#pulses4pulse

I’ve done this design in various flag colors! I have them all finished so you can see them all in my shops! If you don’t see your flag, just send me a message, I’m happy to add any I missed!

Okay well I had to finish my comm tech assignment today, and my PSA was about bullying towards LGBTQ+ youth. My message (i guess thats what youd call it) was sort of like, if you would say it behind their back/not to them directly, why would you say it at all? My motivation for the three quotes came from things I’ve read in the past or things my own personal friends have heard said about them/what I’ve heard said about them. The first photo’s quote is about my friend Jake, he came out as a transgender male last February, and not a lot of students at our school accept it, still calling him a girl, referring to him by his old name. The boys at our school thought maybe jake was just pretending, to try and get with the boys easier (i dont understand my schools brains, this is why theyre all farmers) The second is about anyone in the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve seen and heard of lot of posts and articles in the past about people being upset about LGBTQ+ people and that they should all be sent off to our own island or our own prison. The last one is about my best friend Laura, she came out as bisexual last year and so so so many of the people at our school said she was doing it for attention, that she’s now a lesbian, or that she’s lying because she’s only dated guys. 

Bullying hurts. Bullying has left deep emotional scars, and physical scars, on both Laura and Jake. They have both been severely depressed (they’re both on anti-depressants now and working on themselves), self-harmed, and were both suicidal. Laura was addicted to pills for a few months before she got help, Jake still has an addiction to drugs but is working on it. Both of their families and all of their close friends are so supportive of them and the live they’re choosing to live, it’s the homophobes, biphobes, transphobes, ect that makes things so hard on two of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. 

I am getting tired of the concept of ‘same love’. Or 'one love’, 'love is love’, whatever way we have marketed palatable queerness to the masses.

You know what - it’s not same love.

My love is always scanning my environment. For threats to my safety; for who is likely to be welcoming or who may remind me I am inherently different and delinquent; for signals telling me how I should respond to be able to complete any mundane task that requires interpersonal interaction. It is learning to read other’s perception of my queerness, of her queerness, of my friends’ queerness, and to respond accordingly - at clothing stores, at bars, in classrooms, in grocery stores, at work, in parks, in public, in private.

My love is knowing this haircut, or these clothes, or the subject of my conversation makes me vulnerable to violence, harassment, to otherness, to being less-than. My love is wanting to be authentic and whole, yet wanting to be safe, or respected, or heard, or undisturbed. My love is always negotiating my visibility, my self disclosure, and my gender presentation with colleagues, peers, family, and strangers. My love is withholding, monitoring, and scanning.

My love seeks out the shadows looking for home. My love is a sanctuary in a nightclub, dancing at an underground queer party, on a couch of a resource center. My love is finally breathing deeply and laughing fully for a night or an event or a conversation.

My love is the spectacle: the thumbs-up from strangers who see us together; the “SAME LOVE <3” commented on our photos at the beach; the hyping-up and fangirling over my relationship.

My love is the spectacle: the sideways looks; the men who ask to join; the violent encounters; the servers who never returned to our table; the kids who yell “dyke” from their cars. My love is the anxiety-ridden monitoring of our surroundings and deciding to not to go out tonight because we do not want to risk it.

My love is the close calls.

My love is having tunnel vision when I hold her hand across the table. My love is looking behind her shoulder anyways.

My love is wanting to show her I love her and worrying of the repercussions if I do. My love is understanding why she drops my hand in public.

My love is community; it is kinship with those who know pain, who know silence, who know what it feels like to be seen as spectacles, predators, freaks, or delinquents.

My love is light, but it is fucking terrifying. It is mourning and loving with rage.

The massacre in Orlando is a reminder of the perpetual fear we must always feel even in our safest and most valued spaces.

When I came out to my mother, her heart was changed forever. And the world gained a fierce LGBTQ advocate in her. So it’s only natural that when a 13-year-old was sent to her office for fighting at her South Bronx school that my mother would change that student’s life forever. Let’s call the student Luz. Luz is a survivor of child sexual abuse and is transgender. [ 190 more words. ]

“ because love is love is love is love, it cannot be killed or swept away….”

Twitter proves there’s nothing wrong with #TwoMenKissing

According to Omar Mateen’s father, his son was angered enough to shoot up an Orlando gay club by seeing gay men show affection toward each other. In retaliation to that news, Twitter has been flooded with the hashtag, accompanied by photos of, what else, men kissing.

human.