currently in transition

people of color are allowed to be angry. we're allowed to be mean and rude to racists. if you decide the angry poc isnt worth listening to because they have to be nice to you, you're choosing to ignore conversations of racism cause its not being filtered for white peoples comfort.

trans people have to jump through hoops to get adequate medical attention.

trans people have to choose between a) shutting off a major part and keeping most people in their life or b) living as they are and getting pushed out of their regular lives.

We want justice for the murder victim too, and we're definitely not trying to protect the murderer. The thing is, the murder happened in Taiwan, outside of Hong Kong, and HK currently doesn't have any extradition agreement with Taiwan, so we can't give the man to Taiwan for legal proceedings right now.

Now, HK can certainly work out some sort of special agreements with Taiwan to make it happen for this murder case, and that's what a reasonable top HK leader should do. But no, the current Chief Executive (i.e. the top political leader), who's actually elected by mainland China but not democratically elected by the people of HK and thus doesn't really care about our opinion, decided not to work out a special arrangement for the murder case. You know what she did?

She decided to make a blanket change to the current HK extradition law, so that it allows everyone who lives or even just passing through HK to be handed over to places we currently don't have extradition deals with. Sounds good, right?

Wrong! Taiwan doesn't want to go down this route and it has explicitly stated that if that's the route HK takes, Taiwan will not request for the murderer to be handed over to Taiwan. For one, it's not the most time efficient way for HK to hand over the man to Taiwan and get justice for the murdered girlfriend.

The most important and underlying reason is: the proposed changes cover handing over people to mainland China, which we all don't trust bc of its "legal" system that frequently forces people to "confess" their "crime" without real proof of crime and the main victims are human rights activists. The proposed new extradition bill can't guarantee people turned over will be assumed innocent until proven guilty in the legal systems they're sent to, which is the foundation to protect people wrongfully charged of crime. And the HK court doesn't have enough power to overrule sending anyone to mainland China for any "crime".

Tl;dr:

HongKongers want justice for the murder victim, but not through the proposed changes to the law currently put forward by the HK government. If the proposed changes are passed, mainland China can bully the top HK political leader into handing over anyone who disagrees with mainland China to be sentenced in mainland China under any "crime" it can make up.

"You're protecting the murderer if you don't support the proposed new extradition bill" is exactly the kind of rhetoric the mainland China-appointed top HK political leader uses to try to make protestors fighting for freedom look bad.

Is that what you want for Hong Kong? To be turned into the express line for punishment in mainland China for fabricated crimes?

For height-dysphoric trans men - list of shorter male celebrities.

6′0 Aisha Tyler

6′0 Allison Janney

6′0 Brooke Shields

6′0 Elle Macpherson

6′0 Famke Janssen

6′0 Geena Davis

6′0 Jane Lynch

6′0 Jeanene Fox

6′0 Jennie Finch

6′0  Kristen Johnston

6′0 Margaux Hemingway

6′0 Natasha Stefanenko

6′0 Saffron Burrows

6′0 Uma Thurman

6′1 Adriana Karembeu

6′1 Ana Hickmann

6′1 Brigitte Nielsen

6′1 Faith Minton

6′1 Janet McTeer

6′1 Julie Strain

6′1 Michelle Wie

6′1 Monika Schnarre

6′1 Pam Stone

6′1 Penny Lancaster

6′1 Tara Moss

6′1 Venus Williams

6′2 Dorothy Ford

6′2  Elizabeth Debicki

6′2 Ireland Baldwin

6′2 Jodie Kidd

6′2 Karlie Kloss

6′2 Lindsay Davenport

6′2  Maria Sharapova

6′2 Natalia Bush

6′2 Suzie Plakson

6′3 Dot-Marie Jones

6′3 Gabrielle Reece

6′3 Gwendoline Christie

6′3 Judy Gold

6′3 Kerri Walsh Jennings

6′4 Candace Parker

6′4   L'Wren Scott

6′4 Rebecca Lobo

age gaps aren’t inherently bad between adults, but they are incredibly suspect in instances where one party has significantly more agency and experience due to their age. a thirty year old dating a forty year old, for instance, isn’t all that big a deal. but an eighteen year old should be VERY suspicious of a thirty year old wanting to get with them. they’ve had twelve years to establish themselves as an adult. an eighteen year old has had maybe a few months to do so.

i’m saying this as a person who briefly dated a thirty year old at age 19 (it wasn’t good lol), and also as a person with happily married parents who have a 12 year age gap. the difference is that my mom was in her thirties when she met my dad; she’d had plenty of time to find a career and a name for herself in the world.

