#anyways gay religiosity >>>>>

[addamvelaryon]

Addam & Benji praying together at the Isle of Faces

Artist: Jota Saraiva (deviantart/instagram)

[intheholler]

reading an article for a class (appalachian studies) and i kept being reminded of u

https://www.guernicamag.com/lost-in-a-misgendered-appalachia/

[positive] [with no foul intent] [its a good article]

i have read this article a few times since you sent it in and i still don't exactly know how to express my thoughts on it.

first: amen

second: yall literally have no idea how it makes me feel when you say somethin appalachian-related reminded yall of me. for real <3333

third: time to get long winded and sentimental, because i've never considered it this way, but it's so true. when i think of appalachia, i dont think about lifted trucks and gun shows.

i think about my badass grandma who was a fiery divorced, sex-positive, weed smoking, unapologetic feminist in her day and who didn't take no shit from no mountain men.

i think about my gospel loving, soft spoken mama who loudly loved jesus, a woman anyone would write off as an average "southern christian white lady" on the surface. how she didn't bat an eye when i nervously told her i was gay as a preteen. i think about how she hugged me and told me how much she loved me, how not everyone was gonna be nice about it or understand but that i was going to be safe and it was gonna be okay. how when i was a kid she stood up to that fire n brimstone southern baptist preacher and got us the fuck out of there.

i think about one of my best friends in high school, a visibly queer butch lesbian in our tiny bible beating western NC town. how fucking brave and cool she was for being one of maybe three "out" queers at school and so visibly queer at that. i think about how she got married to a pretty girl last year in that same town.

i think about two of my close friends who had to grow up so heartbreakingly fast, a pair of sisters who were at the time so young but selflessly spent their free time caring for their terminally ill mother by themselves up in their lonely holler without ever lodging a complaint

i think about my sister who dropped everything to raise me when she was only 23, breaking her back and making shit work because no one else was gonna make it work for us. i think about how one of my great aunts literally cleaned out her bedroom to furnish mine when she learned i was sleepin on a shitty couch in a cold basement.

i think about my other great aunt who apologizes for absolutely no part of who she was and holds fast to her beliefs no matter what. i think about her filling her house with the warm smell of soup beans and biscuits that were gonna feed the whole family when they come later.

when i think about appalachia, i think about the women in my life. appalachia is divine and it is absolutely divinely feminine. it's the heart of these hills and patriarchy taints it like it does everything fuckin else.

as an aside, i really loved this section here. it was kind of empowering:

Despite our region’s diversity and passionate socialist and pro-union roots, many have bought into the capitalist terms and definitions inflicted upon us. The religiosity of the place exacerbates this messaging, and the prevalence of evangelical Christianity in rural hollers means we often internalize toxic ideas about ourselves. Or perhaps we have simply tired of fighting to be seen. The pressure of religious and economic patriarchy, particularly in an exploited region like this one, means we live inside a perpetually loaded question. Nothing is more exhausting than trying to prove you exist. But the consequences of surrendering are stark: worsening wealth gaps, lost histories, continued erasures of diverse people and ecosystems. To live in Appalachia nowadays is to live with our failure to break down systemic racism, and with our complicity in the abuse of our bodies, labor, and land by unregulated corporations and himbo charlatans.

whew, okay. anyway, thanks for sending this in <33 it really made me think. yall should check it out. it's a long read but its worth every syllable!

[mariamagdalenagf]

want to preface that this is more of a journaling situation that me making a statement about anything at all so please don't take it that way if you read it

religious ocd & questioning rambling below the cut. Also, please donate to the Palestinian gofundmes I've reblogged, or reblog them yourself if you can't.

so like i have no idea how many of you know me from my last blog, quite a few of you i'm sure, but for those of you who don't, the Lore is that I had a very very traumatising bout of religious ocd when I was like 16/17 that got me diagnosed and made me Sort Of Want to Kill Myself because I forced myself to be a Perfect Catholic for like a year. Including the not being gay bit. anyway to get myself out of it I just did a DIY religious studies degree, learning about every religion I could think of to find a way out-- I was never totally happy being catholic tbc. the first time I can remember feeling awe for a religion was when my school taught us about Islam when I was 12, spent years wishing I'd been born Muslim. Anyhow I went through a long while considering paganism-- Norse and Hellenic-- and then Islam again, and then decided to try to learn about Judaism since I had never learned anything much about it, and I fell so deeply in love with it that I genuinely think it both saved my life and my religiosity. I wouldn't be religious now or healthy now if it weren't for Judaism. I've talked to rabbis briefly and gone back and forth and chosen Hebrew names and gone through cycles and cycles of deciding to convert and backing out etc etc. I'm still Catholic now, five years on, and I do think my personal religion, my personal worldview, whatever, is informed by my being Latine, and by paganism, and in some ways by Islam, but the framework, bedrock, etc-- it *is* Judaism. I've been, lately, growing far more attached to my Catholicism, but it will never be a perfect or full Catholicism. The Church has done unspeakable harm; to me, personally, to my ancestors, is doing harm now-- I am beyond glad that the Church has taken a staunch stance against genocide, but it is impossible to forget that they once committed many, some against my own people. It's hard to forget how easily my love for myself and my faith splinters under the pressure of the company of those I am meant to share this faith with. I have found beautiful community with other religious people of colour and religious lgbt people, but that is never what I have experienced in church irl. Irl, church almost ruined me. It doesn't even matter to me anymore, really. G-d is bigger than that; I don't need anything other than Them and the people I love, and a quiet church to go to when I can. I'd like to get to a place where I can go to Mass without wanting to dissociate but that isn't what is missing. Something will always be missing, because the truth of the matter is that I was born to be no singular thing. Various polytheistic deities have visited my dreams, I read tarot, my mother saw ghosts, I am gay, I would have preferred to have been born a man. I'd like to go to Mass, but I'm never going to fully belong there, or even fully want it as much as I've wanted to be Jewish, which itself feels impossible, but I'm glad to want it-- or have wanted it-- if that makes sense. Wanting that has made me better. Made the rest of it worth it, even if I'm not sure I want it anymore.

