Soaring in the Upper Air of Faith

[ED. — DO NOT PUBLISH UNTIL AWFUL LADY IN THE GROUND]

- prime minister is a cunt. Had like a bajillion scandals

- latest one was apparently one two many. Two extremely important cabinet members resigned within minutes of each other

- within the next 24 hours about a third of the government resigned

- one resigned live on tv. Five resigned with the same letter to save time

- previous record for government resignations within 24 hours was 6 and it it was in the 1930s. We are, as I’m writing this, on 45 resignations

- Michael Gove, another cunt who is hated by all, was going to resign but was sacked instead in what appears to be the prime minister going “you can’t quit you’re fired!”

- government meetings are being cancelled because there is literally nobody in those departments anymore

- despite literally everyone begging him at this point to leave, including his most loyal little evil henchman, prime minister is refusing to resign in disgrace as is traditional for British prime ministers

- prime minister genuinely seems to be in complete denial anything serious is happening

Lesbians were also getting hiv/aids and dying from it and taking care of themselves and their community.

Women faced extra challenges when they got sick, because the CDC ignored symptoms seen mostly in women in their aids definition and locked women with aids out of lifesaving disability benefits. Trans women faced additional challenges on top of that and fought additional battles to get access to health care and disability benefits.

Lesbians were central to ACT UP, planning and participating in many daring direct actions in the fight for hiv/aids health care, and they brought with them years of experience from feminist activism around health care. Lesbians were on the front line in EVERY SINGLE big action around hiv/aids health care.

It was first stated that the ban would be dropped entirely, but a revision was made a few hours later, stating that it would go ahead for sexualities, but not gender identities - against the advice of the NHS (That's the National Health Service, for those outside of the UK), even.

People living in the UK are urged to contact your MP, there is a site geared to help you do this;

Pretty good short video on how bad the new Harry Potter game is

you see, everybody's favorite evil corp, Amazon, bought Indian publishing house Westland some six years ago. Now Westland is a very famous and reputed publishing house in India, and has put forth some of the best titles the country has seen. It didn't shy away from controversial and uncomfortable topics, and some of its books quite vocally criticise the current government, which has been responsible for the current state of india as a pseudo-democratic, pseudo-secular, economically ruined country, the most notable one being The Price of the Modi years by Aakar Patel. It also produced Amish Tripathi's pathbreaking Shiva Trilogy.

Now here's the thing that got me nuts.

AMAZON. SHUT. IT. DOWN. A WEEK AGO.

JUST OUT OF THE BLUE, IT IS CLOSING DOWN WESTLAND FOREVER. NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IS TO COME OF THE HUNDREDS OF TITLES PUBLISHED BY IT, OR OF THE AUTHORS ITS CONTRACTED, OR THE PEOPLE EMPLOYED BY IT.

It has triggered a buying surge in India, as people go on shopping spress to get their hands on the titles they want from this house. Short on supply and high on demand, bookstores across India are showing solidarity and moving surplus books around.

here you go with a few links that i think sum up the problem quite nicely, and please guys. just. please support westland.

here they talk about how this is becoming a trend with global corps.

here they talk about the future of indian publishing houses.

this one talks about a bleak future for literature and how it feels like we're living in a dystopian novel

Into reports of the sudden and wonderful blossoming of the #CisWithTheT twitter hashtag in Britain.

Some say it was a toxic BBC article spreading TERF lies that created the uproar, while others point to the  Dave Chappelle tragedy.

Regardless, suddenly a lot of cis people had had enough of the transphobia and came out in strong support of trans people. 

Here are a few of the tweets:

@SMichaelsonn: Cis lesbian here; I am not threatened by trans women using female spaces (where they belong) or using the term ‘lesbian’. What I /am/ threatened by is people constantly weaponising me against my trans sisters and policing gender non-conformity.

@SpillerOfTea #CisWithTheT currently trending at Number 4 in the United Kingdom. Because, as nearly every poll shows (except the ones conducted amongst 80 hand-picked transphobes), the majority of cis women support trans inclusivity, but are silenced by a minority of hateful bigots.

@KateHeywood8 I’m a CIS woman and am furious on an almost daily basis by the increasingly absurd actions of the toilet obsessives. Trans women are most definitely welcome to use the same spaces as me. Love to our trans sisters #CisWithTheT

@hotmessica__ I’m a cishet woman and I’m genuinely terrified of the GCs [gender critical feminists]  who try to reduce my womanhood to just my genitals and organs. I’ve been questioned in a toilet once because I’m tall, broad shouldered and dress tomboyish. GC ideology is a threat to all people #CisWithTheT

Link to open letter here!

@rhipratchett: Hate can not be allowed to win. Be better humans. Choose kindness, understanding and inclusion. I stand with the trans community today and always.  #CisWithTheT

@AffleckEmma: I am a cis lesbian and I am so sick of seeing people who normally don’t give a damn about lesbian rights (and who are outright homophobes) tweeting #IStandWithLesbians because they want to claim all trans people are predators. Your bigotry is not progressive. #CisWithTheT

@23rdspiral: I’m a 40yr old cis woman. Until last year I had an amazing elderly relative who transitioned when I was a teen. It never occurred to me she was anything other than herself. I miss her. Trans women are women. GCs don’t speak for me their ‘feminism’ is not feminism. #CisWithTheT

It seems good cis people have had enough of the constant barrage of transphobic falsehoods produced by trans-exclusionary radical feminists and  right wing extremists. Good people see and feel the suffering this propaganda is causing among trans people. Many of them also understand that this is a repeat of the homophobic rhetoric of yesterday.