#polish lgbt activism

[bestial4ngel]

I'm only 3/4 of the way through it, but so far it's amazingly, wonderfully insane that Victor/Victoria has aged sooo beautifully as an lgbt+ movie? Like oh my godddd there are so many things that I'm losing my shit over here (contains spoilers !) :

Victoria coming out of Toddy's closet wearing that one guy's clothes and then clocking and kicking his ass

Them addressing certain straight men's fear and insecurity around being attracted to drag queens (and inadvertently, trans women)- and the insecurity in their masculinity/the need to prove that they're (straight/masculine/cis) men

Norma having it revealed to her that Victoria's a man and immediately jumping into saying "well, a woman can always tell- no matter hormone shots, etc. there's some things that can't be hidden" (she's literally flat out making shit up cuz that aint the case lmfaoo) I love how in the context of now this feels like they're actively dunking on transphobes

Toddy saying "You know, I think the right woman could reform you, too." right back at Norma when she says it to him

Toddy and Victoria's relationship <33

It's a low asf bar now but an insanely high bar for the time: no transphobic slurs or comments so far???!! Even media from the 2000s often fail this test

Victoria absolutely owning King Marchand every time he's homophobic or obvious about his fragile masculinity :)

Deliberate misgendering framed negatively in a context without trans people or transphobic implications... idk I just think it's neat

Being chill about cis drag lets fucking go

Textual proof that Julie Andrews is a gay icon and also SO fucking hot in drag

Gay man + straight woman friendship/solidarity in a way that isn't annoying or too stereotypical

The way that Victoria's relationship with both Toddy and King Marchand almost comes off as homoerotic cuz of the drag (wrote this before I got to the part where they were perceived as a gay couple lol)

Honestly you could give Victoria almost any gender/sexuality and this movie would still be a massive slay

"I don't care if you are a man" *kisses her* "I'm not a man" "I still don't care" *they kiss again*

Victoria clocking that one guy multiple times

People thinking King Marchand is gay ("so there was this polish fairy..." and "if a guy like you has the guts to admit he's gay... so can I")

"I said you can stop pretending" "I don't think I want to"

"You know a lot of guys, you'd be surprised [how many of them are gay]."

The convo about men and women not having any particular gendered way of acting, and some women having adams apples ILY <3

That asshole who's trying spy on Victoria getting his umbrella absolutely nuked by the lightning lmaoo

[stillunusual]

Meanwhile in American zionist clownland…. Ben Shapiro is a smooth-brained conservative pundit who sounds like Kermit the Frog and has spent his entire life trying to achieve peak stupidity. He's also a fanatical zionist, and justifies his unquestioning support for Israel with profound statements like: "Settlements rock! Israelis like to build - Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage"….

In January 2024, after a high profile visit to the Auschwitz Memorial Museum with Elon Musk, he posted a video in which he said that Jews, Roma, Russian soldiers and homosexuals were killed there, but failed to mention the Polish victims.

Although Auschwitz-Birkenau eventually became an extermination centre in which nearly a million Jews were murdered, the Germans created the camp in 1940 initially for the purpose of interning Polish slavic prisoners, who made up the majority of the inmates until 1942.

According to the Auschwitz Memorial Museum, at least 1.1 million of the 1.3 million people who were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau died there.

900,000 Jews were murdered in the gas chambers immediately on arrival at the camp.

Of the 400,000 people who were registered as inmates, more than 50% did not survive.

They included 100,000 Jews, 70,000 Polish slavs, 21,000 Roma, 14,000 Soviet POWs and more than 10,000 prisoners of other nationalities, who died as a result of executions, medical experiments, starvation, brutality and disease.

Nobody knows how many LGBT people were deported to Auschwitz or died there, but only a tiny number were sent to the camp specifically for being gay. It's known that at least 77 men with pink triangles were imprisoned in Auschwitz and some scholars speak of up to 140 prisoners persecuted for their sexual orientation.

During their visit, Musk and Shapiro laid a wreath at the reconstructed "wall of death" next to Block 11, where SS men shot several thousand people, nearly all of whom were ethnically Polish - both Auschwitz prisoners and people who had been sent to the camp specifically to be executed, mainly for resistance activities.

It's amazing how often the camp's second largest victim group get erased from Western historical memory, but at least Shapiro didn't refer to Auschwitz as a "Polish concentration camp"….

