#AND HER IDENTITY ISN'T NONBINARY

[uncanny-tranny]

I find it interesting when a trans person passes as their gender and a cis person respects them and their gender until they find out the person is trans, and that's when they start having trouble using their pronouns/addressing them properly/recognizing who that trans person is

[madd-nix]

This Pride month, I've been feeling more Wrath than anything else. Let's all shut the queerphobes up and drown them in our anger - show them what a bunch of queers can do! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[novelconcepts]

The degree of RAGE I feel every time I listen to an interview with and/or about a nonbinary person/character, and the interviewer just is allergic to they/them pronouns. Like. My dude. My good bitch. My brother in Christ. The whole POINT of this conversation is the enby thing. How are you failing THIS badly?!

[gender-critical-analytical]

getting kind of sick of bisexuals being blamed for the takeover of genderism or lumped in with the T, or even being considered 'just as bad', tbh. like the butch lesbian with legs and armpits as hairy as mine, a crew cut, and some sick ass muscles I met a few weeks ago has been relentlessly they/theming me no matter how much I correct her, and has gone out of her way to tell *other* people that my pronouns are 'she/they' (once again, despite me telling her that that is absolutely not true)

[j4degoyl]

ok I will try to write here & on the multi a bit tomorrow!! the audiobooks fill me with feels 🥺🥺

[taibhsearachd]

Fucking exhausting listening to a podcast by cis gays who are openly and outspokenly supportive of trans people, who speak intelligently about queer people in media including (binary) trans issues and representation... but when speaking about a character that is not explicitly nonbinary but is so clearly meant to represent nonbinary identity and express feelings about being nb, they repeatedly say things like "trans or genderqueer", "trans or nonbinary", or repeatedly refer to the character as "they" when she only ever uses she/her pronouns and never expresses any discomfort with that.

I am absolutely positive these people do not mean anything hurtful for it, that at worst it's entirely benign ignorance, and that's why I'm not naming names because this isn't a callout post. It's just... frustrating. A little hurtful. A little alienating. I know there are much bigger battles going on right now, I'm not saying it's a big deal even, it's just... tiring.

[anistarrose]

[ID identical to alt text: two screenshots from The Owl House finale. The first is the Titan telling Luz: "I am both king and queen, best of both things!"

The second screenshot is Luz reacting with a warm, slightly awestruck smile. End description.]

it could just be part of her generally awed demeanor in this scene (because, like, who wouldn't be awed about meeting the Titan?), but I'm really soft over the look in Luz's eyes when her little brother's dad eschews gender norms.

because this Luz, who's bi, who doesn't want to choose between literal worlds, and who doesn't want to choose between feminine and masculine gender presentation. who's textually gender non-conforming, and incredibly easy to interpret as genderqueer, multigender, nonbinary, or any combination of those and more.

[ID identical to alt: a screenshot of Luz in a t-shirt with purple and white stripes, along with green sweatpants. It evokes the genderqueer flag, which is displayed next to her. End description.]

in the narrative, queerness is taken so in stride that Luz never even seems surprised by how normalized it is in the Boiling Isles — and from the start, she isn't afraid to show her own bisexuality either, which I think speaks volumes to how Camila must've raised her in a very accepting environment. but still, there's something to be said about how special it must be for Luz to meet the Titan —

who is King's dad, who is the source of all her magic, who the literal ground she's been walking upon —

and for Luz to realize: "oh, him? the closest thing to a deity of this world? she's actually a lot like me."

[thedecoy-if]

It occurs to you just then, the true depth of your helplessness: you've been taken to another universe, alone with no way home, you're stuck prisoner, your phone has no signal...and they don't even know what Wi-Fi is. Yeah. You're screwed.

DEMO (3/04/2023) ♔ FORUM POST ♔ ARTBREEDERS

♔ The Decoy is a dark fantasy that follows you, a 21st century normal human, kidnapped to an alternate magical universe to play the part of the missing heir to a powerful throne...who also happens to be your doppelgänger. ♔

Life, for the most part, has been all-around uneventful. You work in Manhattan at a convenience store under a sleazy boss in order to scrape by and support your struggling family. Your dad is absent, your mom is too tired to parent, one brother is getting arrested while the other has detached himself from the life he once had. Still, while your days as a twenty-something employee are mundane, at least they're predictable.