It's winter now and G-d feels very close and the only name I have for what I am is Catholic because what else is there. That would be a lot to walk away from, I'm not sure there's anyone who would want to receive me were I to walk toward something else, so that's where I am now. All of this-- it kind of got away from me-- was really to say that the nativity is beautiful, but it feels empty, somehow. I'm glad it's happening, but something essential is rotting in the world, maybe? I don't know. I spent years and years and years refusing to do anything other than love the world, stubbornly, spitefully, and i do love the world but I do think I lost something somewhere over the last two years. Something splintered. The rot's always been there, I guess. I knew that; I'm a result of it. It stains me and my family and my homeland. I once saw someone say that we have always lived in the post-apocalypse which I think is what I have been feeling lately. All is aftermath. It could have been beautiful here, and sometimes it still is. Sometimes I could cry when the air is cold and I'm clean and everything is so quiet, I could cry or sing or just be so still and at peace with just how much I love life, and everyone, and everything. So like, I know it's worth it. I know the beauty will continue. I do think it's important, though, as the year comes to a close, to reckon with everything that's been lost, everything we've never had, everything that hurts.

Anyway, I don't know. None of this is about me. I'm listening to Visions of Gideon, it's December, G-d is rattling in the air with the wind. What else is there to do but think

[castlebyersafterdark]

i know i KNOW this is a whole topic about religiosity and traditionalism in merica/the west bla bla bla, but really at the end of the day, byler is about some gay ass boys and like... whats the actual harm in that? even if you come down to sex, which most phobes like to focus on instead of love, whats the harm in a dude putting his wiener in another dude's ass

like who is getting hurt here

no one lol

(unless it aint done right, in which case, yowza)

but like come on. i really hope they lean into the church angle with byler, because even though the most religious aspect we've overtly seen is re henry and that was in the play that most folks didnt even see.... there's something very unsurprising about the wheelers being religious. imagine old nana being super fucking religious and trad, tutting at mike's long hair and petting nancy for being a good student. i can see the wheelers trundling into church every sunday, mike rolling his eyes cos he'd rather be playing dnd. the costume he wore for will's funeral in s1 especially made me think of sunday best compared to the other boys'. did you see mike's little waistcoat? he was very smart! and all blacks and whites too, very un-mike, very formal.

and i keep thinking of chappell roan's line for byler too, 'touch me baby put your lips on mine, might go to hell but we'll probably be fine'

like thats it! its just a kiss, just sex, just love. whats the harm

That's the catch, isn't it? Life's whole question. Take away the hatred ingrained into organized religion and - what is the harm? Why? It's wrong because It says so. What is wrong about love and sex? Rules. Made up rules. It's about power and control, not morality. Anyway. Don't get me on a roll. Themes of the show!

There is no way they don't do a narrative arc with religious themes. It was very prevalent in season four. Jason's speeches. The thought that the devil has infiltrated Hawkins. Eddie and Hellfire club and everything there. The shots at the end of season 4 after the town has faced this disaster and everybody is streaming into church. I think the satanic panic has only just been begun in Hawkins.

The themes from the play (which I only vaguely know) will mesh with the TV show - wasn't Henry involved in attempted exorcisms?? Interesting. He might now be inside the heads of people in Hawkins. People fearing demons, etc. Targeting certain characters associated with Hellfire. Targeting the little boy who came back from the dead once, returned now as the town burns.

I'd think that at age 12, when Will was kidnapped and disappeared into the Upside Down... he'd have already heard it about himself, thought it about himself, knew it about himself. This was Hell and dad was right. Everyone was right.

They filmed an awful lot at the church set. UD and normal version. Big things happening here.

THIS KIND CANNOT BE DRIVEN OUT BY ANYTHING BUT PRAYER

We assume this kind may refer to demons and monsters, but to a small town church goer, what's more monstrous than some queer kids and their satanic cult corrupting the very fabric of town...

[troutfur]

#rb#troutfur#warrior cats#honestly. i forget that spirituality and religion exists sometimes#and that most people are like… genuinely serious about it#i’m a deconvert and always struggled with actually believing in some higher power and thought everyone was just making shit up#(and i still kinda do it’s complicated)#turns out i’m autistic so. maybe that has smthn to do with it (<- that def has smthn to do with it)#anyway. doctor

@deadfooting

This is a very interesting experience because for me I suspect very heavily I'm in some way in the autistic spectrum (was suspected of it as a kid but AFAIK never an official diagnostic so I think I was just not autistic enough to have it be official), and I definitely think the reason I've always been religious despite being an atheist for many years is precisely that.

I basically stopped believing in God after having one (1) moment of critical thought at age 15 but for a good few years I was still a devout Catholic. In fact my lack of belief led me to overcompensate by becoming a zealot. It was a long way to realizing the Catholic church didn't want me, a gay atheist, despite how much of myself I put into it.

