#qtbipoc

[dieselfutch]

my butch chivalry telling me to perform acts of service for other people vs my Black pride telling me to sit back while others perform acts of service for me. FIGHT

[indigokra]

hues 🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[hellyeahscarleteen]

Being Closeted & Joyful in a Black Household

"I come from a communal society where the individual is very closely tied to the group. We do not exist alone. We are part of something bigger, and there is this instinctive desire to contribute to the wholeness of that bigger thing, which anchors us. My family has been there for me in many selfless ways. I am aware enough to acknowledge that their actions are tinged with love and care, the desire to see me well; even if they have expressed those sentiments in questionable and sometimes hurtful ways. Two truths can co-exist. It’s this cognitive discordance that is usually at the base of most of our distress. It helps to know that people are complex beings, the product of their life experiences, with the capacity for kindness and cruelty. My family are not all saints or all devils. In all honesty, I cannot even predict how they would react if I were to come out to them. I like to think, nothing extreme or hurtful. Maybe a lot of preaching, but really, who can say? I am not ready for it, though. And that is alright. I am currently openly queer with only my close friends, and I do my sex writing under a pseudonym. I have a working relationship with family, and I am in a position where I can gently push back on anti-queer conversations or state my stance in silence. For the moment, this works. I am at peace with who I am. When my mental health permits, I am even joyful...I am learning to find joy in all that mess and let myself get lost in it."

Destiny Marshall's debut piece is a beautiful personal article that dives deep into the experience of radically claiming queerness and being joyful amongst community despite it not being safe to come out to them. This article describes the lived experience of many QTBIPOC who grapple with the reality of loving family and community even when expressing queerness around them isn’t possible or safe.

[twinklewrinkle]

I've written a Sevika fanfic and I'm far too nervous to post it...I must revise it for the 100th time.

[cloverclubbb]

When ya catch urself in the mirror 🫧

[deehaus-sys]

Yayyy Haus Intro! (plus the text for the pictures!!!!)

*** Check blog intro post more details on us!***

Welcome welcome to Dee Haus!! Our DID-focused art blog! (A guide by Sibbin :))

Terms: (familiar term in quotations)

Haus: a black DID “system”

Famori: “alters” in de haus

Cooking/being in the kitchen: “fronting”

The term haus being used specifically for Black systems is not at all a thing, I’ont think. But our haus uses it for us, and as a system who is Black in de bodi and loves our kulcha and words, we would love to see it be claimed as that and invite any black-bodied system to do so!! We chose it because a lot of Black households use the term “house” instead of home I noticed, and then as we learned more about hoodoo and vodou, it turns out historic Black folk magic gatherings for protection were often in AAVE called the “haus” dey was under (like Marie Lavaeu haus) So if Haus is a place of protection and healing, what better a name for our system :) ((also: I'm not tryna limit haus' usage as a word only fa us since I know it exists in other languages too. But I long for our black community to have more words for us neurodivergent folx in it!))

Famori is combining two different words: family and ori, which is the Yoruban word for head, so head family! Not all systems are related to all their alters— but in Black families we tend to just call anyone we care about family, so I thought it’d work well.

We just call fronting cooking for some reason. Dass juss how our headspace came prepackaged, I guess? I think it’s because we often cook for the people we’re looking out for? I dunno, I think it’s cute.

Our names are also a mix of blaccent as well as Gullah Geechee english :) Sibbin is sibling, Bubba is brother, and Cuzzin is cousin. We aren’t all related like that and those aren’t our real names, but fa de blog dey cute.

Okey here de famori: (written from the pictures above)

Sibbin (they/them)

Sibbin is the main person to “cook”(front) in Dee Haus. They like making art and sharing messages. Also, Hello Kitty, Nintendo, and culture of any kind.

Fun Fact: doesn’t cuss ever

Creativity: +++

‘Tism: +++

Escapism: ++++

Confrontation: +

Panic Cooldown Rate: ++

Cooking skills: ++++

Bubba (he/him)

Bubba is the guardian of Dee Haus. He’s the most adventurous, and is much more punk attitude to protect (but he can be a big softie). He like making art & shopping.

Fun Fact: the only one who can drum IRL

Sass: ++++

Emo: +++

Doing stuff: ++

Confrontation: ++++

Panic Cooldown Rate: +++

Cooking skills: ++++

Cuzzin (they/he)

Cuzzin keeps “the books” (memory) in Dee Haus. They don’t like to “cook”, and don’t talk when they do. They like learning non-voiced languages, libraries, trees, and yellow.

