Official Statement on SAFTA residency
Hi, all,
I am issuing an official statement about my brief writer's residency at SAFTA Firefly Farms in Knoxville, TN, this second week of January 2026.
I sought this residency in August 2025 for research on farm life for my syfy fiction on collective resistance and revolt against the elite class. Before arriving, I had already finished the 4th draft of this novel and sent it off for consideration to a publisher.
SAFTA reached out to me at the first week of January 2026 with a last second opening for a farmhouse residency shared with another unknown resident, and I accepted. I am currently working on 2 fiction sequels.
I arrived at the farmhouse, and the situation seemed agreeable to the other resident who would be in charge of the farm, and Erin and the other resident seemed very empathetic toward the oppression I experienced on the drive down from MN to TN. Security had been called on me at a restaurant then dismissed after I paid because "I was a real T." Apparently, in the South; you can't be a drag, but if you have legally transition, they can't do anything about your presentation. There were also cops all along the interstate from I-94 to I-90 to I-65 and a blockade of several cops in Kentucky. Having returned to Minneapolis now with our Ice crisis, I cannot say that it is worse. They are killing people here. We are in a war zone.
Upon arriving in a red state like Knoxville, TN, with its peaceful streets, I realized that we are in a Civil War. I was grateful for this brief opportunity to escape and hopeful that I would get to work on my writing and scared at the same time that I may not be safe, since I deal with PTSD, and even the safest of environments can be triggering.
The first night there I found a book on the shared return to shelving bookshelf with what looked like a toy closet next to another book that looked like a prison with the word "Subhuman." I am not entirely sure why I was browsing these books - perhaps to see what the other two residents had been browsing, or to see if there were any books of interest there for me, since there really were not in my hidden bookshelf. These two books paired together, though, were very triggering for my PTSD as I had a flashback to being locked in a toy closet with the lights out during nap time by a childcare provider as a child while my siblings got to watch tv. I remember later in life feeling like I had been treated as 'subhuman' as a child. I spent my first afternoon on the farm paralyzed in my room by these two damn covers.
After I came out, the other resident of the farmhouse and I discussed how we were both triggered at first when we got there, but that it was much better now. I was able to turn to my writing and eat. I came to the realization that I can only eat in a place when I feel safe.
Soon afterward, I began noticing the magnets on the refrigerator and their sexual remarks. I tried to discourage them because I do not just hook up with people. Like any person, though, I also feel sexual energy, especially when a sexual environment has been created, and am on testosterone. I did not feel like I should be feeling this way and worried that my energy might be being disruptive, so I spoke to the other resident since she was in charge of the buildings and asked to be moved to another building. I explained that she seemed cool and that I wanted an authentic connection with her but that I was getting sexual energy. She said no, stay, and that there was a chipmonk up there, and that she just felt platonic and to stay away if I felt sexual. I agreed that this would not be a problem.
Later, she called the owner and reported that she felt "uncomfortable" and the owner called me and said that I had to go because I was "sexually harassing" her, though she was the one calling me beautiful and "girl," though I am a man, and putting sexual remarks on the fridge.
After I cleaned up and left peacefully, I realized there was something off about the situation. The other resident in a moment of confidence had confessed that her family had been a part of an African cult when she was a child and that they were Baptists and Methodists now in Georgia and working with the FBI. When she told me this, it had not quite registered that she might have mistook me for an agent since I had identified the place as a rainbow sheep farm to a friend, or that she might actually be there to observe and report on the activities of the farm and trans people, specifically.
Trans people are currently being monitored by the FBI right now, especially those who have been involved in Palestinian activism or other forms of activism, and I, most certainly, am one of those people.
I am not 100% certain, but it feels a little like she was trying to set me up. I'm glad I got out of there safely. Unfortunately, because of her accusations, my bridge has been burned with SAFTA. The owner does not seem to understand that they or she had control of the temperature and other environmental factors of the building through a Nest.
I have returned to MN and wish them the best in the world and hope for their safety. If there are any governmental officials monitoring me, you can sure bet that you will continue to be reading my great literature, and so, too, will everyone else.