these screenshots are only from like 4 or 5 different candles but i could’ve grabbed plenty more.

A friend of mine was telling me a few days ago, how her boyfriend has barely been able to taste or smell anything since April. And honestly, that’s horrifying. No one knows exactly why the virus does this, but being unable to taste or smell anything can cause depression.

For same-gender couples and single non-heterosexuals, here’s no way for real-life strangers to distinguish between “gay” and “bisexual” unless we explicitly come out. Even then, bigots don’t care about who we’re not attracted to—any same-gender attraction bisexuals express renders us “gay” in other people’s eyes. It’s really funny how gay people insist that biphobia is just homophobia and yet we can’t… reclaim homophobic slurs that target and traumatize us.

Nobody looks at a single butch woman and goes, “just so you know, if I saw you with your girlfriend but I thought you were also into men, I would totally not call you the d-slur.” No homophobe sees two men holding hands or a man being flamboyant and thinks to themselves, “I’m going to call them f-slurs because I think they’re not attracted to women.” 

Homophobic violence doesn’t occur solely on the basis of ~lacking attraction to the opposite gender~. It’s because we have attraction towards the same gender (and our society assumes that if you like the same gender then you don’t like any other gender; thanks bi erasure!). If this weren’t the case, bisexuals could escape homophobia by coming out, which is ridiculous. I wish we could do that.

Homophobic violence also has plenty to do with gender-nonconformity, which is to be expected when it’s such a staple of gay/bi culture and non-heterosexuality is a marker of “failing” to adhere to gender roles. As Laverne Cox puts it: 

When kids are bullied and called anti-gay slurs… [i]t’s because the child did not conform to gender expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. The bullies might yell ‘gay,’ but it’s about gender expression.

I know bisexuals who’ve been called these slurs while single or in different-gender relationships. I know people who’ve been called the d- or f-slur in response to coming out as bisexual. And did we all just collectively forget the whole “love the sinner hate the sin,” “it’s fine if you’re gay as long as you don’t ‘act on it’” crap?

I hear the “counterargument” that “bisexuals can tell homophobes they’re attracted to the opposite gender while gay people can’t,” but:

They can. That’s what being in the closet is. Gay and bi people can and do lie about their sexualities to avoid violence all the time.

Our different-gender attraction doesn’t eliminate the “problem” of our same gender attraction.

Again, do you really believe that if someone calls me the f-slur, I could just go, “I’m bisexual, actually,” and they’d apologize?

Thinking critically about a text requires that long before you think in terms of good and bad, you consider intents and outcomes, you understand both the immediate and wider context of what you’re looking at, and you acknowledge that fiction is subjective. It’s about thoughtful examination of all aspects of the work.

What function does this element serve in the work? Why might the author have included it? How was it incorporated, and how does it interact with other elements? Setting aside possible intents, but looking closely at context and execution, what impact does this element have on the work as a whole? On different possible audiences? How does all of this play into or deviate from greater patterns across media?

And for the love of god please stop forgetting:

What lens or framework am I using to examine this text? What are the limitations or problems with that framework? What are my biases? (<-Americans do this challenge) If I choose to examine this through a different lens, how does that change what I see?

With the holidays coming up I wanted to let you guys know something amazing that the app Ibotta is doing. Right now they are offering a free Thanksgiving meal. How it works: 1. Download the app here: Click Here

2. Look for the banner above that states “FREE Thanksgiving Dinner” & click it.

3. You can just enter the email you signed up with and they’ll load the offers into your account. You will then just “click” each coupon so they are ready to redeem. There are a lot of other offers also for free above also that are available to get for free that are not included in the Thanksgiving deal so make sure to clip them also.

4. What you do is go to Walmart (or do pickup) and buy all these items, make sure you get the exact items above. Buy them. Go back to the app and scan the receipt. It’ll put all the money into your account. You can cash out at $20 for instant Paypal money back. Adding all the food above - you hit the $20 automatically. So everything above is COMPLETELY FREE and you get your money back within minutes of scanning the receipt and cashing out.

The big thing I want to stress is right now so many people are struggling. Even if you don’t need it, get it, redeem all the offers, and DONATE IT. If you have a friend struggling, give it to them. Donate it to your local food bank. Someone needs this. You get a ton of stuff for completely free and it can give you a simple Thanksgiving meal. As you see above you can even get a turkey. 2020 has been a terrible year for many families, many need the extra help, so please think about donating the food if anything.

If you have any questions please let me know I am here to help: https://cravefoodie.com/ask

Few tips: If you are not seeing some of the free offers I posted, some are NOT in the “Thanksgiving” deal. As in you need to go through the offers and look for the extra free ones that I found. Some are just in the normal offers, so make sure to search through the app (Walmart section) to get the rest of the free stuff. It’ll have a little “free” banner on each item that you can add.

Keep virtual learning and make it accessible to all students, ESPECIALLY low income and those with disabilities.

This pandemic has shown how easy it truly was to move to flexible schedules and could continue for many. Even retail has the capacity to provide shorter shifts for workers if hours are changed to balance actual highs and lows in traffic as well as adding more workers.

You can ask for a kit to become a part of a registry at any time. Some cancers are very aggressive and for some people waiting around for a donor isn’t really an option. If you’re interested, contact your local registry.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of international registries:

https://www.hema-quebec.qc.ca/cellules-souches/index.fr.html

https://bethematch.org

https://www.dkms.de/en/become-a-donor

1. my TA, Ralph, shot his girlfriend’s abusive ex in the foot

2. abusive ex was also a sex offender

3. he shot him when ex came buy to pick some stuff up from girlfriend and tried to take some of Ralph’s items as well

4. ex is stable and alive in a hospital

he is whiter then snow. this man is pure 100% american redneck in everything but the politics. this is intimidating if you dont know him because he owns like 3 different guns but also has animated discussions about “how his sister should be able to get married” when you bring up lgbt rights. his sister isnt even gay or trans or anything, he just thinks that LGBT rights also means that the lady should propose when she wants to. hes a little confused but he got the spirit. upon finding out that i am queer he said, word for word “THATS FUCKING RADICAL HOMIE” 

in the first week of school he snorted a line of pepper in the cafeteria and threw up.

the only other crime hes committed before was accidently dropping a weight from his balcony and cracking the sidewalk. which is technically destruction of public property but the judge basically laughed at him and have him 10 hours of community service