Fun Fact: was the one who put us thru our kpop phase

Adulting: ++++

Remembering stuff: ++++

People: ++

Confrontation: +

Panic Cooldown Rate: +

Cooking skills: ++

Okee, I hope I explained everything well and made a good first impression, we’re all excited to share more and get to know folx :D

[boba-t-butch]

happy pride! this is my second summer without tits, third on testosterone. sometimes the enormity of the international, intergenerational, interconnected, intersecting systems of privilege, power, marginalization, and oppression that shape who i am feels overwhelming and incomprehensible. gender-affirming care saves lives, as in i was unable to do the work of figuring out who i want to be until i could exist in a body that felt like my own. gender-affirming care saves lives as in i could not imagine a way to continue forward in the body i was in.

i grew up in a world that fundamentally failed queer kids like me, where the main comfort organizations could offer was the idea that "it gets better". i've spent most of my life dissociated, a messy combination of gender and neurodiversity and cPTSD, trying to make it to the "better". and now i'm here! in adulthood, learning to feel my feelings, trying to imagine a way forward. and it's still hard and it still sucks and sometimes i want to throw up hands up say this is it!? "it gets better" and this is all there is?

i believe all people should have access to the care that i've been lucky enough to access. i recognize it's an enormous privilege that i'm able to exist comfortably as myself now, but it really shouldn't be. it's so frustrating how obvious it feels that things don't need to be this way. but im also realizing that guilt and shame and self-flagellation won't actually contribute to the systemic change necessary to extend this privilege to more people.

i am committed to building towards a world where self-determination isn't a privilege at all but the baseline. and im still learning how to do that work in a way that's sustainable and realistic.

for today, i'll let myself take pride and joy and comfort in asserting. i am queer. and i am still here.

(she/they butch lesbian)

1. selfie, moss is outside with greenery in the background. they're wearing a black tank top that says stonewall in white font. she has long wavy black hair, an undercut, and faintly visible facial hair

2. selfie, moss is wearing denim overalls and her top surgery scars are visible.

3. mirror selfie in a dirty round pink mirror. moss is wearing jeans and a brown leather bulldog chest harness, visible top surgery scars and body hair. moss is also wearing over the ear headphones and is holding a blue journal. calico cat naomi is sitting on the corner of their bed. her room has strong autistic vibes, including a stuffed dragon on a shelf and posters of garnet from steven universe, superknova the korean trans girl musician, and ones that read "mutual aid is the future", "queer til death", and "rest is productive".

[inherpower]

Let It Go

So much healing work requires the act of letting go. Letting go of habits, thoughts, ideas, beliefs. Whatever is no longer serving us needs to be released. But here’s the thing. I had a hard time letting go of things. On the surface it was easy for me to tell myself that I was ready to let go of something when deep down I was holding on for a multitude of reasons. Much of why I was holding on to stuff was because it had become part of my identity. In a previous post I brought up a statement that I made to myself "Who am I without my trauma and my stories?” I remember when the words of that question escaped my mouth I damn near did everything in my power to shove them back in. I was exposed in those words. I had said them to a real person, in fact two real people. One person was my therapist who came back with the question. Who do you want to be?

Along this life I have learned a lot about what I do not like. I could craft a whole world around those things. But ask me what I wanted, desired or aspired for and I got choked up. It was a similar vibe to the whole superstition of not telling folks when you applied for a job and feel really good about it, you keep your mouth shut to not jinx it. I held myself back from saying what I truly desired out of fear that the luck would get sucked out and those desires would never come to fruition. In the past couple of days I’ve been taking a deeper look at the art of letting go. And in this reflection I realized that me keeping my mouth shut was less about not wanting to jinx the good stuff from coming into my life but rather because I was still holding on to the old stuff.

In the beginning of 2023 I moved into my own apartment by myself. I had never lived on my own before. I was a mother for the first time at 19 so I had no time to be a young person out in the world figuring things out. At 42 I was truly living on my own. This independence gave me time to learn my own rhythm. Minus my work schedule I started to learn when I like to get up what I like to do first thing in the morning for myself. When do I like to take showers? At night? Or in the morning? What do I like to cook? What do I even like to eat? How would I decorate my own space? I never asked myself these questions directly but I moved through them by simply living. The more I got to know my own rhythm the more that I began to learn more about what I like, what lights me up and brings joy into my life.

Once my rhythm had been established I dove head first into healing. In a short period of time I had gotten comfortable in my agency, autonomy, independence and sovereignty. I was waking up to myself and as a result I wanted to move at light speed towards the things that felt good and repaired my nervous system. I had been living in a space of unhappiness for some time and once I had gotten out of that dark place I yearned for light. But as I tell everyone, you cannot rush healing. In fact not only is it dangerous but it’s kinda hard to do. REAL healing is a slow process, it takes time. I was done being in limbo and wanted to get to the other side of awkward. You know that phase of your life when you’re in limbo. You’re not back there but you’re also not over there, you’re in the in-between.

