the universe leads

Reposting these tags with consent from the person that wrote them. The post about the Sex Offenders Registry is locked, but these tags are too important to go unnoticed.

When you hear people throwing around the talking point of “well there’s a high rate of sex offenders in the trans/queer community”, this has to do with why.

Being on the sex offender registry isn’t inherently equivalent to whatever horrific sex crime you’re meant to think of when it’s mentioned. It evokes imagery of pedophilia and rape, but there is a lot that can get you put on it and not a lot you can do to be taken off of it.

Public crossdressing used to be able to get you put on the sex offender registry (and by used to I mean as recently as 2011).

Public urination (you know, the literal only option for someone who’s homeless and doesn’t have access to public bathrooms, a venn diagram where trans people are more likely to rest in the meeting zone) can get you put on the sex offender registry.

Sex work is pretty much an automatic way to end up on the sex offender registry if you’re caught. (This is especially weaponized against black trans women who do sex work)

“Deviant Sexual Intercourse” (aka literally any sexual activity aside from penis-in-vagina penetration) could get you on the sex offender registry as recently as the early 2000s. That effectively impacts the entire queer community in one way or another.

The sex offender registry is, first and foremost, useless. It tells you nothing about what someone did. It’s mentioned to quickly associate a person or a group of people with the worst possible crimes imaginable.

I will throw a party if the next shooter hits their mark.

But I don’t want The State to be able to take away Donal Trump’s human rights. Because I don’t want The State to be able to take away anyone’s human rights.

Because the moment they can (which is right now), they target marginalized people. They target refugees. They target trans people. They target people of color. They target disabled people. They’re doing it all right now. Oppressing minorities is What States Do.

I had originally drafted that character before deciding he would be her dad (before I knew his race) and now I'm questioning if it's in poor taste to have that as his backstory?

So is it better to keep that storyline, just do more research into Black families where the father was unwillingly removed from his family. Or should I change who/what/where that lab world building takes place.

I don't want to write an insensitive story, or one influenced by biased stereotypes. I want to do it right, at least as right as I can be. So is that dynamic something a non Black could properly convey with enough input and research from people who have been through things like that? Or is it better to go back to the original idea that they were unrelated?

Okay so I say this to everyone, a variant of a famous Jurassic Park quote, which is: CAN you do it? Yes! SHOULD you do it? That depends!

You got body snatching, forcibly removed families, human experimentation, a cult, trauma, and mental illness, and you're writing it all from the perspective of a Black trans woman. Okay. That's a lot!

I'm going to be honest: you don't sound confident 😅 and for the depth of research and the full weight of what you're trying to depict, if you aren't ready and willing to commit, I would say step back. That's not a bad thing! But the story itself can be written, for sure. You'd just have to put in a LOT of work if you want to give it a Quality delivery.

As for avoiding issues and starting research, I got a lot of lessons, and I'm even reading Protest Psychosis right now, on how racism affects the treatment and even understanding of schizophrenia and other psychological issues in Black men in particular. We're starting Medical Apartheid on June 14th if you wanna join for that. I'm sure if I go into the bibliographies of those we can find some more resources as well.

You know the rubber ducky method? Where programmers keep a rubber ducky by their computer, and if they get stuck on something, they explain their problem to the duck until they figure it out?

The rubber duckie itself is not listening. The duck has no special properties or innate power. It's just a focal point the programmer can use to slow down and break up their struggle into simpler terms that they wouldn't articulate the same way internally.

Tarot cards, rune stones, whatever- I use them lil sumbitches like that. Just different ways of breaking down my life and my problems in a way I wouldn't normally do, so that I can sit back and actually think instead of letting my lazy wet meat computer skip around from step A to step W just 'cause it's faster.

Wake up babe, new octopus just dropped

FLY is a story about a boy who gets a second chance. Help his story take flight June 9th 11am EST on Kickstarter. Thank you for being the wind beneath my wings I hope this story lifts the world to a brighter place.

Remember when Lil Nas X beautifully explored his sexuality, seduced and killed the devil to the banger of all time, and instead of cheering on this openly gay and proud Black artist for his artistry and fighting back against respectability politics, suddenly said respectability politics was all the Queerest Place on the Internet cared about? Hm. Wonder what happened there.

“A ringing in your ear”

Telling you don’t forget

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