[sunieepo]

honestly, if i may, all of this talk about the way people treat trans women has reminded me of an experience i still remember vividly back when i was peripherally part of the tumblr / twitter mfrp community. which please note i was never a very active participant, i personally found mfrp very boring and so i was never really fully integrated into these communities - but while i was in them i did befriend a few trans women and i noticed a very persistent pattern in these supposed LGBT-friendly spaces regarding the moderation of trans women.

there was a persistent issue in multiple different mfrp communities i was peripherally involved in, in which trans women would always be regarded as "abrasive" or "aggressive", for making the same kinds of comments and jokes that tme people were making. and the (majority tme) moderation teams would almost always rule against trans women, silencing them or labeling them as deviants / weirdos for behaviors that they would be much more forgiving towards tme people for.

as a sort of bystander i didn't really have a leg in to comment on the actions of moderation teams, i could only offer being a friend to trans women as i watched them be ostracized from these spaces by the very same people who would plaster "terfs dni" all over their bios. i'm not saying this to pat myself on the back, there is definitely more i could have done in those situations, but i do want to call out why all these "fuck terf" type posts just never really resonate with me, seeing them be rbed by people who i know would just jump at the opportunity to demonize a trans woman again (and i just saw it happen earlier with that stupid shit slinging post falsely accusing a trans woman of something she didn't even do regarding cohost...) (i'm aware op of that post apologized for their behavior but what occurred is what occurred)

it's not enough to say "fuck terfs" and i hate that people always center on the buffoonery of terf behavior instead of centering and caring for and supporting the trans women in their lives. it's really frustrating for me to watch as a staunch feminist to continually see the way the lgbt community has let down trans women. the recent wave of discourse regarding "transandrophobia" is also extremely worrying to me - i have seen a non-insignificant number of posts made by certain people in that community that claim that the lgbt community is Too centered on trans women: as if it's a competition, and as if the visibility of trans women is somehow a boon to them rather than a consequence of people using their cause to simply be performative instead of genuinely uplifting and loving.

sorry this isn't the most well thought-out post, i'm just rambling and i have a lot of complicated feelings on this. i don't want to derail what's happening right now too much by bringing up other topics, but i will say i do think it's inevitable that at some point we do need to confront some of the "transandrophobia truther" type sentiments i've seen lately, because they absolutely are damaging to trans women and lead to situations exactly like this.

please, if nothing else, i really hope everyone takes this as an opportunity to be kind to the trans women in their lives. the least you could do is offer them your support. reblogging posts dunking on transmisogynists is not enough. we need to make our communities safer for trans women, and that doesn't end with car hammer explosion memes.

rbs off because i'm not interested in centering my voice as a tme person and this post isn't really something polished i want escaping from my social circle. if you're a mutual of mine and you're feeling unsure about my stance on some of the topics mentioned above, my DMs are open and i am happy to discuss, but at the very least all i ask is for us to be better to trans women. that's all.

[xtrablak674]

Finding Your Tribe

Initially I had come across the image during my morning Tumblr'ing, and as I was wont to do I was doing a reverse image search to find a higher quality version of the image. I mean if I am going to download smut, better have a good-looking version of said smut. During my search I had come across the young man's Twitter account and prayed to my goddess that I wouldn't have to scroll long to get to the image I was looking for.

The thing about scrolling through someone's social media is you get a sense of the person, even if it's a highly curated and polished version. Its the version that they would like the world to see. One thing that became immediately apparent to me is that this curly-haired light-eyed sort of middling looking young man had found his tribe.

His "friends", because I am not sure what the kids are calling them these days, especially when the lines between plutonic and sexual were so clearly blurred, were clearly of the same tribe. Young people and others who had similar sexual interest and also loved documenting their merry-making in photographs, gifs and videos. Celebrating their lust and loves in a very public fashion. It had me very curious what these misfits did for work, because clearly they didn't care that their faces with dick in mouth were on very open display for all to see.

I could map the similar aesthetic between them, artsy but alternative, definitely not the main-stream gays that colour places like Chelsea but the on-the-edge queers who would exist in places like Bushwick barely boarding on being hipsters but divergent enough to be their own sub-genre of gay. Whereas a Manhattan gay may brag about wearing Prada and Louis Vuitton these ones would thrive in a new piece thrifted at L Train Vintage, never caring for those luxury brands but finding solace in their grandfather's old boots or jacket, paired with their grandma's pearls.

After watching the twelfth episode of Tracker last night where Colter finally met up with his wayward and possibly murderous older brother Russell, this made me think of the last time I had a tribe to speak of. And it would be back when my mom was still alive and I lived with my two younger siblings. It was the only time in my life I had a true connection to someone else around me, and albeit after her passing and our separation I would never truly find anything remotely the same.

In college I had a "crew" of sort largely based around the terraces where I lived my freshman year at this private college in upstate New York. They were gay, like I was at the time, some were lower-class like I thought I was, and would only later find out I was actually middle-class. None were of color, which then made me a novelty of sorts. I recall quite often being quizzed about how to use the language these upper-class queers had just learned from Jennie Livingston's infamous documentary Paris is Burning.

Ms. Trevor how do I say FIERCE? And what exactly is shade? Girl, teach me how to vogue! I mean I did my best to hobble together bits an pieces from my short-lived foray in the queer culture of New York City, which I had only really begin to explore the peaks of in my last two years in high school right in the middle of Manhattan. But this didn't feel exactly like my tribe, I seemed to be torn between allegiance to the HEOP Black kids on campus and the LGBT queer kids, not totally fitting in with either because of either class, orientation, how I preformed gender or how I performed race.

