#qttalk

[rxdqueer-miku]

H3LL0 3V3RI1!!!

[Hello Everyone!]

Mi name is QT or Cuti!! I'm perma16, radqueer, proship, and use trans ids (the antis are quivering in their hateful boots)

I'm pro-para (pro consensual contact, anti-c big three) and I have no DNI!! My blog is for everi1!!!

Mi alwais updating list of IDs to make the antis mad >w<

CisIDs: CisAAM, EvilParaphile, CisAutistic, CisADHD, CisPsycosis, CisGAD, CisMDD, DisgustingProshipper, RadQ4RadQ, IdentityFluid, HyperRomantic, HyperSexual, LuneBy, PresQuoGirl

TrisIDs: FemLoveSick, L0liSpecies, PermaBlush, PermaBandaged

TransIDs: TransJapanese, TransHarmful, ParasocialTransMAP4AAM, TransFailedSuicideAttempt, TransSuicidal, TransObsessive, TransCalloutDoc, TransPermaOnline, TransDigital, TransMilkshakeBlood, PermaLurker, TransVoices, PermaManic, TransTransFem, TransPerv*rt, TransHarmful4TransHarmed, DatingNonCon, TransLadyKiller, TransShapeshiftingSuccubus, TransPornActor

MI TAGS!!!

QTrblgs - reblogs

QTyaps - text posts

QTcoins - coining posts

QTbuilds - build a headmate posts

QThoards - reblogs of my ids

QTtalks - more serious reblogs/text posts

[quirkytalkline]

Attempting to make my own VTuber so I can start streaming

[peroxideprinces]

qttalk to em

i thitnk this says talk to me so !!

ive been rewatchin teen wolf again !!!! do youwanna hear ab it ??

[qttalk-blog]

QT Talk & Inter-Cambio Express Partnership

QT Talk, a leader in prepaid long distance, international calling, is excited to announce its recent partnering with Inter-Cambio Express, a money transmitter company specializing in wiring money to Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean....read more by clicking the link below..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48141454/ns/business-press_releases/t/qt-talk-partners-inter-cambio-express/#.UA10ZrSXSSp

[quirkytalkline]

Got my girl all set up

[qttalkpdx-blog]

Queer Influence: Brows and Books by Angelica Paz Ortiz

Even when I had long hair and wore short skirts, I was never fully femme. I was never read as the pretty girl. We might also consider that my self perception has always been and continues to be (although I am vehemently working to change this) tainted by societal standards of beauty and gender conformity that are centered in whiteness. All of which I do not meet. I never got as much attention from boys and men as my friends, cousins, tias did; which as I grew older I became very grateful for. Even in my femme days, I liked to shop in the Men’s section.In a family of predominantly women who grew up in San Francisco during the twists and turns of chola fashion, my shopping in the men’s section made a lot of sense. Yeah Mija, I like those little squares, my grandma would say as I brought home my first few starched flannels from the men’s sections of American Eagle and Kohls. In terms of gender performance, it is obvious to me that my grandma influenced me tremendously. Every day she wears the same look- red lipstick, light mascara, and long dark brown brows freshly penciled. She wears shades and puffed black vests over plaid long sleeve shirts. She is straight but her gender presentation, I have found, is not only queer in its embrace of masculinity (despite her role of housewife) but queer in its full bodied acceptance of her big Brown self. She’s a tough lady and she doesn’t have time for Eurocentric beauty standards and expectations of gender conformity.

Dressing in a way that I am read as queer or preferably, hella gay, has definitely helped me to really embrace and truly love and be grateful for my queerness. Since a lot of famous woman loving women are white I never really connected to a ton of openly gay, woman icons. However, upon my first year of college I found feminist theory, which is pretty often, queer as hell. Of my feminist library the book that rocked my gay world is without a doubt, Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Your Mothers Warned You About edited by Carla Trujillo. I had never even heard the words Chicana and lesbian together before this book. My ideas around Brown queerness before this book were mostly questions that I felt like I had no one to ask. Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Your Mothers Warned You About is full of stunning and warm poems and short stories written by queer Brown women. This book truly introduced me to loving my coarse and abundant dark hair, Brown skin, and big ass. I felt immense agency while reading poems about the histories, bodies, minds, and spirits of queer women I could actually relate to. Today, I am so grateful to be a big ol’ Brown queer. As always, with the help of incredible womxn of color and moving literature, I have begun to truly begin the journey of dismantling white supremacy by learning to love myself and my community.

