political-confetti - Tumblr blog

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Listen.

EVERYBODY knows (or should) that you DO. NOT. STOP. in Vidor, Texas. 

It’s best to just run out of gas elsewhere. Whatever you do, black folks, DO NOT STOP IN VIDOR, TEXAS. 

There’s a good chance you’ll get lynched or just come up missing - and I’m not joking.

also do NOT stop in Harrison, Arkansas!!!! (relatively close to OK and MI) a nazi town with a BIG KKK organization.

Reblog To Save Life

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“Today you have robbed us of immense joy and our ability to thrive within this state as our authentic selves.”

On Friday August 25th, 2023, a judge denied a preliminary injunction that would have halted a gender-affirming care ban in Missouri.

Today, August 28th, 2023, the ban goes into effect. Gender-affirming care for minors, those on Medicaid, and incarcerated people is now criminalized in the state of Missouri.

“There is no categorical ban like this in the world making the actions of the Missouri State Government the most egregious in history.” Said PROMO’s Board Secretary, Aro Royston, a Black trans man.

Missouri is currently the only state in which a preliminary injunction against a gender-affirming care ban has not been granted.

The St. Louis Transgender Center, located in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the foremost transgender health providers in the Midwest and upper South. It has also been the subject of countless attacks since the state’s far-right government decided to outright attack trans residents.

Major newspapers continue to publish complete lies about the reality of gender-affirming care and specifically the care offered at the St. Louis Transgender Center. As recently as August 23rd, 2023, the New York Times published fictitious accounts by a former non-medical employee at the Center who has used her political power to destroy the lives of her patients. She still holds her job at the hospital despite saving an Excel file of her minor trans patients to her personal computer and sharing it with far-right media outlets and tearing down supportive notes from trans patients that her colleagues had displayed in their offices. Her claims have been repeatedly disproven by patients and their families, such as myself and my mother. I received care from the clinic as a minor and had to have a year of testing and gender therapy before being considered for hormones at 17 and was specifically prohibited from any surgery until after my 18th birthday.

Today, millions of people, including my friends and family, have been completely cut off from lifesaving, necessary, and scientifically proven medical care.

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Hey remember when they found over 200 bodies of native children buried behind a residential school and the world cared for... what, a week?

They've counted about 6,000-7,000 now, for those of you who do still care

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Little things adults and older people can do to help younger people and children feel included, safe, and respected as an equal individual:

Ask before touching the young person - even for hugs. Ask before you take pictures of them, and let them see photographs of them before they are printed or sent to others (even family).

Apologize when you are wrong

Ask for a young persons thoughts on a subject, then engage with them after they have spoken

Demonstrate behaviour you want to see from them (see: apologizing). Say "excuse me," say "thank you," say "please" to them

Validate their feelings, even if they don't know how to express them just yet

Remember that this is the first time they've been alive, and that you've had way longer to "figure it out"

These are some things I wish other adults remembered when engaging with young folks. We so often forget what childhood felt like and how unfair it all was because we were often awarded freedoms as adults that we never had as children. These kids are equal to adults, and they deserve the same courtesy, respect, kindness, and understanding we give to other adults.

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I saw this on FB today and I wanna try and express something about it. Like, you know the curbcutter effect? Where when curbcuts are put in it benefits everyone (bicyclists, people with baby strollers etc) and not just disabled people?

There is also whatever the opposite of the curbcutter effect is. And this is that.

This isn't just anti-adhd/autism propaganda... this is anti-child propaganda.

Kids have developmentally appropriate ways that they need to move their bodies and express themselves and sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead is not natural or good for ANY CHILD.

Don't get me wrong, I was punished unduly as a kid for being neurodivergent (and other types of kid will ALSO be punished unduly for it... Black kids come to mind) and thus UNABLE to perform this -- but even the kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED WELL by it. They don't benefit from it.

This is bad for everyone.

The idea that bc some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don't hurt them... is a dangerous idea. Compliance isn't thriving. Expectation of compliance isn't fair treatment.

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Reblog for sample size. I’m multiple of these, but pick the one you resonate with most.

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brooooooooo i hate when ppl get like insanely weirdly anxious Abt interacting w other cultures Problematically and it ends up being just like "actually let's go for progressive ethnocentrism". it is literally always better to clumsily interact with ppl and culture different than you than to stay closed to the world and others

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obligatory warning that terfs/”gender critical” folks and other transphobes are not allowed to debate me on this post. go watch fox news or something.

hi i’m going to be loudly and annoyingly transgender for a second about the whole “alternate treatments for gender dysphoria” thing.*

*a quick note: although this post describes gender dysphoria in relation to transness, i am not a transmedicalist and do not think that gender dysphoria is required to be trans. i support people’s right to self-identify how they see fit as long as it’s in good faith.

i’m a trans guy, pre-t and pre-op. i’ve identified as trans for about 3-4 years now and, although i still have questions about my identity, i’m very sure that being a guy is right for me, and makes me overwhelmingly happy. 