Here’s a transitioning starter pack for all my trans folk out there! 

Transfeminine resources:

Presentation:

Tucking

Chest area

Voice

Broad shoulders tips

Hair removal

Feminine walk

Curves

Waist training

Growing out your hair

Clothing

Makeup

Passing

Medical transitioning:

Not medically transitioning

Fertility

Puberty blockers

Estrogen & anti-androgens/testosterone blockers FAQ

The types of surgery available

Surgery: A guide for transfeminine people

Pumping (Silicone injections)

Facial Feminization Options

Breast Augmentation

Other:

Representation

Transfeminine period dysphoria

Yes, Transfeminine People Can Get Period Symptoms

Slipping into masculinity

Women’s restroom etiquette

Transfeminine people can breastfeed

Having sex or masturbating

Transmasculine resources:

Presentation:

Binding FAQ

Clothing

Facial hair

Masculine makeup

Getting short hair / Masculine long hair

If you can’t start T

Lowering your voice

Packing and standing to pee

Passing as male

Not shaving legs

Medical transitioning:

Not medically transitioning

Fertility

Puberty blockers

Testosterone FAQ

Top surgery

Facial masculinization surgery

Body masculinization surgery

Hysterectomy and oophorectomy

Bottom surgery (genital surgery)

Other:

Periods and related things

Help! I need to see a gyno

Pumping

Masturbation and sex

Using the men’s bathroom

Hudson’s FTM Guide

Height dysphoria

Hip dysphoria

More resources:

What gender am I? A brief intro to questioning

Trans 101 for trans people

What is the transgender umbrella?

How do I choose a name?

How do I come out at work/school or to family/friends?

Dysphoria info and tips page

Mental health coping page

Being trans in school

Non-binary resources

Resources to send allies/friends

A page to send to parents/guardians

Convincing someone to respect name/pronouns 

Here is how to get hormones in the US

Here is how to get hormones in the UK

The NHS’s Guide For Young Trans People in England

Here’s a US resource with info on changing legally changing your name and gender marker 

Here is a UK resource with info on changing legally changing your name and gender marker

What are the WPATH-SOC guidelines?

How to save money

How to buy a trans-related item online without parents knowing

I have to go swimming, what do I wear/do?

Trying to sleep when you have dysphoria

Airposts and traveling by plane

Gender neutral bathrooms

Getting insurance to cover your transition

Does transitioning help mental health?

Trans teen’s experiences with inpatient hospitalization

Trans identity isn’t a mental disorder

Vaping prevalence

Being religious and LGBT

Transgender Lives: Your Stories (to see trans adults) 

Gender neutral pronouns in Spanish

Gender Variance Around the World Over Time

A map of gender-diverse cultures

American LGBT history by the National Parks Service

Crisis help: Suicide and crisis hotlines

Please reblog to spread it! 

Also if you have more specific questions regarding the above and fitness, @thenonbinraywarrior is a great blog to check out! 

Nope. No. You’re wrong. Color photos have been around since the late 1800s there are a bunch of full color photos of MLK. The us govt and educational system just doesn’t show us because they want us to push back the civil rights movement and distance institutionalized racism from today’s society.

Here are just a few of many photos of MLK in FULL color. This wasn’t that long ago. This is RECENT history. Segregation, the terrorizing of black communities, the brutality isn’t old - it is still present.

i live in denmark, which is very progressive in regards to lgbtq rights. but i didn't know what a trans person was until i was thirteen(2015). and i was told that it was super rare. that it was so so rare that me being trans would be very, very unlikely.

as soon as i found out that being trans was actually, not 7 people in the world, i immediately started questioning my gender identity and since i was close w my parents at the time, i told them about it, because i literally could not see why it would be a social issue. Why it would be seen down on or 'bad'

So they told me: no you are not. And i thought, that must be because i'm not. There's nothing wrong with being trans, I'm just not. Bummer.

My parents could not fathom me being trans, it was unheard of outside of a few special cases.

So i repressed it. I repressed it for a very long time. And as i repressed it, i started hearing my friends talking about 'traps' and 'lady boys' and gesture condescendingly at any male being mildly feminine in public. i watched the rise of """sjws"""" that was described to me by adults on the internet as well as my friends as these women, refusing to do what women did. Refusing science and refusing logic. I didn't wanna be that, did I? Did I? And it all went away. Eventually. It was caused by going to college or being raised by liberals or your dad not being present or anything that wasn't innate or respectable.

Three kinds of trans people were presented to me: the struggling, 'real' trans, the 'exception' didn't do anything, but hurt themselves apparently. The perverted man trying to either trick straight men or fiddle kids or the craaaaaaazy afab refusing to conform out of pure delusion and some unspecifiable mental illness.

