#we will continue being trans no matter what laws you put into place. no matter how dangerous you make the world for us... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marcusrobertobaq · 24 days

Note

List your Gavin headcanons, I am now curious

I suck at headcanons but these are the cop headcanons I was talking about:

Gavin joined the force around 10yrs before when we meet him in the game

Back in patrol he used to be rough with suspects even if he knew they were innocent, y'know the ego, never admitting he's wrong and shit. The use of force is a bit over the limit too, throwing people on the ground when ain't that necessary, pinning on the wall, car hood and shit. Your average police brutality metaphor.

Always an escalating prick: if he can make the environment kinda tense he will, with authoritative and sometimes sarcastic tones. He also tends to joke about the suspect behind 'em back, calling 'em idiot and shit like this.

On scene he used to make questionable jokes with his pals (that were like him) when with a suspect detained or arrested especially if related to DUI.

His superior on Patrol Unit used to be "corrupt" too so he was always kinda backed up cuz although he was an asshole he got things done and u know what cops think about some types of suspect, especially the hostile ones

If he can go for his gun he gonna go for his gun and gonna point it in your face.

Although Gavin could be considered a corrupt cop for having power trips dude knows the laws, the thing is he does what he thinks that needed to be done to make the wheels turn. I'd say he got his own laws.

When going to clubs or bars things almost always ended up in conflicts or fighting and i'd say even if he took a beat mf gave it back doesn't matter if the mf is a 2m bodybuilder. Ofc mf drop the "cop card" to put people in 'em place. This habit continues to this day

For some reason I believe Reed been a detective for at least 4 years when we meet him. He thought about trying SWAT before or even K9 (mf love dogs, hunter dogs) but found himself in financial related crimes division, later in major crimes like homicide. He liked the detective even tho was a hell of work and u couldn't have peace. But it's a popular area to try building a career.

Dude's kinda interested in firearms.

He's still got the habit of joking even on the most gruesome crime scenes. It's like things don't impact him that much to the point if he discovered something he didn't like about the victim he would joke about 'em death

He got a damn of a dirty mouth esp when not inside the station and he can be disrespectful in some moments

He's known ass Det. Asshole in his division. Dude's always sarcastic and arrogant, and wanting mfs to laugh or agree with him. Some actually pretend being in the circle but still think dude's an asshole and invasive sometimes, especially the women.

He'll often make homophobic and transphobic jokes especially if he wanna piss someone off - mostly about men, if fruity or too feminine or trans women that looks "kinda masculine". Nothing personal, tho.

If the person is fucking an android or is an android "lover" he'll also shit on this, usually saying things like "you can't fuck a real person so you need a piece of plastic as replacement". It's basically like asking for him to look down on mfs. He also bully his co-workers about it, especially if the coworker dislike androids too. It's like an offense.

He got very peculiar opinions on Tracis, especially the fem ones. By peculiar I mean quite negative and I got the impression he would do some bad things to 'em. I'm talking about destroying 'em, ofc.

He also ain't got respect for "the bitches" - u just gotta look and/or act like one, btw. Well... He'll joke about it and be quite disrespectful. Men can be bitches too, according to him. "Pussies".

On the contrary of what most of the fandom think doesn't matter if he kinda see an android like an individual he'll still see 'em as inferior beings that should kneel to him and kiss his feet and he'll carry this mentality for a good time. The rebellion actually makes him "hate" android more cuz now androids are giving "orders" and making demands.

He sometimes bully the android cops too. He just likes making fun of 'em, bumping into 'em on purpose sometimes even making 'em fall to the ground and saying "oops! Sorry" in sarcastic tone. Ofc when things are more empty at the station and nobody gonna complain about it

He'll be an ass about androids while they're passive, and he expects 'em to always bow down in the end. Even if the android did something absurd he gonna joke about it or force 'em to bow. The moment the android becomes visibly unstable dude gonna shit on his pants and gonna order somebody to deal with the shit - which was the case in The Interrogation with Ortiz's android. But I assume most human characters are like this as they're not used to unstable androids or see 'em as just defective machines comparable to your printer going wild in the office

He like telling stories about his cases and experiences to anyone next to him in the moment. Even if it's some fucked up shit mf is always with his sense of humor on point.

This fucked up and sarcastic sense of humor happen to be one of his manipulation methods in interrogations, where he constructs a bridge with the criminal so they feel like in a friendly chit-chat and confess. But his favorite method is roughing up suspects, if he can get physical, punch mfs he will so if mfs don't tell him what he want he kinda doesn't mind that much, if u know what i mean.

Bro is aiming for supervisor ranks for the name but he actually sucks in being in a team. Dude always wanna order everybody and do everything himself, not obeying orders that goes against what he think is right. He hates some people are in the way of him achieving it.

If the "lead" detective on scene he doesn't wanna anyone fucking around, even if the person is a witness. He tends to escalate things or even get the witness "roughly" detained if they piss him off.

Some co-workers try avoiding him, fear him but some are just assholes like him. Not the majority, tho. Sometimes mf can be an asshole but dislikes Reed

Although he's a complicated person he has been more cautious in not having his shit being discovered by superiors not cuz he think it's wrong but cuz he doesn't wanna mfs screaming in his ear and fucking with his stairway to success. Shit going public also wouldn't be a good deal.

Bro just wanna get the job done to add to his list of accomplishments, to show how although he got an asshole reputation mfs can't say he's a bad detective. And it's even the reason some superiors are actually cool in pretending they didn't see shit - we're dealing with criminals, after all. They're less than animals.

He knows Hank covers criminals and it makes him pissed how Jeffrey backs him up just cuz he's his friend, not cuz Hank is doing a good work. It's all about the old times. Gavin looks down on the type of criminals Hank cover, even tho he kinda pits 'em. But there's one reason: androids. As I said before Gavin jokes about mfs addicted to drugs, he looks down on 'em most of the time - alcohol and red ice being the common ones. Control the shit, don't let it control ya is the deal.

Some mfs already tried bribery with Gavin cuz they were "relevant" or something so minuscule there's was "but why?" in the air but mf throw it back at 'em and kinda laughs. If he gotta investigate what end up to be a fellow police officer he'll do it and be pleasured in fucking mf's life, unless mf is really friends with him. The issue is when some commands come from above him, it's another reason he's aiming for higher ranks. He doesn't care if he would act kinda corrupt as long as he gets what he wants done.

He knows about the overall police reputation and how he can be seen as one of the rotten apples and i don't think he cares about cleaning the org's name, just about getting his work done.

During the "Android Crime Unit" episode he was the only one that thought this whole thing was sus af. But it was out of his hands, had superiors involved on this so he just let it go even if he hated it. Although he can be impulsive he got good eyes and ears to detect fuckery going on.

He ain't a fan of CyberLife at all not only cuz of android but cuz he dislike megacorporations like this who got 'em hands on everybody like this, replacing everybody like they're nothing. If he got the opportunity of shitting on 'em he will. Being replaced by one of 'em shitty products is a damn offense, almost a threat.

He dislikes the gov but when the deviant crisis happens his opinion on androids doesn't change. He actually wants 'em to be set on fire, gunned down, destroyed, even if it means it's helping CyberLife. He's there to serve his city, after all. LE gotta show who's the boss in this mf. Curiously this a sentiment most of cops share even after a successful revolution.

He got this "badass motherfucker alive" sentiment. Back when he was in uniform he used to take pictures of him with hand on holster or gun in hands, "like a boss" poses and shit. Y'know, those cops who like some aviator glasses and badge always on sight. It still kinda a thing now with plain clothes. He just thinks he's the best mf ever esp at work - always trynna prove being superior

There's a very good way of shutting him up, tho: letting him talking to the walls or being too polite in counter-argumenting him at work. He'll get angry fr. He doesn't like when mfs think they're better than him or more "successful" than him at his job.

In the end he's just a high-nose bastard. Everybody facepalms and sigh deeply when they know Det. Reed is in the area.

Some stuff may contradict another but I guess I really don't give a fuck now? I'll have a proper list with a proper english in my docs some day, maybe February 31st.

#dbh #detroit become human #gavin reed #dbh my ideas

8 notes · View notes

msclaritea · 2 months

Text

JK Rowling is right: a trans woman is not a woman, and it’s not wrong to say so

It is absolutely extraordinary that transgender activist India Willoughby reported J K Rowling to the police for a hate crime. The Harry Potter author this week referred to the newsreader and Loose Women host as a man in an argument on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Northumbria Police has now confirmed that it is dropping the investigation. Why did it take so long? It should never have been given the time of day.

Quick law refresher: “misgendering” is not a crime.

The researcher Maya Forstater successfully brought a case to the employment appeal tribunal in 2021 to establish that gender-critical views are a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010.

So while hostility to someone based on gender identity can be an aggravating factor if a separate crime is committed, misgendering is not in itself an offence. Moreover, Rowling and those who agree with her are completely within their rights to refuse to believe the fiction that you can change biological sex.

As Rowling herself put it: “No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman.” Quite.

Now, I’ve got no objection to using people’s preferred pronouns so I’m happy to refer to Willoughby as “she”. But “a woman”? No. It is a simple fact that she is biologically male, regardless of any gender reassignment surgery. She’s a trans woman but she’s not a woman and never will be.

Trans activists have tried their hardest to turn a feeling into fact when they insist: “A trans woman is a woman.” But the truth of the matter is that a trans woman is a man who identifies as a woman.

Willoughby and her supporters might dislike her being described as a man. They might find it at best impolite and at worst deeply offensive. But it is not “hateful” to believe that men are men and women are women. You cannot change biological sex and under the Forstater ruling, it isn’t “illegal” to say so.

This is what happens when a vocal minority creates such an environment of fear that the police think they can’t immediately call out an attention-seeking time-waster when they see one.

J K Rowling is not a “transphobe”, either – as inconvenient as that might be to those seeking to label any woman who thinks biological sex is immutable as a “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” (Terf).

It’s far from “radical” to believe in just the two sexes. Nor is it “exclusionary”, since Rowling has never denied the existence of trans people nor their rightful place in society – alongside men and women.

She’s simply a gender-critical feminist, who is justifiably concerned for the corresponding rights of women, which she believes are being eroded. I and many other women (and men … and even some trans people) agree with her.

This is what the gender fanatics continually refuse to acknowledge: that there are competing rights here. It’s not all about them, whatever the likes of Willoughby seem to think.

Rowling has been a heroine in all this, because she’s not only refused to be cancelled, but has emboldened many others who feel the same way as her to bravely speak out.

But let’s look at what is really “hateful” about this debate. There is no doubt that Rowling and others like her continue to be the victims of terrible misogyny. Just look at the appalling comments made about her on social media by people who purport to be defined by kindness and progressive values.

Indeed, it is really quite striking that, on International Women’s Day yesterday, when we should have been celebrating female advancement, there was little public celebration of gender-critical feminists like Rowling. The Left hypocritically talks up the importance of “diversity” and “inclusion” while at the same time actively seeking to shame those who have an opposing point of view.

The definition of bigotry is being “obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, in particular prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group”. So radical trans activists are guilty of exactly what they accuse gender-critical feminists of. Yet still they arrogantly assume they can occupy the moral high ground, while carrying out these modern-day witch trials.

If stories of gender-critical women being hounded out of their jobs, their universities, and in the recent case of Newcastle United fan Linzi Smith, their football club, aren’t already disturbing enough, we now hear word of a Canadian proposal to impose house arrest on someone who is believed likely to commit a hate crime in the future – even if they have not done so already.

The proposed clause in the country’s new Online Safety Bill would see suspected “hate criminals” forced to wear an electronic tag and banned from going outside. In Willoughby’s world, that would include anyone who thinks she’s a bloke.

But this former Big Brother contestant has got her own form when it comes to sharp remarks on social media.

I had to block her myself when she responded to one of my posts highlighting a pretty innocuous story I’d written about Prince Harry with the words: “Garbage. Harry has your metaphorical number – while the grubby British Media had his ACTUAL number, and hacked it.”

Referencing my role as royal editor of an ITV daytime show, she added: “Someone else you keep platforming @ThisMorning. Have a clear out.” Nice.

If this is supposed to be what the “sisterhood” is supposed to look like in Willoughby’s eyes, then I’d genuinely rather be a “Terf”. %n

#JK Rowling is right: a trans woman is not a woman #and it’s not wrong to say so #The Only Dishonest Thing About All Of This Is Treating The Fight For Women's Rights As Coming From The Right #It Was The Right That Fomented The Transgender Movement

2 notes · View notes

sealpup9 · 1 year

Text

If your response to florida passing bills that would allow transgender genocide is "now is the time to leave florida" you really have no understanding of how the world works.

