Political Takes & Tools & Publication Day!

As Project 2025 continues to roll out, new resources and opportunities to learn and resist, and make political violence backfire. And updates on my treatment journey...

Jun 11, 2025

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Hey all - Well, it’s the day after my third of four initial SCIG infusions (sub-cutaneous immune globulins) I first wrote about a few weeks ago here.

And it’s going pretty well!

I’m having side effects but they are not that bad: It’s a hair over 24 hours since the infusion, and my eyes are heavy with fatigue. I was queasy this morning, but that’s not uncommon. The two infusion sites itched like hell during the 2+ hour infusion, even after I took Benadryl, but the itching subsided quickly once the adhesive bandage holding down the needles came off when the infusion was over.

And look at this. This is why so many people aren’t able to get this treatment. Here’s the health insurance record so far. Ultimately it’ll only be once a month, without a nurse on hand, but here’s the damage so far, covered entirely by my NYC City Worker (spouse’s) health insurance. These are the bills from home infusion company for the first 2 infusions - over $10,000:

Screenshot from JD's health insurance website shows over $10,000 in payments to home infusion company for two infusions of SCIG

So is it working? Not sure. I’m cautiously optimistic that my mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) symptoms have been lessened in the past few weeks.

But I can’t tell if that is because of the SCIG though — I just spent a WHOLE WONDERFUL WEEK camping (with an air mattress and a partner to do the heavy lifting, and supermarket rotisserie chicken a short drive away) at NJ’s Sandy Hook campground, about an hour and a half away from home. We had such lovely days in this nature preserve that somehow also has a clothing-optional gay-heavy beach, whheeeeeeeeeeee.

White guy with beach curled dark hair, white ear buds and a dark blue ball cap that says Action Lab takes selfie on the beach with calm water and pale blue sky in the background. That’s me, in my favorite setting, hi...

One of my main MCAS miseries is reactivity to food, but I’ve noticed before that it tends to be lessened when I’m on a break away from home. It may be that I’m generally under less stress and digesting food better, and/or that my histamine “bucket” that fills during the day and overfills by dinner has less in it when I’m not cohabitating with the cats I’m secretly a lil allergic to…

But at any rate, I’ve noticed that I’m forgetting to take many of my 4 times a day oral and nasal Cromolyn doses that treat the MCAS. I still take A LOT of other things that treat it, but they’re all lumped in with a bunch of other treatments in the morning and evening, so I rarely forget.

The oral cromolyn is 4 times a day on an empty stomach - so that’s hard to figure out, and easy to fuck up, and when I’m feeling better I’m more likely to forget. So it’s the opposite of a red flag, I suppose, that I’m forgetting it more, as far as indicating that I’m feeling less lousy in ways that can be subtle or even go unnoticed.

Buttttttttttt one thing that IS definitely going pretty lousy is the United States under the Trump administration / Project 2025.

So I want to share some information and resources for learning and taking action:

Liberation Stories launch!

I was so honored to co-write a chapter for this incredible book from the Radical Communicators Network that offers strategies and stories for these times. There’s still time to pre-order Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements before it launches on June 17 and I really urge anyone who can get it to do so!

Jen Avril and I authored a chapter looking at narrative strategies of “grievability” in HIV/AIDS and Long COVID activism, called “They Don’t Care About Us, But We Care”: The Narrative Power of Community Love, Grief, and Resistance from HIV to Long COVID.

The book offers a wide array of movement wisdom and strategies, and you can hear about it directly from many of the authors on the webinar for Publication Day on June 17 starting at noon eastern! I’ll be co-leading a breakout session on Intersectional Justice & Movement Building. Here’s more info on the launch:

PUBLICATION DAY CELEBRATION VIRTUAL Tuesday, June 17 | 12:00 pm EDT Joined By Over 25 Featured Authors and Hosted by Co-Editors Shanelle Matthews and Marzena Zukowska Free Press Shanelle Matthews Marzena Zukowska LIBERATION §STORIES LIVES MAT TER BUILDING NARRATIVE POWER 1O: 21ST CENTURY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS promo image with row of author photos on top and bottom

You are cordially invited to our online community gathering and virtual toast on Publication Day! 🔖
Join us for a dynamic and inspiring online celebration on the official publication day of Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements (New Press, June 2025). Co-editors Shanelle Matthews and Marzena Zukowska will guide us through the book's journey, its profound insights, and its vision for a liberated future.

