#homophobia is the worst disease

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Which controversial ship is the best

Explanations under the cut!

Galadriel/Halbrand (Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power) 60 reblogs - 5614 words total.

I didn't read it but it's something about homophobia and racism and misogyny if you like or dislike the ship, i'm not sure which one.

Katara/Aang (Avatar The Last Airbender) 58 comments - 65 reblogs - 796 words.

The arguing actually happened on the Katara/Zuko poll, but it was about this ship. Mostly Zutara shippers complaining about Kataang shippers but i saw maybe 2 kataang shippers in the comments. I repeat: Kataang is on here because it was incredibly controversial on my blog

Laios/Toshiro (Dungeon Meshi) A few comments and reblogs, 228 words out of what I can count + someones 644 word post that was linked to me.

The reason for this is because I jokingly used the tag "shuro has the worst case of allistic disease i've ever seen", because the way he exploded at Laios reminded me of the experiences i've had with allistic people who secretly hate me but never told me. This means I hate asian people and think only white men can be autistic.

Shiro/Keith (Voltron: Legendary Defender) 43 comments

This ship is pseudo-incest and a man grooming a teenager because they met when Keith was an unspecified younger age and Shiro was an unspecified older age. I'm gonna pass away

Zim/Dib (Invader Zim) A few comments and an ask but it stopped quickly

I haven't watched Invader Zim, but I allowed it on the premise that Zim is seen as a child (because I don't like adult/child ships obv). But Zim's age is a big debate.

Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi (Yu-Gi-Oh) Many reblogs saying the same thing about me

I haven't watched the anime. I saw the same guy twice with the same name and tagged it as "selfcest" incase someone had the tag filtered. This singular tag caused multiple comments and reblogs telling me that it's not selfcest and that it's offensive to DID systems to call it selfcest. I almost snapped here, honestly.

Time to vote! Explode my notes if you want, there's multiple good choices to pick from.

[verdemoun]

Do they get a reminder that their world now still isn’t completely safe and accepting of them? Like, it’s safer and more accepting, but not completely.

me: hey guys i have this super fun idea for a modern au where the gang have memories canon events and slowly become ooc through healing y'all: when do they die. how to they deal with trauma. what was hosea's funeral like. do they get hate crimed

of course they do. modern era is modern era. things have changed. some for the better, some for the absolute worse.

bessie has to give the girls a lecture that the danger that men pose to women has not changed. they shouldn't be walking home alone at night. vaccines might have reduced the number of women killed by disease but just made it more obvious how explicitly men were a risk to women.

the girlies didn't believe it until karen and jenny, having had a great but surprisingly tame night at the bar, noticed a guy walking behind them as they made their way home. the guy proceeded to lurk outside the house despite lenny and sean having both made their presences known. it wasn't until arthur turned up, hunting bow in hand ready, that the guy sprinted off into the dark

kieran actually did have a job for a brief period of time! the stable where bessie took him horseriding informally hired him as a groom, cash in hand for weekends whenever he felt like working, only to change hands and the new owner very aggressively tell him to fuck off because why would they pay a (multiple ableist and homophobic slurs) to do basic chores

not only was kieran distraught to lose his only regular contact with horses, but how upsetting it actual moment was: to be excited for work only to find out about the new management by said new management screaming at him, heckling him with all the same abusive mannerisms of the o'driscolls. it took weeks for him to leave the house afterwards

homophobia is still very much a thing. on one hand the gang are used to 19th century murdered for being queer homophobia, on the other homophobia is fucking loud. it is organized and it is everywhere, especially whenever elections were coming up.

arthur considers himself lucky he just deals with generic homophobia. sure he gets women promising to turn him straight, and he accidentally brutally declares 'ma'am i do in fact like women and men but i'm sure no matter what you were i wouldn't think you were worth pissing on'

the religious rooted homophobia? that hits sean hard. he considers himself catholic, not a very good catholic but a catholic none the less, and when religious groups preach hate and sin it effects him. surely being an outlaw condemned his soul enough. sometimes he needs that extra support from the gang that whatever god there is wouldn't actually hate him for finding happiness with lenny

bill internalizes everything. he comes so far in being comfortable and able to accept himself only to be knocked back by homophobic media and protest and suddenly want to hide again. the tension wrestling with the fact being out and meeting other gay people makes him profoundly happy and then how much he already hates himself only to (re)discover in modern era that people still think he should hate himself for being gay

but absolutely none of them would argue lenny doesn't have it the worst. lenny deals with a) homophobia and racism in his workplace as a university lecturer surrounded by old money conservative white men b) racism within the queer community, forced to swallow that 19th century urge to end an argument with a gun when someone says something that is explicit fetishization that becomes explicit racism when he says no c) being a black man in modern america.

lenny is not shy about the fact he misses the fact in 19th century he could shoot a man that was pissing him off, escape like he did in strawberry, and keep riding until he found somewhere safe. for lenny, modern era doesn't feel safer like it does for the rest of the gang, just a different kind of dangerous.

even after a decade in timewarp, lenny is still shocked by how deep racism runs. one of the worst days of his life, in either era, was a day he had to pick up maeve from school. he was listed as the second emergency contact if sean wasn't available. he was listed as sean's partner. the school knew sean was in a same sex relationship and were supportive. but lenny, a black man, turning up asking to pick up maeve, who was sick, who saw him and called out for him dad, when lenny had all his id on him that matched perfectly with the information that was provided to the school - they still called the cops

and the cops turned up, and maybe it was spectacularly shit cops but they drew their guns on lenny, an unarmed black man, trying to pick up his daughter from school. it was only that karen, who previously thought she wouldn't be able to get there, turned up and said 'that is maeve's father what the fuck are you doing'

maeve didn't understand why she had to change school and threw a mighty tantrum until she was assured abigail jr would be changing school as well after the incident. the next school were almost uncomfortable with how clear sean was in saying my partner is a black man but understood having heard about the incident, and were very supportive

lenny still feels uncomfortable going to school events despite how much he adores seeing maeve at school, participating and trying her best and getting the opportunity to be more than any of them got to be in 19th century. he is both paranoid but knows he is not being paranoid people are watching him out the corner of their eyes just for being a black man

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Apr 23, 2024

“All of my friends are dead.” It was said in his customary matter-of-fact tone, without the slightest hint of self-pity. This was Robin, my supervisor at university, who would often discuss his pre-academic life and what it was like to be a gay man during the worst of the Aids crisis. That he had survived at all struck him as incredible.

In those early days, the sense of an angel of death targeting a particular community seemed like the realisation of a nightmare. When it first emerged in the US it was known as GRID (gay-related immune deficiency). An article appeared in the New York Times on 3 July 1981 with the ominous headline: “Rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals.” Some called it the “gay plague”.

Confusion turned into widespread panic, not limited to the gay community. The first time I heard of the disease was during a PE lesson at primary school. Such was the general ignorance that our teacher warned us not to borrow each other’s plimsolls or we’d catch Aids. Some time later I saw the government’s public health advert on the television; I remember little about it except the large tombstone with the dreaded four-letter acronym as an epitaph.

In the 40 years since the virus was identified, there has been a sea-change in attitudes. Whereas the government’s campaign set out to frighten people with the message “it’s a deadly disease and there’s no known cure”, a recent advert by the Terrence Higgins Trust reminds people that those diagnosed with HIV “can live a healthy, happy life just like anyone else”. Much of the stigma has dissipated.