This piece was written by Angelica Paz Ortiz. Angelica is a nerdy Brown queer  who loves food and feminism. They are Nicaragüense, Costa Rican and Chicanx. They love to teach, write, and eat eclectic varieties of cheese! They’re really into feminist research, feminist activism, & iced tea. 

[qttalkpdx-blog]

I wanted to reach out to you all To all my women of color To my black and brown and queer and Muslim and immigrant and undocumented and female and trans friends To all of my friends who hold or sit at the intersections of multiple targeted identities I know you're hurting We are mourning together today Let us take time to see each other Let us take time to hear each other Let us take time to hold each other Let us take time to recognize each other in this moment And then let us organize Because for us, revolution is in our DNA Survival is in blood The strength of our ancestors from generations lives in our bones Resilience flows through our veins 500 years of oppression has taught us a lot We have to hold tight to our stories Our culture Each other Because remember, they were so scared of our power They voted for hate They were so scared of our magic They needed force to control us They were so scared of our pure survival skills They didn't realize they were going to need us Hold each other close Remember how magical we are Know how powerful we become united We are here in this moment for a reason Recognize the revolution is upon us Remember you were built for it

“Organize” by Brianna Bragg//submitted to QT Talk PDX

Brianna is a queer, two-spirit, womyn of color and size, you can contact her at qsoc@pdx.edu

[qttalkpdx-blog]

Visionary Feminism by Margaret L.

I think most of us can agree that 2016 was A LOT...a lot of good, a lot of bad, a lot of conversations, a lot of emotions, a lot of changes, a lot of memes, and a lot more. As 2k17 begins, there’s a lot of “New Year! New *insert cheesy motivational alternative reality here*!”. As if the change of the calendar will spark a change of reality. I’m sure by now you’re thinking something along the lines of, “Wow..what a downer”....... or maybe I’m just projecting. Anywhooo, I’m actually meaning to say quite the opposite. Just because we don’t automatically change with the tick of the clock, doesn’t mean we can’t continue to grow and learn and change in 2k17.

So. Visionary Feminism. Ever heard of it?

“To be truly visionary we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality.”

         -bell hooks (Feminism is for Everybody)

I figured bell hooks could describe it better than I ever could; so there ya go. I would encourage you all (myself included) to read more of bell hooks’ words if you haven’t already and if you can! I was first introduced to bell hooks in a Women’s Studies 101 class with Feminism is for Everybody being one of the books assigned. When reflecting on the reading as a class, the person offering the course, Sally, described Visionary Feminism in her own words as, “Rather than focusing on liberation from _____, focus on liberation for ____.”  

I know. Right?

What do I even know? I know that I know a lot. I just don’t know it in the same way anymore. Which I think might mean I learned something? I can’t tell what Sally’s goal was; to confuse me or to bring clarity. Maybe both. Anywhooo, these tangents have a point, I promise.

Visionary Feminism. 2017. “New Year! New Possibilities!”

It’s a new year, and it has a lot of possibilities, and it’s informed by the old year/s (ya know, all of that stuff that has happened even if we wish it hadn’t...aka 2016), and there’s a lot of work to do. Visionary Feminism is acknowledging the past, recognizing where we are at right now, and envisioning and practicing what the future can be. It’s more than just accepting the way things are; it’s going beyond that to empower ourselves and others as individuals, communities, and loved ones through activism and practicing our visionary feminism.

Liberation for me.

Liberation for you.

Liberation for us.

