#Parental Consent

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ari Drennen and Alyssa Tirrell at MMFA:

At a September 7 rally in Wisconsin, former President Donald Trump again repeated his baseless claim that schools could be providing gender-affirming surgeries to minors without parental consent. Mainstream outlets have debunked Trump's claim, assuring readers that “no children are going to school and receiving surgery there for gender dysphoria.” According to CNN, “Trump’s own presidential campaign could not provide a single example of this ever happening.”  But accusations that schools "groom" children into identifying as trans have circulated throughout right-wing media and politics in recent years. Some outlets and media figures have gone even further. 

At a 2023 event, Rafael Cruz, father of Texas senator and onetime Trump primary opponent Ted Cruz, claimed that children were being “mutilated” by gender affirming care in public schools. Right-wing outlets including National Review, The Federalist, and The Daily Wire have all promoted claims that public schools are providing cross-sex hormones to children, leaving out of their headlines the important detail that parental consent is required to access this treatment.  The day before Trump made this claim, the account Libs of TikTok also appeared to make the same unsubstantiated accusation by implication.

The National Center for Youth Law notes that under the law in question, only very specific services can be provided for minors without parental consent, such as STD testing, abortion care, and treatment for sexual abuse. Those services do not include gender-affirming care, which cannot be provided to a minor without parental consent in the state of California.  Libs of TikTok has a documented history of posting misleading and false content. Chaya Raichik, the creator behind the account, has maintained a right to do so as recently as February 2024, asking an interviewer who questioned the policy, "Is there a law against lying?”

[...] Right-wing activists appear to see Trump’s words not as statements to be evaluated for accuracy, but rather as non literal expressions of presidential priorities. And indeed, the former president has laid out a draconian set of policy proposals targeting the trans community in a hypothetical second term.  These proposals include targeting federal funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care, creating a “new credentialing body” for teachers that promotes conservative ideas about the nuclear family, and asking “Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth.”

Where did Donald Trump get his berserk lie about schools and gender-confirming surgeries from? Right-wing anti-trans extremists such as Libs of TikTok.

These are the same extremists who falsely equate gender-affirming care to “mutilation” and baselessly equate trans identity to “social contagion.”

See Also:

The Advocate: Moms For Liberty founder 'thankful' for Trump's school transgender surgery lie

Daily Kos: Even Trump’s team can’t defend his lie about schools and surgeries

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[kyri45]

The thing that did it for me in this update is the fact that MK reaching for Wukong while Macaque holds him is kinda mirrorring the time he turned into a baby and was reaching for Macaque while Wukong held him.

ypu don't understand I AM HOLDING BACK TEARS CAUSE IM NOT IN MY ROOM RN. I WILL PROBABLY LOOSE IT WHEN I COME BACK. FUDGING STAB ME IN THE HEART AND GUT WHY DON'T YA

OH I JUST REALISED THAT IN BABY ARC MACAQUE WAS AFRAID MK WAS GONNA BE AFRAID OF HIS SHADOWS AND WUKONG NOW WAS AFRAID MK WAS GONNA HATE HIM

I love those monkeys so much im gonna sob about it i love this flipping comic

AKDNAISBA ok so- when I drew the scene (the latest one with unglamoured macaque) in my head I had the "oh let's make it a parallel to the scene with baby MK and him reaching for Macaque!"

But I never actually went back to look at the panels bc I kind of remembered how they were AND NOW THAT I LOOK THEM IN COMPARISON THE EXPRESSIONS ARE LITERALLY THE SAME WTF

[vaesivlasta]

something, something peak romance

[bidisasterevankinard]

"Tommy calling Buck 'Evan' is cute and sweet and important for Buck's healing and makes Buck (and me) melt" and "It's not his name, Philip 🔪🔪🔪 he's name is Buck, not Evan" are sentences that can and should co-exist

[strangersteddierthings]

The thing is, Steve has learned, that becoming untouchable isn't all he wants it to be.

People were too quick to try and reach out for him, ask for more than he was willing to give. He hadn't wanted to give up his first kiss to some random girl at some random boy's twelfth birthday party because of spin the bottle. He hadn't wanted to play Seven Minutes in Heaven with Jenny Jackson or Linda Simons at Tommy's birthday party the following year. He did want to take Mary Linscott to Snow Ball, but she just wanted to make out behind the bleachers instead of dance with him. He didn't want to do that but then Brian called him stupid for not wanting to, and asked if he was queer. So, Steve had turned right back around and dragged Mary back under the bleachers, kissing her until it was time to go to prove Brian wrong.

(Even though Steve knows Brian isn't wrong. That Steve had wanted to ask Brian to the dance as much as he'd wanted to ask Mary but knew better than to do that. He saw how they treated Eddie Munson last year for the suspicion of liking other boys and Steve wasn't going to let that happen to himself.)

Brian had congratulated him after and asked what base he got to. Steve didn't want to get to any bases, but he couldn't say that, so he just punched Brian in the arm and said 'more bases than you' which was true because Brian's date didn't kiss him even once.

Then Carol Perkins approached him at lunch, shortly after Snow Ball, and asked if Steve would be her first kiss. Not because she wanted to kiss Steve, but because she wanted to kiss Tommy H, but didn't want to be bad at kissing. Steve agreed because he liked Carol. Not in the way she liked Tommy, but mostly because she'd asked.

No one had done that yet.

She came over to his house on a Saturday because she didn't want Tommy to catch them and think she didn't like him. They made out in his room because, despite his parents being home, they didn't really care who was in his room with him or if the door was open or shut. Probably didn't even notice he had someone over. She leaves an hour later.

