Kit O'Connell

They/them type middle-aged queerdo. GLAAD-award nominated journalist. Formerly Digital Editor at the Texas Observer. Disabled with #fibromyalgia.

Also follow Mx. Kit O'Connell 🏳️‍🌈⭐👏 (npub1npn…ecka)

Pfp: a smiling white person against a dark bg with wavy brown hair, bushy eyebrows, a very light mustache and a big Irish nose and broad forehead. They are wearing a puffy white blouse, dark red and white scarf and green metal wayfarer glasses. Image by Ivan Flores.

Pronouns: They/Them
Support Kit: https://patreon.com/kitoconnell
About Kit: https://kitoconnell.com/about/

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Last Notes

2026-05-05 18:43:46 UTC

I saw someone wearing one of the new rainbow Onionwars hats at a drag show here in #Austin on Saturday night.
Seeing Alex Jones' brand subverted right in the heart of his hometown gave me a weird little hit of hope ... 🥹
#Infowars #culture

2026-04-16 19:41:41 UTC

New from me: A #nonprofit that offers vital sexual health services and gender-affirming care to Austin’s #LGBTQ+ community held an emergency fundraiser this week to stave off layoffs.
#Austin Sexual Health and Wellness, known as ASHwell, plays a crucial role for local queer and #transgender residents. Its services include testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, support groups for people living with HIV, and affordable access to pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, a medication that can prevent HIV infections when taken regularly.
Many patients receive PrEP prescriptions for free from ASHwell’s onsite pharmacy at 3100 Red River St. and can access additional services, such as hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients.
But this week employees discovered that ASHwell was in dire financial straits, jeopardizing the jobs of more than 50 employees. Austin Free Press interviewed multiple team members during an emergency, 24-hour livestream on April 15. ASHwell also held fundraising drag performances and ouija-board seances during the overnight hours.
Read more ... https://austinfreepress.org/ailing-ashwell-vital-lgbtq-nonprofit-holds-emergency-fundraiser/
#news #Texas #CentralTexas #health #healthcare #LGBTQIA

2026-03-02 19:16:43 UTC

My latest at The Barbed Wire:
It’s hard to ignore Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they come crashing into your neighborhood.
It’s become the topic of conversation in #Austin’s North Loop, Reilly, a 42-year-old #transgender resident, told The Barbed Wire one February evening from a graffiti-covered picnic table in the grass behind Epoch, the neighborhood’s beloved 24-hour coffee shop.
“I think when people are confronted with the realities — in their face — of what our immigrant neighbors are facing, there’s no choice but to respond,” Reilly said, adding that it becomes harder to “stay in your home and try to remain ambivalent to it when you’re watching people get yanked out of their cars and thrown into the back of a van and disappeared off to God knows where.”
As reported by KUT’s Greta Díaz González Vázquez, a car chase involving #ICE ended on Feb. 2 when the driver agents were pursuing crashed onto the front lawn of an area home. An Austin Police Department spokesperson confirmed the incident to KUT and told the outlet none of the vehicles involved in the chase were marked as law enforcement vehicles. A social media video shows armed men with covered faces pinning another man to the ground.
North Loop is a bustling, popular destination for events as varied as a workshop on “romantic rope restraint” at sex toy shop Forbidden Fruit to history presentations by the Democratic Socialists of America in the backyard of Barrett’s Too, a bar and eatery serving vegan powerbowls and hemp THC-laced seltzer on tap.
It’s important to recognize, Reilly said, that people who live in neighborhoods like North Loop “are recognizing that it’s about their ability to use (their) privilege to protect their neighbors.”
Read more ... https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/03/02/lgbtq-texans-in-defense-of-immigrants/
#activism #antifa #fascism #Trump #Texas #politics #USpol #immigration #racism #HumanRights #extremism #Minneapolis #zines

2026-01-26 01:13:00 UTC

Watching Reddit turn on ICE is interesting. Everything from porn to cute cat subreddits posting anti-ICE messages. Sorry, not sorry to ICE nazis who like to look at cats with curled tails or cuckolding or whatever without being reminded that you're evil.

2025-11-25 20:03:29 UTC

“The more that marginalized voices disappear from legacy outlets, the more it matters to fight for our corner instead of abandoning it. It matters to have places in journalism, in media, where we belong and where we can see ourselves.”
To kick off my work as newsletter writer and contributor for the Barbed Wire, I wrote a VERY personal essay about what it means to be a #transgender journalist in #Texas. I dug way back for this one, since it starts when I was 13 years old ... I hope you see something of yourself in this one, too: https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/25/transgender-journalist-living-in-texas/
#trans #LGBTQIA #culture #Austin #fascism #media #journalism #politics #USpol

2025-10-17 15:01:01 UTC

Cannabis is still illegal, meanwhile people are absolutely ruining their lives on kratom drinks they buy at a gas station.