The same is true of homosexuality itself. One could say that while the Aids crisis exacerbated the hatred and mistrust against an already beleaguered community, it also spurred activists onto the pathway to normalisation. Whereas the pursuit of a gay lifestyle was romanticised — or demonised — as a dance of Eros and Thanatos, a way to ensure that one remained beyond the scope of civilised society, today the very notion of being orientated towards one’s own sex is largely perceived as unremarkable. Those who bleat about their oppression as gay people in a climate of widespread tolerance are luxuriating in a kind of perverse nostalgia for a reality they could never comprehend.

For those who lived through it, the Aids crisis was a moment when the concept of a “gay community” actually meant something. Lesbians were instrumental in providing support for their gay brothers, and amid the loss there was a sense of greater solidarity. I remember seeing a production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart in New York in 2004. The audience mostly comprised of older gay men, and Kramer was among them. Afterwards, people were visibly shaken from watching the worst of their past so unflinchingly dramatised. One man approached Kramer and, through his sobs, I heard him simply say: “thank you”.

Kramer has been credited as a kind of Cassandra figure, one who had warned that the hedonism of gay life in the late Seventies would lead to trouble. His novel Faggots (1978) was loathed by conservatives for its graphic depiction of the sexual free-for-alls of New York’s bathhouse culture, but it was also mistrusted by the gay community for its moralising implications. Its lead character is on an impossible quest to find meaningful love in a world of fleeting sexual encounters. Kramer was criticising what he saw as a sybaritic and morally vacuous culture, and the sense of an impending reckoning has led to the novel being interpreted as predicting the outbreak of Aids.

When the crisis exploded, Kramer was one of those calling on gay men to exercise sexual temperance, and to shut the bathhouses until the virus could be contained. For this he was accused of being a puritan and a traitor to the gay lifestyle. His play The Normal Heart is set around this time, and in one furious monologue a character rails against a Kramer-type figure for trying to make gay men feel ashamed of their own liberation.

For the ultra-religious, Aids was seen as a righteous punishment from God. Many had been appalled at the promiscuity that inevitably arises when women are no longer in the equation. Male sexuality has always been contained to a degree by the institution of marriage, but gay men had been forced to exist on the periphery. There was no need to abide by sexual mores, because the rules had clearly not been written with them in mind. In other words, sex became an integral aspect of their own defiance against the society that had shunned them.

It always seemed a catch-22. Gay men were loathed for their sexual licentiousness, and at the same time excluded from the very ethical framework that would, to a degree, offer some kind of incentive against it. In his 1982 lecture, “Rediscovering gay history”, the historian John Boswell addressed this fundamental contradiction and argued for the need for a gay archetype or moral aspiration. He pointed out that when a straight man cheated on his wife, he at least knew that he was falling short of society’s expectations. But the same could not be said for gay men:

“I think that part of the reason for the ambivalence of the intellectual establishment in the United States is that they can’t tell when they read a book like Edmund White’s States of Desire, whether the life of casual promiscuity it depicts represents a homosexual ideal or the failure of an ideal. Are they reading about what gay people should do, what they do, or both, or neither? So they don’t know how to fit it into their usual critical apparatus. They don’t understand what would be a departure from homosexual ethics because they don’t know what homosexual ethics would be. And neither do we.”

Boswell was right that this ambivalence existed within and without the gay community. When William Friedkin’s film Cruising was released in 1980, the most vehement opposition came from gay campaigners who feared that it would depict them as being inherently deviant. And yet the movie had been shot in the leather bars of New York City, and the real-life sex acts that were filmed were hardly atypical. This subculture may not have been reflective of gay society as a whole, but it certainly existed.

Perhaps it could be said that the activists who sought to ban Cruising won out in the end. Their implicit goal was that gay people could be brought under the aegis of heterosexual respectability — that they could, in other words, live as conventionally as everybody else. It didn’t surprise me at all, therefore, that it was a conservative government in the UK that eventually legalised same-sex marriage. It would appear that we have seen the cultivation in the Western world of the kind of shared ethical ideals that Boswell seemed to crave. Gay monogamy is no longer seen as an oxymoron.

Many gay rights groups, of course, opposed same-sex marriage. To them, it was a way to control gay people, to bring them within the same heteronormative yoke that dominated the rest of society. This debate echoed those of The Normal Heart, where there was a fear of an attempt to “civilise” those who had found freedom in occupying a realm outside of social convention. To be gay was to be different, and for many this was a source of pride. An older gay man once told me that sex was far more exhilarating when it was illegal. It meant that even the most casual sexual encounter was a little act of rebellion.

But even as tolerance has increased, anti-gay feeling has not gone away. The Aids crisis galvanised such prejudices, and of course religious fundamentalists have always opposed those who they deem to be acting against the wishes of their various gods. Today, these prejudices are resurfacing through the obsession with gender identity, an ideology that shames gay people for not being attracted to members of the opposite sex and has been responsible for the government-funded medicalisation of gay youth. In many ways, this is a “progressive” rehash of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, with its prohibition in schools against the “promotion” or “acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

The instinctive disgust that many people feel towards those who do not share their own sexual inclinations is seemingly hard-wired, and so what we call “homophobia” will always emerge in one way or another in a majority heterosexual culture. But at least to be gay is no longer defined solely by the sexual act, and that for one man to fall in love with another is widely considered to be an unexceptional fact of life. The gay rights activists of yesteryear weren’t necessarily calling for universal indifference, but perhaps we’ll get there in the end.

[charmedreincarnation]

I’m soooooo curious to see how my country will be without the homophobia and racism ( manifesting it away) like I’m happy I discovered law of assumption and I want to do a LLOOOOOTTTTT of things but I don’t know where to start like I want to create my own country where I’m in a royal family but also the most powerful country, be famous and make my countrywell known, start over from the beginning and be sooooo intelligent that I skip standards and forms and become a famous doctor that created cure for illness and diseases, best top cop that I’m the most badass female officers that’s not to mess with or become the youngest president or prime minister like LOOOKK AT ALLL THE POSSIBILITIES.

Awe this is so amazing. You can do it all, time is infinite. At the beginning it’s hard to choose what you want to do first and what order you wanna do it, but I’m glad that’s the worst of your problems :)!! Have so much fun love 🤩

[zannolin]

loving the stranger things posting as someone going through a sudden random stranger things phase lol. i have a question: what makes byler an interesting dynamic for you? i'm not a big shipper person personally but i like to hear people's thoughts!

it's so funny i got here because i was suffering from cares too much disease about the karate kid and i needed something to distract me and then um. it did more than distract.

sidenote: coming back to say this got??? so long. so i'm sorry lol. i'm a chronic rambler.

i'll be honest i never actually shipped byler seriously until literally 2 months ago today. i sort of went "haha what if...?" back in 2022 mostly because my friend was into it and i really love mike as a character. oh mike wheeler the character that you are...i've loved him since 2016 lol and i loved him and will as a dynamic since i saw s2. i was so sold on their friendship, and then s3 and s4 were brutal for me to watch as someone who has grown apart from a lot of friends because of similar circumstances (moving, mostly, but also some relationships, and the inherent tragedy of growing up, and the fact that having a shitty family and being 15 can do a lot of damage to your relationships if you're not careful, etc) so like basically i then got More into them because i am obsessed with friendship estrangement plots. and i like both their characters. ("like" is such an understatement even in 2022 i was unhinged about michael wheeler)

frankly they're interesting to me as a ship for all the same reasons as they're interesting to me as a friendship: devotion, knowing someone better than you know yourself, the fear of loss, the fear of change, how easy vs how hard it is to grow up with someone, estrangement, feeling like you're a bad person and self-sabotaging, etc. the funny thing is i didn't even think will was gay or that there WAS (one-sided, anyway) byler until the literal van scene in s4 because i have that little faith in netflix lol, not to mention i used to be a mileven shipper. and then s3 happened which killed my interest in that and then s4 beat the dead horse from here to california. i realized for one thing mike being queer is really interesting to me and opens a lot of room for fun angles on his canonical character with comphet and internalized homophobia, etc, and it works very well with established canon. to me.