The in-between is where I must slow down, as hard as that is. This slower pace has revealed something to me that I think is revolutionary. I must let go of the old to make space for the new. And the new is bigger and better than what I’m holding on to. I’ve learned that letting go cannot be forced, and believe me I tried to force it. Letting go is slow and deliberate. It’s intentional, it’s compassionate. Letting go is grieving. I can’t take all the old idea and habits with me into the new. And honestly that is a concept that I hadn’t even considered until recently. I thought I had let go. I thought I had released old stuff, but as it turns out I was only covering it up. So how do you know when it’s time to let go? You’ll know when you feel stuck. When you feel that everything is to tender to hold in conversation and you’ll either cry or get angry at the slightest breath.

You’ll know when you’re ready to let go when your heart begins to yearn for something more. And the letting go doesn’t mean that everything is gone forever. It simply means that you’re not carrying the heavy load anymore. You’re not wearing the mask anymore. Those parts of yourself, those beliefs and stories no longer become your identity. You realize that you are more than the stories you’ve told yourself. You are more than the pain that shaped you and left an imprint. Letting go is the most loving thing that you can do for yourself.

[lillorenzo]

sí lo soy

[chemicalarospec]

kind hate the group label "queer and trans [people of color]". Firstly, it kind of implies that trans people AREN'T queer. which like. hey. the word 'queer' is supposed to cover EVERY variation of 'normal'. It feels inches away from saying "cishet aspecs aren't queer, queer only means same-sex attraction", something insidious like that.

And secondly, I sometimes interpret it as trying to say "trans and gender-non-conforming-but-not-exactly-trans people" (ie, not including cis-conforming queer people), and honestly, I'm still not sure if that IS what people sometimes mean with it...

[joy-mariama-smith]

Applications for color block:RESONANCES

Dear queer* and/or trans* Black, Indigenous, People of Color* the applications for COLOR BLOCK: RESONANCES are now open.

info- email: colorblock00@gmail.com.

direct application link: https://forms.gle/DoM7kEHepTNM5XAD7

apply now 💅🏾

[seeruthievonrun]

I just think that now more than ever is the time to stop waiting for someone else to tell it how it is, and start telling it ourselves. 

It’s time to create art that doesn’t require institutional permission—art that isn’t shaped by the hands of those who profit from our ignorance and stagnation. Because these "daring" corporate narratives are anything but; they’re rehearsals of discomfort that ultimately challenge us to do nothing at all.

[niaking]

My books are on sale for pride season. Usually $20 each, you can get all three volumes of Queer & Trans Artists of Color for only $50 (and free shipping) until the end of June. These books include interviews with Janet Mock, Julio Salgado, Vivek Shraya and more! Get the discount here. Full listing of interviewees below the break.

VOLUME ONE (2014) ​CO-EDITED BY TERRA MIKALSON & JESSICA GLENNON-ZUKOFF

Mixed-race queer art activist Nia King left a full-time job in an effort to center her life around making art. Grappling with questions of purpose, survival, and compromise, she started a podcast called We Want the Airwaves in order to pick the brains of fellow queer and trans artists of color about their work, their lives, and “making it” - both in terms of success and in terms of survival.

In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses fat burlesque with MAGNOLIAH BLACK, queer fashion with KIAM MARCELO JUNIO, interning at Playboy with JANET MOCK, dating gay Latino Republicans with JULIO SALGADO, intellectual hazing with KORTNEY RYAN ZIEGLER, gay gentrification with VAN BINFA, getting a book deal with VIRGIE TOVAR, the politics of black drag with MICIA MOSELY, evading deportation with YOSIMAR REYES, weird science with RYKA AOKI, gay public sex in Africa with NICK MWALUKO, thin privilege with FABIAN ROMERO, the tyranny of “self-care” with LOVEMME CORAZÓN, “selling out” with MISS PERSIA and DADDIE$ PLA$TIK, the self-employed art-activist hustle with LEAH LAKSHMI PIEPZNA-SAMARASINHA, and much, much more. Buy book one here.

VOLUME TWO (2016) ​CO-EDITED BY ELENA ROSE

Building on the groundbreaking first volume, Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Nia King is back with a second archive of interviews from her podcast We Want the Airwaves. She maintains her signature frankness as an interviewer while seeking advice on surviving capitalism from creative folks who often find their labor devalued.

