I buried one of my brothers this weekend. My mother only had one child, but her sister had two who she would rent out to the family. So, he is technically my cousin, though if I could cobble together the human and spiritual idea of what I believe a brother was and should be, this man was it. He grew up with me, got in trouble with me (Your Honor, I maintain that it was mostly him getting me in trouble, but I accept my role as an accomplice), and protected me in the very same way an older sibling should.

Laws like Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill or Alabama's copy cat attempt to introduce legislation that is literally its version of "Wait, hold my beer" where it one-ups Florida in an attempt to outlaw and criminalize gender affirming medications for trans kids are very similar tactics that are and were used to chip away at the protections of Roe V Wade. Many do not get passed, but enough do to have negative long term consequences. Additionally, it creates an environment of constant attacks on LGBTQ+ folks and Allies. We operate from a place of scarcity and defensive tactics and it is EXHAUSTING. It makes it hard to continue to rally, to fight, to exist.

On a Wednesday, my one day off from the boutique each week, I walked over to the small blue house where the painter was waiting for me. I’d met her in the boutique on that previous Sunday. She was one of those patrons who wasn’t content to let you rest behind the counter, to handle the business of shopping herself, but rather one to whom browsing should be a social activity, a chance to monopolize the attention of the sales attendant, to ask about that such item or this one, to ask about how you liked working there, and tell you about her own troubles while she rolled sample perfume onto her wrist.

If she dropped the milk, right now, and it hit the linoleum floor with a thud, and it's purple lid popped off, and the milk surged out with quick gasps of air, who would notice? If she let the Lucky Charms and the Band-Aids drop in the shallow flood of milk and she walked through the Employees Only entrance and out the receiving dock and kept walking, who would notice?