FREE PALESTINE

After a much needed season of rest, reflection, and rebuilding, we're opening our arms again! The EFC Discord server is officially back :)

In the past, this space held hundreds upon hundreds of people across the globe! This included organizers, students, artists, healers, thinkers, dreamers, and more. Each of these individuals showed up to learn together, exchange resources, and care for one another through deeply political times, like now! We're so excited to welcome new family members into the next iteration of this living ecosystem.

Our Discord, after all, is the beating heart of our global connections at EFC. It is a place for shared study, peer support, embodied dialogue, and collective imagination. We want to help you learn and connect globally while organizing locally! And because we value trust, vulnerability, and alignment, we're welcoming folks in with intention through a short invitation form.

If you feel called to grow alongside a global, Black-, queer-, disabled-, woman-, AND youth-run collective rooted in decolonial, revolutionay, and embodied wisdoms, we'd love to meet you. Genuinely.

Remember: Take your time. Be yourself. We'll take care with your words!

See you soon :)

Sincerely,

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.

So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.

Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

"I've lost so much weight I'm so healthy" your stomach is mutilated.

"My doctor is praising my progress" your stomach is mutilated.

"I fit in so many more clothes now"

Because an essential, life sustaining organ in your body was cut up and your digestive system rerouted.

Health isn't the end all be all of value, humanity or importance but I feel like there is a huge lie here when this is "healthy" and it's just ignored.

Sorry to just bring this up out of no where but I was reminded of how little this is really talked about in bypass circles. Like, no matter what, you are now unhealthy. The spector of health continues. The Ouroboros is unbroken. Only this time it's doctor approved.

This is the lap band. Often touted as being the safest because the band can be removed or at least opened up to allow more food through. What does it do specifically? Makes it so that you can only eat as much as will fit in that teeny tiny little pouch. The issue is that the stomach itself as a full functioning organ is designed to stretch to hold food. The artificially made pouch is not. Eat a bit too much on a normal stomach and you typically just feel bloated and full and need to lie down for a while. Eat a little too much with a lap band, and you can cause the esophagus to stretch out too much and stop contracting. This can lead to severe acid reflux and loss of the ability to swallow properly. In an extreme case this could instead rupture the esophagus and/or stomach which is a medical emergency for obvious reasons. The band can also slip out of place and construct the larger part of the stomach, causing severe pain and discomfort. This is the only one of these procedures that is reversible.

Gastric sleeve is another form. It amounts to removing 80% of the stomach, permanently limiting the amount of food you can eat at a time DRASTICALLY. It can also cause frequent or constant drops in blood sugar, hernias (the small intestine may enter the incision site, or the mutilated stomach may slip out of its place and interfere with other organs), severe acid reflux, malnutrition, and frequent vomiting. Incision site can also build up scar tissue that further obstructs the stomach and prevents eating normally.

This "medical device" literally locks a person's jaw shut so that they physically cannot open their mouth to eat. The person is supposed to survive on a "liquid diet," but that doesn't work. It's starvation enforced by locking a fat person's mouth shut. I also purposefully chose this photo instead of the photo of it actually in a person's mouth because that photo is disturbing and horrifying as fuck.

Some quotes about the device:

University of Otago Health Sciences Pro-Vice-Chancellor Paul Brunton called it "an effective, safe and affordable tool for people battling ob*sity."

...

In the study, the authors say that the main barrier to successful weight loss with dietary advice and restriction is "poor patient adherence." DentalSlim does solve that problem, as people will be forced to adhere while their jaw is bolted shut.

I'm not even going to explain how the word "ob*se" is a slur because people on this website who even claim to be progressive have shown me that we apparently can't handle critical thinking about "a medical term" being bigoted and discriminatory.

What's so wickedly disgusting about that second quote is that there is no scientifically-proven method of long-term, sustainable weight loss. No matter how hard a person tries, no matter how much "willpower" they have, they will gain back the weight. The failure rate of weight loss within 3-5 years is 95%. I don't think a 5% success rate would exist if weight loss actually was "that easy" and "just a matter of willpower and lifestyle changes!!!! uwu" So that second quote is saying that because human bodies physically cannot intentionally lose weight long-term, it's okay to pretend it's a fat person's fault and punish them by locking their jaw shut so they can never eat or speak for as long as they're forced to wear that device.

There's also jaw wiring surgeries:

And then there's this horror:

This is literally, in all senses of the word, medically-approved bulimia 2.0

I'm disgusted the name of this device is "Aspire Assist" because it literally means "Aspire to be skinny and we'll totally help you achieve that we swear just give us your money 😇" This cruel device is used to make the process easier for a fat person to throw up in a toilet after eating. Because, you know, eating disorders don't count if the person is fat, right? I mean, that's what my own OBGYN implied to me when I told her I had been severely suicidal for two months and was starving for 8-12 hours a day due to anorexia. Being told that I was doing a good job and to "just do it in a slightly healthier way. Intermittent fasting is good as long as it's due to choice and not mood 😊" when I was struggling not to die was incredible. And all because I'm a fat person with PCOS, which just makes her words extra disgusting because PCOS causes weight gain and prevents weight loss, making that 95% failure rate even higher for me. But as long as a fat person has an eating disorder that gets the job done, that's all the world cares about.

