Any moment now, as Christmas and (American) Thanksgiving get closer, people will start posting suggestions of things to donate to food banks and 'Reverse Advent Calendars'.

I can't stress this enough:
Just. Give. Money.

Food banks can usually get more bang for their buck than you can.
They'll probably be able to give you a tax receipt for money, but not for cans.
And it lets them buy, store, and distribute food in the volumes they need and can handle.

(Please boost to make sure people get the message.)

#FoodBanks #FoodInsecurity #Christmas #Thanksgiving #Charity #JustGiveMoney

I can't help but notice many toots from helpful newbies encouraging you to support the Mastodon Patreon.

It's fine to do that but understand it goes to just two big instances and the official Mastodon dev team.

It does NOT trickle down to YOUR instance. If you want to support your server, donate to it directly. Nearly all the costs of the explosive growth of the past few weeks is borne by local instances.

Mastodon is decentralized. There is no Mastodon Inc. This is not Twitter.

So...I hate so say it but there is a doinkload of crazy-ass #Islamophobia floating about #Mastodon right now. Searching #Islam shows me nothing - hashtag Islamists has all the crazy conspiracy world takeover bull that gives everyone who has studied anti-Semitism the old Eternal Return shivers.

So #newbie Muslims (and srsly PLEASE use #Mustafidons) and everyone out there - please report the s$%# out of every اخو شرموطة trying it on. And if mods aren't responding I'd be interested to know.

I'm going to relay a few things I am noticing/reading from others more likely to suffer harm from language than I am....

The current move to new social platforms is disruptive, and distressing in some ways, positive in others.

I'd like to suggest that all of us and very particularly those of us from settler/colonizer/white cultures really, seriously avoid using allusions to colonization, settling, refugees, invasion, migrants, etc in our discussion of what is going on.

@dianeduane, one of the most influential authors of my childhood, one of the pillars of #MiddleGrade, #ya, and #StarTrek tie-in fiction, is on here now!

Welcome Diane and thank you for all your incredible work inspiring and shaping the hearts and minds of lonely young wizards who needed a book to recognize their power when they felt like the world didn’t!

https://mastodon.social/@dianeduane/109354005272307869
@bookstodon #SciFi #fantasy

Just out: my photo essay, in collab with photographer Jesse Freidin, who documents the lives of young #trans kids. He shared 7 powerful portraits of young #transgender Texans.

Jesse told me: “I want to tell those stories before they disappear, before these families leave the country or state, before these families have to go underground.”

This story is incredibly important to me, and all of us at Texas Observer too. This was published in the November/December issue of our magazine, and now available online in time for Trans Awareness Week: https://www.texasobserver.org/trans-kids-youth-are-you-ok-photos/

#LGBTQIA #Texas #children

(I'm concealing the photos because they contain eye contact, but I really hope you will look if you can, these are powerful photos of young people being themselves, and part of me wishes I didn't have to CW them)