By Tuesday Tommy and Carol are an item and by Friday they were Steve's best friends.

However, for reasons Steve doesn't understand, more girls keep asking him to be their first kiss. And maybe it's because he's already got a reputation, or maybe Carol let slip he'd said yes when she asked, but Steve finds himself kissing a lot of girls he doesn't want to. He doesn't know how to say no. Can't find a reason too. Brian's words play in the back of his mind every time he thinks about saying no.

(Are you stupid? Are you queer? He doesn't want to be either of those things, and given his grade in biology and pre-algebra, he's really only got a hope of avoiding the queer label. His father would tolerate a stupid son. He doesn't think he'd survive if his father had a queer one.)

There are a few girls he's been crushing on that ask him and that was nice. One, Alice Baker, even becomes his girlfriend for a month. His first relationship.

Soon eighth grade gives way to being a freshman and Steve, who has always been handsome and cute, catches the eye of upperclassmen now.

And Steve's not sure how it happens, but he ends up moving past first base with another girl whose name he can't remember, or possibly never knew. He doesn't remember asking her for hers when she led him into one of the bedrooms at the house this party was at while he was way too tipsy.

And then it just grows. The reputation and what people expect from him, and he doesn't want it, but he's never said no before so can he start now? Doesn't he need a reason to say no? If he doesn't have a reason, does that make him queer? He should be wanting this. What boy doesn't want this?

And maybe he does want it. But not like this.

He doesn't want to be slightly drunk at yet another party, following the first girl that grabs his wrist and pulls him after her into whatever secluded area they can find. He doesn't want to keep saying yes when he wants to say no.

The summer between freshman and sophomore year he confides in Carol. It's a risk. Carol can be cruel, quick with her words to tear you down, to spread the rumor that will ruin your life. But she's also fiercely loyal.

He tells her he's tired of kissing people he doesn't want to.

Carol is quiet for a long time, and Steve almost thinks he's made a mistake. But then she speaks.

"Okay. Let's make a plan."

And they do. Then suddenly Steve is untouchable. Carol teaches him how to see the weakness in people and call it out. How to wield his facial expressions as a weapon and a shield. How to put on the air of being the most important person everywhere you go so well that everyone else begins to believe it. How to fall back on the fact his parents are rich, gone often, and, almost most importantly, well known in the community. It gives Steve's name a weight to throw around.

More importantly, all of that culminates in people no longer asking things of him. Instead, they look to him to take the lead, they wait to be asked. It makes Steve feel in charge of his life for once.

But now.

Now, years later, having survived a spring break from Hell and averted the apocalypse, Steve watches Eddie hang off Argyle with ease, fling an arm over Jonathan's shoulder while laughing at a joke, easily pull Dustin into a headlock or wrestling match.

Easy touches that Steve should be able to do, too. A jealousy wells inside him almost as much as the unease he feels in his stomach at the mere thought of letting them know they're allowed to reach out and touch him, too. That Eddie's allowed to reach out and touch.

But then he remembers what happened when he let people have that power over him and he can't bring himself to do it.

It settles in Steve, then, the realization. When you become untouchable, you're unable to touch.

-

@nburkhardt @i-less-than-three-you adding my own lil bit of angst into the mix now (:

[aguatala]

tfw you come together and maximize ur joint hella good genes slay

the result of that joint slay:

[lowkeylokilee]

This community really needs a lesson in consent.

Tickling your friends who don't know about you liking tickling/having a blog and then going online posting about it or sending people asks about it is creepy as fuck.

If they cannot consent to you posting this you shouldn't be posting it or sending it to other blogs.

Imagine it was the other way around and they had a blog where they went in debt about how flustered they got when you hugged them. How it felt and how it made them feel and then a bunch of strangers online comment on it and encourage them to hug you more and tell them about it etc.

No matter what tickling is to you, you should be honest to friends about it if you post about them online. This is obviously not including you maybe telling a story from like 10 years ago.

I am talking about people who are baiting people into tickling them without letting them know what this really means to you.

Same goes for posts giving tipps on how to get people to tickle you without you telling them how much you like it. Like can you not realise how creepy that is?

Consent is key, even outside of fetish and kink.

[aropride]

seeing these proposed and even passed laws banning minors from social media without parental consent is so terrifying. like aside from the "government collecting data abt what their citizens are doing online" and the implications for online anonymity, i remember being a young mentally ill queer kid in a homophobic abusive household and idk how i wouldve gotten thru it without my online friends and the escape of the internet. and if a law like this had passed and my parents had been made aware of all my social media accounts i would have been in so much trouble for being queer & nonchristian & interested in secular media & swearing & complaining abt my parents & mentally ill & having friends they didn't like & etc etc. idk i think it's super fucking dangerous and sets a dangerous precedent

[holdingup-fallingsky]

In honor of Starctcher’s birthday, I wanna share with everyone the photograph assignment I did inspired by Greta songs

[odessastone]

Thinking about the Vishkar cybernetic “upgrade” happening as soon as a student turns a certain age (thinking something like 16 to give them time to get used to it before graduation/starting work with the company, though it could even be as young as 13). Thinking about Niran having to go through the procedure first since he’s 6 months older, and then Satya trying to swallow her growing fear as the months pass and she watches Niran suffer through the phantom pains and the emotional trauma of having a perfectly healthy part of your body cut off. While Niran wears his feelings loudly, Satya retreats into herself, plugging her ears while Niran cries in the night