And Now For Something Completely Different
But Festive!
This is Sitting Queerly, a newsletter about the late blooming queer experience and the lofty goal of opening up conversations and celebrating those who embrace their full selves.
The holidays are stressful.
So I offer you…dinosaurs.
UNTO YOU A RAPTOR IS BORN: Part of the Little Library of Christmas Drear
I made the photos in this little book a decade ago, when I was still deeply closeted and ashamed of being queer. I had just started seriously doing something about my mental health, having gotten on my first anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication, but was far from stable or safe. Add in the pressure of trying to create a magical holiday experience as a young father trying to dig our family out of debt on a single income and, well, I was struggling.
And yet making this deeply quirky, ham-fisted and irreverent series of photos of toy dinosaurs portraying the story of the Nativity brought me a lot of joy. I shared it via my Instagram at the time and it didn’t go viral or anything. But the few friends who “liked” it and the even fewer who commented that they thought they were hilarious buoyed me through a time of year that increasingly seemed more gauntlet than celebration.
In retrospect, this was a first taste of living authentically. I didn’t care that a lot of folks wouldn’t get it, would consider it uninteresting or weird or inappropriate. It made me happy—still makes me happy—and that’s all that mattered. Just like how coming out was, ultimately, about me being happy—me being me—regardless of what others thought.
Whatever your plans for the remainder of 2025, I hope this brings you a little joy. Or, at the very least, inspires you to make some for yourself.
THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A society built for people, not predators.
We are at our best when we invest in each other.
We are at our worst when we abandon the vulnerable.
This manifesto is how we return to the common good.
I. DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
1. Release the Epstein files — full transparency, no exceptions.
2. Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who enabled his corruption.
3. No federal office for any convicted felon.
4. End the weaponization of the justice system against the poor, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities.
II. DEMOCRACY THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
1. Abolish the Electoral College — one person, one vote.
2. Abolish ICE — replace it with humane immigration policy that honors human rights.
3. Ban gerrymandering with a standardized national apportionment method.
4. Two-term limits for every elected office.
5. Mandatory retirement at 70 for all elected officials.
6. Paper ballots only — end the era of hackable voting machines.
III. AN ECONOMY THAT SERVES PEOPLE
1. Restore 1950s-style progressive tax rates — when America was prosperous and fair.
2. Overturn Citizens United — corporations are not people.
3. Eliminate the Social Security payroll cap and tax capital gains for Social Security contributions.
4. $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation.
5. Medicare for All, one unified system — no A/B/C/D maze.
6. Congress receives Medicare, not boutique private insurance.
IV. WORKERS, CREATIVES, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS
1. Big pay raises for social workers, teachers, librarians, artists, and cultural workers — the people who actually hold society together.
2. Universal childcare — because families are the foundation of the nation.
3. Free public university education.
4. Full forgiveness of all student debt.
V. CLEAN GOVERNMENT
1. Root out corruption at every level, starting at the top.
2. Full financial transparency for every elected official, appointee, and senior bureaucrat.
3. Ban lobbying for former officeholders for life.
VI. THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
We choose a country that values:
• Compassion over cruelty
• Community over greed
• Truth over propaganda
• Shared prosperity over billionaire hoarding
• Democracy over minority rule
• Human dignity over corporate profit
We choose a nation where the common good is not a slogan, but the organizing principle of public life.
And we refuse to apologize for demanding better.