Meanwhile, in another realm, the magical dark world of Eterna is in ruin. A war against an entity and his bloodthirsty creatures is brewing, and after the powerful royal family is viciously murdered and the only living child--and now rightful owner of the throne--goes missing, that evil is one step closer to winning.

But of course, that's not your problem. That's in a whole other universe, one you don't even know exists. Your biggest worry is whether you'll be able to take on a double shift tomorrow. Right?

Wrong.

Turns out the missing heir is your doppelganger. In a desperate attempt to save face and stop from losing a war before it even starts, you're kidnapped and taken to Eterna in order to play the part of the monarch, all while working behind the (bloody) scenes to find the true heir and get home.

Stuck in a world of magic and fantasy you've only ever seen in movies, an entire country--and an impending war-- is now dependent on how well you can act.

No pressure.

The Decoy is rated 18+ for dark themes, violence, and explicit content.

FEATURES

Customize your MC from gender identity, pronouns, personality, and appearance.

Choose whether to adapt to this new world or reject it, whether to be defiant or not. Pick what kind of monarch you'll lead as and take full advantage of your new royal identity.

Build yourself up in this new world, focus on honing combat or knowledge of the realm, choose a preferred choice of weapon and more.

Romance one of eight ROs (two male, two female, one nonbinary, three gender selectable) with a variety of backgrounds and magical types. Some more dangerous than others.

Maybe teach your new makeshift gang what television is? Hopefully find some signal for your phone? (not going to happen).

CHARACTERS + ROs

SERIDA/SOREN/SAHAR CRETILLON (m/f/nb , identity dependent on player choice ): the successor to the throne and only living person left in the Cretillon line, S has gone missing not long after the slaughter that murdered their entire family. People have been waiting for them to be coronated in order to plan their next move, but they're now gone without a trace and without them and the power that binds them together, Eterna is vulnerable. That's where you come in.

AZRIEL DAMARIS [RO] (m, he/him): once S's primary royal guard, Azriel has been promoted as the general of the Eternan army and head of the operation to save S. Stiff, serious, and severe, Azriel is tasked with being guard and guiding you through the world of politics and royalty. Unfortunately, Azriel doesn't want you here and he doesn't do much to hide it.

NAMARA AL-LUVEN: [RO] (f, she/her) Azriel's second, Namara is a fierce warrior and loyal to the cause. She's quite difficult to read, distant considering who you are.

DRENWIN SILVA: [RO](m, he/him): a skilled Mage and jester, Drenwin works alongside the Eternan army and puts his skills to work. He seems to be the most approachable of the bunch, which isn't saying much.

VALE: [RO](nb, they/them) the boisterous, flirtatious and arrogant mercenary turned pirate captain of The Lady Mystica. Vale exists simply to make and spend as much coin as possible while engaging in their harem and abundance of bad habits.

CERIS BESILLE [RO] (selectable, she/her, he/him, they/them): a priest-in-training, Ceris is fiercely devoted to their beliefs. Reserved and easily scandalized, they haven't left their quarters in the church since they were twelve, contributing to their lack of outside experience and rather insular outlook on the world.

TALEEA FAREWYN [RO] - (she/her) A half-fae Healer, Taleea follows alongside you as your right hand. She seems to be the only one empathetic to your circumstances, but it's hard to trust anyone in this world, especially someone who is so keen on being...nice.

ARWEN/ARYA VALARIN: [RO] (selectable, she/her, he/him): A Valarin is S's childhood friend and their arranged betrothed. A has been S's other half since they were kids, which means you need to be extra careful around them. They have no idea you're not S and judging from your orders, it's better they never find out.

????? [RO?] (gender selectable) -- They are actively hunting you.

[redysetdare]

One thing I've noticed about the erasure of aspec identities is that it's eerily familiar to the erasure of non-binary identities. Often times Aspec identities are viewed as Blank slates to slap other identities on top of - similar to non-binary identities.

A character uses strictly they/them and people will say "Okay but I'm going to use he/him or she/her because x looks like a boy/girl to me" A character strictly states they are not interested in romance and people will say "okay but I'm going to call them a lesbian/gay/any other sexuality because obviously they must be interested in x even though they said they weren't interested at all."

"I can ignore this characters canonical non-binary identity because people can headcanon whatever they want and I headcanon them as cis instead! no this isn't erasure!!! it's fiction it doesn't hurt anyone! pronouns don't equal gender anyways!!!"

