god i love abba, its cheesy asf but idec

My June was literally just sleeping and reading. After Dokomi on the first weekend I was soo exhausted. I had to catch up on all the hours of sleep I missed in April and May ... And just when I thought I'll return to the land of the living the printhouse finally reacted to my complaint about the quality of my books, and hell, it's been years since I've been that angry! 8D Stillll dealing with that shit. So yeah, first half: physically exhausted. Second half: mentally exhausted. Great!

I did not expect to find a common theme among the books this month but surprisingly there is one: "Leave the past behind and start something new". I mean, maybe that's almost every book ever buuut ... Here's what I read:

The good ones: So this is Ever After (F.T. Lukens): Much needed fantasy and lots of fun and warmth and cuteness! I hope F.T. Lukens stays in the fantasy lane. I need more of this! I hope you get this message (Farah Naz Rishi): Finally the real end of the world, not just a metaphorical one. And honestly? People are scary! But I loved how it all came together in the end. All the struggling gets rewarded. The Friend Scheme (Cale Dietrich): I feel, this one took the easy way out on several (possible) confrontations but it was still a nice read. A different setting than usual for sure. Heartbreak Boys (Simon James Green): Perfect summer read. More cute fun. (And for once, the German cover is so much better than the original, which is horrendous, sorry 8D) Kiss & Tell (Adib Khorram): Has some important things to say and is still entertaining! The bad thing is that now I kinda want to listen to their music. Someone give me an animated music video pretty please.

Suprisingly Good: Where we left off (Roan Parrish): Borrowed this from the library for the train ride. Judging by the cover of the first volume I did not expect anything. But I liked it the moment Will explained how he glared at babies just to annoy their mothers. 8D I think this is the first book I read up to now that is solely focussed on the characters’ interactions and growth. As in nothing else happens at all. It’s interesting how it works.

Hmmm: Paper & Blood (Kevin Hearne): I enjoyed the first volume but getting through vol2 was a little bit harder. In vol1 there was a cameo of a character of the author's earlier series and I thought that was cool. But in this one that guy came as an additional cast member and while he was likable it still kind of annoyed me, because it made me feel like I missed out on so much stuff as I have not read his series ... I hope vol3 will finally be about Al's curses. That will be more fun again probably. If you change your mind (Robby Weber): Uhm, the drama of privileged white kids? It was sort of entertaining but the characters did annoy me on multiple occassions. Like when the ex wanted his date. He knew the scriptwriting was important for the protagonist and that there was only a little time left but he still insisted the date had to be now. Why not just wait a week?! ML as well though. Tell him off, boy! Show some spine! D: Also worst names ever. Harry and Haley? I couldn’t help wondering how similar these names would be in Japanese. “8D

On another note, I gifted “The Seven Husband of Evelyn Hugo” to my mother for her birthday and she seems to like it, while my sister found my copy of “Heartbreak Boys” lying around, read the blurb and totally dismissed it. Rude! Also “Aru Shah” is finally being published in German which is great because everyone everywhere should read it, but wtf is with that cover? Is it the lighting or is that girl’s hand white ....?!

So my Friend told me something interesting...

TWO

NEW

RED

SKY

SONGS

WILL

BE

OUT

ON

JANUARY

18TH

My favourite bit in If You Change Your Mind (Robby Weber) is when Harry is just doing his shift at the bookshop (with a choice 1960s playlist in the background) and within 30 minutes, three guys who are into him have dropped by, he’s trying to ignore it all, and his coworker Agnes is all 🤨 “...do all those guys like you?” and when he denies it she responds “I’m invested, I need to know who you’ll pick“.

we go just right.

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

New podcast episode is up! This week, we pay tribute to Eric Carmen and go back to where it all started with the Raspberries

I am him

He is me

Experienced the best night of my life last night

i saw someone on reddit mention this and wanted to see it for myself, so here it is. if you initiate a romance with astarion, but then later pursue someone else, he'll almost always be catty about it, imply that you have poor taste for choosing someone else over him, and will reject any offer of polyamory on the grounds of either personal standards (ew, you want him to be in a love triangle with who?) or self-preservation (he ain't fighting lae'zel for your ass lmao).

but if his rival-in-question is karlach...

he tells you that he hopes you'll be a comfort to her and turns down your offer of seeing him on the side because he doesn't want her to get hurt :`)

meanwhile, if you put karlach in the same situation (start out romancing her, then pursue astarion), she'll also start out quite sweet...

and then quickly devolve into (affectionately) taking the piss out of astarion for stealing her partner 😁

"She likes Astarion but threatening to kill him for stealing her bf/gf is also funny to her." 😂

in sum: they're frands, your honor

can’t have SHIT in this family

Twitter || Ko-fi || Instagram

What ifs (2022)

What if we forget the bad Find the good and hope For a future that’s just So much better than before

What do you say To taking a chance on love On what we left unspoken On what we never had to say

We could be great, You and I But we never stood a chance Faulty foundation led astray

Of course you’d doubt me Recovering flight risk, rarely presented As a stable me, especially not this me I’ve finally come to be

What if you could know her now, And we could try to be, not the them’s that blew it, Just the ones we want to see

- E. Ecker, from Reformatting, December 24, 2022

fwb toji who is furious when you come home (you let him crash at your place) telling him with a broad smile that the mechanic was kind enough to give you premium air on your tires "for only $120 for all four tires!" and he's fuming, already on his feet, "no no sweetheart," he tells you, "they scammed you. why didn't you call me in the first place?" and suddenly you're shy, giving him a shrug that nearly wounds him if it weren't for the hard thumping of his heart. "give me your keys, baby. I'm gonna take care of it."

dressed him up in some merch