Talya~

[Image description: The Destiel confession meme edited so Cas says I love you' and Dean answers 'There is an EU Citizens' Initiative in favor of safe and accessible abortion.' End ID.]

There is an European Citizens' Initiative which asks the European Commission to submit a proposal for financial support to Member States that provide safe and accessible abortions to those who cannot access them in their countries.

If you are a citizen of the European Union, you can sign a statement of support here. The deadline is 24th April 2025.

11 countries have already reached the 'threshold', I believe this satisfies the requirement that at least 25% of countries reach the minimum amount of votes. (Special congrats for Slovenia, which is currently at 1035.52% the amount of needed votes.)

If you can't show up in person, make a phone call. If you can't call, write a letter. If you can't write a letter, an email.

And the man who shot him will stand trial in... October 2024?!?!

[Image ID: A screenshot of a comment by @sabalr reading 'It's oct 9th! How did the trial go??'. /End ID]

The trial has once again been delayed over a pending mental health evaluation of the subject. It is now scheduled for Feb. 15, 2025.

Most EU people go through their every day life w/o knowing about them. There are no ads, no marketing…nothing. I know that costs money though one might think important petitions that lead to a better and progressive life would be supported by the government or ministries in some way, but nooooo

And why should they? It’s petitions that would help out the poor and middle class, but endanger capitalism and their exploitation, sooo: government and business leads for example.

So here the link for those who are interested:

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'There's a petition to ban conversion therapy in the EU' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

If you are a citizen in the EU please sign this petition:

(may 27th)

Save a displaced Gazan Family (@ranibra) - Rania is married with five children, her husband needs medical care. She is now responsible to save her children. Help them evacuate.

Support Fahmi and his family (@fahmiakkila) - Fahmi's life has been turned completely upside down, and he now finds himself responsible to save his parents, sisters, & brothers - 7 members.

Save the Maliha family (@dinamaliha) - Dina wants to save her mother, two sisters, and three brothers. The family lost contact with their father when the genocide started. They desperately need to get to Egypt.

Save Firas' family (@firassalemnewacccount @prosolitudeeee) - Firas is a father of two children, a 10-month-old boy and a two-year-old girl, who are in need of safe haven in Egypt.

Help Husam and his family (@husamthaher) - Husam desperately needs to save himself, his wife, and 3 young children.

Help Nader's family to evacuate from Gaza (@nadershoshaa) - Nader and his family, consisting of six members, are currently displaced in the south; help them evacuate and survive.

The Shamaly family wants to survive (@daee571989) - Help save 15 kids and their family, who are living a horrifying active genocide.

Ahmd needs urgent evacuation (@ahmd-iyd) - Ahmd has lost his livelihood to this genocide, and needs funds to help his family evacuate and rebuild their life.

Help evacuate Hani's family (@skatehani) - A dear friend, and a Palestinian skater trying to evacuate 10 members of his family; he has lost his father to injustice.

Help Iman’s family find safety (@imaneyad) - Iman has a family of 7 who need to find safety.

Help save Youssef's family (@bba3lo @mahmoud7878) - Ahmed Baalousha wants to save his wife, his two sons, his daughter, as well as his parents and siblings.

Support Ruba and Amal's family's urgent evacuation (@rubashaban @amalshabn) - Ruba and Amal's family are lacking the basic necessities of life; they have an elderly father who desperately needs to be evacuated for medical care.

Save little Yusuf and his family (@ahmednabubake) - Yusuf is in an intensive care unit fighting for his life in Gaza; he needs urgent evacuation alongside his family.

Help Omar evacuate (@omarsobhi) - Omar is a 20 year old Palestinian student who wants to save himself and his family from this genocide.

Help Belal and his family to evacuate from Gaza (@alaajshaat) - Belal has lost too much to this war and needs to support himself and his family.

Do not scroll past this list without contributing. This list makes it easy for you to find a fundraiser to support. Choose at least one. Your contribution will save lives. If you cannot donate, share these campaigns.

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'There's a petition to ban conversion therapy in the EU' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

If you are a citizen in the EU please sign this petition:

This is a type of European Citizen's Initiative, or ECI.

ECIs are a way for citizens to reach out to European institutions directly! As opposed to being represented by your State in the EU institutions, or by your elected representatives at the European Parliament. They were added in 2007 to the official European Treaties, as a way to address the democratic deficit of the EU, and how *far* it often feels from citizen. You find its legal basis on Article 11 of the Treaty of the European Union and Article 24 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

So what does it do ?

It basically petition the EU Commission to do something. The EU Commission, in Brussels, is the institution in the EU which can kickstart the legislative process, in the EU.

If successful, it forces the hand of the Commission, by telling it "Now you ARE talking about this. You have to consider this."

Ok, so how do we make it successful?

