Hype for the Future 66D: Political Activism

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/hype-for-the-future-66d-political-activism/

We are looking for people to fill our Event Organizer position! The required duties are to research and contact event venues, organize your findings in a spreadsheet and share them with staff, and help set up some events. You must be able to commute to Seattle on a regular basis and maintain regular contact with the rest of our staff. Unlike Board of Directors positions, this one won’t list your name publicly on our website, so you’ll be able to work this role as confidentially as you’d like. The role is volunteer work and is therefore unpaid. For more info and to apply please read the page on our website.

https://www.beyondtheplus.org/get-involved/careers/event-organizer

#beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #identity #paraphilia #queer #para #orientation #transid #transidentity #radical #radicallyqueer

Happy January, Bt+, and happy new year! Got any new years resolutions? If so, feel free to share them in the comments!

First and foremost we have a big announcement: the Bt+ forum! It is a forum for members only, and is intended to be a way for members to be able to have something to do in-between events. It’s also a way for members that live further away from Seattle to still be able to participate with each other. Some people in WA haven’t joined Bt+ yet because they fear being a part of in-person community, and we hope that introducing them to an online space with other members will warm them up the idea of meeting them in-person. That all being said, there are risks involved with a forum, such as causing infighting, or getting people comfortable with just being online and never coming to in-person events, so if we find that the forum ends up causing more harm than good we may end up discontinuing it. Consider this a test run for the first couple months.

Next up, Bt+ is seeking volunteers! We recently had some staff members leave, so we are a bit understaffed. Any help would be appreciated! We are seeking two different types of volunteer work: short-term and long-term. Short term volunteering is for case-by-case basis volunteer opportunities, like if we need people to help test out website features or trial runs for events. Long term volunteering would make you a part of our staff, where you are a part of the team and have regular responsibilities. For the former, please visit our new page on Volunteering. For the latter please check out our open positions on our Careers page, we are looking for Event Organizers at the moment, but in the future this page will be updated whenever we are seeking new staff.

Additionally, our Event Preference Survey has ended. The purpose of this survey was to poll members for their availability times, as well as what activities they are interested in. Now that we have collected all our results, we will use the information to better our events, ensuring that more members can participate, and that they’ll have fun doing so. We will likely hold more surveys in the future, so, members, please keep an eye out for those.

Lastly, we are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to strengthen the structure of Bt+, which is mainly consisting of doing research into more event venues. Between that, a change in staff, and long processes into forming a legal structure, we have a lot on our plates. As much as we’d like to be innovating and doing more for our community, we don’t have the resources at the moment. So please be patient as we build ourselves up; we may stay at the level that we’re at for a long time.

Thanks for reading! We hope everyone enjoyed their 2025. Despite its tumultuous political climate, our org has been able to make it a good year for some people, and we hope that 2026 can be even better. Not a member yet? Join Bt+ to become one! Members get invited to events and get some other perks as well. (Being subscribed to the mailing list and being a member are two separate things. Not sure if you’re a member? Sign up!) Membership is currently limited to those who reside in WA state.

#queer #beyondtheplus #lgbt #lgbtq #radical #radicallyqueer #orientation #para #paraphilia #identity #transid #transidentity

#Gay #Communist and #UnionActivist! Grampa Walton — #WillGeer: a #Radical with Woody Guthrie, et al

"[Will Geer] began his acting career touring in tent shows and on river boats.

"Geer was also the lover of #GayActivist #HarryHay. In 1934, Hay met Geer at the Tony Pastor Theatre, where Geer worked as an actor. They became lovers, and Hay credited Geer as his political mentor. Hay and Geer participated in a milk strike in Los Angeles, where Hay was first exposed to #RadicalGay #Activism in the person of '#Clarabelle,' a #DragQueen who held court in the Bunker Hill neighborhood, who hid Hay from police.

"Geer made his Broadway debut as Pistol in a 1928 production of Much Ado About Nothing, created the role of Mr. Mister in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, played Candy in John Steinbeck’s theatrical adaptation of his novella Of Mice and Men, and appeared in numerous plays and revues throughout the 1940s. From 1948 to 1951, he appeared in more than a dozen movies, including Winchester ’73, Broken Arrow, Comanche Territory (1950) and Bright Victory.

"Geer became a member of the #CommunistParty of the United States in 1934. Geer was also influential in introducing Harry Hay to organizing in the Communist Party.

"Geer became a dedicated activist, touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like #BurlIves and #WoodyGuthrie (whom he introduced to the People’s World and the #DailyWorker; Guthrie would go on to write a column for the latter paper). In 1956, the duo released an album together on Folkways Records, titled Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie. In his biography, fellow organizer and gay rights pioneer Harry Hay described Geer’s activism and outlined their activities while organizing for the strike. Geer is credited with introducing Guthrie to #PeteSeeger at the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ benefit Geer organized in 1940 for #MigrantFarmWorkers.

"Geer did summer stock at the Pine Brook Country Club located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut with the Group Theatre (New York) studying under Lee Strasberg.

"Geer was blacklisted in the early 1950s for refusing to testify before the House Committee on #UnAmerican Activities. As a result, Geer appeared in very few films over the following decade. Notable among them was Salt of the Earth which was produced, directed, written, and starring blacklisted Hollywood personnel and told the story of a miners’ #strike in New Mexico from a pro-#union standpoint."

Read more:
https://www.outyourbackdoor.com/articles/culture_a/grampa-walton-will-geer-a-radical-with-woody-guthrie-et-al-2153/

#TheWaltons #GrandpaWalton #GBLTQ #GBLTQActors #Activists #RedScare

proposal from Harvard Law: carve Washington DC into several states to provide votes and reshape US democratic process

https://thriv.social/c/progressivepolitics/p/120114/proposal-from-harvard-law-carve-washington-dc-into-several-states-to-provide-votes-and-r