"I can ignore this characters canonical aspec identity because people can ship/headcanon whatever they want and I headcanon this character as allo/not aspec instead! no this isn't erasure!!! it's fiction it doesn't hurt anyone! aspecs can still date and have sex anyways!!!"

idk as someone who is both nonbinary and aroace I'm having a sense of déjà vu.

[uncanny-tranny]

Hello there!! I have a question to ask, because I’m rather new to uh being queer and you seem to be quite knowledgeable! So just like last January i started messing around with my pronouns and one of my friends pretty much convinced I was a trans man but know I’m really not so sure? I told them how I was feeling and then they were like oh yeah ur definitely gender fluid but I don’t really think so ? ?

I just , I think I might be nonbinary? But is it ok if I’m nonbinary but I don’t like they/them pronouns? I like she/her , he/him the best along and I like some neopronouns?? Can I be nonbinary with those pronouns?

Thank u for ur time,

sincerely,

Mx.confused

Oh, absolutely! It isn't like you have to take what other people interpret you as and go with it (otherwise, there'd be very few trans people. A lot of the point of being trans for some is the defiance of not conforming to how others want us to identify).

"Nonbinary" isn't "genderless," and I think a lot of people are still under the impression that being nonbinary means rejecting the gender and gender roles that people follow. It's very flawed because people usually have a caricature in mind of what "nonbinary" is, and the reality is is that most of us don't and can't fit that. Truthfully, you'll find more nonbinary people like yourself than nonbinary people who are "perfectly nonbinary." You can be nonbinary at any stage in your life, with any pronouns under the sun, with pretty much any gender/sexuality/presentation identity. Some people have a hard time grappling with this, but I want you to know that it isn't your responsibility to make other people happy with your identity. If somebody tells you who you supposedly are, you are allowed to say, "that's not me." You are allowed to say, "actually, this is me"

I hope you are able to find peace of mind and know that you deserve the chance to be you - not who somebody wants you to be, the person who isn't there. You deserve the chance to worry about being you

[crazy-pages]

Blue Eyed Samurai and Queer Gender

There's a reason so many trans people keep reading trans identity into Mizu.

Because even if she's cis, her gender is still queer.

Lemme back up for a second. Queer identity is deeply intertwined with experiencing sex and gender in ways which are fundamentally non-normative and non-conformative for the societies we live in. It is about being "other" to what society's default is. There are reasons that queer liberation movements have historically often allied with kink communities, with polyamorous circles, and with feminist movements. There's overlap there, in being outside a tightly constrained norm and demanding equality and recognition. And this also means that what queer is, is defined in part by the society it stands in opposition to.

Because for contrast there have been societies, historically, which have been fully accepting of trans people or even had specific social norms and customs around nonbinary gender. The colonizing Spaniards found and recorded interactions (typically violent, sadly) with trans people in what's now Mexico who lived, married, and were recognized in their societies without regard for their genitals. There are entire fields of study around various historical recognition of nonbinary identities. None of these people existed in opposition to the societies they lived in. Heck if we look at sexuality, the ancient Greeks would certainly not have seen men having sex with men as queer (though they would have judged and demeaned the bottom), but some of them certainly pathologized women who had sex with women. In such a society bisexual men would not be queer, while bisexual women would be.

Queer is contextual. Someone who lives in a fully accepting society as a trans person, who never has contact with a culture where that acceptance isn't the norm? I'm not sure I would call them queer. At the very least, there's a definition of queer as the embrace of one's sexual and/or gender non-normativity which such a person might very well not opt into. That person might not feel queer. We might not share that emotional experience.

And where this comes back to Blue Eyed Samurai is that it's possible to be cis and to be marked unavoidably and unalterably queer by one's society. A cis woman living in the US today who feels absolutely cis but cannot, for whatever reason, stand wearing dresses and must wear pants? Might experience some gender non-conforming experiences, but not necessarily be queer. That same woman in 1890s US? Her gender expression would be outright illegal as a form of crossdressing. She would be seen with the same lens as a trans man and their experiences of gender would both be queer, despite one being cis and one being trans. If such a woman, despite being cis and straight and allosexual and alloromantic and all the rest, told me she felt queer? It would not surprise me in the least.

