Yesterday, Jonathan Joss was murdered. As inadequate as my words may be, I wish to acknowledge the event itself, and to remember Jonathan for the amazing person he was—for quality beyond measure, someone to honor in these dark days. Note: Click here to access the spoken version of the memorial, which I read aloud on my YouTube channel. (artist: Tristan Kern de Gonzales and Jonathan Joss) Regarding the event itself, Jonathan was killed while defending his trans partner, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, from a queerphobic attack: by a homicidal bigot while the two men were visiting the site of their former home, in Texas. The home had been razed after two-plus years of neglect from the San Antonio police department. Until the blaze, the cops had ignored the couple's cries for help; afterwards, they had gumption to report how they had found "'found no evidence' to link the shooting to Joss' sexual orientation" ( source : Benjamin Lee's " King of the Hill ac...
Today is June 1st, and I wish to celebrate the culmination of my six-book series, Sex Positivity (2022-present), the longer title being Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Work under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art . The last book released on May 9th (" My Sixth Book Is Out "), followed by the final book editions on May 10th. Today—the day of my birth, June 1st—I briefly recognize the life and times of the whole shebang. We'll rehash/plug my shit as food for thought, but also that of those who worked alongside me offering up their own butt-plugged, the-cake-is-a-lie forbidden fruit ("peaches" or otherwise). As a medievalist (and familial go-to, having done her fair share of weddings and funerals), I'll mix ceremony with gravity and levity—displaying the usual Gothic, Conan-to-Castlevania-style promotions of confrontation amid comfort-food promises of adventure, lust and danger-as-performance: sex, drugs, and rock ...