i'm honestlyyyy kind of surprised i got into it at all because besides the fact that i'm not a big shipper anymore, i'm RARELY a childhood friends to lovers fan because 1) it's often boring to me, i'm like but why do we need something Other than friendship?? (aro alert) and 2) i personally do not enjoy romance where it's like. you end up with the person you dated in high school? like it's jsut a me thing but i go aaaaaa when it's idk 12 year olds being like "i'm in love" no you're not you're twelve. i literally have DMs of me to my sister watching s4 where i was like michael why are you saying you loved eleven the day you met her, you were twelve and spent the entire season fucking obsessed with finding your best friend and kept dropping her the second she wasn't useful for that, like i love you but you were— what. (regardless of whether or not that bullshit turns out to be, you know, Actually canonically bullshit. that was my reaction lol). um i'm rambling sorry. anyway. they just happened to hit really good beats for me where it could go either way for me (platonic or romantic) and i wouldn't mind and i'm happy with both. but apparently my brain is like What If Romance when it comes to fic for them and i'm being a bit self-indulgent. i want will byers to have nice things and i want mike to not be stuck in the world's worst written relationship ever (to me).

actually the tl;dr is basically everything i like about mike as a character has to do with his plots concerning will, and everything i don't like about what they've been doing with him lately has to do with his relationship with el, so via potentially unintentional gay symbolism, the power of friendship estrangement plots + my love of friendship breakup/makeup scenarios, and my fascination with writing queer loneliness and mutual pining, AND that "good luck, babe" edit, i ended up here.

also finn wolfhard keeps making the most ridiculously intensely tender expressions during byler scenes and i'm a simple creature i see a man with big wet brown eyes and i go oh well mayyybe....

[liesyousoldme]

“i’m not even going to respond to the ignorance that is the first sentence”

it’s not ignorance? it’s a scientific fact. I say this as someone who has been technically obese before, so I’m not judging or attacking anyone. no one should ever be hated for their size, no matter what their BMI is like

being a little bit overweight won’t kill you, but yes, being morbidly obese will? And just generally being unhealthy will? people die from heart attacks and other diseases from this.

it is scientifically better to be healthy, and being a healthy weight improves your health and life expectancy significantly. it’s not hateful to say that, generally speaking, it’s better to be a healthy weight than overweight

and that’s why there’s no comparison or contest between homophobia and fatphobia

i love how you’re acting like the worst of fatphobia is people judging other people’s weight and not like, doctors actively ignoring symptoms and only recommending weight loss because, like i already said, that literally kills people

anyway fat =\= unhealthy

[schizophrenology]

Negative Prompt: ugly, duplicate, morbid, mutilated, out of frame, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn face, mutation, deformed, blurry, bad anatomy, bad proportions, extra limbs, cloned face, disfigured, gross proportions, malformed limbs, missing arms, missing legs, extra arms, extra legs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck, low resolution, 3d model, deformed hands, deformed feet, deformed face, deformed body parts, same haircut, eyes without pupils, doubled image, same human face in one frame, illustration, anime, cartoon, ugly face, bruises, cartoon, anime, painting, red color saturation, unattractive face, jpeg artifacts, frame, Violence, Gore, Blood, War, Weapons, Death, Destruction, Fire, Explosions, Pollution, Garbage, Graffiti, Vandalism, Rust, Decay, Filth, Disease, Insects, Rodents, Vermin, Darkness, Shadows, Nightmares, Fear, Horror, Sadness, Depression, Pain, Suffering, Anguish, Despair, Loneliness, Isolation, Neglect, Abandonment, Negativity, Hate, Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Discrimination, Intolerance, Prejudice, Ignorance, Arrogance, Greed, Selfishness, Cruelty, Insanity, Madness, lowres, text, error, cropped, worst quality, low quality, jpeg artifacts, ugly, duplicate, morbid, mutilated, out of frame, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn face, mutation, deformed, blurry, dehydrated, bad anatomy, bad proportions, extra limbs, cloned face, disfigured, gross proportions, malformed limbs, missing arms, missing legs, extra arms, extra legs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck, deformed, ugly, mutilated, disfigured, text, extra limbs, face cut, head cut, extra fingers, extra arms, poorly drawn face, mutation, bad proportions, cropped head, malformed limbs, mutated hands, fused fingers, long neck, illustration, painting, drawing, art, sketch, disfigured, kitsch, ugly, oversaturated, grain, low-res, Deformed, blurry, bad anatomy, disfigured, poorly drawn face, mutation, mutated, extra limb, ugly, poorly drawn hands, missing limb, blurry, floating limbs, disconnected limbs, malformed hands, blur, out of focus, long neck, long body, ugly, disgusting, poorly drawn, childish, mutilated, , mangled, old, surreal

[bearzisvibin]

Summary: Grian, an 17 year old boy, had a secret: he preferred men over women. Except.. it wasn't really a secret anymore and he was now homeless.

Luckily, his best friend and slightly sketchy person Mumbo Jumbo was there to give him a job with one of his many connections.

-

Born from a rich family, soon to be 18 Etho Labs was being prepared to take over his family's business and fortune from his long dead parents when he got struck with a disease.

He had gotten too tired to even get out of bed, but when his friend and business ally Mumbo asked to help a friend in need he really started to look out for the company.

(probably will post this on AO3 later, this is a Gritho/Grian x Etho fic too btw sooo....)

TW: Slurs, internalized homophobia, sick person ig, sexual discrimination.

old timey setting i think? But not historically accurate.

Chapter 1

•Grian had nowhere to go, his parents threw him out of their house and honestly? He deserved it. He deserved it because he was a faggy bitch, because sometimes he liked to wear skirts and look pretty in makeup when that was a girl's thing, because he chose to love men and because he was weak.

But now it wasn't time to cry, if he wanted to survive out here he had to make a decision, and he had to make it quickly.

He walked through the streets in shame, pretty sure he would get a cold best case scenario, and frostbite in the worst case because of the winter slowly but surely approaching.

He wished he was wearing more than the thin jumper and simple black pants at the moment.

---

It was already night when he got to his friend's porch. Mumbo might judge him, maybe even hate him, but he also knew every type of people and places and certainly would find a place for him.

He knocked once, after a few seconds twice and then once again. Mumbo taught him this since day one, so he would know it wasn't some authority begging for information on his more sketchy friends.

The man slowly opened the door. I took a few seconds for him to realize 'oh, it's just Grian', but he hurried to open the door fully as soon as he noticed, akwardly inviting him to enter his house.

"... I'll always wonder how someone like you could be a sketchy person, you're just so awkward and gentle."

Mumbo giggled slightly at that, then they talked and talked about everything and nothing. It was nice.

It was after more than an hour when the situation he was in got brought up by the other.

