The Gaslighting Magician: This is your card

Over twenty years ago my big brother got me a job at a Taco Bell in the St. Louis suburbs-West County. He warned me that it was the “gay Taco Bell”, but since I was coming from the “gay Howard Johnson’s” I wasn’t shocked. It turns out it was the black trans women Taco Bell complete with black trans women in management. And they’d worked out an arrangement with the local teen Narcotics Anonymous group so that twice a week we would shut down the drive thru and the dining room and exclusively serve 60+ teens in various stages of recovery. And many of the women I worked with were in various stages of being out or transitioning and they were from all generations from teens to over 50. One woman I worked with had a regular corporate job presenting as a man 9-5 Mon-Fri and then came to Taco Bell and worked 6pm -2am Friday and Saturday night so she could be herself surrounded by other black transwomen in those stolen weekends. And we had customers come from all over the metro area because they knew they could be themselves in the dining room. I only worked there from 1999-2001 but for young me, this was a vital, formative experience. Some of the girls came from north city all the way out to the “gay Taco Bell” on Manchester in west county because they heard it was safe to work there. Like- I know times have changed but they haven’t changed much in 20 years. I’m still convinced that for lgbt youth, finding a job at your city’s version of the “gay Taco Bell” is key to survival.

Thank u for sharing this with us

Two trans girls brutally murdered in the span of a week but they're doing "hypervisibility" discourse on twitter. Feeling real privileged by my "hypervisibility" rn

Like two years ago I ran into a salamander biologist in the woods who complimented my ability to 'walk quietly in the forest while causing minimal disturbance to the leaf litter.' Still goes to my head.

disco elysium is one of the best examples imo of how massive a gap can exist between a piece of media and the conversations around it. if you’ve never played it i think you’d be forgiven for thinking its some sort of fun gay buddy cop romp from how ppl present the story online

i still can’t get over the choice the developers made to give harry amnesia at the start. which is par for the course for rpgs ofc but instead of building him into something from a blank slate like you would in other rpgs you have to gradually uncover what a monumentally creepy violent fascistic pathetic piece of shit he is. and at every turn you have to contend with the fact that the public sees him and knows him as he “was” instead of how you might want to play him. and the game tells you outright that what breaks harry psychologically isn’t even the violence he enacts as an arm of the state its the dissolution of his relationship (these things are not disconnected sure but the brutality of his role as a cop is not the catalyst for his breakdown). its not about guilt or remorse for what he’s done, it’s up to you whether you feel guilty or remorseful on his behalf. also its just so ballsy to make a game about never giving up fighting for a more just world for everyone and your entry point is You Are A Cop And Everyone Here Rightfully Detests You. And You Didn’t Give A Shit About That A Day Ago. and even if you choose to give a shit about it now (if) it doesn’t mean all is forgiven it doesn’t mean you get to feel good about yourself. you’re still a cop. and if you want to pretend to be a Radical Communist Cop go ahead but we’ll take the piss out of you for it. man its such a good game

Everything I read about recovering from burnout is like “it takes months or even years to fully recover” and it’s like okay…. I have a weekend before I gotta clock in on Monday

For anybody not caught up: Tennessee just passed a new map that pretty much makes it so black neighborhoods have no power in local votes. Two things about this. While protestors were chanting "No Jim Crow", white Tennessee lawmakers were caught laughing on video. On top of this, Representative Justin Pearson and his brother KeShaun Pearson were arrested for trying to give their takes on the matter (which is not only their legal right but literally his job). If you give a shit about black people, help fight this. We can't allow a return to Jim Crow.