I Am Not Hopeful. I Am Not Optimistic. I AM Sure.

national best friends day

This tool lets you find your MP and send them an email just by putting in your postcode and details.

Asking your MP to join this and support us gives us a chance at walking this back.

It takes less than 5 minutes. The email is pre-written, but you can add you own experiences and concerns.

Made a zine to distribute with info and a link/QR code to the tool. It is aimed primarily at people who aren't trans or trans allies (including latent transphobes).

Please feel free to print this off & distribute it in your area. It can be printed on A4 paper, or you can access versions that have 2 smaller copies to an A4 page here. (smaller copies saves paper, makes them easier to pocket. my distribution technique is finding tactical places in public to leave them; public transport, on tables in cafes, near other leaflets. you can hand them out directly at Prides etc if you feel confident with that).

It was never just about bathrooms.

Here’s how the guidance fails:

The new Code of Practice fails against all three tests set out for it being workable for trans people: 

- It does not offer clear ways for gendered services to remain trans inclusive

- It does not clearly protect the freedom of association for gender-based organisations who wish to be trans inclusive, such as the Women’s Institute

- It does not uphold the UK’s human rights obligations, causing widespread outing, and requiring perception-based gender policing by service providers

Additionally, it represents a major step back for LGBTQ+ progress in the UK, providing a roadmap for people to launder prejudice against any LGBTQ+ person as legitimate belief. In its own impact assessment, the Government acknowledges that this new guidance may have negative impacts on trans people, disabled people and cis women who will be subjected to the same gender policing.

The new Code would conscript every receptionist and frontline worker into the ‘gender police’, leaving them to navigate the Government’s cruel and contradictory guidance or face legal consequences for either challenging the wrong person, or failing to challenge a trans person.

It will relegate trans people to third spaces, treating our community as a liability to everyone around us while imposing ridiculous costs – more than half a billion – on organisations that will have to adapt their spaces to meet these requirements.

their bus was just their longtime managers that they trusted (fleur, mike, and marianne) and loui (aka "drake" their bodyguard) so they probably felt more comfortable to just share the bed without overthinking it

'Despite everything, it's still you'

i think the way dnp talk about the first london flat compared to how we've always felt about it is so representative of that time in our relationship

it genuinely was our shared apartment. they filmed in every room, we knew every corner by heart, the entire place was COVERED in phanart and fan gifts. even the light switches and the windows and their literal closets had remnants of us on them

for us, for the fans, we felt welcome there. it felt inviting and like a digital community space because in many ways it WAS. the first london flat felt like home and it's so interesting to see just how many people are nostalgic for it in the way you would a place you used to actually live (me included! i still feel that apartment in my chest)

we were invited there twice a week for liveshows and they asked our opinions on the decor. they'd take us into the kitchen to cook dinner. we sat on their real life beds with them for 5 years! you'd give them a mug or a pair of socks or a hand painted phone case and know it was being used in a home you all built together

here is a very long post i made about how deep and complex our relationship was with them

dnp remember that flat as the time they had no work/life balance and they went to sleep every night with a tripod by the bed and they felt like the audience owned them because we were paying their rent and they were building this empire with us. but because of this they had no break from us. their house wasn't an escape from the stress and work and nonstop speculation because they'd accidentally invited us in

obviously they still have happy memories there and it wasn't all bad but even in their "we're moving out" video they talked about how they couldn't be less emotional about it even though they knew WE would be! some of the most stressful times of their life were in that flat. this was the flat that people would walk up to and KNOCK ON THE DOOR and follow them home (especially after they accidentally leaked the address). nothing in that house ever got to be private