not-that-taliesin - Tumblr blog

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The phenomenally talented Lola Falana performs the song I Am Love on her limited TV series Lola! in 1976. Known as “The Queen of Las Vegas” during the 1970s, Lola’s talents as a riveting singer and dancer definitely warranted the praise she received during the height of her fame. Following her success performing at The Sands, The Riviera, and the MGM Grand hotels, The Aladdin Hotel ultimately signed her for $100,000 per week, making her the highest paid female artist in Las Vegas during the era. Still around at the age of 80, Lola deserves to be re-discovered and appreciated by new audiences.

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Marine life specialists noticed a spotted eagle ray mother was having trouble and helped her deliver two baby rays 

(Source)

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“it’s weird for queer minors to be friends with queer adults” oh my god. ohhh my god.

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literally on my fucking knees begging and pleading for cis allies to stop saying things like “no trans kid is getting surgery” “no trans kids are transitioning” “trans kids just take reversible puberty blockers until they’re older” because these statements are not only demonstrably false, therefore giving transphobes an open window to completely debunk your argument and boost their own (”if it’s not happening why do you care if it’s made illegal?”), but you are not helping us or protecting us and our rights. you are hurting us.

i started hormones when i was 14 because psychological and reversible medical treatment did not ease my dysphoria enough to improve my quality of life! me, my family, and my doctor(s) decided that hormones would be the best next step to help me, so that’s what we did! trans kids DO take hormones, and they DO occasionally get surgery, and that is COMPLETELY FINE!! because preventing a family from accessing what they and care providers decide is the best healthcare for a child is CRUEL AND UNETHICAL.

multiple studies show trans people who are forced to wait until late adolescence or adulthood to medically transition have worse mental health than both their immediate peers and continuing on into adulthood.

if i hadn’t started HRT when i did i would have flunked out of school or killed myself before i turned 18. trans kids have a right to access best practice medical care, whatever that may be for them.

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One of the best letters I’ve ever seen just popped up on my Facebook memories. Still makes me laugh.

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how did "medical bias leads to underdiagnosis of autistic girls" turn into "autistic girls go undxed because theyre never gross & awful & disruptive like boys, who are just allowed to get away with it" & how do we take it back

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why are you using he/him and still calling yourself a lesbian

to spite you, specifically,

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A clip from DykeTV’s Dyke March compilation featuring members of the Lesbian Avengers eating fire outside the White House. The Lesbian Avengers were well known for their fire-eating performances at protests which, like much iconic protest imagery of the gay rights movement, grew from a history of suffering and a future of reclamation.

Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock were a Black Jewish lesbian and a disabled white gay man who shared an apartment and close friendship. In September of 1992, they were victims of a deadly hate crime perpetrated by a group of Neo-Nazis in Oregon who had been terrorizing them for weeks prior to the firebombing. The Lesbian Avengers would form this same year in response to the vicious murders that came with a wave of anti-gay legislation, and in October as they attended a memorial to the victims, they marched through the streets of New York City with torches in hand. They raised their torches high and ate fire, chanting —

“The fire will not consume us. We take the fire within us. We take it and make it our own.”

[not-that-taliesin]

tw for transphobia, reference to child death/suicide (general, not specific) / discussion of a protest chant referencing these things

one of the chants at a trans rights protest i attended not too long ago gripped my heart and hasn’t let go since. there were a lot of poignant ones that day, but the one that still echoes in my head is “You ban books! You ban drag! Kids are still in bodybags!”

my heart still breaks for these kids. it just breaks. they shouldn’t have to defend their humanity like this. nobody should, but these are just kids

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me: god i feel so isolated, like my whole gender vibe is just “transmasc butch werewolf” or “dykeanthrope” or whatever, that seems like such a hyperspecific experience

*proceeds to discover that “butch werewolf” and, by extension, “transmasc butch werewolf” is literally such a common gender experience*

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ten years ago I was walking through my high school in a wet swimsuit to get my dive coach when I witnessed a girl getting in trouble because she had a custom LED belt buckle that scrolled the message “BOY GIMME THAT JOHNSON” and I loved it so much that I couldn’t even go back to practice, I just went home and went to sleep

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🍳?

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Laurence Paget-Jaugey, Portrait of a biker, photo scanned from Skin Two Issue 16 (1995) 

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imma be real i just recently went to a pride event and Kink at Pride Discourse is so silly if i saw people walking around in leather and those dope pup masks as a kid I'd just think they looked sick. as an adult they STILL look sick

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It’s good to encourage people sometimes if they want encouragement. But sometimes, if someone says they can’t do something, it’s better to say “that’s okay” and take them at their word. Sometimes we really can’t do something. Sometimes our disability stops us. The narrative that “you can do anything you can put your mind to” can cause harm in some cases. The truth is, some of us just can’t do certain things. Sometimes we can’t do them some of the time. And sometimes they are things we can never do. And that’s okay. We need to learn that sometimes what people need is acceptance and a reminder that they’re worthy, regardless of whatever they can and can’t do.

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Alice Wellinger, Private garden