Now I Know How I'll be Spending My Weekend

The property-management company called this morning and said that they'll be sending someone out on Monday morning to tear up a wall in the living/dining area that will give them access to the pipes that are leaking. Said area currently has three bookshelves (all safely earthquake-secured to the wall) a couple of tables, and many boxes of stuff. All of the things on the shelves need to be boxed up and then the shelves themselves unstrapped and then moved.

I'm sure glad I didn't have any particular plans for this coming weekend.

In Memoriam

Today is the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's depressing to realize how many people have been killed for the "crime" of not fitting into the gender roles that evil people want to force them to live.

You might think that as I live here in the relatively progressive, enlightened San Francisco Bay Area I wouldn't expect any of that hatred around here, but I never forget that Gwen Araujo was murdered not far from where I live.

This is more than an issue for just transgendered people themselves. This is about basic human decency. We still live in a society that seems willing to blame the victims of anti-transgendered violence, and that's just plain wrong. I'm not very good at writing about this sort of thing, partially because it makes me so angry to think that anyone would ever consider torturing or killing someone just because he or she was transgendered.

I hope that someday we won't need to remember the victims of anti-transgender violence in the previous year, because there won't be any.