An ECI is not like a traditional petition, where it is all about numbers. Here it is not only numbers, but also where the numbers are from. You need:

1 million signatories in total

From at least 7 different Member States

With a specific threshold from each of these 7 Member State

If we have people from more than 7 Member States, we still only need to meet the threshold in 7 of them.

CAN YOU SIGN IT ?

Yes, if you are an EU national (not necessarily resident!) AND either 16, 17 or 18 - check the rules for your country.

IF YOU ARE NOT AN EU CITIZEN OR UNDER THE REQUIRED AGE: do not sign! To be fair you would probably not be able to, since it requires a state ID. But do not even try. There will be a check of signatures that ACT will have to provide if we reach the thresholds, and you will make their life difficult (and potentially artificially inflate the numbers of signatories, which means we fall under the threshold once we remove your signatures)

And then, will we get the ban on conversation therapy?

What we will get is: the Commission having to take a stand on the proposal. What that means has been varied. Here is the link to all 10 successful ECIs, if you want to have a look at what happened for each of them. Long story short: sometimes, the Commission just says "Ok, request considered, the answer is no because X, Y, Z" (for example: the one asking for restriction of abortion went against recently discussed and adopted EU policies). Sometimes the Commission has the European Parliament publicly debate it, and adopts an official Communication, eg taking a stand and committing to future action (like on the ECI calling for the end of shark finning, or the one on bees protection). Sometimes it actually kickstarts a proper legislative process, drafting a proposal for other EU institutions to debate and adopt, and leading to the adoption of binding instruments all over Europe (the poster child for this is the ECI on Access to Safe Water)

So what we get varies. But the Commission WILL HAVE TO take a stand publicly.

So what about that particular ECI?

I think it is actually pretty good, in terms of being realistic and leading to actual action (and a girl is not linked to ACT, the organizer, at all).

The Commission itself agrees on what an action following the success of that ECI could look like (or at least, it found it plausible enough):

a non-binding instrument that the Commission would have to draft, and that a different institution, the Council [where individual member states are represented by their Ministers] would adopt, calling for a general ban on CT

some broad, binding, incentive-oriented measures facilitating the ban of CT by member state. This would be placed on the agenda by the Commission like a normal legislative proposal,and then discussed, debated and potentially adopted by the other institutions involved in the legislative process as usual.

criminalizing conversion therapy and associated behaviors if they take place cross-border (eg: marketing a Poland-based CT in Luxembourg), which the Commission can table, but not adopt on its own (other institutions need to be involved)

including victims of CT in the current EU framework on victim's protection: a binding instrument, that would also go through the normal legislative procedure.

I don't have access to all documents, but I'm pretty sure that is roughly it.

Additionally, this does not come out of nowhere. EU institutions have shown some interest in talking about conversion therapy in Europe - and, if I may add, in trans rights, just trust me on that one. Specifically because that ECI and what it asks for is straight drawn from a report of the European Parliament on the topic, from 2023 ! [also it was technically requested by the LIBE Commission, which is 1) massive in weight an 2) exactly the relevant one].

This matters for a few reasons:

the issue with ECIs is often that they don't relate to what the EU can do. Very often, "why isn't the EU doing anything about X" is because the EU is no allowed to! But having an existing report by the EP means you can argue more easily that is does fall under EU competences.

it could signal that there is also interest in the question at the Parliament, which could make the Commission more confident in actually involving it in any follow up.

it gives the Commission something very detailed to actually work with, as opposed to an abstract 'please do something' request.

it places more weight on the Commission to even DO something. The Parliament is the EU institution with the most democratic credentials, and historically its influence has been on the rise for the last decades. So if one of the most influential EP Commission has adopted a report on the question, it's a bad look to not at least pay it good consideration.

So in conclusion:

Kudos to Act for picking up on the report and making sure it does not get ignored !

This only works if we share it everywhere. Tumblr is good to spread the word across Europe, so share and sign! share and sign! But also: share it beyond Tumblr ! Share it with your college societies, with your book club, the your friend's Whatsapp group, on other social media, talk about it with your librarian, your hairdresser, your cool aunt, people you meet at pride event or in safe spaces!

There's currently a European proposition to ban conversion practice in Europe

If you're European please sigh it

If you're not please reblog

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'There's a petition to ban conversion therapy in the EU' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

If you are a citizen in the EU please sign this petition:

For all my Australian followers!!!

El-Rahman is an organisation of volunteers currently helping to re-settle Palestinian refugees who recently arrived in Naarm/Melbourne. If you’d like to tangibly help improve Palestinian lives right now, they take monetary donations and have multiple drop off sites for supplies.

If you follow their Instagram, they will regularly update with what supplies are urgently needed, which range from furniture, to clothes, to sanitary pads.

halloween 👻 .

Reblog while you still can.

TL;DR at the end!

EDIT: I still heavily struggle with keeping up with everything and it can be overwhelming, but I'm trying to figure it out and hoped that this could be some help for you guys.

I made it look overwhelming with all the colors, but I promise that they're a lot more accessible and easier to use than it seems. Edited for accessibility on August 6th.

