🍗 The life-saving power of Texas BBQ

🥩 Welcome back to our newsletter! Shortly after I first moved to Austin in 1998, someone told me that I could cure my disability if I just started eating barbecued red meat. And while it’s gotten easier to be vegetarian in Texas in the ensuing decades, at least in the big cities, it can be tough to admit to being one of those stereotypical enbies with a nature name that only eats rabbit food. 🐰🥦 But despite our differences in diet, I was moved by the resiliency of the subject of today’s Big & Bright 🌈⭐👏story.

A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our first sponsored vertical and our newsletter. All essays, reporting, and analysis will remain, as always, editorially independent.

⚧️ Unemployment among the trans community is so notorious that it’s become a running joke. Some estimates suggest trans people are twice as likely to be unemployed. Instead, we find creative ways to make ends meet. Even in a time when everyone seems to have a side hustle, many of my trans friends make their living by assembling part-time gigs until they can get by, whether it’s sex work, making art, or tutoring. While it shouldn’t have to be this way, our resiliency and ingenuity give me hope. 

🍖 And sometimes, in adversity you discover a calling in life. For Kaleb Blain, that’s BBQ. Even I was salivating for his oh-so-savory sounding smoked-cream-cheese-stuffed-pork pinwheel. I love his dedication to doing something different in an old-fashioned field … and for invoking the spirit of “Mamma” Anthony Bourdain, who was always fearlessly outspoken about his viewpoint. Even after sharing his POV on TikTok got him doxed, Kaleb has persisted, proving that you should bring your politics to the dinner table.

Find the story below, but I won’t be responsible for any sudden cravings. And read on for the latest in LGBTQ+ news …

Steers & Queers 🐂

What we’re writing and reading in Texas. 

🧑‍⚖️ One of the country’s most conservative and anti-LGBTQ+ judges upheld West Texas A&M’s ban on campus drag performance. In the process, he compared drag to blackface and said it was devoid of free speech value. At The Barbed Wire, Juliana Lightsey noted this is part of a growing conservative trend to compare the two forms of expression, even though one is a form of blatant racism and the other is an exploration of gender expression. Besides, we all know that drag queens have more artistic expression contained in their wig than any blackface bigot had in their whole bodies.

So We’re Equating Drag to Blackface Now? A Texas Judge and University President Did to Ban College Drag Shows

By Juliana Lightsey

📖 Texas is a national laughing stock again, now that parts of Plato’s Symposium are banned from the syllabus at Texas A&M University, because Plato acknowledges that there are more than two genders. According to Abby Monteil of Them, a representative of the university’s academic freedom committee called the move “unprecedented.” Writing forThe Barbed Wire, associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University wondered what will be banned next? Controversy aside, this old enby appreciates that Greek dude for being so woke! After all, without Plato we wouldn’t have Hedwig.

📷 Chron’s Gwen Howerton, one of my favorite trans Texas journalists, reports that my least favorite immigrant to Texas, Elon Musk, is getting into the bathroom cop business. In 2023, anti-trans Republican Michelle Evans took a photo of a transgender woman in a bathroom at the Texas Capitol and posted it to x.com, which may violate state privacy law. The social network’s legal department is getting involved after a court refused to block a police investigation. Someone needs to introduce a certain South African to the concept of the “swirlie.”

🌈 Rainbows everywhere, part 3! San Antonio removed its rainbow crosswalks last week under pressure from Gov. Greg Abbott, but now symbolic rainbow crosswalks are popping up at Planned Parenthood parking lots instead. And Amanda Moreno of Fox San Antonio reported the city can move forward with plans to paint rainbow sidewalks, despite a conservative lawsuit. 

Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸

What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood. 

🧊 Nationally, the biggest story of the last two weeks is the murder of Renee Good, a queer mother from Minneapolis, by an ICE agent who shot her in her car in front of her wife. I don’t think I need to describe the rage and disgust I felt at the news of her death, not to mention my horror at the video footage, because if you’re human then you felt it too. Instead, I’ll share my solidarity to the Twin Cities’ residents standing strong to protect their neighbors and paraphrase the mayor of Minneapolis: Get the f*ck off of this planet, ICE. 