Post-college I continued the activism I had started moving into HIV/AIDS education through GMHC. Joining their youth program which was made up of primarily of other post-college kids but unlike upstate was more diverse having more woman, Black and people of color in its ranks. I can say I felt a connection to these young people as we tried our best to educate others our age and younger about how to navigate the complexities of trying to stay safe while being a young queer.

I have always had very mixed feelings about work relationships and albeit there are some people I met at my first advertising agency job that I would connect with an be friends with years after I left that company. I am not sure any of those relationship had a tribal feel to them.

My next significant connections would be to small or micro-business owners I had associated with through a non-profit that was out to help us with micro-loans. I was never really interested in the loans having long had an aversion to debt, but I did like the fellowship with the mostly Black business owners and using my own brand design business to help these folks out, at least with the visual aspects of their own brands.

But like all things that passed too.

The last fifteen years I have been a loner, most of my friendships drifting a part for one reason or another. I even stopped dating and then sexual relations too. It is a popular platitude to say to young people that you will find your tribe, I just haven't found that to be true. It has felt like all throughout my life I have had to partition pieces of myself to be accepted in certain areas. Even my fifteen year stay on Flickr seemed to be primarily based on folks sexual desires towards me, not really seeing me as a whole but just parts of a whole.

At this point I have let it all go, and find solace and comfort in my own company or in having parasocial relationships with the characters in my comics, books or television shows. If a tribe is a thing, its a thing that has always eluded me, maybe my not being able to compromise my values to 'group think' and allow folks to make me feel less than I am has not allowed me to assimilate into a group dynamic. Maybe my strong sense of self and moral aptitude and not ever being one to succumb to peer pressure or other ill-conceived notions has left me adrift. I am not sure I will ever understand how to be a part of a group.

My nephew was talking to me last week about this group chat, and I thought I have never been in anyone group anything. Even my attempts to start them have failed, like the group I created on Facebook for my fellow grand jury members. I thought we had an amazing eighteen month together, but I think afterwards we became the strangers that we were before. This has been the rhythm of my life since my mom died and I truly don't think it will ever change, and curiously I am okay with that.

Albeit our society loves to preach about how important relationships with others are I have found I think the most important relationship you can have is one with yourself, one unbound by pretense, pretensions and falsehoods. One unencumbered by expectations, animosity and aggression. One that lies in seeing who you are and appreciating all aspect of whom that person is and what they bring to the table never asking them to select which pieces are the most suitable for acceptance. But embracing, loving and encouraging them to come as they are and be welcomed.

[Photo by Brown Estate]

[honoviadakai]

Feliks Łukasiewicz: The hidden nonbinary/gender fluid icon

So Poland from Hetalia...is a character...

In all seriousness, Felik’s wasn’t my fav character back when 13 year old me saw them for the first time but I also didn’t hate the guy. They just confused the hell outta me because even with the limited worldly knowledge my preteen brain had, I was trying to understand what part of this character was inherently Polish.

Honestly even adult me is struggling to understand how Felik’s is the personification of Poland. It really feels like Himaruya made a character that just vaguely looks polish and has a polish accent and called it a day. And for a while I thought maybe he wrote Feliks that way because the country he represents is super progressive! Upon farther research…I was very wrong.

Here’s a very quick, simplified list of what you can expect in terms of “rights” for the lgbtq+ in Poland

Gay marriage isn’t legal

Discrimination is legal in some contexts

If you wanna adopt, you can only do so if you’re single(if you’re not hetero, if you are and in a couple, you’ll have less issues)

Conversion therapy is not banned

Military rights are ambiguous at best

Non-binary gender is not recognized(this one might have to do more with the language and their naming system than discrimination….but…)

You actually can legally change your gender and surgery is not required. They only recognize male and female though, nothing else. Getting surgery might require either a crap ton of money and/or going to a different country

…yeah…so Feliks makes even less sense and that’s not even taking into account how religious the country they represent is known to be.

However, upon further research, Poland does have quite the history on LGBT activism so that got me thinking that Feliks is not as superficial as I initially thought.

Firstly, I believe Feliks is gender fluid and demisexual and they’re just so casual about it around people they’ve probably forgotten to come out to some of their friends when they realized their gender orientation. Like I can absolutely see this conversation happening.

Tolys:….Feliks…we need to have a talk…now…

Feliks: yeah? Why? What’s wrong? You look, like, really stressed out.

Tolys: Look…I’ve been able to handle the other baltics, Ivan and Gilbert, sometimes all at the same time…but I’m gonna have an aneurism if you don’t explain to me why you’re dressed up like one of those teenage E-girls Alfred has talked to me about, right now…are you that broke or something???

Feliks:…

Tolys:…

Feliks:…I haven’t come out of the closet to you have I?

Tolys:….I’ll be back

Feliks: where are you going???