Liberation for _________

This article was written by Margaret L. Margaret is a queer cat luvr. She uses she/her/hers pronouns and is currently studying Social Sciences and American Sign Language/ Deaf Studies. Her thumb is green and her future unknown.

[qttalkpdx-blog]

This is Why Queers Protest by Grace Piper

I am sitting in the Cinebar in West Salem watching a $6.50 matinee of “Rogue One” on the day that Carrie Fisher died and I am feeling heavy, I am holding back tears throughout most of the movie, not just for Carrie, but for me too. I remember being young and my whole family gathering on the couch in piles and we would stuff the VHS  in and watch in awe with a dialogue to follow. This is still common practice for us when we get together. Growing up, this made my first hero the bad ass herself, Leia Organa, who literally killed fascists, was a well trained activist and strategist, and really carried the rebellion (in my opinion more than Luke, but that’s a different article). As each new movie set comes out, we are presented with a femme doing the emotional labor of the movement (seriously though, Padme), as well as making the strides and helping us move on to restoring balance to the force (Thanks Jyn and probably Rey). I was inspired by their bravery, their tenacity, and most importantly, by their action. My youth connected me to Star Wars and to my activism. In watching “Rogue One,” I couldn’t help but cry because I could feel it, the way the film shows the growing fascist regime, the work they are doing to build the Death Star with the sole intent of destroying entire planets and wiping out entire groups of people-aliens-what have you. And I can’t help but feel like we are headed therein some way too. 

This cold year has housed a number of protests, particularly in Portland as well as nationally, and worldwide. State sanctioned violence against marginalized people is still rising (Huffington post reported that over 250 black people have been killed by police officers in 2016), world wide, transgender people are being murdered (click here to read about it), basic rights like if you can use a bathroom are still in question, the DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) is being unlawfully built despite being condemned by the Obama Administration late last year. And this is just what we can see. We know that people are being crushed by a violent system of oppression, that people are dying because they don’t have access to resources to survive. In the past couple of years, I have personally participated in various protests. At one point in time I had on a date where we went to a #DisarmPSU protest and debriefed afterwards over chai in a dirty coffee shop. I am not at every protest, but I believe in the change that they can create and I am cautious to criticize the ways in which marginalized people deal with their anger. Following the election, following the deaths of innocent people, following the massacre in Orlando, so many of us have found one another and called for action by taking action. In doing so, I have personally been asked “what does protesting even actually do?” “but why do they have to be violent?” or simply “protesting never works.” I am personally exhausted with this (by that I mean tired of being tokenized as a vocal QTPoC), but putting it in writing, sorting it through analysis, is how I can bring it to light, the reasons why queers protest.

We are not represented in the dominant paradigm. There are less than 10 out queer or trans (like every single possible LGBTQIA+ identity) representatives in congress. There are 535 total representative in the House and the Senate and there are seriously less than 10 queer and trans reps. I applaud the bravery it takes to be there and I applaud the bravery it takes to be outed and remain a minority in government work. Even though I feel for these people and I have so much tenderness for our little bit of representation, how can this handful of people possibly put our needs out there and get it through? How can those few people get ⅔ of the congress to believe us? In terms of statistics, it is really not probable. (Special shout out to these trans women who ran for office this year, y’all are amazing.) When traditional forms of change don’t work, we have to make our own means of change. This is why we protest.

Protests are a place in which the work of femmes can be recognized. In the academy, in government, in traditional forms of change or creations of knowledge, masculinity and men are celebrated. In protests, women and femmes carry us (kind of like how I mention that stuff about Star Wars), and particularly trans femmes and women of color. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, Storme DeLarverie, the women leading the Women’s March following inauguration day, Molala, literally any of these women, I could go on. This kind of representation does not happen in traditional forms of change because money can’t be made unless someone is exploited, because white supremacist patriarchy is not powerful unless someone is suppressed, even when femmes do the work, men are often finding ways to masquerade it as their own. Femmes carry our world’s emotional labor and then still are not allowed in public domain, but in protesting, it is their domain.

