The Present Age Weekly Recap: April 8, 2022

License plats, bad advice, and other chaos

Apr 8

Welcome to the weekly recap. In this post, I’ll be linking to my work from the week, sharing some stories from others I thought were interesting, and providing a few casual thoughts on [gestures at everything]. If you’d like to receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “TPA Weekly Recap.” If you don’t want to receive the weekly recap, leave all boxes except “TPA Weekly Recap” checked.

From me this week: Bad advice and license plates

On Monday, an episode of the Secretly Incredibly Fascinating podcast I appeared on about license plates went up. It was a lot of fun talking to Alex Schmidt and Blake Wexler about a topic that is, as the show’s name suggests, secretly incredibly fascinating.

Secretly Incredibly Fascinating @SIFpod

NEW EPISODE! 🎉 @AlexSchmidty is joined by @ParkerMolloy and @BlakeWexler for a look at why license plates are secretly incredibly fascinating. 🎧LISTEN: linktr.ee/sifpod

On Tuesday, I wrote about how decisions by Democrats to follow some terrible post-2016 advice helped provide Republicans with an all-clear to relentlessly attack trans people.

The Present Age

Bad advice has made life a living hell for trans people

After the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which found that same-sex couples’ right to marry is protected by the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the same right-wing groups that had been sinking massive amounts of cash into fighting that battle decided to find another, easier target…

4 months ago · 23 likes · 4 comments · Parker Molloy

Posts from others that I want to draw attention to:

Maybe it’s just because I’m a Cubs fan, maybe it’s because I love baseball, or maybe because it’s just a really good piece of writing, I really enjoyed Tyler Kepner’s article about Mike Montgomery, the man who pitched the final out for the Cubs in the 2016 World Series but now finds himself struggling to stay in baseball at all.

Tyler Kepner @TylerKepner

“You can’t unsee something,” Mike Montgomery said. “You can’t undo what you’ve been through.” A column on the ultimate pitching high — and what comes next:

Still Going, Even as the Glory FadesMike Montgomery once threw a “golden pitch” in a World Series, but at 32 he is in minor league camp for the Mets hoping for one more chance for things to click.nytimes.com

Writing for Rolling Stone, Nico Lang wrote about what the passage of an Alabama bill banning transition-related health care for trans teens means for the trans people who rely on it. It’s heartbreaking, and I honestly just don’t know what to do. One of these articles could be written about a number of states, all willing to effectively banish an entire group of people just for being trans.

Sad Gay Tweets for Sad Gays @Nico_Lang

Last month I spoke to trans youth & their parents about Alabama's proposed ban on gender-affirming care. They said it would break their families apart. Many would have to move, leaving behind older siblings and elderly relatives. The bill just passed.

Alabama GOP Prepares War on Transgender TeensState Republicans are preparing a law that would make transgender youth pick between their homes and the care they needrollingstone.com

Joan Walsh wrote a piece for The Nation about the legacy of Eric Boehlert. I never. had the chance to meet him and I don’t think we ever actually interacted on Twitter, even, but he’s someone whose work I read and largely admired for years.

Joan Walsh @joanwalsh

I went looking for some of @EricBoehlert's early pieces for us, and I found treasure:

Eric Boehlert Got Everything Right About Our Petty, Self-Congratulating MediaFrom his early coverage of political reporters’ savaging Al Gore to his incisive critique of their Joe Biden coverage right before he died, he got it. And he will be missed.thenation.com

Christopher Ingraham has a story at The Why Axis about the Republican member of Congress who gave a scholarship to a student, “coach” her through college, and then married her. For as much as Republicans have been trying to brand LGBTQ people as “groomers,” this is what actual “grooming” looks like.