Important information below in regards to data on transgender people.

The poverty rates of LGBTQIA+ people are higher than those not in the community. 1 2 3

About 3 in 10 trans adults are living in poverty. (29%)

These numbers are even worse for trans poc: About half of Latinx transgender adults are living in poverty (48%) About Four in 10 black transgender adults are living in poverty. (39%) Source

On top of this, according to a mass survey done by William's Institute in 2017, 4.6% of Florida's population is LGBT. That's the 9th highest state percentage wise, you can actually see it pretty clearly on this map:

Look at the % of those LGBT people with Children.

And before people come saying "well this is from 2017" and "this includes LGB people as well": You're absolutely right. As of right now it's very difficult to find information on the number of trans people living in each state. This is part of why it's so hard for laws to be passed in regards to rights of trans people. Right now, a lot of studies include trans people in the LGBT category, not separate.

Census-wise, gender identity was only just included in census reports in 2021. In 2021, 0.6% of the adult population who responded to this survey identified as transgender. BUT KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A SMALLER SAMPLE SIZE, AS THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL DATA.

Gender Identity has yet to be included in one of the U.S. 10-year Census. In 2020, data was collected for same-sex couples in the household, but that was it. LGBT Data was supposed to be collected, but e a certain president struck LGBT data collection off of the census in 2020.

I need people to understand two things:

LGBTQIA+ People exist everywhere and are trying very, very VERY hard to fight for their rights. The things that are making it hard are a lack of collection of data, human rights violations being passed into law, and things like gerrymandering separating voters out and squashing their voices.

LGBTQIA+ People have higher rates of poverty.

Stating that any trans people living in Florida should simply leave is an extremely classist and privileged statement.

Think about it this way, and I can't believe I need to put this into elementary school wording, but sometimes people just need to realize the absurdity of their statements:

If your state suddenly put the death penalty in place for people with your eye color for simply existing, would you be able to move to another state without that law? Would you personally have the emotional, physical, mental ability to leave? What about the finances? Are you trapped in a lease with your apartment? Maybe you have children and finding schooling would be difficult. Do you have the means of transportation? How about finding affordable housing in a state nearby?

Do you see how ridiculous it is to just tell someone to move? Not to mention that the more people in the demographic who move away and leave, the less people of that demographic exist in the state, and the more likely it is that more laws will be passed in order to criminalize and kill people in that demographic.

This isn't a black and white problem. This is a multi-faceted issue and there's no way I can delve into every single thing that led up to or continues to push anti trans legislature in Florida alone.

What matters is we spread ACCURATE information on how what these bills entail. We show support for trans people living in states like Florida. We donate to causes trying to support those people: The Trevor Project | Planned Parenthood

If anyone else has information on places to donate to directly help folks in Florida, feel free to add.

Just please remember that NOT EVERYONE CAN LEAVE FLORIDA ON A WHIM.

#florida #anti-trans #florida genocide #lgbtqia+#trans rights #transgender #transgender rights #lgbtq #lgbt #florida bills #my post #florida gop #homophobia #transphobia

12 notes · View notes

openly-journaling · 1 year

Text

Wrath: Sat, April 8th

It's been difficult to remember to journal. Life has become so wonderful since getting down here. Every week we have a sleepover with our partner. We go out and eat or see things or stay inside and snuggle.

Sadly we accidentally tore up the side of our car a little. It's not horrid but the worst part was when it hit our landlords truck. He was kind and understanding and our insurance is covering it. The rain came down and blinded us last minute as we were pulling in to park.

So.. an idea of our schedule is work Monday-Thursday and our boss says he'll start teaching us how to train dogs on Fridays. Saturdays we spent with our partner and Sunday we basically sleep all day.

We still have to do taxes, and apparently this state has a state tax that has to be paid also. We are considering dropping on our GED since our boss has offered us business.

I just guess when we're happy we feel there's less to journal about. On one hand it's like our journal is just a place to drop our vents and occasionally when things are good.

But life still isn't perfect. Because of this safety feeling we've gotten headmates that seem to be fighting and stirring up trouble. I'm guessing to keep us on our feet. Memories from old traumas are trying to slip back in and for once we're not sure how to cope. It was easy in survival mode where it was focus on the now not look back at what was unless necessary for experiences.

We've also gone back to living terrible maladaptive daydreaming stories in our head that we struggle to control. But this has nothing to do with being here. It's being in America in general.

They said it will get worse before it gets better. I hope it gets better. I'm tired of living in fear that this might not last. So I've been living each day to the fullest.

I saw a TikTok about how fear isn't the only tactic of control. But disgust is far stronger than fear, which can be dissipated quickly unlike the feeling of disgust.

--TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE YOU CONTINUE--

--Politics, religion, anti-lgbtq mentions, child grooming mentions, etc--

People have disappeared mysteriously from protests trying to protect trans people or the LGBTQ in general and are still missing apparently. I don't know if that's true but I believe it.

They have controlled Christianity with disgust by telling them we (the LGBTQ) are child groomers. That we hurt children or that we are perverts trying to get into the opposite gender's spaces. They have said that gay men are gross and disgusting for hitting on straight men who are uninterested despite cis straight [white] men doing the same thing to women. And those men still miss the point. They have said we're murderers despite the fact that most every killer is a cis white man. They attack poc and say they are horrible people and all of them are wrapped up in drugs and sex and are generally bad people. That anyone they don't agree with must be disgusting and gross in some way.

I want to turn it back on them so bad. Put up signs that list of all the priests who have harmed children. To put up a list of all the cis people who have created shootings. I want to put up signs talking about how disgusting Christianity is for wanting to kill people they don't agree with.

I want to prove them right. Because no matter how much I scream and cry at the top of my lungs, those blind sheep will continue to see us as monsters. I don't want to prove everything right. Obviously no intention of hurting children. No. I want to prove them how violent we supposedly are. I want to fight back. I'm tired of being backed into a corner.

But the more we fight the more we are also stigmatized. We have every right to fight back and we don't. Whether it's because of fear or simply that we don't have the capabilities right now. The government would just call Martial Law and leave us among ourselves to fight probably.

And us fighting each other is exactly what the government wants. The government wants to keep us divided. But how the hell do we get through to christians? To boomers who have had everything easier, their future promised to them? How do we face boomers that see us as whiny, dramatic, ungrateful, spoiled and lazy? How they see us as disrespectful. How much do they fear us that they have to keep coming up with more labels of disgust over us that they might continue to feel high and mighty?

If we turn those tables onto them will it make things worse? Will they get more violent? Will they open their eyes? They talk all the time about being oppressed but they don't really know what oppression is. Clearly.

If we turn the tables on them, talk about how lazy they are by taking some time off work instead of working hard, or talk about how disgusting they are for taking children to church with them to groom them into religion.. what would happen? They want to just deny everything. And when we deny shit we're apparently liars... Flops

I'm tired of using my words. I'm tired of just sitting here waiting for shit to happen. And if I had nothing to lose I'd sure as hell be doing something. But until they take everything from me, I'm bound to mental chains that keep me in place. Besides. It's best to wait until the right opportunity. When the trouble finds me first. When there's no backing out and it's life or death.

Until then.. I'll stay in this.. place. I don't plan on hurting anyone of course. Even I don't think I have it in me. Not here. I just want to stand my ground. That's all.

#Day 121 #open journal #wrath writes

2 notes · View notes

rockinmyownboat · 2 years

Text

Gender Fluidity is the New Cancer

I'm not a republican or a Democrat. I'm a human. I love living. And life is sacred. Regardless of its sex politics religion or lifestyle

I respect being gay as a lifestyle... I support equal rights, regardless of sex. I would never, ever impose my personal views on another human. Your body. Your rights. End of story there.

There's no malice or hate in my heart for the alphebetizers. Truly. Nothing but love and compassion.

On the flip side, i believe in science. Not a left-leaning, liberal interpretation of 'science' that cares more about furthering a political agenda than the betterment of humanity.

That science should be called what it is: "political indoctrination."

No, i stand against a cultural paradigm shift that's relying too heavily on expensive and experimental medical procedures. Im also not a fan of the way the left leans hard on the surrender of individual freedom to expression, namely the first Amendment rights we have to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Its one thing to put laws in place that protect others rights. Thats what Roe v. Wade was Supposed to be. Protection of rights. Red states endangering a woman's right to choose ? Its absolutely maddening. Fuck every one of those crusty, white, Good ol boys that think men have the right to impose bodily restrictions on pregnant women.

Men shouldn't have the right to say shit in regards to reproductive policies. No vagina? Shut the dick hole in your face, bro. If you are that concerned with the sanctity of life, focus on protecting the children that are already outside of the womb. They're the ones who actually NEED protection. Im sure the parents on the news who had children attending schools that were shot up while police did NOTHING would agree. Blue lives matter more than our future voters, apparently.

Try explaining that to little Timmys parents, why Sergeant Peckerwood with his badge and gun did nothing as a psychopathic asshole pulled the trigger that murdered their kid.

But i digress. That's a whole different issue.

The left is actively trying to take away EVERYONE'S rights to expression all because of a few select members of a subgroup that yap the loudest, like the most obnoxious ankle biters in history.

Hannah Gadsby is not a comedian. She's a political chihuahua. She's got her first Amendment rights though.. she can say what she wants.

Here's my thing: Ill debate her identifying as a "comedian" far more passionately than i would debate her choice of gender labels. I don't care if she calls herself a man or woman or gender neutral

I care that she thinks she's funny. She's a fucking leftist bully without a funny bone in her body.

Shes one example of the political subset that's taking us all for a ride. And it's anything but funny.

As if The Patriot Act wasn't enough to usher in a Red police state, now the Blue is taking it a step further by exploiting a political trend for votes. It's a continuation of civil rights erosion that will eventually lead to a civil war if we're not careful.

This is about everyones freedom. Not just trans.

Its about the leftist hypocrisy of using exclusionary language to force cultural inclusion that honestly VERY few object to.

Let trans be included. Give them their own bathrooms, if they want "special rights" ... i think that's doable.

Mr. Conservative-Blue-Collar should be able to rest easier knowing his daughter isnt in the stall next to a man that moonlights as a FarSide cartoon housewife. Its a minimal compromise.

Just don't try to tell the rest of us what we can or cannot say by delegating a disagreement in political bias as "hate speech." That's good old fashioned entitlement holding hands with A Weak, poor character quality.

This is what the left has latched onto with a goddamn locked jaw.

While the Red seeks to erode womens rights while maintaing the hypocrisy of piety, the Blue erodes personal speech, putting up a face of all inclusiveness, while their biases are more than blatant to follow

Our current bipartisan political climate is convoluting the simplest of truths.

We think the opposite party is the enemy. That red is the enemy or blue is the enemy.

Newslash...

Red and blue are the enemy. Both... Heads and tails are on the same fucking coin.

I am against any and all evil machiavellians who seek control over our autonomy. George W. Bush started it by cramming The Patriot Act up our collective asses. Obama continued our civil liberty erosion far more subtlely regardless of his media-blinded idolaters. Then we had Trump who ran this country like his own personal piggy bank, while constantly waivering between bipartisan pressure... and now Biden ... he's doing a bang up job isn't he??

Seems like regardless which party has white house control, the illusion of "We the People" is crumbling fast. They labor to build a utopia that is an empty rotten dream that WE THE PEOPLE will lose in; corporate interests are key. Not indidual autonomy.

We put more trust in biased media that sells empty narratives at the behest of its pharmaceutical addiction, all to our detriment.

Look back to the opioid crisis in the 90s if you want to know what happens when normal citizens put blind trust in Doctors and other medical professionals who are paid by back door lobbyists and pharma sales reps.

We created billionaires out of Big Pharma. All we wanted were pills to fix our "personality flaws" that we derive our insecurities from.

Give us pills to fix our pain.

We got addicted to our godhood. Any time a scientist plays God, im reminded of Ian Malcolm; "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they COULD, they didn't stop to think if they SHOULD. "

Someone explain, why after the absolute clusterfuck of misinformation from Big pharma during the pandemic, why the majority of general public still trust them when they say whats good for us, despite their lengthy lists of adverse health impacts on EVERY MEDICATION coming from that industry.

Anyone?

*crickets...*

Pay attention to where most of our money in the "free world" ends up. you'll start to see exactly why the world.... and specifically America .... is so fucked up.

When you understand who profits from what resources, it sharpens the picture of what's actually happening.

We are all too distracted with the politics surrounding the issues to be able to see the real forest for all its sleeze.

Few are paying attention.

Those who are in control of the world view Humans as a resource. That's it.