"....And it was amazing!! She danced soo well you should've seen it!! I recommended her to a party for a friend's child, such a adorable kid too!! So respectful! Well, but enough of me."

His face fell at those words, putting what Grian called his 'business face' on. The thing is: he never used it at him.

"What are you doing here Grian? I could help you, but it depends on the job."

It took all in Grian's body to not flinch, instead he put on his best smile of amusement.

"What do you mean Mumbo?"

Mumbo leaned back on his chair, crossing his arms.

"You've been... Jumpy since you got here, the first thing you said was about me being sketchy, you're not wearing weather appropriate clothing and i know how sensitive you are to the cold."

He eyed the younger man up and down, and Grian realized he was reading his body language.

"You look stiff too, your face is ever so slightly faltering and you've been undeniably quieter."

Grian couldn't hold it anymore, he gave up on maintaining his stoic face and almost immediately tears fell down his face.

"I- I'm not sure if you'll be okay with what i've been doing but... I got thrown out of my house because i'm... Because i sinned and loved the wrong way. I wanted men the same way i should want women and i sinned by doing so!"

Instead of anger, disgust or even just apathy, he saw worry in the other's eyes. Mumbo was three years older than Grian and lived on his own, but Grian was younger and inexperienced in anything life related.

"Oh Grian, i- why would i resent you for that? You can stay here for now if you want? I can buy you a house and pay for it until you get a proper jo-"

Grian turned his offer down immediately.

"No!! Gosh no, i can't take advantage of you like that! I just want a job, one who pays enough for me to live, i don't care what... Type."

Mumbo frowned.

"I'm not gonna get you a job as a prostitute, you're too young. And i'm also not going to put you in any dangerous or extra sketchy situation. And I definitely won't make you work for someone who doesn't accept who you are."

He seemed deep in thought.

"This seems to shorten the list quite a bit... But i probably can get a job for you."

Grian waited and waited, he seemed to be thinking for quite a bit, before getting to a conclusion.

"There's this boy who's really sick, he's from a rich family who pays people very well and he's also quite not convencional, you know, like you Grian."

Grian froze, before panicking.

"Wha? What?? So he's like, a fag or something? I'm trying to get away from these bad thoughts please don't push me to do the wrong thing i-"

Mumbo shushed him, looking sorry, with pity even.

"Oh Grian, don't be like that. Etho is trans, was born a girl and now is a boy. He isn't wrong for that, because those are his feelings and his truth and he can't change that, nnd neither can you. You haven't sinned, you've discovered yourself, go along with it."

Grian heard Mumbo's advice, his friend aways knew what to say and Grian felt a bit better.

---

Grian was getting tired, Mumbo talked a lot at once and as much as he loved to listen he did have a very rough day.

He tried to fight back a yawn, ultimately losing.

"Oh you must be tired! I'll get a room ready for you, you'll stay here at my house while i try to get you that job."

---

Grian was fine, he could pretend it was just a sleepover at his old friend's house! He could pretend he just chose to get a job and live a new life! He could!!

But he didn't really want to.

His first day at Mumbo's house was filled with soft, silent crying.

----

Grian had beem to his house for almost a week when Mumbo announced that he got the job.

"Etho's very quiet and a lot of people left the job because he wasn't a friendly person, but he does like the company even if he doesn't show it."

The taller took a sip from his tea, telling him the basics of the job. It was clear that he and 'Etho' were friends for a long time.

"He's really sick, but he'll survive, probably. He doesn't have the energy to do certain activities and you should do them for him if he asks you to."

Mumbo got up, getting ready to leave for "work", what work? Grian chose not to know.

"I'll be out for a while bud, ask the maid if you need anything! She's very good at whatever job she does, you'll go like with the labs family tomorrow."

Grian simply nodded as Stress walked in the kitchen, she was nice company and he helped her with house chores sometimes, when being alone felt too bad to hold in.

---

Stress was guiding him to a train station, her and Mumbo having small talk together.

He spent enough time with the girl to know a lot of things: she was married to a inventor named Iskall, she loved flowers and pink, and she was absolutely the strongest person he knew.

She was nice and preferred to be heard than to be seen, she talked a lot just like Mumbo and they got along really well.

And now he wouldn't see her as much, which was a pity, but he would stop bothering Mumbo and get a job.

He knew less about 'Etho' than he knew about stress.

He was 17 just like Grian, he was rich and he was quiet, he was extremely sick and he was a tranny. Grian couldn't work with that much information! What if he fucked up? If he did something the other might not like? He would be damned for sure!

Well now it didn't matter because he was at the train station, the train arriving in less than twenty minutes and a Mumbo getting emotional.

"Aagh, you! I can't believe you're leaving! You're like my little brother and look at you now! All grown up and on your own! Will you be alright? I can aways go get you and you can come back to living in my house, we could spend our time playing board games together if you-"

Stress giggled a bit while agressively elbowing the taller.

"Oh don't worry your little head Mumbo! The sunflower will be fine. Sunflowers are known to aways find the sun anyways."

Grian felt his cheeks warm up, everything about this was so nice, bittersweet, but oh so nice.

Then, his train arrived.

"Oh!! This is the one. I'll- I'll miss you guys, ok? I'll try to keep in touch!!"

He then ran off, the train was relatively empty and quiet.

It was fine, he was going to be fine, this was his life and he was going to play by his own rules.

---

It took almost three hours for him to get to his destination, a small city with simple people, the only house that wasn't 'humble' was a mansion at the top of a hill, isolated from the rest.

Probably his workplace.

He stepped out of the train, shielding his eyes from the soft sun and enjoying the cool air of the end of fall.

Soon this will all be covered in snow.

He hummed happily at the thought, he liked winter when he wasn't freezing to death on his way to his friend's house.

In his joyful appreciation, he barely heard steps coming at him, and only opened his eyes when they stopped right by his side.

A well built ginger with a resting bitch face and pale skin, a long haired man wearing bright greens and blues and other colors around in his jewelry, a soft smile and a beard, a tall man with a apron and an even bigger beard right behind the two.

In front of the group was a small(but still taller than Grian, he noticed bitterly) boy, his skin was pale and his hair was white, he looked like he hadn't rested in a long time and he was wearing a mask.

He was cute.

"Oh! You must be Etho labs right? It's a pleasure to meet you. The name's Grian."

Etho seemed to be taken by surprise by this and Grian couldn't stop thinking he messed up.

"Oh, you seem quite surprised. I didn't say something wrong did I? I'm sorry if i did."

He bowed slightly at the other in apology.

"Oh no! Etho just isn't used to people talking directly to him. People tend to assume, because he's sick and young, he can't talk for himself."

Grian frowned slightly at the long haired man.

"Well, that sounds like bullshit."

The white haired boy laughed, but quickly got back to his blank face, this time with what he could see of his face red of embarrassment.

Grian smiled amused.

"Well, i suppose we should go. Lead the way please"

---

The walk was nice, they walked until they got into a park.

There was a carriage right next to a white rose bush, without thinking he plucked one of the flowers out and carefully took it's thorns out before getting in the carriage.

Then, with almost no thought, he put the rose behind the other's ear.

"This one matches you, take care of it."

The rest of the ride was uneventful, except for the small answers to the small questions he asked and one conversation they had together.

"Oh, i've never seen a lake this big."

"It's the ocean."

"It is?"

"Yes."

"Well, i've never seen the ocean too! I think it is pretty."

"Really? It's just so normal.... Just water, you know."

"It isn't 'just so normal", it's poetic!"

