to slow down because attending to my basement,
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sorting through and itemizing all the damage, and dealing with recent changes
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affecting my community.
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I've taken away from my creative energy and the time I've had to record and edit episodes.
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So as far as expectations going forward, I want to aim to try and have an episode
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of Transcending Comics about once every three weeks, and if I can manage it,
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try to do the same for Giant-Sized Violence,
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but we'll see how things go.
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I do have a bunch of great guests lined up and ready to do episodes.
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I felt horrible having to tell a number of people that I'd have to press pause
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on recording for the foreseeable future, but I'm hoping I can get those all
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rescheduled and have a nice lineup of episodes in the near future.
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I also wanted to address the elephant in the room, politically speaking,
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as many of my other fellow trans creators have since the recent US election results.
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I'm not going to lie that this has also played a toll on my mental health, but not just my own.
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I mean, I'm also dealing with the collective dread of my entire community,
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worrying about what the next 40 years have to offer,
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and the fact that despite a candidate doing literally everything wrong that
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I could possibly imagine,
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people looked past their transphobia and any number of other hateful beliefs.
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All their terrible and literally criminal actions, and decided to vote for a bigot anyway.
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This does have an impact on my creative output and my life in general,
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because now, on top of everything else I've been dealing with between getting my basement fixed,
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starting a vending business, fulfilling orders for my comic,
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I also have to start planning for worst-case scenarios.
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I likely am going to have to leave my state, as mine is not currently the most
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trans-friendly, and I can't imagine it's going to get any better in the immediate
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future, and that means I'm also going to have to sell my house,
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find a new place in a nearby sanctuary state, and just figure out the entire process of relocating.
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On the plus side, though, I do know that there's an incredible creative future
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for me, likely in Minneapolis, as that's the go-to sanctuary city near us that we have our eyes set on.
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And on that note, I'd like to do my best to try and focus on the positives right
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now because that's really the only thing that's within my control.
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While the presidential election results are certainly disheartening,
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there were a number of silver linings that came out of that night.
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A good friend of mine won her campaign for the Iowa House, making her the first
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openly trans-elected official in our state office, and you'll actually be hearing
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audio from an interview I did with her in the near future.
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Beyond that, there were over 35 trans-elected officials that won their campaigns on election night,
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and I think that says something for what we can still do in this situation and
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the power we still have on a local level,
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at a state level, and in our immediate communities.
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With that being said, I certainly don't blame anyone for being afraid right
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now about the state of things and for possibly considering going stealth or
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not being vocally or openly trans and online and public spaces going forward.
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But for me personally, I'm going to stay visible.
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And if you believe you can do so with some relative amount of safety,
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I recommend you do the same.
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I think it's more important than ever that people know that we're still here
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and we're not going anywhere and that our stories are important.
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The progress we made on local and state level campaigns just reminds me of how
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important it is to get involved at a local level.
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Now, there have been many people out there posting videos or podcasts about
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what we should be doing right now, and a lot of them are full of great advice.
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My friend Sadie over at Transcaping just did a good video about surviving as a trans person in 2024.
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The good folks on the It Can Happen Here podcast just made a whole episode on
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what being trans might look like under another Trump presidency.
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And to echo some of their actions, I recommend that if you're a trans person
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in this country, that you start updating your legal documents,
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be that your passport, your ID.
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Your social security card, just in case our ability to do so gets restricted
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in the very near future. Be ready to defend yourself.
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I genuinely believe that any trans person out there should have pepper spray,
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pepper gel, or some means of self-defense on them at any time.
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And be conscious of who you have as a support system in your immediate community.
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Again, while I totally understand the fears that a lot of us are feeling right
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now, I want us to remember the progress that we've made over the last 10, 20, even 30 years.
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The world knows about us now, and we're not going back in the closet.
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When something happens to one of us, people care. We know about it.
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That wasn't always the case.
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A lot of us, a lot of our trans elders felt invisible, that when terrible things
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happened to us individually or as a community, no one was paying attention.
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That's not the case anymore. We have voices now and people are listening.
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I don't know for certain what's ahead for us, but I'm confident that any trans
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elder you know has been through worse times in the past. And we can get through this now.
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If our reality is shaped by the stories we tell each other and ourselves,
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then now more than ever, I think it's time that we tell a better one.
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As expected, the next four years do bring a lot of negative attention to the
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trans community from the right, and there will be many spineless representatives
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on the left that fail to stand up for us.
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But we find out pretty quick who our actual allies are, some coming from places you wouldn't expect.
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The increased scrutiny and legislative action against the trans community inspire
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us to organize and take action like never before.
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Those of us that get involved find community among the activists and organizers,
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and they show us the most effective ways to take action, and we inspire our friends to do the same.
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When the 2026 elections come around, a record number of trans candidates run
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for office, and we come away with more trans elected officials than ever before.
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The harassment and bullying tactics of the other side, while awful and uncalled
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for, have a backfire effect that attracts more people to our side.
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When those outside our community see us being attacked for nothing more than
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being trans, and how we continue to be ourselves in the face of this,
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they begin to see the transphobes as the bullies and cowards they really are.
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By the time 2028 comes around, we show the world that we are a political force
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to be reckoned with, and we will not be thrown under the bus for the sake of centrists again.
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We continue to survive, thrive, and live our best lives, regardless of what they throw at us.
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And we find out just how strong we truly are.
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The next four years may not be easy, but we'll get through them together.
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If you're a trans person listening to this, don't let these election results silence you.
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Keep on finding community in the spaces where you feel welcome.
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Keep listening to the stories of other trans folk and share them with the world.
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And don't forget, your story matters too. now more than ever.
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So please, keep reading, keep writing, and keep transcending.
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Music.
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Some quick music credits before we go. Our song for a better story was the Sultan
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and Shepard remix of Survive by Lane 8 featuring Chani Leena.
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Our intro song was Push by Rockstar and Elise, and the upcoming outro is their song Fine.
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Both come from their EP, The Future, which has been playing on repeat for me since the election.
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She wrote this song after the transphobic nightmare that was CPAC 2023,
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the right-wing event that called for the eradication of transgenderism.
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It's a song channeling the sentiment of a lone trans girl that took to Twitter
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afterwards to express how she just wanted to live her life, go to work,
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and maybe play some video games, and how even that felt difficult at that moment.
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The EP is still startlingly prescient, and I recommend it to anyone else out
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there in need of a song to make you feel seen and.
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Music.
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Thank you.