Tolys: knowing you…I’m gonna need some snacks, some tea…and a lot of free time…so I’m off to cancel some plans and order some food…

Tolys would genuinely be more annoyed at Feliks about the decades long lack of context and taking so damn long to remember to come out to him more than anything else tbh xD

Jokes aside, I genuinely think they started realizing his gender identity around the time Hungary was starting to discover herself. Watching her go through her issues probably made them start to question themselves a bit. I can see them being pretty religious before this and having a struck “there are only 2 genders mentality” for a long time but slowly starting to have a shift in ideals as time went on and their knowledge of the world started to grow. They might even have an internal crisis about their religious faith and how they feel but I can see them getting over it quickly since God is weirdly a cannon character in the series and seems very nonchalant. Feliks definitely had a conversation with God about this and straight up be told “do what makes you happy, I’m not gonna punish you for doing what you love.”

Eventually they’d fully discover themselves and just accept who they are because, if nothing else, Feliks is a simple person with simple needs. They just wanna be happy and if putting on a frilly skirt one day and slacks the next makes them happy then by golly they’re gonna do so. Outside their home country.

I don’t think Feliks expresses themselves often, if ever, in they homeland for safety reasons. If they go to Alfred’s place though? They’re going all out and no one can stop them. Periot 💅

That being said…because they’re very outspoken around people they trust…they kinda just…expect their friends and in some situations, complete strangers, to just pick up on their sexuality and gender identity. Feliks just kinda forgets people like Tolys exist. People like him who NEED to be told straight up “hey, this is my situation” because otherwise they’re just never gonna come to any conclusion on their own. Tolys can’t even pick up when someone is trying to tell him a joke, let alone when someone is trying to come out to him, discreetly.

Feliks is a disaster in this regard because of this. Because they’re assuming people picked up on their brand of fruitiness, to them they’ve already come out to people. In reality they haven’t and it takes them a hot minute to realize this because SURELY they would’ve come out to Feliciano by now…right???

Nope. They forgot. Italy didn’t get the news till late 2017, he still won’t let it go btw.

[such-justice-wow]

'the community is heavily associated with transphobia' is that anon smoking actual crack????? Ive never fuckin heard of terfs be actually into harry potter. Other JKR works?? Absolutely. Her as a person? Also yes. But not HP???? Like not once did i hear about HP being a transphobic dogwhistle or some other horseshit before some crazies began to say "if you buy hogwarts legacy you are transphobic", and only then did i heard JOKES about going 'wow i guess im transphobic'. Anyway im trans and i bought the game. it's decent, but only having the playstation to have an exclusive quest was a bit scummy. They try to do their best with rowling's shit worldbuilding skills. There's a student whos transferred from uganda and she is delightful, i can believe why the protagonist quickly makes friends with her. Not the best game ever but it's engaging, and it seems well polished in comparison to other AAA games nowadays (tho i admit, not the highest bar to cross). It has puzzles that aren't too hard. The trans character is not nearly as hamfisted as people claim she is. The name is a bit unfortunate but i don't think was meant to be seen like that, and they probably should have used the spelling Thirona. But the "sirona ryan = ARYAN, COINCIDENCE I THINK NOT" connection is an absolutely unhinged thing to say. Literally nobody thinks that. Ive seen dating sims written by lgbt people handle trans characters worse. Everyone should chill out, good lord. If you don't want to buy the game, don't. I think you might be the most levelheaded person ive seen to talk about the dumb wizard game

It has a playstation exclusive quest???? What the fuck

But yeah I've also seen "omg Ryan is a boy's name how could they" like its not an Irish surname

Anyway its all dumb and aggressive and just for arguments sake and false activism

[galar-ranger-magnus]

Inspection day tomorrow for next three days .

Everyone’s gotta be on their best behavior .

I heard it’s the homophobic one again that’s visiting. (Why the fuck is she still here)

Better wipe off my nail polish even tho it’s under gloves half the time . She clocked me for that last time but not the women of the base

Last time she was here, all the guys had short hair but now there’s like 4 of us with longer hair. . . Including CEO [Chief Engineering Officer] Peggy

Could be worst. She could be visiting the Docks base near Hulberry. I heard they’re quite active amongst the LGBT community and their safety

Lets hope she doesn’t come across my rotomblr. Arceus knows I don’t exactly have a “kid safe” account with all my cussing, alcohol mentions, and violence talk . knowing her she’d be offended and mark me for

.

.

.

being a 27yr old adult in Southern Galar??

That and having a terrible online etiquette on my own PERSONAL account

[carrera075]

Quick rant about the NFS fanbase

Something that has fascinated me with the newest Need for Speed game is the seeming complete disconnect between the developers and the fanbase. It's fairly clear if you look at the NFS subreddit and see what they think about the newest game (fyi: it's not good). It's like, the devs at Criterion are who you would expect from a working-class tech job, they're progressive and want to tell a story of "fighting the man" and taking down the system, but the story-telling fails because the average NFS fan is a polish conservative who just voted in favor of banning gay people in his city. Much of the modern NFS fandom is fairly conservative (despite the games having you fight cops regularly), vaguely racist (see: recent discourse on how much rap music there was in the newest game), and sometimes explicitly homophobic (see: some of the fanbase's reaction to the newest game having one trans character in it). Despite the efforts of the devs to make a more accepting community and support pro-LGBT ideas, you can still regularly see people in the subreddit complaining about the newest game going fully "woke" and "PC", and that the devs should just go back to the good old MW2005 days (before they invented gay people (I'm joking here)), despite the fact that the NFS fanbase would almost certainly not like whatever they put out.

