It's PRIDE MONTH Let Your Flags FLY!

Guys, gals, non-binary pals, HAPPY PRIDE! I love and support you all.

Whether you're a member of the Alphabet Mafia or an ally - or if you're not entirely sure what you are yet but you love and accept people as they are, it's a GREAT TIME TO BE ARMY even if we don't get Festa this year Let's ignore Tucker Carlson for a hot minute and take a look at the shiny happy people being as LGBTS as they can be:

It's giving bi at the very least, yes.

Y'know, maybe it's just me but I always feel something about that Joonie quote because.... any members of LGBTS are living in the closet. "We don't talk about that" culture is still CLOSET CULTURE and I see them - up to five of them, at any given time, but maybe all of them - doing what they can to speak themselves and live their truths in a place and under circumstances where they can't really do that out loud. They can identify as allies because of their privilege and power, and that's something, but it's not ideal. Not yet. And some of us are in the same place. We don't all live in accepting places. Many of us don't even live in tolerant places. Some of y'all live in places where being out is illegal. And make no mistake it's not getting easier in today's world. So if you're only able to be you online, or not at all, or you hide yourself or your loved ones or friends or family members who are living in a closeted circumstance, I hope you will be SAFE first. Don't feel like you have to be loud to be you. Safety and security, needs met like Maslow, and know that I AM PROUD OF YOU. I LOVE YOU. I SUPPORT YOU. And BTS supports you, too. Wanna see some cool tweets about flags? LET'S GOOOOOO

that's also a lil jikookery but we know they okay with whoever you are

I need to call G-Money and apologize for literally never realizing that before I saw that tweet. Thanks twt user @ jooniexe for your assistance

OH LOOK MORE RAINBOWS

Damn an image limit FOR REAL You are loved. You are recognized. You are supported. You are safe, here. You are important. You are valid. You are enough, as you are. Happy Pride, y'all.

IMPORTANT!!!

I’ve only seen like one person talk about this and it’s super important that this gets out there

Multiple punk symbols and sayings have been added to the FBI’s domestic terrorism guide

Things included are

The symbol for anarchy

ACAB and 1312

The three arrows pointing down in a circle

Eat the rich

Those are a few but it also mentions anything anti-fascist and anti capitalist

So if you live in the US please be careful

Happy Pride Month! 🌈

Pride Flag Stamp Washi! Brand new and on sale to celebrate Pride Month 🥰

🏳️‍⚧️ mush.house/pridemonth 🏳️‍🌈

Source

Some good news!

Reblog if you're LGBT and are against MAPS/Child Groomers

reminder this pride month that disabled people in the US on SSI and some forms of SSDI* do not have the same marriage equality as people not on SSI and SSDI. its called the marriage penalty.

by getting married, a disabled person can lose their income, benefits, and health insurance.

if a disabled person marries an able bodied person, and combined their assets are $3000 or over they will lose all benefits, including medicaid (health insurance).

if a disabled person marries a disabled person, their assistance is lowered 25%.

we don’t have marriage equality until all disabled marriages are equal.

*SSDI title II (disabled adult child) does fall under the marriage penalty, regular SSDI does not.

sources x x x x

Full article here. Please give it a click to support this kind of journalism! (I snipped out the highlights for a shorter read)

The state of Utah in the United States has no citizenship requirements for marriage licenses, and Utah County is the only place there that allows international couples to register their marriages online. Since the county rolled out virtual weddings during the Covid-19 pandemic, it became a wedding haven for same-sex couples who are not able to officially marry in their own countries.

As sexual minorities in China face suppression at home, Utah County is allowing them to officially marry and celebrate their love — all for around $100. Although the marriages aren’t recognized in China, some 200 same-sex couples from mainland China and Hong Kong have gotten married via the county’s digital marriage license system since 2021.

For authorities in Utah County, the influx of international couples came as a surprise. The Utah County and Auditor’s Office moved its marriage licensing service online, as part of a digitization initiative in 2019. At the start of the pandemic, a number of couples requested Zoom ceremonies, and the county made those available as well.