After I walked away I was still craving religiosity. Ritual and routine were things I have always deeply wanted and religiosity gave that to me. I was for a good few years cycling in and out of several religions, mainly different forms of Buddhism as well as reconstructionist paganism. It was never really about belief for me, although I kept an open mind about the existence of gods, afterlives and so on.

Last November I committed to becoming a Buddhist and took the three refuges and five precepts ceremony under a Chinese Pure Land teacher. It's not the main school I practice over, that would be Gelug, but Pure Land is the thing I most consistently practice.

I am still skeptical of many of the metaphysical claims of Buddhism but I still retain an open mind that maybe one day I'll have an experience that will convince me. But if it doesn't I still see inherent value in my religion.

Optionally tell me why in the replies or reblogs. I'm firmly on camp priest because of my academic background as an archaeologist and general disinterest with botany and biology and the like. Plus I care a lot about Clan religion worldbuilding and making it its own thing rather than a haphazard pseudo-Christian thing like canon.

[bonefall]

(Using the askbox for conlanging discussion for once so the whole blog sees.)

So, like, for base Clanmew do we want specific words for queer identities or nah? I'm leaning towards no, I feel like much how you've said it before with neurodivergence the cats would describe behaviors and wouldn't really equate it with being you know?

BUT it's gay month and I think the audience would appreciate it. Throw them a little thing to add to their Clanmew intros.

Hmm...

Well, I totally overhauled the idea of Clan genders. So let's wander and ponder about it.

Some concepts translate neatly into the new clan culture concept of a Trinary gender, such as the humble genderqueer, but the English words for queerness are built around the exploration and rejection of binary gender. So I think most of the terms we're familiar with wouldn't exist in Clanmew.

Anyway, here's a refresher of the three genders and a new word. Here! Gender! CATCH!

Gender = Gorrloog Gender, broadly, of which Clan cats have 3. To be agender is to not have this, to be Gorrloogwaro, "genderless"

Gib = Meewa The third gender; assigned to cats who were suspected fading kits, display religiosity and wisdom from a young age, and have special 'gifts' from StarClan like multiple toes. Closest to what we might consider a type of nonbinary, but since Clan cats have trinary gender, you can see how that phrase is kind of flawed in Clanmew.

Tom = Ssuf Masculine gender; associated with patrolling, playfulness, assigned to most male kits. Tend to be more 'stinky' than other genders (word comes from the sound of cat spraying), larger, and display stud jowls.

Molly = Yaow Feminine gender; associated with assertiveness and seriousness, camp-building, and protectiveness. Assigned to most female kits. Tend to be on the thinner, lighter side, with saggier skin

They don't really have a word for "transgender," you contain gender, and don't contain much of the other two. To change gender is just that; "I was X and now I am Y" because you have realized that you contain more of another type of gender.

But they DO have a term for dysphoria, because they do have HRT treatments for when cats want their bodies to reflect their gender.

So there's another word; Mwrrgorloog. Bad-Gender. This is when you feel uncomfortable with the gender you have right now, and need to find some way to become a different one.

Humor theory but for gender. breaking out the gender leeches and sucking out the bad gender

And doing that, taking herbs, altering your appearance, helps to adjust your gender levels. So transition is accepted, BUT, Clan cats start trying to shove you back into the boxes if you act outside of this trinary system.

Dustpelt would be an example of this-- he contains Ssufness. He is a tom, he feels like one and he is one. He likes construction, he's a very serious cat, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to patrol. That doesn't mean he wants to be treated totally like a molly. He's queer, he doesn't fit the boxes neatly.

Under a more traditional leader, he may have gotten overlooked for construction promotions. They would have wanted him to be Yaow or Ssuf and not this bizarre mix. They wouldn't have considered that he needed someone like One-eye to nurture his talents.

I'm not sure if they have a word for "genderqueer" yet, but the beauty of language is that we make words exactly for this sort of purpose. I'm trying to think of how they might put BB!cats like Dustpelt, Bluestar, and Lizardstripe into words...

I think Ul-gorloog, contracted into Uloog, would make a good term for queer cats who don't fit the trinary. "Total Gender," lonely gender, both filling the Trinary and not really being part of it as a result.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Today i discussed homophobia with my colleagues. I said a lot of it is rooted in religion and how you have been raised, because imho if you nobody teaches you being gay or lesbian is wrong, you wouldnt see it like this, you would probably simply decline an offer from your same sex. Maybe you wonder about it because its statistically much more rare than hetersoexuality but anyways, I dont think you'd become homophobic. However, my colleague stated i was wrong. Because he was raised catholic and he didnt turn out homophobic, and whatever I said, he said it has nothing to do with religion, i honestly cant name the fallacy rn. What would be a good argument against this or am I maybe wrong?

The problem is that he's a sample size of one. We are apparently to take his singular experience as the truth of Xian, or at least Catholic, teachings.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal

Furthermore, it appears he resorted to Argument by Repetition, aka Proof by Assertion, by simply insisting that "it has nothing to do with religion".

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/cgi-bin/uy/webpages.cgi?/logicalfallacies/Argument-by-Repetition

He has an anecdote and denial. That's not a solid argument.

I mean, it's nice that he lucked out and got one of the "nice" Catholic environments, but I bet if he looked back, even only a decade or two, at policies of the church, schools, community organizations, etc, he would find that this was a relatively recent phenomenon.