I'm not sure how it got to this point, but I think it has to do with car culture in general. The culture around cars has kind of always been conservative in an individualistic way, sort of like modern right-libertarians, in that think they should be allowed to own drugs and guns but also they shouldn't have to look at black people in their neighborhood. I suppose it's only become more obvious in the NFS community as a pushback against the developers of the NFS games. With how game development is a notoriously exploitive industry, it makes sense that they've become progressive and anti-capitalist to some extent. With the culture around cars, it's no surprise that many leftists today take such a strong anti-car approach. But as someone who likes cars, I don't want to see them gone entirely. It should be our priority to reform car culture towards something that's not only accepting of people around us, but actively supporting of alternative transportation options (like public transit), so that driving can be a fun activity again for everyone.

[kinfulthoughts]

Introduction !!

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

𓆙 Name: Octavia/Vivi/Viv

𓆙 Age: 19

𓆙 Ethnicity: Polish-American

𓆙 Religion: Catholic

𓆙 Aesthetics: Sanrio (does that count? If not kawaii), Victorian, Light Academia, and Coastal Grandmother

𓆙 Kinlist:

Draculaura

Dobby

Hermione Granger

Hello Kitty

My OC - Dominique

𓆙 About My Account: I'll mainly be posting about kins/kinning, but I'm big on physical/mental health, so expect a few posts about that. This is a safe space, and I would like to keep it that way. Please do not spread hate onto my account. Interact with caution if you are sensitive regarding mental health, although it will mainly be activism.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

I do not believe in the effectiveness of DNI lists, so instead, I will provide a list of things that I personally do not tolerate. This list may be helpful for you to decide if you would like to interact with me or not. Please note that if you engage or support any of the following, I will not hesitate to block you.

JK Rowling or Harry Potter Hate

Racism

Ableism

Russia vs Ukraine discourse

Support Dylan Mulvaney

Believe that Healthcare workers are NOT essential

Covid discourse

System (DID/OSDD/ENDO) discourse

LGBT Discourse

Talk about Eating Disorders

Littles (agere)

Believe that ALL white people are racist

Believe that POC cannot be racist

Hate Christians

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

As my account grows, I will add onto this post, but for now, that is all! I'm so glad to meet you.

[butch-bakugo]

Honestly, part of my gender and sexuality journey has been accepting myself as a mlw transman(even though im bi and also transmascfem due to intersexuality) and trying not to take anything too personally. Masculinity and lgbtism are seen as opposites so masculine lgbt get left out of the convo or are forcibly feminized. Its this mindset within the community, tied to its progressivism(i dont blame them for this assumption but its not true), that feminity is progressive and masculinity is regressive. This mindset has hurt lots of masculine lgbt pple, most notably butch lesbians, masc trans men and bi men.

Femme lesbians are all thats ever shown while butch lesbians have their identities sanitized to fit a different narrative. Feminine cis men get center stage for "really sticking it to the patriarchy!!" Just for wearing nail polish or a skirt one time while butch women get tossed out and ignored and called ugly not only by cishet men but also those within the community. Feminized mlm trans men are perfered because their veiwed as cishet woman-lite and trans women are centered no matter if they are with a woman or a man but some people never even consider that masc mlw trans men exist. Bi men never end up with women and often their bisexuality is erased due to people never mentioning it, leading to them being called gay(mostly present in fandom characizations. See kirishima from mha, he has canon moments of liking women and men).

Theres this idea spread wide through out the community that any man in a relationship with a woman is shitty and abusive and automatically using his privilege over her. I can speak from experience on that. But whats never mentioned is that they only ever mean cis men. Cishet men are the enemy your eyeing, not transhet men or other mlw transmascs. They arent hurting women, they were women. But when none of you ever specify that you mean cis men, trans men arnt gonna know that they are excluded from your hateful shit. Same as trans women arnt gonna know that they arnt included in conversations about the shittyness some cis women enact.

Women loving men is empowered in bisexual spaces, why cant at least trans men loving women in trans context be empowered? We dont hurt the women were with. We are just as oppressed and disenfranchised as them. Theres no power dynamics in those relationships. Trans men loving cis women is equal, trans men loving trans women is equal, trans men loving other trans men is equal. The only inequality is when trans men are with cis men.

Please start specifying in your shit that you mean cis men. That or out yourself as a person who dosent actively consider trans men to be men or admit you sincerely thought trans men were just like cis men, we we fucking arnt. Im tired of looking for transandrophobes, be open about it already.

