The year was 2015. I was not in a good place. I had quit my lucrative (ha) job in newspaper journalism to enter the equally lucrative world of local television, hosting a late-night comedy show on The CW in Austin. It was exhilarating, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was the […]
Tag: TB3
Posted inCulture
Feuding Neighbors, 800 Onlookers, and $25,375 in Crowd Control: Inside Texas’ Wildest Holiday Light Displays
Everything is bigger in Texas, including holiday decorations. Millions of families across the state string up lights and inflatables in their yards for all to see — and can even achieve thousands in cash prizes or TikTok virality for extravagance. While some yard displays are beloved community staples, others can spark the ire of the […]
Posted inOpinion
Remember the ‘War on Christmas’? I Kinda Miss It.
Remember the “War on Christmas”? Yes, that early-2000s fever dream when Fox News convinced half the country that “Happy Holidays” was basically Sharia law in a festive font. A time when the right blamed “secularists” for everything, but everyone understood the subtext: post-9/11 panic, a dash of Islamophobia, and a preview of the endlessly escalating […]
Posted inBig & Bright
‘Love Is the Only Motherf****** Way’: Big Queer Wedding Party Celebrates LGBTQ+ Joy and Resilience in Texas
At a bustling venue on Sunday, the speakers boomed with a remix of “Stayin’ Alive.” Heather Schenk and Ty Linhardt had traveled from Chickasha, Oklahoma, for the Big Queer Wedding Party in Austin, where ten couples came to get married and renew their vows in the sanctuary of a former Baptist church. Guests stepped carefully […]
Posted inNews
Jasmine Crockett Is Running for U.S. Senate. Let’s Revisit Her Most Viral Quotes, Clapbacks, and Provocative Alliterations.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett announced her highly-anticipated run for U.S. Senate on Monday after weeks of rumors, guessing, and national headlines. “Turning Texas blue is what I want to talk to y’all about today. Now, there are those that say ain’t no way,” Crockett said to a crowd of supporters as she officially announced her […]
Posted inCulture
An ‘Over-the-Top’ Megachurch Christmas Show Has Divided Social Media, Again
Over the weekend, thousands gathered to watch approximately 1,200 volunteers in17,000 costumes, a 50-piece orchestra, and 21 animals take the stage at Prestonwood Baptist Church’s Christmas show in Plano, among beaming lights and angels ‘flying’ on harnesses. The holiday show, titled “Gift of Christmas,” has been a tradition of the church for about 40 years, […]
Posted inInvestigations
Where Did Anti-Trans Laws Start? How a Forgotten Houston Ordinance Turned Into a Massive, Nationwide Culture War
This story is a collaboration between The Barbed Wire and the Investigative Reporting Workshop— a nonprofit newsroom at American University that trains student journalists on in-depth reporting. When she was elected mayor of Houston in 2009, Annise Parker became the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. In 2014, Houston was one of […]
Posted inHealth
Texas’ New Abortion Ban Aims to Stop Doctors From Sending Abortion Pills to the State
This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Texas’ massive new abortion law taking effect this week could escalate the national fight over mailing abortion pills. House Bill 7 represents abortion opponents’ most ambitious effort to halt telehealth abortions, […]
Posted inNews
He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him.
“If a fascist is merely someone who opposes democracy, then let me be clear: I oppose democracy — and have always opposed democracy,” Jason Lee Van Dyke wrote. That was a part of a lengthy response I received after I’d emailed the North Texas lawyer to ask a few questions because on Nov. 11, he […]
Posted inNews
Mexico Publicized a New Strategy to ‘Embrace’ Deportees. Instead, Many Have Found Danger and Unemployment.
Luis Valentan spent more than three decades in the United States. He arrived as a young man from México in the 1990s and worked in construction and landscaping as a day laborer for years before becoming a host for Radio Jornalera, a show on the National Day Laborer Organizing Network that advocates for the rights […]