So if you define queer as any kind of experience or internal feeling, as a state of othered existence rather than a specific set of prescriptive definitional boxes that fit our specific societal norms and practices? Mizu is queer. Mizu might or might not be queer if you transplanted her into the 2020s US where I live. But to define her by how she would fit in our society's boxes is fundamentally missing the point of both the queer experience and the story of Blue Eyed Samurai. (And she might not be cis here, he might be a trans man, or they might be nonbinary. It's hard to say ... and this is why queer history scholars step carefully around modern definitions, by the by.)

What we can say is that who Mizu is, in the context of Edo period Japan, is queer. Whether Mizu is genderfluid, or a trans man, or a cis woman who hates having to be undercover, or a cis woman who thrives being undercover, or a cis woman performing drag, or a trans man who thinks of himself as a woman in drag because he lacks context for being transgender? It's all queer gender. There is no framing in which Mizu wouldn't relate to the experience of queer gender.

Mizu doesn't get to experience gender in a normative way. That's both because of who she is at her core, and something that's defined by society without her consent. She is queer, innately born so and structurally made so at the same time, and that's not a contradiction.

[writingwithcolor]

Afro-Latine Jewish woman maintaining cultural connection in an isekai comic

Anonymous asked:

Hello! Mixed Latin American nonbinary Jew here. I'm working on a, relatively light-hearted, isekai-style fantasy comic concept of an afro-latine Jewish lady who gets sent through a portal to a colorful scifi/fantasy land, inhabitated by various imaginary creatures sorta like in Alice in Wonderland. She gains magic powers and goes on adventures, working as a scientist researching the land's magical energy. (some of the local creatures she befriends are entirely original species, and some are inspired by my local folklore, but otherwise I try to avoid culturally coding the creatures since they're mostly nonhuman looking). The story isn't supposed to touch any heavy topics like antisemitism or racism, but I've read about the cultural problems in ""normie protagonist finds a new home in a funky fantasy world"" stories, f.ex. how Harry Potter's narrative basically implies that Muggleborns have to abandon their original cultures in order to successfully integrate into the very prejudiced but ""cooler"" Wizarding World. My original goal was to break the mold that escapism fantasy usually revolves around white protagonists adventuring in heavily Western-inspired fantasy worlds, and poc-coded characters are usually nonhuman creatures or racial stereotypes. However the protagonist girl in my story comes from a loving, latine-jewish human family, and while she regularly visits them on Earth instead of just staying in the fantasy land 24/7, I'm afraid that making her story be about being happy adventuring in a separate imaginary land filled with nonhuman characters might turn into an ""abandon your family and culture"" narrative. Are there any ways how I could avoid this? Maybe making the fantasy land's worldbuilding and designs more Latin American or Jewish inspired and thus resonate more with her cultural background, or making it clear that the land is not ""perfect"" and she still loves her family?

One of the first things that stands out to me is that you haven’t set her up to need to abandon her culture in order to make a life in another place. She has the ability to go home and visit her family, but I also don’t see any reason why, if she lives primarily in the fantasy land, she couldn’t be portrayed as practicing Judaism actively in her new home. It’s true that Judaism isn’t solely defined by religious/cultural practices, but it’s also true that religious/cultural practices are one of the most recognizable and most uniting elements of Jewish identity.

I think it might help in this case to think about Jewish practices in terms of communal versus personal: that is, what are practices she would need to seek out a Jewish community for, and what are practices she can do independently?

Does she control when she is able to visit her family? If so, visiting for Jewish holidays so that she can be at a family meal or holiday services seems like a way to highlight that she is just as connected to her family as someone who moved to a different city might be. If she experiences/has experienced the death of a family member or partner, going home to be with a Jewish community for shiva or to say kaddish on a yahrzeit is another touch (for readers who may be unfamiliar, Jewish mourning practices are intensely communal and are intentional about bringing the mourner into an active support system and slowly reintroducing them to the world, and as such a mourner is likely to spend this time somewhere where they can access and be supported by a Jewish community).

As far as practices she can engage with on her own in the fantasy setting, it would be nice to see her observing Shabbat, either in a traditional way by refraining from adventuring and instead engaging in hospitality and prayer between dusk Friday and sundown Saturday, or in a less-halakhic way if she comes from a Reform or comparatively-assimilated background, by marking Friday sunset with candles, blessings, and a good meal, even if she is intending to continue her research through the next day. She would hardly be the first Jewish person to live in a place without an established Jewish community, and a festive meal can be shared just as happily with non-Jewish friends if they’re griffons and fauns as if they’re Christians and Muslims.