We are a resource of time and labor... but most importantly.... we offer the most compelling resource of all through our buying power. Our greatest asset is what we choose to spend our labor earnings on.

Lobbyists of white collar corporations run the goddamn show now.

The politicians don't.

Ill tell you, a politician is a puppet with a corporate hand jammed up their ass making them speak and vote. They use money as lube.

There's no idealists among thieves.

When you understand that fact, you start to realize how pointless all these fucking debates about "human rights" become.

A political decision that puts human autonomy in the Hands of a corrupt medical tech system and the government, exchanging money to live is a broken system....

Am i wrong?

Maybe... but....

Lets look at this in more detail.

Reassignment surgeries are INSTANT revenue generators.

Not just for a couple months. Or a couple years. For THE REST OF THAT PERSON'S LIFE.

Read up on Elliot Pages or Caitlyn Jenners reassignments. See how involved that process was and how much money was generated by the "simple" task of switching genders ...

Now, think about the money they're generating buying monthly prescriptions of artificially generated drugs and hormones.

They HAVE to take them ...

....so their body doesn't reject the transitions....

And kill them.

Their body will literally turn on them without pharmaceuticals.

Im not even gonna get into picking apart the unnatural science of tricking ones body into believing its another gender... I mean if someone is REALLY that insecure with themselves how they're born and want to put forth the effort and money to change that, more power to them BUT....

... that is a PERSONAL CHOICE.

It SHOULD NOT BE ACTIVELY PROMOTED IN POLITICS AS A MEANS TO GAIN VOTES.

By accepting reassignment surgeries, Elliot Page and Caitlyn Jenner did not "take control of their lives" as the mainstream narrative promotes. They willingly surrendered their physical lives to a corrupt system that fooled them into thinking they were "free" through their own affluence.

Contrary to leftist narratives, Jenner and Page should be less as idealized social pioneers and more poster-children testifying to our entire country's willing blind enslavement to Big Pharma.

If they cease to take hormones and drugs prescribed, it is at the cost of their own well being.

Are they really free? Or are they simply just slaves to a new system of control?

Medical technology companies are thriving. Slavering like dogs at a meat factory with all the "nip and tucks" that are generating a fortune now.

The 1% everyone hates is laughing their way to the bank as we debate semantical politics about "human rights" on social media.

It makes me think about how the EPA recently rejected the premise that glyphosate based herbicides cause cancer.

These weed killers are widely used and professionals in the science community have proven they're poisoning both the population and environment with their use.

But the EPA says "it's all good" because they profit from Bayer/Monsanto lobbyists.

Why? Why infect people with cancer? Why is it so easy to callously dismiss an average citizen who has been diagnosed with cancer from pesticides?

Duh. Money. Its about cash. Welcome to capitalism. Create a problem that creates a disease. Amp up the price on the cure. Simple economics.

A cancer diagnosis is an instant mass income generator for oncologists, surgeons, doctors, specialists ... the list goes on .... and we all know how wealthy they get doing what they do.

Is it so farfetched to think that Bayer/Monsanto WANT people to get cancer so their backdoor profits will increase?

Seems feasible to me.... ive seen cancer in action.

My family almost went broke paying for my Pop-pops in-home care before he finally passed away, all the while in extreme pain and suffering.

......Hmmm........ connection? Where is it ...

Cancer and the "gender fluidity" angle that's now being aggressively promoted by leftists are linked DIRECTLY and ONLY by who is being paid at the end of the day.

Medical tech. And Big Pharma.

In a court of law during a trial, there is a requirement to establish a clear motivation for a crime.

When you look at Big Pharma being poised to make a fortune from all this income generation from artificial gender reassignment surgeries that are all the rage now, it should cause you to think twice about where we are headed. Cause they've got a clear motive : Money.

It's not for the mental health of a cross dresser that thought he would be better off with a vagina after seeing Caitlyn Jenner on 60 Minutes ....

Cancer is one cash cow. So EPA will let cancer causing pesticides slide. And proudly endorse its use.

Gender reassignment will become another new cash cow guaranteeing a LIFETIME of customers to medical tech giants.

The purpose of those who have power is to keep it. they'll fight to do so by establishing systems of hierarchy to keep us subjugated.

They distract us via social media with irrelevant talking points to overburden us with details.

This same leftists currently AGGRESSIVELY pushing gender fluidity are from the SAME right wing government body that makes a fortune from Bayer/Monsanto lobbyists using cancer-causing chemicals in common household weed killers.

They're one.

And we the people are income generators.

Us and them.

We're not divided by citizenry. There exist two separate entities in our cultural habitus alright. But we are divided more in terms of power and income rather than political ideology.

Just like a cancer patients have been dollar sign indicators to the medical industry, so are gender reassignment "patients." Or more accurately, "victims" as I prefer to think of them.

Cancer kills you.

Gender reassignment kills who you were born to be.

So is there a difference?

Im not seeing it.

1 note · View note

unrestedjade · 3 years

Text

Baseless Ferengi headcanons no one asked for and that get increasingly queer-navel-gazing and self indulgent because the horrible space goblins have consumed my brain:

- Mobile ears, because if hearing is so well developed and important to them they should be able to aim those big stupid radar dishes. Also because then they can emote with them and that's cute. THE AESTHETIC IS PARAMOUNT.

- Since they canonically sharpen their teeth with chew sticks and sharpeners, their teeth must grow continuously. So I submit: subcultures that let certain teeth grow out as a fashion/political statement. Ferengi punks and anarchists with 5" tusks. Ferengi with all their teeth filed flat (mom and dad HATE it).

- Corollary to the above, most of their teeth are crooked. At the least, they don't share our fetish for straight teeth. What if their teeth are deciduous, and there's no point in trying to force them into perfect alignment, since they'll just fall out and get replaced? So like, sharks but their teeth can also grow longer with no limit. WHAT HAST EVOLUTION WROUGHT ON FERENGINAR :V

- Parents nagging their kids to sharpen their teeth "or they'll grow up into your brain and you'll die :)"

- Personal space? Don't know her.

Okay I need a cut because there's too many now. WHOLE SOCIETY OF GAY HOMOPHOBIC UNCLES AND AUNTS GO I HAVE A PROBLEM

- I can't remember who on here put forth the idea of them having retractable claws but Yes. :3

- Pushing back against the worst canon episode a bit but: relative ear size being the only obvious sexually dimorphic trait, and even that having enough of a gray area that the only way to be 100% sure you're talking to a male or female Ferengi is if you do a blood test. Unless they're intersex! *shrug emoji*

- This is why they're so fanatical about gender conformity and their Victorian "separate spheres" attitude to men and women's roles. Capitalist patriarchy is fragile! And as artificial to Ferengi as it ever was to Humans! (self-indulgenceeeee about gender shiiiiit)

- You know how with domesticated rabbits, the rabbit getting groomed and paid attention to is the boss? Yeah. Go ahead and paint your bestie's nails, just don't be surprised if she cops a little bit of an attitude with you from then on.

- Their fight/flight/freeze/fawn instincts skew heavily toward the last three, and what a lot of other species read as annoying sucking up is the Ferengi in question feeling anxious and unsafe. Especially if they don't feel integrated into the group. Even being at the bottom of the pecking order is better than not being in the flock at all.

- If they DO opt for fight, it's ugly and typically their last resort. Bites or scratches will get infected without intervention-- microbes that their immune system can handle could cause big trouble for aliens. You might wanna check for full or partial teeth that break off and get lodged in the wound, too.

- Too many of these are tooth related but I don't care. :B More teeth stuff: you know what else has teeth that grow constantly? Puffer fish. Likewise, Ferengi can chew up mollusk shells as easy as potato chips, and they need the minerals for their teeth. (Imagine grandpa Sisko offering Nog a crayfish for the first time and watching as he just...pops the whole damn thing in his mouth and crunches away...)

- Their staple foods seem to be grubs and other arthropods, high in protein and fat. I've unilaterally decided their cuisine also involves a lot of edible fungi, ferns, plant shoots and seeds. Gotta get those vitamins. Overall flavor profile leaning toward umami, vegetal, and fresh herbs, and pretty mild (or "delicate" if you wanna be snooty about it, which a Ferengi probably would let's be real).

- Not much sugary food. I'm basing this solely on Quark's aversion to root beer as "cloying". Which could definitely just be his personal preference, but most of the people I hear hating on root beer cite the actual sassafras/sarsaparilla flavor (saying it tastes like medicine) not the sweetness. Nog might be the weirdo outlier for being able to enjoy it.

- Their home planet isn't bright and sunny, so their eyes are better at discerning shades of gray in low light conditions, with relatively weak color vision. Which could explain why they dress Like That.

- Conversely, human music has a reputation for stinking on ice because a lot of it is juuuuust lightly dissonant or out of tune because we can't pick up flaws that small. Ferengi can, and it drives them up the *wall*.

- Music? So many different kinds. Traditionally, maybe lots of percussion and winds, and water as a common component of many instruments to alter pitch or tone. Polyphony out the ass. Some of the modern stuff is an impenetrable wall of sound if you're not a species with a lot of brain real estate devoted to processing sounds. Pick out one melody to follow at a time.

- Yes, back to teeth again I'm sorry. It's a sickness. At some point in their history, pre-chewing food was just something you did for your baby or great grandma as a matter of necessity. Possibly your baby gets an important boost to their immune system and gut biome from your spit. At some point takes on a more formal intimacy aspect and gradually drifted from something all adults and older kids do to something only women do. Your husband and older kids have perfectly functional teeth, but you love them, right? =_= (Think old memes about husbands being useless in the kitchen if little wifey isn't there to cook, but even more ridiculous. Ishka was right about everything but especially this. Thank you for making your family chew their own food, Ishka. Not all heroes wear capes. Or anything!)

- How did they get started on the whole men: clothed vs women: unclothed nonsense? My equally stupid idea: men just get cold easier. Those huge ears dissipate a ton of body heat. Cue Ferengi cliches like "jeez, we could be standing on the surface of the sun and my husband would put on another layer." At some point, again, this got codified and pushed to ridiculous extremes in the name of controlling women and keeping everyone in their assigned box, to the point that women just have to shiver if they really are too cold and men have to pass out from heat stroke if the alternative is going shirtless, because That Would Be Inappropriate.

- Marriages default to five years, but they're also the only avenue for women to have their own household or any stability. Plus their religion places no emphasis on purity save for pure adherence to the free market and the RoA. So, curveball to the rest of their patriarchal bullshit: female virginity isn't a concern in the least. Bring it up and they'll rightly side-eye you.

- Family law is absolutely bonkers and lawyers that specialize in it make BANK. I feel like custody would default to the father usually but oh wait, the maternal grandfather has a legal stake in this, too, and your next father-in-law is asking HOW many kids are you dragging into my daughter's house, etc etc. Growing up with a full sibling is way rarer than growing up with half or stepsiblings, since it usually takes both men and women two or three tries to find someone they vibe with. (Not love, unless you're super cringe.)

- A misogynistic society is a homophobic society. Imo those flavors of shittiness just come in pairs. Homosexual behaviors are fine within certain parameters (aka "always have sex with the boss") but not on your own terms. To add spice, bisexuality is their most common mode (because I'm bi and these are my hcs for my fics I'm not writing, so there), but capitalism demands fresh grist for the mill so you better get het-married and pop out some kids you lowly peons. You have a choice so make the proper one. :)

- Corollary to the above, that doesn't keep all kinds of illicit "we're just friends with quid-pro-quo benefits for realsies" affairs of every stripe and every gender from going on everywhere. Many Ferengi have a lightbulb moment somewhere in early adulthood when they figure out their dad's business partner or the "auntie" who visited their mom every month had a little more going on.

- Plus there's way more gender non-conformity and varying degrees of trans-ing than the powers that be have a handle on. Pel isn't unique, even if most would have to somehow make it out into space to be able to thrive.

Damn a lot of these are just my personal bugbears plus THE GILDED AGE BUT WITH HAIRLESS SPACE RODENTS ain't they

- Women can't earn profit, okay. But lending or "lending" things to each other isn't commerce, riiiiiiight? To be assigned female is to master navigating a vast, dizzying barter/gift economy. Smart boys and men leverage this, too, and there are splinter sects that view this as the purest expression of the Great Material Continuum.

- Of course plenty of women make profit anyway, and just do their bast to dodge the FCA. The tough thing about insisting on using latinum as currency is that cash can be so hard to track, you know?

- Because of the RoA, guys are discouraged from doing favors or giving gifts without setting clear expectation of getting some return on investment. This can twist into an expression of friendship (and of course women do it too), and the ledger will keep cycling between debit and credit among friends for decades. A common mistake aliens make is to tell them recompense isn't needed without explaining why, or return their favor or present with something that zeroes out the debt. The Ferengi will assume you want to break off the friendship. (I cribbed this from dim memories of an African studies course I took in 2007 and whose textbook I know I still have but I can't frigging find it...)