The service first attracted couples in Utah, followed by people from across the U.S., and later, from all over the world. From May 1 to September 20 this year, at least 77 same-sex couples with mainland Chinese addresses have been married there, said county deputy clerk Russ Rampton, who oversees marriage licensing, to Rest of World.

Although same-sex marriage remains illegal in Hong Kong, under a different set of laws to mainland China, residents who get married in other places are able to apply for dependent visas in the city for their partners. Married gay people are also able to mark themselves as married in tax filings.

In his vow, however, [one marriage certificate applicant] Zhu said he was looking forward to getting married a second time — in China. “If one day our country allows this, I hope we could get married again in this country,” Zhu said to his husband before they kissed.

**

Marriage equality does not stop in the West.

Today, we take a moment to celebrate a historic milestone - the anniversary of South Africa legalizing same-sex marriage. 🇿🇦🏳️‍🌈 On this remarkable day, South Africa not only became the first country in Africa to recognize love in all its forms, but also set a precedent for human rights and equality across the globe. This day serves as a reminder of the progress we've made, and the work that still needs to be done. Let's continue to fight for love, acceptance, and equality for all. Today we celebrate love, human rights, and the beautiful rainbow nation of South Africa. 🌈❤️

Friday, February 16.

Some good news.

News of a good disposition seems more than a little sparse right now, so you really have to make the most of it, as and when.

There is some news, however, from Greece. And this news is pretty, pretty good. So we are going to break this particularly good news to you the only way we know how. Enjoy it y'all.

The Forgotten History of the World’s First Transgender Clinic

I finished the first round of edits on my nonfiction history of trans rights today. It will publish with Norton in 2025, but I decided, because I feel so much of my community is here, to provide a bit of the introduction.

[begin sample]

The Institute for Sexual Sciences had offered safe haven to homosexuals and those we today consider transgender for nearly two decades. It had been built on scientific and humanitarian principles established at the end of the 19th century and which blossomed into the sexology of the early 20th. Founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, the Institute supported tolerance, feminism, diversity, and science. As a result, it became a chief target for Nazi destruction: “It is our pride,” they declared, to strike a blow against the Institute. As for Magnus Hirschfeld, Hitler would label him the “most dangerous Jew in Germany.”6 It was his face Hitler put on his antisemitic propaganda; his likeness that became a target; his bust committed to the flames on the Opernplatz. You have seen the images. You have watched the towering inferno that roared into the night. The burning of Hirschfeld’s library has been immortalized on film reels and in photographs, representative of the Nazi imperative, symbolic of all they would destroy. Yet few remember what they were burning—or why.

Magnus Hirschfeld had built his Institute on powerful ideas, yet in their infancy: that sex and gender characteristics existed upon a vast spectrum, that people could be born this way, and that, as with any other diversity of nature, these identities should be accepted. He would call them Intermediaries.

Intermediaries carried no stigma and no shame; these sexual and Gender nonconformists had a right to live, a right to thrive. They also had a right to joy. Science would lead the way, but this history unfolds as an interwar thriller—patients and physicians risking their lives to be seen and heard even as Hitler began his rise to power. Many weren’t famous; their lives haven’t been celebrated in fiction or film. Born into a late-nineteenth-century world steeped in the “deep anxieties of men about the shifting work, social roles, and power of men over women,” they came into her own just as sexual science entered the crosshairs of prejudice and hate. The Institute’s own community faced abuse, blackmail, and political machinations; they responded with secret publishing campaigns, leaflet drops, pro-homosexual propaganda, and alignments with rebel factions of Berlin’s literati. They also developed groundbreaking gender affirmation surgeries and the first hormone cocktail for supportive gender therapy.

Nothing like the Institute for Sexual Sciences had ever existed before it opened its doors—and despite a hundred years of progress, there has been nothing like it since. Retrieving this tale has been an exercise in pursuing history at its edges and fringes, in ephemera and letters, in medal texts, in translations. Understanding why it became such a target for hatred tells us everything about our present moment, about a world that has not made peace with difference, that still refuses the light of scientific evidence most especially as it concerns sexual and reproductive rights.

