#BelongTo

[duine-aiteach]

Belong To are doing a survey about accessing Gender Affirming Healthcare for 14-30 year olds so if anyone can spare 20 minutes this would be a great help. As we all know the wait is long and the process is unnecessarily invasive so maybe this will help change that.

EDIT: the survey has now closed. Thanks everyone for your support! Hopefully it’ll help being about well needed change!

[denimbex1986]

'A lonely 40-something screenwriter living in an almost-empty London apartment block, Adam (Andrew Scott) is alienated, exhausted and struggling to write about his past, but can’t get beyond the opening line.

One evening, Harry (Paul Mescal), a younger man from downstairs, appears at his door. He’s tipsy, vulnerable, flirty and charming. “There’s vampires at my door,” he says. Adam doesn’t let him in and later reveals that fear had stopped him.

This rings true, especially for a 40-something gay man like Adam: someone who grew up in the 1980s, during a period of rampant and violent homophobia and the AIDS crisis. England and Wales had partially decriminalised homosexuality in 1967, but Thatcher’s Britain was an ugly place for LGBTQ+ people.

The screenplay Adam is writing is set in 1987, the year that Section 28 was introduced, banning the “promotion” of homosexuality. At that time, the tabloids demonised AIDS victims as deviant plague-carriers and there were terrifying government health warnings on national television.

Homosexuality remained illegal in Ireland and the 1980s witnessed notorious hate-crimes, including the murder of Charles Self by a stranger when they hooked up. These crimes don’t belong to the past: in 2022, two gay men in Sligo were murdered by a man they met through a dating app. Small wonder that a fortysomething gay man like Adam would shut Harry out.

But it wouldn’t be much of a story if it ended there.

As an academic of LGBTQ+ history, I hugely enjoyed this delicate, melancholy and life-affirming film. It speaks to many of the real and heartbreaking experiences gay men in the UK and Ireland have had to navigate. It also highlights the progress and more hopeful world that has been carved for younger generations of queer men. But most of all, its a testament to the power of love.

Open to love

There is a spark between them; Adam reaches out to Harry and we see a relationship develop from an initial hook-up to long-lasting companionship and love. This connection allows Adam to revisit two painful relationships he had left in the past.

Spurred on by a photograph of his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), he returns to the suburbs where he was born, and meets them again. They were killed in a car crash when he was about 12, but here they seem to be alive, welcoming and not a day older.

When Adam tells his mother that he’s gay, she isn’t hostile, but she is worried. She says that she’s seen the ads about that awful disease and “they say it’s a lonely life”. Adam’s reply – “they don’t say that now” – is contradicted by his own experience before meeting Harry. He has been shut down by homophobia.

He tells his father about the relentless name-calling and physical bullying he endured at school. But he had never revealed it when he was a child and his father had never consoled Adam when he heard him crying in his room.

This again speaks to the experiences of many gay men and isn’t confined to the past. A man easing his son’s pain is still perceived by some as a weakness and we still live in a society where LGBT+ children are tormented by bullies. The 2022 national survey conducted by BelongTo, an Irish LGBT+ rights group advocating for young people, found that 76% of LGBT+ secondary school students felt unsafe at school.

Embracing the word ‘queer’

In the film, twentysomething Harry refers to continuing homophobia when he asks Adam if he is queer; it seems a more polite word than gay, he says, recalling children using the word as a slur. Harry’s remark points to an extraordinary transformation in language.

In the 1980s, “gay” was the most positive word used to describe LGBTQ+ people, and “queer” was used by homophobes as a vicious insult. “Queer-bashing” was the term used by the five youths who killed Declan Flynn in Dublin in 1982: a notorious Irish hate-crime. The judge at their trial did not regard them as murderers and gave them suspended sentences for manslaughter.

I mention Ireland again because, in the film, Adam was sent to live in Dublin with his maternal grandmother after his parents’ deaths. He tells his mother that he got on better there because he had learned how to fit in, an act of self-censorship still familiar to many LGBT+ people in Ireland, as referenced in drag queen Panti Bliss’s “Noble Call” speech. But today’s Ireland is also a place where “queer” is no longer a hateful word: it’s used by many LGBT+ people to celebrate their identities.

BelongTo’s 2022 survey points to the positive impact of adults’ support for LGBT+ young people and shows that there are pathways out of oppression and suffering.

In the film, the adult Adam comforts his father, who cries when he grasps how much young Adam had suffered. In a beautiful scene we see the two of them hugging. Through the reflection in the mirror Adam is transformed into his younger self, and without any words the film conveys a sense of acceptance and forgiveness between the two.

The film’s final scene makes us rethink its storyline of Adam’s and Harry’s relationship. It again affirms “the power of love”, the title of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song (and LGBT+ anthem) that plays over the ending and credits. “I’ll protect you from the hooded claw, keep the vampire from your door,” promises Adam, repeating the words of the song and echoing Harry’s first words to him.

Whatever “really” happens in All of Us Strangers, it leaves us with a sense of hope and love transcending loss and death.'

[redgoldsparks]

If you are queer, trans, or nonbinary and need someone to talk to about the horrible news this week, here are a ton of crisis lines you can call. I got this list from @/ queeeerchameleon on instagram. Below the cut are numbers for the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, India, New Zealand, France, Germany, and Japan.