For that matter, I would bet if he dug around at what was going on that he didn't personally witness, there will be stuff there to discover.

On the other hand, if we look further afield than a single sheltered individual:

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/06/25/global-divide-on-homosexuality-persists/

That's a really weird coincidence that the column on the left is never higher than the column on the right, isn't it? It sure is a wild coincidence that the increase of irreligion in western countries (rise of "nones") correlates with the increase in acceptance of LGBT people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_attitudes_toward_homosexuality

Since the 1970s, much of the world has become more accepting of homosexual acts and relationships. Cross-national differences in acceptance can be explained by three factors: the strength of democratic institutions, the level of economic development, and the religious context of the places where people live.[4] The Pew Research Center's 2013 Global Attitudes Survey "finds broad acceptance of homosexuality in North America, the European Union, and much of Latin America, but equally widespread rejection in predominantly Muslim nations and in Africa, as well as in parts of Asia and in Russia". The survey also finds "acceptance of homosexuality is particularly widespread in countries where religion is less central in people's lives. These are also among the richest countries in the world. In contrast, in poorer countries with high levels of religiosity, few believe homosexuality should be accepted by society.

Indeed plenty in the Catholic Church have tried to blame homosexuality for the child sexual assault scandal problem that is pervasive through the church:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47302817

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/bishop-morlino-others-charge-homosexual-subculture-clergy-abuse-crisis

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/04/homosexuality-blame-sexual-abuse-not-catholic-church-claims/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-21/cardinals-link-clerical-child-sex-abuse-to-homosexual-agenda/10831922

Apparently it's not that the Catholic Church is a closed system which governs itself, secretly and opaquely with no accountability, commands undue deference, reverence and influence over its parishioners, and has a long history of burying its scandals. No, the problem is the gays. /s

There are plenty of cases of people using religion to foster hatred or limit the rights of LGBT people They can, and do, cite the bible to justify this.

https://religionnews.com/2021/05/10/german-catholics-to-bless-gay-unions-despite-vatican-ban/

The blessings at open worship services are the latest pushback from German Catholics against a document released in March by the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”

https://onemillionmoms.com/current-campaigns/now-lego-is-loud-and-proud/

We must remain diligent and stand up for biblical values and truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-moody-bible-institute-lgbtq-discrimination-lawsuit-0602-20210603-tze36w3wvbhkve76iw54rxgyq4-story.html

Moody’s [Bible Institute] website says, “Based on Scripture, nonmarital sex, homosexual sex, same-sex romantic relationships, and gender identification incongruent with one’s birth-sex all violate God’s generous intention for human relationships. Such practices misrepresent the nature of God Himself, and therefore are sinful under any circumstance.”

These are just a few examples I found trivially where the religion, scripture and "god's" opinion are cited specifically, without reservation, as justification.

And that’s without going anywhere near the shit-show that is Islam.

Compared to the fire-and-brimstone wings of Protestantism, the Catholic Church has in recent years sometimes been relatively gay.... uh... "tolerant"... -ish. Although, this is usually couched in policies best described as separate-but-not-equal, such as opposing same-sex marriage, but letting them have that "civil union" stuff.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_sin#Actions_constituting_grave_matter

That source refers here:

https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P88.HTM#:~:text=2396%20

IN BRIEF

2392 "Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being" (FC 11).

2393 By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.

[..]

2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.

This is literally from the Vatican's own website.

Notice how it's phrased. It's okay to be gay as long as you don't act on it. As long as you don't find love, as long as you don't live a happy, long life having bangin' gay sex in a committed relationship. It's okay to be gay as long as you foster a sense of guilt and inferiority because your natural desires are "mortal sin."

Let it not escape anyone that "Homosexual actions" is on the same list as "Incest."

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_homosexuality#Church_teaching

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "homosexual acts" are "acts of grave depravity" that are "intrinsically disordered." It continues, "They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. Regarding homosexuality as an orientation, the Catechism describes it as "objectively disordered."

The Catholic Church teaches that, as a person does not choose to be either homosexual or heterosexual, being gay is not inherently sinful. According to the Catholic theology of sexuality, all sexual acts must be open to procreation and express the symbolism of male-female complementarity. Sexual acts between two members of the same gender cannot meet these standards. Homosexuality thus constitutes a tendency towards this sin. The church teaches that gay people are called to practice chastity.

This is how they justify their claims of being more tolerant; the sanctimony of "love the sinner, hate the sin," which is still hating homosexuality, denying gay Catholics the full human experience.

Because apparently the organization that thinks a virgin can give birth, and a cracker can turn into flesh has strong opinions about what is or is not "natural."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_homosexuality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_homosexuality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominational_positions_on_homosexuality

As usual it appears it's up to the non-believers to teach the believers about their own religions and beliefs. It appears your colleague is astonishingly naive and sheltered, never having engaged with Catholicism outside of his "nice" environment.

You know, like what the Pope or the Vatican might have to say. Obscure shit like that.

