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A Galla priest, 2nd Century

Eunuch itself has historically had a very broad usage, either by ignorant people with lacking words to describe what they're hearing about or witnessing, or out of bias and wilful disinterest to actually present it through the eyes of the people they're writing about; outside of the literal castrated male, it has also been used for intersex people, indigenous gender diverse people, ancient third gender people like the Gallae, Assinnu, Hijra, Kinnar—though the two latter exist today aswell—Gala, Kurgarra, Galatura, etc... other examples with the broadening or very tightly bent usage of gender, sex, sexuality words is how colonisers would often call indigenous two spirit or otherwise gender variant people "hermaphrodites" just based on the clothing, occupation, gender role etc they had... "Impotent" is another word that was historically used on gender variant, & asexual people, such as how the Anarya of the Scythians were called.

It is known through many sources that the Gallae addressed eachother as sister and mother, and that they grew their hair out, spoke in a higher tone of voice, and wore both heavy makeup and traditionally women's jewelery and clothing; jet jewellery, generally associated with women, has also been found in two graves in Catterick & Hungate in the UK, where several shrines and figurines of and to Kybele / Magna Mater have also been excavated; these two graves were additionally verified to contain individuals who were described as "biological males", yet the grave goods in all regards even besides the jewelry was what would have been seen as female thus. Not all of the Gallae were gender diverse or variant—some were also cis women—but a good chunk of them were. The priests of the deity Atargatis or Ataratheh functioned very similarly, also calling eachother girls. More on them can be found in greater quantity within De Dea Syria or On The Syrian Goddess, trad. ascribed to Lucian of Samosata (2nd century CE), and The Golden Ass by Apuleius (1st Century CE). I will make an extensive post on them this month, and also broader ancient Roman gender transgressions and the hidden underworld of molles, tribades, pathics, cinaedi, viragos etc... In many ways parallels the 1700s mollies & tommies community in Britain.

As said, erstwhile, several graves have been found in Britain associated with the Gallae, described & often reported as "males buried fully as female, with their rites & grave goods" and with feminine necklaces, bracelets or even in full dresses, fabric very much degraded but still often somewhat recognisable... Also a little cool detail: A new technique in use by Swedish archaeologists for just a few years has found ways to recover both fiber and colour from clothing in ways that were not possible before, and this has many very excited!! So keep an eye out for that, and how it may be used to further gender archaeology and trans+ archaeology, which has shown more and more third gender and otherwise gender variant burials in prehistoric Europe notably been found, such as in Hungary, Germany, & Czechia. But later in the Roman era in Britain, Catterick and Hungate are two locations of these burials occurring; a shrine to Kybele has also been found by Hadrian's wall, and votive figurines to her have even been found in the Netherlands. It is not known for sure if any Celtic tribes had gender variance as an accepted part of their cultures, as we lack much info in that regard, and also owing to that Europe was spectrum-wise romanised to various degrees and then Christianised, so we lack crucial sources from the relevant eras... secret underground communities did exist in ancient Rome, medieval Europe of queer folks, but your punishment was ofc being burnt alive so not many were exactly willing and excited to write an autobiography.

Cybele was also worshipped in Caria, and it is recorded how Artemisia I of Caria made a sacrifice in the company of "eunuchs" to her (Mother Of The Gods) before seeking to conquer Latmus... The off-hand comment was by the rhetorician Polyaenus, a Roman-Macedonian author, so his cultural bias must be accounted for aswell as the general broad historical usages of the word 'eunuch'... "Artemisia planted soldiers in ambush near Latmus; and herself, with a numerous train of women, eunuchs and musicians, celebrated a sacrifice at the grove of the Mother of the Gods, which was about seven stades distant from the city" -Polyaenus in his Stratagems

Another name for her was Matar Kubileya / Kubeleya Mother, perhaps "Mountain Mother"; worship was also extant in ancient Greece and overall much of Europe. Main place of worship in Phrygia was Pessinus, where the sacred needle of Kybele was kept, conical black stone, later moved to Rome during the second punic wars when an Oracle urged them to worship her, which they did. The needle was later taken by the empress* Elagabalus* to her personal temple and was kept there until excavations in 1730 led by a priest supposedly found it—or some workers did—where it was then said to have been tossed out of ignorance into a spoils pile because they didn't know what it was besides a black rock.

