If you want to witness firsthand how systemic racism works, you need only have been in Capitol Annex Room 154 on Tuesday, Sep. 17, for the Interim Joint Committee on Education, as Kentucky’s lawmakers (who are, by-far, majority white) lorded over a hearing to allegedly discuss DEI: diversity, equity, and inclusion in postsecondary education.

I say allegedly, because a good half hour into the testimony of University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto (who is white), the woman next to me (who is white) whispered what I (a white lady) had been thinking. “Why are we here? What is the purpose of this meeting?”

Capilouto emphasized that UK is making strides to be more nonpartisan, saying at one point “we should welcome discomfort in hearing ideas. But we can’t tolerate indoctrination, intimidation, or disrespect. The lectern serves learning, and is not a pulpit for proselytizing.”

And yet Capilouto said these words in a legislative hearing where you could feel the tension of intimidation permeate the room, and the pulpit of proselytizing was monopolized by lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Tichenor (who is white) as she condescendingly lectured University of Louisville president Kim Schatzel (who is white) about how much she dislikes that pesky word “equity.” 

“Our Constitution talks about equality,” Tichenor said, “I don’t love that word, equity.” 

Last year, the University of Louisville changed the name of its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Office of Institutional Equity in an apparent mad scramble to get ahead of potential anti-DEI legislation. 

Schatzel responded by defining equity, but her clear answer was not clear enough for Tichenor to drop it. Equity, Tichenor said, “assumes that there’s an overall that everybody can have or comes in, you know, it leaves the same way. That’s just impossible. We’re all different people. So I guess my question to you would be, why would you choose … the Office of Institutional Equity, as opposed to the Office of Institutional Equality, because that truly is more of our founding in the United States of America, that we’re all created equal.”

Hold up. What now?

The dictionary defines equity as “the quality of being fair and impartial.” 

The dictionary defines equality as “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.”

Listening to Tichenor dig in was like listening to someone demand you acknowledge the difference between stepping out to use the restroom vs. the bathroom. But of course this back and forth was not about a word, it was about power. Tomato, tomah-to, use the word I want you to use to show your deference to me and prove publicly that I am the boss, that I hold the purse strings, that you report to me and will do as you’re told, thank you very much.

Ah yes, this. Groveling publicly before the legislature. This is why we were all there. This was the purpose of the meeting.

There was also the unfortunate but predictable, oh-gosh-we’re-running-short-on-time remark from committee co-chair, Sen. Stephen West (who is white), after allowing such a big chunk of time up front for UK and U of L that they had to call the presidents of Eastern Kentucky University (who is white), Western Kentucky University (who is white), and Murray State University (who is white) to testify together and in a hurry. 

Rude, dismissive, and humiliating.

Remember, this is the same GOP supermajority (of mostly white folks) who, for the second year in a row, could not be bothered to pass the Crown Act out of committee “which would have outlawed discrimination on the basis of a hairstyle historically associated with a person’s race.”

And sitting front and center was Rep. Jennifer Decker (who is white), primary sponsor of an anti-DEI bill this past session, who, earlier this year, told an NAACP audience with a straight face that her white father was a slave.

It was a crushing disappointment to witness this two-hour hearing. 

It was a crushing disappointment to watch silently as, one by one, five powerful university presidents (all white) groveled at the feet of majority-white lawmakers, promising that they have, of their own accord, already dismantled diversity offices, vowing that they are behaving — No DEI being practiced here, ma’am! We don’t even say ‘DEI’, sir! — and will continue to fall in line. Did a Black lawmaker say a few words here and there? Sure, but nothing consequential. 

It was a crushing disappointment to witness the cowering and cowardice on display from the leaders of our top universities, the very institutions we trust to teach our children to be bold and brave in learning as they grow into adulthood.

And it was embarrassingly obvious that in a legislative hearing alleging to address diversity, equity and inclusion, not a single person of color was handed a microphone and asked what they thought, even as one brave Black woman sat right there in the front row wearing a bright red t-shirt that read in bold white letters, “Make America Not Racist for the First Time.”