[norgestan]

I love how everyone in the eskam fandom has widely differing opinions on this season, but all of us can agree that Lucas’ clips were annoying and unnecessary. That’s how bad it was. Literally no one asked for it, and we got three weeks of it. Everyone was happy not having his “Isak” point of view, even before. What we got in the second season was fulfilling.

i was too tired to make a post about it yesterday sjskjsks but i wish i had done it because part of my post was like "i think we're done with lucas' clips because they've resolved the biggest issue aka lucas apologized and is talking to the boy squad again" and now i have no proof that i was right. but anyways, what i didn't get to say is that the clips we got yesterday were by far the bests in lucas' pov! i think the first clip at lucas' place is kinda hilarious (with kasim blankly staring as lucas makes a joint for himself) and then it gave us insight to kasim's faith and religiosity without it being only exposition, but because of their interactions aka the character moments eskam tends to do well. clips like that really make me wish 1) kasim had only been lucas' gay muslim friend, there's literally no need to make them a couple and they have no chemistry anyway (like, why on earth do lucas and kasim like each other beyond the fact that they're gay and hot?), and 2) this clip was placed in ep 3 or 4 so we'd have a much better insight to what lucas is going through from the beginning. the last clip was... worse, because it's more exposition and more forced chemistry between these two and i'm not even gonna go into the thing with dounia (i can't believe they didn't make lucas stand on the hallway or something so we could listen to what actually happened, see if kasim is alright and see that lucas cares about kasim!!!). also, if you only watched these clips, kasim comes off as a much more likable character and that's another reason why i would've loved if kasim was immediately introduced as an out gay muslim guy. but anyways.

......and all of that was to say that i was finally enjoying lucas' clips and kinda wanted to get more LOL. but i still stand by the points i drew on one of my older asks: this was waaaaay too much material to be handled in the 20-30 minutes in total that we had of lucas' pov, and they glossed over sooooo many things as well. lucas seemed to be in the absolutely dirtiest shit on episode 4, yet now all that he needed was a pep talk from kasim and some neck kissing to be restored and go back to being the sweet boy he was on seasons 1-3? lol. it's like lucas was temporarily possessed by some alien and regained his humanity two seconds before dounia discovered them on the kitchen. but anyways, i hope joana doesn't get the same treatment, but i'm not holding my breath! they're still gonna fuck something up with them! i can smell it!

[thevagueambition]

I wonder why Denmark was one of the first countries to be sympathetic to the gay perspective (in modern times)

like i could make a lot of statements about how Danish culture encourages open-mindedness as a virtue and that is true to some extent* and certainly part of the story, yet that still doesn’t tell us where that comes from. cultural attitudes have their origins in material conditions and public discourse. why did the Danish public in particular evolve to be reasonably casual about homosexuality at a comparatively early point in time? Why did it grow to value open-mindedness? (lots of aimless rambling under the cut)

If I were to speculate on material reasons,Copenhagen historically was not just the capital of Denmark but functionally of the entire region (eg this influenced how writing developed in all of Scandinavia) which, along with its status as a trade hub, might have granted it a more internationalist (and thus culturally permissive) point of view due to the different people making it through the city on a regular basis. I mean you certainly can’t discount the fact that Denmark has been a very affluent nation for a very long time either, which is largely due to trade. Where there is less economic despair there tends to be less “need” to find a minority to blame (although this did happen both with antisemitism in the early 19th century and homophobia in the early 20th, these were not nearly as violent as comparable occurrences elsewhere**)

Another thing is perhaps the proximity to the German-speaking sphere, both geographically and culturally, because so much of early sexology and gay advocacy happened in German (prior to WW2). Anyone with an academic education would be reading publications in German up until I’d guess WW2 so the arguments made in German were likely to be arguments known by the well-educated Danes (who of course were the ones to write legislation and the ones deciding how the healthcare system should approach the topic)

I suppose the way Danish culture approaches religiosity can’t be discarded as an important factor either, given that the argument against gay rights is often a religious one. Danish culture regards religion as an intensely private matter, much more so than the social one it is in many other cultures. I’m sure this can be partially attributed to extremely influential 19th century priest and poet NFS Grundtvig who did preach open-mindedness and a “happy” Christianity, with quotes such as “human first, Christian second” one might see how the popularity of his particular take on Christianity could develop into a culture where using religious arguments to disallow certain behavior is regarded as very backwards even by adherents of that religion. Although of course Grundtvig didn’t spring for the earth fully formed, he too is a result of how he grew up and what ideas he was introduced to, and the Danish public did not have to be as receptive to his ideas as it was

Anyway I suspect this is the sort of thing there isn’t really an answer to just more or less qualified guesswork. “Why do cultures evolve to be the way they are?” is a very difficult question to answer with any degree of certainty.

* To be clear, while Danish culture does value open-mindedness, open-mindedness should not be read as necessarily equating progressiveness in this context. Denmark is a progressive society in many ways too, sure, but the cultural open-mindedness includes open-mindedness towards bigoted perspectives. The attitude is “there needs to be room for everybody's opinion” which includes both the self-liberation of the oppressed and the mocking from the oppressor. Thus in saying Denmark was sympathetic to the gay perspective earlier than most other national cultures, this should specifically be understood as a tolerant attitude more so than an inclusive one. It’s not your business who Michael is fucking but it’s also not Michael’s business if you want to call every footballer you’re mildly annoyed with a homophobic slur.

** IIRC there were two antisemitic smear campaigns in the Danish papers in the first half of the 1800s which did in at least one of the cases result in some violence in the streets, but mostly against property rather than people (which is bad in and of itself of course, but I’m just saying that these weren’t pogroms).