The public worship of Cybele or Magna Mater persevered longer than most other when Christianity became widespread within the Roman Empire, but was finally outlawed in the 390s... Private, secretive worship is estimated to have remained possibly up to the 500s in rural areas; it is also known that groups of people attempted to hold rituals for Kybele after the ban, aswell as gather for protests to the closure of her temples, which were subsequently squashed.

Curiously, there is a temple Maetreum of Cybele in New York, having opened in the 1990s :) they have been known to have helped dozens of women in dire straits when they've needed escape or housing due to being in precarious situations like abusive relationships...

There was also mention on their Facebook page of them offering sanctuary to trans refugees, and especially due to the recent political climate.

Woo, pagans! 🌺 Coming in clutch!

"In their very temples can be seen disgraceful things: men letting themselves be handled as women, and flaunting the transformation of their sex; they confess with supreme disgrace what they have suffered." -Firmicus Maternus, 4th century.

The poet Catullus also wrote a looooong text dedicated to the god, and her gender variant priesthood... who were generally looked down upon by the general Roman populace because of what would in Roman eyes have been gender nonconformity.

Meter Oreias Cybele with her two lions and tambour

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

I keep agonizing about this, how to go about trying to make this post, it’s dangerous for me to say too much in my situation and risk being recognized but also not saying enough risks me just looking like a scammer… So, I’ll give a bit more detailed information more than what’s already on my page, but I am genuinely scared to say much more.

Since the election, just trying to buy groceries I’ve been assaulted three times, around a month or so back a neighbor threw a can at my head when I took out the garbage. Said neighbor’s wife has been trying to get the landlord to kick me out for being a “predator” for daring to be a good neighbor and warn her and her child that the balcony was unsafe (it was winter and it was. Slippery, full of giant icicles, etc). I already had agoraphobia, it’s now much worse to say the least.

I have been trying to get away from my abusive father, the last he saw me he tried to kill me, or I should say the last we were within three feet of each other he did as he’s still not done or gone. He keeps doing drive by’s just as a little ‘you aren’t safe’ reminder seemingly. He cyberstalks as well (see why I am trying to be so careful?), plus there are so called family I know would go right to him if they recognized me here. I know that when/if there’s a snitch line or active hunting of gender diverse people were to start my family would all give me up. All. Of. Them.

My state is now allowing for doctors to, unless it’s a life or death situation such as a patient is bleeding out, totally refuse treating a patient whose existence or “life style” goes against their religious beliefs. Intersex and trans people are no longer in the state’s CRA, too, and I’ve already been having to contend with the results of that. Medication I need to live, GAC isn’t just GAC for me, I need my medication not just for affirmation but for my health with my intersex variation(s). I nearly wound up in the ER from complications of not being given my medication once already.

I also almost had to request a hearing with DHS to prove my medication “actually does anything” for me using research articles. My own health records are no longer enough. They’re fighting me tooth and nail on every medication I need, for all of my health issues, in this way. Every exam or treatment I need. Everything. This is barely scratching the surface. I haven’t even touched yet on the ableism, saneism, classism or racism aspects of my situation and oh boy is there a LOT of it. That I quite literally cannot work, not traditionally or regularly anyway, I try to do voice work and art commissions when able. Part trauma part disability being the why in simple terms, and my state is eyeballing Medicaid SSI/SSDI work requirements. I have already said too much, there’s more on my k•-fi, just… Please help me if you can, share in safe circles whether you can or cannot. I need to get out of here, to a blue state so I can at least fucking breathe a little, I just need to not constantly feel like death is knocking on my door. And then, start saving to leave the country.

I have nothing left, no other way to do this. I have tried multiple relocation charities and groups but I’m SOL. I can’t “make myself worth the risk of saving” (yes an actual quote I was told) so not even they will help me. I’m sorry, and thank you.

Editing to add and update, now with the American government officially labeling trans rights groups as terrorists, my need to get out has shot up ten fold.

Yes, they've been hinting at this for a year or so now, but now it's done and the end of the document is literally saying they're going to find us all and kill us... And, on a more personal level for an update more specific to my situation, my doctors are trying to find ways to take away my medication still. I have about another two months supply of most of it, but they've oh so kindly let me know that I will have to speak to my state's DHS to get any more of it because they still don't think I need it... I nearly wound up in the ER without it, and they're trying to say I still cannot "prove" I need it. They are trying to kill me. I do not care anymore how paranoid I sound.