a little while ago, a consistent and scary experience with some transphobes caused me to wonder whether being trans was right for me - not because i didn’t like being trans, but that these bad experiences couldn’t possibly be worth it, even to garner small joy from positive trans experiences.

so i started looking into TERF and “gender critical” stuff.

now, i won’t get into all of it, but those short experiences made me feel intense anxiety about my identity as a trans guy. i thought, for a bit, that i was “betraying womanhood,” or that i was just a “confused girl being tricked by the patriarchy,” or the rest of all those bullshit arguments.  i tried detransition for a bit, personal and online detransition.

it made me fucking miserable.

every day was plagued by constant anxiety, fear, anger, depression, and overall mental anguish. every single time i looked in the mirror, i was wracked with dysphoria. i tried being a butch woman, because masculine clothes made me feel better, but being a butch woman didn’t feel right to me either. i was confused, scared, depressed, and anxious. even after a while, when i started becoming numb to the dysphoria - i was miserable. i stayed in bed for hours at a time. i wouldn’t shower for days because the stress and intense wrongness of seeing my body and calling it a woman’s body hurt so badly.

TERF and gender critical circles told me all women and girls felt this way.  i talked to one of my friends about it. she’s a cis girl, a devout feminist and a loud and proud hater of the patriarchy, one of my coolest friends. she’s experienced misogyny in her life, as almost every woman and afab person has. i asked her whether she hated being a girl and if so, why. her response?

“i don’t hate being a girl - i like it, i like what it means for me. gender’s different for everyone and random for everyone, and what being a girl means to me is comfortable. i hate the way some people demean, infantilize, dislike or are just violent against me for being a girl, but i don’t hate being a girl. if we eradicated the patriarchy - which will take a long fucking time, but if i was alive when we did - i’d choose to be a girl over and over and over again.”

i understood, and i didn’t understand. i understood because that’s how i felt being a boy, being a man, and i didn’t understand because how could one love being a girl? i hated it, for reasons i couldn’t discern.

i thought about it again. i thought - i don’t think women feel like this. i looked at all my friends and family who are women, and i watched and experienced their ease with their gender, and i thought…why am i forcing myself into this? when i know, over and over and over again, that it doesn’t work for me? that i get angry and stressed and numb and depressed and feel so so bad?

the thing about gender dysphoria is that we don’t really have a concrete idea for  why it happens. there’s theories, some more solid than others. it’s likely a mixture of a bunch of factors, from genetics to socialization to environment to a shit ton of other things. and the “gender critical”/TERF groups i looked at would cite that as a reason why we shouldn’t treat it or alleviate it.

as you can tell, from countless fucking studies and anecdotal evidence and experiences and medical professionals and the trans community advocating for it over and over and over again, it’s bullshit. it’s fucking bullshit. not knowing the concrete reason for why something happens is not a reason to ignore it, dismiss it, or make it worse.

there are plenty of complicated or difficult-to-explain things in the world. gender dysphoria is one of them. that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be alleviated. i fully support people with gender dysphoria who identify as cisgender and/or want to  treat their own dysphoria with ways other than medical transition, provided they’re not being pressured into it. but forcing detransition and “alternate treatments” onto other people does not work. insisting that it’s something everyone needs to try or do does not work. discrediting the many studies that have been done and the medical professionals vouching for it as well as the experiences of people who have gone through it does not work.

but, obviously, these people don’t actually care about making people’s lives better, or healthier, or happier, or more comfortable. they just don’t like trans people and what we do with our bodies, no matter how small. from a 7 year old trans girl growing out her hair to a 35 year old trans man getting phalloplasty and testosterone, all of it is scary and predatory and strange and destructive and disgusting and wrong.

in my opinion? there is nothing more wrong than denying yourself comfort because other people find it bad.

and yes, being trans still hurts me sometimes. it hurts a lot for some people and doesn’t for others, but for me it can. i still get insecure and dysphoric about my voice, or my height, or my face shape. i still get emotionally drained and exhausted from meeting transphobic relatives. i still feel uncomfortable and frustrated when i get gendered incorrectly by strangers. i feel sad and numb when i see another dead trans person in the news, when i see people calling me and my community disgusting.

but all of that is outweighed by the joy. the joy of having friends like me, friends who understand my identity and are there for me. the joy of going to a pride parade or a queer cafe and meeting people like me. the joy of wearing clothes that i like and cutting my hair how i want and doing my makeup in a way that makes me feel good. the joy of looking in the mirror and knowing that, while some things still aren’t where they’re supposed to be, i still have my short messy hair and my hairy legs and my trans-taped chest. and i can love myself, in a way that makes me feel good. the joy of thinking about my future and seeing transformation instead of torture.

it still hurts sometimes, but it hurt so much more when i was trying to force myself to live in a body that wasn’t right for me, and doing nothing to alleviate it. 

so i hope this post reaches someone out there, someone who’s going through the same thing i went through back then. you do not have to deny yourself comfort and happiness for other people. there is nothing wrong with who you are or how you’re living. you are allowed to exist in a way that makes you comfortable in your identity. and you are not responsible for molding yourself to fit other people’s expectations. you aren’t hurting anyone - you’re just trying to exist. trying to live. 

and there is nothing wrong with that.

