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things: *continue to happen*

This weekend, activists in Uganda - a country where homosexuality is punishable by death - held their first Pride. 

WEEEEE

Thank you Joan. 

From her wikipedia page: 

(Here’s a documentary about her in case you’re not big on reading. )

Her great-grandparents were slave owners in Georgia, and after the United States Civil War, they became sharecroppers. Trumpauer later recalled an occasion that forever changed her perspective, when visiting her family in Georgia during summer. Joan and her childhood friend Mary, dared each other to walk into “n*gger” town, which was located on the other side of the train tracks. Mulholland stated her eyes were opened by the experience: “No one said anything to me, but the way they shrunk back and became invisible, showed me that they believed that they weren’t as good as me. At the age of 10, Joan Trumpauer began to recognize the economic divide between the races. At that moment she vowed to herself that if she could do anything, to help be a part of the Civil Rights Movement and change the world, she would.

In the spring of 1960, Mulholland participated in her first of many sit-ins. Being a white, southern woman, her civil rights activism was not understood. She was branded as mentally ill and was taken in for testing after her first arrest. Out of fear of shakedowns, Mulholland wore a skirt with a deep, ruffled hem where she would hide paper that she had crumpled until it was soft and then folded neatly. With this paper, Mulholland was able to write a diary about her experiences that still exists today. In this diary, she explains what they were given to eat, and how they sang almost all night long. She even mentioned the segregation in the jail cells and stated, “I think all the girls in here are gems but I feel more in common with the Negro girls & wish I was locked in with them instead of these atheist Yankees. 

Soon after Mulholland’s release, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton E. Holmes became the first African American students to enroll at the University of Georgia. Mulholland thought, “Now if whites were going to riot when black students were going to white schools, what were they going to do if a white student went to a black school?” She then became the first white student to enroll in Tougaloo College in Jackson, where she met Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Ed King, and Anne Moody.

She received many letters scolding or threatening her while she was attending Tougaloo. Her parents later tried to reconcile with their daughter, and they tried to bribe her with a trip to Europe. She accepted their offer and went with them during summer vacation. Shortly after they returned, however, she went straight back to Tougaloo College.

She ultimately retired after teaching English as a Second Language for 40 years and started the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation, dedicated to educating the youth about the Civil Rights Movement and how to become activists in their own communities. 

I have top surgery on the 19th, finally. And the surgery itself is covered by insurance. However, I am disabled which has limited ability to work. As a result I only work on average 8 hours a week at a rate of 10 dollars an hour plus tips and didn’t have a lot of resources to begin with. I had a scholarship for the summer come through, but it was only 1500 dollars. I am down to just $752.05 after taking care of rent, bills, groceries, getting my cat vaccinated, buying wet food for her, paying for a handful of things I need for surgery, and some other miscellaneous things that needed to be taken care of. 

I still don’t have everything I need for surgery. I have to spend at least 60 more dollars this week on copays for my psychiatrist and my sleep specialist. And I will need to find some way to make rent next month. While I have family that does give me anywhere between 300 and 400 a month, this will only cover part of my rent, and right now, before I even get the rest of what I need for surgery and recovery, I have very little to last the summer on. I will be unable to work for 4-6 weeks, and will still have limited capability post-surgery.

If you can help a guy out by either reblogging this, donating to my paypal at  paypal.me/zreinst, or getting something off my amazon wishlist here: http://a.co/51EcNLG, I’d really really appreciate it. I am in most need of dry cat food and button up shirts at the moment. The items can be sorted by priority on my amazon wishlist.

My tired ass trying to hide:

Tens of thousands of people descended on cities from coast-to-coast Saturday in “Families Belong Together” rallies to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that left more than 2,000 children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the nation’s capital, thousands poured into Lafayette Square, across from the White House, to chant “We care” and “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”

While President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump avoided the chants in Washington, the protests followed them to their weekend retreat in Bedminster, N.J.

1. “I’m no good at …”

Say instead “It’s just a skill, and something I can learn.”

2. “I’m such a failure …”

Say instead “I got it wrong, and everybody makes mistakes.”

3. “There’s no point in trying …”

Say instead “It maybe hard, but step by step will get me there in time.”

4. “Everybody hates me; I’ve got no friends …”

Say instead “It doesn’t really matter what these people think about me. There are others who will recognize my value and true worth.”

5. “I hate myself. I deserve to be rejected …”