#lgbtq+ rights

[the-mountain-flower]

Revisited a story that was very important to me as a child, and learned about the author being very vocal about the harm gender roles & stereotypes cause. I thought "oh that's great!" but was afraid. What if she only applied that logic to cis ppl?

I did some searching, and found out that not only does she support trans ppl, but has also spoken multiple times about how important it is to be able to see protagonists outside of the perceived norm. A.K.A., she doesn't see my very existence as wrong.

I let out a deep sigh of relief. I could continue to enjoy this thing that had been so important to me growing up.

But this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Too often I discover a new artist, or even be unsure of one I've enjoyed the work of for a long time up to the present; and I have to desperately search to know if I can enjoy their work. Either I am extremely relieved, or absolutely crushed.

This shouldn't be necessary. I shouldn't be feeling this deep fear that something so important to me, was created by someone who despises my very existence. That I, as a disabled queer femme ex-mormon Pagan witch who was raised like a girl, will be shoved off the emotional cliff of "this person you looked up to hates you for the same reason all bigots do".

I was so terrified that something that meant so much to me as a kid could've shattered me emotionally. Simply because I didn't know if the person who made it hates people like me.

We shouldn't have to live like this.

[jackoshadows]

[mywitchcultblr]

I'm still in the closet and still doesn't have money to escape from this place, but celebrating pride in secret. Okay to reblog

#HappyPride

[mxmeiyun]

Same-sex marriage legalized in Cuba! (Sept 26, 2022)

[charles-breaks-beakers]

HETEROSEXUAL CIS-PEOPLE LOOK HERE

Snaps my fingers at you as you scroll past this post

Look at me. Listen.

I'm not the best at serious posts, but that article up there reminded me of how important it is that people like you stand up for us. So hold on while I try to get this out of my mushy end-of-work-day brain.

We could fight this fight ourselves for decades trying to reach the equal laws, gender affirming trans healthcare that doesn't have a 2-5+ soul-eating years of waiting time, medical care with equal knowledge of lgbtqia+ bodies, and, what is often forgotten, inclusion in the little everyday areas of life like our way of speaking or things being set up or designed with the existence of queer people in mind.

But you joining in could get us there so much faster.

The power you have as a hetero cis person is that you set the standard for what is seen as the average way of treating us among other hetero cis people. You have been given the power of deciding what's "normal" and I'm begging you to use it.

Richard Green is a great example of to what extent your actions can help our situation, and smaller ways of support still add up to a great impact on society, and could make the days of the queer people you interact with.

Educate yourself before you speak up, but don't be silent.

[tomorrowusa]

Don't risk a rerun of the 2000 election.

In the first presidential election of the 21st century many deluded progressives voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.

Their foolishness gave us eight years of George W. Bush who plagued the country with two recessions (including the Great Recession) and two wars (one totally unnecessary and one which could have been avoided if he heeded an intelligence brief 5 weeks before 9/11).

Oh yeah, Dubya also appointed one conservative and one batshit crazy reactionary to the US Supreme Court. Roberts and Alito are still there.

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post offers some thoughts.

Why leftists should work their hearts out for Biden in 2024

Ask a Democrat with a long memory what the numbers 97,488 and 537 represent, and their face will twist into a grimace. The first is the number of votes Ralph Nader received in Florida in 2000 as the nominee of the Green Party; the second is the margin by which George W. Bush was eventually certified the winner of the state, handing him the White House. Now, with President Biden gearing up for reelection, talk of a spoiler candidate from the left is again in the air. That’s unfortunate, because here’s the truth: The past 2½ years under Biden have been a triumph for progressivism, even if it’s not in most people’s interest to admit it. This was not what most people expected from Biden, who ran as a relative moderate in the 2020 Democratic primary. His nomination was a victory for pragmatism with its eyes directed toward the center. But today, no one can honestly deny that Biden is the most progressive president since at least Lyndon B. Johnson. His judicial appointments are more diverse than those of any of his predecessors. He has directed more resources to combating climate change than any other president. Notwithstanding the opposition from the Supreme Court, his administration has moved aggressively to forgive and restructure student loans.

Three years ago the economy was in horrible shape because of Trump's mishandling of the pandemic. Now unemployment is steadily below 4%, job creation continues to exceed expectations, and wages are rising as unions gain strength. The post-pandemic, post-Afghan War inflation rate has receded to near normal levels; people in the 1970s would have sold their souls for a 3.2% (and dropping) inflation rate. And many of the effects of "Bidenomics" have yet to kick in.