Here’s one idea that I think would be hugely meaningful as a way of establishing both that she intends to make her home long-term in Fantasy World and that she intends to carry Jewish traditions with her into her new life: hang a mezuzah.

Think about it: a mezuzah is the visual marker of a Jewish home, as much to the resident as to a guest. When she is home from her adventures, in her garden cottage or enchanted tower or wherever she returns to between adventures to record and categorize her research, simply showing a mezuzah in the background instantly makes the point both that she is intending to stay, and that this is a Jewish space. If as time goes on she adds other Judaica items to her space, it can add to the sense that her Jewishness is present and alive in this world, simply because she is present and alive in it.

If she doesn’t have a settled space or if you’re not planning on setting any scenes there, having Jewish visual markers on and around her can help, too. For low-hanging fruit, maybe she has a silver Jewish Star or chai necklace that catches the light now and then, but since you’re going for a light, fun vibe, maybe she’s packing her adventuring supplies in a bright-blue vinyl backpack emblazoned with “Temple Shaarei Tzedek Junior Youth Retreat 1998” (am I old? I’m pretty sure there are adults reading this who were in Junior Youth groups in 2003, but I’m willing to bet retreat swag hasn’t changed that much).

I do like the idea of including Latin American and Jewish elements in the worldbuilding, especially as an intentional way to combat the cultural dominance of Western European folklore over fantasy writing, but because your character is from and has access to our world, you have the beautiful opportunity to carry real-world markers of Jewishness with her as well.

-Meir

I adore Meir’s answer, but then, I’m the kind of person to whom “enchanted tower with a mezuzah” as an aesthetic is so near and dear to my heart that I wrote a whole fantasy series about it. Couple of random suggestions: one thing I really enjoy is exposing my gentile friends to Jewish food—I love watching the absolute shock of delirium hit someone’s face the first time they taste my charoseth. Imagine this little bowl of chopped apples and walnuts, looking vaguely dirty because they’re soaked in cinnamon-infused wine, so it’s basically dingy beige slop….so that first bite of sensuous, deep sweetness is a huge surprise. Pick your favorite equivalent and imagine the first time a centaur or a winged princess or whatever other fantasy character tries it at your MC’s behest! (Feeding brisket to dragons would make a great name for…something…)

I don’t think you’re likely to do this anyway but since these are public answers: “fantasy world fun, Jewish upbringing a chore” is a narrative I would not feel at home in or care to read. But that’s a rather predictable remark from me anyway ;)

And of course I support the “the secondary fantasy world is actually Jewish” solution too, having one of my own.

–Shira

[dingodad]

really really enjoyed your analysis of the update, can you expand on what you mean by the epilogues seeming un queer and un liberating?

the whole thing seems so deeply concerned with gender and identity as they relate to our biology rather than something that can be totally independent of what is dictated by our physical bodies. calliope's realisation that cherubs don't really "have genders", that everything she knew about femininity she learned from her female friends, doesn't inspire her to explore her gender as a choice on her own terms: rather she seemingly decides that because she isn't "really" a human woman with a human vagina, that means she must be nonbinary, and she casts off the dispersion of choosing her own identity altogether.

you could more charitably interpret calliope's choice not to align herself in any way to a totally arbitrary gender binary as a gender abolitionist position, which i don't think is necessarily a wrong position for the reader or the text to take. but it leaves such a bad taste in the mouth when lined up side by side with the rest of the similar decisions made in the Epilogues. Roxy's detransition arc is basically the exact same thing again; she decides that the material reality of her biology, that she has all the organs necessary to create a child, is ultimately more important to her identity than the concept of gender as an imaginary construct she has full control over. again, not necessarily the "wrong" story to tell, but it establishes a pattern that paints the Epilogues as having a very particular ideology. and then they round it all out by giving Jade a dick because the idea of a woman with a dick is funny

[hadeantaiga]

So according to you, there is no right and wrong of sex, sexuality and gender? So someone can be a male cisgender woman? A lesbian cis man?

You are talking about two completely different concepts here Anon. What I said was that sex ≠ gender. That means someone's sex is not linked to their gender.

I didn't say anything about sexuality.