Inserting a tube into a fat person's stomach so they can throw up with the press of a button is a-okay in this world that oppresses fat people so horribly, and in far more ways than just surgery. Which, by the way, fat people have these surgeries FORCED on us. If we want something like knee surgery or top surgery or what have you, we're told to somehow beat that 95% failure rate and to do so by literally mutilating our bodies if we have to. I will never forget the person who told me about their twin brother who needed an organ transplant and was told they wouldn't give it to him unless he did one of these surgeries. He refused and died because his doctors didn't value his life enough to give him an organ transplant while having a fat body. The NHS also decided a great way to save money was to not allow fat people medical care like surgeries until a fat person magically lost weight.

I implore everyone to read this post about the plethora of ways in which fat people's oppression is deadly and horrid. Not even supposedly "progressive" people talk about fat people's oppression. In fact, I have been harassed by "progressive" people who get angry that I dare to point out that fatphobia is a real form of oppression that is not lesser to other forms of oppression that people actually give a shit about. I have been told shit by "progressive" people like "You want to be oppressed so bad." Do you know how disgusting that is to say to a fat person who the world is actively trying to kill every day for daring to live with the body they were given and not conforming to the world's body and beauty standards?

Here is another post about the hypocrisies of people who claim fatphobia "doesn't exist" and other fatphobic rhetoric.

Here is a post that describes how much fatphobia runs rampant in the queer community. Now imagine how much fatphobia affects other marginalized communities as well.

Here is a post about how horrible diet culture is, which is mainly used to harm fat people and encourage fatphobia in the medical field and our societies.

Here is a post about how badly fat children are bullied yet are viewed in this world as the aggressors because their bodies are "intimidating."

And here is a podcast co-hosted by prominent fat activist Aubrey Gordon that debunks the wellness industry. She also has published two books about fatphobia and written articles online if you'd rather read than listen to a podcast. Though the podcast's website also has transcripts.

Please actually give a fuck about fat people. Stop using our bodies as your acceptable punching bags. Stop using our bodies as metaphors for evil and bigotry and "ugliness." Stop making all of your bigoted villains and corrupt politician cartoons and greedy CEO characters fat. Stop portraying police as fat people overeating donuts while you call those fat bigoted caricatures "pigs." Stop using Trump's fatness as symbolism and your "hilarious" "progressive" joke. Stop bullying fat children. Stop accepting fatphobia in progressive fields like social work. Stop selling progressive merchandise without plus sizes, and especially don't charge fat people extra to wear your damn "progressive" t-shirt.

If you do care about equality, then it's time to care about fat people instead of continuing to use us as the bottom rung of your ladder to the top. Fat people fucking matter.

So did you miss the part where fat people have this surgery forced on us by doctors, friends, family, parents, even employers? How about the fact that the only reason this surgery is being done is because of external and internalized fatphobia, thin privilege, ACTUAL healthcare being kept from us unless we agree to be mutilated, and the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars made off of fat people's suffering? Did you miss the countless people in the notes talking about how these surgeries destroyed their lives, their family members' lives, and their friends' lives? Did you hear anyone say that their forever mutilated stomach for temporary weight loss made them happy? How about 99.99999% of people in the notes? Are they happy?

"I am not for it but if it makes them happy"

You want to know who the "them" is in your tags? The doctors and surgeons making money off of neglecting and abusing fat patients. The weight loss corporation CEOs who laugh as they sell you a product that has never worked and will never work because it was never designed to work in the first place. Fatphobic thin people. Temporary former fat people. The people who sell you Weight Watchers memberships and other diet culture scams.

Those are the people who derive happiness from fat people being forced to endure these atrocities. Not the fat people.

🚨 ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES ARE RAP/NG PALESTINIANS BEING HELD IN CONCENTRAT/ON CAMPS - EMAIL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL NOW 🚨

New testimonies reveal the r/pe of Palestinian detainees and the use of electric chairs at the Negev desert concentration camp. Following the initial report by CNN, which exposed the systematic abuse inside Sde Teiman, horrifying accounts of abuse continue to be corroborated.

These recent reports provide harrowing details of the extreme physical and psychological abuse inflicted upon Palestinian detainees. Multiple men reported being subjected to electric shocks while seated in wired chairs. One detainee, Mr Shaheen, described being shocked approximately half a dozen times during interrogations, leading to severe trauma and unconsciousness.

Testimonies of s*xual violence are also deeply distressing. One man recounted being forcibly pressed against a metal stick fixed to the ground, which penetrated his rectum, causing severe bleeding and unbearable pain. 

Similar accounts were detailed in a leaked UNRWA report, where another detainee described the experience as sitting “on something like a hot metal stick,” which “felt like fire”. He recounted how a fellow detainee “died after they put the electric stick up” his anus.

35 Palestinian men have died at the site, or after being brought to nearby civilian hospitals, according to officers at the camp. They deny any died from abuse suffered there.

👉 EMAIL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL NOW! USE THE FREE TEMPLATE IN @humantiproject’s bio or visit HumantiProject.org 👈

——-

Notes:

I don’t care. Just stop expecting every relationship to follow a specific pattern and instead find the beauty you both want in your specific relationship with that other person.

you are not helping anyone. not yourself, not women, not men. you are just hurting actual good people while the people you are trying to hurt are enabled. you are not turning people away from misogyny, you are pushing them towards it.

"I got her these sandals for Eid"

A still from a video of a father bidding his daughter farewell as she was killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza while she was celebrating the first day of Eid al-Adha on June 16.

This is my child's life before the war and now Her childhood has been completely destroyed. She cannot even obtain her basic rights, such as us buying her clothes, food, and water My child is innocent and has every right to live like all the children in the world Only live freely and safely 💔❤️‍ Help my child get out of Gaza so she can live like all children

Our life was beautiful, but it was ruined by war We have no power We hope you can help us

💔💔