[end sample]

I wanted to add a note here: so many people have come together to make this possible. Like Ralf Dose of the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Magnus Hirschfeld Archive), Berlin, and Erin Reed, American journalist and transgender rights activist—Katie Sutton, Heike Bauer. I am also deeply indebted to historian, filmmaker and formative theorist Susan Stryker for her feedback, scholarship, and encouragement all along the way. And Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, whose enthusiasm for a short article helped bring the book into being. So many LGBTQ+ historians, archivists, librarians, and activists made the work possible, that its publication testifies to the power of the queer community and its dedication to preserving and celebrating history. But I ALSO want to mention you, folks here on tumblr who have watched and encouraged and supported over the 18 months it took to write it (among other books and projects). @neil-gaiman has been especially wonderful, and @always-coffee too: thank you.

The support of this community has been important as I’ve faced backlash in other quarters. Thank you, all.

NOTE: they are attempting to rebuild the lost library, and you can help: https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/archivzentrum/archive-center/

Seoul Tries To Cancel Pride ... Again

I know, I know. There is BTS media floating around that I have not yet covered, but Y'ALL THIS IS IMPORTANT OKAY

So basically what happened is, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival, every year, has to declare its use of public property to have the Pride parade. X tells me that "everyone knew" it was gonna be a problem this year, as it has been in the past, because of the new government. And sure enough that's what happened. The City of Seoul took the declaration (not permission, because groups don't need permission) to committee and, surprise surprise, the committee said "Nope, don't think so, LGBTQ+ people, not in our backyard, utensils". Last year the Culture Festival's org tried apply for nonprofit status and that was denied, and that under the Moon administration, so it's no shock that a country who voted for Yoon would also have mega-asshole level conservatives in City government. They do. Something about how they might sell explicit baked goods.

The cookies in question, possibly. This week, US President Joe Biden is visiting Seoul. Which is led by Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the People Power Party (President Yoon's party). Mayor Oh is actively trying to block Seoul Pride and also says - out lout - that LGBTQ+ equality is unconstitutional. Maybe Biden will take notice, or not.

And what does this have to do with BTS? Only everything, if you believe (as I do) that at least three members are absolutely not heterosexual and possibly as many as ALL of them are part of the community. Certainly they're all allies, who want equality for their own queer loved ones, if not for themselves. Love is love. Just let people live, omg, as I am wont to say, but also what kind of bullshit is getting perpetrated behind the scenes on our guys, who are under immense pressure right now? Not that they could even GO to Pride but wouldn't it be great if they knew it was happening, that change was coming?

Some brave members of the community are protesting one at a time in front of City Hall pending Pride on June 1. Kev doesn't usually get to go (his job, closets, etc) but X does, and he's planning to be there this year whether it's "canceled" or not.

Swing some chickens for my favorite homosexuals, willya? They're being oppressed. The hate is real, in Korea. And the next time anyone comes at you about the Jeon-Parks being in the closet, you can show them exactly WHY.

baymax, personal healthcare companion and wingman

Happy Egg Cracking Day 🐣

Wishing everyone a very happy Easter and Trans Day of Visibility 💙

We’re celebrating this very special occasion with a collection of trans pride creations by diverse artists from across the worlds celebrating Trans Visibility! 

💙 mush.house/tdov 💖

"Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill on Wednesday that would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender.

The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of Representatives in attendance, with 10 voting against it, two abstaining and three not voting.

Thailand has a reputation for acceptance and inclusivity but has struggled for decades to pass a marriage equality law. Thai society largely holds conservative values, and members of the LGBTQ+ community say they face discrimination in everyday life. The government and state agencies are also historically conservative, and advocates for gender equality have had a hard time pushing lawmakers and civil servants to accept change.

[Note: As always, worth noting that all of those things can be said about the US and plenty of Western countries too. The West isn't magically non-homophobic.]

The bill now goes to the Senate, which rarely rejects any legislation that passes the lower house, and then to the king for royal endorsement. This would make Thailand the first country or region in Southeast Asia to pass such a law and the third in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal.

The bill amends the Civil and Commercial Code to change the words “men and women” and “husband and wife” to “individuals” and “marriage partners.” It would open up access to full legal, financial and medical rights for LGBTQ+ couples...

The new government led by Pheu Thai, which took office last year, has made marriage equality one of its main goals."

-via AP News, March 27, 2024