23 Comments
User's avatar
Dev (she/her)'s avatar

So glad you're writing publicly again. (And sad if I missed it elsewhere.) We've existed under hostile governments pretty much for all time. New day same fight.

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Hi Dev, good to see you, terrible to be back lol

Expand full comment
Dev (she/her)'s avatar

Legit ♥️

Expand full comment
Gary Rickelman's avatar

This particular admin is going to absurd lengths to be especially shitty to our trans friends. My fists are ready to go though.

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Amen

Expand full comment
Vince Roman's avatar

Omg I loved this so beautiful

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Thank you, Vince!

Expand full comment
david evans's avatar

As a red-headed vampire, Thank-you.

Expand full comment
Vince Roman's avatar

Wämppirä

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

*salutes*

Expand full comment
Karen D.'s avatar

I've been thinking a lot about this too. Why is there such hateful hysteria against such a small population of people? Also, as a straight cis woman, I definitely feel much more safe with trans women than I do with straight cis men...

Also, welcome back!

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Without fail!! Hello again buddy, thank you for being here :)

Expand full comment
Daisy Sauvageau 🌸 🏳️‍🌈's avatar

Hello my friend!! I was so happy to see your email last week. I have missed reading you. Thank you for being such a fierce ally to my community! I know it hit close to home for you too ❤️. Sending you all the best!

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Daisy, hi! Gosh, seeing you is really making me feel how long it's been since I've been on here. I am sending you the biggest love beam I've got, so happy that you will be reading this newsletter :)

Expand full comment
Jess's avatar

Fellow partner of a trans person, saluting that they folded the laundry. I sure hope they all continue to exist because mine’s a great cook. I love your writing, thanks for making me laugh while making me even angrier. 🔥

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Thank you so much, Jess <3 (I immediately read this to my partner)

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Waller's avatar

Wonderful piece, thoughtful but also funny, where warranted. A thought you skirted, Vatican washrooms notwithstanding, is the monolithic, biblical, Judeo-Christian machine which is the ice-under-the-water of the visible transphobia-tip.

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Ty, Elizabeth, there is definitely more to be written there!

Expand full comment
Alanna's avatar

Your writing helped me process the first Trump administration (god, the leaden weight I feel in my stomach just typing those words) and I am grateful to have your sharp insight into our current dystopia. Thank you for writing thoughtfully about this topic!

I think the 1 in 3 statistic you cite comes from WHO and refers to intimate partner violence (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women), not murder, although the widespread scale of femicide in still staggering. It is infuriating to watch cis men try to scapegoat trans women for their own misogynistic violence and to see so many cis women buy in to it.

Also, as a lifelong fantasy reader who didn’t realize I was gay until my twenties, “there are at least 2.28 million women reading romantasy who have not yet gotten to the chapter where they find out they’re gay” really hit close to home and made me chuckle. Women and queer people have always found power in reclaiming monstrous narratives!

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Alanna, it is so good to see you on here!! And thank you for noting that, it should have been *three women are murdered every day by a domestic partner https://sanctuaryforfamilies.org/femicide-epidemic/ (or we might disappear entirely haha)

Expand full comment
Mari's avatar

I agree with all of your points here, but I'm dubious about the claim that one in three women is murdered every day by a domestic partner. I feel like if that figure were correct, women would be a rare and exotic phenomenon within a couple of weeks.

Expand full comment
Lauren Duca's avatar

Aha Mari, you are correct, thank you — it was meant to be *three woman a day https://sanctuaryforfamilies.org/femicide-epidemic/ (or I might not even exist to write this lol)

Expand full comment
john's avatar

Thanks for your sanity!

Expand full comment