This is systemic racism at work.

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by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

they came in droves

in cyclones and

rainfall, in windstorms

and pelting hail

each icy rock—

heavenfall—

a tiny drone

delicate wings

filigree work,

they lay inert

like cicada

broods—

emerging

mating

and death

but it seemed

backwards

their inertness

came to life

so it went—

death

mating

emergence

they arrived lifeless

but somehow

buffeted by gusts

kicked by feet

tormented by dust,

moved towards

one another

clung hard

and fused—

new beings

conceived

multi-winged

still tiny still flittering

but bigger, bolder

shooting skyward

until they pierced the atmo

outward and onward,

into the spatial heavens—

stuck on our planet

we watched—

for us it was a home,

for them

just mating grounds

a copulation nest

disposable rookery

D.A. Xiaolin Spires steps into portals and reappears in sites such as Hawai'i, NY, various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. She has a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology, writes speculative fiction and poetry, teaches martial arts, paints fantastical art in sumi ink and acrylic and convenes around tabletop games and RPG’s. Her multifaceted writing, including fiction and non-fiction, reflects her interest in food systems, ecology, technology and society. 

Her work appears in publications such as Clarkesworld, Analog, Strange Horizons, Nature, Terraform, Uncanny, Galaxy's Edge and anthologies of the strange and beautiful: Deep Signal, Ride the Star Wind, Make Shift, Broad Knowledge, Future Visions and Battling in All Her Finery. Select stories can be read in German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Estonian and French translation. Her works have been selected for The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories and The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time Stories, with poetry nominated for Dwarf Star, Rhysling, Best of the Net and Pushcart awards. She can be found on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/spires.bsky.social, Patreon: www.patreon.com/daxiaolinspires and her website: daxiaolinspires.wordpress.com.

Happy to announce that my poem “rookery” is now available to read at Orion’s Belt.

With thanks to Editor Joshua Fagan.

On a train ride from Santa Fe to Lamy, you can take in opera, burlesque, or indigenous hoop dancing, be serenaded by local performers, or even become part of a murder mystery. It all depends on which carriage you board.

The Sky Railway offers exciting, all-encompassing short-line railroad journeys arguably unlike any other. It is a passenger adventure that feels like something out of a fantasy storyfitting, considering that none other than George R.R. Martin, the creator of Game of Thrones, is behind the project.

Opened in December 2021, the Sky Railway is a revival of the former Santa Fe Southern Railway (SFSR). The 1880-built train, facing an uncertain future after ceasing regular operations, was rescued from dereliction and transformed into a new attraction by Martin and other local arts benefactors.

For over a century, the SFSR helped to connect New Mexico to the rest of the United States, playing a crucial role in the area's development. Over the years, it carried notable figures from Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy to Manhattan Project scientists en route to the secret city of Los Alamos. 

Enter George R. R. Martin, a Santa Fe resident since 1979, with other investors including bestselling mystery author Douglas Preston and Magnolia Pictures owner and filmmaker Bill Banowsky. Together, they combined their resources to repair the 18-mile spur of bridges and tracks between Santa Fe and the neighboring town of Lamy, and two 1920s vintage passenger trains. The outcome has been a slow-train experience combining traveling between different eras and realities with chugging across rolling desert terrains.

Train carriages have been gorgeously refurbished to evoke their original golden eras with a touch of contemporary culture (think dragon armrests à la Game of Thrones folklore). Each one has a different local musician playing tunes and a bartender serving specialty drinks.

Experiences include “The Stargazer,” with passengers cozying up to professional astronomers under the night sky, “Sunset Serenade” with cocktails and live music, themed 1920s, 1960s, and 1980s trains, “Jazz Under the Stars,” and a “Lore of the Land” ride with local storytellers.

As an added suspension of reality, Santa Fe graffiti and tattoo artist Joerael Numina has transformed the trains into vibrant works of art in locomotion. While hosting Prohibition era-themed parties or doing a wine or beer tasting inside, the outside carriages pay homage to Martin's fantastical worlds. One trundles through the arid landscape painted as a dragon, while the other is a wolf. Game of Thrones fans, how’s that for a plot twist?