I realized I was trans when I watched Contrapoints. It took one trans person telling me that it was alright not to be secure in my identity, to be self-hating. I remember her Tiffany Tumbles video being hugely influential as well as the quote 'i ask myself if i feel like a man or a woman. And the answer is i feel like shit' That wanting to be trans was absolutely a symptom of being trans changed me.

And I think that's why it's important that we have trans entertainers, trans singers, trans actors or trans literally anything in media where teenagers can be reached.

I know, it’s a subtle distinction. I’m going to use dolls as an example, because Special Interest Hell. Bear with me for a second. 

A while back, Mattel made a doll line called Ever After High. Ever After High had a gimmick- it was a doll line based on fairy tales, but instead of being based directly on the fairy tale characters themselves, it was based on their children. This meant that they could create iconic and memorable designs for the characters without being accused of ripping off Disney’s designs.  

This is an original “basic” Ever After High doll: 

The dolls are almost fully articulated- they have 360 degree head rotation, articulated shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees. Their costume designs are complicated, often featuring multiple layers of fabric and lots of accessories. Each doll came with a stand, a hairbrush, and a bookmark that told their “story”. They retailed for $16.99. 

The dolls came in two factions: “Royals” (the children of heroes) and “Rebels” (the children of villains). Each one had a backstory and a motivation, and they had an accompanying webseries that told those stories. 

(I swear there’s a reason I’m going into Excruciating Detail.)

Even though I didn’t like the sculpts… Ever After High was a pretty good doll line, and it was moderately successful. It brought in 53 million dollars- not nearly as much as Barbie, but still a decent profit.

… Disney didn’t sue Mattel for this. Copyright never got involved. But they didn’t need to sue. They did two things that killed Ever After High dead. 

The first was that they took the license for the Disney Princesses away from Mattel and gave it to Hasbro. Since that’s, obviously, a big money-making license, that was a pretty nasty punishment. 

But the other thing Disney did, the thing that I think was what properly killed Ever After High… they massively expanded the merchandising for Disney Descendants. 

…Now, it looks like Disney Descendants was already in the works when Ever After High started coming out. I don’t think Disney got so OMGSCARED of Ever After High that they made a product directly to compete with it. And I can’t say anything bad about the movies because a) I haven’t seen them and b) I think @bpd-dylan-hall will kill me. 

But the two franchises share some notable similarities- they’re about the teenage children of fairy tale characters, who are split into two factions: “hero” and “villain”. They’re very ‘modern’, with colorful hair and flashy, iconic designs.  

This is a basic Disney Descendants doll: 

I own both Ever After High and Descendants dolls, and I gotta say: the Descendants are way lower quality. They’ve got almost no articulation- just wrists, hips, and knees. They don’t come with a stand or many accessories. Their costumes are much simpler, and most of the designs are screen-printed on. They’re not crap dolls, don’t get me wrong, and I like their sculpts more than EAH- but by comparison, they’re not very good. 

But that made one important difference: The Disney Descendants basic doll retailed at $12.99. 

Now, riddle me this: if you’re the parent of an eight-year-old girl who loves dolls, which are you more likely to get: the high-quality expensive doll with a lot of small parts she’s likely to lose, or the cheaper one with a brand name on it that you recognize? 

Disney was able to massively undercut the competition. Mattel couldn’t keep up. They made cheaper versions of the Ever After High dolls -they went for $9.99 or so, they’re absolute garbage, and collectors and kids both hated them. 

Mattel hasn’t officially canceled Ever After High. But the show’s not coming out anymore, the dolls aren’t on shelves anymore, and we haven’t heard anything about either since 2017. Disney won, and they won hard. 

If Disney didn’t have the kind of money they do, if Disney didn’t have the kind of clout they do, this wouldn’t have happened. I mean, sure, all doll lines end eventually, that’s the way of the world, but Disney deliberately undercut the competition. Depending on how much dolls cost to make and ship, they might even have been making them at a loss.

But Disney could afford to do it because they’re Disney.

The only time anyone’s ever really been able to successfully make a fairy tale franchise without getting shot down by Disney was Shrek, and that’s because Disney didn’t want to touch the aeShrektic with a ten-foot pole. They were scared they’d ruin their image. Any other time anyone does anything with fairy tales (or princesses, or talking cars, or talking fish, or pirates, or…)  Disney can make their own version and sell it at a loss, driving their competitors out of business. They have more money than God. They can afford to lose money on one theme park, let alone one toyline or one movie.