As for the homophobic campaign, this was again a smear campaign in the papers and IIRC it ended in arrests of several gay men for sleeping with young male sex workers. There was also a moral panic about young male sex workers in the 1950s that ended in a law that made the age of consent for a male sex worker 21 (compared to, I think, 18 for female sex workers). Neither of these cases were mass violence either, though certainly violent in the sense of jailing people being a form of violence.

[imhereforyouskam]

It’s impossible for me to watch Matteo’s and David’s internal struggles with their sexual identity (coupled with Matteo’s mother’s religiosity) and not have found Pete Buttigieg’s statement from last week incredibly touching and timely. He talks about how young gay youth’s struggles are ones he shared -- that if he could have taken a pill to not be gay, he’d have done so without a second though. Buttigieg is a mayor of a mid-sized US city in a conservative state (South Bend, Indiana -- Vice President Mike Pence’s home state).  He’s out and proud. His husband is a big presence. Matteo seems on the road to self-acceptance, thank goodness.  David, maybe not so much in this moment. Anyway, it’s a short video.  You may find it compelling.

[feministmanto]

It’s about time for some LGBT+ representation

I’ve recently gotten into the Pakistani side of media- namely Pakistani dramas. Almost all the actors are amazing and handle their characters wonderfully. However, there is a certain ‘plot’ that seems to follow every drama. 

Boy falls in love with girl; successfully wooes her; goes against ‘tradition’ and family and in the end manages to win everyone over or does not, but ends up with the girl. Or vice versa.

While there is nothing wrong with such a plotline itself except for the sexist elements and toxic nationalists views that need to be weeded out, there is a distinct lack of something.

Whenever I’ve seen glimpses of representation, there are only ever transvestite characters; and they are never given a proper role [ correction: except for in Alif Allah Aur Insaan hats off to that drama btw it had so much going on I need to rewatch it privately and with time to analyze it properly]; and are mostly used for comic relief.

Another problem is that there is zero representation of gay/lesbian/bi characters; and characters who have identity issues whether they are just questioning their sexuality or their gender. And I know for a fact that people like this exist in this little “backwater” country, because I have met them and talked to them since coming here; so directors and drama writers don’t really have the excuse of not having such characters because people like this just don’t exist on this piece of land.

Is it because they fear the reaction from the audience? Do they just want to stick to something safe?

It is a big step for a country steeped in ignorance; however, where all else fails, media is the only way to reach audience of all types. Whether they are rich or poor; religious or not; nationalists or not; young or old. Media, just like literature, has the ability to break boundaries and get a person to open up. It’s only through exposure to different elements and perspectives that one becomes open-minded and tolerant.

Since most people are not fond of reading here, visual media is the way to go.

There will doubtlessly be backlash initially, however, once the seeds are sown, people will become accepting over time.

It’s quite dangerous for the lgbt+ community here, especially the gay community. The way things are, hardly anyone comes out; and those who do are subjected to bullying from peers and worse from family. I have been waiting, since recent dramas have addressed issues and actors seem to be more aware of social issues and advocating feminism*. [And feminism does not only cover women’s rights, but speaks for all the minorities and all those who are sidelined and wronged- a concept people don’t understand. And because everyone hates women anyway, they use their lack of knowledge about this beautiful movement to further hate and stigma surrounding feminism but that is a a baggage for another post].  However, that is still not enough. There are still people who scoff at the idea of feminism and jump on the wagon to victim blaming the female for whatever sexual harassment/assault she has suffered. 

If that is the case with abuse survivors, it’s terrifying to imagine what lgbt+ are put through if they ever come out, or worse, are discovered.  

There’s a whole thing about religiosity and piety and how anyone remote,y different is impure or unworthy. It’s okay to be straight and religious and “good” but it’s about time the media represents (accurately and positively enough) all the people that belong here and normalize their existence. The stigma around the lgbt+ can be reduced greatly if people are educated and shown that they are just normal people, and have feelings and ambitions and rights.

Things like this are to be expected; however, if taken slow for a society so deeply entrenched in the idea of anti-homosexuality and “laws of nature” perhaps just humanizing “the other” should take precedence over simply jumping  into intimate scenes. The drama, to be successful in this regard, needs to have a plot that revolves around the struggles of these characters, and just traits that make them  them and relatable to the general audience so they can sympathize with the characters. In a country where intimate scenes are not accepted even between m-f actors, suddenly adding intimate scenes between couples they just don’t accept will only exacerbate the issue and not educate anyone.

[thewyrdwritere]