US: Trevor project (866) 488-7386 thetrevorproject.org LGBT National Youth Talkline (800) 246-7743 lgbthotline.org Trans lifeline (877) 565-8860 translifeline.org Canada: Trans Lifeline 877-330-6366 http://www.translifeline.org/ UK: Switchboard 0800 0119 100 Switchboard.lgbt LGBT Foundation 0345 3 30 30 30 lgbt.foundation Galop 020-7704-2040 http://www.galop.org.uk/ Mermaids (0208)-123-4819 http://www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/ Australia: Q Life 1800 184 527 qlife.org.au Belgium: Holebifoon 0800-99-533 cavaria.be/holebifoon National Crisis Line 02-649-95-55 yourlifecounts.org/need-help/crisis-lines Ireland: Gay Switchboard 01-872-1055 gayswitchboard.ie/ Out West West Ireland: 094-937-2479 National: 1890-929-539 outwest.ie/ LGBT Helpline 1800-929-539 BeLonGTo (Youth) 01-670-622 belongto.org India: Sneha India 91-44-2464-0050 snehaindia.org NZ: OutlineNZ 0800-688-5463 Outline.org.nz/ France: SOS Homophobia 01-48-06-42-41 sos-homophobie.org/ Germany: Lesbenberatung 030-215-20-00 Lesbenberatung-berlin.de/ TRIQ 030-6167-529-15 Transinterqueer.org/ Japan: Occur 03-3380-2269 Occur.or.jp/ Stonewall Japan Stonewall.ajet.net/about/

[whyhive]

RTGame is doing a charity stream raising money for BelongTo, an Irish LGBTQ+ organization, today!

The stream starts at 3pm Irish Standard Time, and you can donate here: https://tiltify.com/@rtgamecrowd/rtgame-does-pride-2023

[the-asexuality-blog]

“ USI is delighted to launch this dictionary today, alongside the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (TENI) and BelongTo. We began this project as we believed that it was right that everyone would be able to recognise themselves in any language, and that they would be able to describe themselves in any language. The Irish language showed us that she was up to this challenge, and it gives us great pleasure to say that we succeeded in putting The Queer Dictionary together. As language changes, and as people change, however, the Dictionary will change in the future. It is a working document.”

[weredyke]

you belongto me i believe ,., IM SICK

[stored-metals]

Original date: February 12, 2021 Original caption:

Honey, wake up, yesterday new ENA image dropped Characters belongto Joel G . She's just so fun to draw

[becoming-not-became]

As

I don’t feel asalone asif alone has degreesof depthor distance as marked by desire as though the moreyou longthe less alone and more lonely you are for missand yearntoo belongto the warring loneliness clan whereas alone arepacifists unwilling to fight

[snake-rattler]

can i belongto you instead then yer Very handsome

Im gonna have to decline. I dont have anyone 'belong' to me, that puts them under the article 5 subsection V, " if someone asks to belong to you, decline politely, take no title of owning someone. " Though, thanks for the compliment. I did just trim my hair

[veronicaaldous]

Impediment

High small roomAs she recitedto belongto  this clean light! a cup was broughtpale coffeetwo biscuitsthe blue bookwell handledwas put awayFather B reassuringre.the Devil ‘I am sure youknow nothingof His Works.’ pale blue beadscounting downto another world she did not like tothink of himhaving any formlessthingthat makes men intoa curious fuzzy insect Veronica Aldous all rights reserved 2024

[lunar-yandere]

up losing sleep again from thinking about you . some other stuff too . in my ehad i belongto you but you dont even know i existrd until i decided to finally send something despiteall the months ivespent

Thanks, if you’re losing sleep you might wanna talk to someone. I don’t want you to get sick. Who knows, maybe i’ve seen your blog somewhere. I’m pretty active in the community :).

[crassinova]

Art dump

the red hair lady and the dude with the puffy jacket on the last two drawings belongto a friend. (Since started playing fnv (I forced them into it o]))

[finalslay]

@whorrcr ( jacob ) / continued from x

he's  aware  of  the  hangar's  state  ;  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  enemy  has  taken  over  the  skies.  that's  exactly  why  nathan  thinks  he  should  be  put  up  there  instead  of  on  the  ground.  both  to  get  what's  rightfully  theirs  back  and  to  try  and  avoid  being  assigned  a  judge.  his  own  attention  turned  onto  the  map  that  the  eldest  seed  pursues,  nathan  nods.  nick  rye's  place.  he  can  do  that.  there's  no  better  pilot  in  the  resistance  than  rye,  so  it's  a  logical  step  to  take  out  his  hangar  first.  it'd  be  a  fitting  sort  of  irony,  wouldn't  it?  they  took  john's,  something  that  doesn't  belongto  them,  and  now  eden's  gate  will  take  theirs.  they  will  show  them  who  is  in  charge  in  hope  county.  they  will  pay  for  the  sins  they've  committed.      “  yes,  sir,  ”    nathan  answers,  tone  that  of  a  loyal  soldier  once  more.    “  i  won't  let  you  down.  that  is  a  promise.  ”    and  that  is  the  difference,  isn't  it?  his  relationship  with  john  allowed  for  more  leniency,  allowed  nathan  certain  privileges.  it  doesn't  work  that  way  with  jacob.  with  him,  he  is  just  another  chosen,  another  one  of  his  soldiers,  required  to  prove  himself.  best  to  remember  that,  nathan  supposes.  there's  a  small  pause,  nathan  still  studying  the  map  as  he  adds,    “  do  you  want  us  to  leave  any  survivors?  ”    eden's  gate  is  always  in  need  of  new  soldiers,  after  all.

[duine-aiteach]

Léigh mé an scéal seo cúpla mí ó shin agus ceap mé an scéal maith faoi An Foclóir Aiteach.

[reneesrockingredesign]

#BelongTo https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce3382fOfqx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[atrial-ofhorror-if]

I’m trying my hand at drawing again, and I forgot how hard the shit is. It does not help that I’m heavy-handed, so I can’t get a steady pen pressure for the pad. It’s messy, but it's progress. Overall here’s what I drew. My OC for the IF “Novaturient” She’s 100 percent chaotic neutral and plans to enjoy (read destroy) her adventure with X. 100 percent romancing Reese first.