Protest are on the cutting edge of a radical and progressive politic and that pushes the mainstream movement. They spread the word to the crevices of your town, of your country. To clarify, when I am discussing radicals, I do not mean TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists), I mean, as Angela Davis says “grasping things at the root.” Radicals are think deeper and search for the source of problems and of oppression. Liberals and often mainstream democrats are searching for the bandaid fix for the problem (like how do we make more people profit from capitalism, rather than how do we find a system that does not exploit people to create profit). What I mean is that radicals are so indepth and thorough in the think and activism, that they pave the way for new knowledge. Even when that new way of thinking does not catch on right away, it does eventually, it get’s adopted and employed in general progressive thought over time. Radical ideas pull us forward immediately and eventually.

#FunFact protests and rallies work. Here is a casual list of 7 protests that worked that I thought of off the top of my head in less than 2 minutes. In all of these, marginalized people unified, organized, planned an action (rally, civil disobedience, protest), and it accomplished one of their goals. The thing about protests is that a goal can be to completely overthrow a system, it can be to create a policy change, and it can also be to spread a message. These people were loud and someone listened. I want to add that I include violent protests/riots in this list because they have been effective forms of activism. Like I said earlier, I am cautious to critique the ways in which marginalized people chose to voice their anger, such as through destruction of property, when mass amounts of people are being overtly and covertly murdered in a dominant paradigm of normalized violence and state sanctioned violence (like Banana Republic probably made it just fine with a cracked window, y’all).

There are people in our country and worldwide who feel completely isolated, invisible, or unheard. There are people who do not have a wealth of community to lean back on. There are people who rely on the internet or the news to find any source of support. If you were not aware, since the election of Donald Trump, calls and texts on all major suicide hotlines have reached all time highs, particularly for queer and trans people. As queer and trans people, we often feel scared, and it is recent events (also such as HB2), that are affecting our safety in a multidimensional way. I do not know everything about what is going on for these people, but I do know that having community and support can make a person feel safer. When I do not know what to do, I reach out for community, and the creation of rallies and protests can create a community among the people who are there, but I can’t help but hope there is someone who needed it sees it too on the news or online somewhere. I can’t help but hope that the rural queers, that the black and brown kids, that the children of immigrants, that anyone who is afraid can see that there are thousands of people there for them, that are rooting for them, that are fighting for them, that hear them. That is why I protest. I am scared, but I am still there, for me and for them.

Following watching “Rogue One,” my family went home and put in “A New Hope” and began playing card games. “A New Hope” is pretty immediate after “Rogue One” and leads us into the bravery and strength of taking down the Empire’s oppressive government system in the “Star Wars” universe. As I watched the badass Leia herself take Luke’s blaster following his terrible rescue, she shoots open the vent to the garbage chute, and says to Han, “somebody’s got to save our skins,” I got a text from a friend that said “be like Leia in 2017. Fight on the front lines. Strangle fascists with the chains they would have you wear. Be a motherfuckin’ general.”

Next month keep an eye out for a follow up to this article as I head out to Washington DC to participate in the Women’s March on Washington following the inauguration of Donald Trump.

This piece was written by Grace Piper, a QTPoC Portlander with an interest in cheese and education.

[qttalkpdx-blog]

What is QT Talk?

QT Talk was first thought up a couple of months ago, I had first bought a dyke shirt on the internet, the the crack in the U.S. political system had just completely unhinged, and all of us pals had just been to a queer ladies dance night that left us feeling jazzed and also bummed at the lack of community and space we are finding (or not finding). This idea for a newsletter made for and by queer and trans people materialized shortly after. Honestly, we are just a couple of queer and gender nonconforming nerdy feminist pals who are drawn towards writing, radical thinking, and art. This is our way of taking action, of being direct, and building community and thought. We invite you and the other queer and trans cuties to divulge in what we are putting forward and help us continue to put it forward. This is not just a space for our own thoughts, this is a community; if you have art to share, an analysis piece you wrote, want us to help publicize your book, really whatever, contact us--we want you! This is for us, for you, to take over and to claim what is yours. Education, feminism, politics, the academy, publishing, let’s queer it, right here.

