Dear Supporters,

June has come and gone, and with it, we’ve got another Media Coordinator Report to deliver. Here are the numbers:

• 27,770 submissions
• 10 pickups…?

I have to admit, folks. Finding pickups is the hardest part of this job and I have been doing it all wrong. The reason this report is so late, in fact, is because I was debating with myself on whether to include the pickup numbers at all.

Tom’s system, crafted after many years of doing this job, was to create all manner of alerts and notifications for each article he sent out. One ingenious method he told me about was saving a Google Alert that included a specific uncommon phrase from the article he was submitting. I have not been doing that. So this month I’ll be going back through the dozens of articles we’ve published since March and seeing if I can find our pickups to bring our numbers a little bit closer to the truth. Expect that at the mid-month update.

Other than that, I look at the preceding month and I see a success. C4SS has some of the most passionate writers around and June was a month where they really shone. Take Grant Mincy’s Across the Sea:

Under the cover of darkness, at risk of capture, torture and/or death they fled. They subjected themselves to the brutality of a large human smuggling network, hid in tight spaces, traveled at length in silence and paid incredible fees. They kept cover under palm trees, moved along sand dunes and have slept very little. Tired, bone weary, hungry, but alive, they stand on the shoreline.

This is it. The last leg in a very long journey. But, the ancient Mediterranean is dangerous.

Choppy currents, large waves, great white sharks and other obstacles stand between the refugees and Europe. They have all heard the tales. They know thousands have drown on this eight mile voyage. But, just as thousands before them, they will risk their last breath and attempt to cross the sea with their families. Freedom is worth their last gasp of air.

Or Nathan Goodman’s Queer Liberation and Jury Nullification:

That last part, resistance, is absolutely crucial. Pride is held in June in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of 1969. After police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, patrons fought back. At the time, homosexuality and gender non-conformity were overtly criminalized. Police inspected the genitals of bar patrons dressed in feminine attire, and arrested drag queens and cross dressers. The officers also frisked and groped lesbian patrons.

That night, the queer and trans people at the Stonewall Inn did not accept the coercion and abuse they faced from the police. They fought back. Their acts of defiant self-defense against unjust state violence that night sparked the modern gay liberation movement. Every pride festival and pride parade is a celebration of resistance to an unjust criminal justice system.

While queer and trans people are no longer explicitly criminalized under the letter of the law, they still face unjust state violence and criminalization. Officers profile transgender women of color as sex workers and frequently arrest them on charges of solicitation. Queer and trans people who defend themselves from hate crimes, such as CeCe McDonald and the New Jersey Four, are themselves charged with violent crimes and incarcerated. LGBTQ homeless youth find themselves arrested for “quality of life” crimes such as sleeping in public, panhandling, and a variety of other crimes that primarily exist to criminalize the poor.

See what I mean?

July is already starting off fantastically, with articles speaking out against deifying Ronald Reagan, less police peace and more treason for everyone.

And none of this is possible without readers like you. We’re able to keep the lights on due to your support, so thank you for everything. I’ll see you in two weeks.

Yours in solidarity,
Trevor Hultner
Media Coordinator
C4SS