- Flirting, they do a lot of it for a lot of reasons. Roddenberry made it clear that they're just straight up pretty horny, but there's no reason it can't pull double duty for building alliances with other people, smoothing over feuds or disagreements, or cementing friendships. Ferengi who are ace and/or sex-repulsed are possibly viewed similar to the way we'd view someone who's "not a hugger/not big on touching" and if they flirt just don't get offended if it doesn't go any further; aro Ferengi don't garner much comment aside from an occasional "wow how badass, never falling in love with anyone."

- where to even start on making sense of the Blessed Exchequer??? Like seriously, what is this literal prosperity gospel insanity, I need to force myself to re-read Rand and like, some Milton Friedman for this shit. Help.

- fuck I'm probably going to actually do that, RIP me...

#ds9 #star trek #meta #ferengi #i love them Too Much help #reliving my brief libertarian phase from high school from the opposite direction #my heart wants to make them simultaneously as queer and as repressed as possible #i didn't even make it to the goddamned blessed exchequer my head is too full #i will find beauty in this vulgarity if it kills me #this is too long #why did i spend my time this way

138 notes · View notes

moonlightserenadeeznutz · 3 years

Text

Top Surgery

Oneshot about (trans) Remus Lupin getting top surgery. Bit of wolfstar as well.

Disclaimer: To all my trans boys/trans masc people reading this. You are no less trans, nor are you no less male/masculine if you decide against top surgery, or if you don’t/can’t get top surgery. This goes for bottom surgery, binding, hormones, etc. Your body doesn’t define your gender, nor does what you decide to do with it. <3 ~ Remus wasn’t allowed to get top surgery until he was seventeen. Well... “top surgery” was the muggle name for it. In the wizarding world, a simple spell would do the trick. But there was a law in the wizarding world stating that parts of the body weren’t allowed to be removed from an underage wizard or witch unless said body part was detrimental to the child’s life, say, an unfixable limb, or a gangrenous leg. And despite Remus’ adamance that his chest was a detriment, specifically to his mental health, (when would the wizarding world take mental health seriously? He regularly thought to himself), the law disagreed. So he had to wait until he was of age.

In the meantime, he simply wore a shirt with a binding charm put upon it, which did the trick to make his chest look flat with his clothes on, but he was desperate to just be able to take his shirt off, in the hot weather or in bed. He forwent ever swimming in the lake with his friends because he couldn’t swim with his binder on, but he didn’t want his chest to be noticeable. So he had to sit by the edge of the lake instead, his feet dipped in and his friends splashing at him from within the water.

Another problem Remus faced was that, even when he did turn seventeen, he had no idea where to go to get top surgery. He lived in 1970s Britain. There were simply no resources, muggle or wizarding, and he didn’t have the money anyway. And Madam Pomfrey couldn’t do it. She was a school nurse, she wasn’t allowed to perform procedures. She could only give out potions and fix up bones. Procedures were for St Mungos. And St Mungos didn’t have top surgery as an option.

The days leading up to Remus’s seventeenth birthday made him rather depressed. He’d soon be of age, but it wouldn’t make any difference. He was stuck. Stuck in the wrong body, and there was nothing he could do.

Of course, he had been on hormones since second year, or at least the wizarding version of hormones, which was just a transfiguration potion, and luckily for him, it wasn’t against wizarding law as long as he had his parents’ permission, which he did. And the potion had changed his body considerably. His voice deepened, he had facial hair and he tried hard to work out so he had abs and muscles, which he knew wasn’t exactly necessary, and he didn’t go overboard, but really he was just trying to offset the dysphoria he got from his chest by making the rest of him look as masculine as possible.

He was in a similar situation with bottom dysphoria, but at least he was able to hide it. Getting surgery for that wasn’t as pressing as his chest, and because of the potion he at least didn’t have to worry about his periods anymore.

Compared to Remus’s misery before his seventeenth birthday, Sirius, James and Peter were clearly happy about something, but they wouldn’t tell him what it was, even when he threatened to hex them; a threat he regularly used but never went through with, so it didn’t do much to get them to talk.

But he soon found out what they were whispering about on the day of his seventeenth. Sirius handed him an envelope, unlabelled, and said “It’s from all of us.”

“You know, for two rich people, you guys can be real cheapskates.” They just continued smiling expectantly until Remus opened up the envelope and looked inside.

There wasn’t a card like he was expecting, but some sort of advertisement, or pamphlet. He read through it, and his eyebrows knitted together as he read further down the page. The ad was for a wizarding clinic, specifically aimed at trans wizards and witches. It was set up by a guy named Gray Jacobson, who was a trained Healer, and trans himself, and offered all different kinds of things, including top surgery.

“I... don’t get it?” Said Remus eventually, pushing down any hope that was making its way up through his body.

“What’s not to get?” Exclaimed Sirius, no longer containing his excitement. “It’s a secret clinic, away from the ministry and St Mungos and shit, and surgery is affordable. Free even, if you really can’t pay. But don’t worry about that, because we all chipped in-” he was talking a mile a minute.

“Woah, woah, slow down, Padfoot,” interrupted Remus. ““How do you know this clinic is trustworthy.”

“If we didn’t think it was trustworthy, mate, we wouldn’t have shown it to you,” said James. “We’ve been researching it for months, Sirius and I even visited it last half term. The guy, Gray, is really nice. He told us all about it. He can tell you as well. The procedure for getting rid of your chest is so easy. Takes a few minutes, then you have to take a potion every night for a week until you’re all healed up. But then it’s done! No more chest!”

“No more binding!” Grinned Sirius. No more chest. No more binding. God it sounded brilliant. Too good to be true.

“Really?” Was all Remus could manage.

~ Half term was already upon them, so Remus and his friends were able to visit the clinic the next day. And James and Sirius had been right, Gray was very nice. And Remus loved meeting someone else like him. He’d never met another trans man before, and Gray gave him hope for his future. The man seemed happy, content. Remus wanted that.

It didn’t take long for Remus to view the place as perfectly legit, even with his usual paranoid, distrusting self. And according to Gray, the spell really did only take a few minutes, even if he did have to be placed under a sleeping charm while it happened, and he wouldn’t be able to see his chest until a week later. That didn’t bother him at all. What was a week after six years of waiting?

He booked the next appointment for the following Monday, and he really couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this excited. When he left the clinic, Sirius immediately hugged him, and James joined in, until Remus couldn’t even move under their combined weight.

~ The day of the appointment, Remus was nervous. Excited, but nervous. His friends had all agreed that it would be a little overwhelming if they all came with him, so it was decided that Sirius was to be the one to accompany Remus. He was Remus’s boyfriend after all, and besides, wild centaurs couldn’t stop Sirius from being there to support his best friend.

Remus didn’t know what to wear, and he couldn’t help but feel very self conscious at exposing his chest, even for a few minutes. But it was the price he had to pay, and he chose a button up shirt and jeans. Nothing special.

“Here’s the sleeping potion,” said Gray, handing Remus a bottle of silvery liquid. “You’ll be asleep in a matter of minutes, and then awake in another matter of minutes. The only difference is, when you wake up, there’ll sure be a huge weight off your chest.” Sirius snorted from behind the man, and even Remus grinned at the stupid joke. It was definitely something his friends would say.

They were in the clinic now; they’d arrived around twenty minutes ago, and hadn’t needed to wait that long. Sirius held Remus’s hand the entire time, though he seemed to be more nervous than Remus was. Remus was nervous, but the nearer the surgery came to actually happening, the more impatient he felt. He wanted this to be over with, so he could finally feel like himself.

Remus uncapped the potion and drunk it down in one, and within seconds he started to feel light headed and drowsy. Gray helped him to lie back on the bed that he was sitting on, and the last thing he saw before falling asleep was Sirius giving him a very cheesy double thumbs up.

Somehow, within only a few minutes, his brain managed to conjure up what felt like hours of dreaming, although it was so nonsensical that Remus couldn’t make heads nor tails off it, and by the time he’d woken up, he couldn’t remember anything.

It took him some time to come round properly, drowsy as he was, but when the fog from his head finally cleared, he immediately looked down at his chest.

It was wrapped up in bandages, but one thing was certain: his chest was flat.

He ran his hand across the bandages. Yup. Absolutely flat. He almost started crying right then and there.

“Hello, love,” greeted Sirius, seeing that Remus was now awake. Remus stared up at him.

“It’s flat,” he croaked. Sirius grinned.

“It sure is.” Gray walked over to them. He’d been tinkering around with some vials, and he handed one to Remus.

“Take a sip of this every night for a week, it will help your chest to heal fully. Then you can remove the bandages. And if you need anything else, any help, or you have any questions, you know where I am.”

“Thank you.” Remus hoped the man could see just how grateful he was, as he was unable to form full sentences for the moment, the affects of the sleeping potion still lingering. But Gray let him and Sirius go on their way, and like last time with James, Sirius waited until they were out of the clinic, this time using the floo network in the clinic’s fireplace to take them home to their tiny apartment, to throw his arms around Remus. This was it for Remus, and he couldn’t stop himself from breaking down in tears. Good tear of course. Happy tears. If this was what he was like now, he’d be a wreck after a week.

And if Remus was impatient before, he certainly was now. Sirius had to constantly stop him from trying to unwind his bandages early.

“Keep doing that and I will personally pin you to the ground,” Sirius warned.

“Is that a threat or a promise?”

“In this instance it is solely a threat.”

“Fine.”

After what felt like years, the week was finally drawing to a close. And James, Lily and Peter arrived to see the big reveal. It was an audience that made Remus feel a little self conscious, but a part of him didn’t want them to miss this.

They were all crammed into the bathroom, the only place in the apartment that had a mirror. Rather than cutting off the bandages with magic, immediately revealing his chest, he opted for unwinding them by hand. His nervousness had returned to replace his impatience and he wanted to take it slowly.

As the last bandages fell away, he started into the mirror, and his friends cheered beside him. His chest was completely flat, and it looked exactly how he wanted it to look. It was a chest that could be shown off. A chest he could take a shirt off of and go swimming with. Finally. He never had to wear his binder again. He’d never smiled this much in his life, and it only faltered as he tried not to once again start crying. He failed. Sirius went over to kiss him, and soon all his friends were hugging him.

And the first thing he did when half term ended and lessons at Hogwarts were let out for lunchtime, was take his shirt off, and go swimming in the lake with his friends.

#trans remus #ftm remus lupin #remus lupin #wolfstar #top surgery #gender dysphoria #chest dysphoria #harry potter #sirius x remus #remus lupin oneshot

94 notes · View notes

comrade-meow · 3 years

Link

Why do so many young women hate feminist trailblazers like me?

For anyone uninitiated into the various waves of 21st-century feminism, this will no doubt come as a shock. But in my opinion, what passes right now for modern feminism is doing women more harm than good.

Many young women today are not only pandering to men in their so-called feminism, but seem utterly unconcerned that the hard-won rights achieved by older women in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are at risk of being catastrophically eroded.

They are helping everyone but themselves. In many ways they are betraying everything I and my brave colleagues fought for. This is the worst clash across the generations I have witnessed since coming to feminism in 1979, aged 17.

In universities around the UK and beyond, women are being fed a type of faux feminism, often by men reluctant to lose any of their privilege.

Julie Bindel, who came to feminism in 1979, says the rights achieved in the 19060s, 1970s and 1980s are at risk of being catastrophically eroded. Pictured: Julie (left) with Emma Humphreys in 1995 after a campaign to free her from jail for killing her violent partner

These women are being bullied and cajoled into accepting nonsensical concepts that are, at best, naive and, at worst, downright dangerous.

Prostitution, say these young women, is a job just like any other. They also argue that pornography is liberating. And finally, that trans-women should share female-only spaces such as hospital wards and domestic violence refuges.

This last makes me want to weep. It was women of my generation — often called second-wave feminists — who, 50 years ago, built rape crisis centres and refuges with no funding or salaries. To see them being dismantled by the very women who may one day need them is heartbreaking and infuriating.

I don’t think these women — almost all of whom would call themselves feminists — realise they are complicit in eroding our rights, for the simple reason they are no longer taught feminist history in universities. Instead, they are fed a sop of incomprehensible post-modern claptrap by ivory tower academics.

Feminists of my generation are not just ignored, but actively disparaged — or worse.

