The Flight From Reality, by Regis Martin

A couple of disparate stories caught my eye the other day, each convergent upon a single theme, which is that of escape, of taking flight from one thing in order to find fulfillment in another. However, the outcomes were not at all the same, which is itself a story.

In the first instance, a deeply confused sixteen-year-old from Florida by the name of Josie, feeling unwelcome (by her account) in a state run by transphobic Republicans, flees to Rhode Island, where Pride flags are flown and gender fluidity is the norm. There, safely ensconced a thousand miles from home, the no-longer-frightened teenager tells the sympathetic host of NPR’s All Things Considered that the retaliatory reach of Gov. DeSantis cannot now prevent her from receiving the therapy she requires in order, by her reckoning, “to help my body align with my gender identity.”  ….

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