February 2023 Wrap Up
Hi there,
I used to joke that if you blinked while driving through the tiny rural town I grew up in, you’d miss it. I feel similarly about Februarys. It’s only 2–3 days shorter than any other month, but good luck convincing my brain of that. I’ve never met a February 28th I was ready for.
My first post-ish-pandemic winter in Chicago has been milder than ethnic food made for white people. February brought more days of sunshine than was typical and far less snow. I feel lucky to have spent so much time outside without the shackles of deep seasonal depression.
Attacks on queer life continued apace this month. State legislatures across the country continued their drumbeat of queerphobia, introducing bill after bill meant to strip rights away from vulnerable populations, often without even having read them. At least one state has actually passed one of these horrific bills, and more seem to be inching that way every day. Queer and trans people have also found themselves under attack by such media institutions as The New York Times, which doubled down on transphobia in the face of two open letters criticizing their anti-trans bias. I won’t go too deep into it–I suggest checking out Erin Reed’s excellent coverage of transphobia from all sides at erininthemorn.substack.com.
