𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant edges of decision crucial and alone for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward at once before and after seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in our children’s mouths so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours;

For those of us who were imprinted with fear like a faint line in the center of our foreheads learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to be found the heavy-footed hoped to silence us For all of us this instant and this triumph We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain when the sun sets we are afraid it might not rise in the morning when our stomachs are full we are afraid of indigestion when our stomachs are empty we are afraid we may never eat again when we are loved we are afraid love will vanish when we are alone we are afraid love will never return and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed but when we are silent we are still afraid

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims "petroleum-based chemicals" are inherently poisonous, but that is chemically wrong. He also said, "These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit & pose real, measurable dangers to our children's health & development. That era is coming to an end."No, it's not. Why? Because without petroleum-based hydrocarbons, there would be no life on Earth. Let's use 4 examples. 1.) Ethylene can be produced from petroleum through steam cracking, but plants make it biologically as a ripening agent. Without it, many fruits would not be edible. They would be too hard, starchy, green & flavorless. Our entire food system depends on ethylene—bananas are shipped green & then exposed to ethylene to ripen. Tomatoes are ripened in controlled-ethylene rooms. Without ethylene, the global fruit supply chain would collapse. And it makes no difference where the ethylene came from, whether it's from petroleum or from plants.

Squalene is mostly a natural source found in shark liver oil, and it is the precursor for cholesterol. Cholesterol is essential for lipids, membrane fluidity, steroid hormones, bile acids, vitamin D synthesis, & myelin (the fat-rich membrane that insulates parts of our neurons). Without it, neither we nor animals would exist. We don't rely on petroleum hydrocarbons for it, but there are traces of squalene in crude oil. The 3rd is isoprene, which can be made by cracking naphtha from petroleum. But it's also produced by trees & plants emitting hundreds of millions of tons of isoprene annually into the atmosphere. It is used to make terpenes (responsible for plant aromas such as pine & citrus), carotenoids (such as vitamin A), steroids, cholesterol, myrcene (a cannabis chemical), and menthol & camphor, which are all isoprene-derived.

Queer Love in Color / Brown, Black, Queer and Invisible, Jamal Jordan.

Why do no gay people look like me? Jamal Jordan, a black digital editor at The Times, lamented growing up. So as an adult, he decided to give a gift to his younger self: the imagery of queer love. Jordan traveled tens of thousands of miles across the globe intent on meeting queer people of color.

“I have always envied straight people for their total dominion over happy love stories. In stories about queer people of color, particularly trans people of color, sub­jects are often presented as victims." But the book is really a celebration of how each person (and pair) eventually learned to love themselves—despite “every cue in the world telling them it’s impossible.”

All photos courtesy of Jamal Jordan.

Kay and Blaine, who now live in Oakland, California, first met at a party in Philadelphia in 2018. A few months after that, Kay was physically attacked. “Like, yeah, you read the statistics,” Kay told Jordan. “You hear this is the most violent year for transgender people in recorded history. You know that, statistically speaking. But then it’s you. I never thought I would be physically beat the fuck up in public in New York City.” Friends came to their support, but the only one they wanted to see was Blaine. “We have worked through a lot of trauma, a lot of things that we’ve experienced individually,” they continued. “But we’ve built our relationship through that, supporting each other and growing through the most difficult times of our lives.”

Enchantra and Antwanette photographed in Mobile, Alabama.

Nadine and Sze’s meet-cute in 2003 couldn’t be more different from Mike and Phil’s. Nadine caught Sze’s eye when she left a bell hooks quote in the comments section of her Ani DiFranco fansite on LiveJournal, at which point she sent Nadine a mix CD. Upon receiving it, she told Jordan, “I was immediately wooed.”