We'll hear directly from many of the incredible movement authors who contributed their wisdom, reflecting on the power of narrative as a tool for resistance, reflection, and radical change: Alejandra Pérez, Aliya Sabharwal, Amanda Cooper, JD Davids, Jean-Pierre Brutus, Jess St. Louis, Jessica Jewell, Joseph Torres, Julie Feng, Katherine Ollenburger, Mandy Van Deven, Matt Nelsen, Rachel Jacoby, Shadia Fayne Wood, Tigress Osborn, Trevon Bosley and Wambui Gichobi.
Get ready to be ignited, connected, and empowered!
We would love for you to join us for a joyful tribute with co-authors, friends, family, and the Radical Communicators Network. We'll be sharing gratitude and exchanging ideas for how we can spark society's radical transformation through the relentless telling of our stories.

Thanks for reading The Cranky Queer! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Making Political Violence Backfire

We knew this moment was coming. Los Angeles is just the beginning of this latest phase of planned repression. So what do we do?

Here’s some guidance, step by step: “The goal of the “backfire” model is to make sure that when any kind of political violence takes place, perpetrators face high costs for their actions.”

Get the full guide here.

REVEAL 2 RE-FRAME RESIST REDEEM REDIRECT

The SALUTE Method of ICE Watch — and NYC Mayoral Primary

So grateful to Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and If Not Now for last night’s Jews for Sanctuary training.

I learned a lot about defending my loved ones and neighbors, including the SALUTE method of reporting ICE sightings: We need to report this specific information to help people are safe and not spread panic, and NOT livestream incidents:

How to Report: The Salute Method

Size: Number of agents/vehicles
Activity: What specifically are the agents doing?
Location: Exact address or intersection, AND neighborhood
Units): Identifiers visible on uniforms/vests/vehicles
Time: Date and time you witnessed this
Equipment: Visible weapons, handcuffs, etc

Learn more about how to protect one another at online trainings in your region, or reach out to JFREJ - and non-Jews always welcome! If you’re in NYC, up next on June 16 is this: NYC Jews Against Deportations: Rapid Response Meeting.

And it is CRUCIAL that we do all we can to stop Cuomo from winning the Primary!

We need a mayor who will hold firm AGAINST Trump and fascism, and block immigrant terrorizing and targeting trans lives! Zohran Mamdani, thanks to a huge grassroots effort, is getting closer in the polls - learn how to use ranked choice voting to push him over the top in tomorrow’s event, and sign up for phone banking, door knocking and community outreach on other days ahead to get us a mayor who will be there for ALL of us, including immigrants, queers and trans people and not corporate interests and those using false concerns about anti-semitism to spread fascism.

Resisting Project 2025

Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing 3 people living with HIV — Jay W. Walker here in NYC, Mike Elizabeth in Houston, and Rebecca Denison in Oakland — about how they are taking action in these times. You’ll see it soon on TheBody.com.

But in the meantime, I wanted to share the vital project that Jay is anchoring along with veteran HIV journalist and advocate Anne-Christine D’Adesky, tracking, analyzing and strategizing about Project 2025, the right wing playbook for authoritarianism rolling out right now.

They are doing important work that you can dig into here: https://resistingproject2025.org

22nd Century Conference: Forging a People Powered Democracy — and the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook

We’re a week away from this important gathering, hosted by some longtime movement leaders who started organizing a few years back in anticipation of this shit coming down. It’s in Atlanta, but there’s also some online components. Here’s the schedule.

And whether or not you participate, I encourage you to subscribe to 22nd Century founder Scot Nakagawa’s newsletter, the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook, which offers straightforward analysis and strategy from worldwide movements.

Community Care Clinic for Disabled and Chronically Ill Movement Folks

Last year at the 22nd Century Conference, I was part of an online panel on disability justice and resisting eugenics with comrades from PeoplesHub. I was on their COVID-19 committee for years, after coming to know them through their wonderful founder “ E” Elandria Williams in the early days of the pandemic before they passed in 2020.

They are a disability justice-anchored project that — among other things — hosts ongoing online support and sharing gatherings for chronically ill and disabled movement people. You can find out more here - and whether it’s this group or something else, please seek out the support you need as disabled and chronically ill people in movements!

Guess what - fossil fuel billionaires fund anti-trans hate.

Wanted to share this new analysis — which isn’t surprising but it’s still jarring to see. Check out the report and share with whoever needs to hear this:

An independent analysis of 45 right-wing groups advocating against trans rights found that 80% have received donations from fossil fuel companies or billionaires. The analysis, conducted by two independent researchers in 2023 and not peer-reviewed, was shared exclusively with Atmos and HEATED. Through a qualitative search, the researchers identified 45 groups advancing anti-trans lobbying, events, and publications and checked reports about their donor disclosures for fossil fuel funding.
Vivian Taylor, a climate policy expert who co-authored the analysis, said the fossil fuel industry has a real interest in funding panic over transgender people: It distracts the public from “the very real and ongoing risks that climate change creates.”