Strifehart and Fantasy

I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.

The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.

Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.

A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:

Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.

Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.

Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns

Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.

I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.

It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:

I'm not going to be able to go, but I do have some experience with lobbying my various MPs over the years, so here's some quick advice off the top of my head:

If you're resident in the UK but not a citizen you still have the right to go to Parliament and be seen by your MP.

If you don't know who your MP is you can look it up by putting your postcode into the Find My MP page on Parliament's website (pro tip if you are a uni student, check your MP for both your family home and your uni, one may be a better option for lobbying than the other, you may even be able to Green Card both of them, but I don't know if that's possible, ask on the desk when you ask for the card).

And everyone needs to remember that while officially you're not required to show photo ID to get into Parliament the official guidance from the House of Commons is "you don't need photo ID to get in but we suggest you bring it anyway" (which is just unhelpful)

You will also be required to pass through airport style security which obviously may be a stressful experience for some of the people taking part in the mass lobby. That can take anywhere up to half an hour, the staff are usually pretty nice, but the entry into the security check is a sloped metal ramp with zero shade and nowhere to lean or sit so plan accordingly.

If your MP is not in the building to come and meet you they are required to respond to your Green Card as soon as possible via the contact details you put on your Green Card. While meeting them in person is the ideal you will get a response so it will be worth it even if your MP is unavailable.

People in general, are more likely to take you seriously and want to help you if you are nice and polite to them.

They may not be in parliament. They may be their London offices which are located a 5-minute walk away in the Portcullis House.

fiveforfive - collective fund for trans women and girls and transfem causes

gendered intelligence - trans led advocacy org

mermaids - supports trans youth

akt - lgbtq youth homelessness charity

loving me - domestic abuse service for trans people in england

trans creative uk - trans artists countering media negativity by raising trans voices, Manchester-based with national reach

trans unite - directory of support groups in the uk

trans kids deserve better - action network by and for trans+ youth

I think squall forgets the scar is there most of the time honestly. That’s not to say I think he’s not a little vain (no one who wears three belts and a fur lined leather jacket “doesn’t care” about his looks, let’s be real.) but I think his scar doesn’t really bother him much these days.

HOWEVER, Yuna, Paine and Rikku attacking him with make up for his date with Cloud, would be so real. They cover the scar without even telling him they’ve done it, and he’s not particularly fussed about looking in the mirror to see what they’ve done (he put a ban on over the top make up).

So he rocks up to the date, looking drop dead gorgeous, and he thinks cloud is staring at him because he’s wearing makeup. He kind of worries for a second that they’ve gone over the top, but a quick glance in one of the restaurants mirrors says they haven’t.

He doesn’t notice the scar is gone at all, because obviously Squall had 17 years of see g his face without it.

But Cloud is quiet all night, he keeps stabbing grumpily at his food, and then makes a face like he’s internally fighting with himself and puts way too much effort into acting “normal”.

Eventually Squall has had enough. He asks Cloud what is going on; if he’s done something, and Cloud just mutters “why would you do that to yourself?”

At first Squall is confused, and then he remembers the makeup.

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just make up. You wear it. Why is it different for me?”

Cloud visibly gets frustrated and tries again.

“I don’t care about the make up, you look good… but why’d you cover your scar?”

Squalls brain takes a second to process that, then glances back in the mirror and sees that, yep, the scar is covered completely.

“Does it bother you?”

“No! It’s your face I just… I’ve never really known you with out it, and it- I don’t- it’s your face, if it makes you uncomfortable then it’s your choice to cover it I just- I-“

Squall eventually takes pity on cloud and takes his hand to help him feel more comfortable saying why he’s thinking.

“I just- you’re beautiful with the scar too,”

It actually looks like it pained Cloud to be that sentimental in public, and Squall can’t help smirking at him when he says.

“Would it interest you to know that I didn’t do my make up? Or maybe that I didn’t even realise the girls had covered it?”

