You Weekly Dose 💊 of Wild Texas!
It’s time again for your weekly dose 💊of Wild Texas. I’m Olivia, the editor-in-chief of The Barbed Wire, and for the next two minutes, I’ll be your Fourth Estate guide to the chaotic, beautiful, and tragic world in which we live. In honor of Trans Day of Remembrance (Wednesday, Nov. 20), contributor Kit O’Connell wrote about how a Dallas-based art exhibit is honoring the lives of 38 transgender Texans who’ve died by violence. “None of these people should have been forgotten,” one advocate told The Barbed
Wire.
It’s time again for your weekly dose 💊of Wild Texas. I’m Olivia, the editor-in-chief of The Barbed Wire, and for the next two minutes, I’ll be your Fourth Estate guide to the chaotic, beautiful, and tragic world in which we live.
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For Trans Day of Remembrance (Wednesday, Nov. 20), contributor Kit O’Connell wrote about how a Dallas-based art exhibit is honoring the lives of 38 transgender Texans who’ve died by violence. “None of these people should have been forgotten,” one advocate told The Barbed Wire.
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‘Lost Faces’ art exhibit in Dallas memorializes an ‘epidemic’ of trans death as LGBTQ+ Texans prepare for renewed attacks.
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For 25 years, a growing number of people have honored Trans Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20 as an annual memorial to the lives of transgender and gender nonconforming people lost to violence.
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The 38 trans and gender nonconforming Texans who have died by violence in the state since 2013 were honored this year with new portraits, thanks to Gordy Carmona, a community engagement and advocacy strategist for the Dallas-Fort Worth region at Equality Texas. “Lost Faces,” an art installation in Adolphus Tower gallery in downtown Dallas, features an ofrenda and original works commemorating slain Texans.
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“Anti trans violence affects us all, and it’s something that we should be paying attention to, and none of these people should have been forgotten,” Carmona told The Barbed Wire.
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Also this week, the Texas Board of Education gave its initial approval to a curriculum that senior editor Brian Gaar reported “glosses over slavery and racism” — and though the curriculum is optional, it comes with a financial incentive of $60 per student. There’s a lot more to this program, including a lot of The Bible. The fight to keep religion out of Texas schools is a long-running one: Contributor Kimberly Reeves reported out a comprehensive feature for us in September on the folks who’ve been doing that work for years.
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The proposed elementary school curriculum de-emphasizes slavery and other religions besides Christianity.
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And I keep trying to steer us out of politics, but Texas politicians keep offering us up in service to President-elect Donald Trump. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said this week that she’s ready and willing to turn an old 1,400-acre ranch (including a nice garden that grows onions) into a facility for mass deportation.
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Buckingham pitched a 1,400-acre ranch for the feds “to build a facility for processing, detention, and coordinating the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history.”
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And speaking of politics, this deeply personal essay from Leslie Rangel is really, really worth your time. It’s about machismo — and what it’s like when the people you thought supported you... don’t. It’s vulnerable. And it’s more hopeful than you'd think. I genuinely can’t recommend it enough.
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The man brings out the most racist, sexist parts of any culture. As one friend texted me, “They forgot that their mothers crossed the river to get here.”
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Our Wild Texas stories this week include heroic dogs, drain juice, and censorship. Wild!
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