Betwixt

And that’s fair- it’s not like people that age can’t have opinions or be right, they’re people.

But when I think about how long it took me to work out my own damn sexuality, gender, and all that crap, and how gently I stepped once I realised I was queer, and how much listening to people I did to see who the hell was out there…how much I am STILL learning about people who have different experiences…

…it feels really odd to see people this young being so secure in their belief of who should be excluded from the community. 

Not how to support and include, to help and support, but how to exclude.

Like…being confident in your own sexuality at 19? Fuck yeah, good for you, I’m happy you had a better chance and an earlier start than I did.

But… telling other people they’re not queer enough to be in ‘your’ space?

Your space? Not mine anymore? Huh.

I’m over here at 35 still listening and learning and trying to understand everyone’s perspectives, discovering that sexuality is even more complex and nuanced than I know…and all these people barely out of their teens are talking like they know everything there is to know about being LGBT, ever. Like it’s all been written down, stamped, sealed, confirmed by some Authority.

Mmmm. No. Just… have an ounce of humility. Try gaining some perspective, please.

You haven’t lived long enough to even really listen to real life aces, to really think about what LGBT means. I don’t mean this as an ageist insult, I just really think that this kind of shit deserves TIME- hell I know it deserves time and thought because I am STILL unlearning bad assumptions and behaviours, and STILL meeting people who define themselves outside of the frame that I was once taught meant ‘LGBT’. And you, a teen raised in a world that’s still pretty fucking homophobic and doesn’t recognise half of what the LGBT community itself has taken years to acknowledge, you think you know it all?

Because you’re online? While you’re here, read some posts where ace people talk about how they’re treated. Forget semantics for a while: read the experiences. I’m online too, I have been for some time. Doesn’t make me right, but experience is of some value. Experience in listening to queer people who aren’t quite like me, that is, in trying to understand how I am similar, instead of trying to figure out how they do not belong. In how people rework things, figure out how they can be less harmful, more inclusive, more representative of all those who are marginalised. See, Q is queer but also often Questioning. It’s still important to let people be Questioning, there is an astounding amount of queerphobia in the world and we are NOT done working out the labels. We may never be. Not so long ago, the T in lgbt was under question. Bisexuals are still being excluded.  So I’m being told I don’t matter by people who weren’t even born yet when I realised I wasn’t straight. They’re skipping right over all the reflection and going straight to self-affirmation by exclusion. 

Which, again- if you are born into a world where you never have to question your identity, oh good grief I hope that’s real for everyone some day. But we’re not there yet, yanno? And I resent being told that after all these years of soul-searching and careful, very careful questioning of whether I belong and how I can be a good member of the community, people arrive so 100% certain of their claim to being LGBT that the first thing they do is try to kick others out.

Professor Doctor Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, born this day (28 April).

OP and this art by Paul Kidby.

This pixel art by CoffeePoweredMachine.

Link to donate to KhalsaAid

https://www.khalsaaid.org/donate

This is one of the few cases where I advocate donating to organisations rather than individuals, because right now, in India, the breakdown of medical infrastructure is so bad that money won't help you. The effort is being carried out now by volunteers who are coordinating resources.

Link to donate to KhalsaAid

https://www.khalsaaid.org/donate

a lot of young teen lesbians on tumblr r aligning with the terf ideology without knowing properly what it stands for. so as an Older Lesbian with some 6 years of Being Out Experience i wanna clarify some things for you.

nobody is forcing you to be attracted to anyone

nobody is saying that if you aren’t attracted to [insert a trans woman name], you’re automatically transphobic and a terf. nobody is saying you have to have sex with trans girls if you aren’t attracted to them. just as nobody is saying you have to be attracted to every cis woman. and nobody is saying you have to have sex with gay girls you aren’t attracted to.

we are only asking you to respect trans women as women

and that’s really the least you could do! trans women (trans lesbians and wlw in particular) are just other girls out here trying to survive in this hetero world. and it’s hard being a lesbian already - but being a trans lesbian is so much harder. don’t make these girls feel even more alienated, don’t contribute to the hate that is turned against them. 

“but i don’t wanna have sex with someone with a penis”

if you end up never sleeping with anyone w a penis, that’s okay. being a lesbian isn’t just about who you have sex with. it’s also about who you love, who you’re attracted to and who you date. and one day you might find yourself falling in love with a trans girl. 

if that happens, just like in any relationship, you can negotiate your limits in sex. there’s no point in saying “i am not attracted to trans women” - because it makes it seem like trans women are inherently so much different from cis women, makes you sound like you think all trans women look/are the same and like you think of women as walking genitals. which is pretty misogynist! 

if we establish a system in which we use already existing empty housing to house homeless people…. it wont matter if the housing market crashes because were proposing the housing being free…..

if we establish a system in which we use already existing empty housing to house homeless people…. it wont matter if the housing market crashes because were proposing the housing being free…..

if we establish a system in which we use already existing empty housing to house homeless people…. it wont matter if the housing market crashes because were proposing the housing being free…..

How to Stop Republicans from Stealing Elections

Republican-controlled state legislatures have introduced over 361 voter suppression bills in 47 states, and some states, like Georgia, have already enacted them into law. 

There’s only one way to stop this assault on our democracy. It’s called the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT, and the window for Congress to pass it is closing.

These Republican voter suppression bills are egregious —they shrink early voting periods, add onerous voter ID requirements, limit eligibility for mail-in ballots, ban ballot drop boxes and drive-through voting, and even make it a crime to give voters in line water.

The FOR THE PEOPLE ACT, on the other hand, would prevent these tactics and make it easier to vote. In addition, gerrymandering would be reduced and the power of small political donors would be amplified.

It could not come at a more critical time.

The Republican assault on our democracy is based on the lie that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Multiple recounts in battleground states like Georgia found nothing. Investigations by the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department found nothing. 61 out of 62 courts found nothing.

Republicans claim they’re just listening to the concerns of their voters and restoring “trust” in our elections. Rubbish. The real purpose of these restrictions is to hamper voting by Black people, people of color, young people, and lower-income Americans. 

After Black voters and organizers in Georgia flipped the state blue for the first time in decades, the GOP is pulling out all the stops to prevent the same from happening in other states. The situation is even more dire given the upcoming once-in-a-decade redistricting process, allowing Republican-controlled states to further gerrymander congressional districts.

Their assault on the right to vote is a coordinated, national strategy led by top party leaders and outside dark-money advocacy groups like the Heritage Foundation. That group is working directly with state legislatures to provide them with “model legislation” and gearing up to spend $24 million in eight states to advance these bills ahead of the midterms.

Unless the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT becomes law, these restrictive state bills will go into effect before the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, and entrench Republican power for  years to come. So it’s essential we protect voting rights now, while we still can. 

This is not a partisan fight. It’s a battle between forces that want to go backward to an era of Jim Crow, and the majority of Americans who want to build a more inclusive democracy.

Yet the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT faces an uphill battle in the Senate because of the archaic filibuster rule that requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation.

The good news is Senate Democrats have the power to end the filibuster and thereby allow the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT to become law. It’s time for Democrats to unite on this, without hesitation.