The talk ended with a little hum from the other.

Sometimes, the older ones would talk between themselves. The ginger was called 'Cleo', the long haired was called 'Joe' and the one with the apron seemed to be nicknamed 'Beef'.

Cleo seemed to be happy to get Etho a friend, the tall man Beef didn't want Grian to be here and Joe seemed to be the peace between the two, telling them that Grian will stay if Etho wants him to stay.

"He's Mumbo's ally! You know how dangerous that man can be."

Beef argued, Cleo shook her head.

"Etho is Mumbo's ally, and he's not dangerous is he? Plus that's a kid and we should offer help to a kid!"

"Oh great so now i'm a charity case. Just great!"

He said, making sure to look at the group. The three of them looked at the dirty blonde at the same time, Etho snickered and looked at him.

He smiled at the other,

---

It was clear he wasn't winning this Beef guy's trust, but he didn't need to.

Because Etho liked to spend time with him and he was honestly quite cool! He had books upon books on martial arts ("when i get better i will be the best fighter! Everyone will fear me and adore me, you'll see."), he loved gardening("nothing exists without those plants, caring for them is respecting my own existence.") And had knowledge in almost every field("i grew up an only child in a rich family, i didn't have a substitute, of course i know a lot.")

He wouldn't consider himself talkative, but around Etho even normal conversation seemed like too much talking.

The other didn't mind, answering questions when he was asked and even leaning on touch when Grian accidentally touched his shoulder or dragged him by his hand to explore the absolutely gigantic house.

How could anyone not want to spend time with him? Sure, he was almost aways silent and had a sassy personality but he was such a cool dude!

---

They were in the room reading when Cleo came in with two people he did not recognise.

Both seemed barely older then them, 4 years max, and they were dressed in fancy clothing.

One of them had brown hair and Scars all over his body and the other had black hair and glasses.

Grian didn't know what to think of this.

"Etho, mr Scar and Mr fan decided they needed to speak with you immediately."

The other took his eyes away from his book, he didn't know what Etho thought about those two either.

"Scar and Cub, founders of Concorp. Fancy seeing you, i'm glad for your visit. What may you need?"

He got up from his bed and bowed respectfully, Grian noticed admiration on his words.

The dirty blonde decided that he liked those two.

"Oh! That's a great question! Me and Cub are getting married, and i wanted to invite you to our wedding! Your family has been a sponsor since the start too so maybe you could do a speech about it."

Grian paused at this. Those two men are getting married.

He didn't think this was even possible! But then again, those people were probably loaded and could pay for everyone to shut up.

He imagined himself marrying another man. He was sure to wear a pretty dress to it, sue him if that makes him less of a man. He was already thinking about marrying a man, he wasn't going to stop himself by thinking about dresses.

He tried to imagine someone perfect for him, someone rich because he probably wouldn't be allowed to marry anyone otherwise, a person with strong ideals and personality, who is open to touch and is willing to hear and understand him, he also wanted the person to not be afraid to tell him what he thinks.

It certainly felt quite perfect for Grian.

He was taken away from his thoughts by a touch on his shoulder.

"Oh- uh... You weren't paying attention."

Etho was right in front of him, hunched over his armchair. Grian nodded once, Etho hurried to give him space and Grian bowed apologetic.

"I'm sorry, i got lost in thought. What were you saying again?"

Etho smiled (still with that damn mask, tho he could see he was smiling by his eyes) and explained the conversation.

Apparently, Etho was going to a very important wedding from those two loaded men who he was a childhood friend of. They created their own business and now had even more status than before so it was a very important meeting to make his family more popular or something like that.

But Etho was sick and it was kind of obvious that he couldn't go on his own, and since Grian "was getting paid to help him through his sickness", he "was assigned to take care of Etho during the wedding."

Cleo's words.

He nodded, and the brown haired man, Scar, clapped his hands together.

"Great! See you at the Wedding then!!"

...

Did he forget to say that he absolutely despised social gatherings?

[randomoranges]

betchu y'all thought they were totes gonna tell éts fam at xmas, huh? well, guess again :)

Text Me Merry Christmas

November 2023

“Hey, d’you have a minute for a call? Can we talk about Xmas?” The text message reads.

It’s not that Étienne’s heart stills, but it does a funny leap in his chest. He fears the worst for a moment and that Edward is going to tell him that he can’t make it, or that he really does not want to spend the holidays with him and his family and would much rather spend it cocooning with Calvin, and that really, what a waste of time it would be to fly back to Montréal to see him – or something.

“Sure, I’m not doing much.” He writes back, even though he had been just about to start his laundry. It could wait, clearly.

Étienne settles himself on his living room couch and waits for the call that comes a moment later.

“What’s up?” He asks, trying to sound very casual and the likes without hinting at the way his mind is spinning in nineteen different directions.

“So, I know we’d flirted with the idea of telling your family that we’re together when I was last in town, but,” And here Edward falters for a moment, as if losing his momentum, “Do we have to?”

Étienne wants to respond, however before he can, Edward continues, rambling as he is, clearly nervous and wanting to get his piece off his chest. “It’s just – I have reservations about letting them know. I know they’d be okay with it, and I don’t want you to resent me for not wanting to let them know – and maybe, really, it’s leftover internalised homophobia – or fear – or who knows! But I don’t think I’m ready to tell others…”

“You know –” Étienne tries to say, not before Edward cuts him off again.

“And, I don’t want you to think that I’m ashamed of you or of others knowing that we’re together. That’s as far from the truth as possible! But I also don’t want to find out twenty years from now that you really wanted to tell your family and that this ends up causing another rift in our relationship either. It’s just – I’m a private guy. I don’t feel, or think others need to know, and I’d hate for you to hate me for it, but I also didn’t want to spend the next twenty years resenting me either and we said we would do our best to be honest with each other.”

If Étienne tries real hard, he can almost picture Edward pacing the room that he’s in, gripping his phone with one hand and gesticulating with the other. He thinks it’s endearing and he waits a moment, in case Edward has more to say, but when his boyfriend remains quiet, he takes the chance to reassure him. “For starters, thank you for telling me all of that. I would have hated to pressure you into telling them if you don’t feel like it.”

Edward tries to interject, but Étienne goes on, “That being said; it’s fine. We don’t have to tell them. We don’t owe them shit. I won’t resent you for it and I know you’re not ashamed of me.” He shrugs, even though Edward can’t see him and picks at a piece of lint on his couch.

“Are you sure though? You were the one who brought it up…”

Étienne laughs. “Listen, I only ever wanted to tell them for very selfish reasons; notably being able to like, sit close to you or some such and not having it turn into a thing. But, I can totally do that before and after we go to Jacques’, so it’s fine. Plus, they don’t need to know. If my family was this concerned or interested in my life, they would check-in more often instead of just treating me like some diseased alien. So, don’t worry about it; I promise it’s fine.” He reiterates.

Anyways, it isn’t as if he’s close with his family, other than Élyse. They have never really shown that they care about him beyond platitudes and thus, he’s always kept his private life from them. He doesn’t need to share anything with them if they’ll just use it against him later. He’s lived his life this way for decades now, there’s no real point in changing on a whim. This can remain between him and Edward and he’ll be perfectly content.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but aren’t you the one who’s always going on about living your authentic self and such? Wouldn’t this be the complete opposite?”