Since January 2004, when I offered an early opinion on the trans issue for a national newspaper, whenever it becomes public that I am about to speak at an event, always about an aspect of male violence and always as part of my campaigning work, a mob forms with the aim of bullying the organisers into un-inviting me. This is always played out in public and it is always humiliating. Sometimes the organisers capitulate.

I have been invited then uninvited from numerous events at universities following protests from trans activists and supporters of ‘sex work is work’ politics. I have also been invited to, then de-platformed from a number of events exploring free speech.

By contrast, genuine achievements of the past go unrecognised. From the very beginning of my involvement in the women’s liberation movement, we were out on the streets, waving placards, carrying banners and shouting through loudhailers, protesting the laws we wanted to change.

Julie said feminism has been rebranded and repackaged as ‘just be kind and nice to everyone’. Pictured: A 1970 women’s liberation protest

It was our campaigning that led to the introduction of the offence of coercive control; that barred the use of a woman’s previous sexual history in rape trials and ensured anonymity for the victims of sexual assault; and outlawed rape in marriage, which — young feminists are often astonished to discover — was perfectly legal in England and Wales until 1992.

Absurdly, there is no longer any expectation that being a feminist requires you to do anything feminist at all. Instead, and ironically given my experience, feminism has been rebranded and repackaged as ‘just be kind and nice to everyone’. Young women are told it is simply about the ‘choice’ to be who you ‘want to be’.

But if feminism is about choice, what does this mean for the women and girls who don’t have any? The girls forced into marriage, the women pimped out by violent boyfriends, the women on benefits living in temporary accommodation with young children they can’t afford to feed?

For feminism to mean anything, it has to be for all women and not just the privileged few.

Do young women even know about ‘the battles we’ve fought for them

You might ask, as many young women do, what is there still left to fight for? Although my generation of feminists and those that came before chalked up numerous victories, women are far from liberated. Levels of male violence towards women and girls are off the scale, as we have seen with the tragic events of recent weeks.

Conviction rates are so low that rape has been more or less decriminalised. Sexual harassment is endemic in our secondary schools and still a problem for many women in the workplace.

Many young women claim to be feminists, but seem to spend their time dismissing those of us who do the work — as opposed to simply talk the talk — as ‘irrelevant’, ‘bigoted’, and ‘past it’. Do these women even know about the battles we’ve fought and won to afford them some freedom?

Julie said in the current climate of misogyny, many young women are turning on feminists like her rather than pointing the finger at abusive men. Pictured: A rally to celebrate International Women's Day in 2020

In 2018, for example, Ash Sarkar, a media commentator, tweeted about the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, claiming the introduction of ‘self-identification’ would not have any effect on the rights of others. I replied: ‘Unless you are a female in prison, one of the most disenfranchised groups on the planet of course.’ It was a reference to the case of Karen White, the transgender sex offender placed in a female prison who went on to sexually assault two female inmates.

When, in reply, Sarkar claimed ‘bigots’ like me didn’t ‘care about women in prison’, it was too much. Had she known her feminist history, she would have been aware that I am the founder of Justice for Women — a campaign I began in 1990 — and have helped countless abused women get out of prison.

When I came to feminism, there were no laws protecting lesbians from discrimination and abuse; violent men often won custody of children when women left a marriage; and domestic violence was treated by police as a ‘private matter’. All of this changed because of active feminists, as opposed to those who sit on social media virtue-signalling.

In fact, a woman reporting rape five years ago had a much better chance of seeing justice done than she does today. There were 1,917 fewer rapists convicted in the year to December 2020 than in 2016-17, a decline of 64 per cent.

In the current climate of misogyny, many young women are turning on feminists like me rather than pointing the finger at abusive men. Yet there are young feminists doing invaluable work to challenge male violence and bring about women’s liberation.

Julie said social media activism isn't the answer, as the #MeToo movement is no substitute for action. Pictured: A women's liberation protest in 1971

The campaigning group We Can’t Consent to This, which successfully abolished the ‘rough sex’ defence so often used by men who kill women, continues the work I was involved in as a young feminist when we, too, abolished the insidious defence of ‘provocation’, used by a number of men who’d killed their wives because of ‘nagging’ or alleged infidelity.

Of the 1,000-plus women attending the 50th anniversary of the Women’s Liberation Movement conference in London, in February 2020, a minority, but significant number, were in their 20s.

And when I launched my new book last month in London, well over 100 of the 250 books I signed were for women under the age of 30, with some in their teens.

Right now, we need feminism more than ever, but not the kind that puts men first. In the real world prostitution is not a liberating career ‘choice’, and increasingly violent pornography is not ‘sex-positive’.

Neither is social media activism the answer. The #MeToo movement is no substitute for action. Let’s point the finger at men who rape rather than expecting yet more women to lay bare their horrific experiences.

We live in a world in which rape, femicide and everyday abuse and harassment are ever present.

To change it, we need to be united and not divided by generational conflict. Somehow, and urgently, we must find a way to bridge the gap. Fighting among ourselves wastes time — and there is no time to lose.

Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation, by Julie Bindel, (£16.99, Little Brown) is out now.

#Anglo.txt

13 notes · View notes

love-geeky-fangirl · 3 years

Text

Ranking every teen drama I've watched

I have gotten really into teen dramas lately, because it's quarantine I can't go out and have fun, but I can still watch other people my age going out and having fun and doing things I don't get to do. Anyway I haven't seen all teen dramas, I was never interested in supernatural ones, so you won't find Vampire Diaries and similar shows on this list.

From worst to best:

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

I will never understand how this show ran for five seasons. It will forever remain a mystery to me. This show is so bad it's good. The writing resembles a wattpad story, Amy's pregnancy is inconsistent (like how was she five months pregnant for like five or six episodes, aren't the episodes supposed to be set a week apart?), the acting is bad (that is not to say that Molly Ringwald or Shailene Woodley are bad actresses, obviously they're not, I'm talking about Amy's sister that has the same facial expression no matter what her mood is supposed to be), some of the views this show expresses are very old-fashioned and damaging (the madonna-whore binary, the fact that they can't even utter the word abortion) and every single male character on this show is a creep and a cheater. I can't believe I watched like thirteen episodes of this. I will never get that time back.

Weirdest moment: "I'm a whore!" "Well, you're my whore." (Was this supposed to be romantic??)

Best moment: none

Glee

This is going to be unpopular and don't get me wrong, I like Glee, but I feel like the writers put much more thought into the musical numbers than the storylines. Again, Quinn's pregnancy is inconsistent (but I'm starting to think TV shows are always inconsistent about pregnancies), the characters don't look like they're in high school at all, the cheerleaders wear their uniforms 24/7 for no reason (Quinn even wore it to her sonogram, like seriously?) the whole celibacy club thing is weird and Mr Schue is a terrible teacher. However, the visuals and the musical numbers are great, Sue Sylvester is iconic (albeit also a terrible teacher) and some of the scenes are really emotional (Kurt singing I Wanna Hold Your Hand made my sister cry) so overall, it's pretty good.

Weirdest moment: Finn praying to grilled cheese (what??)

Best moment: Quinn giving birth to Bohemian Rhapsody, Kurt singing I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Dawson's Creek

I LOVE their 90s' outfits and Joey and Pacey are really otp material, but I just can't stand Dawson! He got mad that Joey didn't tell him about his mother's affair, as if it was her place to get involved. She was 15! It's understandible she didn't want to get tangled into that mess. He also slut-shamed Jen in a really gross way. He literally stopped talking to her for a day when he found out she isn't a virgin. Why are both Joey and Jen into this guy?? This would've been a much better show if it was called Joey's Creek or Pacey's Creek.

Weirdest moment: the way Dawson's mom confessed her affair to her husband. I don't think any irl human would use this choice of words. Also that scene where Dawson's father was teaching him how to kiss while Joey was watching. Cringe.

Best moment: any time Joey and Pacey are bickering. My shipper heart!

Pretty Little Liars

I loved the book version of this, but the TV version seems way too dramatic. First of all, they romanticized Aria and Ezra's relationship (ewww) and made the whole thing seem much more overdramatic. I don't know how to explain it, I mean the books are also dramatic but the TV show somehow took it to a whole new level. None of the girls look like they're in high school, but I love the way they dress and do their makeup. It's almost as though the writers put more thought into their outfits than storylines. I still loved watching it until Netflix took it off, though.

Weirdest moment: Spencer somehow trying to block A's number from her laptop in the middle of a park and then being confused that it didn't work. Weren't you supposed to be the smart one, Spencer?

Best moment: Haleb in the shower, hiding from Hanna's mom.

Skins

This is a classic. Effy is iconic (I somehow heard about her even before watching Skins) and the musical number at the end of season 1 was out of nowhere but still somehow fit perfectly into the story. I also give this show point for being one of the few TV shows where teen characters are actually played by real life teens. They look their age, talk their age (no "I reject reality" or other cringy lines like that) and aren't unrealistically perfect like characters from American teen dramas tend to be. They look like people you might actually meet in high school. However the show loses points for all the continuity errors (are 8 episodes supposed to be the whole school year??) and the number of unneccessary death/tragic accidents. It seemed kind of over-the-top and unneccessarily dark and brutal at times.

Weirdest moment: Chris's graphic death

Best moment: Wild World

Euphoria

The Gen Z American version of Skins, but with better visuals. Much better. I loved the aesthetic, the colors, the lighting and glitter. Zendaya's a great actress and I give this show points for casting an actual trans actress in the role of Jules. However I find it weird that all guys on this show are complete irredeemable assholes (except of Jules's dad and Ethan that is). Are we supposed to just root for the girls and not the guys? Also I find it hard to believe that any of these characters are actually 16/17. They have sex all the time (yeah teenagers have sex sometimes but on this show they treated Kat as some kind of a chaste nun for being a virgin at 16) and have seemingly no rules and no curfew. It would've been much more believable if they were in college.

Weirdest moment: Nate breaking into Tyler's house, beating him up and then taking a shower. The audacity this guy has!

Best moment: "You did this to me!" and Rue having an anxiety attack on the stage in theater class

Gossip Girl

I know this is also an unpopular opinion, because many claim Gossip Girl is the best teen drama ever, but for me it just got way too soapy as the seasons went on. The first two seasons were believable, even though they didn't really look like they were in high school, but after that it was just more and more weird plot points. I will give this show points for the fashion (I mean Blair's headbands and school uniform inspired a fashion line), the acting ("I killed someone"- iconic) and the choice of background music (Nate and Serena kissing to Paparazzi, Thanksgiving with Watcha Say). Despite the wild twists and turns of events, I just had to keep watching because this show had me hooked.

Weirdest moment: Bart Bass somehow flying off the building for no reason (seriously, what he did there had no logical explanation and defied laws of physics), Dan being Gossip Girl, Bart faking his death and returning more evil than before, Serena becoming Gossip Girl, the affidavit, everyone randomly stopping going to college... there are so many but Bart takes the cake I guess

Best moment: the Thanksgiving flashbacks from season 1, Dan placing a plastic crown on Blair's head

Freaks and Geeks

This is one of the few shows where high school is depicted realistically. It's not all glitter and parties and not everyone has sex and does drugs. Okay, I admit, the bullying was over the top and it was weird how no adults cared but other than that, it was pretty spot-on. It was emotional without being too dramatic and far-fetched and also had funny moments. Yes some of the characters may have been stereotypes but at least the show seemed self-aware of that. It's truly a shame we only got 18 episodes of this show, while The Secret Life of the American Teenager somehow got five seasons??? I don't get it.

Weirdest moment: when Cindy suddenly got super mean once she started dating Sam

Best moment: Daniel showing up at Kim's doorstep, Sam breaking down in tears in the end of 'Garage Door'

Gilmore Girls

I'm not sure this one counts as a teen drama, maybe it's more of a dramedy but I'm still including it here. It's funny, the dialogue is witty and full of obscure pop-culture references and the relationships between generations complex. Same as with Freaks and Geeks, the portrayal of high school is pretty realistic. Characters are shown studying and taking tests and not just partying all the time. However the show loses points for getting weirdly soapy in the 7th season. The dialogue wasn't as good and the camera angles were soap opera like and the storylines weren't very good either. You could really tell the show changed show-runners. The earlier seasons are the best. It's hard to explain but something about them feels cozy like a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate on a rainy day.

Weirdest moment: Lorelai marrying Chris and then making the whole "you're the man I want to want" speech, Lorelai defending and loving Dean for no reason

Best moment: Rory's graduation speech, Rory yelling at Chris and calling him out for not having been there for her, Then She Appeared, "Yes Emily, you may go first"... there are so many!

