Willow Starr
@willow-starr.bsky.social
250 followers 540 following 55 posts
nurturing hifi resistance & solidarity :: philosophy professor @ Cornell University :: she/they 🏳️‍⚧️
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
willow-starr.bsky.social
⚡️ OUT NOW ⚡️
being.transinphilosophy.org
Issue #0 of Being Trans in Philosophy zine is out now! “We Are Not Trans in a Theoretical Way”. Download & print ur own 🖨️. being.transinphilosophy.org

#beingtransinphilosophy #trans #philosophy #gender #feminism #zine #diy
Being Trans in Philosophy issue #0 release. Subtitle: download, make your own. Url: https://being.transinphilosophy.org. Image of 5 zines arranged in the trans pride colors, stacked on top of well-known trans books. Title: ‘welcome to the WTF.” Image of a biohazard symbol overlayed on a world map with lines radiating from the center of the symbol, and the spires of the biohazard symbol are impinging on two scared trans symbols. A very long list of anti-trans events since 2021 portraying the looming threats to trans life from violence, media, and governmental disenfranchisement. Footer text: https://being.transinphilosophy.org. Text header: issue #0, june 2025, https://being.transinphilosophy.org, our stories, “we are not trans in a theoretical way”. A list of contributors with each name on a black badge over a purple splatter. The names are: Imogen Sullivan, Erin Beeghly, Ray Briggs, Anonymous, autogyniphiles_anonymous, Emmie Malone, Kelly Potter, Elin McCready, Penny Haulotte, Amy Marvin, Alex Adamson, Perry Zurn, Emil Eva Rosina, and Maximiliana Rifkin. Text header: issue #0, june 2025, https://being.transinphilosophy.org, our stories, “we are not trans in a theoretical way”. A block of white text on a stippled purple star background reads: “being trans i not a controversial idea. it’s a lived reality.” Under the text appears a black and white image of a feminine eye.
Reposted by Willow Starr
esqueer.net
Here are the _public_ email addresses for the reporters and the standards editor listed on the WSJ site.

Standards editor:
[email protected]

Journalists who wrote the article:
[email protected]
[email protected]

Politely and peacefully demand a retraction and an apology.
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
Transgender people are owed a retraction and apology from @wsj.com. The lie has already become canon to millions and it seems the least they could do.
phillewis.bsky.social
From the Charlie Kirk press conference:
willow-starr.bsky.social
@floresophize.bsky.social & @n1c0n1c0.bsky.social nail how words get caught up in political struggles and how dominant culture uses that to do its thing.
liberalcurrents.com
“These days, however, merit is repeatedly contrasted with DEI, which at one point stood for diversity, equity, and inclusion but is increasingly a rightwing bogey. This sets up the fallacious inference that anyone other than white men don’t really deserve their jobs.”
When Words Are Stolen
The real stakes of semantic fights.
www.liberalcurrents.com
willow-starr.bsky.social
the zine is getting around out there. make your own pass them around 🖨️💜
being.transinphilosophy.org
did you hear that you could read and print Being Trans in Philosophy today?! seriously, like woahhh!! being.transinphilosophy.org

the zine @diversityread.bsky.social 10th anniversary conference (happy bday!!) by @nonamename.bsky.social, SF pride @not.dingherself.com, & SPP @willow-starr.bsky.social
Phot of the Trans in Philosophy zine spotted on a table at the Diversity Reading List 10th Anniversary conference, under the conference program booklet. Photo of co-editor Ding holding the zine, with a yellow cover, in front of four flying Pride flags at the San Francisco civic center plaza. Photo of a dozen copies of the Being Trans in Philosophy zine on a circular table, in different colors arranged to create a trans pride, at the society for philosophy and psychology conference. Photo of Maximiliana and co-editor Willow posing with copies of the zine. Maximiliana's shirt says “Black Trans Lives Matter.”
willow-starr.bsky.social
Restoring the biological truth that sex is messy and complex, and we are all better off when medicine, science and social policy reflect this.
Reposted by Willow Starr
thyacinth.bsky.social
My brave coworkers at MIT put together a statement re: Alex Byrne's confirmation that he co-authored the HHS report recommending against gender-affirming care for trans youth (www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...)