This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. 

Calling it a “dangerous practice,” Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Wednesday that bans conversion therapy on minors in Kentucky. 

Speaking in Frankfort, Beshear said such attempts to alter a young person’s gender expression or sexual attractions have “no basis in medicine”  — a view supported by experts in medicine and mental health.

Conversion therapy has been condemned by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), among other medical and psychological organizations. AACAP says conversion therapies “lack scientific credibility and clinical utility” and “there is evidence that such interventions are harmful.”  

The practice involves “interventions purported to alter same-sex attractions or an individual’s gender expression with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome” according to the AACAP. 

The American Psychological Association says that people who have undergone “sexual orientation change efforts” are much more likely to be depressed and suicidal. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988. 

Beshear’s executive order states that neither state or federal dollars can be used “for the practice of conversion therapy on minors.” 

“Today’s action does not force an ideology on anybody,” Beshear said. “It does not expose anyone to anything in a library or school. It simply stops a so-called ‘therapy’ that the medical community says is wrong and hurts our children.”

Beshear’s order comes after Rep. Lisa Willner (D-Louisville) has repeatedly sponsored legislation to ban conversion therapy in Kentucky. Each year, her bill has had bipartisan support. Given that, it’s always been a “mystery” to her why it didn’t pass, she told the Lantern Wednesday. 

“That’s a question I’ve asked myself for six years: Why can’t we get this across the finish line?” she said. “It’s such a discredited practice. It has caused such harm to so many young Kentuckians, including suicide. And it has had such strong bipartisan support.”  

“I’m incredibly grateful for the executive order, and that, at long last, there will be protections in place,” Willner added.

Snags in 2025? 

Beshear’s move could hit snags in the 2025 legislative session. 

Rep. Josh Calloway (R-Irvington) wrote on social media that he would file legislation next year to “stop this governor from pushing his harmful far-left agenda on struggling kids.”

Calloway shared a screenshot of the email the governor’s office sent to announce the executive order and wrote, “why is @AndyBeshearKY determined to keep vulnerable children confused?”

“I will fight this with every fiber of my being,” Calloway wrote. “I am also exploring other legal options to stop egregious overreach.”  

Willner is “sure there will be efforts” to block the executive order, she told the Lantern.  

“There are people who, I think, willfully misunderstand what this is about, and that this is a practice that traumatizes people for decades, for the rest of their lives, and that ends lives prematurely,” she said. “And for people to misunderstand this is beyond disappointing. I will do everything I can to make sure that any efforts to turn this back will fail, and I really hope that they will.” 

Protections ‘at long last’ 

Advocates for mental health in Kentucky praised Beshear’s action.

Sheila Schuster, the executive director of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, called the practice “torture” and teared up as she spoke alongside Beshear in the Capitol Rotunda.

Her coalition has listed ending conversion therapy as a top priority for the legislature for nearly a decade, citing the “harm” the practice causes.

“While we have not been successful in the legislature, it’s not for lack of effort from our heroines and heroes,” Schuster said.

Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, said Beshear would “save countless Kentucky kids’ lives” with the move.

“Today, we all join Governor Beshear to send a crystal clear message to all of Kentucky’s queer kids and their families,” Hartman said. “You are perfect as you are.”

Eric Russ, the executive director of the Kentucky Psychological Association, called conversion therapy a discredited practice that “has no place in the mental health care of LGBTQ youth.” 

“We know that survivors of conversion therapy not only do not change their sexual orientation, but have worse mental health outcomes, including self blame, guilt, shame, anxiety, depression,” Russ said. “We know the best thing we can do as mental health providers is to affirm the identity of the kids in our care. When a kid walks into a licensed mental health professional’s office with their family, we have an ethical obligation to provide them care that is supportive, evidence based and affirming to their sexual orientation identity.”

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Written by Sarah Ladd. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.