The Pariah

The Pariah by Anthony Ryan My rating: 3 of 5 stars If you have read Anthony Ryan's books before then his newest adventure The Pariah will be very familiar, but is that good or a bad thing? Hard men doing hard men things, kings, knights, outlaws, bastards with noble lineage, northmen based on...well er northmen, whilst a potent religiosity swirls in the background with a hint of the supernatural being real. The Pariah has all the hallmarks of Bloodsong adapted for a new world. I like it despite Ryan now occupying the same creative space as bands who release similar sounding albums year after year. There is enough of a twist to the beginnings though to stave off accusations of 'playing it safe' with a set style. The Pariah begins with young outlaw Alywn and a band of not so merry men accosting a royal messenger, rather un-Robin Hood like these outlaws are true miscreants; cutthroats, murderers, whores, a burgeoning psychopath, a gay couple and a religious zealot, led by a grizzly Robin Hood stand in determined to claim a birthright rather than help the downtrodden. It is an interesting start that plays a slight of hand with the first person narrative. Told from a future Alywn who likes to hint at what's to come provides some intriguing mystery whilst also ruling out any sense of jeopardy, like Vaelin Al'sorna before him Ryan's choice of narrative trick swathes his hero in plot armour. Refreshingly honest to the reader, heroism lies in the journey after all, no need for shocks, that's been done.... Oh wait there is a twist, and the Robin Hood plot gives away to shocking betrayal and a bloody quest for vengeance, all the while being informed by future Alywn that all of present Alywn's plans for bloody vengeance aren't going to go, well er, according to plan... certainly because ' shockingly' Alwyn finds himself in a cage destined toward the Pit Mines, because that's never been done in fantasy before.... Anyway, the Pariah works mainly because despite the familiarity, Alwyn as a character, is slowly moved away from being a discarded outlaw out for petty vengeance. The plot is most interesting at the moments where Alywn desperately clings to his petty outlaw identity despite his natural intelligence leading him to being drawn into something grander. Interesting, mysterious, boorish, antagonistic, the side characters are plentiful, they variously help, hinder, inspire Alywn in equal measure creating a plethora of dramatic episodes within which Alywn's story and character can slowly evolve and develop. And I do mean slowly as The Pariah is a long book that takes it's time and reads like near a 600 page set up, which is a bit bothersome, but there are enough elements to satisfy heroic fantasy fans and some intriguing potential to the story. View all my reviews

[davidjjohnston3]

Thoughts on philosophy of education non-toxic and detoxifying edition

1.

Needless risk.  I said years ago, “The quality of the peace determines the quality of the war.”  What is the life-expectancy for an African child-soldier who started at 8?  

Everyone in America wants to be or thinks they can be or can make their kid Ender Wiggin.

2.

ES - Mom, school, hakwon, piano hakwon, church

MS - friends

HS - destiny, purpose, and often, couples

3.

My last ideal H&M Hail Mary projects

 -from Promise Nine “Clover”

 - from Mother Superior Mrs. Catherine Cho’s “Inferno.”  Elinor Wylie or What She Shall Be.  We shall walk in the snow.  Purity and controlled aggression; ardor; candor; and mayhap, without apologizing forever.

- Digging up all my buried treasure from the days when I had good psychiatrists like Dr. Z. who said a comment over the 2012 election.  “The Winners.”

4.

Young people have ardor and candor and are good writers but lack opportunity / life-chances.  They engage ideas.  Sometimes they ignore their own faces and hands and this is in part because, as I have repeatedly noticed, the old who HAVE ideas just want bodies.  

Hence, “My Teacher’s Pet Grace.”  “My grandmother [shoot me in heart].”

I have other thoughts and feelings about this but it’s my private concern.

5.

I have no idea who is gonna make it or how.  “Wonhago...”  America seems demoralized.  Whitefish Bay, where I love, where someone knows my name, at Sendik’s feels like they are not sure they can win.

I used to love their Pumpkin Festival and even took Mom and Pop.

I started “Uncle Sam” about a geography teacher who retired too soon and is fond of Krystal Jung Soojung.  I think his name was “Samuel Johnston” and in past he had a Southern undermining friend I based on Miles Patrick Klee who always tried to “bottom shelf” him down to his essential pathetic condition; whereat I was repeatedly pigeonholed(?) by all my “friends” or ex-constituencies.

“Uncle Sam” evolved eventually in to “Send for Your Love” which is my masculine counterpart(?) to something like “The Hen Who Dreamed She Can / Could / Might Fly” whereby I thought I failed as a hakwon and HS teacher but had a solid even immortal concept for Phi. of Ed. and teacher-training.  

6.

I discovered “All Loves Excelling” actually in Lake Geneva (where FSF was born) at a consignment boutique with a 21-year-old cat on a digression back from Chicago where I’d just interviewed at the ROKCG for the first or second time.  I didn’t understand it at all but felt it “cool, keol, jeongdeokhan” that a Headmaster wrote a private school novel because I HATE Gossip Girl.

7.

There was also “The Midwestern Novel” a study I never ended up reading but which tickled me(?) which I fancied or was taken with because I had assumed if not inferred that most Midwesterners only gazed dead-eyed with “tarnished mournful beady-eyed German mirrors” at the literature of the coasts.

That is / was not true.  For one thing there is me.  For another many people “hide their virtue” as a Japanese said.  They also pour their pure hearts and their creativity and “apercus” (not acumen) into creating little families, households, and other things which remain idle ideas for some apartment-dwellers.  Astronaut farmers here there be - if only they would launch from the pad; but IDK since I’m an outsider here to all but myself.

8.

Wallace Stegner

9.

It is important / critical / crucial to know what is going on in the present moment or there’s no end to the reading of history or anyway it is for other people - “Sheep May Safely Graze.”

10.

Whitefish Bay - “Bay of Slow Hopes” - at least thank the Lord =/= Milwaukee.

11.

I’ll never forget the Vietnamese girl at World War Z.  However JiU going for the popcorn and no movie is like a dream come true to me.

This is why I gave away my precious SS-9′s and SS-7′s a few months ago -  I sincerely thought it was Acts 2.  “Husbands look on your wives’ brows, hold your daughters’ and sons’ hands at the library, vote Republican, don’t even vote, don’t outsource, don’t send for, don’t go.”

“My Love Don’t Cross That _”

TW-1 used to like it when I said “Don’t do that” but I stole the line from Big Bad Boris.