#teen dramas #the secret life of the american teenager #glee #dawson's creek #pll #skins #euphoria #gossip girl #freaks and geeks #gilmore girls #i would've included the oc but i havent seen enough of it yet

84 notes · View notes

lokismusings · 3 years

Text

Russell T Davies on straight actors and gay characters.

I decided to put this here because I post a lot of Hilson stuff. As an actor, this article hit a nerve. However, as a defender of free speech, Davies is allowed to have his opinion without me thinking of him as insensitive. Just like I am allowed to have my own opinion and argument, and ask questions without being labeled “homophobic, intolerant” etc. (that would just make me laugh because have you SEEN my blog? Anyway, I’ve seen a few other websites covering this article. I am also very skeptical of everything I read, including the sources, and I try not to blindly believe everything. That being said, I felt like posting this to get other opinions and ask honest question to help my understanding. If this has already been covered on Tumblr, please feel free to send me the conversations! Some background on me: I graduated with a BA in Theatre and have worked both on and off the stage since I was twelve years old. I have directed plays and an audio play. Given my experience and dedication to my craft, I think my opinion is worth something.

Also, for the sake of this argument, I am leaving trans-actors out because that’s a whole different post. Here is the article:

https://news.sky.com/story/russell-t-davies-straight-actors-should-not-play-gay-characters-12185652

Okay, so first things first, let’s talk about this: “Speaking to the Radio Times, Davies compared a straight actor playing a gay character to black face.” Something that irks me is when one person tries to speak for a whole community and doesn’t reference people from said community who might disagree: whether it’s the LGBTQ+ community, a religious community, medical community, etc. The list goes on. Here, Davies is speaking on behalf of, or speaking for, both the LGBTQ+ community and the black community, is he not? I am genuinely asking because I would like to be more educated on this kind of speech.

Then Davies says, "I'm not being woke about this... but I feel strongly that if I cast someone in a story, I am casting them to act as a lover, or an enemy, or someone on drugs or a criminal or a saint... they are NOT there to 'act gay' because 'acting gay' is a bunch of codes for a performance.” Does that not discredit his whole statement? If any actor does a caricature version of anything and doesn’t take it seriously or really works to get into the role and the mindset of a character, they’re not a good actor. At least, they’re not an actor that I’d want to hire. Second, by the logic that a straight person shouldn’t play a gay character, should someone without a criminal record not be able to play a criminal character? Before you go off and say “it’s about identity and sexuality, and playing a criminal is about the choice to break the law” or other arguments, I hear you. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the experience. How can an actor who has never committed a crime play a criminal character authentically? They do their research: reading, interviewing, etc. I’m not saying that an actor with a few minor marks on his record shouldn’t be considered for the same role. I’m saying that in an audition setting, if both of these actors were auditing for the role and the non-criminal-record actor just happened to do a better job and fit what the director and/or writer wanted, is that a mark against the criminal-record-actor? Maybe personally because we don’t know what the director is thinking. But chances are, it’s not a mark against the other actor. The other one just happened to have a better audition. Or, a major factor when considering casting, said actor was easy to work with--I’ve seen a lot of talented actors lose a lot of roles because of their inability to take criticism or notes.

Plus, the whole “Breaking Bad” series?? I highly doubt the main actors were meth-making drug-lords. Or, a better example, “The Wire?” In that show, we see the constant battle and deals between drug-lords and cops.

Another point I’d like to make: “...is a bunch of codes for a performance.” That’s exactly right. The audience doesn’t want to know an actor is “performing.” We know that going in, with what is called “suspension of disbelief.” We know the whole show is a performance, but we also expect the actors to be truthful (unless it’s a comedy/farce, but again, that’s a different argument).

Was it bad that, before 2020, some main characters in TV shows were portrayed as straight but the writers ended up “queer-baiting?” I am referring, of course, to House, M.D. (If you follow this blog, you’ll understand.) But I am also referring to the BBC Sherlock Holmes series. Yes, both pairs of characters (House and Wilson; Holmes and Watson) are assumed to be straight. However, some episodes allude that there could also be something more there. Even the actors have said in various interviews that they aren’t sure if it’s a true romance that the characters are afraid to face, or just a strong bond between best friends that blurs the line between platonic and romantic. I’m paraphrasing, but you get the picture. Therefore, should these characters have only been played by straight actors who are questioning their sexuality or feelings for a best friend? Would it have been disrespectful to gay people if these characters ended up becoming romantically involved? (If we ask the Hilson and Johnlock community, I’m guessing that’s a resounding “NO WAY! IT WOULD BE A DREAM COME TRUE!” xD <3)

“It's about authenticity, the taste of 2020.” *Cinema Sins sigh*

"You wouldn't cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair...” Again I say, directors and casting directors need to ALWAYS search for someone who is in a wheelchair, or deaf, or HOH, etc. before looking for an able-bodied actor to play a character with that disability (I’m iffy on the whole term “disability because of its negative connotations, but I’m using that word in order to keep this post as long as possible). But I give you the example of Rainman with Dustin Hoffman. Or A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. Or the play and movie Proof, where the father had a mental illness? Anthony Hopkins was diagnosed late in life with Asperger’s Syndrome, but the father in Proof was written to allude more to schizophrenia. And yet, Anthony Hopkins did a tremendous job in that role. Or Even Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks. Many people today love Tom Hanks and laud him as a “woke” celebrity. But if he were to portray the role of Forrest Gump today, how many people would try to “cancel” him or at least have very strong words for the director not casting an actor with autism, due to the character’s autistic tendencies? A whole lot of people on the internet and Twitter, I’ll bet. As someone who struggles with anxiety and panic disorder, would I be upset if someone without that mental illness got cast in a role of a character struggling with that? Sure I would. But if they did an authentic job and approached the role respectfully, it would be hard to stay irritated. Besides, there are always more roles created practically everyday.

To continue on with Davies’ quote: “...you wouldn't black someone up.” Yikes. I’m sure he didn’t mean this in a cast-off kind of way, but that’s how it comes across. I can see now why he said he wasn’t “being woke about this,” because a more “woke” way of putting that would be...what, exactly? “You wouldn’t cast a non-black person in a black role.” That sounds better and less harsh. Or even “a white person in a minority role.” Which should be common sense, and I agree with both statements.

And then “Authenticity is leading us to joyous places." Oh! Look at that! There’s that word that I’ve been using and emphasizing throughout this whole post! Authenticity is one major brick in the foundation of good, credible acting.

“High-profile examples of straight performers playing LGBTQ+ characters include Rami Malek's Oscar-winning portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, and Taron Egerton's Golden Globe-winning turn as Sir Elton John in Rocketman.”

I haven’t seen Rocketman, but I saw Bohemian Rhapsody and it was great! Why am I high-lighting this movie? Because it’s the perfect example of a straight actor playing a gay character and playing it authentically, while also looking a lot like the real person they’re portraying. If a look-a-like had been cast who also happened to be gay, but couldn’t act to save their life or couldn’t bring as much as Rami brought to the role, wouldn’t that kind of put a damper on the film? And yet, Rami Maleck both looked the part and brought an authenticity to the role that many Queen fans loved and appreciated. Even the remaining Queen band members said that he did an incredible job and Freddy would be proud. I wonder if Freddy would care that Rami wasn’t gay? I doubt it, but no one can know for certain.

Then there’s the whole term “gay face.” I personally don’t think this is the right term to use because it could possibly diminish the whole meaning and importance of “black face.” Even if Corden appeared to be mocking gay people (I never watched The Prom so I have no idea what his performance was like), calling it “gay face” takes away from and inadvertently belittles the whole dark history of “black face.” Black face’s whole history comes out of an even darker history of racist times filled with hatred and ignorance. I’m not saying that gay people haven’t had their own experiences with hate and intolerance, but isn’t kind of “un-woke” and “insensitive” to compare the hundreds of years of blatant, public racism against an entire race of people to the intolerance of homosexuals? (Again, I’m asking this genuinely because I want to learn and get other people’s opinions. I’m not trying to speak for any community, and I recognize that my personal opinion on this matter is just that: my opinion. And I could be better informed.)

Along the lines of the above paragraph, is it wrong to say or think that casting a non-minority actor in a minority role is a lot different from casting a straight actor in a gay role? Sexuality comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors; that is to say, every race has people with different sexualities. But I think it would be pretty cringe if a Caucasian actress was cast in a role meant for an Asian or African-American woman.

Director Joe Mantello told Sky News the casting was not intentional, but rather a "very fortunate series of events".

He continued: "That being said, I think having an out gay cast really did inform the work and it took on a particular kind of tone because of that, which is not to say that's the only way to approach this material. But for this particular group, it did something that I think is very, very special. There's a chemistry that they have."

And this man summed up my entire argument! He also put into simpler terms what I have been trying to express about the beauty of theatre: there will always be special casts, especially when there’s a great chemistry from a shared experience. A "very fortunate series of events,” indeed. “The casting was not intentional...” leads me to believe that the director didn’t set out to have an all out-gay-cast, but rather, each actor brought great performances to their auditions and were considered by the director to be perfect for the roles. These actors also just happened to be gay.

If you’re still here after all of that, let me take a moment to sincerely thank you for reading the whole thing! I know it’s a lot, but I’m very passionate about acting and giving each and every actor a fair chance. Let me know what you think, and please be respectful!

26 notes · View notes

lilkrumpja · 3 years

Text

An open letter to the admins of a facebook group about Romani “education” who so kindly informed me that romanipen was “often misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic and promoting of rape culture” as well as some other -ics that I’m not even going to legitimize:

It finally happened. Romani discourse got me to delete my facebook. It wasn’t even the “fauxmani police” you guys constantly bemoan either, it was YOU.

First, hello. I am a transgender person. Sorry I didn’t herald this information with a huge banner on my profile pic or make dozens of tiktoks about it, but I am. There is a good chance I’ve been out and medically transitioning longer than you’ve known you had Roma heritage. But while we’re on the topic of allies attempting to educate people on their own marginalization like we don’t already know better than you ever will -

I believe the words used were “we need to adapt, or we will die”.........first off who is we? Roma got by for centuries without you. Without all of us. Nobody needs your advice. This may hurt your feelings, but people who are reconnecting to Romani culture for any reason need to remember their place within it. It doesn’t matter why any of us grew up outside the culture. The fact is that we DID, and if we’re not coming from a place of learning, we’re abusing the work done by the people responsible for everything we know about being Romani.

When people who were raised Romani ask you to keep traditions, it’s because they are the only truly tangible thing that connects us as a culture anymore. You also say repeatedly that we are not a monolith, and that’s quite true. Which is why nobody is asking you to keep every single tradition you know to be practiced by Romani. But refusing to listen to those in the culture who have gone out of their way to help you reconnect and learn? What do you want to get out of being Romani, exactly? Permission to put it in your bio on social media? An opportunity to condescend to people? Pretty scarves? Absolution of your white guilt? That’s called a costume.

As I mentioned previously, I’m a trans person. I was out to my Roma family and faced my share of rejection for it. Do you think I don’t know about conservative values within the culture? Do you really think I’m advocating for excommunication or repression when I suggest you should hold some traditions? Or did it really not occur to you that maybe I was referring to the way you wash your dishes or something equally innocuous?

Where the hell do you get off being raised English and criticizing Romani who are mistrustful of outsiders, exactly? Why does this continually need to be explained to you? Why do you think centuries of violent history magically don’t apply to you just because you have heritage? Why do you think there’s something about you that distinguishes you from anyone who could be lying about even having heritage at all? There’s not a radar and none of us are special. Sorry if that hurts your feelings. It’s not fair, but it’s the truth.

And don’t bring me more shit about your therapists and behaviors and thriving. I don’t care, and the argument doesn’t do what you think it does. You know there are laws right now that affect our people worldwide. Your therapists don’t know how many lashes you took for speaking Romanes. You have not BEEN HERE for the centuries of slaughter. You don’t have a right to criticize certain behaviors. You look like the xenophobe. Don’t even attempt to discuss anti-lgbtq+, sexist or xenophobic ideals within romanipen unless you plan to immediately follow up with the fact that colonialism and white supremacy were what injected them there in the first place. Then take a look at your role as a white settler within your own country and ask yourself if you should really be throwing stones.

Those of us reconnecting have very limited tools for education, and the ones we possess came to us through extreme risk for the ones that left them to us. They sacrificed time and safety so we could learn. They faced potential expulsion for the sake of educating us. Where is your respect for that effort? Where is the acknowledgement that everything we know about our Romani selves we know because of them? Telling people “I’m Romani” and comparing ourselves to photos of women on google doesn’t do a fucking thing for them or the culture.