In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses biphobia in gay men’s communities with JUBA KALAMKA, helping border-crossers find water in the desert with MICHA CÁRDENAS, trying to preserve Indigenous languages through painting with GRACE ROSARIO PERKINS, revolutionary monster stories with ELENA ROSE, using textiles to protest police violence with INDIRA ALLEGRA, trying to respectfully reclaim one’s own culture with AMIR RABIYAH, taking on punk racism with MIMI THI NGUYEN, the imminent trans women of color world takeover with LEXI ADSIT, queer life in WWII Japanese American incarceration camps with TINA TAKEMOTO, hip-hop and Black Nationalism with AJUAN MANCE, making music in exile with MARTÍN SORRONDEGUY, issue-based versus identity-based organizing with TRISH SALAH, ten years of curating and touring with the QTPOC arts organization Mangos With Chili with CHERRY GALETTE, raising awareness about gentrification through games with MATTIE BRICE, self-publishing versus working with a small press with VIVEK SHREYA, and the colonial nature of journalism school with KILEY MAY. The conversation continues. Buy book two here.

VOLUME THREE (2019) ​CO-EDITED BY MALIHA AHMED

Is it possible to make art and make rent without compromising your values? Nia King set out to answer this question when she started We Want the Airwaves podcast in 2013. In her Queer & Trans Artists of Color book series, Nia collects podcast interviews — with Black, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern and Indigenous LGBTQ writers, musicians and visual artists — which feature both incredible storytelling and practical advice.

In the latest installment of the Queer & Trans Artists of Color series, Nia discusses performing at the White House with VENUS SELENITE, the global nature of colorism with KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE, writing for Marvel Comics with GABBY RIVERA, using lies to tell unspeakable truths with KAI CHENG THOM, Black mental health with ANTHONY J. WILLIAMS, curating diverse anthologies with JOAMETTE GIL, growing up trans in rural Idaho with MEY RUDE, covering crime as a baby-faced reporter with SAM LEVIN, feminist approaches to journalism with SARAH LUBY BURKE, documenting Black punk history with OSA ATOE, crossing color lines with QWO-LI DRISKILL, fat hairy brown goddesses with PARADISE KHANMALEK, the usefulness of anger with JIA QING WILSON-YANG, transitioning as death and rebirth with ARIELLE TWIST, surviving homelessness and touring the world with STAR AMERASU and much, much more. Buy book three here.

[curiouscrowcounseling]

Ah!!! My FIRST WORKSHOP!! It's Happening!!

& On one of my special interests (non traditional relationship structures).

This Valentine’s Day I’m hosting a workshop for those interested in transforming the way they think about relationships. In this workshop we will learn about the values and beliefs we’ve been taught about relationships, how these impact us today, and how we can liberate ourselves from rigid and limiting definitions of relationships and expand our minds toward a freer and more fluid understanding of connection and intimacy. In this 90 minute workshop - I will support participants in reflecting on how they’d like to build their own relationships through a mindset of abundance and creativity.

Join me and learn to create relationships that align with your values and suit your needs rather than defaulting to what you've been taught is a "real" and "successful" relationship. 

Who is this for? Anyone over the age of 18 who is interested in transforming how they engage in and think about relationships. If you're LGBTQIA+ South Asian this space is DEFINITELY for you!

Date: February 13th 8-9:30PM IST 

Location: Online/ Google Meet 

Cost: INR 2,222 / USD 25 

Facilitator: Akshita Vaidyanathan (she/they) , MSW, LICSW is a queer, Tamilian, neurodivergent polyamorous relationship anarchist and owner of Curious Crow Counseling - a private practice rooted in soul-centered, liberation oriented healing. She is a social worker, therapist and tarot reader as well as a survivor, cat mom, podcaster and dancer. They have a strong special interest in non traditional relationships and have previously led multiple workshops and support groups on attachment and relationships.

SIGN UP IF YOU'RE INTERESTED AND SHARE AMONGST YOUR COMMUNITY!

[serpientesuenos]

🔪🖤🌹✨

[gender-thoughts]

October 3 2019

October is Infant Loss Awareness Month and I’m thinking of Ansel.

What is a Mother?

I leaned on my mother. Both my parents.

And I leaned so hard.

Everyone kept telling me, 

"You're a good mom."

"You are a mother."

But when I heard the words or read them, I didn’t feel it for myself.

There was one beautiful and glorious moment 

when I felt in my bones, in my blood, like he knew me.

Like he took comfort in knowing I was near. 

And it was such a precious and fleeting moment 

that when I reached back to tried and remember, 

it was ghostly, cloudy, like mist on my fingers. 

I wanted so badly to feel worthy of being his mother. 

But the truth is that as I threw myself into the arms of my own mother 

and cried as she held me, comforted me and cried with me, 

I didn't feel like a mother at all.