Cloud scowls at him and throws a napkin at his face.

Squall catches it easily and makes Cloud look at him.

“I don’t care about my scar. I never really have. I mean I picked at it while it was healing but that’s because I hate itching. Does it freak you out that much?”

“It doesn’t look like you…”

“This is what I used to look like, I didn’t always have it.”

“Yeah well you also didn’t always love me, but you do now and some things are just worth keeping around,”

Squall will never admit that he melts a little.

Original Credit - @fishhfangz VISIT

More Dispatch anti-ICE art!!!

I recieved a lot of love on the last one, thank you guys so much!! These are really fun to make, I entered a flow state making this one while listening to Primer 55.

Here's a sketch based on a suggestion by videogamesarecool! I might actually finish it cause it turned out really good. :)

Cloud glares. “I suppose you would know all about twisting words.”

“I know much. Lies are like a thing that wounds - daggers or claws, direct and with intent,” Squall nodded serenely. “But dishonestly. That is a far more wondrous and devious thing."

Warily, Cloud remained silent, he glanced longingly toward the village shore.

anyway if you get a comment like this, chances are that they are bot and their goal is to do whatever it takes to get you to delete your work, most certainly (from what I’ve heard) it’s because they want to “safely” steal your work, use it to train their ai without you being able to rightfully claim ownership of your work since “there’s no proof that the work was stolen/was posted elsewhere first by you” because the original source has already been deleted.

THEY ARE ALL BOTS. at first it was “ao3 is deleting fics and your entire account will be affected unless you delete the fics yourself” then it was “this work contains contents that are illegal and they have already reported you and your fic to the police” (yes, that’s how desperate these bots are), and now it’s this.

report their comments to ao3 for spam—in this case, specifically, I think you may be able to report them for harassment too—and don’t pay attention to them, most importantly don’t delete your works, don’t feel discouraged by their comments. remember that they are bots and they mass comment something like this on people’s works at random to get people to delete their works. (or even if they’re not bot, they are still pathetic bullies who don’t deserve your time or attention.)

Happy Strifehartween!! 🎃 🐺🐈‍⬛

From Focus, written by LetoaSai (AO3) About the fanarts I made: I’m still a noob drawing animals, please be kind xD. I wanted to draw so much more (like when Sore meet Cloud), but I know my limits, I’m should stop before I reach burnout. I took the opportunity to train crosshatch, so yeah, no special brush, it was just me and my wacom ^^”. All dialogues are from the fanfic. The last drawing tho, was supposed to be the scene after the bath, but I lost the courage to draw another sick Cloud ;A;

There is was many things I’ve been thinking about what to write on this post while I was drawing all this, but now that I’m actually writing the post, almost nothing comes to my mind (why writing is so hard? T^T)

I’m not sure if this post is going to reach the author, I hope it does, because… 

The setting that prevents your work being used to train AI models is turned off by default! I had no idea about this until now! Artists, go to your settings, click “visibility”, and turn on this setting! Protect your work!

Go to your blog (you have to do this for each individual blog) and the visibility tab

It's this last option here

hey peeps, i would be calling your doctors STAT to see if you're in the clear about where your drugs are manufactured

then i would definitely be call your representatives and bitch them a new asshole

people are legit going to die because of this

Which means that calling your reps now may actually make a difference in whether this kills people.

Step 1: Search up the generic name for whatever meds you take, then call your pharmacist - not your primary - and ask where it comes from and whether any part of it is manufactured in the US. THEN call your primary and tell them to pre-order your next round, even if you're not due yet. (They might try to tell you they can't do that. They can.)

Step 2: Call your reps - by now you should be calling them so often they're one of the top numbers saved in your phone, but you can also find them very easily here - and tell them specifically that you are worried about the financial impact on American business this will have and ask them what they plan to do about it. Because sadly, concerns about money and saving their own skin will probably get their attention faster than any concerns about the harm it will do to vulnerable individuals.