things your mama never told you

or as we like to call it

here’s a long list of LGBT+ historical events worth googling and learning about. i’m not sure if all the dates and details are spot on, but, again, this is really just a guide for what to research on your own. to warn you, a lot of this history is ugly, including things like the conflation of pedophilia and LGBT+ people, genital mutilation, homophobia, transphobia, nazis, and wide scale persecution.

Free Resources:

an interactive timeline of LGBT+ world history

The 1950s and the Roots of LGBT Politics (American-centric)

Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (warning: this documentary was made in the 80s and is dated in a lot of respects as a result; it also features quotes from Allen Ginsberg, who we now know was a pedophile, but it’s still very informative in terms of history)

a brief history of the bisexual movement from the 1960s-early 2000s (American-centric)

Bisexual.org has a TON of resources on bi (and often pan) history, historical figures, research, and media

“Here’s A History Of Bisexuality, From Ancient Egypt To Stonewall”

a brief timeline of trans history, beginning in the 1890s (European and American-centric)

“Gender Variance Around the World Over Time”

Some Purchasable Resources:

(most of these can be bought used online for pretty cheap and some can be found in libraries)

Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context by Vern L Bullough (it’s a bit dated, but still informative)

A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World by R. Parkinson

Sapphistries: A Global History of Love between Women (Intersections) by Leila J. Rupp

Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (Blacks in the Diaspora) by A.B. Christa Schwarz

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government by David K. Johnson

Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism edited by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal Ortiz

Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution by Susan Stryker

It’s just so funny to me. Like one minute I’m designing bioreactors and getting published for heat dissipation in polymers and then I open this godforsaken app to dudes hanging brain who can’t even pronounce “saponification” calling me a slut because I won’t give attention to their limp excuses for existence.

WHITE SJW KIDS, STOP TRYING TO SPEAK FOR PEOPLE OF OTHER CULTURES. LET THEM SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES FFS. I promise they can, and will if they need to.

Culture - by its nature, by human nature - SPREADS. It just DOES. People contact other cultures, and they share things. That’s just a fact of life. And it’s A GOOD THING! The VAST majority of people ENJOY that and are HAPPY to share culture! Culture is NOT a finite resource that can be stolen, that can be devalued with use, that can be depleted - quite the opposite, actually. In fact, people from other cultures have explicitly expressed, to me personally as well as to plenty of others everywhere, that they feel pride and excitement when somebody from another culture is interested in or wants to emulate their culture. People who are not uptight white American teenagers/college kids are far more often than not quite HAPPY TO SHARE CULTURE.

And even if it somehow WEREN’T human nature to share and spread culture, imitation is not inherently ridicule or inherently bad. What could possibly make emulating somebody or something bad? Even the most “egregious” “cultural appropriation” “offense” - dressing up for Halloween - isn’t necessarily bad or wrong. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. [Which, I think, is a large part of why people are happy to share culture.] When you see somebody in a football uniform on Halloween, do you immediately assume that they’re making fun of football players, devaluing what they do? Or do you think, aw that kid wants to be a football player when he grows up, or I guess that guy likes football/that player? 

So why is it different for cultural outfits, or for adults? It isn’t, not inherently. Dressing up in a kimono isn’t making fun of kimonos or Japanese culture. It’s appreciation. Now, if somebody is going around dressed in a caricature of a culture and openly and maliciously mocking people, then they’re… mocking people and that’s fucking rude. But they’re not stealing culture since culture can’t be stolen, and they’re not devaluing cultural items because culture is far stronger and more meaningful than somebody’s clothes.

I mean, are YOU not happy and excited to share YOUR culture with people? Do YOU get offended if somebody dresses up as something from your culture or learns your language or eats your food or wears your culture’s clothes? If you do, you’re an asshole. That’s not normal.

Like the example in the OP I, too, have been given cultural items as gifts, by people (or race traitors???) from the same culture. I have friends who bring back gifts, including grammar/vocab textbooks, from their home country when they go back to visit, and they get genuinely excited and happy to see me (and anybody they gave gifts to) use/wear their gifts. Once a sweet Cameroonian lady my gramma worked with gave her a cultural dress and actually helped her dress up in it for Halloween. That was super cute. Also, I was once asked to sing at a big, important party celebrating a big, important CULTURAL holiday that we don’t even celebrate in America, BY people from that country, because I could speak (and sing, though not sing well) in their language. I got a massively positive response from every single person there, some of the older ladies actually had tears in their eyes, absolutely everybody there wanted to hang out and speak to me in their language, a couple even invited me to come sing at their wedding later, and the host’s wife even HAND MADE a beautiful cultural dress for me afterward (ooh, so I guess she’s an evil race traitor, right???). Because sharing culture is a WONDERFUL thing that should be CELEBRATED and not fucking OUTLAWED you nazi freaks.