Sex ≠ Sexuality - who you are attracted to is not predetermined by your chromosomes. A woman can be attracted to men or women or nonbinary people etc. She isn't limited to only liking "the opposite sex" - that's heteronormativity.

Moving on.

"Cisgender" means "person whose gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth". In this case, "cisgender woman" is a woman who was assigned female at birth, still identifies as being female, and who identifies as a woman. Her gender identity matches her assigned sex. So in most cases, if you see "cis woman", she is female.

The exception to this is interesx folks, who may have their sex misidentified at birth or whose sex is complicated, so in that case you could have a cis woman who was assigned male at birth or at some other point in her life. She could be a male cis woman. Intersex folks are allowed to identify as cis if they want to.

But I mean, if a cis woman who is female wants to identify as male, cool. How she identifies is not your business.

And here we come to one of the queerphobe's favorite boogeymen, the "lesbian cis man". Has anyone actually ever met this man before? And I don't mean the guy sitting in the back of his college 101 class joking he's a "lesbian", or 4chan trolls, or cis men misusing dating apps - I mean, has anyone met a cis man who genuinely feels he is a lesbian? I'd like to meet him, I bet he has some fascinating takes on gender and sexuality.

You know what you sound like when you cry about the hypothetical "lesbian cis man"? You sound like pro-lifers going "WoULd YoU aBoRt a bAbY tWo SeCoNdS bEfOrE BirTh??".

If you're a cis lesbian woman and a guy comes up to you and you don't want him hitting on you, just be a grown up and use your words and say "no". Just like you'd turn down anyone else you weren't interested in. Like. I just don't see how this is hard. If he's openly identifying as a cis man, it's pretty easy to say "No, sorry, I'm not into cis men". Being a lesbian doesn't mean you're obligated to date anyone who identifies as a lesbian, that's not how sexuality works. How HE identifies is irrelevant.

If you're a lesbian, you're not attracted to other people based on their sexuality - "lesbian" is a description of your sexuality. You're attracted to people based on a bunch of things - how they present themselves, what gender they are, what political party they are etc. Someone saying "I'm a lesbian" does not mean you have to entertain their advances. Hell, someone saying "I'm a woman" does not mean you have to entertain her advances, either.

Who you choose to interact with and date is 100% of your choice.

[transbookoftheday]

🏳️‍⚧️🏴‍☠️ Trans Books To Read If You Love "Our Flag Means Death" 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍⚧️

Can't get enough of Our Flag Means Death? Read some trans pirate books!

On Mar León de la Rosa's sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn't enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father, and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar's father and the entire crew of their ship. When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up their soul to save their father by the harvest moon, or never see him again. The task is impossible - Mar refuses to make a bargain, and there's no way their magic is a match for el Diablo. Then Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate - and the captain's son; and Dami, a gender-fluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption - or it could mean certain death.

(The audiobook for "The Wicked Bargain" is narrated by Vico Ortiz!)

In a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic, a desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial lady find a connection on the high seas. Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. For Flora, former starving urchin, the brutal life of a pirate is about survival: don’t trust, don’t stick out, and don’t feel. But on this voyage, Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, who is headed to an arranged marriage she dreads. Flora doesn’t expect to be taken under Evelyn’s wing, and Evelyn doesn’t expect to find such a deep bond with the pirate Florian. Neither expects to fall in love. Soon the unlikely pair set in motion a wild escape that will free a captured mermaid (coveted for her blood) and involve the mysterious Pirate Supreme, an opportunistic witch, double agents, and the all-encompassing Sea herself. Deftly entwining swashbuckling action and quiet magic, Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s inventive debut novel conjures a diverse cast of characters seeking mastery over their fates while searching for answers to big questions about identity, power, and love.

The Lost Boys say that Peter Pan went back to England because of Wendy Darling, but Wendy is just an old life he left behind. Neverland is his real home. So when Peter returns to it after ten years in the real world, he's surprised to find a Neverland that no longer seems to need him. The only person who truly missed Peter is Captain James Hook, who is delighted to have his old rival back. But when a new war ignites between the Lost Boys and Hook's pirates, the ensuing bloodshed becomes all too real - and Peter's rivalry with Hook starts to blur into something far more complicated, sensual, and deadly.

