Qmmunity: Might as Well Have Fun

Reader: Things aren’t looking so hot. Recent news for transgender people continues a downward trend, with Kansas’ sudden delegitimizing of all driver’s licenses bearing a gender not matched by the owner’s birth certificate being one of many stomach-churning headlines my mental teeth masticated this weekend. Were I some great mind attuned to political trends, cultural temperatures, and world history, this column would contain the absolute solution to the hate campaign mounted by conservative politicians – and mostly unacknowledged by liberal ones. Alas. All I am is a writer, and I am just as worried and frustrated as you probably are.

(Although if you’re not worried and/or frustrated, please let me know your secret. Except if the secret is having money. I know that one.)

I suppose while our rights trickle down the drain, we might as well have some fucking fun. One more week before our city gets South By’d, so appreciate the un-clogged sidewalks and thoroughfares around Downtown every day leading up to the Fest. Maybe get out and about; shake your legs in the sunshine or boogie beneath the moonlight. You don’t even have to go Downtown for your outdoor excursion, TBH. Being queer and social goes beyond bars. For example, you might want to check out MASS Gallery’s new exhibition “Ecstatic,” which features print work from local and national artists. Despite all seemingly playing in the same sandbox, each piece finds new materials, new shapes, and new ideas to plumb via printmaking methods. Viewable every Saturday through April 4, so if the South By haze gets too thick you can zip over to Gunter and Seventh.

Feeling bad’s not a permanent state, Reader, but I understand how depression can seem like the only response to unrelenting antagonism from guys who, like, don’t even appear to know a trans person, let alone any unpleasant enough to justify such cruelty. They are haters, plain and simple, and in the long run, haters don’t win. It’s just the long run is so, uh, long. But you don’t gotta face it alone, Reader. I’ll be running there with ya.

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In The Calendar

This article appears in March 6 • 2026.

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