Edward has a point. He has brought it up a multitude of times over their prolonged friendship and Étienne did in fact try and live up to those standards. He never – shies away from being himself and doesn’t let other people’s opinions get to him. Or, so he tells himself, even though, there are times when it is easier said than done.

He’s also pestered Edward about it, way back when Edward had still been in the closet. Étienne wonders if his boyfriend isn’t referring to that in particular.

“Alright, how about, if ever I get to a point where it bothers me, I will let you know, and we can revisit? Let’s actually be adults about this and talk about it, if we ever want to change things instead of keeping our thoughts to ourselves.”

Edward chuckles and Étienne’s pretty sure they won’t come to another misunderstanding over this in twenty odd years.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good compromise, but I’ll hold you to it, Maisonneuve. If anything, I know how complicated dealing with family can be, so thanks for being understanding.”

“Don’t mention it, really. For selfish reasons, I just want to spend as much time as I can with you. The rest, or how, doesn’t matter.” He pauses, an idea forming in the back of his head, “Or, we can always just fuck off to Mexico for the holidays instead.”

They both laugh at the thought.

“Don’t tempt me, Bouclé, or I’ll take you up on the offer.”

Étienne grins, “Maybe that was my plan after all.”

“You would concoct such a crazy scheme. Well, I guess I’ll see you soon then.”

Étienne’s grin turns into a soft smile at the thought of seeing Edward again in a few short weeks. It will be nice to spend the holidays with him and the rest really doesn’t matter. Maybe, one day, he’ll feel the need to tell the rest of his family, but right now, he’s okay with keeping his secret to himself for a little longer. His family doesn’t get to share in this wonderful thing just yet.

“Can’t wait.” He says, before they both hang up with promises of talking again soon.

Fin

[promptaiprew]

photo from a long distance, photo taken of an (epic intricate), oiled body, open hole labia, huge heavy chest, huge round oiled soft hips, rihanna, a little bit curvy, beautiful body, gracefully curved body, attractive pose, mature scene

out of frame, black and white, neon, ((shoes)), ((clothes)), ((bra)), ((panty)), ((pants)),ugly, duplicate, morbid, mutilated, out of frame, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn face, mutation, deformed, blurry, bad anatomy, bad proportions, extra limbs, cloned face, disfigured, gross proportions, malformed limbs, missing arms, missing legs, extra arms, extra legs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck, low resolution, 3d model, deformed hands, deformed feet, deformed face, deformed body parts, same haircut, eyes without pupils, doubled image, mid aged man, old men, logo in frame, gun, man with more than one penis on body, scared facial expression, drawing, painting, blur focus, blur, photo effects, skinny guy, make-up on male, angry facial expression, same human face in one frame, illustration, anime, cartoon, ugly face, bruises, cartoon, anime, painting, red color saturation, unattractive face, jpeg artifacts, frame, Violence, Gore, Blood, War, Weapons, Death, Destruction, Fire, Explosions, Pollution, Garbage, Graffiti, Vandalism, Rust, Decay, Filth, Disease, Insects, Rodents, Vermin, Darkness, Shadows, Nightmares, Fear, Horror, Sadness, Depression, Pain, Suffering, Anguish, Despair, Loneliness, Isolation, Neglect, Abandonment, Negativity, Hate, Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Discrimination, Intolerance, Prejudice, Ignorance, Arrogance, Greed, Selfishness, Cruelty, Insanity, Madness, lowres, text, error, cropped, worst quality, low quality, jpeg artifacts, ugly, duplicate, morbid, mutilated, out of frame, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn face, mutation, deformed, blurry, dehydrated, bad anatomy, bad proportions, extra limbs, cloned face, disfigured, gross proportions, malformed limbs, missing arms, missing legs, extra arms, extra legs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck, deformed, ugly, mutilated, disfigured, text, extra limbs, face cut, head cut, extra fingers, extra arms, poorly drawn face, mutation, bad proportions, cropped head, malformed limbs, mutated hands, fused fingers, long neck, illustration, painting, drawing, art, sketch, disfigured, kitsch, ugly, oversaturated, grain, low-res, Deformed, blurry, bad anatomy, disfigured, poorly drawn face, mutation, mutated, extra limb, ugly, poorly drawn hands, missing limb, blurry, floating limbs, disconnected limbs, malformed hands, blur, out of focus, long neck, long body, ugly, disgusting, poorly drawn, childish, mutilated, , mangled, old, surreal

Model: epiCRealism

Width: 768Height: 512

Scale: 9Steps: 100

Sampler: DPM++ 2M SDESeed: 109573225

[the-hem]

“That Which is Born.” From the Maha Narayana Upanishad, the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Creator.

LXXVI-1: O Agni, thou art born on the days of sacrifices as the protector of men in general and of those among men who offer sacrifices. Thou art born spreading light around, or causing pain quickly by mere touch. Thou art born from water as lightning or as the heat under the sea. Thou art born from clouds or stones by friction. Thou art born from the forests. Thou art born from the herbs. Thou art born ever pure or as the sun.

Agni is the god of fire, which signifies the power of speech. He has two heads, one curses, one blesses. One head protects us the other has the power to destroy us. 

In the Torah, the Ten Plagues of Egypt which roughly correspond to the Ten Commandments represent the destructive power of blasphemous thought and speech: 

The Plague of Blood represents the loss of life due to corruption in the state and church house. The shedding of blood was forbidden in the first book of Genesis. It is our willingness to give soft-approval to bloodshed that leads to gun violence, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and genocide. 

The Plague of Frogs frogs are gossips. They hide in the reeds and ribbit, they are bitchy little queens that snipe at you from behind your back, perhaps even in front. They are nothing but troublemaking tramps. 

One of the desired effects of the plague of frogs God sent to Egypt is the stank dead frogs make all over the place. Gossip, like dead frogs stinketh things up. 

Frogs are considered the worst of all evil demons in the Egyptian religion. There are three evil gods in that pantheon, Kek, Ammit, and Apep. Kek, the arch enemy of Ra and the closest thing the Egyptian religion has to Satan is shaped like a frog: 

Ammit is a goddess of carrion, Apep is a god of chaos. The reference to the plague of frogs almost certainly pertains to Kek, who wanted to snuff out Ra, swim right up out of the deep and unvault creation, send it all plunging back into darkness. What an asshole. 

The Plague of Gnats: gnats are the opposing attributes to those found in the Ephod. All sniveling, complaining, lying, etc. all the subversive aspects of human nature manifest as gnats. 

The Plague of Lice: lice like all parasites, symbolize corruption. Tolerance of corruption breeds more of the same till everyone is infested. Anyone who has ever slept with a nasty whore will empathize.

The Plague of Flies: Flies are temptations. Make America Great Again is a good example of a plague of flies. MAGA is like a swarm of infernal promises and desires none of which have any potential to bear fruit or make life better for anyone. In fact, all of its tenets are mean spirited and destructive. 

Diseases on Livestock: this is apartheid, the theft of basic human rights and sustenance based on race. When God struck Egypt with the plague on livestock, only the Egyptian animals were harmed. Irony is pretty ironic sometimes isn’t it?

Boils: A person with boils is apostate, a kind of a loudmouth who doesn’t understand faith, politics, history or science and runs amok, slandering, lying, stirring things up. Woe to a society with boils on its skin. 

Hail and Fire: the mixture of fire and ice from the sky signifies the opposite of Shabbat, which means “produce”, the kind we harvest. Candles are lit during Shabbat, and people gather to share the results of their efforts the week before. 