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Azerbaijan has blocked all the roads to Nagorno-Karabakh for over 7 months now. People are starving, not receiving the medical help they need, there's no fuel... It is a "silent genocide."

The article above doesn't explain why other countries aren't doing anything, but my local paper where I saw this news did, and it is a combination of the following things:

– Azerbaijan is allied with Turkey, which "Western" countries are trying not to annoy at the moment, because of the situation at the Black Sea being a bit delicate rn.

– Azerbaijan also has a lot of natural resources related to energy, which the EU is horny for.

– BP has also invested massively in Azerbaijan energy stuff, so Britain is also not gonna do anything to endanger all that money.

– Russia is busy with its war in Ukraine, so it is not doing its part in keeping the road open as agreed in the cease fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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ok, sure, i guess theres nothing wrong with "hating your oppressors," but if hating your oppressors means treating 50% of the people around you like human garbage cuz of something they cant help, then youre being kind of an asshole

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mannnnn until we all get okay with the idea of people needing other people to get them water/food/etc like. idk we’re just never gonna make it

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It is exhausting how many people seem to refuse to give unaligned non-binary people the same level of compassion as they do masc or fem aligned trans people. So many people seem to completely understand how much constant misgendering can affect a person, that many trans people are forced to stay closeted and that being closeted is not a privilege even if it reduces the risk of being targeted by bigots, that many trans people can't transition due to lack of access/support/health issues... But the same people that understand that for trans men and women will forget all of that when it comes to non-binary people, especially those of us unaligned with concepts of feminity or masculinity. Suddenly people will act like every non-binary person who "looks cis" is making a conscious choice to do so, and that they are fully comfortable and happy with that choice. People will go from treating misgendering as a serious issue to acting like nb people should just brush it off. People who understand that infighting and comparing who has it worse within the queer community distracts from real progress will start talking about nb people as if we have no real problems and just want to feel oppressed. Leftists will start to sound like alt-right incels complaining about "special snowflakes" and "safe spaces" when they talk about non-binary people.

It's utterly exhausting and it's infuriating how many people seem to not even notice this.

Non-binary people face a huge amount of invisibility and infantilisation. Non-binary people spending their lives being misgendered and hiding away in the closet are not privileged for that. Non-binary people face the same obstacles in medical transition as any other trans person. Non-binary people discussing our own struggles on our own posts or in our own spaces doesn't take away from other trans people. Non-binary people have a right to take up space and participate in the wider queer community without be treated like we're intruders.

Stop treating non-binary people like we're "basically cis" or "trans-lite," stop acting like trans issues don't affect non-binary people. Treat non-binary people with some compassion or just leave us alone.

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Pasteups in NYC denouncing Facebook for collaboration with Nebraska police to sentence a teenage girl to 90 days in jail for using using the abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy.

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"There’s a perception of autistic people and people with [intellectual and developmental disabilities] overall, that we’re not able to make our own decisions. Big decisions like those around health care, education, living arrangements."

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in reference to that last post i reblogged, i should also mention:

PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR ANTISEMITIC PROPAGANDA IN ANTI COP ART/POSTS. PLEASE PLEASE LOOK.

right now, being anti-cop is NECESSARY, but some people use “anti cop” art to actually depict EXTREMELY ANTISEMITIC, DANGEROUS propaganda

look for:

references to “lizard people”

references to “zealot” “world controlling organizations” etc etc

SIX-POINTED STARS (MAGEN DAVID) ON POLICE UNIFORMS OR SIMILAR POSITIONS OF POWER

large, hooked/downward-pointed noses

kippot/yarmulkes on police/other authority figures (this one should be more obvious, but.. you’d be surprised)

references to israel

triple parentheses

iron crosses on “punks”

i totally, 100% understand the temptation to rb all the anti cop stuff you see. it’s a good instinct. but goyim NEED to look out for these dogwhistles. IT IS NEVER INNOCENT. IF YOU SEE THESE THINGS, IT IS NOT TRULY ANTI COP, IT IS ANTISEMITIC. IT IS COMPARING JEWISH PEOPLE TO POLICE.

just make sure the message you’re spreading is a good one. be safe, and keep your community safe (including the jewish ones).

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Horrible fact of the day: Chevron just released a new boat fuel that WILL give you cancer.

Not "might", not "could", WILL. It has a cancer ratio of 1:1, as in, in a group of 10 people, ALL 10 would contract CANCER.

The EPA's safety limit is 1:1,000,000 as in 1 in a million people get cancer.

The EPA approved it anyways. I am not joking. The EPA approved a boat fuel that has a near 100% chance of giving someone cancer. It has such a good chance of giving someone cancer that if you DIDN'T get cancer YOU WOULD BE AN OUTLIER.

Fuck the oil industries.