2025-10-02 18:40:46 UTC

Out today from @npub1xf8…0uw6: On September 22, Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, #Texas’ new “bathroom bill,” into law, marking another escalation in the Republican war on the rights of #trans people. What may be less evident on first glance is how the #law also represents an attack on public institutions—and on the legal system writ large.
Andrea Segovia, senior field and policy analyst for the #Transgender Education Network of Texas, said the law, which bans trans people from using their preferred bathrooms in certain public buildings, will make them feel less safe engaging in a basic biological function anywhere outside of their homes. “Every time that an anti-trans bill passes, it is another attempt at removing trans people from the public eye,” she told the Texas Observer.
Trans folks and #LGBTQIA+ advocates spent countless hours testifying against various iterations of the bathroom bill over the eight years since the first one was proposed in this state, only for the latest version to be fast-tracked through the Legislature during this year’s second special session. Major corporations, whose opposition to these kinds of laws historically helped prevent their passage, have largely gone silent on the 2025 versions of this law that have passed or been proposed around the country.
With anti-trans policies now openly backed by President Donald Trump’s federal government, it’s perhaps unsurprising that state officials feel confident passing more extreme measures. But beyond the harmful effects the law is likely to have on transgender and gender non-conforming people, it may also allow Republicans to weaponize #transphobia against public institutions. The law enables the state to investigate and levy massive fines against schools, libraries or other entities that they suspect of violations. In addition, it’s designed to be especially difficult to challenge in court, in ways that experts say are likely to be unconstitutional.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-bathroom-bill-weaponizes-transphobia/
#news #politics #USpol #LGBTQ+ #fascism #genocide

2025-09-12 18:17:05 UTC

The amount of time Subway is playing near me on a speaker < the amount of time Subway is playing on repeat in my head

2025-08-11 16:38:33 UTC

I'm looking for #Texas public school teachers who would be willing to talk with me on the record or on background. I will protect your identity.
Please reach out to me.
#education

2025-07-12 19:10:37 UTC

TIL lasagna can become a battery and burn/electroplate your #food with toxic chemicals https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/reactive-pans/
#science #safety

2025-06-29 16:48:05 UTC

Honk for Workers Rights! Workers at #Austin's vegan deli Rebel Cheese are on strike after multiple workers were fired for union organizing and demanding a small raise.
#union #Texas #activism
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/767/670/717/416/134/original/be0b2ab4c0101e16.jpg

2025-04-14 13:59:13 UTC

The American left has a Texas problem.
Really, it’s a problem of Red vs. Blue. I’m not talking about the problem with treating decisions about how we govern society as if it was a horse race, or between teams at a sporting event. What I’m thinking about today — in the spirit of deescalating every conflict that isn’t with our true enemies (thank you, Margaret Killjoy) — is the way misconceptions about who lives in Texas, and how we vote, encourage an attitude of disposability and dehumanization.
As a Texas journalist, one cornerstone of my work has been making people understand that what happens in this state is relevant to them, even if they live outside of it. Southern states like Texas have been a laboratory for so much of the Republican policy that’s now being implemented nationwide by the Trump regime. More so, the lives of people here matter a great deal to me, and they should matter to you too.
So why do I see liberals from other states who are willing, even eager, to abandon the people who live here?
Read more in my #newsletter, #GonzoNotes: https://kitoconnell.com/2025/04/14/gonzo-notes-the-lefts-texas-problem/
#politics #USpol #Trump #activism #Texas #journalism

2025-03-22 20:48:31 UTC

I have a #newsletter called Gonzo Notes. It's free, I'll never sell your email to anyone, and I don't use Substack.
Sign up here: https://kitoconnell.com/mailinglist/
#journalism #activism #politics #news #zines

2025-03-13 15:07:51 UTC

My latest: Last year, I covered the chaos as a peaceful protest for #Palestine at the University of Texas at #Austin was attacked by state troopers and local police. Unknown to me, a respected UT professor I'd interviewed for other stories was also there, and was about to have an encounter with cops that would cost him his career.
Today, Austin Free Press is releasing video from that incident showing the trooper deliberately shoving him multiple times. https://austinfreepress.org/days-of-rage/
#Texas #UTAustin #news #politics #USpol #activism #protest #police

2025-02-22 23:55:49 UTC

“Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go… What does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?” —Words attributed to Sophie Scholl of the White Rose Society, at her execution by the Nazis on this day in 1943.
#antifa
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/050/233/521/085/816/original/dd51bd55cfa7c536.jpg

2025-02-04 18:39:32 UTC

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it's a form of homemade easy street art/propaganda. Essentially you make homemade wallpaper glue and paste up your posters with it. https://archive.org/details/BannerDropsStencilsWheatpasteAndDistributingInformation

2025-02-04 18:34:45 UTC

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Here's an excellent list of alternatives to protesting and voting, from @npub1wdw…c82q: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OSWxykA1WHOi0vTPLAJDaCeVhR3uSfh7PhlCj4t4yT0/edit?usp=sharing

2025-02-04 18:33:42 UTC

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I see some folks speculating whether these rallies are honeypots or traps, but they seem more like fairly standard-issue first time organizers' events. The kind created by people who are understandably upset and so they grasp at the first and maybe only type of action they know outside of voting.

