My wife and I work really hard, and we had planned a trip to San Francisco to see Bruce Springsteen. That meant a lot to me because Bruce was my late father’s favorite artist, and my dad was my best friend. This wasn’t just a trip. It was supposed to be a breath. A break. A moment with my wife that wasn’t completely swallowed by the darkness of everything going on.

But I canceled it.

ICE was already terrifying enough, and it just keeps escalating. I know that’s the point. I know they want people like us to be afraid, because fear is power to them. But I’m a trans man, and it is getting harder and harder not to be afraid at this point.

And I feel almost petty even being upset about a canceled trip when there are families being torn apart, children dying in cells, and people on the right openly feeding this cruelty like it’s something righteous instead of evil. How are we not rising up against this? How are people just expected to keep going like this is normal?

I work in the nonprofit world in recovery and homelessness, so I already spend so much of my life face to face with pain, trauma, and survival. I was just hoping for a little time with my wife that wasn’t surrounded entirely by grief and fear. Just a few days of music, memory, love, and something that didn’t hurt.

And I can’t even have that.

I’m trying to sell my tickets now, and I hope someone is able to enjoy them and have some fun. I just cannot bring myself to risk my life for this, and that’s where we’re at. The worst part is that it’s not even just paranoia. It’s based on what has already happened to people, on the hatred directed at the trans community, and on how much worse this keeps getting. I am just so tired.

Update: I’m talking to Delta now to see if they can reinstate my tickets. Thank you all, genuinely, for pulling me out of such a dark place and helping me breathe for a second. From what I can tell, it looks like ICE may not be assisting at airports right now, though with the idiot in office, who knows how long that will last.

Okay E St Nation, it's on sale day. Remember, Ticketmaster will freeze, lie, and betray you!

Grab whatever seat survives their madness and try not to have an emotional breakdown

Hopes & prayers for you all 😎

Graduated a couple months ago, and I’m very proud of my grad cap!!

Just got home from the Montreal show. I hope it’s ok if i share this one image i took. What a fuckin’ show.

One of the most iconic photographs ever taken of Bruce Springsteen is this one by photographer, Ron Pownall. This photograph was taken at the Worcester Centrum in 1984 when Bruce and his E. Street Band were on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

Just wanted to shout out to Adrian, who saw my sign yesterday and gave me a seat to see the Boss in Brooklyn. New Jersey is my home, where I was born — so I HAD to see Springsteen in Newark — but New York/Brooklyn is where I became a man … where I went to college, where I got married, where I’ve run a half-dozen marathons, where I spent most of my career, and where I was nearly killed by a reckless driver when I was 27 — shattering my shoulder, leaving me permanently disabled and with residual chronic pain (although upcoming surgeries and procedures will make me able-bodies enough to work/function again, disability will always be present to some degree. Right now, I am unable to use my right, dominant arm without a half dozen medications — some of which are heavy duty, and which I’d much prefer to get off of ASAP).

To put it plainly and simply: There’s no place like home, and there’s nothing like seeing Bruce Springsteen perform at your home. I’m grateful and inspired, personally and politically.

Make America Love Again

From Jersey with Love,

Dan

Technically Princess Rosalita of Desert Edge because we think those fruity AKC names are kinda funny.