And in a story that is criminally underappreciated, his administration’s policy reaction to the covid-induced recession of 2020 was revolutionary in precisely the ways any good leftist should favor. It embraced massive government intervention to stave off the worst economic impacts, including handing millions of families monthly checks (by expanding the child tax credit), giving all kids in public schools free meals, boosting unemployment insurance and extending health coverage to millions.

It worked. While inflation rose (as it did worldwide), the economy’s recovery has been blisteringly fast. It took more than six years for employment rates to return to what they were before the Great Recession hit in 2008, but we surpassed January 2020 jobs levels by the spring of 2022 — and have kept adding jobs ever since. To the idealistic leftist, that might feel like both old news and a partial victory at best. What about everything supporters of Bernie Sanders have found so thrilling about the Vermont senator’s vision of the future, from universal health care to free college? It’s true Biden was never going to deliver that, but to be honest, neither would Sanders had he been elected president. And that brings me to the heart of how people on the left ought to think about Biden and his reelection.

Biden has gotten things done. The US economy is doing better than those of almost every other advanced industrialized country.

Our rivals China and Russia are both worse off than they were three years ago. And NATO is not just united, it's growing.

Sadly, we still need to deal with a far right MAGA cult at home who would wreck the country just to get its own way.

Biden may be elderly and unexciting, but that is one of the reasons he won in 2020. Many people just wanted an end to the daily drama of Trump's capricious and incompetent rule by tweet. And a good portion of those people live in places that count greatly in elections – suburbs and exurbs.

Superhero films seem to be slipping in popularity. Hopefully that's a sign that voters are less likely to embrace self-appointed political messiahs to save them from themselves.

Good governance is a steady process – not a collection of magic tricks. Experienced and competent individuals who are not too far removed from the lives of the people they represent are the best people to have in government.

Paul Waldman concludes his column speaking from the heart as a liberal...

I’ve been in and around politics for many years, and even among liberals, I’ve almost always been one of the most liberal people in the room. Yet only since Biden’s election have I realized that I will probably never see a president as liberal as I’d like. It’s not an easy idea to make peace with. But it suggests a different way of thinking about elections — as one necessary step in a long, difficult process. The further you are to the left, the more important Biden’s reelection ought to be to you. It might require emotional (and policy) compromise, but for now, it’s also the most important tool you have to achieve progressive ends.

Exactly. Rightwingers take the long view. It took them 49 years but they eventually got Roe v. Wade overturned. To succeed, we need to look upon politics as an extended marathon rather as one short sprint.

Republicans may currently be bickering, but they will most likely unite behind whichever anti-abortion extremist they nominate.

It's necessary to get the word out now that the only way to defeat climate-denying, abortion-restricting, assault weapon-loving, race-baiting, homophobic Republicans is to vote Democratic.

[couldoneimagine]

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN RUSSIA ARE BEING ERODED COMPLETELY

The ministry of justice in Russia has proposed to label "the global organization of LGBT" an extremist group. The court case is set to happen on the 30th of November. If passed, this measure will make LGBTQ+ activism near impossible. Activists could face up to 6 years in prison. Yes, 6 years for advocating for equal rights.

Despite the fact that lawmakers have no legal footing to judge "the global organization of LGBT" as an existing group, considering there is no hierarchy, no leader and no such name is used widely, this will probably be passed. And the lives of queer Russians will be in jeopardy.

I beg of you to spread this post. I know it's exhausting considering everything that's happening in the world. I know the genocide in Palestine is more pressing, I know the war in Ukraine is still happening, but please. We need to be heard. Someway. Somehow.

I'm Russian, I'm queer, I will not let this regime break me. no matter how hard it tries.

[the-sayuri-rin]

New York City just passed a rare hard trans sanctuary city order declaring New York City a transgender sanctuary city.

NYC will use NO resources to cooperate with out of state subpoenas or extraditions for those providing or obtaining gender affirming care.

[moss-ghoulette]

Yay✨

Love being a criminal 😘

Fuck this shit. Just today I had a dream that I wanted to marry a girl and we were kicked out of the registry office.

Wtf I'm literally crying rn

[landlockedcorsair]

The HRC has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people.

There is a downloadable guidebook (pdf) in the 2nd paragraph of the article:

I don’t think the fascists will win, but they are dangerous and numerous. Don’t take this lightly.

Stay sharp, keep safe and good luck.