Please read the letter and sign at: dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
Dear Professor Byrne
dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
willow-starr.bsky.social
Supporting trans kids is so easy when you’re in their actual life. The bullies in the White House and Supreme Court think the State should be used to destroy them instead. Fuck them. We will find ways to support them anyway ✨
being.transinphilosophy.org
“When [my tween] socially transitioned in the second grade, years ago now, other kids in the class didn’t blink an eye. Zero bullying. Now bullies run the show—in dominant online spaces in our discipline, in our state legislature, in the U.S. government.” @beegs1.bsky.social #beingtransinphilosophy
black text in typewriter font on white background, as a sneak peek of the Being Trans in Philosophy zine, forthcoming in June 2025: Talia Mae Bettcher talks about the WTF of existence—where up becomes down and down becomes up. I can't begin to say how much this captures my experience as a parent of a trans kid right now. My tween is kind, funny, talented, ambitious. He is a shining light that cheers me up every single day. I don't know how anyone could find fault with him, could look into his eyes and see him as anything but authentic, as deserving of love and respect for who he really is. text continues: When he socially transitioned in the second grade, years ago now, other kids in the class didn't blink an eye. Zero bullying. Now bullies run the show—in dominant online spaces in our discipline, in our state legislature, in the U.S. government. State law bars kids like him from playing sports. It is illegal for him to use the bathroom associated with his gender identity at school. Just last month, my kid lost access to gender-affirming healthcare at our local hospital. text continues: Still, my child is thriving. Our community is there for us. Each morning that we wake up, go about our day, feels like an act of resistance. Increasingly I find myself staring out the window of my office in the philosophy department, gorgeous mountains rising in the background, crying. It's a lot: sitting with the cruelty, the uncertainty of how far persecution will go, what to do.
willow-starr.bsky.social
Blocker bans are abuse.
natacha.bsky.social
TW: harm to children.

My research into the effects of the UK government puberty-blocker ban has finally been published after peer-review.

It details the severe harm being caused to young trans people & children by the Starmer government's puberty-blocker ban.

Unlike Cass it is peer reviewed...
Harming children: the effects of the UK puberty blocker ban
This paper presents an analysis of data from trans children and young people and their parents following the imposition of a UK-wide ban on puberty blockers for this group. The consequences of this...
www.tandfonline.com
willow-starr.bsky.social
“Trans life is the life of Wittgenstein’s lions, one’s words forever falling dead born from the mouth.” 💯🔥 Thanks for your amazing contribution 💕
willow-starr.bsky.social
⚡️ OUT NOW ⚡️
being.transinphilosophy.org
Issue #0 of Being Trans in Philosophy zine is out now! “We Are Not Trans in a Theoretical Way”. Download & print ur own 🖨️. being.transinphilosophy.org