Fire from ice is the rot that comes from societies that work on producing deviltry instead of produce. They deteriorate, faction, fail to properly employ the rich blessings God gave us and eventually, they end. 

Locusts are crooks. The law turns animals into men who seed, till, sow, plant, tend and harvest. Corruption transform them into hewers that consume. 

Darkness: when nothing works because the learned have lost influence are gone, darkness ensues. 

The Death of the First Born: This is my favorite. Throughout the Torah, God tells the Founders of Judaism not to trust their first born. Over and over, the firstborn are brutes that are treated with superstition. 

The stories of Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, 40 Years in the Desert, these illustrate how God wants us to surpass history. Few of the problems we are experiencing are novel. All of them could be easily solved if we heeded history, simply agreed we aren’t happy when we allow bigots, liars, assholes, the cruel and the corrupt their share of the village voice. 

Speech is supposed to protect us, provide hope, comfort, optimism, educate and liberate us from all the causes of suffering. We have all we need on this planet to survive long and well. The only things holding us back are restraint of unholy speech and a distinct absence of the words of the wise. 

Why did God send plagues to Egypt instead of simply saying: “Propaganda is the enemy of civilization.”? Because the people of Israel were willing slaves to a man who was a slave to himself. 

As we learned during the Exodus, life wasn’t really all that bad in Egypt. It wasn’t good but it had no potential for individual long-term happiness. God had to show slave and slaver alike all the causes of their predicament, and these are contained in the Ten Plagues. 

The verse above says all we need to prevent the slave trade is a little water, heat, cloud cover, and some lightning, for God to raise His Voice...

...which can heard by studying the Script. 

[surpriserose]

Hey :) so i just typed a little essay for my book blog but it really...wasn't about the book I was reading at all so honestly I'm just gonna repost it by itself here since I have more followers here and I dont know i just need to get this out :)

Okay here we go, this post took a while to write because I needed to be angry enough at the current climate around LGBT issues in America and now unfortunately seems to be the perfect timing. I am going to put my thoughts under the cut because it's going to be very triggering including discussions of

transphobia/transmisogyny, hate crimes, homophobia, childhood sexual abuse and grooming, mentions of fascism

To start off with, at the time of writing on July 24th, monkey pox has gone from something people were murmuring about mostly in LGBT communities to a declared global health crisis. At the same time, with monkey pox now an issue for the general public to officially worry about, the framing of monkey pox as an STI from gay sex has hit the mainstream. This is completely inaccurate, and while I would encourage you to research this more rather than just reading one post by some random person on the internet, here are the facts as they stand. Monkey pox spreads though various forms of contact like most viruses some of which are touch, respiration, and contact with fluids, which yes, are basically impossible to avoid during any kind of sexual contact. It is also true that in most outbreaks so far gay and bisexual men have been the most impacted, which is why support for vaccines in the LGBT community is especially important right now. But this does not mean that this is exclusively a gay disease or even an STI. To say otherwise is not only homophobic and inaccurate but dangerous. However, conservatives and homophobes of all stripes have been quick to label monkey pox not as HIV/AIDS 2.0 but as gay cancer 2.0, back to all the blatant derision that entails.

I'm starting off with monkey pox because again as of writing we are at a very dangerous point as the outbreak spreads, not just of monkey pox, but of violent homophobia specifically about old homophobic ideas of increased promiscuity and the idea that gay men are pedophiles.

A few days ago, it was confirmed that the US has seen the first cases of reported monkey pox in children. The response by conservatives, predictably, has been:

Here is probably the clearest example of violent homophobia, in the legislature even, implicitly linking gay and bi men -- as they have been reported as the primary cases of monkey pox -- to pedophilia under the guise of "just asking questions."

Matt Walsh, noted self proclaimed fascist and transmisogynist linking gay and bi men to promiscuity and almost hyper sexuality, while also implying that gay and bi men have some form of "special privileges" in that you can't question their behavior. Also notice the mention of kids and education in this tweet.

Fox News radio contributor Jimmy Failla linking a spate of current homophobic attacks together, monkey pox, LGBT children's books, and "wokeness."

Here is the article the last two tweets were taken from which also includes an overview of the situation and reaction from conservative media. Again and again we see LGBT people and especially gay and bi men used as scapegoats and their suffering the targets of mockery and slander as a way to ignore the real danger a monkey pox outbreak presents. In the conservative and reactionary mindset, gay and bi men are already linked with disease, extreme promiscuity, and pedophilia and it has been that way since the 50s and again in the 80s and the early 00s, any time LGBT people and issues hit the mainstream media and become extremely visible homophobia and transphobia increases incredibly, which we see happening again now in multiple ways.

Especially now we see the presentation of LGBT people as a danger to children. This is only the beginning, as people have pointed out this rhetoric is likely to get worse as more children get infected with monkey pox once school resumes. Here we see how the deliberate ignorance of framing monkey pox as an exclusively gay STI is here to link one imagined sex crime panic to another. I am, of course, talking about the "groomer" rhetoric spread in large part by the account LibsofTikTok.

Some quick background information for those who haven't been following this specific thread of hate. While the homophobia and transphobia LibsofTikTok (I will use LTT for short) peddles is as old as dirt, this is an account that has inspired a particularly large backlash against the LGBT community in large part due to it's connection with Fox News and conservative politicians. LTT has been operating since the creator, Chaya Raichik, made the account in November of 2020. However, the account reached a peak in April of 2022 when an article by Taylor Lorenz was posted uncovering the creator and Raichik used the article as an excuse to cry doxxing despite her information being easily accessible enough and her notoriety warranting the article. At this point Raichik buddied up to Tucker Carlson so they could both decry the "violence" of the left while LTT was posting homophobic and transphobic violence every day under the guise of "just reposting TikToks of 'libs' owning themselves."

At the same time LTT has a habit of calling any LGBT person a "groomer." Specifically here I want to bring up LTT's pattern of posting videos and tweets of LGBT teachers and trying to get their followers to get them fired. These teachers have not done anything wrong, except in the eyes of conservatives where simply being out as gay or trans is a way of sexually "grooming" kids by exposing them to the concepts of...being gay and trans. LGBT people are presented as a danger simply for existing in proximity to children, and even more dangerous if they try and affirm LGBT children. Should monkey pox spread in schools due to the lack of urgency on the part of the Biden administration, LGBT teachers are going to be at even more risk for unlawful firing and hate crimes than they already are.

I mention hate crimes because LTT and other conservative media have not been shy towards spurring them on. Recently, there's been multiple instances of gay bars, drag shows (and especially Drag Queen storytime events), and libraries getting swarmed by angry parents, Proud Boys, and neo-nazis, often armed. They've been informed of these events by accounts like LTT posting about them and sensationalizing them with Raichik's groomer rhetoric. You may remember a picture spread on Twitter of children at a drag show at a nightclub in Texas, where people expressed horror at a sign that said "it's not gonna lick itself" in the background as a sign of deviant grooming and pedophilia. I don't want to undercut how serious the rhetoric around this event was, but as someone who just watched all of the Shrek movies recently... kids have heard worse. The real issue these people have is with children being exposed to drag and different ideas of gender, which they view as inherently sexual. Although there were some useful idiots who furthered transphobia with their mostly genuine hand wringing about an easily explained away innuendo, unwilling to see their part in spreading the trans panic further.

