Being trans in rural Pennsylvania | Morning Newsletter
And “Forever Fields”
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The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
The weather is pretty consistent this week. It’s another day of clear skies and temps reaching the 40s.
If you’re wiling to stay up late, be sure to check out the Geminids, the best meteor showers of the year. The peak will come late tonight into the early morning hours of Thursday.
Our lead story introduces you to Stephanie and Billie Jean, two trans women living in rural Pennsylvania.
— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Stephanie, 58, is a transgender woman living in the tiny town of Wiconisco, Pa.
She lives in rural America, where access to gender-affirming health care is more difficult, where most municipalities have no ordinances against gender-identity discrimination, and where there’s generally more support for conservative candidates who push back against transgender rights.
Billie Jean, 38, lives a few blocks away and cares for a younger sister with disabilities in a house she described as “literally falling apart.” She said she’s been harassed her whole life, and doesn’t present her gender often in public.
Different perspectives: Stephanie sees rural Pennsylvania as a safe, stable place where she can be herself and live outwardly as a woman. Previously, she spent a turbulent decade in Las Vegas, and finds life less complicated in the former coal town northeast of Harrisburg, nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. For Billie Jean, who hasn’t legally changed her name or started the medical transition she yearns for, small-town life has become suffocating.
Note: Approximately 16% of trans Americans live in rural areas.
Continue reading to learn how the two women navigate life in Wiconisco.
A real estate broker approached Jim Halkias in 2018 with what seemed like an enticing deal.
The broker explained that that a Denmark-based recycling company called Re-Match wanted to pay $4,500 a month to store more than 1,000 rolls of used, deteriorating artificial turf on 45 acres that Halkias owns in Grantville, Dauphin County. Halkias was told the turf would one day be recycled but the company didn’t have a recycling facility yet.
The deal turned sour two years later when Re-Match stopped paying him, but left the hulking rows of turf.
Halkias has been trying to sell for years with no success. People back out because of the turf that the Department of Environmental Protection considers to be waste.
And Halkias’ story isn’t that unique.
Continue reading to uncover how Pennsylvania became a dumping ground for discarded artificial turf.
What you should know today
The faculty of University of Pennsylvania are worried that the donor who started the successful effort to oust president Liz Magill and board chair Scott L. Bok is now attempting to set the agenda for the university.
Bok also wrote an opinion piece for The Inquirer stating that donors should not decide campus policies or control what it is taught.
Nurses and techs voted to unionize at Temple’s Chestnut Hill Hospital earlier this week.
The holiday season is the best time for cheaper apartment rents. This year, Philly renters could save $27 per month paying the typical rent in November compared to the peak median rent in June and July.
Upscale clothier Boyd’s is hosting a holiday market to lure and show customers that Center City is back.
A map of Tacony Creek Park is now available in seven languages.
Young conductors are getting a shot at the baton at Philadelphia Ballet’s Nutcracker through a new apprenticeship program.
🧠 Trivia time
Philadelphia native Colman Domingo played which civil rights activist in a Netflix biopic?
Hint: The activist is from West Chester.
A) A. Philip Randolph
B) Bayard Rustin
C) Cecil B. Moore
D) None of the above
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
👀 Watching: Harvard President Claudine Gay will keep her post following the backlash toward her comments last week at a congressional hearing on antisemitism.
🦷 Explaining: The downfall of SmileDirect.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Offensive lineman
JADA LAMINATOR
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Shawn Baldwin, who correctly guessed Tuesday’s answer: Michael B. Jordan.
Photo of the day
That’s all I have for you this morning. I’m starting my morning shamelessly eating holiday cookies for breakfast. I’ll be back with more news tomorrow.