Weekly Seeds | October 25 2023 | TGNC rights, Roman emperors, and the Vatican City
Published by Noa Elan on
Noa’s top of mind
I haven’t bought ANYTHING this Black Friday (yet)! Despite having reached the checkout screen on a few sites I managed to avoid purchasing stuff I don’t need.
I’m currently listening to Gabor Maté “In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts” and reflecting on my own addictive behaviors, including shopping. Related to my email from last week, this quote hit home for me: “The circumstances that promote despair—and potentially therefore addiction—are, with each decade, more and more entrenched in the industrialized world.. more isolation and loneliness, less communal contact, more stress, more economic insecurity, more inequality, more fear and, ultimately, more pressure on and less support for young parents.” - Gabor Maté
The Vatican released guidance that says transgender people can ****be baptized, serve as godparents and witness weddings in the Roman Catholic Church, under certain circumstances, reflecting a continued opening by Pope Francis to the LBGTQ+ community. This is a step in the right direction in a reality where LGBTQ+ people face significant obstacles to full acceptance in the church.
Data! Data! Data!
Thirty-three transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed by violence in the United States since last year's Transgender Day of Remembrance (Nov. 20, 2022), being over four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people, according to a study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law..
I asked my TGNC friends what I can do to support my TGNC community and here's what Remy said:
* Write a post on social media asking to hear from the TGNC folks in your life about those that they have lost * Call your friends who you know have lost a trans person to suicide * In your next event, meeting, time at work specifically ask people what Trans Day of Remembrance has brought up for them.
Communityspotlight
Lily Lamboy and Heath Schechinger have announced a new nonprofit dedicated to understanding, empowering, and celebrating the rich diversity of family and relationship structures that exist today. “Through research, storytelling, advocacy, and clinical practice, we're committed to creating a future where all families, in their unique forms, are recognized and valued.” Follow Modern Family Institute and donate to support their work.
Check out the (new!) "ADHD (Global Chat)" on Bloom chat topics. Shoutout to some amazing humans who identified multiple ADHD discussions on different chat rooms and brought everyone together to a single chat on the topic of ADHD. The discussion there is fascinating! Ps- we’ll be bringing back the master of neurodivergence - The Vibe with Ky- for another workshop in Feb 2024!
