12. Make Eye Contact And Small Talk.

What and how we research

I know it's constantly stated that science is objective. I constantly emphasise that researchers are human beings and that their backgrounds, experiences and lives influence not only what they research, but also how they do it. That's why diversity in science is important. Yes, science is based on good scientific practice, transparency and reproducibility, but the what and how have degrees of freedom and are shaped by those who do the research.

’[...] But most of the research I do is more focused on sapphics, which would make sense, considering I am one.’ Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever had an openly queer teacher before. ‘That’s so cool,’ I say [...]. ‘Do a lot of professors end up researching things that, uh, also apply to them?’ ‘It depends,’ Fineman says. ‘In some fields, yes; a lot of my colleagues have a personal connection to their work. But not always. In any case, we’re very passionate about what we do.’

Zhao, A. (2024). Dear Wendy. Macmillan USA.

I don't know if I would do research on queer perspectives in library and information science if I wasn't queer myself. I don't know if I would choose a transformative research design if I didn't see inequalities and a need for change. Who we are shapes what we do and how we do it, whether it's in research or anywhere else.

Queer Spawn Point

Spotted in Amsterdam

Funding Terminations

Research funders like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have been cutting grants across the United States. Some amazing people have created trackers to collect and visualize the decimation of science funding and what kind of research is being cut. I think we can all guess what kind of research it is. It will look similar to what will happen or already is happening in other countries, in the Netherlands, for example.

NSF Grant Terminations 2025. https://airtable.com/appGKlSVeXniQZkFC/shrFxbl1YTqb3AyOO

NIH Grant Terminations in 2025. https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA

Matthews, D. (2024). Far-right governments seek to cut billions of euros from research in Europe. Nature, 635(8037), 15–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03506-y

When I teach my library and information science students, that's the kind of library I envision, and I hope to inspire them to create it.

people talking about "lesbian rights" going "U CAN'T BE A TRANSMASC/TRANS MEN LESBIAN THAT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE YOU ARE THREATENING ALL OF THE LESBIANS AROUND U!!!!!!!" meanwhile i was at the library earlier and saw one of the staff members with a shaved head had a water bottle with a sticker saying "cultivate lesbian JOY!" and so i decided to go "hey nice i'm a lesbian too!" and that person & the transfem next to them both erupted with joy. nobody got mad about my beard. nobody got mad about how deep my voice is. those two, who are very used to seeing me there as that's where i print labels for my job, were overjoyed to see another lesbian.

i didn't get 20 questions. i didn't get "your voice is deep are you a MAN????" nobody bitched about my facial hair. nobody got mad that a person passing for a cis man at the time said it was a lesbian. instead i received nothing but joy, the others giggling and saying that we were the Lesbian Corner. nobody got mad, there was nothing but joy. a transmasc lesbian & a transfem lesbian shared the exact same joy it it bothered no one. no fighting. NONE. no being mad about my appearance or my voice. this is what lesbian community is REALLY about. diversity among lesbians. accepting lesbians no matter how they look, sound, or what their gender is.

this is the spirit of lesbianism, not getting angry when someone is a lesbian "wrong".

Queer Narrative

Coming-out stories [...] generally assume a stable sexual identity [...].

The idea of a stable identity has always puzzled me. As a person, I tend to grow and change with every breath I take, every experience I make, every conversation I have, every piece I read. Life is change and identity can change along the way. Sexual identity is no different.

Mulhall, A. (2020). Queer Narrative. In S. B. Somerville (Hrsg.), The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies (1. edition, p. 142–155). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108699396.011

These Witches Don’t Burn

“She’s my ex,” I whisper, my stomach clenching as I wait to see how [he] responds. Coming out is always nerve-wracking, no matter how many times I do it. [...]

[He] pauses a moment, considering me. Then he lets out a knowing sigh. “My first boyfriend broke up with me a few months before he went to college, too.”

“Yeah?” I ask, instantly feeling a tighter kinship with my new coworker, like seeing a familiar face in a crowd of strangers.

“What happened?”

“Some of it was the usual stuff, [...]. Mostly, though, I don’t think he wanted to date a guy.” When [he] sees my confused expression, he clarifies. “I’m trans. I came out senior year.”

Sterling, I. (2019). These Witches Don’t Burn. Razorbill.

(un)related

[...] most German conservatives (with some honorable exceptions) swallowed their doubts about the Nazis in favor of their overriding common interests.

Why did this quote come to my mind today?

Each generation of scholars of fascism has noted that the regimes rested upon some kind of pact or alliance between the fascist party and powerful conservative forces.

Paxton, R. O. (2004). The Anatomy of Fascism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

(un)related to these quotes

Have you heard about that?

[Conservative party] ends longstanding boycott on cooperating with far-right party

The so-called Brandmauer fell today and that was no surprise.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/29/german-immigration-motion-passes-breaking-taboo-on-cooperation-with-afd

Update

They changed the title and the subtitle. The subtitle now reads:

[The leader of the conservative party] accused of breaking longstanding political firewall against far-right populists

My name is Fuzzy

Hearing someone say my Twitter and Tumblr username out loud is pretty much a spiritual experience.

Oseman, A. (2018). I was born for this. HarperCollins Children’s Books.

I can't overstate how much this quote means to me. So many years ago I came up with the username Leapfrog for a wiki page. It's based on a method used in numerical analysis and it is used in numerical weather prediction models, which is what I was working on at the time. Not much later, I started my first public social media profile, but Leapfrog was already taken. So I added Fuzzy. It's based on fuzzy logic, so again something I was just learning about. Whereas Boolean logic is based on only two truth values,

Fuzzy logic [...] is a special many-valued logic which aims at providing formal background for the graded approach to vagueness.

Novák, V., Perfilieva, I., & Močkoř, J. (1999). Mathematical Principles of Fuzzy Logic. Springer.

That is how I became FuzzyLeapfrog, or simply Fuzzy.

Both words capture my nature and soul very well. I always try to find a numerical solution, while acknowledging that the world is more complex and vague than that.

So I've been called Fuzzy online for over a decade now, but gradually Fuzzy has also found its way into offline interactions. It's not just about me though. So many people I meet offline are people I met online and we very often address each other with our online names anyway. This has brought me so much joy and probably caused a lot of confusion for people who are unfamiliar with our online names or even the concept of online names.

Anyway, it doesn't matter how often I hear it, having someone acknowledge our online connection by calling my Fuzzy loudly offline is an endless source of inner joy. I am Fuzzy.

Protecting Libraries as Safe(r) Spaces

What Not to Do

- Do not remain neutral when a hate group attempts to infiltrate the library. [...]

Hopefully an uncontroversial opinion: In these situations, "remaining neutral" isn't "neutral" at all.

Western States Center (2022). Confronting White Nationalism in Libraries: A Toolkit. https://www.westernstatescenter.org/libraries

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