[moonybadger]

Fascinated by some of the recent P4 discourse I’ve been seeing on twitter... I both agree and disagree with it I guess? I really recommend “Need’s More Gay”’s review of this game on Youtube, it talks about it in a really good way. Persona 4 is definitely not as actively progressive with it’s writing of queer coded characters as I’d like, but it’s also a game that came out in Japan in 2008. For a lot of people, this might have been the first time they saw a video game actually trying to tackle the idea of sexuality and gender, and how society views those who aren’t presenting in an acceptable way. The character dungeons are easily where the strongest parts of the arcs are, where the characters are dealing with these pressures at their most emotionally vulnerable. Unfortunately yeah, it does fumble a lot of these characters in the long game; it knows enough to ask the questions, but doesn’t really have an answer for them yet. While ostensibly the game encourages Kanji’s love of sewing, it still takes almost every opportunity available to belittle him for it; this is a well known, and heavily criticized flaw in the game’s storytelling. I think it is good to be critical of these older works, while not outright demonizing them as well. Sure, we can find better games talking about this stuff NOW but then? Options were a lot more limited, and none of them nearly to the same level of polish and popularity that P4 had. 

I think Rent is also a good example of this. I don’t like Rent, but I know it’s very very important to a lot of young LGBT folks. With Persona 4, I kind of view it as growing pains, baby steps towards better writing and exploring REALLY interesting ideas for the first time even if it doesn’t have a proper conclusion for them.

That’s actually why I feel a little harsher towards Persona 5′s decisions honestly lmao, it doesn’t have nearly the same excuse while on top of that having way less even partially queer content. It does get FARTHER in it’s questions about society, breaking from conformity and distrusting authority, only to the drop the ball right after the big climactic boss fight and force its heroes to work within the system. To me a lot of Persona 5 has higher highs and lower lows; when it lets me down, it stings a lot more because of how good the good parts are.

Persona 5 good: the entire system is completely fucked besides a few lone holdouts (and even they need to be talked around initially and are hindered by how bad the system already is), the importance of Found Family, ALL of the characters being abused in different ways by the various social hierarchies they’ve been forced into, final boss is God aka the Ultimate Authority

Persona 5 bad: Even though the heroes have won all their major victories by fighting battles their own way, they are ultimately forced to play along with the rules in order to get even a bittersweet ending. It’s bad when male teachers try to date female students but totally fine for a female teacher to date one of her male students. Found Family Gets Unfamilied at the end of the game. Makoto STILL wants to be a cop for some dumbass reason. Persona 5 ultimately talks a big game about fighting the system but doesn’t seem to actually understand how to do so in real life.

I’m really interested to see where Persona 6 goes with its writing, since I believe the main director for the majority of the series is retiring/stepping down; ideally I’d like to see a continuation of their “pushing back against society’s expectations” themes, but REALLY dig into it and actually include more explicitly LGBT themes and characters without also being kinda horrified by them.

TL;DR: I have mixed feelings! And ultimately don’t disagree with anyone who comes away disliking P4 because of the character decisions they make. But I would also encourage everyone to try and not be so black and white with their viewing of things; stories doesn’t so easily fit into a “good” or a “bad” category.

[gryficowa]

I love the fact that in Poland there is more talk about the problem of anti-Semitism than about Islamophobia

I once saw a Polish Islamist attacked in the comments because her religion enslaved her (Christians say that they compare a woman to a dirty glass)

I have the impression that the topic of Islamophobia in my country is too much ignored (I'm Kashubian, so I don't really live in areas where such a cesspool exists, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a waste to avoid this topic, especially when there are a lot of Islamists living in Poland)

I say everything from the perspective of a Kashubian (I am a national minority in Poland) and I see how Polishness is gradually creeping in, I see less and less things related to my culture (And Christians forced the removal of Kashubian monuments because they were too pagan and attacked their religious feelings, how is it not extermination of culture, I don't know what it is)

I no longer see Kashubians drowning Marzanna like when I was a child, I have the impression that my culture is starting to die out, which is disturbing

In some areas it is burned, but in our country it was melted to symbolize the end of winter

I'm afraid that a lot of shit from other areas of Poland (Like Islamophobia, queerphobia, etc.) will come here, because there are a lot of Islamists and LGBT+ people living in Kashubia, my mother is Catholic (But I went to religion classes, so that's why I said that I was raised in Christianity, because many of these "Teachers" are priests from other parts of Poland, and one was from Ukraine and I had my problems with him, in short, he described sleep paralysis as an attack of demons and that fuck made me afraid of the dark, thanks a lot)

Plus hearing how "Andrzejki" is bad and sinful because it's pagan (I told you it was Christian)

St. Andrew's Day involves reading wax readings (Many people did it, but for years there have been no such activities in classes, because it is perceived as "Halloween", which says a lot about it)

In addition, "Hello Kitty" as Satan's, because a certain priest read a paste about a father who, in order to heal his daughter from mouth cancer, went to Satan and supposedly this was the origin of "Hello Kitty" and the reason why she had no mouth (And a beautiful lack of knowledge basic knowledge of English, i.e. understanding "Hello Kitty" as "Kitty from Hell" is not a joke)

It wasn't Islamists who took our monuments, it was Christians...

