Me: When I was a kid I really wanted to dip my grilled cheese in bbq sauce instead of ketchup and I told my mom that and she said “do it” and I was like “wait, that’s allowed?” @valorievandieman.bsky.social: Your experience with dipping grilled cheese in bbq sauce is my experience with being trans.

Idk why this gives me such glee, but it does. Maybe it helps me remember my kinda scary grandmother.

Highly recommend getting off of X if you're still there. Your brain is getting cooked every second you're exposed to this racist garbage.

I can’t get over the fact that the fleas in Silk Song have wings. Call me a pedant, but in my time as a county entomologist I had people bring me beetles, flies, and true bugs saying “this was on my dog! is it a flea!?” and my go-to answer was “look, this has wings, fleas don’t have wings”.

jfc

This last year we have seen a radical shift in the public anti-trans rhetoric, seeing less attempts to justify attacks on our rights with palatable lenses like protecting children, and more moves like Kansas' attack on all trans people based on nothing but hate. Check out my newest piece in Slate!

Talking to @valorievandieman.bsky.social Me: We need to rsvp soon if we wanna go to the passover community seder, this year. Val: oh! is that the one with the delicious fish ball and the horseradish?!

I think it matters if trans people lose their rights, even if the rest of us get to keep ours. I understand the reason for the “first they came for” arguments, but I think you should care what happens to trans people even if it only happens to trans people.

This is absolutely fucked.

“When you look into my eyes deeply like that, you look like a rat.” @valorievandieman.bsky.social to our dog

This was one of the highlights of 2025, for me. A year that was, overall, not so great. I’m very proud of the work I did here and very thankful to the person who recommended the workshop. youngvoicesofscience.org?p=2189

Park bag puppy, who I’m calling Birdie, wakes me up at 6 every morning so she can pee and then run around the yard picking up progressively bigger sticks and occasionally trying to eat flowers. I’m gonna miss her when she gets adopted.

I guess it’s a good thing I’m working at a rescue right now because I found the tiniest puppy in a bag at the park where I walk my own dog every morning.

That episode will give me nightmares for a month. People need real support.

Just my sweetie doing sweet work in these not-so-sweet times.

It’s my childhood home vs @valorievandieman.bsky.social’s home so obviously we are on opposite sides even though I’ve lived in WA much more recently and my mom lives there. Rivalry is more fun.

Also:

Are you as ready for some football as I am? 🏈

Wow! What sounded like the entire AEW Dynamite audience in Las Vegas tonight chanted "Fuck ICE! Fuck ICE!" in unison before the main event

My favorite cousin died six years ago, today (24th). He was like a kid and a brother and a best friend all in one and I will forever hate that he’s gone. He taught my clumsy self to ride a ripstik. I hope he’s either sleeping, haunting, or looking down. Or I hope he was okay with the nothing.

The idea that journalism is at odds with minority rights comes from legacy media members who can't accept being called out on their biases. It's an idea that has, to my dismay, been adopted by some members of minority groups themselves - because the only journalism they see is biased against them.

I know the world is falling apart but I wanted to say I just presented my final project for a science communication workshop I’ve been part of for the last few months and it went really well. I got some nice comments and great questions and I’m so glad I did it.

Your now weekly reminder that Stephen Miller did not go to law school and has no idea what he is talking about at all. Also of note: if this DHS is now citing Stephen Miller, well, well, well. I have been circumspect on a Miller impeachment b/c has not gone through Senate confirmation.

The Pitt handles kids really well. I’m including the kid with the list of women in the first season. I know it’s easy to write off a kid with issues and maybe there are times that you need to extra help or need to step back, but kids are kids. They need support. They need love. They just do. Always.

I get it but also wtffffffff is happening? I’m not gonna get used to any of this.

I also send my kid to a school that values social justice and teaches students about current events. Do I deserve to get shot in the face, too? bsky.app/profile/nypo...

Mark Ruffalo donned an anti-ICE pin at the #GoldenGlobes in tribute to Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this week in Minneapolis. The black-and-white pin read “BE GOOD." Follow live updates from the show: apnews.com/live/golden-...

The synagogue in Jackson being burned is sort of messing with me.

I was able to interact with her while standing and she took treats out of my hand! Gonna see if I can walk her next time.

The tragic death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old mother fatally shot by ICE, shows that ICE can’t be reformed and must be abolished. I’ll be introducing the Abolish ICE Act as a step toward justice, accountability, and humanity in our immigration policy. Time to melt ICE.

Staaaahp. ffs.

I started working part time for a rescue where they’re having me work with dogs who are at risk of being considered not adoptable and today I met scaredy bitey Hope and I cannot tell you how much I want to help this cutie. I don’t have pics yet bc she’s extremely skittish, but she is ADORABLE.

Where I live now is more like where I grew up than any other state I’ve lived in and I love it. My life here has been complicated, and recent events suggest we may need to leave, but I feel at home here in a way I haven’t in a long time. Even if it’s temporary, I’m glad I was here.

The scope of Trump's campaign to drive trans Americans from public life is vast. On the last day of 2025, Evan Urquhart attempts to capture all of what we lost. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Mississippi Free Press doesn’t stop at symptoms. We examine systems, power and disparities every single day. That kind of reporting takes time and care. Donations are DOUBLED right now, expanding the reach of this work statewide. Support truth: buff.ly/CbJHjq1

I think, at this point, I believe foster care is either a forever relationship or a bond with a disruption. I don’t think there’s a real in-between.

The cats are going at the lentil and carrot soup can like it’s their first meal in days. I’d be surprised, but my grandmother’s cat loved tomato soup and my friend’s cat is called French Fry because it was the first thing they saw him eat. I guess some cats are more carnivorous than others.

On Christmas help some children who don’t have big piles of presents if you can ❤️

Ridiculously cute foster puppy.

It’s okay if you’re not okay. It’s okay if you are but things are hard. It’s okay if things need to change. It’s okay if you can’t do as much as you want. It’s okay if you don’t want to, right now. The world will keep doing what it does. Figure out your timing and your people. Don’t rush. Be safe.

you live in a world that feminists fought for, against brutal and overwhelming opposition, with blood, tears, and centuries of labor.

being an elected official, serving on a jury, testifying in a trial, having sex outside of marriage, living with your boyfriend, owning any of her own property after marriage, or being able to divorce is unfathomably delusional.

any woman who thinks she can dismiss the extraordinary advances of the feminist movement and still enjoy rights and freedoms like owning her own house, having her own credit cards, not being sexually assaulted by her spouse, having any rights to her children, voting, working in the professions,

Yeah

Just picked up a trap jaw ant that was bopping around by the dog’s feet in our backyard. I love having a yard again.

17 Dec 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- House barely passes M T Greene's anti-trans care ban by 5 votes, 216-211. First national ban to pass either a chamber, it would make care a felony. It is not expected to go anywhere in the Senate, which has shown little interest in passage.

I think I’m in the fascination stage, now. I can do mildly stressful things and move around now without looking like a murder faucet, which is nice. Pain in some places is subsiding but pain in other places is increasing, I assume because I’m gaining mobility in my face.

That’s a point.

Chanukah compliments on my latkes are the mini confidence boost I needed, right now.

All I can say this morning is look for the helpers, like Ahmed. “Seven News reported the bystander was a 43-year-old fruit shop owner from the Sutherland Shire named Ahmed.”