Kail Rose

Over twenty years ago my big brother got me a job at a Taco Bell in the St. Louis suburbs-West County. He warned me that it was the “gay Taco Bell”, but since I was coming from the “gay Howard Johnson’s” I wasn’t shocked. It turns out it was the black trans women Taco Bell complete with black trans women in management. And they’d worked out an arrangement with the local teen Narcotics Anonymous group so that twice a week we would shut down the drive thru and the dining room and exclusively serve 60+ teens in various stages of recovery. And many of the women I worked with were in various stages of being out or transitioning and they were from all generations from teens to over 50. One woman I worked with had a regular corporate job presenting as a man 9-5 Mon-Fri and then came to Taco Bell and worked 6pm -2am Friday and Saturday night so she could be herself surrounded by other black transwomen in those stolen weekends. And we had customers come from all over the metro area because they knew they could be themselves in the dining room. I only worked there from 1999-2001 but for young me, this was a vital, formative experience. Some of the girls came from north city all the way out to the “gay Taco Bell” on Manchester in west county because they heard it was safe to work there. Like- I know times have changed but they haven’t changed much in 20 years. I’m still convinced that for lgbt youth, finding a job at your city’s version of the “gay Taco Bell” is key to survival.

Thank u for sharing this with us

From now on this is how all petty fandom disputes should be settled.

There has to be a way to dress gothy and masc in a way that's also comfy. Like "clothes that could also double as pyjamas" level of comfy wear.

sweatpants?

Do you have tips on how to style sweatpants in a dressy, goth way?

The problem is the first sentence: there is no known overlap between "looks good" and "comfy".

sounds like it might be an america-raised vs europe-raised thing? as an eastern european i instantly knew what op meant and maybe its just that "looking good" here is not something youd do by wearing sweatpants?

If you walk up to someone here who's wearing sweatpants and say "I like your outfit!" you're going to get a nose-breaking headbutt, because that can only be taken as sarcasm, and interpreted as you saying "I notice that you're in a bad place in your life right now, and I want you to know that it shows! :)"

Yeah people don't really dress like that on purpose here. If you see someone in sweatpants in the grocery store, it IS someone's conservative ex-military grandpa, whom you can also smell from the other side of the aisle because he doesn't care that people would prefer not to.

As someone who now lives in America I was deeply confused for a bit because, like, what do you mean? So many people wear sweatpants outside that's normal.

Here, sweatpants are one step above pyjama pants, pyjama pants are one step above just going out in nothing but a bath robe, and I am about 30-40 years too young to be the old man at the grocery store who wears sweatpants with suspenders and indoor slippers, and loudly smells like cigarettes, mosquito spray and old man sweat.

It deeply saddens me that "pdf file" has become slang for pedo. Don't you dare disrespect my wife the beautiful portable document format ever again

and to the children in the notes saying we need this fucking baby talk to get around censorship online; there's been no credible evidence that any site other that YouTube (which will only demonetize your video, ftr) will actually censor or hide content that include words like rape, pedophile, gun, terrorist, etc. etc. and even if we take as a given they were (which, again, they are not), do not fucking comply in advance, you absolute fucking coward. and ESPECIALLY do not comply by altering your real life fucking vocabulary. don't let the technocrats dictate what words you say holy fucking shit dude!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do not live your life based on what someone is comfortable advertising next to.

the online identity and gimmick-ifying of autism is so odd. I'm diagnosed with autism and yet I barely identify with any stuff I see about it anymore. It feels like autism is being rebranded as the Silly Guy Disorder that gives you smart and beautiful hyperspecific interests. it's not that I mind silly jokes or being lighthearted about being autistic- but when the entire social movement is based around marketing us this way, I just can't help but feel isolated from it. it feels like I'm not the right kind of autistic. I'm not marketable and digestible to common audiences, and therefore I am discarded by the movement in the name of progress and acceptance. it feels foul.

personally I am of the opinion that vegans who are like “the way our food system currently works under capitalism on a large scale is exceptionally cruel to all animals including humans and is not sustainable, so I’m doing what I can to make the most ethical choices available to me about what I eat and encourage others to do the same” are generally very reasonable people who I agree with in spades. but vegans who seem to think human beings are not themselves animals who are ultimately also part of the food chain but instead some kind of other paternalistic higher entity that can never engage in ethical and sustainable hunting practices (and especially the fringe I’ve seen who think other carnivorous animal predators are also evil and need to be eliminated) are people I regard as foolish at best if not actively anti-indigenous and racist

earlier this year 2 boys got expelled from my school for going on a teachers email and sending another teacher an email that says “you’re a disgusting little man” and i laugh about it all the time because imagine opening an email from your coworker and thinking it’s important and then it says that

yn gynharach eleni cafodd 2 fachgen eu gwahardd o fy ysgol am fynd ar gyfrif ebost un o'r athrawon ac anfon ebost at athro arall sy'n dweud “rydych yn ddyn bach ffiaidd” ac rwy'n chwerthin amdano o hyd oherwydd dychmyga agor ebost gan dy gydweithiwr a meddwl ei fod yn bwysig ac wedyn mae'n dweud hynny