2025-02-04 17:15:27 UTC

A lot of folks seem to default to a protest or rally when what they really need is a community meeting, a teach-in, a banner drop, a blockade, a noise demo outside a politician's home, wheatpasting ...

2025-01-31 12:16:47 UTC

Good morning. Today is a wonderful day to do something that would piss off a nazi.

2024-12-27 00:05:15 UTC

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The Little Gay Book Club is reading Babel by R.F. Kuang in February. I got a head start on the audio book this month; I'm so glad I did. It's very long but I've been sucked in totally. I'm so in love with these characters and the book's critique of colonization in literature feels razor sharp. #books
@npub1wce…lzu8 #books #Bookstodon #LGBTQIA+

2024-12-26 23:45:01 UTC

The Little Gay Book Club read "Little Rot" by Akwaeke Emezi earlier this year and it was both beautifully written and utterly horrifying and totally haunted me. Today I started their wonderfully titled "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty." Instantly engrossing. They create such vivid imagery.
#books #Bookstodon @npub1wce…lzu8 #LGBTQIA+

2024-12-06 22:22:09 UTC

“Like their ancestors before them, Gary Perez and Matilde Torres perform religious ceremonies at a bend in the San Antonio River,” said the couple’s legal representative, John Greil of the University of the University of Texas Law and Religion Clinic, during introductory oral arguments before the Supreme Court of #Texas on Wednesday.
“They believe that bend is sacred and that the cormorants that nest in the #trees, and the trees themselves, form the central components of those religious ceremonies. The City of San Antonio has chosen a construction that will remove all but 14 of the 80 trees at that bank.”
Texas Supreme Court Scrutinizes San Antonio's Bird & Tree Removals In Religious Liberty Debate – My latest story, coauthored for Deceleration:
https://deceleration.news/texas-supreme-court-scrutinizes-san-antonios-bird-tree-removals-in-religious-liberty-debate/
#politics #USpol #environment #ClimateChange #activism #water #SanAntonio #SouthTexas #Indigenous #religion #news #animals #AnimalRights

2024-10-18 15:52:46 UTC

“Carrying a Palestinian flag does not nullify your free speech rights. I mean, it was pretty obvious that they were letting anyone else through.”
Why did #Austin Police block, then arrest pro-Palestinian activists at the city's annual #Pride parade in August? The 2 arrests occurred after friendly meetings between activists and the nonprofit which hosts the parade -- but something went violently wrong. I've spent months getting to the bottom of it, and the story is out today in The Barbed Wire.
Ultimately, I found #police deployed to protect the #LGBTQIA+ after bomb threats and other attacks on the community, ended up being used against the community. https://thebarbedwire.com/2024/10/18/you-can-fly-any-flag-at-austin-pride-except-a-palestinian-one/
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/113/329/220/625/490/334/original/01261f19723df042.jpeg

2024-09-20 17:07:14 UTC

“The administration said they just don’t want authors, point blank period, in their school, because if a parent says something, then it’s just going to create a whole scandal that they didn’t want.”
Nonbinary young adult author Jonny Garza Villa was banned from speaking to students at a local San Antonio school district library, but despite this the city has been good to them and their budding writing career. Out today from me at The Barbed Wire: https://thebarbedwire.com/2024/09/20/they-just-dont-want-authors-latine-writer-uninvited-from-speaking-at-texas-school/
#nonbinary #queer #LGBTQIA+ #books #Bookstodon #Texas #SanAntonio #culture #romance #censorship #BookBans

2024-08-16 18:05:14 UTC

Fashion brands in my email going "it's almost sweater season" and over here it's still 90 degrees at 10pm.

2023-11-17 23:25:08 UTC

LeVar Burton knows that throwing hands is the least of what fascists deserve. There should be nothing controversial about this. #MomsForLiberty

2023-06-01 22:57:57 UTC

The way the #Yellowjackets finale used both Nouvelle Vague and Echo and the Bunnymen versions of "The Killing Moon" across different eras of the story was one of the smartest uses of #music on #TV that I can think of recently. https://youtu.be/_j7asLfkioo