[crystalsandbubbletea]

If I were the US president, I would have ended ties with Israel long ago.

Israel has stated multiple times that they don't care about the civilians in Palestine, hell they don't care who gets hurt in general. All Israel wants is genocide, anyone who supports Israel wants genocide, and anyone who goes like "Well it's complicated" or remains silent is genocide complicit.

Silence.

Is.

Violence.

There's a poem, it's called "First they came for" and it's by Martin Niemöller, it shows that silence does nothing, and in the end, there will be no one to help you because you were silent.

I wanted to do a modern retelling of it, here it is (Note: This is from the perspective of someone who is silent on politics):

First they came for the socialists—and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for black people—and I did not speak out—because I was not black.

Then they came for the disabled—and I did not speak out—because I was not disabled.

Then they came for trans people—and I did not speak out—because I was not trans.

Then they came for gay people—and I did not speak out—because I was not gay.

Then they came for unionists—and I did not speak out—because I was not a unionist.

Then they came for Palestinians—and I did not speak out—because I was not Palestinian.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

[sparksinthenight]

My letter to Biden about KOSA

You can use the following letter as a template to send to your representatives. Or you can write your own letter.

Dear President Biden,

My name is ______ and I am a ______ in _____. I am writing to you to ask that you please oppose the Kids Online “Safety” Act. This act harms children, especially queer or abused children , and allows children to be indoctrinated into their parents’ worldviews.

Children, especially teenagers, deserve the freedom of the current internet. They deserve to listen to many different viewpoints, to hear the stories of many different people, to learn about many different experiences. They deserve to meet many different people and learn from them. They deserve to interact with many different forms of art expressing many different viewpoints. This allows them to form their own ideas and opinions about the world and become their own people. It broadens their horizons and makes them more open minded.

If parents are given control over what children learn about on the internet, then many parents will ensure that their children are not exposed to any views that contradict their own.

This will make it so that future generations can no longer learn more than and become better than older generations. The only thing making our society progress is younger generations learning more and becoming more accepting than older generations.

LGBT+ children under KOSA will often be stopped from accessing resources that help them learn that being LGBT+ is okay. Many children won’t be able to go against their parents’ homophobia and learn to love themselves. This will lead to many mental illnesses and suicides.

Also, abused children often go to the internet to access resources that teach them that what is happening to them is bad and they deserve better, and to access resources that help them escape. Their parents of course will not allow them to access these resources under KOSA.

Thank you for reading my letter and please take my concerns to heart.

Sincerely,

[enigma2meagain]

As you may have noticed already, Archive of Our Own is currently down, due to a DDOS attack by a group claiming to be “Anonymous Sudan”, which may or may not be a group affiliated with Russia using Anonymous to drive divides against Islamic People, and also target one of the largest sources of LGBT media online.

Something important to also note is that there are actually bills being passed through Congress (or at least on track) that are functionally identical in intention and rhetoric to this hacking attack called the Kids Online Safety Act. if it passes, it’ll censor/cripple the entire internet as we know it for the same political and religious motivations. AO3 will be negatively affected as well, either losing most of its LGBT content at best, or at worst being permanently shut down.

The big one at the moment is the Kids Online Safety Act, but there are also other bills like the EARN IT Act, the RESTRICT Act, and so forth. There’s more information provided in the Links below!

Bad Internet Bills (Website Created by Fight For the Future on Twitter) LinkTree for KOSA (made by volunteers, contains open letter for signing and more articles about the bill in question)

Please take the time to read up and call your Senators to stop this. If you can't do that, then email them and contact the people on this master list here. Especially call Maria Cantwell, since she’s hesitant about this bill!

Additionally, if you happen to have TikTok or some other social media presence, please help spread the word. These people linked below have done so and the more people talking about this, the better!

JuiceInABoxx OmarsBigSister

[xx-thedarklord-xx]

They aren’t wrong

[thelegendofj]

Is no one in the UK (except literally just the trans people it directly affects) going to acknowledge that the Prime Minister did an overt hate crime in his very official, very public press conference yesterday?

The fact that no one is talking about this or holding him any way responsible for those actions even slightly makes me feel like I'm going crazy- did no one else hear that???

It's like if a world leader addressed the nation and casually threw in out of nowhere: "There is only one sexuality- heterosexual." and moved on, and nobody said anything about it afterwards... what the hell?

Do people really care that little?

I'm not sure if I want an answer to that anymore.

[hope-ur-ok]