🏒 Inspired by the devastating and devastatingly hot romance of Heated Rivalry, real life former pro-hockey player Jesse Kortuem decided to come out of the closet. Welcome to the pride party, Jesse! 

♀️ Move over, boy aquarium: Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, a lesbian couple who play for the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge, will compete together in women’s hockey at the 2026 Olympics. Unlike the NHL, the Professional Women’s Hockey League has 30 openly queer players.

📧 The rumor that the FBI is sending threats via letter to transgender activists or writers may have been fabricated. After some prominent LGBTQ+ folks questioned the rumors, journalists for online trans publication The Needle requested proof from Tara Knight, the first person to claim to receive an FBI letter. In response, Knight sent an obviously AI-generated forgery, then later posted a half-assed apology to Instagram. 

👩‍🚀 Bree Fram, a retired Space Force Colonel forced out under the trans military ban, is running for Congress in Virginia, according to Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate. 

📰 Former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney told David Forbes at Trans News Network that the paper of record’s anti-trans bias came directly from top brass at the paper. The Times responded with a sharply-worded denial of the accusations. … but isn’t there an old saying about a ‘hit dog’ …?

🤦‍♀️ Ashley St. Clair, who once authored an anti-trans children’s book, is trying to make amends for hurting trans people. Now Elon Musk is suing for custody of the child they made together. 

Bright & Buzzy📱

Memes and more.

🎂 Happy 80th to absolute icon — and high femme — Dolly Parton!

🫡 Antifa update: Here’s how to fight fascism in 2026 (but also … some real tips)

🤠 Covering my red solo cup at the pink pony club 

Shameless Merch Plug 🧢

🚀 Speaking of Elon Musk, whether you’re lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, or a straight ally, everyone under the rainbow and beyond agrees on one thing: we’d all be better off if he’d hurry up and get to Mars already. For just six little dollars (plus shipping), you can show your support for the space program with our Put Elon in the Rocket sticker. Click through for proof that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Greg Casar are fans of our merch.

Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or to complain about how all the worst people are moving here and some of the best ones are leaving. (kit@thebarbedwire.com).

🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold,

Kit (They/Them) 💖

‘Barbecue Saved My Life’: Meet Waco’s Antifascist Transgender Pitmaster

Kaleb Blain went from the fast-paced world of 911 dispatching to the “low and slow” of BBQ, where he’s built a following from combining fresh meat with progressive politics.

By Kit O'Connell

A TikTok video with more than 100,000 views showed Kaleb Blain, a 35-year old trans man and pitmaster, standing at a folding table gesturing to a plate of freshly prepared chickens, ready for the BBQ smoker. The caption read “politics and cooking don’t mix.”

But then the video cut away to a series of photos of the late Anthony Bourdain, the infamously outspoken, unapologetically progressive celebrity chef. The text then read, “Momma said it was OK,” as Lukas Graham’s “Mama Said” played in the background. 

Beneath the video, Blain wrote, “Mom would burn lots of people with cigarettes rn if he could.” It has more than 28,500 likes since it was posted on Jan. 15.

The video is a fiery missive from Blain’s BBQ, the pitmaster’s small-scale enterprise in the Waco area. Blain is just getting his start slinging meat, but he’s learning from Bourdain’s legacy as a big name in food who embraced its intersection with politics. 

“He just said whatever the fuck he wanted to say,” Blain told The Barbed Wire during a phone interview. 

Blain’s admiration for Bourdain, who shook the culinary world with his memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” is perhaps unsurprising after learning how the native Texan got into cooking — and his dramatic exit from one of Texas’ BBQ institutions.  

Blain started learning the BBQ arts in 2021. After eight years as a 911 dispatcher, he was feeling burnt out.

“I have a lot of respect for people who can answer 911 calls all the time, because it’s an insane experience,” Blain said. During that time, he also began his transition and decided he needed to find a less stressful way to earn a living. 

“I went from the fast pace of 911 to low and slow barbecue and I loved it,” Blain said.  

He started honing his skills at Helburg Barbecue, a small but popular BBQ restaurant near Waco, first as a prep cook and then working his way up to becoming a pitmaster, but his plans got cut short when the restaurant burned down in 2023. 

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