📋 1. There's an app called TickTick

It has...

🍅 a built in POMODORO (with customisable timers, a strick mode with an app and site blocker, and a whitelist),

⏱️ a TIMER that you can set on specific tasks or subtasks,

📅 it has a CALENDAR,

📚 LISTS, TAGS, an Eisenhower-matrix, Kanban Board,

🤩 you can endlessly CUSTOMISE it with colors and emojis,

🚩 you can set PRIORITIES and set the lists to show the items SORTED BY date or priority or name or custom, etc.,

🏡 you can create SECTIONS within the lists too,

📮 you can set NOTIFICATIONS that POP UP ON YOUR SCREEN giving you the option to start a timer, postpone it for later, check it off, or skip it.

📈 You can create both SUBTASKS and checklists for your tasks, and it shows a tiny PIE CHART with the prescentage completed. It also shows how many days are left.

- With school tasks, I've listed everything I had to get done for the exam and added all the information and details, e.g. for all my readings, I included the link/where to find it in the library, the pages I had to read and the number of pages for quick access.

- To make it more fun/gamify the process, I added a little emoji (e.g. a waterdrop 💧 or a colored book 📙) before the name of the thing I have just completed and e.g. a bucket 🪣 or river 🌊 or plant 🌱 for the raindrops, or a bookshelf 🗃📚 emoji for the books, and as I complete an item, I collect the books/drops, etc. in there.

For example:

✉️💌📧📦🗞 >> 📬📮

🌧💧 >> ☔️ or 🌊 or 🪣 or 🌱 or 🪴

📕📙📔📗📘📖📚📒📑📜 >> 🗃🗄📚

🌟🌙🌠🪐🚀🌕☁️ >> 🌌

Etc.

🪣 2. Then there's Tody!

🧹 An app for HOUSEWORK,

🙌 it REJOICES when you complete a task,

💦 it puts little SPLASHES on the area where there are tasks to be done

🙆 you can set "EFFORT LEVEL",

✉️ it also sends you a NOTIFICATION

and meassures how dirty one thing might be based on the last time you cleaned it.

You can RESET it.

🍽 3. Then there's WonderFridge!

It's an app to keep track of the CONTENT of your fridge and pantry, it has plenty of beautiful ILLUSTRATIONS for every sort of drink or food. It keeps track of the EXPIRATION DATES of foods and sends you NOTIFICATIONS so you can eat/use them up before they go wrong.

🕑 4. Then there's Boosted!

Boosted is a very SIMPLE app, originally created to MEASURE the time spent on different projects and their subtasks. I personally use it to break down tasks in the moment and do a speed run doing them as fast as I can. (Especially when I'm about to hit a deadline.)

🐦 5. Then there's Finch!

Finch is an adorable SELF-CARE app in which

you hatch a LITTLE BIRB and as you do your tasks, you give them ENERGY to go, explore and every day come home with a new thing explored, CHAT with you about it and GROW a little.

💡It has TASK SUGGESTIONS,

📓 a built in JOURNAL with or without prompts,

❤️‍🩹 breathing and grounding exercises, an S.O.S. mental first aid box,

⏲️ timers, reminders, lovely messages,

🤗 acts of kindness, and many more.

You can also group your tasks into JOURNEYS.

🙂 6. Then there's Daylio!

Daylio is a very SIMPLE JOURNAL/DIARY to KEEP TRACK OF THE DAYS ('cause I rarely remember what happended yesterday or which day did something happen.) You can set up little BUTTONS for activites, moods, symptoms, the weather, or anything you fancy and just tap over the ones that fit the day. You can also freely ad text, photos, or create a sound entry.

It's fully customisable (even the colors and moods) and makes you plentiful of different STATISTICS so you can check long term tendencies. It's super useful for monitoring mental health.

⏳️ 7. There's also Tiimo

Tiimo was developed by and keeping in mind the needs of neurodivergent people. In it you can set up routines and tasks with their duration and an emoji (they have a beautifully colored emoji set!). You can schedule your tasks at a specific time or set them "to do anytime" and set them to repetition. Once the scheduled time comes you get notified and the app starts a visual timer (even if you don't start the task...) and once done, you can check it off.

TL;DR

TickTick is a cool to-do app where you can make colorful lists, tag tasks and it helps you sort them by priority. Tody is a chores app that measures the dirtiness and is happy for you when you complete a task. Wonderfridge is an app where you can keep track of your food and their expiration dates and has nice icons. Finch is an adorable self-care app where a little bird grows with you and that suggests you self-care activities. It is a 100% mental illness/disability/neurodivergency friendly. Boosted helps you break down tasks and measures time. Daylio is a low-effort diary to keep track of the days, especially useful if you have memory issues. It makes statistics too so you can see how a thing might affect your mood. And Tiimo, a visual timer for tasks and routines.

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I hope I could help some!

If I made any typos, let me know!