sense of doubt

Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2749 - GenderQueer WIN! Ban is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2749 - GenderQueer WIN! Ban is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

This is a bit of a cheat for today's COMIC BOOK SUNDAY.

I am posting four days late, and so this news has broken SINCE and yet was not yet official on Sunday August 28th, 2022.

But this is great news for Maia Kobabe and Eir's most excellent graphic novel.

So awesome that not everyone in a position of power in this country is not willing to ratfuck the law and the constitution.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/gender-queer-scores-a-win-in-court-as-virginia-judge-dismisses-lawsuit/

GENDER QUEER scores a win in court as Virginia judge dismisses lawsuit

The lawsuit against Maia Kobabe's graphic novel memoir was dismissed today on the grounds that the law it was based on is unconstitutional.

Joe Grunenwald

08/30/2022 8:00 pm

Gender Queer, cartoonist Maia Kobabe‘s graphic novel memoir about eir’s journey of self-discovery with regards to eir gender identity, has over the last year become a prominent target for conservative activists, with more library challenges against it than any other book in the United States. Today saw a small victory for the embattled graphic novel, though, as a Virginia judge threw out a lawsuit against Gender Queer on the grounds that the law the suit was based on is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Virginia state delegate Tim Anderson, relied on a little-cited section of Virginia law in which petitioners could request a judicial review of a book in order to determine if the work is obscene. Should the review determine that it is, under the law the sale of that book would become illegal. Both Gender Queer and another book, Sarah J. Maas‘s 2016 fantasy novel A Court of Mist and Fury, were being challenged by Anderson’s lawsuit.

The decision today to toss the case was issued by Virginia circuit judge Pamela S. Baskervill, who granted a motion by Kobabe’s attorneys along with those filed by other Virginia booksellers and national retailer Barnes & Noble, and ultimately found the law in question unconstitutional under both the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Virginia Constitution.

For more context and in-depth analysis, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund interim director (and occasional Beat contributor) Jeff Trexler posted a long thread on the CBLDF’s Twitter feed breaking down Baskervill’s decision.

While the court’s decision to dismiss the case against Gender Queer today has no impact on the regular library challenges the book has been receiving from Conservative groups, it’s still a nice victory for Kobabe, and one that will potentially lead those aforementioned groups to think twice before trying something similar with other books they might deem inappropriate for the children. Will it, though? Probably not. But a person can dream.

RELATED AND MORE...

GENDER QUEER creator Maia Kobabe opens up about hard conversations with eir aunt on GRAPHIC NOVEL CLUB

SDCC ’20: INSPIRED panel explores personal stories in graphic novels

A Year of Free Comics: Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe explores identity with laughs and charm

My own post on GENDERQUEER:

Saturday, February 5, 2022

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2545 - Dear Book Banners, Please Actually READ Gender Queer

ALSO, check out WONKETTE'S coverage of this same issue:

Virginia Republicans Won't Get To Ban Dirty Sexporn Books From Barnes & Noble After All https://t.co/fLsWkpGOsB
— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) September 1, 2022

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2208.28 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2613 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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I am Christopher Tower the gmr

I am Christopher Tower (or Chris), and I am a writer of stuff. I grew up in Michigan; I now live in the Portland, OR metro area. I play Ultimate, ride a bike, and supposedly educate college persons while myself being educated in college. I am married with two kids, a beagle, a curly lab, and a fiesty pug/frenche mix. I like sushi. I love all SF, fantasy, comic books, D&D, board games, and Gnosticism. I am a Jungian. I am currently studying Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Walden University.

SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who is the Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard. This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Monkey Wrench Books

Chris's books

A Feast for Crows

by George R.R. Martin

This book is a little slower than the others. But if you become invested in this series, it provides key information about the history of Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea. It may not contain chapters with my favorite characters ...

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Do I really need to review this book? It's one of the best books I have ever read. Martin is a great writer. All the books are great, and I am loving my time rereading them. If you have not checked out these books, start here and get ready ...

The Golden City

by John Twelve Hawks

These books are immensely entertaining. Treat yourself to some strong writing, great action, compelling characters, and a mix of metaphysics and theology. The ending of this third book, which is presumably the last, is anti-climactic and so...

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

This was a fun book. Not OSC's best but very good OSC nonetheless. The best thing about is the time travel, slowing, and speeding powers of the characters and how OSC engages the reader in discussion of causality and time paradox. For fans ...

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

This book came to me via my wife Liesel who discovered it and urged me to read it. Beautifully written with compelling characters and a sense of the magical (yet realistic, somewhat). Funny yet full of the pathos that marks a good if not gr...

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.