Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jessie Gender

@jessiegender.bsky.social

57K followers 1.2K following 2.5K posts

Director & Writer | IDENTITEAZE film | YouTuber | former writer/video producer at Gamespot, The Advocate, Microsoft, Out Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, & Skybound | Trekkie by birth

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · Aug 21

I’m going to make this a video at some point but I’m saying this here and being done because it’s honestly just angering and scaring and frustrating me.

The reason I’ve been so critical of people praising the likes of Gavin Newsom and saying things like, “you may not like him but we need him in the fight,” or applauding his redistricting of California as a tit-for-tat move against GOP redistricting, is that fundamentally they are ignoring the core problem here: this is just justifying a further slide into an authoritarian state.
I want to be clear, because people don’t seem to understand me when I say this—I think Gavin Newsom’s response to the GOP redistricting Texas to disenfranchise Democratic voters and give themselves more representatives, by doing the same in California to disenfranchise GOP voters and give Democrats more representatives, is the correct response within the system. Yes, if Democrats want to win, this is what they have to do. They shouldn’t be playing by rules the GOP clearly ignores. Again, this is the only response that makes sense within the rules of the game.
But the problem with everyday Americans’ response—cheering on Newsom and saying we need to get behind him uncritically—shows how much people empathize with power over themselves. At the end of the day, this is the American system further entrenching and normalizing authoritarian power. Even if Democrats were to win using these tactics in 2028—which is preferable to a GOP win, yes—they will not willingly give up this newly normalized power dynamic. More voters will have been disenfranchised. Long term, we’re left with a system even less democratic, with few—if any—levers within it to push back.

Worse still, so many are cheering on the idea of having strongman leaders like Newsom. People literally make Trump-like memes of him carrying an American flag. This “we need our own strongman to fight Trump and kick him in the balls” is the same cult of personality that entrenches the Trumpian mindset within establishment Democrats who think they’re being progressive, while actually backing further disenfranchisement of middle- and lower-class Americans—people already struggling under late-stage capitalism.
And people like Newsom—or other Democratic leaders establishment liberals rally behind, like Pete Buttigieg—are perfectly willing to throw trans people or the homeless under the bus if it plays well to a mythical centrist base. So while people pat themselves on the back for voting for a gay man or supporting a Democrat like Newsom who “punches Trump where it hurts,” they’re ignoring not only their own further disenfranchisement, but also the additional attacks and harm directed toward even more marginalized groups like trans people and the homeless.
I say all of this because one day people will have to reckon with this reality—that the American system will continue to justify making itself more authoritarian under the logic of, “that’s just how we have to fight the fascists.” That’s the only choice it offers us within its limits. But we do have other options. People are just too scared, or too enmeshed in the political system, to recognize them or admit what needs to be done. We need to fundamentally change how we do politics.

I’m not saying you need to pick up a gun and start a revolution against the American state. But I am saying you need to stop focusing solely on electoral politics or trying to pass laws within this system to get what you need. Build up your communities. Find ways to provide food, educational resources, childcare, and other essentials locally. Organize for community defense. Join a union or a collective. These are tangible actions, better uses of your time than canvassing for a political campaign, asking people to vote, or arguing with Republicans online.
The path we’re on—pouring our energy into stanning Newsom or treating electoral politics as the only way to “win”—is deeply dangerous. It limits our imagination and leads us further into authoritarianism. And eventually, we will have to face that fact—whether it’s in 2028, 2032, or 2036. No matter what, we will have to confront that fundamental problem. The reason I’m so adamant about recognizing it now is that the longer we wait, the more people will be hurt.
As a trans person, I’m already on the chopping block—discarded by both sides of the same system of power. I see how people like me face a very real chance of being imprisoned, killed, or worse before society wakes up to this problem. And I’m not the only one. To paraphrase the poem: “They came for the trans people, and I did nothing, for I was not trans.”
What scares me most is that when I try to explain all of this, I am the one vilified. Trans people like me are told—not just by Republicans who openly hate us, but by Democrats—that we need to shut up and get behind “our guy” with “our guy” always being politicians who are more willing to publicly sit down with the likes of Charlie Kirk than to platform or even talk to a trans person. That’s how the system fuels resentment and dehumanization of marginalized people like me—because I’m unwilling to comply. I become the problem, the issue, the person to ostracize, the one accused of helping the fascists.