#beingtransinphilosophy #trans #philosophy #gender #feminism #zine #diy
Being Trans in Philosophy issue #0 release. Subtitle: download, make your own. Url: https://being.transinphilosophy.org. Image of 5 zines arranged in the trans pride colors, stacked on top of well-known trans books. Title: ‘welcome to the WTF.” Image of a biohazard symbol overlayed on a world map with lines radiating from the center of the symbol, and the spires of the biohazard symbol are impinging on two scared trans symbols. A very long list of anti-trans events since 2021 portraying the looming threats to trans life from violence, media, and governmental disenfranchisement. Footer text: https://being.transinphilosophy.org. Text header: issue #0, june 2025, https://being.transinphilosophy.org, our stories, “we are not trans in a theoretical way”. A list of contributors with each name on a black badge over a purple splatter. The names are: Imogen Sullivan, Erin Beeghly, Ray Briggs, Anonymous, autogyniphiles_anonymous, Emmie Malone, Kelly Potter, Elin McCready, Penny Haulotte, Amy Marvin, Alex Adamson, Perry Zurn, Emil Eva Rosina, and Maximiliana Rifkin. Text header: issue #0, june 2025, https://being.transinphilosophy.org, our stories, “we are not trans in a theoretical way”. A block of white text on a stippled purple star background reads: “being trans i not a controversial idea. it’s a lived reality.” Under the text appears a black and white image of a feminine eye.
Reposted by Willow Starr
emhrnndz.bsky.social
When I left the discipline, I was one of two trans femmes of color with a PhD in philosophy and I could not see, or even imagine, a department that would hire me. Leaving ended up being on of my best decisions, an opportunity to leave an abusive relationship on my own terms.
willow-starr.bsky.social
#beingtransinohilosophy
Reposted by Willow Starr
being.transinphilosophy.org
“You would think philosophy would aim to make trans people more safe. But chasers always shoot themselves in the foot.” WE LAUNCH TOMORROW💥
willow-starr.bsky.social
#beingtransinphilosophy
being.transinphilosophy.org
“Because even if philosophy is always too late, when the owl of
Minerva flies at dusk she knows, ‘One is not born, but rather
becomes, woman.’ And sometimes you don't become one.” WE LAUNCH TOMORROW ⚡️
willow-starr.bsky.social
Trans experience dictated by trans people in philosophy. I know! Kinda revolutionary 🎯🥹. Can’t wait for this zine to launch ⚙️💎
being.transinphilosophy.org
Trans people and our loved ones are not okay -- in, with, and because of academic philosophy. #beingtransinphilosophy tells these stories firsthand.
Picture with three paragraphs of black text on white background in typewriter font:

Being Trans in Philosophy is a zine collecting first-personal accounts of what it's actually like to be trans or to have trans kids as a philosopher.

Our stories highlight the material, on-the-ground consequences of academic philosophy's role as perhaps the main discipline providing intellectual cover for a global transmisogynistic and transphobic moral panic -- one that has been increasingly institutionalized into laws and policies.

Forthcoming June 2025
willow-starr.bsky.social
Making America Great Again by killing women and scapegoating trans women as the real threat. Patriarchy is the gender ideology we all need protection from.
#abortion #maga #gender #women #trump #pulitzer
Life of the Mother
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, doctors warned that women would die, but lawmakers who passed state abortion bans didn’t listen. The worst consequences are now becoming clear.
www.propublica.org
Reposted by Willow Starr
floralashes.bsky.social
If you open the anti-trans HHS report’s appendix in NotePad, you’ll see that it was compiled by Alex Byrne.

The appendix is a rigorous, scientific overview of systematic reviews.

Alex Byrne is an MIT philosophy professor with no apparent background in science, let alone expertise in it.
Screenshot of XML information open in notepad, showing “Alex Byrne” under the creator tag..
willow-starr.bsky.social
Chat, Mahmoud v. Taylor is so bad. The argument amounts to claiming that religious freedom conflicts with merely knowing about LGTBQ+ people and our lives. At least (checks notes) 6 justices seem poised to accept this argument 😭

slate.com/news-and-pol...
How Sam Alito Inadvertently Revealed His Own Homophobia From the Bench
So what was the message of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding?
slate.com
Reposted by Willow Starr
amylittlefield.bsky.social
"As she spoke, the M-word—murdered—hung heavy in the auditorium... She wanted to be very clear, Williams continued: The abortion did not kill her daughter, the mother of a 6-year-old son; the healthcare professionals who were well-equipped to keep her alive but failed to do so did."
Abortion Bans Upended Their Lives—Now They’re Fighting Back, One Story at a Time
Across the country, abortion storytellers are putting the struggle for reproductive freedom into powerful new words.
www.thenation.com
willow-starr.bsky.social
Making America Great again by starving our kids and disabled people, all so trans kids can be excluded from school activities. (*upside down American flag*)
erininthemorning.com
1. Trump has officially defunded school lunches in Maine for kids and disabled adults because of transgender people.

Trump is holding the funds hostage and will allow kids to go hungry unless Maine discriminates.

The latest from S. Baum.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
Trump Defunds School Lunches In Maine Over Transgender People
To use the term coined by conservative talking heads, Trump is holding school lunch money “hostage.”
www.erininthemorning.com