folk punk 5ever

I am Abood from Gaza 🍉🇵🇸

My family and I have been living under bombardment and fear for 10 months 🇵🇸🇵🇸🍉 Small donation of $10 from each person. Every donation, no matter how small, can make a huge difference in my life. I need you to donate to save my life and the life of my family. Help us rebuild our lives or share the post with your friends

Please help me, even if it is a simple thing. It has been a long time and no one has helped me

🍉🇵🇸⬇️ Help me (please see my bio and story)

https://gofund.me/d926679d

This appears to have been vetted and is legit!!

Y’all, I know everyone is going through it right now, but if anyone has some extra funds and you feel like helping me celebrate a little bit, I’d appreciate it more than you know.

I try not to vent too much here, and I don’t want to share too much of a sob story, but I will say that I lost my job recently, and while I am so grateful and glad that I am surviving, fun money is not a thing I have right now. So again, if anyone feels like helping me celebrate, I’d be so grateful.

Before I answer this, I want to invite my followers who may have ideas to also chime in! Let’s brainstorm together!

So as far as symbolism goes, the first thing that comes to mind are lavender flowers and green carnations. Both were used historically to signal to other queer people that one is queer. Specifically, lavender flowers were used by wlw and green carnations were used by mlm, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use either or both regardless of your identity. I personally have a tattoo of a lavender flower and a carnation side by side as a symbol of my queer identity.

As far as queer craftivism in general, I would suggest looking into local social service orgs that may have a reputation for being affirming of queer people, and seeing what needs they have, then going from there.

Here in the U.S. many social service providers have clothing closets, which can be real game changers for all poor people, but especially poor trans people (I was once a houseless trans teenager, so many of my first affirming outfits, including my first suit, came from a clothing closet.) If you do any sort of fiber art, taking the time to make a few pieces would be a lovely way of supporting queer people in your community.

If you’re interested in cooking or baking, and you find an org that serves meals, see if you can volunteer to bring in a meal or two every month.

If your crafts are a little less in the realm of “practically used items” and more in the realm of “fun to make and look at”, maybe see if you could host a crafting group/class for an org (also from my houseless trans teen adventures: a group of my friends at the shelter learned how to make paracord bracelets while I was busy doing something else, and one of my friends found it so enjoyable that they made at least two for everyone in the shelter.)

I apologize for answering this so late- I am just now seeing it.

First, prioritize your safety. As queer people, our very existence is radical, and if you have that drive to be who you are in the face of those who hate you, by all means- do it. Don’t put yourself in unsafe circumstances to do it, though. If coming out to your parents is likely to get you kicked out, don’t come out yet. If coming out to your friends from church is likely to get you in conversion therapy, don’t do it yet. I do not want to encourage anyone to be inauthentic, but if you need to wait to come out for your survival, please wait.

Second, I want to stress that if you’re in a place where you’re being misgendered, you’re unable to present yourself how you want, and/or you’re unable to date who you want, this will not be the case forever. I’ll be real with you: I’m a few weeks shy of 23, and life is ROUGH but I would never go back to the days where I wasn’t respected by those around me. You’re going to reach this point one day, too.

Please do what you can to access comprehensive sex-Ed resources. I suggest the Planned Parenthood website. This goes for all teens, but especially queer teens, bc I know many of the ways I had sex as a teen were not discussed in health class.

I want to touch on something here that many queer people have a hard time really talking about, but it needs to be said: queer teens (especially within queerphobic communities) are often the targets of predatory queer adults. No, I do not mean this in the “trans people are grooming minors” way, but the fact of the matter is, when someone is vulnerable, looking for connection, and is unable to trust other adults in their life, they become an easy target. I was groomed as a teen. Many of my friends were groomed as teens. As such, I encourage you to be aware of any warning signs of grooming, and always tell someone safe if you notice those warning signs.