It's so annoying when people mainly talk about anti-Semitism, but ignore Islamophobia and the terror of Christians on national minorities (To exterminate their culture)

Besides, the fact that the pro-life wanted to shoot people on the Polish-Belarusian border says a lot (These people are Muslims, but who would care about them? You can want to kill them, because it is obvious that only saying this about Jews is controversial here , but not that, you can go crazy with it)

Muslims are more exposed here because they wear hijabs, Jews all they get is classic vandal shit on the walls of buildings in other areas of Poland, but they will beat you for being gay here rather than for being a Jew

Damn, a lot of people are already leaving this shit on the walls, because even if they report it, the chance that they will paint it over sooner than in a decade is too small, because they prefer to spend money on things that no one cares about, seriously, they don't care about them. vandalistic shit on the walls, so you can only come to terms with all the crap that is written (At least in other areas, because although there is vandalism in Kashubia, its meaning is probably not clear)

Well, see:

Well, this vandalism raises more questions than answers

"Protect our children from vaccinations"

You'd sooner see something like this than anti-Semitic shit (At least in Kashubia)

"Whoever enters here will not leave here alive"

Kashubia, just Kashubia, this vandalism is something that will confuse you even more, because you don't know what it's about

There's a Celtic cross here, but for me this inscription is fucking gibberish

"Only Kolejorz"

"Fuck Kowal, karma"

(The number 60 means someone who informs)

This is vandalism from my city, for some reason there are a lot of "Evil" signs

???

As I mentioned, vandalism in Kashubia raises more questions than offenses (unless you are a sports team, but it is probably not a discriminated group)

But coming back, I seriously have the impression that in my country they talk more about anti-Semitism than about Islamophobia, and that says a lot

So yes, this is what it looks like in practice

[lboogie1906]

Krystian Legierski (born April 22, 1978) is an LGBT activist, entrepreneur, and member of the Greens 2004. He won a seat in the Warsaw City Council, thus becoming the first openly gay politician elected to a political office in Poland.

He was born in Poland, to a Polish mother and a Mauritanian father who was in Poland as an international student. He studied law at the University of Warsaw. He has been active in the LGBT movement. He co-authored the first draft of a law on civil unions sponsored in the Polish Senate by Maria Szyszkowska; the law was passed by the Senate but was not considered by the Sejm. He has been involved in another effort to introduce civil unions into the Polish legal system. He co-hosted Lepiej późno niż wcale - an LGBT radio program on TOK FM.

He founded his first club called Le Madame in the Warsaw Old Town. Le Madame was a nightclub, but a cultural center, providing space for alternative theatre, music, drag queen shows, art exhibitions, and political debate. It was closed by the acting mayor of Warsaw, shortly after Lech Kaczyński, Kochalski’s predecessor who had a history of banning Gay Pride events in Warsaw, became President of Poland. The closure was met with protests, which came to be labeled as “the Polish Stonewall”. Along with Le Madame, he founded a gay club Tomba Tomba as well as M25 - a nightclub and a theatre scene.

He was among the founding members of the Polish Green Party Greens 2004. He ran on a Social Democratic ballot, following an official electoral agreement between the Greens and the Democratic Left Alliance. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[glenrocklibraryteens]

BOOK REVIEW: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Science Fiction, Coming-of-Age Number of Pages: 400 Rating: 4/5 - bizarre, raunchy, and riveting, but it’s definitely not for everyone. Reviewed by: LL

Grasshopper Jungle is a very profane, but very funny book. Set in a small town in Iowa in the midst of an economic recession, it follows Austin, his best friend Robby, and his girlfriend Shann. While trying to escape some bullies, Austin and Robby accidentally discover and activate an incredibly deadly virus, one that hatches giant, man-eating praying mantises from the bodies of anyone it comes in contact with. While people of the town start to become infected, Austin has to come to terms with his sexuality and the fact that he has feelings for Robby, his gay best friend, while still finding time for his current girlfriend.

One of the more unique aspects of Grasshopper Jungle, aside from its wacky premise, is its style of writing. Our main character, Austin, is an aspiring historian, and thus is obsessed with the idea of repetition. Throughout the book many phrases are constantly repeated by Austin that continue to take on new meanings in the context of recent events, for example being “You know what I mean”, which is repeated most often. Other quirks of this style of writing include how Austin will occasionally take us out of the story and talk about his polish ancestors, as well as the fact that the story is mostly told in the first person, however occasionally it will describe people and events that Austin wasn’t present for. We infer that Austin learned of what happened through interviews and firsthand accounts from the people who were there, much like how historians operate. By the end of the book we learn that everything was a self-recorded history by Austin. I have to commend Grasshopper Jungle for this unique premise of writing and perspective, as I had never read a book written in this manner before, which made it an even more interesting read for me.