And here’s another example, which actually comes from an excellent YouTube channel where a Japanese guy excitedly shares his culture (or betrays his people????) with the world (TRIGGER WARNING: don’t click that link if you can’t handle watching a man intentionally teach people how to “appropriate” his culture!!): 

In this video, he went around asking random people (I don’t think I’ve ever seen the same person twice in his “man on the street” videos) what they think of otakus, and specifically about people from other countries being obsessed with anime and such (that question starts at about 3:15). This is three separate groups of unrelated people who all independently stated that sharing culture is a good thing. There were plenty more answers, ranging from take it or leave it to it’s awesome, but nobody was protective of their culture in any way. (Side note, I think I might be in love with the girl in the 2nd-to-last pic. She is sooo sweet and her smile is sooo pretty and she is just sooo cute!)

If your schools threaten to suspend you, protest anyways. En masse. Because you know what gets tracked by district, state and federal administration? Suspensions.

Schools and schools systems *must report* their suspension levels etc. Every year all this data from the state gets compiled into a huge report and presented to the State Board of Education and the state legislators. By. School.

You know what happens to schools districts with unusually high rates? Big Trouble.

So if your principal/superintendent threatens to suspend any student participating in a walkout? Still do it. Because here’s what will happen: You’ll walk out, get suspended, the school will be empty basically for *days* effectively starting a strike, the principal will have to report it to the district, the district will have to report it to the state and there’s a solid chance your school’s administrative team could be replaced.

There’s a huge issue with mentally ill people, especially mentally ill children, not being even slightly believed about their mental health, so often times they’ll be refused care, and in rare circumstances like mine where children actually recieve help, the “help” they get is actually just revoking freedoms to the point that I wasn’t able to have pencils, and the skepticism adults held me to was instead not believing me about my symptoms or any incidents of trauma I’ve suffered.

Also I’ve lived in multiple homes where abusive adults, which is a primary source of child mental illness, wouldnt allow children to get mental help because they didn’t have enough money or they didn’t believe in mental illness. I’ve met kids whose parents stole their medicine because they didn’t believe in it.

human: GO FAST

the universe: well, you’re a perfect pursuit predator but if that’s the way you want to evolve, go ahead.

human, climbing on a horse: GO FAST

the universe: wait what

human, inventing the carriage, the car and the bullet train: GO FASTER

the universe: I IMPLORE YOU TO STOP

THEORETICALLY MAXIMUM FAST

the universe:

Universe: ok human, with the physical laws as they are you can’t go faster than the speed of light.

I knew the basics before I got it, but I had no clue…

* The blood wouldn’t necessarily be red. When I first got my period, I spent a few min looking at my underwear wondering how I shit myself. I didn’t know the blood could look brown, or be thick.

* That tampons weren’t a good idea yet. I was 10 or 11 when I got my first period and physically smaller than an adult woman. My first attempt at inserting a tampon was very painful and unsuccessful. I wouldn’t use them until I was around 14 or so.

* That when you use pads the blood can get on your bottom and I’d have to occasionally clean off the toilet seat after using it.

* That getting your first period DOES NOT mean you’re fully developed and fully able to bear children. I could have technically gotten pregnant at that age, but I was still a child and pregnancy would have put my life in danger because I was still physically immature.

* That it wouldn’t be regular for another few years.

* That very painful cramping is NOT NORMAL once you reach your 20s and is cause for concern.

* That the blood and tissue you pass can look chunky or stringy and not like blood from a cut.

* That stress can halt your period for months BUT

* That doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant

-that your period may straight up skip a month when you first get it

-and then it’ll happen twice in the same month

I can 100% guarantee you have endometriosis, PCOS, or another hormone problem. If your doctor says it’s normal, DEMAND a second opinion. 

Thinking that it’s normal is how people end up infertile or dead. It’s why so many women under 40 these days are having an almost impossible time either conceiving or preventing conception. Because no one teaches anyone that it’s the sign of trouble that can very seriously hurt you. 

Anyone who has severe cramps, heavy bleeding, or irregular periods after about 19 years old should seek medical advice. None of those are normal. 

If you have skin tags, a hard time losing weight, migraines related to your period, depression that is amplified when menstruating, severe mood swings, sleep disturbances that get worse with menstruation, or any other significant health problem that started with puberty and is worse when hormones are fluctuating you need to be checked.