In the Christian Republic, homosexual people are given two choices—a camp to "fix" them, or exile to the distant islands populated by lesbians and gay men. Sixteen-year-old Jason chooses exile and expects a hardscrabble life but instead finds a thriving, supportive community. While exploring his identity as a transgender boy he also discovers adventure: kraken attacks, naval battles, a flying island built by asexual people, and a daring escape involving glow-in-the-dark paint. He also has a desperate crush on Sky, a spirited buccaneer girl, but fear keeps him from expressing his feelings. When Jason and his companions discover the Republicans are planning a war of extermination, they rally the people of the Rainbow Islands to fight back. Shy, bookish Jason will have to find his inner courage or everything and everyone he loves will be lost forever.

Book titles:

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Rainbow Islands by Devin Harnois

[fandomsandfeminism]

So, this is going to be a little meandering and all over the place. But I'm trying to express this...web of thoughts I've been having lately around this issue of queer, and labels, and the way we talk about our history and the way the community conceptualized itself in this very digital age. And it's still kind of half formed, so...let's see.

So. OK.

One thing I see a lot online, especially with people who are just now coming out, is a sort of...overfixation on increasingly niche labels. Im not saying that having a very specific or newer label is bad, to be clear. Labels are rhetorical tools, use what is useful. They help with visibility and discussing specific issues. No issues there.

But watching people quibble over bi vs pan vs omni vs abro or non-binary vs genderqueer vs demigender vs genderfluid vs agender vs xenogender vs bigender vs gnc. Asexual or gray ace or demisexual or queerplatonic. And whether they are a biromantic lesbian demigirl or bisexual greyaromantic genderuid. And it's always just a little exhausting, ya know? Again, if those labels are meaningful and useful, that's great, but I see people *agonizing* over which they "really" are. Like if they pick the wrong word to describe themselves, they are coming out the wrong way, like they are wrong about themselves if they can't find the exact correct word on an FAQ list of lgbt vocabulary.

And how I think that relates to the way people talk about our CURRENT labels as though these labels have always been there and like the people described by these labels now have no common experiences with other labels. Like lesbians and bisexual women have absolutely nothing in common. Like butches and trans men have no shared history. As though trans women and drag queens have always been completely separate and unconnected groups. As though ace folks and nonbinary folks are somehow new to the scene, and not community members who were always here and just didn't have a separate label until more recently.

I *remember* watching the community make the switch from transvestite and transsexual, to differentiating between transsexuals and transgender, to basically just using transgender/trans. Those labels are not stagnant. None of our labels are some ingrained biological unchanging objective truth. Labels are rhetorical shortcuts to summarize this facet of our identity and lives and experiences- but they are just words.

And maybe this connects to the way people get really...weird about historical figures too. Like whether Sappho was a lesbian or bisexual, as though either of those words would have had any meaning to her. About whether Shakespeare was gay or bi, like he would have conceptualized his own identity that way. About what modern label Dr. James Barry would have used for himself if anyone could travel back in time and ask him.

And then I think about why queer feels so much more affirming, so much more a place of strength, than LGBT+. Not that LGBT as a label is bad, and I honestly probably prefer it for allies and outsiders to use. But as a community label- Queer, to me, says that all our experiences are queer experiences. Queer can be many things, but they are all queer. Regardless of how many genders or which specific genders you like, whether you have a romantic and or sexual attraction to whatever collection of genders, whatever thing your gender is doing today- all of it, ALL of it, once you step outside that cis, straight mainstream sexuality and gender norm- is queer. Equally queer.

Lgbt+ feels like we are still keeping all those labels separate, little boxes all lined up next to each other- different but a coalition. And while that isn't bad, I also think it isn't totally true.

[A caveat here, that there are times when more specific labels are very helpful. We don't want any specific kind of queer experience to be overshadowed or erased, and having more specific labels facilitates those discussions. Again, I'm not saying that we should eliminate or erase our more specific labels.]

But I think imagining our community as a collection of wholly separate groups that are just allied together, instead of one group that we are all equally in, can make it far too easy for exclusionists to sneak up and say "well ___ isn't REALLY lgbt. THEY aren't REALLY one of us. ___ dont belong."

If we take all the labels off all the crayons- red and pink and purple and blue and teal and green are not hard and fast divisions. They are artificial distinctions we have made- all of them are light, all of them the rainbow.

Anyway. I just think that, while everyone should use whatever labels bring them joy and are useful for them, we might be better off if more folks were ok with ALSO accepting the vast ambiguity of being queer.