A quick note on all of these protests, although they're really violent intimidation against the LGBT community, is that the police have deliberately failed to step in in all of them and instead allowed these attacks to happen freely. The police have never and will never be on the side of the LGBT community as they are a tool of state repression and always have been. While Lawrence v. Texas is still the law of the land and sodomy is legal and gay bars are free to operate and book all the drag performers they, the police have no legal way to harass the LGBT community. Until laws legalizing sodomy were passed it was legal to entrap gay men by flirting with them until there was enough evidence there was conspiracy to commit sodomy and prosecute them. Some police departments even had whole squads dedicated to this "moral cleanup." And there is history of gender nonconforming and transgender people being hit especially hard by police raids on gay bars. With the police no longer able to intimidate the community under homophobic and transphobic laws, it's fallen on their comrades in the Proud Boys and other fascist groups to do it for them under the guise of reasonable concerns.

Because what it all comes down to is that "think of the children" has always been an excuse not to actually advocate for the welfare of children in any way from education to healthcare, but as a cheap way to start a moral panic on demand. Please, as much as you can, be aware of the climate LGBT people and especially gay/bi men and trans people are facing. These attacks have been very dark signs to me, and they should be for everyone, and they've been happening for a long, long time.

[sunflowerwemadeit]

.

[b0x]

Exploring imagery, meanings and sentiments of Lovesong by The Cure, the first song on Richie Tozier’s official playlist, aka how finn wolfhard sent me straight into a frenzy with the first song choice on his richie playlist

[desertdragon]

Very Angry rn so I wanted to clarify my stance on the thing that pissed me off since all of Vaste's friends are also ok for people to borrow as mentions or portrayal, literally only Black people get a say in this with me, I'd like Non Blacks to say nothing please, this is not a conversation you have any stake in

Infuriates me popular blogs run by Whites and Non Blacks co-opt the dark skin/character with Black features slave narrative be it in a major or minor way for their dark characters when they have no right to exploring trauma their ancestors didn't suffer and in the case of White run blogs, trauma their ancestors spread

[queer-and-dear-books]

Title: All That’s Left In The World

Author: Erik J. Brown

Genre: YA Fiction | Drama | Romance | Friendship | Sci-Fi | Post-Apocalypse | LGBTQ+

Content Warnings: Homophobia | Racism

Overall Rating: 9.9/10

Personal Opinion: My experience with post-apocalyptic stories is limited but I love this book. The quick wit humor and sarcasm of Andrew and the genuine goodness of Jamison is a heartwarming formula and a winning combination. Andrew is also a genuinely good person and Jamie has his moments of funny too so it’s hard not to root for these boys as they traverse the post-apocalyptic landscape of their world after a disease wiped out most of humanity. Now, if you read to escape, this may not be the right book for you. But otherwise, I definitely highly recommend it.

Do I Own This Book? Nope.

Spoilers Below For My Likes & Dislikes:

Likes:

- The slow burn of Andrew’s and Jamison’s love was truly exquisite. I could see just how badly they had it for each other but I also understand why they were both hesitant to act on their feelings. Andrew thought Jamie was straight. And Jamie thought that too. He was just learning about his sexuality while falling for Andrew and it was beautifully done. I could feel his uncertainty, his apprehension with whether or not those feelings were real. It’s so authentic to the queer experience because I know a lot of bi people that figure it out later in life like he does. Hell, I know gay people that go through it. Compulsory heterosexuality is a hell of a mindset. Anyway, I just love how open-minded Jamie was about himself and how much he wanted to be a guy that Andrew deserved. Likewise, I love how Andrew saw Jamie as this genuinely good person and wanted the best for him as well.

- I need to talk about the epilogue. No names were used at all so it could’ve been in either Jamie’s or Andrew’s POV. The two of them both have their own guilt and trauma so it’s possible for it to be either of them. So it’s basically up to the reader to decide who is doing the comforting and who needs the comfort. I think that is so clever and well-done. The fact that it could be either boy’s POV but they still maintain such distinctive voices is incredible. 

- Henri is a boss babe. In her 70s just chilling by herself and chasing off wild animals and eating rabbit every night, such a badass. And such a good person too. She took in two strangers without hesitation and gave them food to eat and a place to sleep. I respect her so much and I love her advice to them to trust people. 

- A detail that I really love is how, from the beginning, we are introduced to Andrew’s love of movies. The way he describes films to Jamie is so adorable and I love how into it Jamie is every time. It’s such a cute detail and I love it. 

- Cara is amazing too. I mean, she saved their lives when they were caught by the Fort Caroliners! She could’ve just run away, never looked back but instead she stayed and she used the gun to fight back.

- Jamie’s mom is a fantastic woman too. Because of her, her son is always prepared for the worst. She taught him how to survive, how to thrive. She got mad on the behalf of a Black kid who had the police called on him for existing. She knew how to hunt, she filled a notebook with medical know-how, and she sang a song about how Jamie couldn’t get everything he wanted while he cried in a parking lot. Even though she was never there physically in the book, she was there. We felt her impact, her presence in Jamie. He carries on her legacy and I feel proud of him for that.

- I can’t believe I’m saying this but bless be Florida. That  community of people saved Jamie’s life and welcomed three strangers into their safe haven when they were not obligated to. They obviously care about one another as human beings and they’re a progressive settlement too. They don’t turn people away or “dispose” of them for arbitrary reasons. It's a low bar but the fact that they pass it after Fort Caroline is amazing. I know that Andrew and Jamie feel like they don’t belong because they’ve murdered people but I hope they do stay and live long happy lives together.

- When Amy invited them into their home and she cried over her mother being alive, I also cried. I felt overjoyed for her. And when she introduced us to her baby, also named Henri, I just felt so much elation.

- The tension surrounding Jamie’s fate was gripping. I knew he lived because I sort of skipped ahead and saw he had the last chapter before the epilogue but I was still so worried for him. I think, when an author is able to invoke that much emotion from me, they’re doing something right. Because I was practically pleading with the universe for Jamie to be alright. 

- Andrew’s reaction to killing the Fosters and even Jamie’s reaction to killing Harvey and Walt are warranted. If anything it proves that they’re good people. Taking a life is a big deal. It doesn’t matter that they are living in the post-apocalypse. They are not monsters.

- Andrew’s humor really broke up the tense moments throughout the story. He’s a quick wit and his morbid sarcasm really worked with the setting. 

- Their first kiss was mesmerizing to me. I was just thinking “How are they going to get out of this?” and then Jamie confessed his feelings to Andrew by kissing him and I was melting into a puddle of goo. Because I could feel the pages and pages of romantic tension coming to a head in that moment and it felt so good.

Dislikes:

- Fuck Fort Caroline but specifically Danny and Harvey Rosewood. A whole settlement with zero POC and a questionnaire clearly weeding out people that are queer? Not to mention the Stepford Wives vibe of it all? I shudder. I cannot. I want to puke. I’m actually glad Harvey is dead. Fuck him and his dad.

- The only reason this does not get a perfect score is because I fear for Chris and his siblings. What happens if Fort Caroline gets to them before they get to Chicago? Is there even anywhere safe in Chicago? Maybe Florida will pick them up in their sailboats but all I know is, I do not like the fact that Fort Caroline is expanding their territory and that means they’ll reach Chris and his siblings eventually if they continue to stay put.

- Honestly, I just loathe Fort Caroline so much. I don’t think I can emphasize it enough. But the unfortunate thing is that I can see it happening in real life if the world fell apart. White supremacy is unfortunately alive and well. I use fiction to escape though and I would rather Fort Caroline just collapse in on itself.