QT Talk is a monthly newsletter created by and for queer and transgender people. We are here to cultivate alternative queer media focusing on the writing, art, and ideas with specific interest in elevating and amplifying topics on feminism, anti-racism, decolonization, and trans liberation. QT Talk works to be current and forward with all of the work published. Everything you say is created by a queer or trans person. This is your way to get monthly news, tips on your practice, learn about local artists, and find community.

This short piece was written by Grace Piper, a QTPoC Portlander with an interest in cheese and education. 

[qttalkpdx-blog]

Interrupting Oppression Tip of the Month (January)

With the inauguration coming up, we can all expect a lot of pushback against our identities as queer and trans people. Right now is a time where you should find ways to speak up within positions of privilege that you may hold. This is the time to continue putting yourself out there and demanding that others listen. Help other queers by putting in the emotional labor if you can, so they don’t have to. 

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Welcome to your monthly Resource Roundup where your pals at QT Talk share articles, videos, and cool resources that we have been using the past month. Everything that is underlined is a clickable link! Reblog and add your resources that you have been going back to lately. 

Angela Davis gave a speech at UC Davis in 2006 on how we create change. She talks about envisioning change, how knowledge is made, and how to use knowledge in transformative ways. Seriously, take an hour to watch this speech. In the name of visionary feminism, the new year, and the rise of fascism, please listen to this treasured feminist.

Fundraising and donating are some of the best ways to support a movement, especially when you are not able to participate otherwise, or maybe it would not be appropriate for you to participate otherwise. However, donating money can always be complicated because money is complicated, but here are a few tips on how to make monetary contribution more possible.

Being non-binary, and particularly a non-binary femme, can be a difficult place to be situated because of pervasive misgendering, even in queer and feminist spaces. This article can give you some support, and is great to share with your pals who keep calling it “ladies night” when you in fact are not a lady.

2016 was filled with attention to queer women being killed off on television. So few shows are doing this right and are instead relying on tropes and stereotypes. However, if you are looking for a queer web show that is about queer women of color and has a happy ending, it’s right here.

Every year there are lot’s of people who want to make reading a priority for their New Year’s resolution. If you’re going to commit to that (personally, I am a nerd and will be committing) then start with a list of queer and feminist books. Click here for the list!

I am working hard to consume as much media as I can by women of color, and particularly by queer women of color. Bitch Media, a local feminist media source in Portland, put out an incredible photo essay by a woman of color, who showcases other people of color as they have a dialogue about the complexity of “joy.” Seriously great read. Click here for the article. 

This month’s Resource Roundup was compiled by Grace Piper, a QTPoC Portlander with an interest in cheese and education.

[qttalkpdx-blog]

We published our first newsletter! Read it in full right here, by clicking above. If you didn’t receive our newsletter, it’s probably because you did not subscribe with your email. You can of course, see our content on this page, but with the email subscription you will get it all at once, directly to you! Click here to subscribe. 

[qttalkpdx-blog]

Welcome to QT Talk!

Hey there pals! At QT Talk PDX, we are really excited to get started. Today is the first day of our website. As you get to this page, make sure to sign up for the monthly newsletter. Although content will be on this page, you’ll get the whole roundup for the month in your inbox on the 10th of every month beginning January 10th. We know that is a month to wait for full content, but we promise it will be good. 

[qttalk-blog]

QT Talk Partners with Order Express!

QT Talk, a leader in mobile, prepaid, international calling, is announcing its recent coalition with Order Express, a money transfer company providing services to many countries in Latin America. QT Talk has experienced significant growth in the past year with its international calling service Pure Minutes. With its ability to offer customers a simple, cost-efficient alternative to calling cards, Pure Minutes has become a household name for many foreign-born callers throughout the northeast....read more by clicking the link below....

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/qt-talk-partners-with-order-express-1677114.htm