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From now on, every time someone says "this ____ is racist", and you feel the need to counter with "well to be fair, ____" I want you to:

1) Pause.

Take a breath! You do NOT have to respond immediately, or at all! Did you understand what was written? Do you understand why the person who experienced what they believed was racism feels that way? Do you recognize that racism is never fair?

2) Ask yourself why you feel the need to defend against this sentiment.

Is it personal? Is it because you've seen it in your own behavior, or perhaps a friend's? Are you worried that one day you might do this thing, or enjoy this thing? Is it about your entertainment? Did you offer this much grace to the potential victim before you began to invalidate their experience? Does this happen often? Do you fight against racism as often as you find yourself disagreeing when something is?

3) Can you accept what it means if you are objectively proven wrong?

If you disagree or want to "provide the benefit of the doubt", and you are proven incorrect- are you willing to accept that you have been racist? Are you willing to accept that people essentially saw you being racist for racism's sake? And may not feel safe around you anymore? Does it even matter to you? Is that who you want to be?

It happens endlessly where people want so badly to defend either themselves or some imaginary person they could potentially be, that they don't see who they're being right now. You want to advocate for the Devil, but you don't appreciate being treated like the Devil you're representing!

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Baldur's Gate (Video Games) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Minthara Baenre/The Dark Urge, Minthara Baenre/Original Female Character

Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Drow Emotional Issues, Established Relationship, First Fight, Missing Scene, The Dark Urge Resists the Urge, The Dark Urge Resists the Urge But is Maybe Not All that Great of a Person, Death and Resurrection, Minthara Baenre Needs a Hug, Angst With a Horny Ending

Summary: The Dark Urge takes her vengeance, but ultimately refuses her Father's gift. In the aftermath, not everyone is immediately thrilled about it.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Warhammer 40.000: Rogue Trader (Video Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Xavier Calcazar/Original Female Rogue Trader Character(s), Xavier Calcazar/Heinrix van Calox Additional Tags: Epistolary, Alcohol, Dubiously Consensual Blow Jobs Series: Part 2 of like a prayer unanswered

“Mother, it wasn’t like that, and even if it was; it would have been the God Emperor’s will!” Her brows furrowed as she reminisced over their dance, the titillating conversation, and that magnificent kiss they’d shared before his acolyte had interrupted. “Xavier was nothing but chivalrous, and if anything, he warned me against the Inquisition. Called my dreams of the Expanse ‘naive’ if you can believe it.”

Evening Dress

Girolamo Giuseffi

c.1912

June 30, 2026

Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled against a sixteen-year-old girl named Becky Pepper-Jackson. She spent five years fighting for the right to compete on her school’s girls’ track team as a transgender athlete. Six justices said no. I lost at that same court twenty-six years ago, in a gay rights case I brought against the Boy Scouts after they expelled me.

I have something to tell her.

Dear Becky,

Three weeks ago, I watched you walk off a stage at the Lambda Legal National Liberty Awards, and I thought: she already knows who she is. That’s the hardest thing. Most people spend their whole lives trying to figure it out. You’re sixteen, and you’ve got it.

I introduced myself to you and your mom outside afterward. I told you I was proud of you and that I believed in you. I meant it then. I mean it more today.

I don’t know what it’s like to be transgender. I don’t know what it’s like to be as young as you are right now, fighting something this big in front of the whole country.

What I do know is what it feels like to lose at the Supreme Court, because I lived it. On June 28, 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against me in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. Five justices said yes to discrimination. Four said no. Lambda Legal had fought alongside me for ten years, all the way to that building, and then we lost. They’re in your corner today, too.