Another really good aspect of Grasshopper Jungle is that beneath its science fiction premise and vulgar humor is a really compelling coming of age story. Austin constantly questions himself and his own sexuality, as he has his girlfriend Shann, but thinks he also harbors feelings for his friend Robby, who happens to be in love with Austin already. Although it’s technically a love triangle, the way they execute it as a boy who attends a catholic school coming to terms with his bisexuality and finding a way to balance his time between his best friend and girlfriend makes for a much more interesting conflict than the typical heterosexual love triangle we often see in pop culture. This brings us to another aspect of the book that I really liked, which was its LGBT themes. Grasshopper Jungle was one of the first books I’ve read to have multiple gay characters as well as homosexuality playing a central role in the book. Although I myself am not LGBT, when I first read the book in freshman year seeing these characters and their sexualities depicted for the first time was really interesting and memorable to me. This book is actually somewhat ahead of its time, as it was released in 2014, and gay marriage was not fully legalized in the US until 2015. So this book was probably very meaningful to a lot of young adults whose sexualities were not nearly as widely accepted as they are today.

Another reason this book stood out to me is because it is probably the most profane book I have ever read. Swears are often used, and sex is also mentioned a lot. Although for some this may make reading the book uncomfortable and awkward, I think these elements can really speak to a lot of young adults, as we are much more vulgar in our younger years compared to when we get older.

I would definitely recommend this book to any young adults looking for a funny and entertaining read, so long as they don’t mind crass language and sexual elements. Although homosexuality is much more accepted than when the book first came out, I think any teen or young adult who was or is currently asking questions about their own identity and sexuality could really form a connection with the main character of this book.

Grasshopper Jungle Playlist:

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) by David Bowie - In reference to the monstrous praying mantises that begin to terrorize the town.

Insects by Oingo Boingo - This song is once again in reference to the giant mantises. The lyrics are all about insects and incorporate buzzing noises, which seems fitting given the insectoid monsters that act as the main antagonistic force in the book

You’re My Best Friend by Queen - Austin’s friendship with Robby is very important to the book, this song is in honor of that

Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes - Towards the climax of the book the virus has spread to everyone in town and giant hungry insects are everywhere, and our characters have to escape to a bunker. The song is also about a man being unfaithful to his lover, which Austin is as he develops feelings for Robby

Happy Together by The Turtles - Another song in reference to the relationships between characters in the book. It works well for both Austin and Shann but works even better for Austin and Robby.

Welcome To The Jungle by Guns and Roses - This song is a little on the nose, but chosen as the book is titled “Grasshopper Jungle”. The song also describes the Jungle as a dangerous place, which is what the town becomes when the mantises begin to overrun it.

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It by R.E.M. - The virus accidentally released which hatches praying mantises out of people’s bodies has some serious world-ending potential

I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles - A love song that works well for Austin and Robby’s relationship, as it also gives off the feeling that the love depicted in the song is forbidden, much like Austin and Robby’s love, as they both go to a very catholic school.

Weird Science by Oingo Boingo - The book has some very strange science fiction elements, so Weird Science by Oingo Boingo is a very fitting song. The music is also very weird sounding, which reflects how weird this book is

Maneater by Hall & Oates - The giant mantises eat humans in this book, which makes this song very fitting if you take the lyrics more literally.

[queersoundspod]

72. Drastic Shift

Content warning: queerphobia, war, racism.

The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than half a year, so people tend to forget about this issue and focus on their regular daily lives. Not Amy. They’ve been sharing resources, helping refugees and showed support to a point where it became a full time job. How did they take the shift from more general queer activism to a specific Ukranian Refugee flow? They’ll explain in this episode.

Of course we happen to talk about Eurovison too. It kinda becomes a yearly tradition to bring up the Song Contest in September. American, Asian and African listeners, share your thoughts on the matter!

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Flashback Track: Nosowska – Rozszczep

Queer Artist Spotlight: Mashrou’Leila – Aoede

Best Live Experience: Tami T – I Never Loved This Hard 

Most Recent Discovery: Go_A – Shum

Shownotes

Amy’s Resources

Black is Polish

Right-wing election win in Sweden

Related Episodes

I told ya I would talk a lot about Poland

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Get in touch through Queersounds.com/Contact!

[the-brave-and-the-dumb]

I know Tumblr is mostly US-centric but please, follow tags like "Poland", "StopBzdurom" (name of a collective, translated to Stop Bullshit), "Margot/Margot Szutowicz/Małgorzata Szutowicz"

(I will edit if there is anything more, basically check the tags I used).

Margot is a non-binary she/her pronouns using activist who decorated statue of Jesus Christ and other statues with Pride flag. She also got in a quarrel with a driver of a truck with anti-LGBT banner (which (mis)informed that LGBT people are pedophiles. That's why she was angry). Yesterday police came for her, to arrest her for those acts (100% against the law, tho) but people blocked them. The crowd went on a stroll to said Christ statue and once again police arrested Margot, locked her up in unmarked car. Police also beat the protestors and arrested random people. Few polish envoys were there and tried to help all the people they could because police was so brutal they even choked and stomped on people's heads.

Spread the news everywhere.

Don't make us suffer in silence.

We have had enough of homophobic government, president and prime minister calling us, LGBT+, an ideology, not-people, and caring more about the statues than about citizens.