Time To Ask For Help.

I'm not good at this, and I probably should have started sooner, but let's do this anyway.

This post is a departure. While my life experience is wild, varied, and, I hope, interesting enough to form a base from which to jump into other information, in every other post I’ve written here (with the possible exception of last December 24th) the point of including my personal stories has been to illuminate something separate from myself, something larger, typically something politically or socially important.

Today I have to tell you that after scrambling a bit for the last 2 months, I still have no housing lined up for when I must leave my current home on January 1st. While that might not otherwise mean much to many — my life is certainly no more valuable than any other, and many people in the US have become or remained homeless this past year — if I don’t have a home, that will certainly interrupt my ability to write both here at Pervert Justice and over on Wonkette.

Housing, as you may now, is fucking ridiculous in price right now, and while I might really love to live on a solar powered boat with a solar powered kitchen and solar powered water purification supplying my tea and shower needs, solar boats aren’t yet any cheaper than buying a home in northwest Washington. And northwest Washington state is far from a cheap place to live.

“Certainly,” a reasonable person might begin, “you’re smart and capable and can easily find some place that will work.” But alas, my disability profile makes it impossible for me to hold down a job working regular hours from anywhere — even home — as health issues aren’t predictable. Adding the difficulties of actually finding a place and moving into it makes the next few weeks all the more intimidating.

I’ve delayed writing this post more times than I can count, but the time is here: I’m not making it on my own, and so I’m asking people who value my contributions to this community for their support. If Pervert Justice doesn’t mean much to you, and if my contributions to Wonkette make it neither better nor worse in your eyes, please don’t offer money or support. But if you would miss my writing I’d very much appreciate it if you would offer what support you can, restacking posts, commenting, liking, sharing on your social media: anything that you might do to bring more attention to work you find valuable is helpful even if you give no money to support this site and me.

For those able to and wanting to offer monetary support to help pay for move-in costs as well as the costs for movers and cleaning which my bones won’t allow me to do for myself, I have a one-time donation button OR you can use the subscribe button.

A monthly subscription is $6 — the very first thing I did when I decided to accept paid subscriptions is lower it from the default of $8. You can also subscribe for a year at $60 to get a larger amount of money into my hands sooner. Founder subscriptions offer the opportunity to make a larger, one time donations as well.

For other amounts, I will try to add a Venmo or PayPal button when I can figure out how Wonkette does it, and using those services you can customize your support. (Hey, look! I figured it out and that button is right there below this paragraph, because I know how to edit things. Isn’t that impressive?)

PayPal first:

And this one is Venmo:

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For those people new to Pervert Justice, I invite you to look back at my work over the past year to see if it constitutes something you could or would support. You can start with a few highlights:

Important Scoops:

Pervert Justice is not primarily a place for investigative reporting or shoe leather work. Even so, sometimes we’re in with a story before major media pick it up. Two of our contributions noticeably beat the national news to important stories.

Most recently I was all over Nancy Mace’s likely lies last week, before her story about why she had an advocate for foster kids arrested began to be challenged by mainstream media. Not even the WaPo had the story right before Rebecca and Wonkette published my work on it.

Last winter the first account of the death of Nex Benedict to spring up outside of Oklahoma was a story by Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents. But Pervert Justice was right behind PGHLC and far ahead of the national trend, not only reporting on Nex before national news got hold of the story, but also situating their story within the context of bathroom panics and anti-trans political attacks.

Historically Informed Analysis:

Want to understand the dynamics that led to Matthew Shepard’s murder receiving national attention and Rita Hester’s none? That was in Pervert Justice.

Don’t know what deadnaming originally meant, or why that original meaning is important? That was in Pervert Justice.

Just a week ago I was ‘splaining to you how the need to access hormones without a prescription — certain to be a reality for damn near half the country under the next Trump administration — is horrible and dangerous, but not at all new.

But perhaps the deepest historical cut is this one, which will take you back to the 1600s to understand how outsiders’ marriages have been attacked using the same strategies, from Quakers to Queers, and how major media outlets ignore the Republican history of using “cultural” issues like trans existence or queer marriage or racial integration for 60 years.

Beauty and Pain:

Some of the best, most powerful writing is the most painful, and I’ve brought that as well. I like to think that the stories which absolutely demand the best writing to tell, bring my best writing out of me.

I could not be more proud of the Nex Benedict piece that Wonkette’s editors helped me create. Unlike other pieces published in other places, this one sought to get to know Nex, to present their story as best as any stranger could know it while respecting the differing stories that came from the family and friends who loved them.

It’s hard to imagine a story more devastating than that of Rebecca Cheptegai, 44th finisher in the women’s marathon in this year’s Olympics. I was proud to tell that story, too, in Pervert Justice. And many of you loved and shared it. It was the most restacked piece of the year here despite (or because of) its heartbreak.

Humor, Sex and Love:

I try very much to nourish my readers. I don’t talk down to anyone, writing theory and philosophy when it’s called for, and I try very hard not to neglect important areas of life, including the need to laugh, which brought you the song Cinnamon and the rap version of Biden’s 2024 State of the Union. I’ve written about sex as a human right which sometimes needs unconventional measures to support, particularly when that sex involves one or more persons with disabilities. I’ve written about the love of family and community that makes Black Lives Matter fundamentally unrecognizable to practitioners of white pride.

Racism, ability, media criticism and more have all been topics of this eclectic, wild publication called Pervert Justice. I hope that within its broad scope you can find work that embraces and supports you, and that in turn you wish to embrace and support with your words or dollars. There is no natural home for writing like this. If we want it in our lives, if you want it in your life, we will have to work together to ensure there is always a space for fierce advocacy without any limits beyond what love would ask.

Thank you for listening to my case for why you should support Pervert Justice and me, your friendly, neighborhood Crip Dyke. I hope it found you well and left you better.

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Crip Dyke also writes for the delightfully cussmouthed Wonkette!

You could also follow me on BlueSky. Pretty sure that would make you cool or something.