Like, go to fucking college. Congregate with unmarried men on your period. Go be fucking gay. Shave your head and wear pants and literally do whatever but quit trashing the entire concept of upholding any semblance of Romani tradition as a points system that you are losing or some anti-individuality steamroller. Act remotely grateful that Roma put themselves at risk to teach you anything at all. Accept that you have learning to do.

Y’all can interact with this however you want but don’t expect a response. I don’t feel like hearing your side yet again about all your disadvantages when you actively ignore those of others to excuse your lack of willingness to fall back and listen. I just didn’t feel like making a whole new facebook account and applying to your group just to get this off my chest. I’m willing to be the bad guy if it means you start listening to people who have lived experience in something you’re interested in ✌️

#Romani #romanipen

19 notes · View notes

heloflor · 3 years

Text

They’re gay, Orton

AO3 Link

“Hey ! Don’t do that ! I don’t have a time machine to go back and un-die you.”

“And if you get hurt, I don’t have one either !”

“Aww. That was touching.”

Note : Just a little drabble I wanted to make because, when I think of the crossover, it never fails to make me laugh to see Orton comment on how cute Cavendish and Dakota are with each other, only to make Doctor Zone and Time Ape brothers in his show. Orton is a guy from the 60s with no gaydar whatsoever and I find this hilarious. On that same note, I also went back to see how Time Ape is described in “The Doctor Zone Files” and it’s pretty interesting how he’s a “transchronological being” who chose his current form. So this fic is a very short thing that covers both these ideas.

Despite what the title and summary may indicate, this fic takes place when the group of adults just got stuck into the timestream and is more focused on Cavendish and Dakota than Orton (making titles and summaries is hard, alright).

(And regarding something in the fic, yes I know Dakota knows the word “peculiar”, as we see in “School Dance” for example; but I wanted to make a “Dakota doesn’t know complicated words” moment for once.)

This fic also goes into the direction of what I wrote last time, with Cavendish and Dakota being married but hiding their relationship due to homophobia from the past.

Enjoy !

Vinnie was bored.

He didn’t know how long they’ve been stuck in the time-stream, he didn’t know if there even was a point of wondering it. But what he knew is that he wasn’t going to be able to just sit there in silence for much longer. He needed some form of stimulation. Something, anything that could busy his mind.

He looked at the man facing him. Balth was messing with their intercommunicator, surely in an attempt to get them out of here.

“Hey.”, Vinnie tried to get his attention.

“One moment. I’m trying something.”, the taller man grumbled, getting more and more frustrated with the device.

Vinnie sighed. “Maybe I should just sing the zoo song.”, he murmured.

“Please don’t.”

“Why not ?”

“I don’t want to spend all eternity listening to the same two verses.”, his husband explained, putting the communicator away.

“Aw come on ! It’s a good song !”, Vinnie playfully replied. Balth didn’t budge and only looked more annoyed. “Besides, it makes me happy. Unlike the way a certain someone just keeps complaining.”, he continued playfully.

“Hmph.”, Vinnie immediately regretted his words as he noticed the hurt in Balth’s eyes along with the anger he was conveying.

“Hey, I’m sorry.”, he took Balth’s hand in his. “Y-you know I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t hate it when you complain. Well, it’s a tad annoying…but you get the point.”, he shrugged.

His husband nodded, making it clear that he understood. His eyes, however, kept looking between their joined hands and the man sitting next to Vinnie. Orton was scribbling again, stopping for a second to give the pair a glance before going back to his writing, only to freeze and look at the two again.

“Something on your mind ?”, Vinnie couldn’t help but ask the man.

“Oh. I’m sorry.”, Orton replied, almost looking like a child who was caught eavesdropping. “It’s just that the two of you have such a peculiar relationship.”

“Pecu-what ?”, the shorter man asked.

“Peculiar.”, Balth explained with an eye-roll. “It means strange but fascinating.”, the taller man turned his attention to the future TV star. “What makes you say such a thing ?”

“It’s the way you two act.”, Orton explained. “Since I’ve met you earlier, you kept arguing about anything and everything. But you always manage to keep working with each other and get along, as if all those arguments never happened at all.”

“Huh. I guess we do argue a lot.”, Vinnie commented while glancing at his husband with a smile. The taller man, however, was still focused on the other man. And was it just Vinnie, or did Balth looked tense, almost afraid ?

“It’s funny to see such a friendship.”, Orton continued. “It’s like the two of you were brothers.”

“B-brothers ?!”, Balth spluttered.

Vinnie couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea, not helped by Balthazar’s reaction. In all his years of time-travel, he and Balth had been called a lot of things. But acting like brothers ? As in biological brothers and not brothers in arms ? From someone less than two centuries away from their time-period ? That was new. Vinnie had to admit, he would never stop being surprised by how oblivious people could be in the past, no matter how close to his present they were.

“Actually,”, Vinnie decided to correct. “we’re marr-“

“Yes, just like brothers !”, Balth interrupted, laughing awkwardly. Vinnie could only frown as the taller man silenced him with his hand. “After everything we’ve been through so much together, it’s like we always knew each other !”

“Yeah.”, the shorter man grumpily continued after removing Balth’s hand from his face. “And you should really tell your wife how great of a brother in-law she has.”, Vinnie tried to keep a relaxed tone, though he couldn’t help but glare at the man.

Balth returned his glare but stayed silent. From the corner of his eye, Vinnie could see his husband playing with his ring, his fingers slowly rubbing the metal.

“Can any of you help me with this ?”, Professor Time suddenly interrupted. He and his platypus friend were trying to push one of the cabinets of the time-machine.

“I can help !”, Orton replied as he stood up.

Once the other men were all out of earshot, the remaining pair had the same thought. Balth grabbed Vinnie’s arm and their face came closer.

“This man is from the 60s.”, Balth half-shouted half-whispered. “We can’t just go around telling him about our relationship !”

“He’s a nice guy !”, Vinnie argued.

“Just because he’s helping us now doesn’t mean he will be fine with two men liking each other !”

“But what if he does ? And if he doesn’t, so what ? He sees us as his friends. If he cares for us, he can realize that there’s nothing wrong with it and that we’re just normal people ! And what if he doesn’t think about it because it’s not a thing for him ? Because that doesn’t mean he’s against it !”

“Dakota.”, Balth took a deep breath, seemingly deflating. “Listen. The world is in grave danger. We might be the only people left who aren’t plants. If we tell Orton about us, we might cause a divide in the group. And we can’t afford that right now !”, after a quick look at the taco stand, he took Vinnie’s hand in his, gently rubbing it with his thumb. “We need to keep our relationship a secret from everyone. This is the safest thing we can do, especially with what’s happening right now. We simply cannot risk it.”

“…”, Vinnie sighed. “I hate it when you’re right about this.”, he pulled away, crossing his arms. “Alright, I won’t tell him. But that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

“I don’t expect you to be.”, his husband replied with a more compassionate tone.

When Orton came back to the table, he looked at the pair curiously but didn’t make any comment. He simply sat back, his head on the table. And that was the end of it.

Vinnie was still feeling a bit angry. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand about his marriage, it was the need to hide it just because of what some people might do to him. To Balth. But at least he learnt to live with this lie. And Balth was much more affectionate when they were in the present, making the whole thing bearable.

…And now that this entire talk was done, and with the two men at the table having the same idea to try sleeping, he yet again found himself with nothing to do but be bored.

-----

After what felt like forever, they finally got their hands on some time juice. Thanks to the strange way the time-stream worked, the group somehow found the moment Vinnie got the clocks into it. Now they were almost on their way to 1965, waiting for Professor Time to fuel his time-machine.

“We are finally going to have a chance to get rid of those pistachios once and for all.”, Balth said not without relief, echoing Vinnie’s thoughts.

“Yeah.”, the shorter man replied. “And it’s about time too. If we’d have stayed stuck here several days, I would’ve started running out of those.”, forgetting about the time-period of the people around him, he took his testosterone doses out of his pocket.

“Since when do you carry those with you ?”, Balth commented.

“For a while now, in case it runs out.”, Vinnie elbowed his husband. “Looks like you’re starting to rub off on me.”

“It’s about time.”, the taller man replied with a small smile.

“Wait.”, Professor Time suddenly interrupted, the time-juice container in hand. “Why do you need to take hormones ?”, the professor gasped. “Does that mean you’re-! Wow, the future must have great surgeons, I never would’ve guessed !”

“Thanks.”, Vinnie couldn’t help but chuckle. While the man with the annoying voice definitely wasn’t the portrait he made of the great hero who invented time-travel, there was still some pride in seeing the great Professor Time compliment him.

“They sure do.”, Balth replied as well, putting a hand on Vinnie’s shoulder. Whether it was in jealousy from seeing his hero compliment someone else or in protection due to what the professor may have grown up to believe about men like him, Vinnie couldn’t tell.

“Wait. What are you referring to ?”, Orton asked.

“Oh. Uhhh.”, Vinnie and Balth shared a look, and the shorter man didn’t miss how his husband immediately tensed. But now that the TV star heard, it would be rude not to answer him. “H-how to explain it simply…”

“Just do it like you were telling it to a child.”, Balth suggested in a lower voice. “You like children, right ?”

“Yeah. Yeah ok. Alright.”, Vinnie cleared his throat, his attention back on Orton, a man who was definitely not like a child. He felt Balth let go of him. Not helping, he mentally grumbled. “You see…when-when I was a kid…let’s just say I didn’t look like I do know. I mean, of course I grew up and changed but, ahem. Look, let’s just say that, when I was born, I wasn’t born a boy. I-I looked like a girl.”

“You were born a girl ?!”, despite his tone, Orton looked more fascinated than repulsed.

“Noooot exactly. I always was a boy. But when I was a kid, I, well I guess it was like I was trapped in a girl’s body. Everyone thought I was a girl, and for a while, I thought I did too. But I always wanted to look more like my brother. I often tried to wear his clothes and do things like him.”, Vinnie found himself smile at the memory. It was such a long time ago…”Eventually, I realized that I was a boy. So when I became a teenager, my oldest brother made sure I grew up like one. And here I am now.”

“So you were born with a different body, like a woman’s body, but chose to become a man ?”

“I wouldn’t say I chose but, yeah I guess that’s the main idea.”, Vinnie shrugged.

“Fascinating. I’m not sure I understand everything about it but…”, the TV star started writing in his notepad again. Vinnie hoped it didn’t mean bad news for him.

“You don’t have to understand it.”, Balth interrupted, his hand back on his husband’s shoulder. “The only thing to understand is that Dakota is a man, in both mind and body.”

“Oh you sure would know that.~”, the shorter man couldn’t help but joke, earning a glare from the taller man.

“Alright gang !”, Professor Time interjected as he got back to the counter. “The time-juice is in. And this time, we’ll have enough to go in and out. 1965, here we come !”

Note : For those curious about my headcanons : Dakota has three siblings, two brothers and one sister. Also the brother mentioned for the clothes is two years older than Vinnie, which is mostly why Vinnie went to him to get some clothes since it wouldn’t be that big on him. Also also, Vinnie is the youngest of the siblings (he’s the baby bro and he sometimes “hates” it, mostly because he has no-one to tease/coddle like the other three do, especially the two oldest).

This is the first time I not only write about a trans character but also made the fact that they’re trans be a subject of discussion; so I hope I did ok on that front.

And speaking of which, for those wondering about that too : I don’t see Heinz as a trans man. He’s definitely a crossdresser, and I completely understand why people see him as trans, but personally, I don’t really see it. So him being completely fine with Vinnie is less about him being able to relate and more about him being a decent person.

And one last thing : yes, Vinnie “””“”fully””””” transitioned. Hence the “both in mind and body” part (and my god does this sound transphobic when said like that…and that’s coming from someone who’s enby and wants to transition to male). So while I doubt that I’ll ever mention what Dakota has in his pants, don’t expect me to write something in which he falls pregnant or is able to.

Thanks for reading !

#Milo Murphy's Law #mml #Vinnie Dakota #Balthazar Cavendish #Dakavendish #Heinz Doofenshmirtz #Orton Mahlson #trans Vinnie Dakota #my fanfics #mml spoilers ???#not really #but who knows #if I did something wrong in the representation #please don't kill me #tell me I messed up #but spare my life

19 notes · View notes

nerdygaymormon · 4 years

Note

So, I know the Church places,a lot of emphasis on getting married in the temple, and I think somewhere I heard it was necessary to achieve the highest level of glory, but recently I've been considering the label a romantic for myself and I was wondering what my place in the church would be. Is marriage really necessary for exaltation?

I wrote a very long response, and then at the end figured out the answer I should give you.

Listen to your heart. What is the Spirit trying to whisper to you?

Since you’re aro, check out the apostle Paul’s message in I Corinthians chapter 7. He says if you’re ace/aro, great! God has work for you. In fact, Paul seems to value being ace/aro over being married.