I used to compose in Tumblr when I thought this aspect of the past was a small deal.  Now I want to give butter and honey and “daily bread, viaticum” (M. Scott Peck Gifts for the Journey DNR - he said “I’m a prophet not a saint” which is 100% non campus mentis suicidal).

12.

What’s Dong Joo Lee up to, under the moon or sun, by mirror or torch / lamp, by moonlight or throw-light.  

I imagined him on an aircraft carrier with an F-35 blasting “You Could Be Mine” or “You Shall Be Mine.”

He said, “I wrote on a paper I want to join Navy JAG, I did, God is good.”

He looks great / beautiful in white + killer facial hair for a Kor.

When I met Chi Hye Kim I a saw a comet walking around and remembered his back-muscles sheathed in fat / water-retentions before our years of?

13.

I’m against BP but “F U pay me”

14.

I used to listen to “Adagio Cantabile” all the time and think, “repression, going over and over, re-reading and re-reading, mystery religiose, not wanting to know, student crush, Angel Stays Here, repression, repression, repression, rejection, unwillingness to “rebel against evil.”

Siyeon Paradise - run 

away

and that bubblegang 5 song, 

aoi tori

caritas tori

golden dove missive

15.

“Our New World” as letters or love-letters

A Half Day after MS and Pizza at Bunny’s 

16.

Half-days are terrible and the staff don’t even develop

As Dale Duncan said at Family Buffet, “Hell no.”

He moved south and got gay-”married.”

Also blogs about his genius pedagogy

17.

The other song I should have held in my heart’s arm-wing-chaingun-magazine was “Don’t stop flying till you find me, high sky light-debt-bond.”

18.

What’s Richard M. Dienst up to and since I can’t seem to get me a sinecure in Wisconsin can I get a familiar river old boy country road take home at RU.  Will teach for not even food, not even thanks...

[dendroica]

A staff member from Trump’s campaign recalls him mocking Pence’s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence’s office, Trump would ask them, “Did Mike make you pray?” Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. “You see?” Trump asked Pence. “You’ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it’s not going to end abortion anyway.” When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!” There have been other evangelical Christians in the White House, including Carter and George W. Bush, but Pence’s fundamentalism exceeds theirs. In 2002, he declared that “educators around America must teach evolution not as fact but as theory,” alongside such theories as intelligent design, which argues that life on Earth is too complex to have emerged through random mutation. Pence has described intelligent design as the only “remotely rational explanation for the known universe.”

The Danger of President Pence | The New Yorker

[azspot]

“Trump thinks Pence is great,” Bannon told me. But, according to a longtime associate, Trump also likes to “let Pence know who’s boss.” A staff member from Trump’s campaign recalls him mocking Pence’s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence’s office, Trump would ask them, “Did Mike make you pray?” Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. “You see?” Trump asked Pence. “You’ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it’s not going to end abortion anyway.” When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”

[pixiedustfantacies-blog]

A Rambling Reflection and coming to terms of coming-out :

This time you get a chance to choose the focus, choose what you will prepare to be in the future, choose how you will portray yourself to others, choose your mood and level of contentment, choose how you manage your financial situation. You may even have the opportunity to choose a potential mate. When I say choose, I simply mean that you will have a small degree of control over these things. You may have a small amount of control but you will now have a greater level of control over your outlook. People will want you to “act” or be a certain way but you cannot live to appease them without sacrificing a piece of yourself and your own mental well-being. This is sad but it is, in my own experience, valid. 

I know that throughout my college life that I have allowed my sexuality to predominate my forehand. Now that I am out to family and friends alike, I realize this… I only allow it to predominate my mind because this is an identity that to my core I love and am personally okay with but feel the need to constantly suppress in areas that may not feel the same level of comfortability.

In church… I know that I will not be able to wed to a man and that it is assumed to the homosexual man that he will marry a woman and have children with this woman. To me this seems like a complete disregard for the complexities of the human sexuality. I would experience a huge disconnect from my wife and potentially family in this situation. Simply said, sexuality is so much more than just sex. I do not believe that the church hopes to do this maliciously but in the church homosexuality is seen as an illness of some sorts — a vaguely understood disorder.

Personally… I want my Prince Charming. I want us to have beautiful children and a completely judge-free home. It feels weird to me to profess to others a religiosity that has caused me so much inner turmoil.

The conflict is that as I love the Lord and need Him — I am met by this hiccup. I now need to complete my journey of personal development and being “out” by explaining this to the relevant members of my church. I’ve fought it and attempted to pray about it; I’ve experimented with suppressing my feelings and to say the least — I cannot shake it.

This upcoming semester in college will be my first semester in college in which I am entering the semester/year being completely “out” — to me this is a huge deal. I’ll have my own apartment, my own car and my own phone plan. For me, my senior year will be an experimental test of independence. In this upcoming year I want to be all-in-all well rounded like I once felt I was, except this time I will be “out” and unapologetically me. I am super excited for this, it is in part the reason that I have decided to take on blogging — to record my progress or lack there of.

I would like to have a boyfriend but can I find one in real life rather than on the internet? Now, I feel comfortable enough with myself to enquire, be rejected and be completely fine. I guess I’m weird but for me, I’d rather find someone that I can go out to do cute things with and eat. I don’t really want just a hook-up partner (not going to lie, hooking up can be fun). Anyways — that’s my goal for my relationship in 2017-2018.

So basically, I just wanna be super-gay in my amazing apartment, get into graduate school and have a fiancé by graduation… *sarcasm*