I didn't expect to be writing another post so soon, but just 20 minutes after I posted the last one, President Trump tweeted the following:

This is jaw-dropping, insulting, and unbelievable.  

The money argument is a joke.  If this was about money, why don't we ban cis people with hormonal deficiencies, or who require medication or surgery?  For that matter, why don't we ban people with kids from serving in the military?  After all, why should we have to pay insurance costs just because they chose to reproduce?  Oh--what's that, you say?  We care about people's health?  About treating people as people and allowing them to grow into their fullest, healthiest selves?  But...  not if they're trans.  Nah, those people are somehow different.   FWIW, I responded:

This is not about money.  This is not about "disrupting" military service--if it was, the policy would be tailored much better (e.g., yeah, I get it that if someone is having surgery that month, they should probably not be in Afghanistan... but that would be true for any surgery, wouldn't it?).  This is about discrimination, pure and simple.  I hope all the Trump voters who insisted that Trump would be fiiiine about LGBTQ rights, and that he was just "posturing" feel horrible now.  Who cares what his personal position is?  His political position is going to destroy lives.

As Cameron Esposito and others have since pointed out, Trump's tweets also seem contradictory.  "Would" entail?  Would?  As if this is hypothetical?  Currently, thousands of trans people serve in the military, which Trump doesn't acknowledge.  Are they going to be kicked out?  Presumably so.  Why isn't be acknowledging that transgender people are serving already?  Why isn't he offering any data to support the most backward policy since DADT?

Please talk to people about this.  Get involved, even if you're not trans--heck, especially if you're not trans.  This is time to show the world that the whole queer community stands up for the T part of LGBTQ.  Post on Facebook.  Write to your senator.  Yell in the street.  Do not be silent.  This is way too big and important.  Please post your thoughts below, and I I'll be talking about this more as the situation unfolds.

P.S. If you are a trans person who serves in the military and are reading this, please email me.  I would really like to talk to you about how this will affect your life, and I would very much like to share your story with BW readers.

I'm going to post more, and I'm going to do it on Wednesdays!  That's right, folks: here's my promise to you: every Wednesday for the rest of the year, you can expect a Butch Wonders post.  If people like them and read it and comment on them, I won't stop at the end of the year.  You, me, and Wednesdays.  All you've got to do is show up and read.  

Thanks to the wonderful BW readers who sent in pictures of themselves reading in order to ask me to write more for them to read!  That was sweet.  :)  And special thanks to the readers who sent in pictures and gave me permission to post them on butchwonders.com.  Much appreciated (and pictured below).  You guys rock!  

I confess that I've thought off and on about discontinuing the blog.  I've wondered if the term "butch" and the ideas I talk about are relevant anymore.  I've succumbed to some post-election political overload, anguish, and existential malaise.  I've wondered if a blog like this is even needed anymore in a world where so many ideas and perspectives are easily accessible to anyone who seeks them out.

But let's give Wednesdays a shot, dear readers.  Let's get back into action and see what happens, shall we?

Hi all! I know I've been MIA. Sorry--I'm slooowly getting back into writing and posting for BW, but I'm hoping you wonderful folks will forgive me for my slackery.

Anyhow, I happened to be in Mexico City recently when Pride was happening there. My wife and I had a wonderful time (did I tell you that the DGF and I got married last year? Geez, it's been a while since we talked). We marched part of the parade route and thoroughly enjoyed the festivities, music, and gorgeous costumes.  And this thing was HUGE, too--it made SF Pride look small, if you can believe it.

Before we went, people had warned me that Mexico City isn't especially gay-friendly. I don't know whether we just got lucky (we probably did), stayed in more progressive parts of the city (we definitely did), or whether things are different around Pride time, but we felt welcome. Interestingly, we saw tons of gay male couples, but many fewer lesbian couples, and many, many fewer masculine-of-center women.

Our favorite happening was the Friday night before Pride, when we were walking back to our hotel from dinner sort of late at night, and people on a double decker bus started yelling at us in Spanish. I was alarmed for half a second; then I realized that they were yelling, "BESO! BESO!" which means "kiss." So I kissed my wife and the whole bus cheered wildly. 

Anyhow, friends, here are my favorite pictures from that weekend.  I'd love to hear how YOUR Prides are going this summer. Send a pic or two to [email protected]--either of your favorite Pride pics or of YOU celebrating Pride, and I'll share them in a future post.  

More soon, dear readers!  

xx,
BW