———————————————————————

I’ll still share the really long answer about whether marriage is necessary for exaltation,

I’ll begin with the Church’s answer. Then I’ll provide some historical context. And finally, I’ll share my thoughts.

———————————————————————

I suppose we should begin by defining what the LDS Church means by someone being exalted.

They will live in the presence of Jesus and God (which means living in the highest level of heaven)

They will become gods (children of God grow up to be like God)

They'll be united with their spouse for eternity, and linked to their righteous children and others through sealings

They will have eternal offspring (Wendy Watson Nelson is quoted in a 2020 manual for Sunday School teachers as saying marital sex "will continue eternally")

They'll receive everything Jesus and God have--power, glory, dominion and knowledge

Two of the items on the list involve being married/sealed together, which is why the LDS Church puts such an emphasis on this.

For those who are unmarried, or whose marriages aren't sealed in the temple, they can still make it to the highest kingdom of heaven but they will not be exalted, they'll be ministering angels

———————————————————————

In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), a person has to strictly observe all the Jewish laws involving sacrifice, prayer, and observance of holy days.

These laws cover everything from what clothes a person can wear, what they eat for lunch, and even if it’s okay to have sex with your wife when she is menstruating. God is very involved in the details.

These laws could be considered the "covenant path" of the Jewish faith.

—————————

Jesus & his apostles reject the idea that people have to keep all the Jewish laws in order to be saved in heaven.

Rather than a bunch of boxes to check, Jesus taught there's simply 2 great commandments.

The first is to love God above all else.

The second is to work diligently for the welfare of others, especially the poor, outcasts, strangers, foreigners, marginalized and even those who are our hated enemies. In other words, help God accomplish His great work, which is us.

—————————

This idea that Jesus rejected following strict laws and covenants, along with the command to love God, it lead to the Christian teaching of people being "saved" through their faith in Jesus.

First, a person has to believe that Jesus is the Son of God

Next, they must believe that they can't go to heaven unless Jesus saves them

Then they ask Jesus to come into their life by prayer. They admit that they've sinned and ask for forgiveness and pledge to follow Jesus for the rest of their life. This is often referred to as being "born again"

Finally, they are baptized as a sign of their commitment to Christ (baptism is not a requirement to get into heaven, but is a way to follow Christ’s example and show they've had a significant spiritual experience)

—————————

Joseph Smith taught that most people go to heaven, and that heaven has layers.

To get to the highest level we must complete certain ordinances and live a certain way. President Nelson refers to this as the "covenant path."

Faith in Jesus (not an ordinance, but a requirement to begin this path)

Repentance (not an ordinance, but having a desire that to do better)

Baptism by immersion (symbolic of our repentance that washes us clean and saves us from eternal death to eternal life)

Laying on of Hands to receive the Holy Ghost

Melchizedek Priesthood ordination (for men only)

Washing & Annointing ordinance

Endowment ceremony

Celestial Marriage (sealed to spouse in the temple)

Sealing to parents (done in the temple, or if your parents were sealed to each other at the time of your birth, you were born sealed to them)

These collectively are known as the saving ordinances.

For people who died without completing this list of ordinances, these can be performed vicariously for them at the temple (except for the ordination to the Melchizedek priesthood).

—————————

Since Joseph Smith put this new path of ordinances in place, there’s been a big change. For decades, "Celestial Marriage” meant polygamy, without it exaltation was not possible.

Since the Church was forced to stopped practicing polygamy, we've changed how we interpret the scriptures that talk about celestial marriage.

—————————

In order to go to the temple to receive the saving ordinances necessary for exaltation, the Church requires we pass a worthiness interview. I suppose that in a sense, these are changes as to who qualifies to be exalted. This additional list of requirements includes:

follow the Word of Wisdom

sustain the current prophet and apostles

obey the law of chastity

pay a full tithe

attend church meetings and partake of the Sacrament

if divorced, pay your child or spousal support

wear the temple garments

———————————————————————

A Safeguard

There's many people who find themselves outside of this Covenant Path.

Many lived and died without knowing anything of Christ, and we do not have records for them and thus can’t do temple work for them

Some people are specifically forbidden by the Church from completing the requirements for exaltation

Queer people

In the past, people of African heritage were also forbidden by the LDS Church

Given there's an obvious lack of fairness and opportunity, there has to be a way to fix things, otherwise God would be very unjust.

I believe this idea has influenced the LDS concept of the Millennium, which is a period of 1,000 years of peace after Christ comes again.

The Church believes that during the Millennium, people will be taught the gospel, repent, marry, raise children. The temples will be busy with resurrected people getting temple ordinances done.

People who died single will have an opportunity to find someone to marry.

Some people believe that queer people will not be queer anymore and this will make it so they can find someone to marry and be sealed together.

———————————————————————

My thoughts.

We know next to nothing of heaven and post-mortal life, yet we speak about it in very definitive terms--what it’s like, who’ll be there, what they’re doing.

—————————

I know we often speak of the highest level of heaven as very exclusive, but I’ve had the opportunity to speak with several Seventy and an apostle and they speak of the Millennium as the great hope.

Parents with wayward children should have hope, the lesbian should have hope, all will be made right, we all will have an opportunity to develop and grow. It sounds like everyone will be exalted if they want to be.

While I don’t quite agree with all the ways they think things will be fixed in the Millennium, I can get on board with the idea that God will make things right.

For example, the idea of a queer genocide that wipes out all LGBTQIA+ people and replace them with a cishet version of the person just doesn’t sit well with me.

What I do believe is that any blessing a person should’ve had during their lifetime will be made available to them.

—————————

Something about the idea that in heaven married couples are having sex and creating babies for eternity is a little weird to me. Do women like the idea of an eternity of pregnancy? Imagine an eternity of morning sickness and child birth as your destiny.

Mormon scriptures teach that we all began as intelligences, without beginning or end. God came and organized intelligences into spirits. In that way we’re God’s spirit children. Does that sound like sex? It doesn’t to me. I don’t know when celestial sex became the Church’s explanation of what it means to organize intelligences.

—————————

The ideas of what exaltation is causes leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to struggle with the idea of people who are ace, trans, gay, aro and so on. They see themselves in the idea of heaven and not the rest of us.

Their idea of what exaltation means makes them see no space for queerness in God’s Plan.

That’s pretty bold to deny the existence of God’s diverse creations. Here we are, we exist, we are known, yet rather than expand the Plan, to find how we can fit into the Plan, they choose not to see us.

—————————

It makes me very sad to think our Heavenly Parents might have set up a plan that would cause most of their children to not be exalted, and that means they’d never get to see those children or speak with them again, yet that’s what many Church members seem to believe.

If our Heavenly Parents are supposed to be a model for us on how to be parents, most humans would reject the idea of setting up a plan to make their kids fail so they would never see or speak to them again. That's the opposite of what we'd consider good parenting.

—————————

While I find meaning in the ordinances performed by the LDS Church, I'm more inclined to believe what Jesus taught on the matter--Love God, love & lift those in need. Jesus called this "true religion" and those who follow it will find they do well in heaven, no matter what earthly church or religion they belong to.

I think of the story of 3 eighteen-year-olds who carried members of the Martin Handcart Company across the icy waters of the Sweetwater River. Those young men died from the extreme exposure, and upon hearing of what they did, Brigham Young wept and said they’d be exalted for their sacrifice. Their exaltation wasn’t dependent on being married or having the Melchizedek priesthood. Service & sacrifice for people in need was enough.

I imagine Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and others who've spent their life developing Christlike traits (regardless of whether they were Christian) will be much further ahead when the Millennium arrives. It only takes a few hours to complete the ordinances, and so much longer to become the kind of person who can be exalted.

I suspect a lot of Mormons will be surprised to find that their ordinances weren't enough to qualify them for exaltation

—————————

Since I'm forbidden by the Church from being sealed to a husband, I instead focus on being a good person, on helping others, on being a great uncle and a good neighbor and friend.

Is marriage really necessary for exaltation? I don’t know.

I don’t know what heaven is like, there’s some Mormon beliefs about heaven that I really like, such most everyone goes to heaven, and we can be together with the people we most love.

While I don’t know much about heaven, I think we can know things about God’s character, and that’s what causes me to question some of what is taught about heaven & marriage and a Plan that excludes queer people.

48 notes · View notes

miseriathome · 4 years

Text

You know, if you go to Pride and you’re put off by the things that the very most degenerate and freakish of the queers are doing, that’s a good opportunity for growth; that means that the spirit of Pride as a public demonstration for rights is still alive and functioning within your event, and that means you have the opportunity to learn compassion for others in your community who live very different realities than you do.

When we say that Pride began as a riot, that’s not just a quippy catchphrase. Pride parades are the result of nighttime street fights and riots against systems of policing becoming accessible to a broader movement of queer people and leftists in the form of daytime public demonstrations. The very nature of queer people existing out in the open during the daytime amongst “polite society” was in and of itself a demonstration. It was a demonstration against state power, against police violence, against dominant gender roles, against urban economic segregation, and against the indignities of being relegated to the margins of society. When the rest of society found it too easy to disengage from what the margins were doing, the margins moved in on the rest of society and made it their problem. Pride is about queering the streets and making queer existence inextricable from daily life.

“Men in dresses” challenged public sensibilities by having the audacity to exist without apology. With pride. Do you not understand that “but these non-explicit clothings and actions are obviously inextricable from sex acts and thus have no place existing in public!” was exactly as sensical of a justification for the extermination of queer people then as it is now? Do you not realize that the histories of queer people intertwines inextricably with the history of sex workers, kinksters, drug users, people of color, and other degenerates of the night who occupied city streets instead of houses? That the bisexuality of Brenda Howard, mother of Pride, cannot be ripped from her polyamory, her kinkiness, or her Judaism? The reasons why HIV, immigration, racism, police violence, and disability rights are all queer issues is because they are issues that affect queer people.

Shame is the opposite of pride, which is why the history of Pride matters so much. We rebel against the corporatization of Pride because it does not speak authentically to our history and our needs. When Trojan sponsors a parade, they quash local safer sex initiatives run by community-based organizations meeting community needs by regulating that only Trojan-brand condoms may be distributed at the event. When alcohol distributors sponsor Pride, it’s without regard for the alcoholism rates in queer communities, nor the history that the community has for being persecuted for buying alcohol as “known homosexuals.” Corporate Pride employs cops to “clean up the city” by detaining homeless trans sex workers in preparation for Pride events, so that the “good, normal, lawful” attendees don’t have to witness degeneracy while they have their rainbow party. The pinkwashing of Pride is the sanitization of queer identity and the erasure of queer history to appeal to as wide of a consumer base as possible. That’s also all we are to corporations--consumers.

If Pride was ever meant to be a safe space, it was for the most vulnerable and despised of us, not for tourists to a gentrified marketing scheme. Pride began with queers reclaiming the streets, a place of violence against them, and daring the world to challenge their right to take up public space--daring the world to look them in the eye and bear witness to their unashamed existence. Pride began with the knowledge and the understanding that existence is not criminal, and yet the idea that it should be persists to this day. An event which is so sanitized that corporations are willing to sponsor it and the state is willing to sanction it is not an event which speaks with any authenticity to the experiences of vulnerable queer people. If you cannot stomach the “freaky, weird” queers existing in the same public sphere as you, then you would not have rallied against bar raids, bathhouse raids, and other instances of state-sanctioned violence against queer people. If you condone the continued physical marginalization of degeneracy out of the public eye and into private spaces, you are not fighting the same battle that Pride was born out of and exists for. Pride does not gatekeep questioning people or non-queer allies because the bar for entry is not Sameness, but rather a willingness to celebrate all manifestations of queerness in defiance of the systems which repress them.

There can be no revolution without coalitions of mutual support. There can be no “reform” which unteaches the biases that inform violence against the oppressed. Kinksters, sex workers, fetishists, cross-dressers, genderfags, polyamorists, monarchs of drag, and all those other “freaks” have existed since the beginning of Pride and have always been a part of the battle against “polite society” and “normative sensibilities.” They--we--are not only a part of this community, but are also its founders. Remember that Pride began as a rebellion against the institutions that would shame us. Remember that Pride began as a riot which will not end until free, open, authentic, visible pride can be attainable for all and not just the most respectable. Pride has never been about presenting ourselves at our most dignified for the approval of social institutions, but about showcasing the indignity of systemic violence and suppression at the hands of those institutions.

#pride discourse #kink discourse #queer history #human sexuality theory #human compassion theory #the queering project #queer geography #police violence #inclusionism #sex positivity

104 notes · View notes