Another update.

And sincere apologies to my mutuals whom I know are sick of me reblogging this, but I'm desperate and scared, reposting has sort of become my panic button. I have another update, too.

Long time friends from off-site know that I have been trying since the election to get relocation orgs for gender diverse people to help me, along with DV orgs before then but especially after that, I used to keep count but don't anymore. They all either didn't answer or hit the breaks when they realized how much help I need. "Too much help." I tried one more time to contact one, one I hadn't seen before, a few weeks ago. Well, I did finally hear back. Denied, and a referral to one of the orgs that never responded to me, I recognize my situation sounds like a bad Mary Sue backstory so I assume because they think I am lying. I can't say I blame them but it's also painful and terrifying.

I can't get out of here on my own. As badly as I want and need to flee, I simply cannot do it by myself. I can't. I need help, financial aid for the move itself, but also money to figure out all of my health needs with a move and when I settle wherever. Money to be able to hire movers and at this point possibly someone to just make sure I'm safe given not just my father but anyone who has been emboldened enough by the administration to do something to me.

I already have trouble leaving my home just to take out the trash or go to doctor's appointments. Pure and genuine fear of more medical neglect/malpractice enacted on me or someone seeing me on the street and deciding to hate crime me. Be it for being visually queer or not being white. Anything or nothing.

So, I know a move will be hard but what's the alternative? I have had people try to tell me to work on my mental and physical health first but how can I when ^^^ everything I’ve said I just need out of here. You can't heal in a place making you sick. Right?

I know we're all struggling on this site, I know, everyone is broke but I still have to try. I'm not going to try any more orgs, get my hopes up. I can't take it and I mean that. I can't take it, physically or mentally, I can't. It’s clear none want to help even if able. I cannot “make myself worth the risk of saving”… That quote is never going to leave my mind.

But I have no choice but to keep fighting or I'll give up entirely, I have no community but online. This is my attempting to find community and get help through community. And yes, I have tried to find community offline before someone get's preachy on that. It went about as well as you can expect given this post, my situation and where I live. So, please if you can help me, help me. Spread this if you can't, repost, copy my link up there and share it offline/other sites you know are safe. Know can be trusted.

Adding on yet again…

With my state stripping essentially stripping all protections, which some don’t even care about if they know it happened at all, and insist my state isn’t all that bad even with ^^^ everything here. It was literally called the “Civil Rights Removal Act” but I'm overreacting right?

Anywho. That act has been used to greenlight bigotry and harm being used in places like Texas, Kansas and Florida or others without needing an official new law and I don’t think people get that that’s the point. They did that on purpose to make it more invisible especially for when they dial up to eleven. It’s not at eleven yet I acknowledge, but for me with all I have going on compounding it it sure feels like it. It might as well be. The state might still be at eight or nine over all but we are all different. And if you aren’t gender diverse, maybe it feels like a five but it’s not for us. Definitely not for me. I don’t say that to guilt trip, either, just further explain and put it into perspective for outside looking in.

Save my life.please!! 🙏🏻🍉💔

Hello, I am Marah from Gaza, I am 23 years old, studying at Al-Azhar University.

I am writing these words after deep thought, as the urgent need to save me and my family is beyond my ability to bear.

I would like to add that I am studying law, and I aspire to become a valuable lawyer in my country.

I wish my days were better and that I would not live in a war deprived of my most basic rights.

But the war came and destroyed all our dreams and ambitions.

We had a supermarket and my brother worked in it and our life was very happy, but it was completely destroyed and now we have no source of income.

My mother also suffers from an enlarged thyroid gland and diabetes, and because of what we are going through we cannot provide her with any treatment, and her condition is getting worse.

My father also had a stroke because he heard about the loss of our relatives, and he also lost our home. He worked all his life to build his life's home. We suffer from diseases and lack of clean water.

We are living death.

Please help me protect and help my brother, my family and my cat to restore life and hope to them. Every donation, even if it’s just $5, can make a difference. It means so much to us and our child. Please reshape their lives with love and safety, and help build new hope in them.

It makes a difference in helping me save my family.

I feel so sad and embarrassed to ask for help, but I have no other options left. I know this is a tough ask, but I also know that there is still humanity and conscience and I believe in miracles.

Your support during this very difficult time will give us hope in the midst of devastation and despair.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask me!