At the end of the day, I’m not here to say Gavin Newsom is wrong to redistrict in response to Trump and the GOP. That is how Democrats can and should win power, and within the system, it’s what they should be doing. That’s not my criticism. My point isn’t to Newsom—it’s to you. Because while redistricting may be a short-term solution, it doesn’t solve the deeper problem. It delays it. It accelerates it. And you will eventually have to face it.
I would much rather we face it clear-eyed now. Because doing so not only gives me, as a trans person, a greater chance of survival, but it also means that if you recognize the problem now, I’m still here with you—still able to fight alongside you. Because as the poem warns, one day they will come for you. And by then, there may not be anyone left beside you to fight.

44 330 1.1K

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 23m

I know this monologue all too well

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 21h

Ohhh I’ve never seen shopping, looks like a movie I’d like.

1 3

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 22h

Aka the coolest people you know.

1 1 250

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 22h

Here’s some photos of known antifa terrorists.

20 52 580

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 22h

And are the antifa terrorists in the room with us right now?

46 52 680

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Best analysis of Tron: Ares I've seen, and its from my comment section.

A comment from Jessie's review of Tron: Ares - "TRON is a movie about unionizing your workplace. TRON: Legacy is movie about the tools of fascism. TRON: Ares is a movie about... how hard it is to be tech billionaire running a Fortune 500 company, I guess."

21 130 680

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe actually sign those bills on your desk specifically focusing on trans protections too while you're there.

Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 1d

The Trump Administration’s removal of LGBTQ suicide prevention programs this summer was a disgrace.

I just signed legislation requiring student ID cards in public middle schools, high schools, and colleges to include the Trevor Project’s crisis and suicide prevention hotline.

10 98 480

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Ahhh my favorite Le Guin book!

1 6

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Chris is also bisexual too!

1 6

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah! Not as good as daft punk tho

1 7

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

3 13 230

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

*Michael Sheen lol, woops.

3 2 160

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Even he seems just kinda there and kinda tired. Everyone just seems kinda they’re people showing up to work on the Friday before a long weekend - they’re doing their job but not really focused on it.

1 9

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

Tron Ares desperately need more queer people making it, it just was in much in the need of any fucking flamboyance or personality. It’s not even a bad movie, it’s just sooooooooo forgettable. Like I just wish someone was like Martin Sheen in Legacy who just was having fun with it.

26 20 400

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

I mean yeah, that’s always the preference.

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

It’s… fine. It’s not horrid but if it wasn’t a Tron movie, it’d be completely forgettable. It desperately needed someone, ANYONE, to be giving a Martin Sheen in Tron: Legacy level performance.

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 1d

If we had to have Jared Leto in it, I desperately wish Jared Leto and Jodie-Turner Smith had swapped roles in Tron Ares. Would have desperately helped make the movie more interesting.

9 13 240

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 2d

I’m sorry… Scott Bakula is 71 years old!?!? How, he’s aged so fucking perfectly.

47 15 330

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 3d

Working on my horror script again for the Mark Duplass Trans Filmmaker grant application - I forgot how nice it was to work on something that I'm excited about rather then dealing with the shitiness of the world.

7 14 380

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 3d

So what you’re saying is the headline is indeed accurate and it will become a law despite him.

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 3d

Absolutely fuck this man.

News article with the headline: Gavin Newsom vetoes gender education bill, hasn’t signed other trans protections

21 170 840

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 4d

My dream movie to direct - Hackers 2 with a soundtrack entirely by The Midnight.

25 17 350

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 4d

Idk the stuff @mikebithell.bsky.social is doing is fantastic

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 4d

Ahh Tron, the franchise where am continually wishing each movie was better then it is. They’ll never catch Hackers’ brilliance.

40 12 380

Reposted by Jessie Gender

kim (bad eyes version) 🏳️‍⚧️⚡ @morninkim.bsky.social · 4d

extremely extremely good video and Perfectly captures why i felt so Alright Yeah Sure about this season of SNW, like it's truly the most pointing at the screen and looking back at you hoping you got the reference while it actively tells you not to challenge it i've ever seen Trek and it Sucksss

Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 11d

My video on how Star Trek Strange New Worlds is a Centrist Space Fantasy is now up on Nebula for early access! nebula.tv/videos/jessi...

Jessie Gender — Star Trek Strange New Worlds Is a Centrist Space Fantasy

Strange New Worlds season 3 promised to boldly go but went straight into CW love triangles, hollow nostalgia, and straight up racist eugenics storylines. Trek used to challenge the present, but now it...

nebula.tv

1 11 77