My sincere regards and thank you.

My campaing vetted by @/90-ghost

‼️Donate via credit card

‼️Donate via PayPal

The voice of truth for every Palestinian 🇵🇸

An Israeli soldier is seen firing randomly toward civilian homes and displacement tents in Gaza, describing the act as “for entertainment.”

At a time when civilians are being killed daily by stray bullets coming from the eastern areas of the Strip, violence is treated as a game wituhout accountability, and without humanity.

This is not an “isolated incident.”

This is not a “mistake.”

It reflects a reality where civilians are dehumanized and treated as targets.

Documenting these acts is a duty.

Silence is complicity.

After the ceasefire !!

Airstrikes targeting displacement tents in Gaza despite claims of a ceasefire and narratives that the war has “ended.”

For civilians on the ground, there is no post-war reality. There is no safety. Only changing methods of the same violence.

A ceasefire on paper does not stop bombs in the sky.

And declarations of peace mean nothing when tents are still being bombed.

Donations for GAZA!!

This donation campaign is for ANAS family. Not for strangers, not for a cause I'm distant from but for the people who raised me, the people I love, the people I'm terrified of losing.

They are in Gaza, trying to survive something no human being should ever have to endure. Constant bombardment, displacement, hunger, fear, and the feeling that tomorrow is never guaranteed. Every day is about staying alive one more night.

If you choose to help, you are not donating to an abstract crisis. You are helping real people with names, memories, and lives that matter to me more than anything.

—-This is a verified Chuffed campaign to support family:

Hello, Tumblr. I've never posted here, only lurked. But this is one of the most important things in the world to me, and I honestly need to ask you for help. Please reblog if you can.

This will be a long post. It will be summarized with a TLDR at the end, including ways that you can help.

With over 9,200 pages, we are the biggest collection of gender identities on the Internet, especially the biggest source that is readily available. We are a community that has existed since 2009, and has taken off in terms of growth in the last few years.

Today, Fandom decided to close the Gender Wiki. We were given absolutely no warning, and they've only given us a two-week deadline to move the entire wiki to a new host, which we are utterly unprepared to do. The download would also not include any of the 17,000+ images on the Gender Wiki, many of which do not exist anywhere else on the Internet.

Here is a link to the post Fandom staff gave us today, and a paraphrased summary of it below:

https://gender.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000132176

Fandom staff says that they won't continue to host our wiki because it "spreads harmful misinformation". They believe we have gone too far in "positioning everything as a gender identity", referring to xenogenders. They mention pages with xenogenders referring to suicide/self-harm and violence --- which we, the staff members, were /already/ in the process of deleting before this notice was given to us. They decided that the best solution was not to ask us to delete those pages, or even delete the pages themselves, but instead to remove our entire database.

There are many other wikis on Fandom with much worse references to violence than the Gender Wiki, which Fandom appears to have no problem with whatsoever.

I cannot express enough that this is erasure, and it will absolutely negatively affect the LGBTQ+ community to not have this treasure trove of information readily available.

I am an admin on the Gender Wiki, and I can assure you that our entire staff team is already trying to appeal to Fandom staff. I'll add any updates if they decide to respond to us, but they have no yet given staff any more information than the above

PLEASE help in any way you can. Reblog, spread awareness, or sign this petition if you have a Fandom account, OR sign this petition instead if you don't --- please DON'T sign both, as this causes counting problems & can make the point seem less legitimate. (NOTE added Apr 1: The archiving project is on hold because we've lost the archiving site for an unknown reason. Pages don't Archive correctly. I will update soon with more info.) Archive any Gender Wiki pages, especially ones that don't have pages elsewhere, with the Wayback Machine or alternatively archive.is, or even write posts about them here or on other sites. Archives will be organized on this spreadsheet; please include the archiving site you used so they can be found later. Please help us save this information. It can't possibly be done this quickly without help.

TLDR: Fandom staff decided that, in two weeks, they will close the Gender Wiki, the biggest gender resource on the Internet. They gave us no warning. It will be impossible to save all of the information on the wiki. Please reblog or sign this petition if you have a Fandom account, OR this one if you don't (please don't sign both, it'll cause problems). Help save the data by archiving pages here or here (organized on this spreadsheet). (NOTE added Apr 1: archiving project currently on hold. Archiving sites aren't working.) Help spread awareness. Post about this with #save the gender wiki